Life is already very settling here, and Johannah isn't even back from Canada yet, nor is the full team here. Juraj arrives here late tonight, and Olivia, the sister of a previous intern, Laura, who loved it here so much she ended up living here (is still here), is arriving sometime over the weekend I think. Meanwhile, Jo finally gets back Monday early afternoon from Montréal.
Life is just so beautiful and peaceful here. It is a small town, so there is no rush of the city, has that small town calmness, you can leisurely walk the 30 seconds to 2 minutes it takes to get anywhere. Plus its in the middle of the mountains, so you have this very natural, calming, serene atmosphere and scenery. I mean, right now, I'm sitting on our kitchen balcony basking in the morning sun writing this blog. That's another aspect of life here that I absolutely love, the routine.
The day and work day are very much adapted to life here. The morning is the most beautiful time of the day, as the afternoon gets windy with the mountain wind. So we all get up anywhere between 6 and 8, 9 if we sleep in, and take advantage of the morning. This includes downhill biking for Nino, swimming in the lake/pond for Aurora, hiking/swimming with the dogs for Jo, or yoga, daily groceries, working on our dissertation, having a very lengthy breakfast and catching up on the news, and anything else that comes to mind.
We then start work at 11, with Jo calling us at 4 to check in and give us new assignments and projects, and finishing at 7pm. As we often finish our previous assignments or are stuck on the current ones without Jo's aid before 4pm, we have often been taking an extended version of the normal lunch of cooking together and eating our healthy salad or sandwiches, and adding a hike to the lake/pond with the dogs, afternoon exploring, or helping Sonja (our Australian owner of the Chalet) with the packing and moving she has to do readying their new Chalet, as part of the 4 hours of work we help her with a month as part of our rental contract.
Then after work, we always all eat together, this rule is stipulated by Jo. If Nino isn't cooking, he tries to squeeze in another run down the mountain before supper, or Jo plays with her girls. Then after supper we all part ways again where some of us go for a drink or two at a local pub, some catch up on some reading, tv watching or alone time, and others just chill and hangout, or go to bed early... Something a little more relaxing after all the activity of the day. I mean, physical activity is so engrained in life here that you barely notice it, yet my legs and ass are perpetually stiff with everything and all the extreme uphill and downhill walking.
In many ways, it all reminds me of Canada and the Prairies.. Maybe this is why I feel so at home here? Or that I'm surrounded by Canadians? As Jo, Olivia, Laura, Aurora and I are all Canadian haha. Whatever the reason, I completely love it and am very glad I will be spending 3 months here. I even love the work. Some assignments, as with anything, maybe be a little on the tedious side, but in general its great. We each lead certain projects, cooperate on others, take on deadline projects, or just help Jo with some administrative style work. Some are for United Nations Environment Program, some are for the Swiss Development Cooperation, others are for cross-cutting government initiatives. All in all, I'm pretty sure I will never want to leave.
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