Switzerland, where even leisure is stress
How I learned to hate the manic month of June.
The days get longer, and warmer. The gardens become lush; it is an invitation to stop and smell the blooming roses. But it is also the month before Summer Vacation and everyone and everything is trying to do one more (whatever) before everything stops for a month.
Parents often complain about the end of the school year rush. This seems to be a global affliction. Special activities, concerts, exams, field trips, you name it and it happens in the final weeks of school.
Here, add to that: Town assemblies (because we have to vote on the funding for the sewer works before Everyone Leaves For The Summer), sporting events, concerts, festivals (of which every village has one, either on the weekends in June or in August; if unlucky, both). Food festivals, music festivals.
And at work, there are a gagazillion things to accomplish before Everyone Leaves For The Summer. No Swiss office or shop is fully-staffed in July. Many small businesses close up entirely. The entire world makes jokes about France in August (fermé, congés annuals) or Italy and ferragosto.
In Switzerland, we go back to school in August. This is how much fun no one is having.
Back to school means that all adult activities also start up, because. Sport training? Tick. Orchestra practice? Every Tuesday evening. Choir? Thursdays.
Before I became a parent, I gladly ceded holiday time to the parents and stayed in the office all summer. Mostly because it was the only time of year when I worked anything near the number of contracted hours. (sometimes even less, shhh….) July was a great time to whittle away at the overtime piled up as “flex time” that no one ever took. Long midday breaks to swim in the lake– who cares about styling, there are no meetings anyway. Leaving at 5 (!!) for drinks in the sun. The bonus was taking holiday in September, when mediterranean beaches are still warm and nothing is crowded. And everything cost less because off-season.
While the Boy was a tot, we still enjoyed Tunesia in September or Portugal in October, but then the school years started and we were bound to the same schedule as everyone else. Worse yet, we became integrated. By joining sports or cultural associations, we adults chained ourselves to the infernal school calendar for ever.
Because I grew up in the midwestern US, it is still anathema to me to require school attendance in June, July, or August. I no longer know exactly when Memorial Day in the US falls, but past the end of May it just seems wrong to be carrying on in school and work as if it’s still midwinter. The longest day of the year should not be spent in an office, or a classroom.
Now that global warming has caught up with Switzerland (see Blatten1), this makes even less sense. The second week of June, temperatures climbed above 30 C (86+ F) and have stubbornly stayed there. I played an orchestral concert2 in a non air-conditioned venue last week. Today we hit 35 degrees (95 F) and the federal natural hazard bulletin advises against outdoor activity, such as walking to the grocery.
According to the Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, “After a heat period, you should take extra care of yourself and try not to achieve top athletic performances. The body needs time to readjust.”
On Saturday is the end-of-season championship at my fencing club. I am wondering if this might be called on account of weather.
Where the glacier melted and the mountain slid down to bury a village last month.
Concert dress: black! And stage lighting!