A big work week(end)
It's been a long, long time since I've experienced the ever-present ambience of first-person-shooter video games. Couple that background noise with the umami smell of instant ramen, the occasional ping-pong ball flying at your face, a persistent air hockey table hum, and the fidgety atmosphere of late-middle, early-high school aged boys, and you've captured the essence of my weekend. Not quite the romantic alpine strawberry foraging one might imagine comes with a move to Switzerland (though hopefully there will be many weekends for those adventures, too!).
Emily and I are tag teaming our first weekend duty in one of the boys’ dorms together after an incredibly crazy work week. Students began arriving on Tuesday and I've been in non-stop hospitality mode ever since. My usual computer-bound work tasks have been swiftly replaced by a true smorgasbord of hop-to, all-hands assignments. From reviewing student and family covid paperwork to checking kids in for class registration to entertaining parents and sporadically taking over hosting an event in a nearby restaurant, to ferrying ID cards up and down the mountain’s gondola, I've worn more than my fair share of hats this week!
Freddy watching Youtube videos reminding himself how to tie a tie… it’s been a while!
Trying to figure out what counts as “business formal” after spending the last 3 years working at a ranch school.
The view from our impromptu dinner event for parents on Wednesday. Not a bad spot to spend an evening at work!
And while I like to think that my ability to flip "on" my gracious hospitality self is pretty good, I'd be lying if I said this week has been easy. Jumping from barely any big-group interactions or small talk situations over the last two covid years into a full week of being on my feet, smiling through my mask and tackling new people, locations and situations each hour was a lot.
I found myself increasingly grateful for the dining hall at the end of each day (the days we didn't have evening events, that is!) as a speedy, thoughtless way to pick up food and ensure some caloric intake happened at the end of the day. Grateful too, that the team I've joined (most of whom are new this year as well) has amazing, compassionate and exceptionally competent humans; there have been so many challenges this week that simply wouldn't have been possible to tackle or solve without them. And especially grateful for Freddy whom, without fail, gets up early every morning to walk the dog and washes my leftover dishes without complaint.
Finding myself especially grateful for small moments like these. I often see the little girls who live downstairs swinging on this swing set in the late evenings, and couldn’t help myself… Obi tolerated my childish endeavor bravely.
Thankful, too, for my growing collection of edible (and non-edible) indoor plants.
The face that almost keeps me from heading into work each morning…
And, I'll admit there were more than a few mornings this week where the tears pricked and threatened to spill at the thought of another day in performance mode. In the quiet moments, I've noticed that impact on my body; the stiffness across my spine, ache in my chest, a stye threatening to arise in the corner of my eye. It's a difficult thing, to know your body well enough to notice the impacts of stress, yet know you have to get through more before you can let yourself find rest.
Hopefully, this week will ease us into the beginnings of new regular routines. As we get to know the dining hall menus better, it becomes easier to figure out which nights to cook from home, which salad or hot-bar ingredients can be cleverly turned into semi-home cooked meals, and which nights it's simply easier and more delicious to grab a bite in the cafeteria itself. Groceries in Switzerland are on the expensive side, so we're trying to be clever with integrating provided food with farmer's market goodies and special ingredients from the store to fuel our weeks. Between the mushrooms from last week's venture to the farmers market and some beet greens I've been collecting from the school's garden, I'm getting increasingly better at incorporating nutrient rich options into our daily routines.
Dining hall sugar explosion. Already quite hooked on the sugary options… how could you not when they tower them up like this every weekend?
Breakfast mushroom bowl made at home. We still don’t have any kitchen knives, so I had to get creative for chopping: those green onions were cut with my (washed!) eyebrow scissors
Kale from the garden beds in Vevey, foraged dandelion greens, farmer’s market green onions + mushrooms, beet greens + edible flowers from the school garden, cucumber + carrots + sauerkraut from the dining hall
On the other side of non-work related routines, movement and exercise are the next big things on my sorting-out agenda. Though Freddy is always more than keen to tackle our mountainous home terrain for his morning, afternoon or evening adventures, I've found myself a bit more hesitant to head off on a 3,000 foot elevation gain "walk" after work each day (and mornings... well, not exactly my brightest athletic time), especially since we do SO many stairs each day just getting around campus. Though I've found a few walks that are lovely, I'm tremendously looking forward to mixing it up this week with some yoga and brazilian jiu jitsu classes. Can't wait to build some thoughtful movement (beyond walking) back into my weekly rotation. More to come on these in a future update!
Love from Leysin,
Shonabell
Update: looks like we’ll have yet another crazy all-hands week ahead as we navigate the complexities of opening an international boarding school in the midst of the covid pandemic (grateful to be vaccinated!). Wish us luck!
