Boat Dance

These kids have a Boat dance the first week of school. In short, the school busses 450 kids down to the lake where they get on two separate boats - middle schoolers and ninth grade in one, and then the rest in another. From there the boats go out, food is served and people wander, watch and enjoy being on the water. At some point the two boats meet up again, and a gangplank is placed inbetween them so that they are connected. One boat is the dance/dj boat and the other the food. We spend the evening in this manor, dancing on the water so to speak. Kind of a fun idea though the food was a little on the shabby side. As chaperones we had certain time slots and assignments. I got bathroom duty for half an hour. Basically just patrolling to insure that nothing illegal was happening in the bathrooms. The rest of the time us faculty enjoyed ourselves by dancing and talking. At around 9:30pm the boats separated and we sped off to get the younger kids back and to bed at a reasonable hour.


Eric, Pete, James and Lisette - boats together

Another Night in the Neighbourhood

Last thursday was our 4th year wedding anniversary. Go us! Though things have been hectic here we decided to take a little time and do something for us. There were no large gifts exchanged, but when you start valuing time together I guess that's a pretty good present.
The dining hall food is edible almost every day, but certainly not gourmet nor terribly yummy, so we decided to scope out a local restaurant in walking distance. (If you read my blurb about driving earlier you'll know why we went that route!) Here in Ticino there are local restaurants called Grottos where one is served a simple more traditional menu. We came across one not too far from us that makes their own pasta.


Truly typical grotto food is normally a variety of grilled meat from beef to horse to rabbit, and most often served with potato or polenta. However, Al Bosco serves a number of delicious homemade pasta dishes, my favorite for now being the spinach, ricotta and fresh herb ravioli. YUM. As a starter, the waiter recommended the porcini mushroom and arugula salad with a drizzle of olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I don't think I have ever had a raw mushroom salad, but since porcinis are in season as we speak, it's seemed only right to give it a try. Very good! We also sampled a T-bone steak flavored with delicate herbs, salt and pepper. Simple and tasty. All in all a relaxing night in a rustic and homey setting and on our way home we had gorgeous skies and beautiful views.
I can really appreciate the little things here. I like that.

To Gandria and Beyond

Villages and towns round here have fairytale names. Maybe because they are fairytale places. I accepted an invitation to take a walk to Gandria from a very pregant Julia. She is due in Oct but bets are bouncing around with dates within the next 2 weeks. Despite her imminent birth, or because of it, she is looking for exercise however and whereever she can.
But enough about Julia and her birthing date and back to Gandria, our adventure also included her 4 going on 47 year old son Thomas, and another couple here - Kara and David. (David is actually the dorm head of De Nobili - my dorm). Just a quick story about Thomas before I go on:
We were at a very adultish party 2 weeks ago and poor Thomas had been brought along. After probably 3 hours of hearing adult conversation and eating not so kid friendly food, Thomas's dad asked if he would like to go home. Thomas's response: Well (pause for contemplation), I guess that's really an adult decision.
Hmm. I need to know how they taught him that one.
But back to our walk... so you take a drive down town and then travel left along the lake. At some point if you keep to the edge of the lake the road ends in a parking lot. That's right. It ends. From there is a fantastic wandering path past little hotels, lidos, and very possibly, peoples homes. These places are only accessible by foot at this point, or by water. Continue on and you find yourself in the quaint village of Gandria. There are no streets - just paths winding up and down stairs and round and under buildings. I recommend a stop, as we did, for Gelato. We sat in a fairly typical Ticino restaurant with outdoor seating overlooking the lake and savored pretty yummy home made gelato. Spectacular. And did I mention I live here?
Nothing like filling an afternoon with exercise, sun and ice cream!

Part time full time job

At TASIS, and apparently at many boarding school, one is supposed to be wary of a "part time" position. Really there is no such thing. I mean you get paid for part time work, but you're doing stuff ALL the time. Take me, for example. I am excited to say that I will fall in this category for the school year. As a part time employee I will only be working 15 hours a week in college counselling office helping students edit their essays. But then I will also be acting as a dorm parent 1 night a week and every 6th entire weekend, be an advisor to 8 ninth grade students and meet with them at least 4 times a week, teach dance class for the fall 2 afternoons a week, teach yoga in the winter 2 afternoons a week, go on In Program Travel and be available for other choice tasks as they come up. Does this sound part time to anyone else? Such is the life of a TASIS employee. And keep in mind that I am getting off easy. Most people will do almost all of that plus teach 4 classes. YEEEHA.
It's exciting and certainly interesting though. The official opening day was yesterday and the kids are spilling all over campus. It's a shmorgessborg of high fashion and boy/men with overly brushed and groomed hair. Seriously, I think the guys here spend more time getting their hair to swish to one side just so than I have ever done in my life.
All that aside, the days are long for now, busy for sure, but not unbearable. I am getting more comfortable finding my way around the campus and the dining hall. I have learned that if the food looks like kraft mac and cheese but is called rissotto it's worth steering clear of because it is the swiss equivalent. I have also found that the various meat stew dishes are normally a mine field of fatty bits which I am loathe to navigate through. However, all in all the faculty lounge coffee/hot chocolate machine is a resounding success.
I have dragged my sorry tush to the dance studio a couple of times now to do some yoga and move a little, and after sat when we had to unload the students boxes, I am officially sore. Infact yesterday my forearms were cramping so much I looked a bit like a T-rex. Grrrr.
So the week begins with students and faculty trying to get it together and be organized. The first official day of classes is weds. More to come soon...

Little Swiss Miss

I must have said this about thirty times so far - I can't believe I live here. This country is surreal in a way I can't say I've experienced before. And maybe this school (TASIS) is too. If you've ever experienced real life to feel dream like you know what I'm talking about. I'm not saying that everything is wonderful and I'm floating on a cloud - but it's just nothing like life in Brooklyn.
I've been here for almost 2 weeks and sometimes it feels like 2 months and other times I'm lost in every sense imaginable and just want to GO HOME. In part the general feeling of being overwhelmed is due to the schedule mapped out for us, but there have been some great moments so far. The breakdown so far:

Job: I still don't know what I'm doing here - today may be the big day - which has been a bit frustrating, but there has been alot of talk of faculty interested in Yoga and massage so there is hope of private work at least. What I have been told is that I am a dorm parent in the middle school/9th Grade dorm. It's a tough dorm to handle because it's a larger mix of grades and more of them. It is also alot of new students so we have to set the standard of how things will be in their time here. EEk. Imagine me as a dorm parent?! I am also supposed to be an advisor to a group of students. Probably in the same age group for getting to know them purposes. And that's all for now. More to come soon I hope on this front.

Weather: We have experienced a variety of swiss weather ranging from quite hot and humid to postively chilly rain. (though let me state now that nothing has compared to NYC summer heat and humidity!) What is lovely is the way a thunder storm will clear and the mist lifts off the mountains. It's stunning.

People: People here are strange, as they are anywhere I guess. It's just the fish bowl existence that points it out quicker and easier. It's hard to say whether the social life will be a booming success or a bit of an irritation. In some ways I'm used to my solitary existence with a few key players on my social calendar. Here it's hard to stay out of what's happening. In some ways it's nice for bringing us out of our shells, and in others you can end up stuck with people you don't really feel like talking to anymore. I'm not making any decisions yet on who to like and dislike. Only time will tell certain things. As always though, there are a few people that immediately make you feel more confortable and at home, and to those few I am grateful.

Our Home: Meanwhile on the home front our little duplex is starting to shape up and feel more like our place. I have to say it takes a while to give a place your own smell - not in a bad way - and to have the right feel about it. Ours needed some help from Ikea and a bit of furniture changing. Thankfully these were accomodated well for us by the school. (except for the pink arm chairs which appear to be here for the long haul!). I am grateful that our double bed was swapped out for a queen. We have a fire place and a washer dryer so that's exciting. We also happen to be housed in one of those oh so quaint stone buildings. It's quite adorable from the outside.

Driving: A word to the wise, learn how to operate a stick shift before moving to Europe! I have at least had some experience with it, but what a challenge it has been to try and learn driving up hills and little windy mountain paths. The two way streets here are narrower than one ways back home AND we are driving VANS, not cars. So they take you out a couple of times and make sure you can drive alright, but honestly, I feel so unready to leap in a van and drive a bunch of teenagers some place.
A) I don't know where I'm going
B) I am not comfortable with the size of the vehicle and all the hair pin turns
C) Hill starts scare the bujeezus out of me.
We'll see what happens but you can guarrantee that on my first weekend on duty I won't be planning some driving required trip for the kids! We'll try something safer - like a movie at school or something.

The area: Montagnola is the sort of bigger picture area where the school is located. We are up the hill from Lugano and so there are many places that offer a pretty spectacular view of the lake and surrounding area. We also are conveniently close to the Airport and an Ikea (without traffic about 10 to 15mins each). What more can you ask for? We have a small "town" center that has the essential pharmacy, post office, bank and corner store. Besides that you can get into lugano center in maximum 20mins I would say. We are super close to Italy on all different sides. It will definitely be a great location to travel from.

And so I will leave this post here. If you've read this far, thank you!

Appreciating NYC - Part duo

A brief visit from Iman and Nadim was all I needed apparently, to get my touristness on. I've never done a lot of things that one does in NYC - but yesterday I rode the Staten Island ferry. It was fairly amusing to get on, right over, disembark (they make you), and get right back on! We had a good laugh. And when looking for free things to do in NYC, it's a good one. Who would have thunk? Plus you get a pretty decent view of the good ol' statue of Liberty.



I had a moment before I fell asleep two nights ago where I was struck with an interesting thought. I have been looking to get out of this city for some time now. So I lay in bed wondering if I had any regrets about leaving NY now, and the answer was actually yes. I can admit now to myself that I regret not going out and taking advantage of dance classes and even more yoga classes. These are things I realize I may not have access to again - things that I think I still love and would love to be doing for myself. Oh well.. Can't go back in time. I have to think what i can do in the future is all.
I guess the dancer isn't all out of me.

Appreciating NYC

I admit to being a bit a of grump about NY alot of the time, but now that I'm actually leaving for real I think it's easier to sit back and appreciate the wonderful bits. For me that really comes down to the amazing food one can find here and the energy (when you're looking for it.) Had a very nice visit from Shirin and enjoyed being out and about in the city. I can also strongly recommend the Negril Village - an awesome Carribean restaurant in the village. YUM.