My Inner Muse

This weekend I decided to get away to the French-speaking part of Switzerland, in Lausanne. It’s a beautiful and historic city on the banks of Lac Leman, also known as Lake Geneva - one of the largest freshwater lakes in Western Europe. And it is the official home of the Olympics.  Though I haven’t spoken French in a long while, I found it quite easy to read signs and menus as the Latin roots and linguistic structure is so familiar to me. In fact, when I went to the Museum of the Olympics, I could understand the French descriptions far easier than the Swiss-German ones! English is not recognized (yet) as an official language in the Switzerland due to some push back from the French and Italian-speaking minority Swiss who say the Swiss-Germans should prioritize learning French and Italian before English. That hasn’t stopped the Swiss-Germans from being damn good at English, too. I didn’t expect to enjoy the Olympic Museum as much as I did. I think I have become jaded by how massive, ...

I have arrived in Freiburg im Breisgau, a university town in the southern state of Bavaria, Germany, near the famed Black Forest. It is a very picturesque city about the size of Porto, Portugal (150K population) and what strikes me the most is it's wonderful infrastructure of trains, electric trams and buses, and the diversity and friendliness of its people. There are people of all backgrounds here, some second and third generation immigrants from the waves of the 60s and 70s and more recent transplants who have come as refugees or skilled workers. Plus the university population who have come to study in an old and respected university and the Bavarians themselves.   Freiburg is known as the greenest city in Germany, both for its fine weather and also its commitment to climate change measures. It has both an urban feel with many plazas and old buildings but also the feel of a vibrant, mixed-use walking / biking suburb with many parks and green spaces sprinkled throughout. I am...