Author Archives: lauren

Gratitude Friday: Witnessing Something Truly Majestic

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Post by Lauren

Some of you may recall the movie The Bucket List. A few years ago, my church did a series playing on the theme of movie – related to being a good friend, a good spouse, a good parent, being a good employee, etc. and not putting those things you wanted to improve before life suddenly “ran out”. I loved the series and ended up seeing the movie in the theatre with my friend Pamela. I specifically remember coming out of the theatre with faces tear-stained and bumping into mutual friends. They were laughing at how hard we must have bawled during it to get faces looking like ours! Nevertheless, we both took lessons from the movie.

At the time, we had lived in Charlotte, along with our friend Randi, about 8 years and always had a list of things we wanted to do but never did. Her’s consisted of hiking Crowders Mountain. Mine was going to Lazy 5 animal ranch. Amongst other things along those lines. We were all off from work the week after Christmas and staying in town so we ended up doing a Charlotte “Bucket List”. We crossed something off every day:

Bucket List Week / Charlotte, NC 2009

At the end of the week, we had always wanted to host a neighborhood bar crawl in the little part of Charlotte we lived in (Dilworth) and that culminated the week. My favorite part of Bucket List Week is that a certain gentleman joined us on the bar crawl and that was the night that led to us dating (and you know the rest of the story) and we moved to Switzerland and that leads us to….

Bar Crawl / Bucket List Week / Dilworth, NC 2009

…..today’s gratitude post. The movie, Bucket List, included a theme where the two main characters who both were dying of cancer created list of things they wanted to do before they “kicked the bucket”. Morgan Freeman’s character had written “witness something truly majestic”. Witnessing something majestic had always sounded really intriguing, and this past week, I think I hit it when we were on the top of Mont Blanc on Sunday.

According to wikipedia, Mont Blanc is the highest peak in Europe, (on this side of Russia) and is the 3rd most visited natural site in the world. We visited in the middle of summer, and it is still snow-capped and amazing. The contrast to the surrounding mountains that are adjusting to their summer climate while Mont Blanc still is glacial, is simply mind-blowing. And, I had never thought I would actually ever see a glacier that close in my life.

So, this week, my gratitude Friday is dedicated to witnessing majestic Mont Blanc and being grateful for the beautiful majestic things we have on this Earth. Bon weekend, everyone!

All photos courtesy of Henry Birmingham

Montreux Jazz Festival

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Post by Lauren

We had so many neat adventures this past weekend that I wanted to dive deeper into a few so that you could get the full experience. Luckily, guest Henry Birmingham is an amazing photographer so the next two days of posts are going to have more eye-candy than you are used to (all of the photos are his).

On Saturday, we traveled to Montreux Jazz Festival. According to wikipedia, Montreux Jazz Festival is the 2nd largest music festival in the world, after Montreal’s. If you recall, Gabe and I had been to Montreux on our first trip to Geneva – most of the sunset photos on our first post are of its beautiful Alp-view shoreline and the Chateau Chillon.

Throughout the week, artists such as B.B. King, Ziggy Marley, Carlos Santana, Natalie Cole, Jimmy Cliff, Seal, Quincy Jones, Paul Simon, House of Pain, Liza Minnelli, and everyone’s favorite Ricky Martin were playing in the different venues set up on the lakeshore. With us going the first Saturday, all the shows were sold out, but nonetheless, we decided to go check it out. Also, we heard there was a Jazz Train and Latin Music boat that could be cool options if we wanted a different pace from the land part of the festival.

We set out upon our day and had a little bit of a hiccup as it was the International Gay Pride Festival and they had started to close off the Geneva streets close to the train station. We finally decided to jump out and walk the last part. Here, Gabe is doing a victory cheer for beating the bus (bus in the distance)

After an hour train ride, we arrived and were immediately greeted by great music, beautiful art and our favorite find….reasonably priced AWESOME food. We are used to paying ridiculous prices for average food back home in Geneva. We prioritized and immediately split up to go get some eats and meet back at a table. This one kind of had a nice view.

The jazz train and salsa boat (above, bottom left) did look like fun, but we ended up just hanging out in the park watching the free jazz and wandering along the coastline to all the cool vendors.

We found the experience to be really cool, even without checking out one of the shows. We calculated that we can buy train tickets to Montreux, eat delicious festival fare and it will still cost less than an average low-budget meal in Geneva. Based on that, we may try to go back before it ends in 2 weeks. Maybe even to a real show this time!

 

Photo Moment : The Swan

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Post by Lauren

Maybe I just wanted an excuse to take Gabe’s fancy camera out, but I joined the Photography Group at the AIWC. The group which meets monthly to shoot, discuss and share work on a particular photographic theme. This month’s was “water”.

My favorite photo moment of the day was this swan checking out the grocery cart.

I could interpret it as this strange paradigm between nature and pollution. However, I think he is trying to figure out a way to return it back to the Co-op grocery story. Since you have to pay 2 CHF to use a cart in a grocery store, a cart is worth big money when you return it. Heck, I might put on my swimsuit tomorrow and fish this out myself if he doesn’t figure out a way.

A fantastic 4th of July with Henry Birmingham

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Post by Lauren

Sorry for the tardiness of this post, but Gabe and I have been trying to recuperate from the weekend and it has taken us some extra time to get back in the swing of things, due to its epic proportions.

As most have caught on, we give our friends abbreviated names often times to protect their privacy. So, instead of a simple abbreviation, our fun-loving guest chose his alternate name as Henry Birmingham. It is a combination of the street he grew up on and his first pet or middle name. Some of you are catching on….

Anyhow, Henry was in Europe for work and we were quite excited when he announced he was coming to see us at the end of his trip for the 4th of July. We had so much fun, we have dedicated this post to…..

Top 10 reasons why we love to travel with Henry Birmingham

#10 – The flower clock reads 3:30 on Friday July 2. Gabe would normally be at work at this time but motivated by his buddy being in town, he took off and we were able to have an incredible Friday afternoon spent exploring Geneva and lake-bar-hopping. Awesome!

#9 – He is always up for Donor Kebabs and trying new beers!! Exactly what Gabe likes to do best so I am glad he had someone to do it with wholeheartedly!

#8 – Ingenuity – I mean, who else can create a cup-holder so resourcefully in a country known for no cup-holders in cars!?

#7 – His appreciation for art – he got some amazing shots at Jazz Festival

# 6 – Love of adventure. I mean, this guy just had knee surgery like 3 weeks ago and he scaled the wall for this photo. However, along this same theme, I may need to deduct some “awesomeness” points in this category as his encouragement of a third bottle of wine on the train may have given the author a headache the next day and prevented the timely posting of this entry.

# 5 – It would have been anticlimactic if Gabe and I saw T’s doppleganger by ourselves

#4 – We haven’t made late night food in a long time. Thanks for re-igniting the magic.

# 4 – We couldn’t have justified ordering both raclette-for-two AND fondue if there weren’t three mouths to feed.

# 3 – We finally have photos of both Gabe and I in Switzerland, not just one of us taken by the other one. Thanks for all the incredible shots 🙂

# 2 – His interest in snow & ski led us to pick this 2nd day trip to Chamonix / Mt. Blanc which is only 45 minutes from our house. Keep in mind folks, this is June. Outrageous!

# 1 – It was just awesome to see a great friend and have the luxury of spending a nice weekend catching up and making new memories. Thanks for coming — we had a blast !!

Canadienne Buffet: USA Style

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Post by Lauren

This week, we had a patriotic Canadienne Buffet. Not to celebrate Canada Day which was Friday I think, but a potluck picnic to celebrate the Fourth of July. If you are just catching up with our blog, my French teacher taught me that the best way to say potluck in French is “Canadienne Buffet”. We love the phrase and I plan to use it until you are tired of hearing about it. Sorry in advance.

And here is the birth story of the CB: In Switzerland, we read in our Swiss Rulebook that if you make plans for dinner with people in a restaurant, the tradition is that you should always pay — the concept of “dutch” on anything simply doesn’t exist. This wouldn’t be a big deal back in the US. To treat friends to dinner at our favorite restaurants – Alexander Michaels, The Penguin, Big Daddy’s, etc. – would be no big deal and could cost us 50, 75 bucks – maybe $100.

However, when the average decent meal out with friends in Geneva could be 250-350 CHF (300-400 USD), we found that the “potluck” allows for the social aspect of a dinner out with friends but without having to refinance the house to enjoy a night out. Plus, we think the food our friends make is better than 95% of the restaurants in Geneva.

This weekend, in honor of the holiday, we decided to grill out in the park beside the lake. We are pretty sure we aren’t supposed to grill out, but we figured it was 4th of July and that could be our excuse if we were apprehended – in our country, it is actually ILLEGAL not to grill out on 4th of July. Also, we had our friend Henry Birmingham visiting from the US, so if all else failed, we planned to blame on him and act as innocent Swiss bystanders to these crazy American ways of lighting fire to food.

It was a pretty lovely evening spent with fun folks. Happy Birthday, America!! And thanks to Henry for the fabulous photography!

My first Swiss Painting

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Post by Lauren

So, you may have noticed on our post about our new home that our water closets have an “interesting” tile color.

I took some inspiration from the Friday hikes I do with the American International Women’s Club to try to improve the situation. Two weeks ago, we hiked through some wheat fields from Jussy to Vesenaz and some of the natural yellows in the wheat fields and paths were similar to our the bathroom. So, I figured it might help our visitors not concentrate on the tile-work. Let me know what you think on the “match”.

Also, I thought you might want to check out a few photos from the hike that provided this inspiration and also see the faces of some of the wonderful women who have helped me feel more at home here in Geneva.

Plainpalais Flea Market

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Post by Lauren

This week, a highlight was my Wednesday outing with new friend, Joanne, of Lady J’s Musings. Joanne is incredibly talented in the culinary arena and takes amazing photos of her daily creations that I often spend my mornings drooling over. She is always on the hunt for unique beautiful pieces to serve her treats, so this week we decided to check out the Plainpalais flea market to see if we could discover any new finds.

This is the same market that has fruits & veggies Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays so it was pretty neat to see it in a different light.

Check out her “Bargain Hunting” post for a recap of the adventure. Next week, we plan to explore Carouge. Stay tuned!

Gratitude Friday: Our New Home

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Post by Lauren

First of all, I can’t believe its July. That is incredible. Where did this year go? Wait…I remember, getting engaged, getting married, moving across the planet, learning a new language and acclimating to a new culture!!

And since most of the first part of the year was living out of boxes, today’s gratitude Friday post goes out to…..our new home and everything about it. We are so thankful for our place. We love the serenity of the flat and are enjoying feeling settled – finally! In fact, just in time, as we have our first guest coming to Geneva this weekend!

Here is a peak at the flat….still some artwork and photos to be hung, but starting to feel “like home”.

Bon weekend, everyone!

La chambre des invités (for guests), La studio / La bureau, La cuisine, La toilettes invités, La chambre

 

La salon, La salle á manger / La bar


Zip-Pity do-da (excuse the pun)

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This week is a really fabulous week. Not only did it start off with a Canadienne Buffet, continue with a washer and dryer delivery, but now the icing on the cake….I have actually found out where exactly we live.

In Switzerland, the sections of towns are broken up into four digit zip codes. It has been quite a saga to find out which one we actually live in. This adventure started when we found out we got our apartment, at the end of March. And we have hopefully found the answer, only 14 weeks later. I’d like to share a chronological timeline of our experience with this:

March 2011: The agency calls to say “Congratulations! You got the apartment after 4 weeks of waiting on pins-and-needles! It’s official!”

March 2011: Lauren instantly takes address from house-hunting documents and enters them into TinyPrint.com to make wedding thank you cards. Hits Order. Second guesses realizes that she forgot to put an actual apartment # as it wasn’t listed on house hunting documents. Emails agency and asks whether she should stop the order to include the apartment #. Agency writes back that the address IS in fact correct, people don’t list their apartment #s. There are none – just your building number. Note: don’t apply for mailmen positions in Switzerland, this would be not fun to figure out for 16-20 apartments in every building.

April 2011: Beautiful Tiny Print thank you cards come

May 2011: Move to Switzerland. Carry one of the little thank you cards everywhere – to get TPG pass, to register for things, as it has the proper address and it is easier than butchering our address or spelling our names aloud in French. Note, registration people also appreciate such effort.

May 2001: While in temporary living, learn how to use TPG (public transportation of geneva) site to map out daily transportation. Curious to what buses come to new permanent apartment and try that. Realize that our Zip Code Original doesn’t work. It suggests our address, but with Zip Code 2…..hmm. Houston, we may have a problem.

May 2011: Email Agency. WTF? Agency advises to in fact, start using Zip Code 2 moving forward. Give out Zip code 2 when doing the rest of home-set-up. Figure that eventually people with Zip Code 1 will catch on. Realize that most people in the US won’t send us mail, so not a terribly big deal all our wedding thank you cards have the wrong address, right?

June 2011: Go on “familiarization” tour of neighborhood with agency.
When we get to the post office part, agency advises that they called prior to our day together, and actually Zip Code 1 is correct. Revert to using it. Yeah, all those Tiny Print thank you cards aren’t a waste after all!

June 2011: Go to women’s club luncheon. Have new member kit handed back to me as it was rejected when sending to Zip Code 1. Has a very clear note from La Post saying to start using Zip Code 2. Start using Zip code 2 again since they said so….

June 2011: Use Zip code 2 when ordering train tickets. Days later, train office writes me a personalized email (in English!!) saying my tickets were sent back to them. Advise them to use my husband’s name (I am not legally converted yet – story too long for this blog post) and re-send to Zip Code 1. Thank them profusely for their amazing customer service.

June 2011: A brilliant idea occurs to me. Our neighbors must know where we live and actually have the right address on their mail. Since the neighbors don’t speak English and we don’t want to confuse them hoping they’ll give us lenience on noise and all the other things we know we’ll do wrong, brainstorm an ingenious idea. [ The rest of this part has been omitted to protect author ] . Confirm neighbors have Zip Code 1.

June 2011: Train tickets successfully arrive to Zip Code 1. But, I have to walk four blocks to go get envelope with a retrieval ticket, as it was held at the post office. Even though it was an envelope that would have fit in the mailbox. Bizarre.

Conclude that sending mail to Zip 1 with husbands name is the best approach. Mission accomplished…zippity do da dandy.

Her maiden voyage

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Today was a remarkable day in our Swiss journey.

We are not only proud new owners of a washer and dryer combo (which we have been for the last 2.5 weeks). We now have that said purchase actually in our house, installed, and properly working. She had her maiden voyage today. I have named her Zuri, of the French meaning “white and lovely”.

And here she is: