October has felt like the longest month, for whatever reason. Work has been piling up and the weekends are just zooming by. I got to take a breather with a weekend trip to Basel , and also a small work trip to Verbier, a French-speaking village in the southwestern canton of Valais. It was not the easiest, trying to get there without a car. I took two trains, and then waited for over an hour at a small train station in the middle of nowhere for the next bus to town.
Something about this experience felt very American. All the customers at the kiosk I was waiting at appeared to be locals; people would pull up in their trucks, run in for a coffee to go, then pop back out again. There were a couple of dudes in denim overalls and baseball hats smoking and just hanging around. Also got to take a gondola lift for the first time in forever.
It was shoulder season, so nobody else was around. On the mountain, I realized it had been almost two years since I last touched snow. This is so funny, but I had no idea picnic was just pique-nique in French. First time seeing the sun set on Lake Geneva from the train⦠wow! My wake-up light for treating seasonal affective disorder came in. It is really hard to walk into a shop like this and not buy something, just because the products are so cute and diverse.
I got a water bottle to replace my previous one, which unfortunately gave out after only 10 months. This one has been great so far: lightweight, travels well, and keeps the water temperature super consistent. I also went to Globus, a famous high-end department store, just to see what a famous high-end department store is like. I saw fondue pots retailing for francs. At the end of September, I got the loveliest present in the mail β postcards from one of my favorite YouTube channels, Half-Asleep Chris.
He creates videos about interesting but obscure facts, the history of currency, travel, and pet projects like building castles for his cats. The postcards are perks from subscribing to his Patreon. I also started Indonesian classes over Zoom this month. I joked to my coworkers that I might have to start dressing younger and putting my hair in pigtails to fit in with my Fellow Kids.
