Ma vie quotidienne

I feel like I am in a real city. I bike to the bus stop in my petit village. Then take the bus to the train station in Nyon. From there I either take a train to Gèneve or I go to class in Nyon. It changes daily and all in all my tranist takes at most half an hour. It is great.

We have not started our briefings, but we have started our French classes! I think my French has gotten worse since I have been in college. ha! But, I am slowly re-learning all that I have forgotten or never learned in the first place. My prof is French, which helps and speaks lentement. Also, she corrects our accents and makes sure that we know our verb tenses forwards and backwards. I hope I can actually carry on a grammatically correct conversation when I leave here. That is goal number one. I am having more and more interactions in French. Like today, when I had to buy a cell phone. It was a little scary. But, I successfully explained that I had gotten a phone from my host family and that I did not know which phone plan to use. Whew. I also went to a bar after school (do not worry mom and dad) and asked the bar tender where my friends were. Needless to say, I am definitly making progress.

Goal number two: expanding knowledge of international affairs. I think I came to the right place to do it.

The host family still is going well, but the son is hovering outside the door so I think that is my sign to get off the computer....oh teenage boys haha.

Homestay

My homestay family seems really nice and I think they will be a good fit for me. Here´s something funny, the mom and dad are big Harley Davidson fans too. For those that haven´t heard, my French family really liked Harley´s as well...strange. But the mom works for Medtronics of all places! So, she has been to Minneapolis before because there is a huge Medtronics headquarters there. The father works as a boarder patrol person. Meaning, he checks passports and makes sure that the wrong kind of people/things stay out of Suisse. They have two children, a boy that is my brother´s age (!) and a girl that is my age. However, the girl is studying in Austrailia to learn English.

I am staying in her room which is covered with Bob Marley posters. I like Bob Marley so all is well in my world! Oh yeah, they also have a cat named Sydney. It seems a little afraid of me still, but I am sure it will eventually get used to me. The house they live in is very nice and quiet. And I think they live pretty close to the lake, but my orientation is always a little off...

Thank goodness I am feeling better too! I was violently ill before the group came, but now I am feeling better. Hurray. My family said they were going to take me up to the mountains, which are in their backyard practically, tomorrow. So needless to say I am so excited.

And, if some like-minded people would want to send me a care package in some imaginary world I would want peanut butter because people in Europe never eat it so there is virtually none in the super marche! Also, funny pictures describing what you guys have been up to while I am away.

Ok, until next time...

Deuxieme Jour

Bonjour! Today is going much smoother than yesterday. Last night, after getting to the hostel we took a well deserved nap. When we woke up at 18:00 we were not too hungry, but because we were so tired and knew we would probably wake up in the middle of the night very hungry, we went to this place called Edleweiss. It was the perfect induction into Swiss culture. The restaurant looked like the inside of a Swiss chalet and there were two men playing Swiss sounding music with the accordian and bass. It was fantastic! Every now and again one man would yoddle or sing. It was hard not to constantly smile. We had fondue and Swiss beer, which was sweet. Sweet as in sweet tasting. The workers were dressed in Swiss vests, and they were all nice and spoke slow for us Americans. Then a party of about 100 came in and Shannon and I think they were from a company because they were all speaking English quite loudly. But, the short of it is that the musicians got out the ricolla instrument and that was awesome. He then took the instrument around to various people in the resto. One guy played which was humorous. He asked us if we wanted to try, but we were too embarassed.

The hostel is we are staying at is great. We are staying the room by ourselves, so it is quiet. However, the lockers for luggage were outside of the rooms and you have to slam them shut to make them lock. No problem. Except for when you are trying to sleep and there are people who are getting in and out of their lockers. The breakfast this morning was good. Except for the hot chocolate which was cold.

Earlier today we went to la cathedral de Saint Pierre. It was nice. (I was actually surprised that we found it on our own!!) Apparently, the cathedral used to be Catholique but during the reformation it was taken over by Protestants. The Protestants ruined (rooned) everything inside the church, but kept the stained glass windows. The cathedral was quite impressive. Then we climbed the 98 sprial staircase steps to the top and the view was beautiful. We could see the whole city. And, we were the only crazy people there right when it opened.

So far, I like Suisse and all the people. I even gave a guy directions on how to use a computer en francais. Everyone here probably understands that we speak English, but also a little French. So they humor us and let us carry on a conversation in French.

I made it

You know you are in Suisse when the areoport has multiple Rolex clocks all over the place. The flight over was fine. No troubles. My baggage for some reason or another was put on the flight that came in after the one I was on. So, Shannon and I waited for it. Then we guessed our way to the train station and to the correct train with the help of a train attendant. So far, it is a little intimidating speaking French to people. However, rest assured, I will get over it because otherwise I would never have signed up to come. Right now I have not slept for about 36 hours. So, one may think I am a zombie. That being said I will write more when I am fully rested and do not have to carry three pieces of luggage around. By that time I will have more interesting things to say.

yessss

So as we count down the last few days I am discovering all these small annoying things I have to do. Like calling my credit card co. to tell them I'll be going overseas so they don't cancel my account when they see that I'm spending all this money in Geneva. Aside from that I can't fricking wait. In the meantime (hopefully) Alex, Chelsea and Laurie will all be coming up this weekend! yessss.