Summer 08

Well much has to be said, so many things have happened this summer.

June was marked by visits with friends. First, we had a wonderful visit from Ken’s high school buddy Murray. Then I (Wonda) went to northern Switzerland to see my dear friend Susan that I met and worked with in Israel in 1990. This was followed by my birthday and we were graced by our Canadian friend Tracy and her guy and another friend. We tried to give our Canadian visitors a glimpse of life in Switzerland… as we know it so far!

In July, Ken started an intensive French language program which took up his mornings, and then he still put in 8 hours of work every day! As for me, I was busy with my first job – teaching English at a summer program for youth (14-18). This was fun and interesting for me, and I am reminded of how much I enjoy being a part of other people’s learning. The students were from Spain, Italy, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and of course, the German and Italian speaking parts of Switzerland. The teaching staff were 19-25 and everyone spoke French all the time. I definitely felt on the outside because of my lack of full understanding when things were being discussed, so sometimes I had to get things explained in English. I did okay for the most part though! What was more of a shock for me, was the “age-ism” that I felt from my co-workers! People here, ask your age…often! It took me about 2 weeks to have people accept me as Wonda the person instead of Wonda the ‘age’. But, at least I got there, and was accepted and liked by my co-workers. From now on I will be deliberately vague about my age when asked.

During the jazz festival, we also had a 5 day visit from Wonda’s friend Susan and her 4 kids. Yes, we managed to cram everyone in! They kept occupied during the days and we always had time at the jazz fest and fun through the evenings. We even coordinated with my Swiss-German students to babysit, so that Susan could join us for the ‘Katie Melua’ concert on the 17th! It was a great visit.

They left Fri. afternoon, and our French friends arrived Sat. afternoon. We met these friends from France in 2005 when we lived in Sri Lanka (they were teaching French in 2005-2006). We laughed a lot and talked a lot and ate a lot and even played some silly games that had us laughing even more! All this activity kept both Ken and I very busy ‘til we left for Canada.

Our Time in Canada
I left on Wed. 23rd July. I flew though New York and, because of dangerous lightning storms there, they cancelled all flights… then I got shuffled around all 3 airports in an effort to complete my journey. TWO DAYS LATER, I finally got home at 3:30pm. And Ken arrived about 5 hours later! The next day we were at the old homestead up to our ears in cleaning and clearing out the shed when we learned that my sister and family would be there that night. And so began our time with family at home. People arrived daily and by the end of the week, we had quite the crowd at our place, my cousin’s place just over the hill from us, and at my aunt’s about 7 minutes down the road. We had lots of help to prepare the grounds, clear away old debris, and get the house ready. We cleared a huge section of the yard for a playing field with horseshoes and other games set up. We hung up a new swing in the apple orchard, and put up two huge tents between the house and the woodshed in case of poor weather. By Thursday we were ready.

It’s a good thing too, because on Friday, Aug. 1st, …
KEN AND I GOT MARRIED!!!!!!
We did a secret little ceremony with a Justice of the Peace in Halifax, and then went for lunch to celebrate!! We had our two best friends witness for us, and we asked our parents to join us. We told only these people (and swore them to secrecy!). We were fortunate to have my Mum, Ken’s Mom, (but we missed Ken’s step-dad), as well as Ken’s Dad and step-mom. We asked my grandmother too, but didn’t tell her ‘til after we picked her up and were on our way to the city. You should have seen her scrambling for her face powder and lipstick after I told her! Ah well, at 89 she still looks lovely!

So why get married after all this time together? Well, Ken and I always said we were not going to be married. However, living in Switzerland and being a “concubine”???, well, this arrangement gets in the way for me to do/have anything – bank account, job, even to be recognized as an individual…
We decided to get married to make our life easier here, and, it means I can work. This is an expensive country to live in so if both of us are working, it is obviously better for us for saving. We’ve been living together and committed to each other since 1996 anyway, so it is not like marriage changes anything for us in the way we feel about each other. This was merely a formality, and we definitely did not want all the “fuss” of organizing a wedding.

Oh … and why the secrecy you may ask? The secrecy came for two reasons. First and foremost, we did NOT want to steal any focus from my sister’s wedding which happened on July 26th. She had planned a big wedding and several family members made great efforts to be there. This is her second marriage, and after what she lived through with the first one, she certainly deserves to be happy, and we did not want to take anything away from her celebrations. The other reason was the family reunion. This big event took place at our home, and we knew there was so much work to be done to prepare the house and grounds that we decided to focus on that and then just slip away on the Friday and do our thing quietly.

No “big event” for us, we never wanted that. Besides, we did get to celebrate with the family afterwards anyway, as we gathered at the old homestead to start off the festivities with an evening BBQ and bonfire.

The family reunion
Lucky that we did put up those tents, because it ended up raining all weekend!
We know it kept some people away, but we still did have a good turn-out of about 120-150. I don’t think I had more than a 5 minute conversation with anyone, but it was good to see everyone and learn a bit about what is going on in their lives. The intention was to have a bunch of games and activities in the afternoons, but the weather had us playing games of staying dry and ‘dash for the house’ or ‘dash for the portable toilet’ or ‘dash for the car’… depending on if you were coming or going… or leaving! Of course there was a tonne of food – as there always is at our family gatherings. The rain did let up on Sat. evening long enough for us to have a bonfire, burn the old outhouse and set off some fireworks! Meanwhile, under the big tent, my cousin’s teenager and his band set up and played some pretty good tunes, and then my sister’s new husband set up and did the DJ-ing so people could have a few dances. This was followed by a few brave (read ‘intoxicated’) fools who sang some typical karaoke tunes. Abba, soundtrack from “Greece”, some country whiners…

The woodshed, which held the “guitar hero” competition for the young ones, had by this time, turned into a card-playing area. Inside the house people were just chatting and catching up with each other.

On Sunday afternoon we celebrated my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It isn’t actually ‘til Dec., but people’s activities are more ruled by weather then, and she knew she’d get to see a lot of the family now, so a HUGE birthday cake was brought, and my aunt made a family quilt which we all signed in our appropriate squares, lots of extended family and friends joined us under the big tents, and tonnes more food appeared and got eaten and lots more put back into the fridge. It was another good day with many more unfinished conversations.

Monday was a day to just hang out with those around us, and in the evening all the food from our fridge was taken to my cousin’s place and a birthday celebration for my recently married sister happened. I didn’t make it ’til much later though, ‘cuz my best friend was passing by and stopped in. We grabbed this chance to visit, since it would probably be the only time to see each other. We had met up just a few minutes before our wedding, but didn’t really get a chance to talk on Friday.

Then, on Tuesday, we started our day with horrible news.
It turned our world on its end. Ken’s Dad called to say that his wife had a heart attack during the night. It was sudden, massive and fatal.
This vibrant woman who had been at our wedding and then the old homestead just 3 days before... She used our camera and took most of our wedding photos. She had taken some special ones that she planned to photo-shop later…
We are so grateful to have had that bit of time with Carole, and so pleased that she was part of our celebration. Our memories to hold forever.
Ken quickly arranged a ticket to fly out to Calgary that same day, and spent the following week with his father helping where he could and being supportive. We were numb. The sting of this tragedy will be felt for a long time to come.
I had the support of my family as I stayed behind to do the clean-up from the reunion and then close up the house. I was grateful to all those who pitched in to help.

Ken returned to N.S. on Mon. 11th and we just finished packing for Switzerland, went to the city on Tues. for appointments and errands, and had a few very quick visits with friends. On Wed. we shut down the house and headed off to France.

Ah… Paris.
We landed in the early morning and took advantage of the hours before our afternoon train left for the ‘land of cheese’. We went walking along the famous Seine River and sat at an outdoor cafe for the obligatory ‘café and croissant’ and watched the people go by. We walked through some streets of the Latin Quarter, and went on a tour of the Notre Dame Cathedral. We are very keen to return for a long weekend sometime, then we’ll go to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre. It is only 4 hours from Montreux by train. Hhmmm…That’s like… Musquodoboit to North Sydney, or Digby, or Saint John! Europe is so compact, and we intend to experience a lot more of it!

Since we’ve been back in Montreux, we’re settling in.

Last Sunday we went on a big walk. We walked up the side of the mountain to the community of ‘Glion’ that looms above us. It took only 45 minutes, and there are a lot of stairs along the route. We stopped for a coffee/tea on a terrace overlooking the lake and the communities below with the mountains as the backdrop. Then we decided to walk to another town, ‘Les Avants’, which meant walking along the country road back down through part of the valley and up the side of the next mountain. We picked some blackberries along the way, and it took us just over an hour. We decided to refresh ourselves with a cold drink, explored the town and then took the next train home. Then it was off to Ken’s office to call our parents. From now on, we’ll be able to call from home.
As of the 28th we now have a land line phone, and internet and cable TV. Finally!

Milan, Italy
Sat. Aug.30th we took the train and spent the day in Milan. No… we didn’t go for the top end designer clothes of Prada, Gucci, Armani, or Dolce & Gabbana. We went because the weather forecast said +33 and we wanted to check out the city. First stop was a late 15th century church called “Santa Maria delle Grazi”. It is here that in 1495-1497 Leonardo da Vinci painted the famous “Last Supper” on the far wall of the Refectory when it was a Dominican Convent. Well, we saw the church, but you need to reserve well in advance to see the famous painting. Next time! We walked to a 14th century castle “Castello Sforzesco” and sat in the courtyard and had our picnic lunch. We couldn’t resist cooling our feet with the locals in the public fountain out front afterwards. We strolled down the city streets, heading for the 2nd largest church in the world - the ‘Duomo’. It took 5oo years to build this elaborate structure with its white/grey-pink marble. To appreciate the architecture even more, we took the stairs to the roof. The view of the city is great and the impression of the church is fascinating. The place seats 40,000 with 52 pillars to hold up the incredible roof! Way up there on the ‘wow factor’.

We did walk through the world’s first shopping mall “Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II”. The architect built a steel-and-glass roof over the three streets that are next to the Duomo. The buildings are extravagant. And the floor is all inlaid mosaic. As you can imagine, all the designer shops are in this area.

We walked though a lovely park and then headed for a pizza and beer before hopping on the train to catch the sunset en route to Montreux. It was a great day, and has us dreaming about where else to go!

As for what’s next, on Sept.6-8, we will again have the privilege of hosting some Canadian friends who will spend a day or so with us as part of their European tour. Can’t wait to see them - and already envision a lot of - conversation, food, touring, cheese, wine, chocolate and laughter,… but not too much time for sleeping!

Ken will start a new semester at University on Sept 8th. In the meantime, I will be studying French at home, and, on TV occasionally, I can watch some reruns of American shows (“House”, “Law and Order”, “Grey’s Anatomy”) in French to help increase my understanding. Every bit helps. I will start teaching English at a partner University up the mountain starting in October.

That’s it for now, we’ll keep the updates coming more frequently now that we have internet…. Yippeeee!