Chronicle of the Week: June 24 through June 30, 2019
Monday, June 24, 2019
My French teacher coordinated a discussion group for her students at a Lavaux winery, where we helped the vintner prepare stuffed grape leaves for the upcoming Fête des Vignerons—and practiced our French, of course.
Tuesday, June 25, 2019
The first hair stylist I found in Lausanne gave me a buzz cut. Finding someone who can cut short hair on a woman—especially when said woman has a lot of cowlicks—makes for a challenge in every move I’ve made. New stylist tryout today; I don’t look like I should enlist in the Marines. Win.
Wednesday, June 26, 2019
No outings and all the work today, other than a morning and an evening walk. I meandered in a few different directions on both forays.
In the morning, one meander took me through a garden in front of the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel and a park with a very strange fountain of two bears biting each other, captioned “For Our Friends.” (Someone please explain this one to me.)
In the evening, my meander took me past a community garden filled with industrious people and, farther up the street, a planter that could use their attentions—yet which still had love.
Thursday, June 27, 2019
My French teacher, Irène, has paired me with Vrushali on Thursdays over the past several months for discussion sessions. Vrushali heads off for summer vacations this weekend. As our language levels have diverged a bit, her time off made for an inflection point and the natural end to our joint classes.
Today, we had our last session together. We commemorated it with a picture taken on Vrushali’s terrace.
Friday, June 28, 2019
For my lunch break, I flew to Amsterdam to catch my aunt and cousins in the midst of their central European tour. I had a late lunch-dinner break at a cafe on the canals and worked for the afternoon.
Saturday, June 29, 2019
Arnaud made it to Amsterdam to join me late on Friday night. We walked around Amsterdam Saturday and visited the Van Gogh Museum. Finally, after their long day of tour-bus style European vacationing, we had dinner with my aunt and cousins.
Sunday, June 30, 2019
Arnaud left for Lausanne just before lunch and after a one-hour canal cruise with a group of Japanese tourists (and me). I stay in Amsterdam until tomorrow morning’s red-eye flight.
I had a quick meal and then visited the Rijksmuseum, after which I took a long walk through parts of town I hadn’t yet seen—including a park with two aviaries and a brick-paved square with people dancing to Cuban music. Next, I went back to the hotel to work a bit before bedtime. Monday comes quickly.