Hello from across the big pond

I have made it! I am currently sitting on my new bed, in my new room, in my new house, in Geneva, Switzerland. This is unreal.  I am already in love with this place, but it hasn't been this peachy the whole time...now I'm not going to complain throughout this whole blog or post, but it is my blog and it is one way for me to remember my trip and for my friends and family to see what life is really like over here....

         It all started in Tulsa on 07/12 at 9:40 AM with overweight bags...oops, and then it was the monsoon taking over Houston.  I was bumped to an earlier flight (yay), but we were still too late to make my connecting flight.  If any of you know me very well, you know that I am a FREAK about being on time, actually I prefer to be extremely early...and well that didn't happen.  So here I am among hundreds of other people who are in the same boat or shall I say the same line that is so long I coudn't see where it started.   Hmmm I'm hungry and who knows how long I'll be in this line and there is no telling what they might feed me on an international flight, that is if I can get on another...So I tapped the sweet elderly man in front of me on the shoulder and asked if I could run and grab food and get back in line, I even bribed him with food...It worked so the first thing in sight was Popeye's chicken. Yummm.  I slowly made my way through the billion people running around and back to my spot in line and up walks a customer service representative from United Airlines.  She leaned in, handed me a small sliver of paper and told me to call the number, so obviously I did...A real human being answered the phone and within 3 minutes, they completely rerouted me and emailed me my new itinerary.  I passed the piece of paper down the line and the line nearly disappeared.  Thank you UNITED AIRLINES.... 

So from there I was rerouted to Frankfurt, Germany on Lufthansa Airlines and it was incredible. The seats were very comfortable, food was decent (not the breakfast though), the attendants were so kind, and great in-flight entertainment. My only complaint has nothing to do with the airline, just the two men I was squished between....Why do men think they have to spread their legs and take up all of the space, and then once you get comfortable, they decide they need to go take a lap around the plane.  I landed in Frankfurt, Germany after a 9 hour flight.  I then had my first German Pretzel, which was quite delicious.  I boarded my flight to Geneva, Switzerland and arrived a short hour later...

Upon arrival, I had a plan to go to the "water closet" and freshen up and make myself look presentable before meeting my "family"....but that was not the case.  My luggage never arrived, my new "mum" was waiting for me for almost 2 hours until I was finished trying to communicate with the french speaking, lost baggage man.  Hopefully with today's technology they can find them, because at this point my wardrobe isn't looking too hot:  

6 pairs of nike shorts, 2 tshirts (don't match any of the shorts), snow boots, 2 pairs of wedges, make up, jewelry, a sleeping bag and of course all of my electronics!

I have no idea what I was thinking when packing that little thing, but we will work with what we have....I was greeted at the airport by my new "mom" and she will be called C. (Oh and they do the 3 kisses on the cheek, you start on the left side, I was just expecting the 2!  ) the current au pair, and one of the two boys I will be caring for.  They are the absolute sweetest family, and I am so excited.  Geneva is everything I imagined and more, I can't wait to explore.  My new digs are pretty sweet as well.  I have a room in the basement (not scary), that has a ton of space with a nice seating area with two love seats, a desk and plenty of storage...The house is stunning and the view of the lake, mountains, and countryside is absolutely breathtaking. I'll put pictures up tomorrow.

I have been with the current or previous au pair and she has been telling me everything, it is a ton of information, but I know I will catch on quickly.  They had a small dinner party with friends tonight, and it was fun to meet people this early on.  Dinner was quite a shock because the conversation was totally in French and it was so incredibly fast paced that I only picked up on one or two words, but I am determined to be able to carry on a conversation entirely in french before I leave.  After dinner, E (other au pair) wanted me to me some of the locals and some other au pairs, so I made a new friend whom I plan on traveling with quite a bit, and we headed to a "party", it was comparable to a frat party, but with very smart people from all over the world.  I met a ton of really nice people and am glad I went with E.  One tricky part is that we ride the bus everywhere and the bus had stopped running, which meant we had to take a cab from this place which was so far out of town it was unreal.  The cost of the cab was over 100cf! I couldn't believe it.

   It is now 4:15 AM and I am lying in bed wrapping this up.  I am exhausted and we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, because tomorrow is the "Lake Parade" which is once a year and it is a huge parade and the festivities carry on until 2 or 3 in the morning.  I'm off to bed now, I apologize for the length of this.

Love,

Your Swiss Miss