Geneva Visit: Day 7 of 7

Well, today was our last here!  We're so blessed to have had this experience.  We had a great week and hopefully our flight won't be delayed or canceled tomorrow morning.  So excited about Christmas and getting to see family and friends!  :) 



Today we finished up some shopping and tackled the tram/bus system.  I think we've got it down now... although the map of the city's public transit system is a hot mess.  We will probably get a car once we move, but we want to wait a few months to see if we even need one.  The parking situation is sort of like NYC.  People apparently will spend forty-five minutes looking for a parking place.  That doesn't sound fun.  We basically want it for weekends when we plan on travelling a lot... with the pooches as much as possible. :)  I miss them so much, but we have the best dog sitter ever!  Thanks Lauren!  :) 



 

 

 

 

 
  



Macaroons... delicious



Chocolate shop



 
  

    


We took the 'V' bus to the outskirts of Geneva where it's a little more rural.  We are thinking we want to try and live a little bit out of the city.  You can get more for your money and there are more parks and grass... for the boys.  We'll see.  Once we got out of town a little the views were absolutely beautiful.  We didn't get a chance to go skiing this week, but we did get to see the Alps.  It was pretty clear today so we finally saw what everone has been talking about... white mountains all around.  We can't wait to go skiing when we move.  I'm sure it's a little bit different than Flagstaff, Paoli, and Perfect North.  We also saw several schools... a couple were international, which is where I'll try to get a teaching position.

After we returned to town, we decided to check out another part of the city we could live in... Carouge.   It was adorable!  There are a ton of little bakeries and chocolate shops.  :)  My mom has a slight addiction to both, so she would love it! 

haha.  We did have to change trains at one point, which turned out to be tricky.  We got off one train and had to catch the '13' back to our hotel.  We waited and waited... and waited.  Apparently there was a secret hangout for the train behind some bushes.  We didn't see it until it literally pulled away.  Awesome!  We were able to spend some quality time together at the train stop in the freezing cold temperatures.  Eventually we made it back and immediately hit up the sauna and steam room to thaw out.

We just got done packing and luckily everything fits!  Despite the surrounding countries being under a ton of snow, I don't think we'll have any problems with the flight.  Geneva only got about four inches of snow and the main streets are fairly clear.  Just praying for a safe flight!  :) 

We will definitely keep up the blog, but probably not daily.  We're pretty boring, so we'll just post the exciting stuff.  Haha.  We found out that March 1 will be our official moving day. 

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!!!!  Can't believe it's 2011.

P.S. Sorry for the blog last night.  I hope you didn't fall asleep while reading it.  Adam tried so hard.  Hahaha... just kidding, he did good.  I needed to give him a hard time since this was his idea in the first place and he wasn't participating.  Also, I only slept really late one day... don't believe him.  :) 

There are PALM TREES!!!!  Can't
wait to see how nice Summer is





Overlooking Geneva







Cute winery



In Lausanne

 

The hills are covered with vineyards
everywhere... :) love wine

Geneva Visit: Day 6 of 7

The title of this blog is inaccurate considering we spent the day in various other Suisse cities.  I'm so Swiss now that I spell "Suisse" like the Swiss.  Anyway, this is Adam, and I am writing the blog after complaints that I was not involved enough, and after a challenge by Ashley that I could not be as funny.  Today I woke Ashley up early (at 10:30AM Geneva time - she sometimes sleeps until 2:30PM - sorry Ash), to offer her a trip to Lausanne (same place we went last night) via my new boss' car ride.  We made it to Lausanne without any hiccups besides some normal Geneva traffic, which is why we will probably be living on the north side of town.  Because I had a business meeting with my new boss' boss (An English-Suisse dual citizen), we dropped Ashley off to shop (which is always scary).  There was snow all over Switzerland today, which apparently is unusual, so I had to avoid several falls on the hilly sidewalks of Lausanne.  My lunch meeting went well, and then I met Ashley, who was toting a 3+ years French vocabulary book that was way too complex for the both of us.  It has a soft cover, which is how we knew it was for babies.  Anyway, we learned how to say "triplets" and the 5 senses in French.

We then bought another train ticket and traveled east alongside the lake to Montreaux.  On the way we saw an awesome and historic landscape covered with vineyards.  We were informed that there was some kind of Christmas festival going on in Montreaux, which included outlet shopping (which is even more scary).  The way to Montreaux was beautiful, as you can see from the photos.  My personal favorite was the statue of Freddie Mercury (Queen lead singer, who apparently spent a lot of time in Montreaux).  We considered buying a bunch of souveneirs, but decided that we could buy stuffed st. bernard's and plastic swiss army knives cheaper at wal-mart. 

We ended the day/night by taking the hour-plus train ride back to Geneve (note the French spelling of Geneva, pronounced Djuh-nev), and then snacking on left-overs from the Carribean Italian restaurant a couple nights ago.  We drank some "vin" and ate some grapes (just in case there was any wine left in those), and we read our "Living and Working in Switzerland" book to plan our day tomorrow.  We are either going to an art museum recognizing St. Peter or to the UN for a tour or to a chocolat factory tour.



Palm Trees, candy, and it's freezing!!!

 

Geneva Visit: Day 5 of 7

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Eaux-Vives



Eau-Vives Park

Bonjour!  Today was amazing!  Adam had to work this morning for a while, so I went out and caught a bus to Eaux-Vives (part of town/park).  I caught the 6 bus and rode it until the end of it's route, when the bus driver took a smoke break.  I'm assuming he was just killing time waiting to start the route again rather than wasting everyone's time smoking.  Anyway, I got out at one of the stops and took some pictures of the park and the lake.  It was beautiful.  The grass is still really green out here even though it's winter.  :)  After the little picture break, I waited for the bus to come again and got back on... so did a girl and her dog.  The bus driver saw the dog and didn't say anything, so I'm hoping 'le chiens' are allowed.  Jackson and Rocco would probably cause the bus to wreck somehow, but it's nice to know we can ride with them?  Maybe?  Anyway, I got off once we were back into town and went to the grocery again for some more snacks for the room.  We threw away the stinky cheese because everytime we open the fridge someone was blamed for a smell they didn't create.  I bought some Swiss cheese this time (with the holes), lots of chocolate, random wines, and grapes from Brazil.  I'm not sure why they have grapes imported from Brazil.  Switzerland makes a TON of wine we learned, but doesn't export any of it... they just drink all of it.  My kind of place.  Being next to France and Italy, it's understandable that they make good wine... why can't we eat their grapes then?

Once I returned from the grocery, we went to McDonalds.  I know, you're disappointed.  It's ok.  We just had to go to see if it was the same or not.  It is the same tasting food, just a bit more expensive.  We're taking bets to see if anyone can guess how much our meal was:  2 cheeseburgers, 1 diet coke, 1 apple pie, 1 side salad, and 1 coffee.  You'll never guess.  

 

This afternoon we took the train from Geneva to Lausanne for a little sight seeing and dinner with John (pwc).  (Side note:  Adam accidentally assaulted a woman, whom he thought was me, because he thought the train was leaving.  He apologized, but she was mean... she yelled at him.)  We left a little later than we wanted and it started to get dark, so we didn't get great pictures.  It wa really beautiful though and we saw a ton of vineyards.  Once in Lausanne we just wandered around aimlessly and managed to make it to the Olympic Museum and took some pictures outside.  It started snowing while we were there!  :)  We also saw 'Le Beau-Rivage', the most amazing hotel I've ever seen.  It sits right on the lake and I can't imagine how gorgeous it is in daylight.  We took some pretty decent pictures.  



For dinner, we went to 'Le Chalet Suisse', a fondue restaurant.  I have to admit that when you walk in it smells of burning cheese, but after a while it grows on you and you don't want to throw up as badly.  We had two different types of cheese fondue with potatoes and bread, wine, and coffee.  It was delicious, but more cheese than three people could handle.  When we walked out of the restaurant there was about two inches of snow that had fallen while we ate!  So pretty.

Le Chalet Suisse

Dinner in Lausanne

By the way, we're doing a little better with the French.  I played some interactive kindergarten French games online today while waiting for Adam.  I'm getting pretty good.  I would say that my vocabulary has grown from five words to about fifty (impressive huh? haha).  Adam has some how managed to develop a Japanese accent when he tries.  I give up.

We're full of cheese and exhausted.  Au revoir! 

The stinky cheese...

Beau-Rivage

Statue (of Adam obviously) at

the Olympic Museum

Olympic Museum

  

Building in Lausanne



 



 

Adam acting like Rocky at the
Olympic Museum



Building in Lausanne



SNOW!!!!!

Geneva Visit: Day 4 of 7

I did not make it to Montreaux today because Adam wants to be able to go with.  You can stop reading this if you are bored already.  Not much excitement below...

Today I did absolutely nothing.    I'm embarrassed to say it, but it was wonderful.  I slept in (probably because I was wide awake for like four hours last night), went to the jacuzzi, the steam room, and the sauna while Adam was at work.  I may have also drank an unforgivable amount of tea and coffee.  It's just so good though!  I also did a lot of research on trips and posted a nanny ad on the ex-pat site out here.  Apparently being a nanny is a pretty good gig if you're a teacher (higher pay).  I am still on the hunt for a classroom position, but we've heard it's a very long process and I'm not sure if I'll find something before the end of the school year.  So, I'll probably nanny while I look.   The Swiss are very serious about their family time and the work week is not like it is in the US.  They aren't workaholics like we are.  That will be a nice change of pace. 

After dinner

After Adam got back to the hotel we bundled up and went out for dinner.  We wound up finding a random Italian place, called 'Carribean something'... not sure how that works.  The only thing that resembled the Carribean were the hideous teal, orange, blue, and yellow tablecloths.  Pretty sure the tablecloths were purchased from a nursing home.  Otherwise, the restaurant was very cute.  I meant to take a picture of it, but forgot.  I have no idea how to get back to it.  Basically when we go out, we try to get as lost as possible... then head towards the lake when we want to get back.  The dinner was amazing once again; wine, salad, gnocci with tomato vodka sauce, and lasagna.  I guess this is as close to real Italian as we can get without making the trip south.  The ordering process was a small disaster.  I am really good now at telling them I don't speak French (in French), but it doesn't help when the waiter doesn't speak English.  We just guessed at what he was saying and said 'oui', 'non', or just laughed.  He very well could have told me I was an ugly American and I would have just told him yes and giggled.   We did ok though for not being able to use English.  Throughout the meal he kept using some words we had never heard before... come to find out he was speaking Fritalian (word I just made up that means to speak Italian and French simultaneously).  I'm not kidding.  He was definitely speaking Italian because when I ordered in French, he repeated it back to me in Italian.  Damn him!  Hopefully he wasn't doing it on purpose just to mess with us... I probably would if I were him.  

 

One on the right is 'alkoholfrei'



When we got back to the hotel we decided to go to the jacuzzi and take the beer we bought the other day.  Adam is no longer in charge of purchasing alcohol.  For the second time in a row (first incident was the champagne) he got alcohol-free alcohol!  One was actually ok, but the other one said 'Alkohohlfrei' and 'sans alcohol' on the front.  Haha... gues we will have to be more careful...  

 

Tomorrow we are taking the train to Rolle and Lausanne.  Hopefully we can get some good pictures of the Alps.  Sorry for the lame blog tonight!  :)

By the way, we bought some sort of Swiss cheese (looks like brie) and it smells awful, sorry for this gross description, but it smells like a fish fart... if fish do that.  That is literally the only description I can come up with.  We're trying to eat it right now and I threw up in my mouth a little bit.  We're also watching 'Home Improvement' with Tim Allen, in German... pretty funny.  :)  

Geneva Visit: Day 3 of 7

Today was another great day.  We managed to somewhat figure out how the public transit system works.  It is still confusing though.  I rode with Adam to work this morning and stopped to see the UN.  By the way, it's unvelievably cold here!  The UN was pretty cool.  It's gated, so you can't go much further than where we took pictures from.  After that we walked to his building and then I caugt the bus back to main train station.   I really wanted to hop on a couple differnt trains, but decided getting on the one that went to Paris wasn't such a good idea at this point.  Think I need a little more time figuring out which routes are buses, trams, and trains.  Tomorrow while Adam is working, I'm going to try and go to Montreux which is on the north side of Lake Geneva at the foothills of the Alps.  It's supposed to snow or rain, so we'll see.  We heard it's amazing and the view is breathtaking.  

H&M treated us well today... like always.  We got a couple essential Winter gear items we neglected to bring and a Christmas present for my sister! :)  We also went to Co-op, the grocery, and bought some food for the room.  The prices weren't as bad as we were expecting.  However, we will have to drop the coke and diet coke addiction.  Coke is about $10 for a 12-pack and it tastes a little bit different.. at least 'Light Coke' did, which is what they call diet here.  Produce is extremely fresh and a little more expensive, but well worth it.  We bought a bottle of champagne only to find out that it was non-alcoholic... another reason to learn French.  What?!  What kind of grocery store puts non-alcoholic champagne on an end shelf next to all the other booze?  Put it in the kid section!  :)

Pretty excited about these...

During our excoursions we realized we had to go get passport pictures for our resident permits.  Glad I had a beret on (fancy French hat I got today haha) and know how to read.  Adam's pictures came out great, while mine made me look like I was a deer in headlights, slapped in the forehead with a 2x4 (from the hat).  The machine allowed you to retake your picture several times if you wanted to, but instead of choosing that option (that was in French by the way), I pressed 'print' and paid $8 for mugshots.  Awesome.  I already have a criminal record here for taking a hideous photo.  

Kempinski

Dessert

On a more positive note, we had lobster for dinner tonight.  We went to La Grill around the corner from our hotel with another ex-pat (ex-Patriot) couple working for pwc.  Two bottles of wine, duck mousse for appetizer, and lobster... it was amazing!  Yum.  After dinner, we went to another restaurant on the floor above and had the best dessert ever.  The Swiss are known for their chocolate, but this was chocolate ice cream:  three scoops (white, milk, and dark chocolate) topped with fresh whipped cream, and a piece of gold-painted chocolate.  Oh my gosh!  Heaven.  The Evian water we ordered was $9 a bottle, so I can't even imagine how much the dessert was... or the lobster.  We've stopped looking at this point.

Tonight we also got a pleasant surprise... Skype with the nephews! :)  We miss you Cooper, Cameron, and Cole!  Although we were purposely flashed a couple times, it was worth it. 

A few notable observations:

-Senior citizens like to ride razor scooters around... dangerously.  I've seen at least 10.  I'm not kidding.

-Kettle cooked salt and vinegar chips?  $6.30.  :(  I cried.

-If you don't act like you need to get on the bus, it will leave you... stranded... alone...waiting for the next bus that will come in 10 minutes.  Apparently standing 2 inches away from the curb does not indicate the need to board.  Maybe I'll bang on the door or kick the bus next time.

-Swiss women like their fur coats, pants, boots, scarves, and hats.  Some like to wear them all at once. 

-The mini-bar in the hotel room is bad news if it contains chocolate.  Just don't even open it.  Mom, this would ruin you.  :)

-Did I mention it is cold?

Au revior!  We can't wait to see family and friends for Christmas!!!!



go ahead... imagine how
 this is working out for us...







             Coke 'Light'

 

Chocolate sculpture at dinner

    

our fun eurpean toilet...





So Cold!!!



Kempinski Hotel