le Marché de Noël

Just for Alli, here is that barrage of (or maybe just two) posts.

In Switzerland, les Marchés de Noël are extremely popular, and are EVERYWHERE. Basically, they're Christmas markets... little farmers' market type fairs with booths of candy, ornaments, hot drinks, etc. The really big, fancy ones have le Père Noël (Father Christmas) visiting, and rides or games. Just about every town has a Marché de Noël at some point... Montreux (a town near Lausanne) hosts Switzerland's biggest and most famous Marché de Noël, and on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, after celebrating the holiday again with some American friends from my dad's work, we visited the Montreux market.
It was crazy cool. It was set up like some tiny, adorable Christmas town. Each of the booths looked like a little log cabin, and there were Christmas lights everywhere. There were ornaments, clothes, a broad range of gift items, and lots of food! ... including the best churros I've ever eaten (who woulda guessed you'd find them in Switzerland?) and hot mulled wine.
We ended the night by riding on a spectacular ferris wheel that provided us with a stunning view of Lake Geneva's shore.

Lake Geneva from the ferris wheel in Montreux

Thankful for Switzerland

Warning: here come a barrage of blog posts, as an apology for my absence. Pretend they've all been published in the last three weeks.

Kaelynn's Thanksgiving visit was a lot of fun--though I was sick for the last half, which was really disappointing. Still, we got lot's of chances to explore the lovely little Rolle and have an amazing Thanksgiving.

The weather finally cleared up during the week, so on Wednesday we spent a few hours in Rolle having a picnic on the promenade next to the lake. It was an incredible day... here's a taste (yes, pun intended):

The Promenade in Rolle

Thanksgiving consists of strictly American food, and it was a bit of a challenge finding everything, namely pumpkin pie filling and canned cranberry sauce (I know you can easily make "superior" cranberry sauce from scratch, but I'm a sucker for the canned sauce). Kaelynn brought us the pumpkin pie filling, and my mom had remembered to get cranberry sauce back when she was in the States in September, so we were all good.

Vegetarian Thanksgiving!

We're so thankful for the opportunity to move to Switzerland. It's been a crazy adventure, and not entirely easy--and we miss our wonderful friends and family!--but the experience is amazing, and we couldn't ask for more.

a foggy, foggy fall

I might have mentioned before: the weather here is completely spastic.

This weekend, out of nowhere, it was ridiculously foggy--to the point of driving down the highway and only seeing the car in front of you--for three days straight. While I have no problem with fog (apart from the copious amounts of frizz it adds to my hair), it wasn't the best timing.

See, on Friday, my cousin Kaelynn flew in from California to spend Thanksgiving with us--which I have been SO excited about for ages. Of course, when you hear about Switzerland, there's a few things that come to mind, and besides chocolate and cheese, mountains are definitely associated with Switzerland. I don't know about you, but pointing into the über dense fog and saying "And that slightly grayer area is the treeline by the lake. And then the slightly lighter area is the lake. And I promise there are huge mountains across the lake, but you just can't see them right now," doesn't sound very convincing.
There should be some pretty gargantuan Alps in this photo. Can't you see them?
You get the idea.

On Sunday, to escape the fog so that Kaelynn could actually see some of Switzerland, we drove into the German section, hoping that the further we were from Lake Geneva, the better the weather would be. While we were wrong about that--it pretty much rained the whole day--at least it wasn't as foggy, and we got some spectacular views, and meandered around the charming little Swiss town of Gstaad (try to pronounce it. I dare you).

Cute, touristy little Gstaad.

The River in Gstaad.

Enjoying café au lait in Gstaad.

I'm taking Thursday and Friday off from school because, after all, were I still in the US, I would have a holiday anyways (plus, the main reason, Kaelynn's only here for ten days, and I feel so bad being in school the whole time!). I'll update you on how our Swiss style Thanksgiving turns out!

i actually do have a social life

While school, dance and college apps have been eating my life recently, I've still managed to get out and have some fun in the last few weeks. A couple Saturdays ago, my friend Caroline (who also recently moved here from the US) and I spent the day in Geneva (in the pouring rain, might I add), acting like tourists and having a great time. We walked all over, taking those oh-so-cliché photos and walking into random shops. While we were disappointed that we couldn't take the classic in-front-of-the-Jet-d'Eau-photo because it was turned off that day, it was still a good time.

(Near the main bridge in Geneva)

(Elevator pic! Freezing after a good day)

Then, this past week, I went out with a big group of people for my friend Sabrina's birthday. We had a lot of fun because we went out earlier than most do on a Saturday night, and got an entire billiard hall (hahaa) to ourselves for like two hours. Plus they had really good pizza.

All in all, I'm just happy (and moderately surprised) that I'm managing to have a social life over here. We'll just see how long that continues as my app deadlines approach!

Also, thought I'd leave y'all with a few more pics from the last month or so...(Chilling in the Alps about a month ago)

(More Alps)

(The touristy and adorable section of Bern)

(Legit graffiti in Bern)(Bern from above)

general updates and all that jazz

OK. Major apologies. Seriously, I haven't posted in two weeks. I'm super sorry.

Anyways, lot's has been going on. I promise, I've been thinking about blog posts all the time--I just haven't had a chance to actually get on and write them down. Let's start from the beginning.

Halloween: was fun. We helped host a party for families at my dad's work. While the majority of the kids were under ten, it still was pretty fun. Not to mention free candy (just in case you guys wanted to know what to bribe me with).

Dance: is going fabulous. I love my studio here... they have SO many classes, and the teachers are really good/attentive. I had no idea what to expect when I came to Switzerland, so let's just say I'm pleasantly surprised. I have, however, discovered how difficult it is to take any class other than ballet in French. Ballet is fine because I know what all the terms mean, but once I get to a modern class, I'm completely lost. It was pretty comical. I'm attempting hip hop this week. It will be even more comical.

School: is going better than expected. I didn't bomb this "marking period" (like a half a semester... weird Swiss system), and actually did pretty well, so I'm relieved. Not that I can stop and breathe for a sec or anything, though, because they keep us loaded with so much work.

College: is stressing me out. First of all, college apps are so much work. Everyone warned me, but it never really hit me until now. Not to mention, coordinating letters of rec and transcripts across to continents is challenging. Even more difficult, though, is getting to auditions (for college dance programs) in various states across the US from Switzerland... they're all either on the same weekend, or like a month apart. It's really frustrating. We're trying to make one three-week trip in February, but it's such a hassle!

Weather: is so frustrating! It's so cold, but it won't snow. It just pours, constantly. While I love rain, it feels too cold for it to not be snowing. I'm sure once it starts snowing, I'll begin wishing it was raining again, but I can't wait for it to snow now. This is probably memories of a snow-deprived Bay Area childhood surfacing, but I can't wait to do all those cheesy snow-related things...

Good news: WE GOT OUR BOXES! This was better than Christmas, my birthday, and Halloween, all on the same day. It was amazing. Unpacking box after box of amazingly familiar, necessary (and unnecessary) stuff was super. I love having more than four outfits to wear, and having all my books with me. It finally, finally feels like we're settling (I keep saying that, don't I? Well, I was wrong before. I feel way more settled now). We've almost hit our 3 month-iversary! Crazy, huh?

I'm hoping to post again this weekend, and I'll include lot's of photos! As soon as my dad uploads all his photos, I'll have about five thousand to sift through... so expect a photo journal post soon!

Au revoir :]

Halloween en la Suisse

So, like, they apparently don't do Halloween in Europe.

I don't know about you, but any holiday that celebrates free candy should be celebrated internationally, if you ask me.

Actually, it seems that Halloween is kind of a budding holiday. There's one house on our street that has a few fake cobwebs up, and there's a small costume section in the grocery store. But I'm not expecting the full, everyone dressed up, candy everywhere, lots of sugar high kids type thing.

So, the American and Canadian families from my dad's work are putting together a Halloween party for all the kids. Aww. I think it's sweet. The one negative is that out of the 17 kids in this group, I am most definitely the oldest, by a good four years or so, so I might end up dressed as a pirate and babysitting some two year olds. Not that I mind. I'll still get the free candy.

Still, we're going all out with the decorations and such, and I'm even going to the American store in Geneva tomorrow to get some real, legitimate American candy. I wanted to make pumpkin cupcakes too, but we don't have cupcake pans at the mo. Sad day. Anyways, I'm kind of excited. It's like the first time in my life that I've ever observed my dad put any effort into a holiday event (that may be an exaggeration, but lets just say he's not exactly a holiday decorating kind of guy), so I know it's gonna be good.

But like I said... I'm being a pirate. That automatically makes everything better:

Arr.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Happy Halloween, everyone! :]

chilling in the Alps

No pun intended.

OK, I lied. The pun was totally intended.

Anyways, yesterday we spent a gorgeous day hiking in the Alps. We drove about an hour and a half to a little town called Verbier--it was the perfect little Swiss Alpine town. Honestly, it looked like something off of a postcard, and it was obvious that during ski season, this town was bustling. We took a ski lift up to the top of a mountain--I may have gotten unnecessarily freaked out when it randomly stopped, with us dangling way too far above the ground for comfort--and then spent a good two hours gambling down--I also may have gotten unnecessarily excited at the snow on the first hour of the path. It was beautiful. Can I repeat that? Beautiful. Like, beautiful to the point of ridiculousness. Beautiful to the point that about every five minutes we would just kind of stop and look around us and stand there with our mouths hanging open. Beautiful like this:
(view from the top of the mountain)
(view from part way down)

And honestly, this doesn't really do it justice.

the world's best chocolate croissant

Today was practically the best day in the history of the world.

Some of you may have heard from my mom that the darling, amazing little bakery across the street from our house was closed for remodel for the past three weeks.

I'll be frank: It was the hardest three weeks of my life.
OK, I exaggerate. But honestly, it was shocking how quickly we had become reliant on our bakery... walking over there every morning at six thirty am to grab a loaf of still-warm bread and a pastry or two for breakfast... mmm.

So, when we woke up one Monday morning a few weeks ago, and found the bakery closed and dark, we were slightly traumatized... we had to make do with buying bread from the supermarket for three whole weeks!

Today, the bakery reopened. It was better than Christmas. We walked across the street and entered, and it smelled like butter and flour and chocolate. There were new types of bread, and baskets heaped with croissants, pain au chocolat, croissants, tartlets, and various types of rolls. It was heaven in carbohydrate form.We splurged, buying two loaves of bread, two types of croissant, and these tiny, delicious apple-almond tarts dusted with lots of powdered sugar. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the actual pastries--we ate them too quickly.

Now, we're off on a hike in the Alps for the rest of the day, to exercise off all that amazing bread!(The view of the bakery from my bedroom window)


Also, a quick thank you to everyone who commented, and let me know they were following my blog! :]

a chance to breathe and other extraneous tid-bits

I don't know if you guys have picked up on it, but school is way too much work for my liking. Whoever said that senior year was supposed to be a breeze lied (though I suppose it is a good wake up call before college...). So anyways, tomorrow is my last day of school before a beautiful, wonderful, glorious ten days of freedom. I'm so excited. I'll have ten full days to... study. And do homework. And do college applications. And study some more. And try to figure out what the heck I was supposed to know in the last two months of Calculus.
But hopefully, I'll also get a chance to go on a few adventures, watch a few good movies, read a good book or two, and catch up on this blog! (Because, honestly, I have noticed my lack in posts. I would say it's a combination of ridiculous amounts of homework everyday, and a deficit in cool adventures in the last couple weeks. For example: last weekend, my parents drove around Lake Geneva into France. I stayed at home and wrote essays and got a headache over derivatives.)

Also! There are two new pieces of good news. Number one: my mom got her B permit. This is basically a permit that allows us to live in Switzerland. We originally had D visa, which is a one time entry into the country, but since we are definitely planning on visiting other countries, we needed a B permit. My dad and I haven't gotten out permits yet, but we suspect it's because they do it alphabetically. But it hopefully means we will get our permits in the next few days!
Piece of good news number two: our container has almost arrived! As I mentioned a few posts back, we shipped a huge amount of stuff over here, and it's finally almost made it. It should be getting into Basel next Wednesday. Then all we have to do is rent a truck (or something) and drive it down here. Let me assure you, I am overjoyed at the prospect of having more than just four outfits.

Last bit of random news: it is honestly cold here. We've been having a "heat wave" and it's been about 7*C. I'm still awful at the conversions, but that's pretty much the average temperature in California in February. Also known as cold.
So, I've been discovering that what I considered to be heavy winter jackets are really only appropriate for early fall here. Next on the agenda: winter coat shopping!

One last thing... I know that there are a few of you reading this, but I'd really love to know how many and who you are! If you don't mind just leaving a comment or following this blog, I'd really appreciate it... I'm just curious!

switzerland october = california february

Wait, I lied. Switzerland in October is colder than California in February. On Friday, it's supposed to be 3*C. Which, for you Celsius ignorant people (like me), is nearly freezing... also known as too cold.

It's not snowing. Yet. If it snows before December, I will be seriously upset. I like snow, don't get me wrong, but it's only supposed to snow around Christmas. I want my autumn, please. What happened to that balmy, breezy couple of months after summer? Apparently the weather gods in Switzerland forgot about putting fall on their agenda or something.

Oh, and for those of you who are complaining about the massive rain storms in California right now... count your blessings. It's been pouring since August. :]

Paris, postponed.

We (sadly) decided not to go to Paris this weekend, as the five + hour drive was too long to do for such a short time. Instead, we're contemplating going when I have an October break (yeah, they don't do Thanksgiving here, so we get a week off in the end of October instead), or else at the end of the winter holidays, when my brother joins us in Europe.

However, just because we decided to postpone Paris does not mean we were content to doing nothing this weekend. So, my parents are going to Zurich early in the morning tomorrow, and then I'll meet them later in the day in Bern--so I get a chance to go to ballet, and get some homework done! So, we'll celebrate my dad's birthday in the capital.

Oh, I forgot to mention! You know how in the States, when it's someone's birthday, you'll bring them flowers or sweets or a cake or whatever? Well, here it's the opposite. Whoever is having their birthday brings something to share with everyone else. So, since tomorrow is Daddy's birthday, he brought in cinnamon rolls to share at work today. They were homemade, of course, because Europeans seem to not have discovered the wonder that is cinnamon. While they've mastered the use of chocolate, cream, and nuts, the plethora of pastries here is lacking one crucial element--cinnamon. So, us Americans have to start a new trend, haha.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

a traveller comes home

Yesterday, my mom returned from a week and a half trip to the States--if she didn't get to see you, don't be offended, she didn't even make it to the Bay Area (except to fly in and out of SFO)! It was mainly for a college counseling conference (ooh, alliteration. My English teachers would be proud) and a get-together in Idaho that had been planned since before we even knew about Switzerland.

But, it did give her the opportunity to stock up on things we've been suffering without. Peanut butter, for one (if you guys hadn't already guessed, from my plethora of posts about this incredible food item, I can't really live without it), which is perfect, as I was just running low on the amazing stuff I received in my vegetarian survival kit from Sara. Peet's Coffee, for another. While Switzerland has adopted the phenomenon that is Starbucks, they haven't picked up on the even better phenomenon that is Peet's. And while the coffee here is good, the majority of it is super super super strong espresso--which is good for those days you stayed up late studying for a ridiculous AP Euro test the night before, but not ideal for your average morning.

dance and whatnot

I found a dance studio :]

Let's just say this makes me very happy. I'm SO glad to be able to whip my butt back into shape again, after a month of minimal exercise and Swiss chocolate (not a good combination, I promise).

It's a studio in Geneva called Dance Area, and they not only have a solid ballet program, but they also have lot's of other types of dance. I'm going to attempt hip hop. It's going to be extremely comical.

In other news, we're really enjoying our new house. Perroy is an adorable village... not only is it cobblestoned and old and very Swiss, but there is a bakery, market, and church with a clock tower--so I never have to check the time!--across the street. The good news is the bakery has amazing chocolate croissants. The bad news is the bakery has amazing chocolate croissants.

It is a 35 minute schlep to school for me, but it's a good opportunity for last minute homework. Plus, who could complain about riding a train overlooking Lake Geneva with a view of the Alps in the distance?

Another bit of news: next weekend, we're going to Paris for my dad's birthday. I've never been, and I am ridiculously excited. I promise I will write a gushing blog post about touristy things that most anyone whose been to Europe has already experienced. Don't hate.

And more news... in two weeks, we should be getting the shipment of our ten billion boxes and my dad's car! I'm so excited. While I only packed 5 boxes (in comparison with my parents' 35), I'm really looking forward to having more than just four outfits to wear.

Happy Friday, everyone!

vegetarian survival kit

Today was amazing.

As I'm slogging through my history homework and packing my stuff for this weekend's move, my dad comes home with a package for me.

It was a vegetarian survival kit, from my amazing friend--and fellow vegetarian--complete with REAL organic peanut butter, vegan jell-o, fake jerky, and nori snacks. Best thing ever.

Tomorrow, I'm going to have the best peanut butter sandwich on the face of the planet. It's gonna be epic.

And Sara... it definitely received an OMG-squealing-jumping-up-and-down kind of reaction:

settling

You know that feeling you get when you're walking around a city, and you know you're not going to get lost just trying to find the train station? Yeah, it's a great feeling.

I won't claim to know Geneva as well as I know the Bay Area or anything, but it certainly feels good to not have to walk around with my nose in a map, or try to find an English-speaking person to get directions from.

We've been here thirty-seven days now (I swear I have not been keeping track, I only counted just now), and it's starting to feel like we actually live here. Mostly, I feel like this is just an incredibly cool, extended vacation, but now that we're all settling into some kind of routine, it's starting to feel like life.

Did I mention that we found a semi-permanent house? We're planning on staying there at least until January... it's a short term rental, and depending on how much we like the place and such, we may stay longer. It's this two hundred year old row house in an eleven hundred year old town called Perroy (which is right near Rolle--where my dad works--which is about half way between Geneva and Lausanne). The house is right across the street from a little market and an amazing bakery, and the town is this adorable, postcard village in the middle of cornfields and vineyards--but only ten minutes away from the decent-sized town of Rolle.

It'll be a bit of a slug for me to get to school everyday, but I don't mind. I'm just glad that once we move in on Sunday, I can stop living out of my suitcase, and actually know where all my stuff is.

It's kinda bizarre to think of two places as home now. I mean, Menlo Park is where I grew up, it's definitely my home, but Switzerland is beginning to feel so comfortable now.

the strange, the new, the exciting

I thought it was time for another one of those "Weird Things About Switzerland" lists. It's also a good opportunity for me to post a couple of pictures from my birthday weekend.

Mkay.

Ten (ish) Things That Boggle Me About Switzerland:

1. The weather. Maybe if you don't live in the Bay Area, you're used to waking up to a thunderstorm, spending the day in full sunshine, and then freezing under a heavy cloud layer as you go to bed, but I definitely grew up in California, and there are really only two seasons there... 50 degrees and cloudy, and 75 degrees and sunny. So let's just say this whole bipolar weather thing is a bit of a shock.

2. Everything is super old. Yesterday, I went out in Nyon with some of my friends, and on our way to the train station, we passed a castle. Like, a legit, ancient, knights-in-armor type castle, just sitting in the middle of the town.

3. Everyone I've met has lived in at least four countries. One of my friends was born in Malta, moved to Senegal, then Virginia, then Brazil, then back to Virginia, then to Switzerland. Because I grew up in the same town, and this was only my second time moving, I am distinctly the minority.

4. In this country of amazing bread, cheese, and chocolate, everyone is skinny. It's magic.

5. You can live in a tiny little mountain town of a thousand people, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by cornfields and vineyards, and yet be twenty minutes away from a bustling city. Such as Geneva.

6. They still don't have good peanut butter (luckily, I have amazing friends who send me peanut butter from the U.S. Thanks, Sara!!!!)

7. People who have lived here their whole life think Switzerland is boring. I can't understand it... this place is crazy and bustling and pretty dang amazing. The streets are cobblestones, for goodness sakes! It can't get cooler than that.

8. It's like being on vacation. But for a long, long time.

Alright, I said ten-ish, and eight is definitely ten-ish. Here's a couple photos from my birthday weekend:

The perils of signing up for 4 AP classes in your new school in a different country

The problem: they just might do things differently.

AP European History, say. What they don't tell you is that it was originally called "See How Many Names and Dates From a 500 Year Period You Can Memorize in 40 Minutes."

Or AP Calc. I didn't anticipate a teacher who--while enthusiastic and encouraging--seems to think her students have all already taken a college level math course. Honestly, we are not all blessed with the ability to understand things at light speed.

And forget AP Spanish. It might as well be AP Greek.

This is why I love French 1. It's easy yet challenging. I still can't pronounce anything to save my life, but I know exactly how all the numbers, colors, nationalities, names, school supplies, and French cities shouldn't be pronounced. Oh, and some people in my class can pronounce them just as badly!

There are some good parts about school in a foreign country.

For one thing, that AP Calc teacher could not be entirely fluent in English, and she could pronounce "parabola" as "parab-YU-la." It's amazingly adorable.

And, by the end of the year, I will be amazing at Spanish. And maybe passable at basic (BASIC BASIC BASIC) French.

Oh, and the best part? I will be able to list off seven million plus random names from Euro history.

I might even know what those people did.

a very good form of procrastination

For some reason, the canton of Geneva--which is where my school is--had a holiday today. We were all a little perplexed on why we got a random Thursday off, but no one complains about a day free from responsibility.
So, a couple of friends and I skipped on down to Montreux, and spent a good five hours at the amazing Aquapark:

In short: colorful, frivolous, chlorinated fun. Plus, a lot of adrenaline. And while a more productive way to spend the day would probably be to study for my RIDICULOUSLY detailed AP European History class, finish my essay for Lit, or continue drafting my personal statement, I will once again use my by now worn-out excuse that I'm in Switzerland. How often does that happen??

road trippin it

I will take a moment to apologize for the delay in posting. My mother has been so kind as to inform me that now so many people are reading my blog, it is imperative that I update every single day or else everyone will stop liking it.

OK, moment over.

I don't know what you guys did this weekend, but I didn't do very much. Oh, you know, just your average little road trip through three countries. No big deal or anything.

Actually, my weekend was pretty boss (in this context, boss would mean extremely cool, hella legit, or totally dope. It's a pretty important word... I suggest you start utilizing it. Unless, of course, you don't want to sound like a seventeen-year-old Californian. Your choice). My birthday was on Friday, and we'd been planning for a while to take a trip down to Lugano to visit my friend Alex who goes to Franklin College there. So, on Friday night, after a successful day of cupcakes, discount shopping, Indian food and pear and almond torte, we drove an hour to France to spend the night there. The next morning we headed out through the French Alps towards Lugano.
The drive through the mountains was spectacular. A cross between the Colorado Rockies and Yosemite, but about seven point five times more awe-inspiring, and with really cool highways suspended fifty meters in the air. We crossed into Italy and the landscape flattened, before rising once more into smaller, greener mountains.

We got to Lugano around 2pm, and while I hung out with my friend, my parents explored the town, which they found to be cute, charming, and extremely beautiful.
I spent the day with Alex and her college buddies, and we went out dancing to celebrate my birthday... such a fun day.

On Sunday, we drove back to Geneva via the Swiss Alps. We forwent the ridiculously backed-up traffic leading to the efficient--and boring--tunnel through the mountain, and instead spiraled up and around and over, watching as the Italian section of Switzerland spread out below us. It was pretty incredible. We moseyed through the German section oohing and awing and photo-taking respectively. As the gas in the tank dwindled, we wandered through darling Swiss German towns around the edge of an unknown lake, in pursuit of an illusive gas station. Once found, we bought cheese, salami for the omnivores, and fresh--as in still-warm-from-the-oven kind of fresh--bread at the little 7-11 type convenience store attached to the gas station. I've come to the conclusion that I'm eating far too much bread and cheese--and far too little whole grains and vegetables and all that nonsense--to be entirely healthy, but I think we all still feel like we're on some sort of extended vacation, which means we can eat whatever we want.
I mean, honestly, how many times in your life do you get to spend your weekend in Switzerland?

Pictures to come... my dad is extremely relaxed about uploading his photos. If you want, bug him about it. Haha.

Happy Tuesday!

lost in translation

I finally got a chance today to really use my language skills! Granted, these were my Spanish skills and not my (not-so-impressive) French skills, but it's the thought that counts, right?

After I got back from school, my mom and I headed down to the boulangerie (bakery) in little downtown (if you can even call it a downtown) Coppet, to pick out a dessert for my birthday tomorrow (!). Of course, upon arriving and asking, "Parle vous anglais?" the answer was promptly, "No." (Obviously the woman spoke at least one word... she distinctly said "no," not "non.") After sighing dejectedly, and condeming ourselves to another communication struggle, the woman mentioned she did speak Spanish.
OK, I thought, maybe I could speak to her in Spanish.
Let me just make this clear: you are looking at a girl who has three years of high school Spanish behind her, but really has no idea what she's talking about. I've never actually had to use my Spanish anywhere other than the classroom. So this was pretty crazy drastic for me (not quite as drastic as moving across the world, but you know what I mean).
So, we started up a rather broken Spanish conversation. The baker was actually really good, and I was a little embarrassed by my poor conjugations (and forgetting how to say "cake." Um, duh? Pastel? Good going, Claire), and whatnot, but I managed to actually communicate with her, understand what she was saying, and place an order for a pear and almond tart for four, to be picked up between one and two the next day. It's quite an accomplishment, if you ask me.

Now, I just need to learn French.


**Shout-out to my favorite Summitteers!! Hope you guys are all enjoying the camping trip. Someone in Switzerland misses y'all! :]

dancing finally

I've finally managed to take a ballet class here!! And after two plus weeks of vegetating, even the uber beginner class had my legs shaking (think this might be a sign or something?). Still, I was so glad to be dancing again.
I took at a small school in downtown Versoix (where my CDL is) called Dance Art. To be quite honest, I wasn't too thrilled with the studio... let's just say the nine-year-olds wobbling around en pointe on bent knees had me cringing inside. But it was certainly a cool experience to take class in French. Ocasionally, the teacher would say a few things in English, but the majority was French. Of course, seeing as ballet is mostly French anyways, it wasn't too much of a difference. But, it was nice to hear all the ballet terms actually pronounced correctly (not that I blame my fabulous U.S. teachers. For the life of me, I cannot manage a French accent)!

I'm still searching for a decent school, but this is a start. As long as I can dance somewhere, it doesn't really matter where.

playing tourist for the weekend

Seeing as we've only just moved, I still feel like a tourist in this country--I don't know the language or customs, and I'm forever asking for directions. However, this does give me the distinct advantage of having the excuse to spend my free time doing fun, tourist-y things.
Take this weekend, for example. I spent Saturday in Geneva, wandering all around the city with a girl from school. I got to see the ridiculously famous and amazing Jet d'Eau (for all of you who don't speak French, that means--rather logically--Jet of Water):(I would also like to assert that this is MY photo, not one I stole from the web... I'm mildly proud, if you couldn't tell.)

We spent quite a while exploring the shopping district. My conclusion: amazing clothes...amazingly high prices. Obviously, when I go back to the States for Christmas, I will get on the plane with an empty suitcase, and return with a full one; I can't expect to buy many clothes here!
Later, we ate at a cute little pizzeria, in a plaza that glowed! (No, seriously... evidence is below) Overall, I was very satisfied with the day.

And then, today, Sunday, my parents and I took advantage of a bargain price ticket to drive around the lake and check out some castles, Chillon and Aigle. Let me tell you, these things are cool. I preferred Chillon, mostly because it was larger and more of it was in it's original condition. Also, this is the famous castle from the famous Prisoner of Chillon, by Lord Byron. Moreover, while touring the famous dungeon of this famous castle, we came across the famous cell of the famous prisoner--and the famous graffiti of the famous poet! Pretty legit, if you ask me. Honestly, while visiting the castle that he wrote about, Byron decided to carve his name into a pillar, and it's still there today.
The weather was gorgeous today, and especially clear. While driving home, we got an especially clear view of Mount Blanc. I'll post pictures as soon as my dad gets around to uploading them off his camera. Overall, a very good weekend.
Dancin' around Chillon Castle...
A view of Aigle Castle.

the sad nonexistence of peanut butter and tofu

No, not together. Fear not, I would never commit the atrocity of consuming peanut butter and tofu together (tofu in sesame peanut sauce, though, yes. Mmm). I do, however miss both foods, seperately. But it seems that the Swiss are slightly less advanced in a few aspects. For one, peanut butter is an "American" thing here... you can only find it at the American store (yes, they have one of those), and the only brands they even carry there are Skippy and the like. I have actually seen one type of peanut butter in the normal Swiss grocery store--Barney's Best. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either. It's one of those gross, sugar-filled, hydrogenated oil-loaded, preservative-packed, really, really bad ones. And it's not even a good bad kind (if you know what I mean), like Skippy is, on occasion, when it's just one of those bad days and you're out of chocolate. Granted, I haven't actually bought and tasted Barney's Best, but seeing as it's the only brand sold in a country that doesn't even sell your basic nut and oil peanut butter, I'm confidently hypothesising that it's not all that good.The other product that the Swiss are sorely lacking is tofu. We actually finally found tofu in a small health food store in Rolle, but it's half the size for twice the price as in the U.S. As a vegetarian, I'm practically addicted to tofu, and I've been relying on a lot of pizza and pasta to get by. While I am a fan of those foods, let's face it--we're not in Italy here, and it gets old pretty quickly. So while I'm extremely happy to have found the small goldmine of tofu that we did, I sorely wish the Swiss would wake up and smell the soybeans. Come on, import more tofu, people!

that school thing

So, today was my second day of school at CDL, the international school where I'm completing my senior year. Seeing as I've only ever attended two schools in my life, and both have been four hundred students or less, this was quite an experience.
CDL is a private international school in Versoix. There are 2200 students--preschool to graduation--of 120 different nationalities. I definitely feel like a minority--there aren't that many Americans, and even though everyone can speak English, most people don't. Although I like most things about CDL so far, I'm definitely not a big fan of their organization. I was somehow not put on any attendence list yesterday, so I spent a lot of the day waiting to get a schedule... I did meet quite a few people, but the school itself isn't super new student oriented, so the other new kids and I have had to fend for ourselves a lot in figuring out where to go and such.
Other than that, it seems like it will be a good year--once everything gets sorted out. I'm pretty excited about my classes, even though signing up for four AP's at this school is supposed to be a death sentence of some sort. I get to take AP English Lit, AP European History, AP Calculus, AP Spanish Language, French 1, and Philosophy... I'm pretty sure every one of my teachers is a different nationality--American, British, German, Mexican, French, and I'm-not-sure-what. I gotta say, that's pretty cool. Now all I have to do is find a ballet school, and I'll be set.

finally getting to the food

I've named this blog "Chocolate and Cheese," so I suppose I better get around to the chocolate and cheese part now.

I regret to tell you that, up until today, I had yet to try real Swiss chocolate. I do not regret to tell you that it was amazing. We tried two grocery store brands, as we still haven't gotten a chance to spend a large amount of time perusing a chocolate shop (it will happen, don't worry). We chose Lindt, the Swiss brand that's in every Safeway in America, and random unknown brand, Favarger. Of course, we got two entirely different types of chocolate (dark chocolate Favarger and milk chocolate truffle Lindt), so it wasn't exactly fair to do a comparison. However, although the Lindt truffles were melt in your mouth delicious, they didn't quite have the delicate, slightly nutty quality of the Favarger. Both, though, were incredible, and I don't have to be a chocolate expert to state that these definitely weren't Hershey's.

oh, Genève!

After an extremely relaxing and lazy morning (and early afternoon), we headed into Geneva. We had to stop by the airport in order add my mom as a driver on our rental car--which took longer than anticipated, most likely due to the incompetence of an American company such as Hertz (hehe)--but then drove straight into the city.
I'd say the only disappointing thing about Geneva is the vast amount of shops, boutiques and stores--I can't possibly visit them all in only a year! Très tragique!
However, it was an incredibly spectacular day. Having been warned of the frigid Alpine temperatures in Switzerland, I had come prepared to be bundled in scarves and coats from September to May. It seems that the Swiss (or at least the Swiss weather) are taking a leaf out of California's book, and it has been in the high 80's to low 90's F since we've been here.
We only had time to walk along the water front for about half an hour before we had to head back in the direction of Versoix--but we managed to take some dazzling photos before leaving.
We then learned that all businesses in Switzerland close down at exactly six on Saturdays, and do not open again until Monday morning. Reaching the Co-op just in time to squeeze in, grab some microwaveable dinners, pay, and run out just before they locked us in, we doomed ourselves to unappetizing food and no cellphones (our next planned errand) for the rest of the weekend. Ah, well. We're new at this--can you tell?

a thank you

I just wanted to extend an extremely huge thank-you from my family and I, to everyone who helped us out with all our frantic packing, organizing, cleaning and readying of the house. Honestly, we couldn't have done it without you, and were definitely the most productive when others were helping us.
Thanks a trillion! Or, merci beaucoup!

many things that boggle me about Switzerland

1. Peanut butter is advertised as "American food," and the only kind that they sell is Barney's Best, which is like Skippy, but gross.
2. Their teabags are strange.
3. They don't have coffee, just espresso and diluted espresso.
4. Everyone's really nice.
5. They all seem to think I speak French. Even the tourists ask me for directions!
6. It is such a small country, yet still seems to have sooo much space.
7. All the stop signs say "STOP" in English.
8. All the mens' shorts are so short.
9. My new Swiss bank account doesn't automatically have ten trillion dollars in it.
10. You can't smile in official photographs...

More to come. :]

taking photos has never been this challenging

Today was an adventure.
Not strictly an exciting, courage-inducing, risky type adventure... more of a long, walking required, hilarious and slightly embarrassing adventure.

Today, we registered for residency in the canton of Vaud. For those of you reading who are ignorant to the ways of Switzerland (only kidding... that was me a few months ago), cantons are like small states--more the size of counties--and all immigrants have to register soon after arrival. So, we traipsed up six trillion flights of stairs in the unusually hot Swiss weather. Next, we struggled to communicate with the woman behind the desk, who spoke very little English, until she summoned her colleague--who spoke slightly more English. We filled out a long and tedious form that was translated rather poorly from French, and then, after handing over passports, birth and marriage certificates, were told we needed to also provide three passport size photos.

So, we began our adventure. We wandered through tiny, darling streets until we found the supermarket, and dished over 16 CHF for six photos each at the instant photo booth. The photos came out appallingly badly, but we were in a rush to get to the bank, so we headed back towards the registry anyways.

Upon arrival, we were told that we were not allowed to show teeth in our photos. Apparently, all official photos in Switzerland must be taken with a "neutral" expression (at least that explained why the photographer barked at me in French when I smiled too widely for my school photo), so we had to go back to the photo booth, pay again, and take this time, even more hideous (and hilarious) photos.
At least this time, they were accepted.

an arrival

Claire est en la Suisse.

OK, that's about all the French I know, I admit.
But, Claire is in Switzerland.

It's crazy. To be quite honest, I can't quite believe that I'm not just here on vacation or something. Everyone speaks French. My parents and I have already made fools of ourselves in a café, a co-op, and a restaurant. It seems that a complete vocabulary of "oui, non, bonjour, merci and croissant" is not quite enough to get by.

But we're here. I've got to say, the trip over was probably one of the most unpleasant travel experiences I've ever had. We thought that once we were in the airport with our baggage, all the incredible stress and anxiety of the move would miraculously melt away--but it was not to be.

Our flight out of SFO (destined for Calgary) was 35 minutes delayed... and the flight took an extra 20 minutes. This wouldn't have been a problem, but for the fact that our one hour layover in the Calgary airport was now reduced to 5 minutes. Oh, and did I mention that Canadian airports make you go through customs, get your baggage, re-check it, and go through security AGAIN, even if your not even entering the country? And they're about twelve times more stringent with security, taking away stuff that SFO had no problem with (like my dull-nosed craft scissors. Um, hello? I could stab someone in the eye with my knitting needles, which I was let on the plane with, but my round-tipped scissors were too sharp??)... We were told that they would hold our flight to Frankfurt for us, but by the time we got our boarding passes, they told us that plane had left, and we were now headed for London. That wouldn't have been a problem if Heathrow wasn't a disaster. But it was.
We spent our entire three-hour layover in Heathrow first waiting in a line for new boarding passes, and then waiting in another, even more monstrous line to get through security--for the THIRD time (because apparently we could have aquired some sort of dangerous or prohibited item during the time that we spent over the Atlantic Ocean or something).
Luckily, the flight to Geneva was uneventful (except for the rather odd man next to me who kept up a mumbled running commentary of the entire flight for two and a half hours) as well as the trip to our rental house.

Now, we can breathe a little. The area is beautiful (I'll post pictures soon). There are still lots of logisitics to get through, but at least we're here, and no longer have to deal with the ten trillion little tasks of readying the house for renters. We hope that within five weeks, we'll have a permanent place to stay, means of communication, and at least a basic understanding of French (haha. Righttt).

a hasty note

In twelve hours, we will be boarding our flight.
Is it completely ridiculous, after all the packing and stress and hassle and worry and work and effort, that I haven't quite comprehended the fact that I'm moving across the world yet? Because I haven't. I suppose, when I step off the plane in the other end, and everyone in the Geneva airport speaks French, I just might realize that this is all real.
I'm just finishing up the last of my packing... wanted to post a little something before I jet off.

No, but honestly. Is this for real happening??

a frantic beginning

In one hundred and nineteen hours, forty-one minutes and some odd seconds, I'll be on a plane to Switzerland. Given the near absurdity of moving across the world, I should probably be freaking out more than I currently am, but I'm strangely calm--of course, this could have something to do with the fact that I'm exhausted, it's 1:30 am, and I spent twelve hours today alternately running errands and packing.

My parents are slightly frantic at the moment. You know that period of time, right before you finish a huge project, when you think you'll never ever be done? Yeah, that's the space they're in right now. The house needs painting and re-carpeting and the cabinets and counter tops are getting re-done, the patio is getting bricked, the trees are getting trimmed, the light fixtures and doorknobs and other such knickknacks are getting replaced, the cars are selling, the cottage kitchen is getting remodeled... and there's still a massive amount of packing to do. Suddenly one hundred and nineteen hours seems impossibly short.