First posts are always the worst in any blog, diary entry, or chapter book so I kind of wanted to keep this simple. I considered only posting this:
but then remembered I don't have much else to do yet so why not go into a bit more detail. Also, if you're reading this, you must be somewhat interested in my life or perhaps you are just looking to add another funny blog to your current arsenal.
As you probably know, I will be spending the next year in Commugny, Switzerland as an au pair. Commugny is a small village near Geneva that I already love despite it's small streets and (as far as I can tell) lack of a local HyVee. We are very close to Lake Geneva (Lac Léman as the locals apparently call it- I am not a local yet but this piece of vital information was given to me so that I am not a known outsider in day to day conversation about this beautiful lake) and also to the Alps.
Commugny
My first day was Saturday, the 16th. I arrived after an 8 hour flight from Newark. I luckily flew out of terminal C so I was able to get one last Dunkin' Donuts coconut iced coffee before leaving the country. The flight was fine except that the movies were pre-selected and played every two hours whether you were ready or not. I was getting settled and chatting when we first took off so I was 20 minutes late in starting Spiderman 2 (although I didn't see Spiderman 1 so what's an extra 20 minutes?) so I decided to watch The Other Woman which you could miss 40 minutes of and still understand what was happening. On top of this bad movie luck, we also hit a particularly rough patch of weather over Nova Scotia. I knew our location because I was monitoring our altitude for awhile making sure we were maintaining and not going down. I wanted as much notice as possible to employ the crash landing tactics I picked up from LOST if need be. The turbulence was so bad that people's cups were falling off their trays and the flight attendants all had to rush back to their seats.
After that excitement, everything was pretty much smooth. I arrived in Geneva and Christophe, my host father picked me up from the airport. He gave me a small tour of the city because there weren't many cars around at 8am. We passed by a few museums and international offices- including the Red Cross and the United Nations. I'm sure I'll be back to tour both soon. We stopped at their butcher shop on the way back to Commugny and picked up a few things for a barbecue that evening. Everything looked good but was so expensive! In general, things are more expensive in Switzerland but seeing that steak is almost 90 CHF per kilo was insane.
I met Sylvie, my host mother, and the kids when we arrived at their house. Nicolas is 7 and Julie is 5. Everyone is very nice and I think we will have a good year together. We broke the ice by playing a few rounds of UNO before having some lunch together. I took a nap in the afternoon and then got ready for our barbecue. Christophe invited a friend over and his two kids along with their new au pair so that I could have a friend! Truthfully, she was the first and only contact in my Swiss phone for awhile.
The barbecue was good- different from the US in that they grill all sorts of different meats but you don't make a sandwich or anything with them. You don't use sauce either though unless you want to dip in mayonnaise or mustard. I guess I think of hamburgers and hot dogs when I think of barbecuing but I didn't complain because the food really was great.
Day one was in the books and I couldn't wait to sleep through the night. The first post is now in the books and with that weight off my shoulders I think I will once again sleep well. Thanks for reading- I'll send a few more notes soon.
