Integrationsförderung, und das Schwimmbad

Every day I become more and more impressed with Zürich.

Inspired by my friend Susannah, I signed up for a 20-week integration course, sponsored by the city of Zürich for its new female residents.  I hadn't intended to sign up for the course: the last session began before we came here, in November, and this session won't end until November, just when it's time to return to America.  But she showed me the course syllabus, which I thought found very intriguing, and the cost was so reasonable, at about $10 per class.  In addition, they offer child care, the cost of which works out to be about $3/hour.

So the course is subsidized, which is wonderful, but I find it amazing that this sort of thing exists at all. It's an incredible service for Zürich's new residents, and, this being such an international city, the need truly exists. Our teacher said that there were about 70 students in this particular session, from at least 40 different countries.

We all met this morning in a city-owned building in Zürich's Altstadt: all of the moms and their little ones, milling around with cups of coffee and croissants.  And eventually the teachers called us to order. There are eight of them and each, in a different language, introduced the child care providers and welcomed us to the class before we broke off into our separate rooms.  Joey gave me a happy wave and dashed off to the toys.  This might be worth it for the daycare, alone.

There are supposed to be 10 women in the English-speaking class, but, aside from Susannah and me, there is only other one native-English speaker.  There were several Asian women, and one woman from Israel. Our teacher, also Asian, immigrated to Switzerland thirty years ago and raised her children here. She seems spunky, funny, highly-opinionated, and very civic-minded, and I think I'm going to like her very much.

We spent most of the morning talking about her expectations for attendance (with a long discussion on punctuality, and a pointed lecture on how to navigate the public transportation system for the benefit of one woman who dared to be late, having taken the wrong tram. You're in Switzerland, now: you will be on time!)

Look! I get to go on field trips!

When the class was over and I went to pick Joey up, he was all smiles, meeting me at the door with a hug.  The child minders told me over and over, "He's a beautiful boy, beautiful, beautiful." Oh, I think I like those people very much!

Joey and I stumbled on a Starbucks that was having an celebration, so the lucky little boy got a free popcorn snack to take home. He was awfully cute on our walk, gobbling his popcorn and paging through some of Ella's books that he'd brought with him, importantly, in his own little satchel.

We got home just before the Ella and Alex. As always, Ella had too much homework, but she finished early enough that we could take advantage of the first hot day for a while: we took our first visit to the aquatic complex down the street.

When we got through the gate, before I let them go in the water, I asked the kids to please help me find a place to put all our things.  Ella, impatient to dive in, grinned at me "So, in other words, you want to look for a boring place so that you can sit and read your book."

Hey! I resemble that remark!

But I wasn't planning on reading today.  I wouldn't consider it in a million years, for there are no lifeguards at this complex. Not a one!  It's fine for today, because I'm a strong swimmer and the pool was almost empty, but I'm a little nervous about keeping close enough watch of my three when the weather becomes hotter and the water, more crowded.

There are actually three pools in the complex: the first is a very shallow baby pool with a terrific sun shade, a little slide, and some squirty toys.  We stayed there a long time, Alex, disappearing to the several surrounding playground structures with some friends from his kindergarten class.

But eventually the kids got impatient for deeper water, and we walked across the long fields, past the lap pool and diving well, through the landscaped pathways, to the third pool.

This one was zero-entry on one side, with water deep enough on the other end for it to be safe enough for the kids to slide down into the water.  But, oh, that water.  It was charted at 21 degrees Celsius, which, it turns out, isn't very warm at all.  Joey noticed those slides, so he and I went down together and took the plunge. Brr!

The pools were almost empty because almost everyone, including Ella, was in line for the waterslide.  Ella absolutely loved the slide but was must disturbed by everyone's etiquette: "Mom! Those kids weren't waiting for the stoplight to turn greet at all!"

And really, those kids weren't really kids, either: most of the people taking the water slide were older teenagers, and often Ella would emerge from the bottom of the slide with a chain of teens, some of whom were probably 17 or 18, right behind her.  "Mom," asked Ella, "Why am I so slow on the slide?
Do I have a particularly sticky bottom?" But she had a great time, and felt very important, braving the long, long slide with the very big kids.

Cold as the water was, Alex and Joey were chattering by 4:30, so we went home and devoured our dinner.  When I was cleaning up after dinner, it occurred to me that Joey was being awfully quiet: I found him fast asleep, face down on the rug, at only 6:15.  A long day for the little guy, but a good one!