Lake Life, Road Trips, Whole 30 Hangovers, and Beef
The question Lisa and I get the most when catching up with friends and family these days is some form of, “What’s it like over there, now?” People are curious about life in Switzerland in general. Maybe there’s a little escapism in there, dreaming of life away from the weirdness, anxiety, and frustration this year has brought. But I also sense a hopefulness or yearning for some commonalities and connection in all the forms of that question. Regardless of whether things sound better or worse over here, we’re still going through this mad, mad, mad, mad, mad, mad year together in somewhat similar ways, right? To be fair, maybe I’m just projecting. I think I’m looking for all those same things when I touch base with people who aren’t here with us, too.
So, in the interest of escapism, connection, catching up, and maybe even sharing some of the same kind of Charlie Brown good-griefness and whatever-it-takes coping (no shaming here, we aren’t that Swiss yet), here’s what life’s been like since February…
There’s no place like home. Along with Dorothy, we’ve been clickin’ our ruby red slippers together and repeating the same mantra over and over again. Maybe we’re trying to make ourselves believe it just as much as she did, though. Switzerland had a strict quarantine for about eight weeks back in the spring (don’t really leave your home, unless you’re going to the grocery store for essentials on your weekly grocery trip). Playgrounds were taped off, homeschooling kicked in. We’re still not mentioning what we had to do to survive those days, right? We made it and memories fade or hopefully will be addressed by therapy down the road. We’ll do whatever is good for society, but please, for the love of everything holy, for Pete’s sake and anyone else’s sake that matters or might be listening, please, please, please, please, let’s not have to go down that homeschooling road again.
But we have enjoyed each other’s company and we’ve found rhythms together. We cook together, read together, play games together, color and draw and craft together, practice sports inside and out together, and we haven’t gotten completely sick of each other in this little old apartment yet.
Lisa started working remotely which cut out about two hours of commute out of her day. It looks like she’ll keep working from home for the most part until at least January. So now we can have lunch together pretty regularly, she takes the kids to school most days. For the most part, we stay out of her hair while she works—the boys and I consider any week where we don’t crash a call more than once a day a success. Not a lot of successes by that definition, but we manage one occasionally. It’s hard to think about readjusting and giving up so much fringe time before and after school with her when she heads back at some point.
After that initial halt, the boys resumed school for the month of June, and then continued on a normal schedule when school started again in late August (only high school students and teachers have to wear masks). We’ve gotten used to downloading contact tracing apps and wearing masks anytime we’re inside any store, when we’re on campus with the boys at school, and when we use public transportation. We’re headed back towards a pretty strict lockdown (without homeschooling this time, so far) starting Wednesday night. The number of cases per million have been closing in on those same metrics in the States, lately, and hospitals are on the verge of capacity in some hospitals across the country. The culture over here seems to be compliant for the benefit of the greater good, for the most part. There have been some small demonstrations against mask requirements in bigger cities, but the push for personal freedoms hasn’t flared up nearly as much as in some other places.
During our close-knit quarantine, we indulged in some near-the-lake impulse purchases. Lake Geneva has been a nice getaway when there are fewer travel options available. It’s only a ten-minute walk to head down to the lake and try out a SUP (standup paddleboard) or an inflatable rowboat with the boys. Cooper loved to take friends out on his paddleboard and steer them around near the shore, at least until he went 2 for 2 on conking them on the heads and making them cry when switching side with the oar. One of us fell off every time he or she tried to stand up the last time we tried using those in Mexico, and since we’ve been here only one of us (the other one) has fallen off once. We’re far from being pros, but we’re wobblin’ a little less these days.
Fulfilling Lisa’s two year old desire to rent out a paddleboat with a slide on it, now that the boys were both old enough to enjoy it.
Bring it on! (laughing in the face of wedgies and bunched-up britches )
We did manage to travel by car to Paris, Tuscany, Zermatt (Switzerland), and Chamonix (France) in the last 4 months. We were able to mask up for some fireworks and to trek around to some outdoor cafes in Paris, sticking more to the backroads and a more local-way-of-life those few days.
We shared a house with a pool with some friends and stayed isolated outside of a couple of wineries and the best food truck and burger I’ve had in Europe while in Tuscany. We also had our first Michelin-Star tasting menu experiences with the boys (they were champs with pretty good manners and patience throughout the excellent and sometimes exotic courses) for my birthday meal at Antica Corte Pallavinci outside Parma, following the example of the last few chefs on Top Chef this last season. The boys loved electric-scootering our way down around the Duomo di Milano in Milan on the way back home, too.
Even the baby boars are chill and living la dolce vida in the Tuscan wineries.
We found marmots, pulled our way across a lake, trekked across the tallest suspension bridge we’ve been on so far, and hiked farther than the boys had hiked so far (I think the views and promises of hot chocolate kept them trudging along) in Zermatt. And we got to ride a train up to a cave in a glacier with some friends in Chamonix. Even if it’s not what we planned to do and share with friends and family who were scheduled to come to see us, we’ve appreciated the opportunity for some beautiful plan B trips and experiences. We’re hopeful that we can begin to reschedule some of those rain-checked adventures in the not-too-distant future.
After coming back from that week of pasta, wine, and desserts in Tuscany back in August, we joined our friends in trying out Whole 30. They’d done it before, but it was our first run. You couldn’t ask for a better time to try it out. We’ve been staying in and cooking so much, and most fruits and vegetables were still in season. However, they haven’t heard of Whole 30 over here, so there aren’t compliant condiments and flours and helpful ways to cut some of the grind and prep out. So, we gave this whole no dairy, no gluten, no alcohol, no legumes, and no sugar thing a shot under some decent circumstances, and it still was ROUGH.
The books and blogs are honest about how tough the first fifteen days with withdrawals, headaches, exhaustion, mood swings, gastrointestinal adjustments, and cravings all popping up from time to time.
The books and blogs are not honest about how you’ll feel like you have tiger blood and new energy and superpowers and your complexion will just be glowing and you’ll have more patience and be a better spouse/parent in the second fifteen days.
Big ol’ bologna sandwich on that one.
Swing and a miss.
Don’t get your hopes up.
I felt a little better over the last 3 days of the month, maybe.
But we made it. And I think we picked up some healthier habits along the way.
Nash is devouring being in Reception 4 (Pre-K) and being in school every day just like Cooper. I don’t think there’s been a day yet when I’ve picked up him when he hasn’t had a huge grin on his face. He has the same teachers Cooper had the first year we got here. Not only that, he gets to go to the library like his brother does, have playdates like his brother does, even start to learn some songs on the piano like his brother does. He just finished the fall session of swimming a couple of days a week with his class at school (they’ll pick it back up after Easter). The confidence he gets from hockey and being a big kid inspired him to lead a ragtag band of rebels over to the diving board to jump into the deeper pool last week. His teachers were impressed, but I think the swimming coaches were more annoyed that he went too far above and beyond their lessons.
Cooper is in Year 2 (1st grade) this year, and has moved over to the main building on campus. He gets to add football (soccer) to his After School Activity schedule, he loves having art as part of his weekly schedule now, and he’s reading more and more thanks to teachers here and back home (big thanks to Mrs. Kim!). He loves/hates piano lessons (he’s stoked to go over his buddy’s house who is learning the drums for a rock and roll playdate where they’re coming up with a playlist that includes and might only feature We Will Rock You over and over and over again). He can’t get enough Minecraft, and he’s pumped to start having sleepovers this year.
We’ll take reading in whatever form we can get it.
To wrap things up, about a week ago Cooper and one of his friends let their frustrations get the best of them on the ride home from school. They see each other a decent amount when our families hang out, and the relationship has almost developed into a brother and sister frenemies level at this point. From what I can gather, they started insulting each other, kept fueling the fire, and ended up yelling they wished they went to different schools. Sighs, slammed doors, and tears punctuated their responses after Cooper was dropped off. Truces, peace, and apologies were kinda/sorta exchanged later that night, and then they had some room to breathe apart from each other.
Three days later, we are headed to the rink for some free skate time so Nash and I can get more confidence on our skates, and Lisa and Cooper can race and challenge each other with new moves. We’ve reached out to our friends to let them know since they often go skate too. On our way there, Lisa casually tells the boys that we are meeting the other family at the rink. Cooper immediately asks if she’s coming too, along with her parents. Lisa smiles and says that she’ll be there, yeah. Cooper sighs, so Lisa asks what’s up.
Sidenote—He’s been into learning new words lately. He tried to use Psych at the dinner table the other night, and he sounded like Borat trying to use a not joke: “I want some saltpsych.” We’re working on timing.
In the backseat of the car, responding to Lisa’s question, head down, eyes up, Cooper responds with another new word he’s trying out, “(her name) and me got beef.” His sentence drips with both heartfelt grumbling and a tentatively confident tone as he’s not exactly sure he’s used got beef the right way. Lisa and I try to stifle snickers and snorts in the front seat as we keep heading towards the rink, the eloquent little thug refocusing on Mighty Ducks on his iPad in the back.
When we get there and hop out, she’s bouncing with excitement. Cooper is a little slower to thaw, but he’s too excited to skate for there to be much grudge-holding and disagreement. They’re soon compare skating tips and tricks, laughing, have fun, and end up helping each other pack up before we all decide to go grab burgers together. The night ultimately ends up back at their place for drinks as the kids share some Oreo brownies before chasing each other around the house pretending to lasso each other.
…Listen, I know it’s low-hanging fruit. But sometimes slow learners like me need all the easy-to-reach fruit, the life-lessons that keep thumping you on the back of the head, we can get.
No one is shocked that first graders tell jokes and butt heads. Or that they share Halloween costume ideas and then get ultra-competitive comparing pro piano skills. It’s common for them to giggle together one minute and make each other cry the next.
And maybe I still break out my Pollyanna-tinted glasses too often.
But it’s good to know that they see the world differently, come from different places, push too hard and rarely back down, and still manage to end up excited to laugh over brownies from Starbucks.
I hope that they’re figuring out how to be wholly who they are while appreciating others who won’t always agree with them. We’re trying to instill gratitude for and interest in the diversity of students who end up at their school from different places around the world. We’re hoping they learn how to maintain respect as they develop curiosity and a growing sense of who they are and what they value.
Beef happens, Coop.
Don’t be afraid to learn from it.
Don’t let it be the last word.
And please don’t let any real or perceived division loom larger than all the good stuff that friendships and differences add to life.
Brothers (and non-pictured friends) don’t shake hands (or got beef), brothers gotta hug.
Let me know if there’s something you’re curious about that I didn’t cover. No doubt we take differences for granted, and I’d be glad to continue to pull back the curtain on Lausanne life.