My Final Weeks with the Family

After saying goodbye to some friends, it was time for a few weeks of isolation with the family. Two weeks in France. Two weeks without internet. Two weeks with a lot of French. Two weeks.

So the week started with a Monday train to Le Chaufaud. It is a very small village right on the border of Switzerland and France. I mean right on the border.  It was about a 10 minute walk to Switzerland.  It is an old house that has been in the family for generations. It was the taken by the Nazis in World War II and became their headquarters on the border (as Switzerland was a neutral country people were trying to cross to freedom).  It is also a very old house. It was the end of July and it was raining and freezing in the house. Shoes, sweaters, electric and wood fire heaters were in full use. It was just me Baby Gaga and G for the week; and a few generations of Mama C’s family.  It was such a cool experience to see four generations of a family together.  

Mama C's Dad gave me joking looks of disapproval as I would respond to the French I understood in English. He told G to only speak French with me, which she did every once in awhile, but always quickly returned to English. This is one of the many reason my French is no where close to fluency! Other than that, I went on a couple of hikes with and without the girls. 

This was a tough week. I had been hearing G say things for months about my leaving, but this week, she was telling me how she is going to have a crying, screaming fit when I leave her. She repeated that fact that I am in fact “leaving her” too many times. Each time it became more difficult for me to respond to. On top of that, Baby Gaga has reached 10 months, which is the age of becoming clingy. She would literally only go to me and her Mom. Since her Mom was back in Zurich, we spent a week attached at the hip. Lucky for me she is sleeping through the night and likes to nap a couple of time during the day.  She is as close to “my baby” as I want to be for a long time to come. But she is my baby. When I see her go only to her Mom and me, I realize that the relationship I have with her is special. I am not her Mom and she knows it, but I am second best.

After a weekend off, I headed to Hyéres, to spend a week on a vineyard on the sea with the other side of Mama C’s family. This could not have contrasted more to the cabin in the woods. There was a chef, a pool, and the sea was a short walk away. Many spent the day on the boat, diving and drinking; followed by a French meal. The attire was dressy. Champagne with apértif. Salad or cold soup, meat and vegetables, a cheese patter, and dessert. And obviously, a copious amount of wine. Rosé. Red. White. Ports. 

Most everyone spoke English this week. While most of the time it was French, Mama C’s family is international. There were Americans, French who live in the United States, and the French who live in London. Since, I have not succeeded in speaking French (comprehension only...and even that is debatable at times), Mama C’s family is extremely welcoming and happy to speak English with me. The conversations always ended up back in French, as they should, but I would throw in my own sentence in English here and there.

This was not a bad place to spend my last week with the kids. It was a bittersweet week. I am sad to say goodbye to the kids in a few days but I am glad that the job is over in so many ways. I made it through a year and I am positive I made the right decision in not sticking around for any longer.  I will have one last day/dinner with the kids before I am off to finish my travels and head home. No one is making it easy for me to leave but if goodbyes are hard then it means you made some good friends and did a good job right?

The vineyard on the way to the sea!

The beach

My beach babe

EXTREME Weekend

This weekend will go down as one of my favorite of the year. My friend Maggie from university (I am soo European now) came down from Germany to explore Zurich a bit and most importantly head up to Interlaken for the weekend. After a wonderful Canadian dinner, filled with too much sugar and a game of charades about Canada, Maggie (friend from university..again sooo European), Kathryn, Anna, and I took a train to Interlaken, a popular destination for outdoor adventures in Switzerland.

Shortly after arriving and getting to our hostel, we were on our way to go paragliding! A little terrified and really excited we were giggling our way up the mountain in a car full of people. We pick our guides and headed to our take off spot, seen above. 

After finding a few ways to release our nervous feelings, we were strapped in. My guide asked me if I can run and I said yes, but I usually don't start flying after running for a little while so I am not sure how this will go. He laughed and we started running. And by running a mean we jogged a few steps and then couldn't touch the ground any more. It was simple and absolutely amazing!

View from the sky

The entire experience was absolutely amazing! I am so glad we did it! I really want to do it again all over the world! We were proud of ourselves and headed off to have a delicious wrap and a beer in celebration! 

After we finished the first attempt of being outdoorsy of the day, we headed off to some waterfalls. Along the hike we saw a few here and there.  It was another gorgeous view in the utopia which is known as Switzerland. 

Now, we arrived at the waterfalls and were a little annoyed we had to pay to get in. However, after go up the caves that have been cut next to these waterfalls. It was unbelievable. There was talk of negative ions creating positive vibes. It is totally true. The feel in the caves was amazing and beautiful.  I also felt like it was the environment that Disneyland tries to recreate, and let me say, their effort is appreciated but it just can't compete with the real thing. 

Maggie hanging out in the "weeds"

Kathryn wanted to befriend a cow on our hike.

In the caves!

Double Rainbow

Despite the positive energy we were all experiencing, Kathryn took a little fall. There was blood but she is slowly recovering. Luckily, that was the only real injury for the weekend!

After our big day, we headed back to our tent hostel and ran into some people from Zurich (really small world). We headed out to dinner with them for some delicious Mexican food! Soooo good! I wouldn't have guessed it! Margaritas and a burrito so it was the perfect meal to end the day. We headed to the hostel's party afterwards! 

After a late night, we got up for our last sport of the weekend.  Whitewater rafting. I was more nervous about this than I was for paragliding. This time, we were a key part of the process of surviving. They kept talking about people falling off and what to do and not to panic and watch out for rocks because they can really hurt you. All the things you know but still scary to hear about. 

As it turns out, this is also not as scary as you think it is going to be.  We swam in the 5 degree water and ended in a gorgeous lake.  I am so lucky to have such amazing friends and absolutely loved this weekend...

But wait, it isn't over! After getting back into Zurich, we met up with some of the other girls (and one guy) to experience blind dining. There are a few restaurants around the world, the first one was in Zurich. It is an experience worth having if you have one by you.  You lock up your belongings when you get to the restaurant, look at the menu, and then are guided into the restaurant by your waiter.  Our waitress, Rita, was blind and they employ a mostly blind wait staff.  

After being directed to your seat, you order your drinks and food.  There were 8 of us there so we established where everyone was sitting and how far away from one another you are.  Usually your eyes will find something to focus on, but there was no way to see anything at all. You have to feel for your cup, plate, knife, and fork.  We found ourselves continuing to talk with our hands. I started to close my eyes at times just because it was easier than trying to focus. The food was okay, but it is the experience that made the dinner! 

We ended the weekend at our favorite bar, Oliver Twists with some darts and a few games of giant Jenga. It was hands down one of my favorite weekends full of overcoming fears, too many laughs, and some of the most amazing people I know!

A Sunny Ski Week

Skiing is a huge thing in Switzerland. With the Alps all around us, most people learn to ski when they are 3 years old.  Skiing is so big that they get a ski break (1-2 weeks) off from school to take advantage of the slopes all around them.  So off to the mountains I went with Mama C and the kids.  We stayed with a family friend in Falera, Switzerland. It is absolutely beautiful and a perfect week in the mountains by my standards.  It was about nearly 50 degrees every day and there were few clouds in the sky.  This meant that I was able to go some amazing hikes and runs (yes you read that right). I got some sun on my face and attempted to reintroduce the sun to my legs as well.  It can be described at nothing other than glorious!

Mama C was extremely generous and offered to pay for me to have a private ski lesson.  So made the reservations and was asked what level I was at.  I promptly responded with "beginner."  She looked at me confused and clarified that I meant beginner (remember how everyone learns to ski when they are 3?).  I confirmed.  The nice lady told me to meet my instructor at the Pony Slope. "You know where the kids ski?"  I laughed to myself and said yes.

I was off to the lesson on Wednesday morning.  I walked out of the rental place with my skis and within 15 seconds fell backwards. Skis and poles flew and the man from the rental shop looked at me trying not to laugh and asked if I was ok.  I quickly gathered myself, nodded, and moved quickly away from the scene.  I was off to a great start.

I headed to the PonySlope to start my lesson with a bruised hiney and, in all honesty, not feeling very confident.  I was having flashbacks to screaming and tumbling down the mountain a few weeks prior.

I met my instructor.  She decided to clarify that I was a beginning and once I confirmed we started.  We had the slope to ourselves for the first hour, and then the kids came with their parents.  I could do nothing other than laugh at the current situation.  I was learning out to snowplow surrounded by kids with the average age of 5.  Parents stared confused and I smiled as my instructor held my poles up the t-bar.

The lesson ended and I was feeling good.  I didn't fall and I was turning like it was second nature.  I spent some time alone on the slope and then headed back to the house for lunch.  I wish my story ended there, but because I was feel like so good they gave me their lift pass and I headed to a blue slope (blue is the easiest here).  P (the 9 year old boy) came up with me. 

The blue slope was not so easy and I was not so confident once I left the kids' slope.  No matter how much I knew what I was supposed to do, without the confidence the idea of gaining speed was too much for me to handle.  I told P to snowboard down without me. I gave it a try but ended up walking down holding my skis.  While I now know the technique to turn and stop, I can't say that I will picking up the sport any time soon.

**I have run into some computer problems and have limited access to a computer at the moment so I am a bit late on any updates/pictures and will be for a couple weeks probably.