My ankle is improving slowly and isn't interfering too much with things I want/need to do. I have to be careful during the dance portions of our training but it certainly enjoyed a soak in the glacial waters of this mountain stream. It was so cold!! We went on an "educational excursion" to a mountain meadow to commune with nature and write about a specific experience as well seek an answer to a question that had been rolling around in our heads. It was a glorious day - warm sun, no bugs and cool green grass to sit in. Yeah....that's what education should look like! Did I get an answer to my question? Yup.

So, the next week contains another set of lectures, discourses and an exam, so not much time for blogging. Just putting one foot in front of the other until that diploma is in my hand and I'm sipping some Italian wine with my cohorts!

So far school has been thick and sometimes creamy, sometimes muddy and sometimes just downright exhausting. My thesis sits on the table in the company of all the other tomes extolling the virtues of Expressive Arts Therapy. We've had lectures, shared presentations, laughs and learning. Last night we celebrated the end of the thesis defense week with a party - lots of nibblies, wine and good conversation. No wonder some folks like to become professional students!

The first exam has come and gone with a passing grade, the thesis has been successfully presented, defended and well-received. One more exam to go then its time to go to Italy for our graduation celebration.

Ten days in

Wow...can't believe I've been here two weeks today. The experiences continue to come fast and furious, both from the outside and the inside. One of the most enjoyable is the ability to just go up into the mountains and walk, paint, hang out with the rocks and just breathe. No pressures, nobody in my face, lots of space. That has happened once since my arrival when we had a part day off and I ventured up to Hanneg on the gondola.

The view was spectacular! The trail was very narrow and made my head swim a bit since it was perched on the incline of a very high slope. I've never been prone to vertigo but I now have a little sense of what that feels like. I got to sit and paint the first entry in my new image journal, build a funky hobbit-type structure of rock in a crevice of a large stone outcropping and have a near-god experience. It was a fabulous day.

The alpine spring flowers are low growing (except for the lupines) so I'm very careful not to trod on them as wander the woods. They are so bright! The pink ones are like azaleas but the Swiss have another name for them that I have yet to learn. They make me happy just looking at them!

One of the most wonderful differences about being here in June instead of July is the bird song! They just sing their little hearts out all day with the most clear and melodious tunes. I don't know the names of any of them but love to listen all the same.

Obviously these aren't two of them, but awesome metal and wood sculptures that grace the public areas of the town

The Masters Year at EGS, June/July 2011

It's a different girl that arrived in Saas Fee on June 9, 2011 than the one who arrived starry-eyed and awestruck in 2007. A tour of duty in a lovely location is still a tour of duty. One would think that with the thesis finished, printed and ready for defense I would be dancing on air. And parts of me are. The other parts are dragging a damaged ankle that stops me from joining in the dance and a psyche worn out from so much "thought" and process.

Everything here looks the same - familiar. The school, the hotel, the chalets, the little town. I know where I am and how to get where I need to go. But the mountains change from minute to minute, depending on the light and atmospheric conditions. That is the most exciting thing!

I decided to roam the town with fresh eyes and see what I could find that I hadn't already encountered. That's where the "troupe of locals" photography on FaceBook came from.

I settled into my room then went walking, gingerly at first to see how the ankle would hold out. Most of the shops and attractions in town are closed as their tourist season doesn't open until late June. Makes it easy to not spend money!

Also encourages ambling and resting. On one of my walks I found the site of a wee bonfire and the charcoal that was left seemed perfect for sketching. I didn't have anything to put the messy stuff in, however. I decided to approach some folks who were photographing the marmots nearby and discovered that my French was adequate enough to ask for a napkin to put the pieces in and have a little conversation as well. It is such a benefit to speak (if even badly) a second language!

The second day I went up into the woods and discovered something called a "barefoot path". It is a short trail with a variety of textures to walk over barefoot, beginning with wood chips, then small gravel followed by larger gravel, then rounded rock set into cement and ending with a glacier water-filled pool to walk in. Quite an experience! Oh, and there was also a couple of "arm baths" - troughs filled with running glacial water that you soak your forearm in for 30-60 seconds to encourage circulation, relieve headaches and all kinds of malady. I could only do the 30 seconds as the water was numbing!

Going further into the wooded trail which was flanked by a type of aqueduct, I was treated to spring blossoms that I didn't see last time since it was later in the summer when I was here then. They seemed so delicate and vivid. And the green.....everywhere the green. And the stone....everywhere the stone and rock and rushing water. Who wants to go to school when there's this to study???