Home Sweet, cold, wet Home

I did it!

After 6 years spent on getting my undergrad done, I finally wrote my last exam, applied to graduate and said goodbye to the university. It's been a long, long haul and I'm very glad and relieved to be done. Except, I'm not quite done yet, and I do need to finish my last essay soon if I want to graduate in November (and I do).

I've also moved back to Switzerland and the weather has been very Victoria-like. I'm finding this to be a bit of a blessing, as I was NOT looking forward to 30+C weather. Now, granted, there could be a middle ground between 12-15C and 30C, but it's been so dry here this spring that we actually do need the rain.

Being home is good. It feels very normal and natural to be back, for which I am also grateful.

In my last days in Victoria, my camera broke, so I won't be putting too many pictures up (unless I can borrow someone else's), but I have lots of pictures from before. I'll have to dig them out.

Lebanon

Lebanon last summer was filled with adventures, beautiful scenery and great friends. I had a great time adapting to a warm climate, a different way of life and getting to know the great lebanese culture. Thanks for showing me around, koda!!

Swiss photos

I have been lousy at keeping up with this blog. Sorry folks. I doubt that anyone is still reading this.
I've had quite a bumpy road in the recent year and I'm still trying to process all of it.
Here are a couple of pictures from last summer when I was back home in Switzerland. It's a beautiful country and I always forget how beautiful it is until I go back. I was blessed to be raised in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Every time I go back, it takes my breath away.

snoooooow

It's snowing, it's snowing!!!!

Who will win?

Obama? McCain?
Biden? Palin?
I heard some interesting stuff today. McCain showing signs of dementia and him dying within a year. Now that would be a bit scary!
blip!
my brain just fried. toooo tired!

electricity outage

The south island had a power outage last night. For about 2 hours, people had to make do with what they could, light candles and a fire and eat what was ready (or find a restaurant, like we did). So now some people think that our island, which is on a seismic (?) fault lign, should be home to a nuclear power plant... Crazy canadians!
What this has taught me, however, is that we aren't prepared for power outages in our house. No flashlights, no food eadible without cooking, no wood to build a fire for heat, almost no matches...
So today, since the power's back and therefore the stores are opened, I'm going to go and get some of these things. I hope we get a repeat performance soon!
Interestingly, I met more of my neighbours yesterday during that outage than in the whole year I've lived in our house.

latest news

My 1st week back was pretty crapy, but the next one was pretty good. My student loan came through!! I should be getting the money this week, so that's really exciting. That way, I don't have to work 30hrs/week on top going to school full time! I am trying to be responsible with it. I even made a budget that I'm trying to stick to, but I have some great travel opportunities coming up, and I will use some of my loan money for that, since I used the money I earned last summer to pay for school. Oh yeah, getting the student loan means that I'm going to Beirut in June for a month!!!

I also joined a choir. I've just missed having some music in my life SO much. It's been great to be part of that again. We're singing Haendel's Messiah. It's going to be fantabulous.

What else? ouh! I also got a free bike for a year. Uvic has a bike bursary program. I applied and I got a bike. It's 2nd hand and ugly, but it's painful exercise. I picked it up on Monday and I've been torturing myself on it since then. Victoria's not as flat as I thought. And I joined the gym. And I signed up for a pilates' class. And I went running tonight... around the block. Then I decided it was too cold and I came back home, watched CSI:Las Vegas with my roomies and made some crepes. All this sports, crazy, eh?

Anyway, these are the last news on this side of the world...

skyview lounge

here I am waiting in the Geneva airport. my flight was overbooked so I volunteered to stay in the 1st class lounge and receiver vouchers on top of that. Such sacrifices I make!
A guy my age is zapping and it's pretty annoying, but that's ok. Free food. Free drinks. Free internet. I can deal with a zapper. So far we've seen the sea iguanas, middle eastern men on CNN, car racing and now a feature report on Zeppelins from the italian part of Switzerland's national TV (in Italian).

I had to say goodbye to my family today, though. And that's tough. I hate doing it. Mom and I always cry buckets. My dad tried to take pictures of us crying. We weren't too happy about that.
These last 4 months have been amazing. I've had fabulous days with my family, with friends. I was blessed with great jobs where I learnt a lot and hopefully did a good job.
Now, I'm coming back to Victoria and I'm excited to see everyone again, although I'm not sure how many of you are still around :-).