The Road Less Traveled: Lugano, Switzerland

Getting an international teaching job is a crazy process, especially at a job fair. You are thrown into a conference room with 100+ schools and 500+ teachers wanting the same job as yourself. So, for three days at a job fair in Boston last February I stood in long lines and waited for the opportunity to sell myself in two minutes to the director, who then decided if I was qualified enough to get an interview. Well, as luck would have it, while standing in the line for The American School of Madrid, I started talking to Carol, who was in front of me in line. Most people don't talk to each other because we are all competing for the same jobs but this was a long line and we both knew we'd be there for quite some time. We did the usual "where are you from," "what do you teach" introduction. But as we started to talk a bit more we realized that we had a very strange connection: Carol's teaching partner at St. George's School in Spokane, WA is my mom's best friend of 30 years! Crazy how worlds collide sometimes. Once I found that out, I knew I'd see Carol again. A day later I accepted a job in Madrid and Carol accepted a job in Lugano, Switzerland at TASIS.

Carol met up with Dana and I in January to ski for a day in Zermatt and we stayed with her in Lugano for the evening. But Lugano is such a gorgeous Swiss city I knew I needed to go back, so over a long weekend in March, three friends and I visited Carol and explored her amazing little town.

Lugano is the biggest city in Ticino, the Italian-speaking part of Switerland and is 5 miles from the Italian border. It lies on Lake Lugano and is surrounded by mountains, one of which, Monte San Salvatore, we climbed. The view from the summit is stunning with lakes and mountains as far as the eye can see. We visited Carol at school, became regulars at the local watering hole, and had many laughs. Thanks for your wonderful hospitality!

(click on the photo below to view the album)