Category Archives: Learning & Growing

Gratitute Friday: Painting en plein air

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Post by Lauren

It’s been a great week…..I got to paint 3 times outdoors in the last 8 or so days. I am very thankful for the burst of beautiful weather before we head into winter here in Switzerland.

The first time, I painted on the right bank, and had a glorious view of Mt. Blanc. You have to look really hard at the above photo, but you can see the snowy white mountain range almost disguised by the clouds. Here was the result:

The second time, I did the left bank in the financial district. This little guy kept hanging out after I shared a part of my baguette.

The third time A met me. It was the best time for three reasons. One, I had company. Two, she brought wine. Three, some Americans tried to buy her painting on the spot. An interesting time!

Bon weekend, everyone!

Adventures in Bourgogne Wine

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Post by Lauren

This weekend, we traveled with S & S to Bourgogne (Burgundy) wine country. It’s only about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Geneva. Not bad. Below you can see the portion of France that is designated to be Burgundy. I make this designation of what is truly Burgundy because they certainly make sure to educate you that their wines are the most special viticulture region of France, above Champagne and Bordeaux. We had an excellent guide, Jean Michel, who used to be the director of the travel board of Burgundy. In this role, he traveled all over the world educating on Burgundy wines. And after a day with him, we all felt a bit smarter on wine.

Takeaway #1 – Burgundy wines are special because of the geology. The Cote d’Or used to be an actual coast many years ago. When the Alps formed, it rifted the layers of limestone, thus creating different steps of limestone based soil. It was the Cistercian monks In the 11th Century who actually discovered that the different plots produced different tasting wines. It is because of this that they have the four designations today: regional, village level, village premier cru and village grand cru. They can be literally intermingled.

Notice the gradients in the limestone in the top picture and how the different soils make different color leaves, resulting in a "patchwork" effect.

This land is only a cool 6 million for 2.3 acres. What a deal! But this price and scarcity of sale prevents people from buying large plots at once. It isn’t unusually for an owner to only have 3-4 rows of vines in one place, and then own another few rows elsewhere. This also keeps production small and focused on quality.

Why were monks making wine, you might ask? Well in this day and age, they dedicated one-third of their time to prayer, one-third to education/study, and one-third to labor. Their labor was on the land they were given, the vineyards, and they used their production for gifts and for trade.

Scenes from the monastery, Clos de Vougeot
The monks worked here during the week and marched home on Sundays.

Takeaway # 2 – Europeans really believe in the terroir methodology. We heard yet again how Californian wine has a bigger nose, meant to wow, with this mentality being the American style. Jean Michel taught us that Burgundies have a lighter first nose, but then their tastes exceed expectations. You may remember in Italy I learned a lot about Old World vs. New World production. It’s a constant theme here.

At our cellar tasting, Jean Michel taught us that wine tasting was an “intellectual process”.

Takeaway # 3 – Wines are meant to be shared. We talked about the art of selecting a bottle throughout the day, being equally as difficult a skill as tasting. Jean Michel told us that his cellars were never locked for his children, but they were taught that if they took a bottle, they must ensure that the person they shared with appreciated the quality. In the cellars at Gevrey Chambertin, there were bottles from 1934. He told us they were literally “priceless”. I’d strongly encourage anyone traveling through France to make a stop in Burgundy. An incredible place.

Reason I wish I knew French # 98

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Post by Lauren

I need foot surgery. Years of running and exercising with the wrong shoes for my high arches created some issues with my big toes. I have been managing the pain with cortisone shots for the last few years, but don’t want to continue steroid injections as frequently as I have been getting them. So, its time to bite the bullet.

I don’t want to miss out on travel while we are living here in Europe, so I decided that winter in Geneva is going to be my best bet. We have heard winter here can be nasty, so why not opt for my 8-12 weeks of recovery time then? Gabe begs to differ that I’ll miss out on ski season but I suppose I’ll be forced to sit in the chalets sipping delicious chocolate chaud instead. Oh well, there are worse things in life. Besides, have you HAD the hot chocolate here? Out of this world….

I decided that I should probably find a doctor now so I can plan out the surgery. Luckily, we have an agency that is here to help ex-pats like us with finding doctors.

Before we continue, I have an admission. I procrastinate making simple calls like this here in Geneva because I am embarrassed by my French skills. Thus, I am uncomfortable doing errands and calls that I could do in the US four-at-a-time with my hand behind my back. However, I finally called Friday at 4pm, after putting it off all day.

This particular day, I was lucky enough that I got someone who spoke some English.

“Bonjour. Je m’appelle Lauren. I need to find a foot surgeon in Geneva.”

“A what?”

“ A FOOT SURGEON”

( silence )

I muttered, “médecin pour les pieds….chirurgien pour les pieds”

“For your husband?”

“Non, pour moi.”

“It’s called a podologue in french. I will call you back”

“Oh….une podologue. Merci beaucoup!”

She called back later that evening saying there was an appointment Monday. I couldn’t believe my luck. All that putting off and I had an appointment for Monday!

The only other time I went to the doctor here, it was to the chiropractor. He could speak a little English, I could speak a little French. All went fine and I felt great afterwards, but this time, I decided to do a little preparation to make the language gap easier. In addition to the x-rays and detailed medical files I had organized to bring, I worked on a timeline and case history of my feet (the image above). I detailed all the surgery options that my podiatrist and I had considered in the US and listed out my preference. I listed my questions. And then I popped it in Google Translate and printed both, in English and French. That way, if there were any issues with a part of it, I figured I’d know what part there was confusion on and I could do charades or something. A combination of charades and broken French usually works with the maintenance folks who come to the house.

So, this past Monday, I went to the podologue, with my x-rays, my medical files and my special translated letters. I left a bit early, but good thing as the building was a little hard to find. I arrived on time at sat in the really nice office, which resembled a spa. A lady greeted me kindly, “Bonjour, Madame.”

“Bonjour, Madame. Je m’appelle Lauren. J’ai un rendez-vous pour mes pieds”

“Oui, entrez!”

I cut right to the chase and handed her my packet. She studied it, reading my detailed explanation. She looked confused. “J’ai aussi les x-rays” I added and started to hand them to her.

She sighed. “J’ai peut couper vos ongles”.

This means, “I can only cut your toenails.”

Lesson learned: a podologue is actually a person who does pedicures.

She kindly handed me a card of an orthopedie who could do the surgery, located in a town 30 minutes away. But, I’m going to wait a little bit I think to book an appointment. I am trying to scrape all my self esteem off the floor in the foot spa where I left it.

A page from the Swiss rulebook: Visit and Thank you specifics

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Post by Lauren

When moving to Switzerland, I read quite a lot about how to properly thank people and what to bring when you are invited to a true Swiss person’s home. All these books advised that it would be quite rare to actually get invited to a Swiss home as an ex-pat, since they only invite trusted long term friends vs. folks who are only here in two year stints. ( See more on this and tu and vous on Schwingen in Switzerland )

However, I thought we better be prepared, so I have noted the following:

Rule #1 – When going to a dinner party, you should bring a gift for the gentleman and a gift for the lady. So, perhaps a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers. Or chocolate for her and whisky for him.

We saw this when Gabe’s co-workers came to pick up the large items we had included in our shipment for them, after they found out it wasn’t possible to buy in Switzerland. They brought him a very nice bottle of champagne and me this gorgeous orchid that has been adding so much color to our home this summer. They obviously read the manual and I was impressed by their gesture.

Sub-Rule 1a – if there are children, you must also bring something for them like a chocolate or a toy.

Sub-Rule 1b – if you bring wine, it is noted to make sure it is of high quality.

Check. Good to know not to bring the Boones farm to the nice gatherings.

Sub-rule 1c – if you bring flowers, they should not be carnations, or lilies which mean death or yellow roses.

Sub-rule 1c1 – do not ever bring an even number of flowers. Only odd. Its bad luck to bring even.

Glad to know about the even/odd thing. I’ll make sure to note this.

However, I am concerned that they had to put the clause about buying carnations in this book…who is out there buying carnations anymore?

Rule # 2 – Always wait for your guest to offer a toast such as “Santé”* before drinking. Don’t clink your glasses like American’s do. Make sure to stare deeply into everyone’s eyes before taking a sip.

Check. I can handle that. We have actually been practicing the “santé” quite a bit. Except everyone seems to interpret “deeply” as “creepy”. See A executing the creepy santé below.

Rule #3 – leave by 9pm.

Check. When I lived in Charlotte and went to the gym at 5am, I can appreciate this rule. Most of my Charlotte friends have witnessed me falling asleep at my own dinner party. That was usually their signal to leave.

Also, we have heard that we shouldn’t make noise between 8pm and 8am. So, no running the dishwasher, washer/dryer and certainly no footsteps. We haven’t had any issues with neighbors so far, but our friends have had neighbors approach them and tell them that they won’t think twice about calling the police if they hear a peep from them after 10pm.

Rule # 4 – never ever show up at someone’s door unannounced. The Swiss are very private people.

Check. Every building has a door code anyway. I don’t plan on breaking in to crash on new nonexistent Swiss friends.

So far we have only done Canadienne Buffets at friends homes, more in the style we are used to. We like this as everyone just brings a dish and we don’t have to buy each other gifts ever time we go over to each others houses. But now we are prepared in the case of Swiss friends. We shall keep you posted if we ever need to use such rules! I’m not banking on it….

*Santé means “to your health” and is pronounced sonn-tay! You should try it at home.

 

Our version of dry cleaning

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Post by Lauren

I miss the dry cleaners. Not that they don’t exist here, but that it is highway robbery to get anything professionally cleaned. In the US, a typical businessman in an urban area can get his shirts cleaned and pressed for 99 cents a pop. Here it runs about 8 CHF or 10 USD a shirt. A piece of ladies’ clothing is around 15 or 20 CHF for a cleaning.

So, no dry cleaning for us anymore.

I hand wash my dry cleaning items, and I wash & iron Gabe’s workshirts. Here is what our apartment looks like every 3 days. I just look at it that I am saving $200 by turning the apartment into a laundry sweat shop.

Unfortunately, I learned the iron can’t be on at the same time our TV can be on or it shorts the entire apartment’s electricity. I do it in my office with music or a podcast.

Next thing to accomplish is learning how to do alterations. I took a pair of Gabe’s jeans to shorten them 2 cm and it cost 30 CHF or 40 USD.

Gratitude Friday: An Ode to Italy

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Post by Lauren

Oh, Italia. How can I thank you?

Your were the first place I landed when I started traveling seriously as an adult. How you enveloped me with your charms, your perfect chaos, and your mounds of decadent pastas.

I fell in love with your crooked streets, your stonework, your landscapes, where every scene made me want to rush back and start painting…. but I could never quite capture the perfection of Italian life on canvas.

I admired your people….their pace and zeal for life. How they could communicate anything with the waving of their hands. The lingering meals. Their passion for your land and the beautiful goods they could craft out of the soil. Wine. Olive Oil. Porcini. Meats. I wanted to be Italian.

When Eat, Pray, Love was written I read the Eat chapter four times. Having been through a rough period on my own, I understood how your and your beauty could bring healing and inspiration and most importantly, gratitude.

One summer, I couldn’t find anyone to come visit you. So, I traveled by myself to experience more of you….to cook…to paint…to grow and to attempt to learn to smell the roses….or was it wine and olive oil?

That trip, I soaked up your words and upon arriving home, hired an Italian tutor and attempted to learn my first foreign language. I never achieved my end goal of living in in your countryside, despite how much I dreamed.

The dolca vita……how much sweeter my life is with memories of you.

This week, I am grateful to share you with my Mom, my aunt, and a group of special people from Virginia. Also, Gabe joins me for the weekend for his first venture to your soil and so I can’t wait to share you with him too.

P.S. – I still haven’t given up my dream of living in your hills!



A Page from the Swiss Rule Book: 1st Class

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Post by Lauren

I wish this lesson for you hadn’t come with a 150 franc fine for us (equivalent of $200 USD) but unfortunately there is no such thing as a second chance or a warning in the minds of the Switzerland train patrol.

We have frequently ridden RER, regional trains, as it is the most direct way to get to and from the airport. Swiss trains are immaculate, perfect, and once they have had a good life riding along on the pristine swiss railways, it becomes their turn to be set free in the pasture. With the pasture being the airport and RER routes that are 15 minutes tops, and don’t require a world-class choo-choo.

You can ride these RER trains for the same price as a TPG ticket, so 3 CHF, or for us, free since we have an annual abonnement for public transport. From the airport, its literally free to encourage tourism.

What we didn’t know was that these little regional trains actually have a designation of first and second class. We went for the short line when boarding the train back from Russin, but mistakenly entered the first class cabin. No clue. No less than 30 seconds after the train started, we were approached. No biggie, we were all covered by our TPG passes. Not so much. They pointed out we were in first class.

“Oh, so sorry, we didn’t know. We’ll move,” we said.

“Trop tard,” said the stone-faced police man. This is “too late” in French.

“Really? We didn’t know these had classes, we’ll happily move there,” pointing at the 2nd class cabin, literally through a few yards, through the first set of doors.

He sternly asked for all our identification and issued us 4 tickets. By the time he finished issuing them all, we were at our very short destination of the main train station.

So, a very expensive lesson learned this weekend and a big buzz kill to the wine festival.

What do you think…..did we get what we deserved….or would you have given us a second chance?

 

A day at the zoo

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Post by Lauren

I am in a photography group in Geneva. Just like in French class, I’m easily the worst one. Gabe graciously lets me take his fancy camera out so I can look like I know what I am doing. But I don’t. I keep it on the automatic setting. I have no clue what to do otherwise*.

Our leader does a really good job at giving direction and inspiration. Each month we have a theme. This time, we had an outing to the Knie Circus, which is in town. We were during the day so only had access to the zoo part of the circus. At first, I was a little bored. But, with time, I discovered new things to look for based on the enthusiasm of the others. In the end, I wasn’t ready to leave. Here are a few images:

So, moral of story: I have never had so much fun at a circus or a zoo. I think my over-productive OCD personality might finally be wearing down a bit to actually enjoy an activity past a half hour. Kudos to this group and Geneva for finally making this happen.

*If you know how to use an SLR, I’ll trade you skills. Like art skills or making jewelry. Let me know!

Gratitude Friday: Peace and Healing

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Post by Lauren

September is always a reflective time for me. As an American, the anniversary of 9/11 is always one that pulls at the emotional heartstrings and leaves one saddened and in awe of what was lost that day. The people that perished, families broken, and the mental effects on those who survived are always on my mind.

The news coverage of 9/11 and United 93 can be hard to watch as the date falls within three days of the anniversary of my father’s flight that crashed in 1994. So, needless to say, its not an easy month emotionally.

With that being said, this Friday, I wanted to give gratitude for peace and healing. Bad things happen in life. We aren’t promised that life is fair or easy. But, as humans we are blessed with the ability to heal both physically and emotionally. Time heals hearts. Gratitude, love and peace also have healing tendencies on our minds and bodies.

And so this week, I am thankful for these positive forces that we as humans are blessed with, these things that comfort us in bad times. It is part of what gives us comfort. Its part of what allows us to forgive and eventually heal.

Without that, we’d be lost. We’d stay angry and resentful of what is gone, instead of reflecting on gratitude and love for our experiences for what precious time we were given.

Bon weekend, everyone.

Eating baby eels

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Post by Lauren

One of the things we decided to do in Madrid was a fancy-schmancy multiple course dinner. Not like the kind where you are stuffed to the gills, but more like the Top Chef version where the presentation is so beautiful that you question when and where they ever serve that stuff in real life. And it was totally intriguing to Gabe & my curiousity, as well as Andreas was game to the new culinary experience.

Kudos to Isabella for doing the research and landing us an impossible table at Diverxo.

We sat down and had a piece of art as a centerpiece with Spanish words for “what we would experience”….. quite a conversation starter.

They don’t publish the menu at all, before or even upon arrival at the restaurant. You only get the selection of the seven, nine or eleven courses which are customized each evening and sometimes to each table. Our five-some decided upon the middle selection — nine courses. And, they are listed below, as dictated to Ferdinand’s blackberry at the end of the evening because photography wasn’t allowed. Please forgive our descriptions as we couldn’t remember the proper names. I am sure the chef would be offended if he knew we called elements of his creation “dipping sauce” and “breadcrumbs”.

Edamame served with Paraguayan pepper dipping sauce
Tea with flowers and stuff

Tiger mussel* with mousse and bread crumbs
Soup – baby eel** and baby fish in broth, fried eel skin

Smoked tuna belly with egg yolk wonton
Chicken stock wonton on a wheat disk with langoustine and mushroom in a broth
Mushroom “bun” wrapped in milk skin on tomato pad, with pulled jamon jerky
Variation of Peking duck: crispy pork skin with roe and black sesame brioche, then pork meatball lettuce wrap
Oxtail short-rib dumpling with foam & exotic mushrooms

Violet mousse with foam
Green tea chocolate mousse with passion fruit gel and chocolate shavings

Wine: Familia Martinez Bujanda Rioja

*Note, the tiger mussel was seafood. Not the muscle of a tiger which was our first thought.

**When they served the soup dish, they mentioned that it contained a special sea noodle that was made “in house”. We were told after that they wait to tell us the noodles are actually baby eels which are an extremely rare delicacy, as it turns some people off. They said some restaurants serve them living, swimming in the soup. We are glad they weren’t that kind of restaurant that served living baby eels. I am not sure I could have continued on eating the remaining courses after that out of fear.

The service was amazing…if you took a sip of wine or water, immediately the waiter or waitress quickly poured a replacement sip. I almost felt guilty for sipping, they were so attentive. They took care to explain each dish, in English, as it was brought out. The highlight was they also instructed us the best way to eat it….what to start with on the dish, how to pick it up, whether to eat it with one bite or two, etc. We all agreed on our gratitude for this explanation.

I have long been a fan of attending museums and galleries for appreciating fine works of art. The same goes for concerts and shows to witness the talents of musicians. This was definitely the closest feeling I have had to experiencing culinary arts. It was quite a way to behold the creativity of food selection, preparation & presentation and will not forget eating baby eels for quite some time.