There are certain stages in life when you realize that the place you are living in is the most beautiful place. You then want to spend all your time exploring this town and the country.

Last evening we drove up the curving hills in Stephan “Truku Truk" Monterde's car to a restaurant with the beautiful view from Vevey to Geneva. Stephan (Swiss/Spanish), the local guy, knows all the places in the area. As we climbed the winding roads through the vineyards, he showed us a house where one of his school friends stayed as a child. The beautiful scenery of the blue lake against the orange and yellow wine leaves captured my mind. As the setting sun at the horizon of the lake changed colours, a desire was born in my mind – it would be great to stay on in this location and find a job here – this desire lasted until I remembered that this is how I feel about a lot of places in Switzerland.

Many of my classmates are scattering this free weekend to explore different parts of Switzerland. Lili (American) is off to Zurich now, Rahul (Indian) and his family are off to Interlaken, Munish (Indian) is wondering which part of Switzerland he wants to take his father to, tomorrow Eric (French)  and Stephanus (South African) will cross the border to Evian to play golf. Maria (Spanish) and I thought of a trip to Milan to shop for a dress for the graduation ball but my weekend husband will be here. He has to work tomorrow – this makes me wonder about the work-life balance of one of my target companies. So maybe I should curl up in front of the lake with the reading for Introduction to Advanced Group Dynamics.

Paru

A final ICP group picture: Stephan Monterde (2nd from left to right) takes us to one of his secret retreats in the Lausanne area... it's all enjoying the good things in life, right Steph?