Merci Beaucoup!

We want to thank the many people who made it possible for us to have this wonderful adventure.

Primacy of place has to go to Duke University, whose generous sabbatical policy made it possible for Mark to take this time away.  It wasn't time away from work (he likes to say), but it was time away from the work obligations that require being on campus.

When we started thinking about this trip, we thought we needed housesitters willing to take care of our pets.  But then we realized that what we really needed were petsitters willing to live in our house.  And we were very lucky to connect with Kate Bowler and Toban Penner, who lived in our house, took care of our pets, forwarded important mail, and generally made us confident that all would be well when we returned home.  And their dog, Huey, became good pals with Rita and Mona, and even made peace with our cat, Sadie.

Toban

Kate

Huey

Shawna Anderson, Mark's Research Associate and Project Manager at Duke, made sure that two of Mark's major research projects moved smoothly along while he was away.  It would not have been possible to be away this long were it not for Shawna's super competent work back at the office.

Shawna

Kathy George, our long-time nanny and friend, took care of our house and pets when Kate and Toban were away, got us to and from the airport on both ends of our trip, and even put up and decorated a Christmas tree in our house so we'd have holiday cheer when we returned home!

Kathy

Joerg Stolz, Mark's colleague, collaborator, and friend at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), made it possible for Mark to have a position at UNIL, and he helped with many logistical details.  More fundamentally, Joerg designed and implemented the Swiss National Congregations Study, which led to Mark's first visit to Lausanne in December, 2009.  Without Joerg's initiative on that project, this adventure would not have happened.

Mark and Joerg

Olga Borrajo Rouyer (photo not available), secretary of the Institut de Sciences Sociales des Religions Contemporaines Observatoire des Religions en Suisse, helped with many logistics, both before and after we arrived.

We loved our Lausanne apartment, and we feel very luck to have found it.  Catherine Malek, our Lausanne landlady, who lived below us, was wonderful in every way.  She encouraged Christopher and Matthew to play in the building's yard, shared vegetables from her garden, and provided all sorts of helpful information along the way.  She and her husband, Nabil, became friends, and even invited us to join their family for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner.

Catherine and Ami

We also were very lucky to find the Ecole Bilingue de la Suisse Romand.  Its Director, Tina Rosseler, welcomed our children into her small school, even though we'd only be there half a year, and as a result Christopher and Matthew had an excellent semester of bilingual education, learning French while at the same time studying math and language arts in English -- a perfect combination for our situation.

Christopher and Matthew with Tina

There also were some objects that enhanced our experience in significant ways.

Our GPS made it easy to find our way around when exploring Switzerland's highways and byways by car.

Our Vonage internet telephone enabled us to make calls to and from the U.S. without paying international long distance rates.  It made my work, a lot of which involves conference calls and telephone interviews, a lot easier to accomplish from overseas, and in a way that was effortless for my clients.

Our French-English Dictionary, which I carried everywhere and used every single day, was indispensable.

This is not an exhaustive list of the people and institutions who we should thank for making these last few months so special.  We haven't mentioned the wonderful teachers at the Ecole Bilingue, the Lilly Endowment grant that supported Mark's sabbatical, the Dean who approved Joerg's proposal for Mark's UNIL appointment, our Durham neighbors who helped keep an eye on our house, and the many Lausanne people who tolerated our less than perfect French.

In any event, we wanted to end this blog by recognizing that we did not produce on our own the adventure it chronicles.  Everyone who helped along the way will, at some level, be in our minds and hearts every time we respond to the question, "So how was it to live in Switzerland?"

Thank you.