MissDTravels

I finally had my first fondue. On a Friday. And it was fabulous. And fun.   Ok, enough with the alliteration. :) Here's how it occurred. Everyone here talks about "Getting Off the Mountain" in very serious hushed tones. Well seasoned teachers will pull you aside in the hallway, give you words of encouragement about surviving the year and then whisper, "Seriously, Kelly, you need to get off the mountain whenever you can. Just get off the mountain." Every time someone does this it reminds of "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil."  It's like some secret Voodoo ritual thing that no one likes to talk about out loud. Or it's just that we live in a really small village in the Alps with only one road in and one road out and it is very easy to feel trapped up in the "bubble" that is Leysin. Actually, LAS is kind of a bubble inside that bubble. And, because I live in the main campus building which I also teach in and

Today marks 4 weeks since my arrival in Leysin and on Monday, it will be a full month since touch down. Time has really flown by and I think I've finally settled into a rhythm but there are constant ups and downs and new things to learn. It isn't easy, but I'm growing and learning every day and I love it! I remember walking down to the local grocery store on my second day in Leysin. I was grinning from ear to ear - anxious to try a bit of French, look at the local items, and make my first purchase with the crisp and colorful Francs in my pocket. And then I got there, and I felt like every bit of background knowledge I had on what was what and how to get it went immediately out of my head. Why had I come to store? What was the word for "milk" again? How do I say "thank you" in French? I panicked. Literally. I stood in the chocolate aisle (a great place to hang out, I think), took a few calming breaths and thought, "this will get easier and