Goodies, hammocks, and facetime

This week started off in one of the best ways possible! Monday morning I received an amazing package from my friends Samantha, Patti and Heather! It was filled with some of my favorite goodies (beef jerky, chewy sweet tarts, gum, spicy cheetos, etc) and some things that they had heard me complain about such as the cost of razors and the not so great toothpaste! They sent me not 1 but 4 different tubes of toothpaste haha. I'm set for life on toothpaste! They included some other little things that made me cry happy tears, I was legitimately crying while opening the package and the boys were so confused as to what was going on..yikes! So thanks again Samantha, Patti, and Heather! Love y'all.

THE BEST

Tuesday afternoon J. and I walked down to the lake and fed the ducks, and skipped rocks for awhile.  The water is pretty chilly, but that didn't keep Jenny (the dog) from jumping in and then rolling around in the dirt.  We headed back up to the house, bathed Jenny and went for an afternoon swim in the warm pool :)

It's amazing how long boys can be entertained by the simplest things...rocks

Wednesday afternoon J. and I took Jenny up to the creek behind the house. She of course went swimming, well kind of...she doesn't really swim, she just jumps in and then stands there or lays down. She never actually moves.  We went on a little walk through the woods and found some friends! We headed back down to the house to find some goodies to take back to them, but we were going to fish in the creek too! So after I gave Jenny another bath, we headed back up and here comes Jenny. She escaped from the back yard and was coming with us, I couldn't say no :) We fed carrots and apples to the horses and donkeys and went "fishing". We weren't catching anything there, so we headed down to the lake to try out the fishing there, but unfortunately nothing. One day we'll catch something!

"Dinner is on the way"

One of our new "friends"

Wednesday night, Savannah and I went to a "glocals" or geneva locals terrace party.  It was crazy, over 1000 people were there and they all spoke english, but unfortunately they weren't the nicest people. I'm not sure if I was just overwhelmed by the number of people or what, but I didn't like it too much.  I decided it was time to leave when these 4 girls rudely told me "You can't sit there, these are our couches"....OK, rude pants but this had happened to another group of girls that were standing close by and we made friends with them! Hopefully we can all hang out some other time.

Thursday, J and I went over to a friends house for lunch and the mom was so sweet! She was an au pair when she was my age, so she kind of understand the whole thing! It was fun getting to meet her and I hope we will be friends.  I spend the afternoon by the pool and did some face time with mom, taylor, nana and gargar which was so fun! I really don't know how I would do this without the technolog.

One of my favorite afternoon spots

I don't really remember anything I did on Friday except read.  I started reading, which is a big shocker, but I figured I needed something to do in my spare time and when it's too hot or too cold to be active outside.  I started reading a Nicholas Sparks book called "Safe Haven", well I started it and finished all 340 pages in one day. That my friends has never happened in my life, not even close.  It was amazing and I'm am ordering another on amazon.  I have my iPad here, but I don't really like reading on it, because it gets so hot and I'm scared the heat will make it explode, and I can't see the screen with sunglasses, 1st world problems I know :)

It was soooo good

Saturday was a fun day of exploring Geneva. I left around 11 am and returned around 11 pm. I packed a few snacks, my hammock, a water bottle, and headed out for the town.  I walked around "Old Town" and wanted to tour the tower at St. Pierre's Cathedral, but apparently everyone had the same idea, so I'm saving that one for another day.  I spent some time at a park near old town called Les Bastions, it is fantastic and has a game area, where you can play chess on the asphalt! I watched a few older men play a game of chess and it's very intense.  From there I walked down to a dock to take a seat and have a snack and right as I sat down, a group of Jets flew over my head.  I had no idea that there was an air show that afternoon and I arrived at the very start. It was pretty cool, I have never seen one before, but I've heard it is lame compared to the Blue Angels, but no complaints.  Then I went to another park called Parc de Eaux-Vives.  I had been looking all afternoon for places to put up my hammock and I finally found the perfect spot.  I was shocked by the number of people I caught staring at me while I was in it.  It was as if no one in Geneva had ever seen a hammock before, but I didn't care. I took a nice nap after 45 minutes of convincing myself that I would be ok and no one was going to come snatch me out of my hammock.  I grabbed some dinner at the fete (festival that's been going on for weeks) and headed to the other side of the park to find a good spot to watch the fireworks.  I found another great spot to hang my hammock, and again the stares continued.  They put on the best firework show I have ever seen in my life, although I will admit that I was eating american food, drinking american drinks, and listening to "America the Beautiful" sung by Ray Charles during the first few minutes. It felt like the 4th for a brief moment. I spent some late night face time with Mom M.E. at the Pi Beta Phi house and it was a blast.  I love getting to do stuff like that. She took me around to say hello and then I got to "be out front" while the girls stood in the door and sang their chants, and the tears started to fall again.  I am just such a sap these days. They started recruitment this week and I know they will the get the best of the best!

Just a little chess in the park

Air show

Grand Finale...they turn on the Jet d'Eau, it was amazing

Sunday was a day full of organizing and summer closet cleaning if you will...and it took some time, but once we started, we just couldn't stop.  We then spent some time relaxing by the pool! I wrapped up my evening with a skype sesh with the Looney clan. I loved catching up and seeing them!

This week seemed to last forever, but it was good one for sure. I often have to pinch myself and ask myself, am I really doing this? Do I really live in Switzerland? Do I really get to hang out with 2 boys and get paid for it? I love my job and life here, and looking forward to this year... I am really looking forward to this weekend, as I head to other parts of Switzerland.  Travel updates will come next week...I'm headed to bed so that's all folks.


lots of love,
your swiss miss