MSP… yeah you know me…

Well the Swiss chapter now beginneth! I’m sure a lot of you were wondering what the hell I was quitting anaesthetics and the NHS for the summer months for… well answers couldn’t really be given at the time because I didn’t really know at the time either! I just wanted to spend more time with Kristin over the summer months, experience some sun (which I wouldn’t have done had I stayed home this summer in retrospect!!!) and be outdoors. Kristin assured me of these and that was it!

Staying in Kristin’s flat was difficult as I’m sure you can see by the view she had…


The American School in Switzerland has a particularly Italian feel due to the fact Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland – Ticino.

The first week at the school had many ‘getting to know you’ exercises with all the staff who were to run the ‘Middle School Program’ (MSP). It was the people I met in this week that were to make my summer, some of whom I had met briefly for an hour or two on previous visits to see Kristin.








Around 100 kids aged between 11-13 were to come and enjoy 4 weeks at the school. These kids were from well-off backgrounds from Saudi to Spain, Egypt to Nigeria, Russia to Venezuela. They were here to learn either English or French. Staff were either teachers (like Kristin) – or counsellors (me!). Now I’m not saying that these kids didn’t need person-centred counselling to deal with the wealth, neglect & behaviour problems they had been developing since birth… but that was not what I was to end up doing.

A short lesson of first aid, CPR & seizures was to end my medical intervention capabilities in Lugano as there were several nurses there to do just that! No I was to revert to the age of 13 myself where I was a dorm supervisor and corraller of seemingly deaf children. I had a bed in a room of 3 other counsellors but I only really stayed there when I was on overnight duty. The rest of the time I spent at Kristin’s place, a short walk uphill.

Days mostly started in the best possible way… sleeping until 11am. Then there was a meeting to go over what was expected of us that day then… lunch! Passable food on the whole. You really knew you were eating the food groups on your plate! Carbs, veg, meat and fat. But even the dining room had an awesome view...



Afternoons were spent preparing for activities: sports, biking trips, football etc. and then doing them. I was introduced to many new sports which we just don’t play in Scotland!!! Lacrosse, volleyball, dodgeball, water-balloon catapulting, egg-dropping, boat-making, boat-sinking… and many more!

My main trips were to go mountain-biking twice a week but after one kid fractured my metatarsal playing football on day 2 I had to sit out a few days!!! The biking was simply fantastic. Signage was absolutely terrible though and if I was to live there a GPS bike system would most definitely have to be purchased. Some amazing technical rides spliced with some deadly downhill. Luckily no damage was done to anyone!



The kids were great… and the group working together – even better. I’m not saying some kids weren’t a nightmare… but after some time shaping and punishing these little shites… they began to grow on us! So much so that at the end of the program when I told everyone I had made an iMovie of everyone’s movie clips from the session… and it was 2 hours long… (No way! Noone will watch that!) …when we started watching it… I think everyone wanted to watch the whole thing! What a laugh is all I can say!

It will take some time to process the 35GB original movie down to 10 minute YouTube videos… but it will get done eventually!

Correction... it took a hell of a long time to do but it's mostly done now. My favourite would have to be Jackson-time with Juri! One day he'll find himself on YouTube!!! Soon you'll all have your DVD and hopefully enjoy watching it sometime!