Okay, so after a long and grueling decisionmaking process, Rob decided to leave Medtronic and take a job with his old company, Dow, at their European headquarters just outside Zürich. It's been a hard decision for us, especially me. The job opportunity is great for Rob. But it means leaving our wonderful community here AND changing languages -- from French to German (and Swiss German, at that). Zürich is only 2 1/2 hours from here -- but, in many ways, it feels like an entirely different country. It's still Switzerland, but a bit more German-y than French-y. I'm sure that we'll love it once we get settled in.
I have started taking a beginning German class in Lausanne. One night I came home from it with my head spinning. Then I realized that the source of my exhaustion was that I had spoken FIVE languages during the two-hour class period. The class is taught in French, so I had to ask all my questions in French, but also speak the new German words I was learning. Then I conversed during the break with two Spanish-speaking women in the class. I also walked backed to the train with a Ukrainian woman who speaks Russian. Finally, when not trying to converse in four other languages, I was thinking in English. I guess I'm truly becoming a multi-lingual European, except I just speak a LITTLE bit of a LOT of languages.
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