Highlights of November and December:
* Trip to Zurich - stayed with friends we met at Oktoberfest. Gorgeous weather and hiking above the city. Enjoyed better nightlife than Geneva has to offer.
* Thanksgiving at Brittany's house - She live just around the lake in Anieres, Switz. My group of friends and I termed the name "Instant Connection" for ourselves. I know, it's cheesy....but it stuck, and we continued to reference it (and incorporate it into Xmas gifts...) ever since Thanksgiving.
* First ski of the season. Chelsea, Rachel, Annie, and I went to Chamonix and stayed in a Chalet of an au pair friend. We ended up getting a really good deal on lift tickets because 2 guys, walking off the slopes, offered us their day passes as we arrive, so we only paid 12euros each for the day. We tried "vin chaud" during our lunch break. Couldn't get better than drinking hot, spiced wine at the base of Mont Blanc.
* Improvement of my French. At the end of November, I had to do a 15 minute presentation for my French class all in French. We could choose any cultural topic, so mine was basically about aspects of French life which are more refined/detail oriented than in North America. It centered on French food and it's influence in the US - complete with references to Julia Child, and a homemade chocolate tart :)
* At some point during November, my friends and I also developed an obsession for two things - The Crazy Canadians (a classic rock cover band who played every Wed and Thurs night in Geneva...we saw almost every performance in Nov/Dec) and the show Dexter (we had several Dexter marathons at Rachel's apartment)
* Amsterdam. I planned a solo trip to visit Anne Remmert, a Dutch friend I met while studying abroad in Australia in 2007. It was the first time we'd seen each other since then, and it was great to remember our crazy times down under. It was bitter-cold and snowy, so we didn't do as much sight seeing as I would have liked, but we did have a canal tour and I tried as much Dutch food as I could (I was so curious about what Dutch food was).
* Birthday. I had a nice birthday dinner with my host family one night, and went out with my friends for Thai food and then to see the Crazy Canadians. My friends surprised me by getting the band to play a jazzed up Happy Birthday to me and bring out a cake....it was pretty special :)
* Montreux. One Saturday, Chelsea, Rachel and I took a train to the other side of Lake Lehman to the famous Montreux Christmas market. It was another gorgeous, sunny (but cold) weekend. Although the general theme of the Christmas market seemed to be tropical (we saw plenty of jungle animal topiaries and palm trees lining the lake), we got to experience the spirit of Swiss Christmas season with all of the hand crafted goods booths and traditional delicious food (sausages, vin chaud, churros).
* Christmas Party/La Rousse - Rachel's host parents had their annual Christmas party. We all planned to dress in Christmas colors, and showed up in different variations of red tops, black bottoms - and got comments on it all night long from the non-festively dressed Swiss guests. The following morning, Rachel, Chels and I took a short drive just over the mountain to a smaller ski resort for a nice day of skiing/boarding. We packed our lunches, and really felt pretty awesome about life - with affordable slopes 25 mins away, we could do this every weekend.
That pretty much brings me up to Christmas weekend. I've just about been on vacation for the last week because Arthur stayed at his grandmother's for the week since he had off school, so I just had to care for Victoire - who is a doll. I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Brittany and her family. As bad as it sounds, it was more of a vacation for me to spend it with my friend and her immediate family than traveling with my family to be in a household of 18 French speakers for the long weekend. Brittany has a really nice set up in her house, so we could seclude ourselves when we wanted. We had a very Swiss Christmas dinner and opened presents on Christmas Eve. We got to sleep in on Christmas morning, made pancakes and scrambled eggs for the family, and watched "Breakfast at Tiffany's." We lounged around in our PJs for most of the day, and got to meet each other families on Skype and witness their Christmas mornings. I didn't get to do this last year, and had a much lonelier Christmas. It really made it feel like I was sitting right in my family room, doing the normal Christmas morning routine with my family....and there's a crazy picture to prove it.
Currently, I'm thinking about what to pack for the long-awaited Paris/London New Years Trip. Although there was a little bump in the road last week (our free place to stay, suddenly became unavailable due to plumbing issues, and we were scrambling to find somewhere for 4 girls to spend 4 nights in Paris, the week between Xmas and NYE without breaking the bank.....not fun), we found an apartment style hotel on the outskirts of the city. We won't be as central as before, but it will have a kitchenette, so we can save money by preparing our own French cuisine. The weather forecast is sunny every day for the week. We plan to get as close to the Eiffel Tower for the midnight fireworks on NYE. I know it will be completely different from when I visited when I was 11, and I want to find Hotel Novonox, the hotel my grandmother and I stayed at near Luxembourg Gardens. I'm particularly excited for London - we are going to take the "Chunnel" from Paris, have a great hostel, walking distance from everything, and are going to see the show Wicked. It will also be first time in 4 months that I've been in a native English speaking country - yahooo!!
I am amazed how fast 4 months has passed. I can't really compare it to Taiwan, but the time seems to be going faster - probably because I'm traveling and enjoy my job a lot more. Having met some amazing friends doesn't hurt either. After this Paris/London trip, I'm really not going to plan anymore trips until Spring. This will probably be the biggest one, and I want to have the funds to take warm weather trips in the Spring and Summer. I can't promise that I'll have a post right after my trip, but there shall be many pictures on Facebook.
Happy Holidays Everyone! Hope to be hearing from you in the New Year :)
