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!