The hotels in Geneva, Lyon and Paris are all booked from December 26th through January 3, 2008! And even though this looks extremely ridiculous, I'm very, very excited!! Understatement. Especially after finding this little number on a Geneva festivals/events website:
Christmas is a special time when Geneva goes all out to bring some good old fashioned Christmas cheer to the city to help chase away the winter blahs. The International Christmas Market at Fusterie Square features hand made folk arts and crafts from throughout Switzerland as well as numerous food stalls, all housed in quaint miniature wooden chalets along the main shopping street. Free Open Air Skating is available at Place du Rhone with skate rentals for SFr. 6 for adults and SFr. 3 for children. The annual Christmas Tree Festival is a unique event presenting an array of trees and sculptures designed by renowned international artists on display throughout the city (see www.festivalarbresetlumieres.ch for more details). Finally, for the very adventurous, there is the annual Christmas Swimming Cup. The mid-December event draws over 600 swimmers who brave the icy waters to race from the Jardin Anglais to the Quai General Guisan.
This is promising because at the onset of my trip out here, I was super bummed I'd be away from everyone for Christmas. And since it's such a huge family event chez nous, it would be super strange not to start decorating trees or wrapping presents, listening to (insanely played-out) Christmas tunes and all the other fun things that go along with that. But we'll get to experience the 12 desserts of Christmas at Jean-Claude's and see all the left-over decorations in Geneva, Lyon and Paris -- where we'll also be celebrating the New Year festivities! But I will have someone from my family alongside!
Our hotel in Switzerland is blocks away from the train station, Lake Geneva, as well as the center of town, where one can find all sorts of neat castles and of course, the UN and (Swiss) Red Cross buildings. If the weather ends up being like the picture above, we could always sprint back to the hotel for an hour or two and sip some scalding beverages at the cafe and prep ourselves to run back out into the wild again. If nothing else, I would absolutely love to freeze my ass off in order just to get a look at the beautiful countryside! Or I could just sack up and register for the SWIMMING CUP. And then immediately die of hypothermia.... I'll pass, thanks.
And even though my parents have generously agreed (with some coaxing on mine and Aimée's parts) to fund our hotel stays, I plan on paying for nearly everything else on my own.
Which leads me into my next big piece of news: I've come in contact with a woman with multi-country citizenship who's currently writing her second novel. She's moving to Nice in less than a week and is in need of someone to babysit her daughter for 30 hours a week while she goes into hermitage to write. And she's sought me out for the job!
This is a very exciting opportunity (I need to get more creative with my adjectives, seeing as how "exciting" is bleeding through this entire post) for multiple reasons. A.) I'm coming into contact with a published, American author. Maybe this could strike up some sort of connection for the future...? I could always be a second pair of eyes to look over things if she wants and who knows, maybe my name will be in the acknowledgments section? And B.) Extra cash!! Thirty hours of cash-only work will come in very handy when I want to make these kinds of trips. Especially since she's not arriving until I come back from the Loire Valley in November, and she's going back to the U.S. mid-December for all the winter holidays -- when I will be traveling with my sister!
All in all, things are starting to look very, very good for me here. Now if only I could start making some local, French-speaking friends...
Oh yeah, and did I mention that I finally got my bank card and a free booklet of checks today?! No more taking money out of my American account and paying conversion fees for the exchange rate with my Bank of America ATM card!!!
Our hotel in Switzerland is blocks away from the train station, Lake Geneva, as well as the center of town, where one can find all sorts of neat castles and of course, the UN and (Swiss) Red Cross buildings. If the weather ends up being like the picture above, we could always sprint back to the hotel for an hour or two and sip some scalding beverages at the cafe and prep ourselves to run back out into the wild again. If nothing else, I would absolutely love to freeze my ass off in order just to get a look at the beautiful countryside! Or I could just sack up and register for the SWIMMING CUP. And then immediately die of hypothermia.... I'll pass, thanks.
And even though my parents have generously agreed (with some coaxing on mine and Aimée's parts) to fund our hotel stays, I plan on paying for nearly everything else on my own.
Which leads me into my next big piece of news: I've come in contact with a woman with multi-country citizenship who's currently writing her second novel. She's moving to Nice in less than a week and is in need of someone to babysit her daughter for 30 hours a week while she goes into hermitage to write. And she's sought me out for the job!
This is a very exciting opportunity (I need to get more creative with my adjectives, seeing as how "exciting" is bleeding through this entire post) for multiple reasons. A.) I'm coming into contact with a published, American author. Maybe this could strike up some sort of connection for the future...? I could always be a second pair of eyes to look over things if she wants and who knows, maybe my name will be in the acknowledgments section? And B.) Extra cash!! Thirty hours of cash-only work will come in very handy when I want to make these kinds of trips. Especially since she's not arriving until I come back from the Loire Valley in November, and she's going back to the U.S. mid-December for all the winter holidays -- when I will be traveling with my sister!
All in all, things are starting to look very, very good for me here. Now if only I could start making some local, French-speaking friends...
Oh yeah, and did I mention that I finally got my bank card and a free booklet of checks today?! No more taking money out of my American account and paying conversion fees for the exchange rate with my Bank of America ATM card!!!
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