Saturday, August 25, 2012

August Highlights

So another beautiful month of the Swiss summer has passed, and here is my latest blog post.  I'm still struggling hard with learning German, and have decided to wait a bit on the job hunt in order to solidify the language a bit more.  It is hard for me to imagine myself living here longterm without the language, so that is my priority at the moment.

I have come to the realization that the true test of one's language ability is not a grammar exam, nor a language school placement test, nor the ability to memorize verb conjugations.  One's skill in a language is only truly visible in the ability to improvise.  In other words, what bubbles up out of your throat when you are randomly and unexpectedly prompted to speak?  I have gone from having no German two months ago to testing into German A2 Level, (which is just below what is described as intermediate level B1).  My true test, however, came last night as I traveled home to Luzern from Sachseln.  Most times I have been on that train it is a nonstop trip.  I've never had to change trains, so when the train stopped for more than a few minutes at one particular town, I took notice.  I looked up at the screen in the car that showed the next stops.  We were headed back to where I had just come from!  And it was late.  Nearly midnight.  I flew off the train and onto the outside platform, with literally only about 10 seconds to spare.  Two women outside giggled at me as I nearly fell out of the train, my proverbial feathers all ruffled and in a bunch.  They had been sitting near me earlier, were heading back to Luzern as well, and obviously noticed my mistake.  One of the women said something to me, and I didn't understand, although given the look on her face and her tone I think it must have been something like, "You barely made it off! "  I smiled and said in grammatically bad German "I'm American and I don't know.  But now, I know."  She gave me a very kind smile and laughed.

I felt really stupid.  I've been studying the past tense, but it hasn't really become part of my skill set yet.  Why hadn't I been able to say "I didn't know"?  Ich habe es nicht gewusst....I think.  I was sad after this little encounter...all these hours of studying and that's the best I could come up with!?  I'M AMERICAN AND I DON'T KNOW!?  What the fuck.  Not only had I failed to say "I didn't know I had to switch trains," but I additionally had just played into the oldest stereotype of Americans in the world.  Why did I even mention my nationality?  I'M AMERICAN AND I DON'T KNOW.  That should be the new slogan for the Romney campaign, not part of my conversation with Swiss people!  Christ.

I'll keep writing about about my spontaneous German moments.  It will be the tracking device of my progress in the language, and more than anything else, it's bound to be pretty hilarious. 

Here's the book I just checked out from the library...my goal is read it in the next month.   :-)

I recently joined the International Women's Society of Luzern.  It's a great group and has something for everyone.  There are subgroups centered upon reading books, knitting, hiking, running, clubbing, cooking, babies, business, and more.  There is also a Tuesday morning coffee that I usually attend.  At most of these meetings I am the youngest by about 30 years, but I see this as an advantage.  I like listening to women talk to each other about life.  The perspective of a 60 year old is vastly different from that of a 30 year old, and I enjoy the contrast.  I find it enlightening.

In this club I recently met an English woman who is in her 70's, and has been in Switzerland for 50 years.  You do the math. She moved to Switzerland because she married a Swiss.  I asked her how it all happened, and she simply said, "My husband was in London studying English, and I met him one night at a party.  We danced together, and I just knew."  I have never heard her complain about how difficult this move must have been for her back then...the new language...the new culture...the new life.  Only once I heard her hint at how hard it was.  She shook her head and said smilingly to the whole table of women, "I love hearing all you ladies discussing your new lives here and how to go about things.  We never had that.  There was nothing.  I didn't even know I had learned Swiss-German and not GERMAN until I did some traveling years later."  There was no bitterness in her words, because she clearly had learned to love the life she created here with her husband, but I understood something that hadn't really occurred to me before.  As difficult as I perceive certain aspects of setting up life here in Switzerland, my struggle in no way compares to what she must have gone through.  There was no Skype.  There was very little English in Switzerland.  And there were no International Women's Groups.  She was completely cut off from all that was familiar to her.  As I had this thought I felt a sharp pang of sympathy for her in my heart.  That was have been a brutal adjustment.

So what else have I been up to in the last month?  Honestly, I've been enjoying the Summer.  I've been studying German and swimming in the lake.  I've made a couple of friends along the way, and I hope to make more.


This is a funny little story.  It wasn't a big event or anything, but it's pretty ridiculous.  Hodge left on a tour and the first night he was away a particularly vicious Swiss mosquito mauled me in my sleep.  Yes.  MAULED ME.   It bit me about 20 times, and apparently I only woke up when it bit me on my EYELID.  Feeling that horrible pinch, I slapped my face.  My face was suddenly wet.  The bastard was so drunk with my blood that he couldn't be bothered to move and avoid my hand.  So, let's summarize this situation.  At 3am this motherfucker bit my eyelid, I slapped myself in the face, the drunk mosquito exploded on my forehead, and then I had to rush to the bathroom to remove the blood and his corpse.  Not the best of nights.


On a more serious note, I've been thinking hard about my life and what kind of work I want to do, but I haven't yet really come to a conclusion.  I desperately want to do something with human rights law, but I'm still figuring out how to navigate the system here...how to find the job that I would love.  I feel that I have worked too hard NOT to be picky.  I deserve to pursue jobs that I find inspiring.

It has almost been a whole year since my plane landed in Zurich and I visited Hodge...seeing him for the first time in seven years.  It was one of the best decisions I've made in my life, and I'm very proud of myself for that.  It was brave, don't you think?  I need to remind myself to continue to be brave in life. Yes, I'm now married to my soulmate... but there are still other parts of life that I want to see come together.  I have a debt from law school that hangs on my head...it puts pressure on me to pursue work that I don't care about, (corporate stuff), and forget the dreams I've had since I was a little girl of doing something useful and good for the world.  I want to use my law degree to help people, to improve something, to create a real effect on society.  Even if I can't affect society as a whole, I want to connect to people.  Asylum law is my favorite way of doing this, but I know there must be other avenues as well.  The last time I ever saw my grandmother, I sat next to her on her bed and we had a long talk about all sorts of things.  At one point during the conversation she took my hands, held them tightly in hers, and said, "These hands, Daisy.  These hands are going to do wonderful things."  And so I will.

But in the meantime, I want to celebrate what I already have done...and more specifically the decision I (we...Hodge gets credit for this decision too!) made last August.  The photo below was taken by Hodge, on the train to Zurich last year.  As that English woman from my club said...sometimes you just know.  Here's a picture of me gazing at Hodge on the train, knowing that very same thing.



1 comment:

  1. I find it interesting that you say refer to yourself as 30ish. My birthday is this week (I think you're younger than I am) and I can't get over how inaccurate the number feels.

    Glad you're doing well, even if the adjustment is somewhat challenging at times.

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