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| The Size of Switzerland Compared to the US |
Three Swiss Kisses....
Let me explain the name of my blog. In 2014 after living in the Atlanta, GA area almost my whole life, I moved to a beautiful tiny little country (the picture shows teenie, tiny Switzerland as it compares to the huge US) that I knew very little about with my husband and three children. It was such a stunning country, even from the plane. The sunflower faces beckoned, swaying slightly in the wind between the mountains and the most beautiful almost ocean sized lake I have ever seen. It was a whole new life, just beginning. Half of my life has been lived at this point and it was both scary and lovely to start over in a whole new world. We will come back to that start over part, little did I even suspect.There were so many things that struck me in this breathtaking place. I could write pages and pages (and may well do so) about the contrast between the giant United States and little tiny Switzerland.
The Swiss people for the most part are a very private people and most do not appear open and friendly at the first meeting. It takes a while to get to know them. But for as private as they are, when you greet them, three kisses are given...alternating cheeks. What strikes me about it is how intimate the greeting is though it is not really meant to be. If you put your cheeks next to someone and touch their cheeks with your lips while they are alternating their lips on you, there is so much you can learn. Such a private people, lip, cheek, lip, cheek, lip cheek. Skin softness, peppermint gum, wine at lunch, lovely perfume, suncream smells. Closer than a handshake, face to face...
It is really one of my favourite things in the world now. All my life, introducing myself by putting out my head to shake someone else's now offering my cheek and they theirs...my world is certainly different now.
Of course the faire la bise is just really a symbol of how much my life has changed. Different country, different language (not learned yet). Completely different life. The main reason I moved here was to give my three children a different life with a real world view. We were a pretty typical middle class family in a nice house in a nice neighborhood with nice cars and a life routine that we all seem to fall into. As much as I loved Atlanta for so many years, I had fallen way, way way out of love with it. My children could not walk by themselves to our park in the middle of a neighborhood 3 blocks away. We were so used to hearing sirens, ambulances and police cars that when we no longer heard them here (it is very, very rare) we felt like something was wrong. My oldest son's school had a metal detector when he was just 12 years old. I discovered that my daughter was dyslexic and was told the state of Georgia did not even recognise the term. We spent our weekends in the car, driving this child here and that child there. They were not around people who spoke other languages or who had diverse cultures and beliefs. Atlanta was no longer our lover and we had to leave her behind.
I did want to move for myself, I will have to say. But the driving force was to follow my husband, a man I loved dearly for an incredible opportunity. And my children were at the center of every decision that was made. An opportunity, a better life, a window to the world, a switch from all that we had known and knew.And it was so difficult, and so many really hard and complicated things happened. His company paid for our move, helped us find a place to live and then cut the apron strings. We were on our own. My husband was at a new awesome job, the kids were in a new incredible school and made friends from the first day. I went from being a business owner to a housewife in a brand new place where I did not speak the language and knew no one. All of this, so much more difficult than I ever in a million years anticipated.
And on top of all of that, something was wrong. I could not quite put my finger on what it was. There was so much life turmoil, but I knew there was also something underneath, like a stream under the ground that cannot be seen, wearing away at the ground. Just a feeling, just a something, little tiny flashes and something in the back of my head. Almost like a ground level cloud that you know blurs the vision, but you cannot see the shape because you are in the middle of it.....What I did not know was the hand to cheek switch was actually the other way around...
xxx
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