but what are YOU going to do there??

o work or not to work. this is a question that has puzzled me for months. ever since Howie was accepted to IMD I knew that I would come along for the chance to live in Switzerland for the year and to help him through school. and every time we told anyone we were moving, they would ask, "so alison, what are YOU going to do there??" as if cleaning, grocery shopping, laundry, cooking, paying bills, etc. was not enough to keep me busy. (its really not...) I had so many ideas but I really didn't know what to do- get an internship? do an architecture competition? independent research project??


one night during dinner at the Markowitz household, sometime in December, I got to hear three different versions of what my family members were telling everyone that I'd be doing in Lausanne. I don't remember the details, but what I do know is that my plan was to "figure it out when I get there." 


well, I'm here now and I still haven't figured it out. I posted earlier about the partner group as both a huge emotional support and means to keep busy and active, but also it is lacking some of the mental stimulation of school or a job. I am now afraid that I will lose touch with the architecture world if I don't make an effort to get involved in some sort of work or project. I also have decreasing motivation as I continue to be lost in the decision process, the guilt of taking more "time off" and not knowing where to start. 


yesterday, after returning home from an unproductive french class (following an unproductive day,) i sat down to sort through everything i want to do this year in the hopes of making a plan and focusing on some specific goals. even that was discouraging- i ended up with a list of "things i like to do." ha. luckily my husband is waaay better at all of this, and he happened to be home studying and offered me some help. he talked me through organizing my "things i like to do" into three categories: career, hobbies & personal development. I now have some short term goals for each (~3 months out) and lists of things for each that tell me both why I should do it and what problems can I avoid by doing it. 


I'm not going into the nitty gritty of my new goals (mostly because my parents would surely be emailing me every day to check in on my progress) but I have decided a few things that will help me to be more productive and cheery in the coming weeks:

1. I am not going to continue French classes for now- I realized that this afternoon commitment was breaking up my days and making it difficult to do anything else during the daytime. Also, not that beneficial as my speaking has not caught up with my grammar skills. Will practice on my own instead. (And save $$!)

2. I will continue to search for jobs. I found out that I can actually legally work (and be paid!) so why not pursue it? Just applied for an architecture position in Lausanne... we'll see.

3. Until I find a job, I will divide my time into those three categories: career, hobbies & personal development. Might as well take the opportunity to both have fun and to say that I accomplished something this year.

this blog has become a great way for me to tell all of you both about the great times I'm having in Lausanne, but also the tough times as well. if anything, I will have learned something about myself- even if none of you made it this far it still feels great to have written and posted. I hope you all enjoy the ride of this crazy year with me!

working on one of my goals: cooking
lots of new dishes. (crepes!)