Winter in Switzerland

I have now experienced all four seasons in Switzerland, each so very different and beautiful in their own way but Winter, Winter is by far my favourite!

The Winters here can get long though and we need to take all the necessary precautions to maintain our Serotonin levels. Morning vitamin D Drops with breakfast – check. Eat lots of veggies – check. Follow the sun on weekends – check. Create a killer play list to sing along to loudly – check. Have a healthy stash of chocolate readily available – double check.

But then, last week, I stumbled upon an even better solution to the “Winter Blues” (okay, it wasn’t so much of a stumble as it was a 3 hour drive) and her name is Quila.

Quila is my “foster child” and has been entrusted to me by the Stiftung Schweizerische Schule für Blindenführhunde (The Swiss Foundation for guide dogs for the blind). One day, in the not so distant future, she will become somebody’s eyes but for now she is mine and my job is to love her and to help her develop into the brave, dependent and strong-willed dog that she needs to become. Also, all of Quila’s commands are in Italian, which has to be the happiest language ever! My heart smiles every time I praise her with a loud “Brava!”

Speaking of languages, something magical is starting to happen in our household. Whilst Julia fully understands everything that is being said to her in German, she has been slow to start speaking however lately when she speaks to someone in English, German words are bubbling to the surface before the English words have a chance to come out which means that she’s starting to think in German!

This is a big step in the right direction as being the perfectionist that she is, she only speaks in German when she has to (e.g. to her school teacher) or when she feels comfortable enough with a person to make a mistake and not feel judged. Now that the words are automatically coming out, soon it won’t be a choice.

Life is starting to change for all of us as we’re all finding our own place in this new world of ours. Benito has joined the local fire department as a volunteer fireman. Our village is really small and our fire department consists of only volunteers however the facilities, training and camaraderie are fantastic! And if you know Benito, you know that he is in his element!

Julz is heading into the final stages of her primary school year and will soon be heading off to High School. As I’ve mentioned before, the Swiss schooling system is completely different from back home and offers a wide variety of options to students based on their different learning abilities and academic capabilities. After being in the school for a little over 4 months, Julz has managed to achieve the goals she set for herself and surpassed all of our expectations and will be going through to Sec. A.

She’s growing up fast and our time with her is fleeting. There are a million messages I want her to walk away with but mostly, I hope she always knows that her mom and dad chose her dreams. That we chose to live our life a different way even when we were told we were crazy. It may not always be easy, but it’s definitely worth it!

—ooOoo—

Sharing our Winter in Switzerland so far …