La Vie en Suisse

Note: this post is not finished yet. I just thought I'd put it up so there's SOMETHING new and you don't think I've died. Cause I haven't.

It’s already been a month and there is much to tell so I have broken this post into four parts for your convenience: Meet the Olaniyis, Take a Ride on my Picturesque Train, A Day in the Life, and Non-School Adventures. Enjoy!

Meet the Olaniyis, my host family here in Switzerland.

Edward: My host dad is Nigerian. He’s been married to Odile for 8 years, but has lived in Switzerland longer than that. He speaks French and English. He works in “clothes” (whatever that means) and works a lot. The only time I see him is after 12 or 1 at night when he comes home and on Fridays when he takes care of the kids and Odile works. Whatever his job, he does well for himself. He drives a black Mercedes SUV and likes to listen to rap music. He’s currently in Portugal on business. He and Odile own their house and have a swimming pool. I love hearing his West African accent even when he speaks French.

Odile: Ma mere Suisse described herself as “dynamique” and I think the word fits her perfectly. She loves to talk in both English and French, is very good at correcting my poor French grammar, and works part time as a nutritionist (NOT a dietitian). When she was 19 she studied abroad in California for a year. Her father used to be the mayor of Geneva. She loves Portugal (they spend their summers there), and always seems to be busy. Her life revolves around her two sons. The Swiss school system is such that kids come home for lunch and then go back to school. This makes it hard for moms to work, and Odile ends up doing most things part time or starting work at 6am so she can finish before lunch. We generally make tea after dinner and talk (in French if I can manage it) about our days, politics, Swiss culture, and all sorts of things. For example, tonight we had crepes for dinner and watched a documentary on TV about the American healthcare system and its faults. It made for an interesting conversation as my knowledge of it is fairly limited. She likes to watch TV almost as much as she likes to talk (we’re watching ‘Dr. House’ as I type this) and will often stay up until 1 or 2 watching and just sleep on the couch. I don’t understand how she functions on so little sleep, but she manages and is probably the best host mom I could have asked for.

Tunde: Tunde is eight years old. He plays on the soccer team (he scored the winning goal last Saturday) and loves sports. He’s also an avid reader (mainly Asterix and Obelix, Tintin, and Tinteuf—all classics) and a big fan of dinosaurs and geography, especially flags. He’s been learning English as an extracurricular outside of school and is very curious about lots of things. He also very graciously corrected me when I babysat and tried to read him a bedtime story about Noah and his Ark. He likes vegetables, but not red fruits and will eat more than I ever thought an 8 year old could.

Deji: Deji is four. He just started at the “big school” this year. He also just started English and swimming lessons. He reminds me a lot of my little brother Isaac except that he whines more at dinner. Some of his more common phrases are: “a table” to call me to dinner, “mais maman, je n’aime pas” (but mommy, I don’t like it!), “Tunde arrête!” (Tunde STOP!), and “je suis trop fatigue pour manger ma soupe” (I’m too tired to eat my soup—we have this every day and he hates it and always ends up being force fed three spoonfuls before he can eat cheese, which is what he really wants). He has tiger pajamas and sometimes runs around with a cape on. He brings the living room pillows into my room as a sort of peace offering. A lot of the time, even his parents can’t understand what he’s saying, and he usually falls asleep on the couch underneath his Finding Nemo blanket after dinner and then has to be carried up to his bed.

Ça c’est ma famille Suisse. Je les aime bien et je suis très heureuse que je suis chez eux. La maison est très belle et a une grande vue de Lac Limon et Mont Blanc. Il y a aussi une piscine, mais il faisait trop froid de nager.

Take a Ride on My Picturesque Train, the little (one or two cars max), red La Cure-St. Cergue-Nyon line than criss-crosses the mountain down to the edge of Lac Limon (known in Geneva as Lake Geneva).

From my house in Arzier I walk (or run, as has been the case the past three mornings) approximately 7 minutes down the hill to the station. The view from the train station (‘gare’ on Français) is incredible. I have witnessed many beautiful sunrises while waiting for the train. It comes up over the mountains on the Northeast side of the lake. Geneva is at the close end of the Lake, and has a landmark (of sorts) called the “Jet D’eau” which is a tower of water 140 meters high and which can be seen from many miles away. I always get in the first car and because my stop is one of the first on the way down the mountain, I usually find a seat. Depending on which train I take (the 6:17 one is deserted, as is the 10:40…the 7:14 is packed with highschoolers and business people.

From Arzier, the train goes through a tunnel and along the side of the hill. Across the way I can see beautiful trees, which decided a couple of days ago to change colors. This morning it was cloudy and the top bit was covered in snow (yes, snow) so I couldn’t really see them very well. After going through a tunnel and various fields usually containing a few cats and/or some cows, we arrive in Bassins. The only interesting thing about this stop is that there is a pile of firewood on the side of the tracks that could easily last a house a year.

From Bassins, on continue a Le Muids (Forgive me for occasionally slipping into Franglais. It’s what I’ve been thinking in lately). Le Muids is cool because the town is actually on the next hill over and the church steeple dominates the scene. People have to walk a long way to get from the gare to their houses, past a house with fields full of sheep. It’s funny because the water for the sheep is kept in random bathtubs in the middle of the fields. Between Le Muids and the next stop, La Joy-Clinique, there are some houses that remind me of rural North Carolina, mostly because they have lots of broken down RVs in their backyards.

La Joy-Clinique is a tiny stop right next to an apartment block that looks like it belongs in on the Spanish coast or somewhere not on the side of a hill in Switzerland. They’re also building something right behind the stop that blocks my view of the lake and the mountains behind. I’m interested to see how soon the building’s done.

Sus-Chatel is even smaller than the last and the train only stops there when people are waiting to get on or someone on the train presses the button to get off.

Genolier is the “big town” between Arzier and Nyon. The track splits into two so we always wait here for the train going the opposite direction to pass by. Every morning a whole bunch of preschool kids (who speak English) get on the train wearing fluorescent yellow “I’m-unaccompanied-on-the-train” vests and waving at their parents until they can’t see them anymore. This is also the stop where most of the highschool kids get off (including a Swiss version of Willie Shain, who makes me really happy every morning that I see him just because he looks like him).

From Genolier, the train goes through Givrins and all the little kids are met by an adult wearing a bright orange “I’m-meeting-the-unaccompanied-kiddies-off-the-train” vest. I love this stop because on the other side of the tracks is a bonsai tree plantation. I kind of want to buy one.

By this point, the train is coming into the flatlands between the lake and mountain. It takes a long time to get to the next stop, Trelex, but passes through a forest with a creek that reminds me a lot of Montreat. Trelex has horses and sunflowers in the lakeside field. I always know when we get there because there are two donkeys that live on the right side just before the stop. My friend Radhika gets on this stop every morning (17 minutes after I leave Arzier), and if I’ve managed to save her a seat, shares the free daily newspaper with me.

From there, we train past some apple orchards and vineyards, stopping to pick up my friend Megan at L’Asse, the stop with the best name by far. There’s a little old lady who lives right by this stop and can be seen walking her dog and/or cat in the morning in her green rainboots and pink sweater. La Vuarpilliere and Les Plantaz are like Sus-Chatel, with service only when necessary. Shortly after passing them, the train arrives in Nyon, passing by a House covered in ivy with 5 sheep in the hard and a preschool with colorfully painted fences and then going underground to stop underneath the main train lines. From these depths, we emerge and usually meet up with other students on platform 1 to wait for the next train to Geneva.

There are many different things to be seen on/from said train depending on what time of day one rides it. Some of the more memorable are the chihuahua in a basket across from me, the girl with a rat on her shoulder, the drunk boy puking all over the floor one night (that was not so much fun), look alikes: Willie Shain, blonde Austin Bell, Lucy Trumbull, Jay McNair (this guy looked so much like him that I creepily took a picture on my phone. When I showed Jay on skype he thought it was him), Ashley Tisdale, Crutchy from Newsies, and probably a couple others that I've now forgotten.