Month of Juli, 2008

Fernweh… a word difficult to translate into English. Leo proposes “wanderlust” (as if that were English :-)) or “itchy feet”, but for me it’s more about dreaming, being a bit melancholic. That’s how I feel at the moment…

This weekend I travelled to rural Corgémont in the Jura, northwestern Switzerland. The reason for this trip: The scouting group of Boll-Stettlen’s annual summer camp. Walking towards the camping site, I could hear kids running around and see some tents shining through the trees. The team did quite an impressive job, building the largest tent out of 75 tarpaulins (square peaces of canvas, about 1.5m large). There was a game going on when I arrived. Children proudly told me they just traded a four-carat diamond against 80 units of gold, then run away with their treasures trying to avoid the robbers and complete their quest for resources…

Guess what?? was the subject of a mail that arrived about a month ago. Angie (from Mexico, but we met in Singapore) wrote me that she had been admitted for an internship in the Czech Republic. So she was doing her last preparations for a journey through Europe which would end near Prague and pass through… Switzerland! I almost couldn’t believe that we would see each other again so soon, but indeed it happend and we spent a nice weekend together.

One great thing about exchange years is that you get to know a lot of people from all over the world. Greater still if you can keep in touch. Some weeks ago I received a mail from Mei Kee. We had met at NTU because of her German course, and now she wrote me that she got into a summer study program in Stuttgart, Germany! From there it’s only a short distance to Zürich, so I had the honour to show this part of Switzerland to her and her friends…