Thursday, June 5, 2008
Rain, rain, go away...
Unfortunately, it did start raining again, and my plans to explore were thwarted once again by the inclement weather. So instead I stayed at home, like a good little girl, and did my college research. I have decided I don't think I want to go to college in Canada. Today we had our math test, and one girl in my class here only lasted about ten minutes before she tried to hand in her paper and burst into tears, saying she didn't know how to do any of it. I felt really bad for her, and a few of the others did the same thing and handed their papers in really early without having done very much. I was the last one to hand mine in, of course, and then we were all free for the day, and it was only around 11:30. Kim asked me if I wanted to come with her and some others to get lunch in the city and then go with Lucie to see of friend of theirs. I agreed to go, although not because I really wanted to, but more because I thought I should continue to try to be social. So we went to the city, found Ken, and went to lunch at - guess where - that's right, McDonald's. One of the guys, Nicolas, got a huge soda, almost 1 liter. And I keep thinking, I'm supposed to be the American, right? But they all go shopping and eat fast food so much more than I ever have. Anyway, after that, Lucie, Kim and I went to find this friend of there's. I asked who he was, and what we were going to do, but I got no real answer. So we turn up in Onex, and he and Thomas are there. And they all pull out their cigarettes and walk to a park, where we sit ourselves down on a bench and we end up staying there for about 3 hours. I was bored out of my mind, and was wondering how they enjoyed doing things like this as a way of being social. Smoke together, shop together, drink together. They smoked more than just cigarettes, and when it started to rain we went to one of the guys' apartment and did the same thing there, only there was a TV in front of us with a terrible, old, American movie about some guy in LA and lots of shooting, where the bad guys were all black. Not only that, but it was badly dubbed in French. So I sat on the couch there until they decided they were ready to go home, and I have only now gotten back to Kim's house. One of the guys was kind of nice, and spoke very good English because he had lived in London with his girlfriend for three years, so it was nice to talk to him about that, because he was obviously happy to have a chance to practice his English. So now I am back here, very tired, headache-y and hungry. I am going to try to go to bed really early tonight, I think.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Walking the Dog
With only 17 days left until I come back, I'm now at the point where I have to make sure I do everything that I wanted to do before I leave. On the 19th our class is going to Annecy, in France, for a day trip. Next Wednesday I might go with Maryse to the Red Cross, and this Saturday or Sunday I might go to the U.N. with Marie and Rachel. Yesterday we had our three hour long, torturous French test, and I thought I had done terribly, and actually dreamt last night that I had gotten the worst score and that the school was mad at me, but today the French teacher showed me what I had done and its not bad. Not a perfect score, but way better that I had expected. Today they had English, which I happily didn't have to take, but tomorrow is the math test. So today I plan on taking my bag with some math work in it, putting the dog on a leash, and going for a little exploratory walk around Chancy. I've walked around here before, but I thought I might go in a different direction today. Hopefully it won't start raining again.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Motorcycles and McDonald's
First motorcycles... On Friday evening, Kim's best friend, Lucie, invited me to go out with her, and some other people who live near her in France. She and her father picked me up around nine, and we drove to her house in Farges, and then walked to the house of her friend, Margot. We hung around there for a bit, waiting for her jeans to dry, and two guys, friends of theirs who I had met before came up on their motorcycles. So when Margot was ready, we all found helmets, and she got her scooter, while Lucie and I each got on behind one of the guys. I went on a motorcycle!!! I thought I would be scared, but it was exhilarating and awesome. We went to two different bars, and one of them was called Blue Moon. We had a good time, they were all very nice, and talked to me quite a bit, which I appreciate. I slept at Lucie's house that night, or morning rather, because I didn't get to bed until almost 3 AM. Next morning I went shoe shopping with Lucie and her mom, and it was pouring rain outside. She got her shoes and we went to a mall, while her mom got groceries, Lucie looked at playboy stuff, and got a tank top that says cherry up on it, with two happy cherries. The amount of European clothing with writing in English on it is astounding, there is really so much of it, and they buy it without knowing what it says. So that was nice, we went back to her house, watched Taxi, which was very good, and then her brother brought me home.
Now for McDonald's... Later that evening, I took the bus to school to meet Kim and Ken at the 12th grade class play, called Three Diamonds and a Woman, which was kind of boring, but alright. It was my second time seeing it. Matthieu, a guy in my class here, was in their play as a small part, and he was great, really funny. He played the grandfather, and was bouncing up and down in his chair and shaking like crazy, and repeating himself very loudly. After the play ended, really late for a play, around 10:30, I think, I went with Kim, Ken, Matthieu, and Joel, a guy who used to be in their class, to a historic site - Switzerland's first McDonald's, in Geneva. I was the only one who didn't get anything. McDonald's is so expensive here in comparison to the US, and it is never my favorite food, so I'm really not tempted, but they all go there all the time. I have been to McDonald's more times since I have been here than I have in at least the last six months in the US. Kim and I couldn't stay out too late, because the last bus home left at 1:30, so while we did go to a bar with the guys, we could only stay for 20 minutes. The bar was called the LA Cafe, I thought that was funny. The inside had a lot of Hollywood memorabilia and stuff. So after the long bus ride home, I went to sleep at 2:30 AM for the second night in a row.
The next day I slept in, and Kim and I stayed home and did homework, and Ken came over in the afternoon, and that was the extent of my weekend. Fun, tiring, and feeling far too short. In my opinion, three day weekends are better, and vacations are best. I can't wait for this summer!
Now for McDonald's... Later that evening, I took the bus to school to meet Kim and Ken at the 12th grade class play, called Three Diamonds and a Woman, which was kind of boring, but alright. It was my second time seeing it. Matthieu, a guy in my class here, was in their play as a small part, and he was great, really funny. He played the grandfather, and was bouncing up and down in his chair and shaking like crazy, and repeating himself very loudly. After the play ended, really late for a play, around 10:30, I think, I went with Kim, Ken, Matthieu, and Joel, a guy who used to be in their class, to a historic site - Switzerland's first McDonald's, in Geneva. I was the only one who didn't get anything. McDonald's is so expensive here in comparison to the US, and it is never my favorite food, so I'm really not tempted, but they all go there all the time. I have been to McDonald's more times since I have been here than I have in at least the last six months in the US. Kim and I couldn't stay out too late, because the last bus home left at 1:30, so while we did go to a bar with the guys, we could only stay for 20 minutes. The bar was called the LA Cafe, I thought that was funny. The inside had a lot of Hollywood memorabilia and stuff. So after the long bus ride home, I went to sleep at 2:30 AM for the second night in a row.
The next day I slept in, and Kim and I stayed home and did homework, and Ken came over in the afternoon, and that was the extent of my weekend. Fun, tiring, and feeling far too short. In my opinion, three day weekends are better, and vacations are best. I can't wait for this summer!
Continued...
Part two of my Swiss cheese adventure
We found the hotel after driving around confused for a bit, and stopping to eat our picnic dinner in the car because it was raining outside. The directions to the hotel were very vague, something like, "Turn right after the first forest beyond this town." So that really confused us for a while, and then Maryse just found it, through her instinctive bed-finding ability. It was a small hotel and restaurant on an organic farm, and the whole thing was beautiful and hilariously Waldorf-y looking, with doors frames without any right angles at the top, the distinctive Waldorf font used for the sign, and typical Waldorfian clothes, books, and toys being sold at the hotel's gift shop. Our room was beautiful, green, and had a balcony and just felt so peaceful overall. In the morning we got up fairly early, and Maryse and I went to a little indoor gardening area where we sat and read or wrote until the breakfast was available. The breakfast was amazingly good, with much of it produced from the farm. There was coffee and tea, croissants, bread, many different cheeses (including a very good carrot one), jelly, yogurt, granola, cereal, juice, and fruit. It felt like the perfect breakfast. Afterward we went with Michael to the farm's cheesemaker, who very kindly offered to give us a little tour and explanation of how he managed the farm and the cheese-making. This was the first time I had experienced a Swiss-German area of Switzerland, but the cheese-maker spoke very good English with us. After that, we walked around the farm a little bit, checked out the bee hives, the cows, and two adorable kittens, which made me think of the two that my family will be getting soon at home. Maryse saw some rocks that she was interested in getting for her garden, so we drove the car down, loaded up the trunk with rocks, and set out the second part of our great cheese adventure. We drove through a lot of incredibly picturesque farmland, and through Vully (I think), and Montreux. The mountains towering over the lake looked incredible, and it made me feel very surrounded and shut in, in a way. We passed into France, and there was a policeman checking each car as it passed through, but he let us go right away, because of Maryse's smile as we drove up. She got teased about that for a bit as we continued on to Evian, home of the Evian bottled water company. It was a bizarre place, because it is a casino town, which contrasted weirdly with a feeling of quaintness at the same time, but it was really hot and expensive there, and most things were closed because it was a holiday, so we didn't stay for long. We eventually got to our next destination of Abondance, a small village in the French mountains known for a type of cheese that is illegal in the U.S.. Michael got some, and we walked around for a bit. While walking past a group of kids, one of the boys who was probably around 13 years old, asked Maryse where she was from. She told him, and then Michael said he was from California, and then I said I was from New York, but the kid didn't believe me and asked if I spoke English, but I didn't understand him. Then Maryse explained, and I said "Yes," very emphatically, I guess, and the kid looked really surprised and walked away, and Maryse started laughing. It must be surprising to find two people from different parts of America, and one from Switzerland walking through your small village, while the only tourist draw is during the winter for skiing. So that was our last stop before heading back to Geneva, where Maryse and Michael dropped me off at Kim's house.
Overall, I had a really great time, saw some amazing things, ate really good food, won the navigating contest between me and Michael, and learned a lot about cheese-making.
We found the hotel after driving around confused for a bit, and stopping to eat our picnic dinner in the car because it was raining outside. The directions to the hotel were very vague, something like, "Turn right after the first forest beyond this town." So that really confused us for a while, and then Maryse just found it, through her instinctive bed-finding ability. It was a small hotel and restaurant on an organic farm, and the whole thing was beautiful and hilariously Waldorf-y looking, with doors frames without any right angles at the top, the distinctive Waldorf font used for the sign, and typical Waldorfian clothes, books, and toys being sold at the hotel's gift shop. Our room was beautiful, green, and had a balcony and just felt so peaceful overall. In the morning we got up fairly early, and Maryse and I went to a little indoor gardening area where we sat and read or wrote until the breakfast was available. The breakfast was amazingly good, with much of it produced from the farm. There was coffee and tea, croissants, bread, many different cheeses (including a very good carrot one), jelly, yogurt, granola, cereal, juice, and fruit. It felt like the perfect breakfast. Afterward we went with Michael to the farm's cheesemaker, who very kindly offered to give us a little tour and explanation of how he managed the farm and the cheese-making. This was the first time I had experienced a Swiss-German area of Switzerland, but the cheese-maker spoke very good English with us. After that, we walked around the farm a little bit, checked out the bee hives, the cows, and two adorable kittens, which made me think of the two that my family will be getting soon at home. Maryse saw some rocks that she was interested in getting for her garden, so we drove the car down, loaded up the trunk with rocks, and set out the second part of our great cheese adventure. We drove through a lot of incredibly picturesque farmland, and through Vully (I think), and Montreux. The mountains towering over the lake looked incredible, and it made me feel very surrounded and shut in, in a way. We passed into France, and there was a policeman checking each car as it passed through, but he let us go right away, because of Maryse's smile as we drove up. She got teased about that for a bit as we continued on to Evian, home of the Evian bottled water company. It was a bizarre place, because it is a casino town, which contrasted weirdly with a feeling of quaintness at the same time, but it was really hot and expensive there, and most things were closed because it was a holiday, so we didn't stay for long. We eventually got to our next destination of Abondance, a small village in the French mountains known for a type of cheese that is illegal in the U.S.. Michael got some, and we walked around for a bit. While walking past a group of kids, one of the boys who was probably around 13 years old, asked Maryse where she was from. She told him, and then Michael said he was from California, and then I said I was from New York, but the kid didn't believe me and asked if I spoke English, but I didn't understand him. Then Maryse explained, and I said "Yes," very emphatically, I guess, and the kid looked really surprised and walked away, and Maryse started laughing. It must be surprising to find two people from different parts of America, and one from Switzerland walking through your small village, while the only tourist draw is during the winter for skiing. So that was our last stop before heading back to Geneva, where Maryse and Michael dropped me off at Kim's house.
Overall, I had a really great time, saw some amazing things, ate really good food, won the navigating contest between me and Michael, and learned a lot about cheese-making.
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