Snowshoeing Up Up and Away

I took the Duke of Edinburgh Award kids on one of their expeditions up into the mountains around Schrattenflue. We stopped to eat out lunch on the hike up and thought, "the rest of this will take us three days." We started in this peaceful chalet village, applying sunscreen, and by the end of the day I was under attack of icy winds and my zippers were frozen shut. I had to suck my coat open!

As you can see, when we arrived we had another task. Digging it out.

Melting snow for water once we reached our shed, I mean hut.

Go West, life is peaceful there. Go West, in the open air.

What's New

Though it is bittersweet because my picture is no longer on the homepage, Zurich International School just launched a new website. Well ok, fine, it never was on the homepage, so then, we can deduce to say, that our new website is... sweet. http://www.zis.ch/

Deep Cove

I love Deep Cove! Each time I visit it seems to become more beautiful. Without conscious intention, a Honey's doughnut has become a traditional must-have. Can you blame me?

Back in BC - Sun Peaks

Snowmobiling is even more fun than I expected. Especially in a fresh winter wonderland like this. I think this could replace directing musicals as my winter sport... hmm.

Elves to the Rescue!

We went for the vision of being 'Santa's Elves', to once creating our costumes, looking more like 'Super Elves', there to save Christmas, and, when displaced into Swiss traditions by the race spectators, unwillingly became a pack of 'Schmutzlis'. According to Swiss traditions, Schmutzli's are Santa's alter ego; always there to instill fear in children to be good.

We weren't scary! Just glittery!

You would think this is a finish line picture but no, this is just how we ran... the whole way. Ahhh!!!! We're elves look at us! We look so cheery! How could we be schmutzli's?!

Lamborghini park job

Who... parks that close? Parking is tight in Zurich but seriously. I'm just saying.

ZIS Christmas party!

As time goes on, we are getting better and better at posing in the twins shots and worse at taking them. The picture on the right is this years Christmas party and the one on the left is last years. Love ya sista!

Is sleeping over at school scary?

It is if you turn out all the lights in the corridors and play flashlight tag; and extra if one of your teachers plays 'the demon' and just scares people in corners.

When the fall play, The Fabulous Fable Factory, came to an end, we had a slumber party in the theatre to celebrate. S o f u n . If anyone ever said it is more fun to dance at a club then with a bunch of twelve year olds... they may need to reassess.

Bosphorus Boat Cruise

I steered a ship on the Bosphorus! And... most importantly, I met new people; educators from Europe and the Middle East, while eating yummy Turkish food, on a boat, on the Bosphorus... while meeting new people....

Istanbul, Turkey - There I went!

I was lucky enough to be sent by my school to the ASCD (Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development) Middle East conference. So in the zwischentime between conference sessions and days, I got the chance to get a small taste of the city and its culture.

It felt so alive there, with people out and restaurants open all day and well into the night. The traffic wins the Alysha Award for the scariest she has ever experienced. busses drive like they are Mini's and if there were Mini's than I guess they would drive like bumper cars. Amazing!

Everyone seemed so friendly. I walked into a shop and asked if they had the CD for a Turkish artist I had heard in a taxi and they didn't, on sale, but the clerk ran home and burned me a copy of his own for free! Then, I went into a restaurant to order a kebab to go and while I was sitting there, chatting with a waiter, I commented on the charm of the table lamp. It was made of beads and a candle went under the shade. The waiter came back with my kebab, an extra bag and some newspaper. He wrapped up the lamp and gave it to me. Right off the table!

Buckle down, get out the boots

How did this happen?
My sandels are still sitting by the door.
My t-shirts and tank tops are still forefront in my closet.
I have berries in my freezer for frozen drinks.
Where are my mucklucks?
What about my hot water bottle...
and soup!
mmmm.... soup.

Hallo-what?

When we showed up at Paddy O'Reilly's, I think they must have thought that we were celebrities... VIP's. All dressed up so fancy and all. That would explain why they made us wait outside for awhile. You know, so they could prepare the bar and the other patrons for our arrival, and arrange a spot for us. Where was that spot anyways? What happened to Devon and Ugly Betty, aren't those sunglasses?

On the international scene though, my advisory definitely rocked the Door Decorating Contest. Woot woot! Made with mostly recycled materials, I now have a alternative solution for those students whose dogs eat their homework. The Guillotine!

These decorations were up during Family Conferences and one father walked in and said,

"Hey... those are my Armani jeans!"

Oops... we just sewed them to the door.

Zurich Tennis Open

An ace, a deuce, a match, a game, matchpoint and points in a game. I learned about tennis from Charlie and Venus! A perfect example of something I didn't know that there was so much that I didn't know about it. I am almost inspired to grab a racket!

Lugano - Another Sweet October Break

I just couldn't choose between these pictures. Perpetual pondering has left me with no choice but post them all, or fall ridiculously behind on my posts. It is a traffic jam!

Lugano, its steep mountains, ornate architecture and people who put a good nights sleep in an espresso sandwich. Lugano is a place that I could live. Yep. No problem.

River Kayaking Extravaganza

We drove out towards Chur on a foggy, rainy fall morning for a two day course. After an intensive lesson we stayed up out of the gorge in this quaint village, with this little church and this skiny cow.

The kayaking was more technically challenging that I had anticipated and actually quite scary around tight river bends; this deriving from my fear of rolling and being stuck in the kayak. Well, as one might expect, that never happened.

Kerenzerberg Grade 6 Trip

The rain held out for us on another school trip to Kerenzerberg. Though the hikes were gorgeous, the highlight was, of course, Storm The Castle, a dodgeball alternative with few to no rules and a lot of gymnasium equipment (read: anarchy). My favourite part was the campfire. I returned to my Girl Guide days singing legendary repeat-after-me songs and, yes, On Top of Spagetti. I loved it!