Christmas in California

The first thing we did when we got to California was go to In-n-Out. Typical. But I definitely think we deserved it... our trip back was stressful once again, thanks to AirCanada. Why they make everyone go through Canadian customs, pick up their luggage, go through American customs, re-check their luggage, and re-go through security any time you have a layover in a Canadian airport, I do not know! But you'd think they'd give at least three hours to go through all of that, right? Haha. No. On our flight over in August, we had 55min. On our flight on the 23rd, they oh-so-generously gave us 1h25min. But, of course, both times our flight was 45min late. Needless to say, we missed our connecting flight in August. The only way we managed to make our flight from Calgary to San Francisco this time was because they held the plane for us and the three others who were running across the airport like mad people.
So In-n-Out was well deserved.

We spent the next few days at my grandparents' house in Petaluma, and had a really fun holiday with my extended family. I then spent a couple days visiting friends before heading off on a blissful mediation retreat in the Santa Cruz mountains.
We spent the last few days of our time in California frantically trying to see everyone before we left. While it was a really fun trip, it was also really busy, and not exactly the much needed relaxation, if you know what I mean.
Now, though, we're back in Switz (with my brother!), and have a few days before school starts to relax... and write those ten AP Euro essays that I've been procrastinating (I'm serious, though. We have to write ten).

Happy New Year, everyone! 2009 was a pretty incredible year for us, and we're hoping the same for you, as well as in 2010.

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).