Lausanne

Well, I have been here for a while again (about a month), and I am feeling comfortable again. Finally my experiments are going well, and for that alone I am happy. The weather has also improved so that I can wear my shorts again. For the first last weeks of May, it was pretty cold and wet.

Veerle was here last weekend. We had a great time exploring the wine country east of Lausanne. You would have loved it for sure. The landscape was spectacular...lake, mountains, and fields of grapes. We stopped in several little villages for eating and drinking. Veerle got a bit of a tan, and so did I.

While I am here in Lausanne, I hear an awful lot of French. I had this as a course in high school for almost two years, and surprisingly, the sound is still familiar to my ears. However, my vocabulary is much smaller than in Dutch, so I am far from speaking yet. Still, it's nice to understand things every once in a while. If Veerle and I get to move here for a few years, I am confident I'll be speaking in the first year.

Still, I miss my girl and my dogs. I miss the city itself. Amsterdam is great, always alive with activity. Lausanne is not, and for many things this is great. Walking in the evening can feel like a zen activity. The lake can be so silent and still that you can be fooled into thinking about the image as a painting. And the people are friendly in the same way they are in Cadott. That cannot be underestimated.

I hope at some point you get to read this stuff!