Cows, Cheese and Chocolate!

I immersed myself in a full on day of traditional and stereotypical Switzerland last Saturday!  It tasted really really good!

I didn't do this all by myself though, I went on a Link: Au Pair trip with about 60 other Au Pairs for a day of the best that Switzerland had to offer...in the region of Gruyere.  As it happens the region of Gruyere has some pretty great stuff to offer, despite the constant rainy day.  Firstly (after a lovely 6am wake up to get ready and into Nyon to board the coach that would take a lot of rather sleepy Au Pairs out for the day) we arrived in a town called Charmey to participate in the cow festival.  Yes, I did just say COW festival!  'La Desalpe' is an event that happens every year throughout many towns in Switzerland during the Autumn months.  Its a festival full of Swiss traditions pouring through the streets to celebrate the herds of cows that are brought down from their summer grazing in the mountains so they don't freeze their udders off in the winter!

Welcome to La Desalpe....................

Horns....................................

I wondered around the little market and streets flitting from one group of people to another all morning, stopping at the side of the road to watch a marching band or a herd of cows when I heard bells ringing throughout the town.  It was a great day for meeting and getting to know lots of my fellow Au Pairs much better.  Kari (from California), who is one of the Elisabeth's (from last year) Au Pair replacement met up with me in Charmey whilst we watched the marching band go down the street (there wasn't room on the bus for her).  We met at a CES fireside at church the other week, where I met the other Elisabeth's Au Pair replacement too.  Kari and I went to last weeks Link meeting in Nyon, which was great because we got to know each other a little better and will defiantly be hanging out in the future.   So I at least new someone already that day, but I got to know plenty more throughout the day!  Before Kari arrived, but after had got to know a native Swiss girl on the coach and then split from a small group of English and American girls I spent most of my time watching the parade of cows with a couple of lovely Danish people.   Although the Mo Pair will have you guess which of the many countries he comes from (including Brazil) before settling on Denmark when you first him.

Christian and Johanna.........

The marching band................

The boys and their big bells (plenty of jokes provided for the rest of the day).....

The cows are coming............

Big bigger the bell, the more milk that cow produces........

Some token goats.................

Check out the headdress..........

Finding shelter from the rain and a veal sausage for my stomach.....

Once we had all seen our fair share of cows, eaten way too many cheese samples from the market and got thoroughly soaked it was time to head back to our coach.  All of us were piled back on to what become a slightly leaky coach, where everyone tried to dry off various items of clothing, we inched along the road at a snail pace in the long queue of traffic.  Why you ask?  Oh, because we were stuck behind all those cows taking their good time getting down the rest of the mountain of course!

Misty shrouded mountain roadside......

All was well though, because we eventually go to the chocolate factory of Switzerland very own Cailler Chocolate!  Mmmmmmmmm....YUM!

Kari and I just a little bit over excited..........

My Kiwi friend Nichole on our factory tour........

Ermmm..it would be easy to say when is it not time for chocolate......

Cracked me up........................

After stuffing our faces and emptying our purses all in the name of Swiss chocolate we crawled (perhaps feeling a little sick) back onto the coach to go to the Gruyere Cheese factory.  Yes we will be eating more food...more cheese...errrrrryuk!

With my 80's mobile guide tour, by a cow........

The adventure doesn't stop at the cheese factory though, oh no!  Most of us clamber back onto the coach for a short drive up a hill (because there was no way I was make it up the hill after all the cheese and chocolate) to the center of Gruyere.  It is a beautiful little Swiss town!  We were let loose to wander around the town before dinner.  I had been told the night before about something rather random in the middle of this little town.  You shall see soon.

The main street..........................

Views from the castle..............

 Gruyere.......................

The randomness!  Because where else should there be a museum and cafe (dect out in full on freaky alien chairs) dedicated to the Alien films?  Gruyere!  The place famous for its cheese of course!......

I did make a rather big purchase that day.  This is my very own little love story!  I bought myself a Swiss watch!  Ive eaten the Swiss chocolate and cheese, hiked through the Swiss mountains and flower meadows, toured the capital city of Bern, heard some yodeling and even celebrated their cows!  But I had thus far failed to purchase a Swiss watch!  I've been in many watch shops since I've been here (you can't really avoid them) but hadn't seen anything I liked enough to actually spend the kind of money demanded on one for myself.  That is until I walked into a small antique shop in Gruyere (not selling any of the tourist tack like every other shop in the town, as the owner happily pointed out to me!  Hahaha!).  I really liked the designs of these hand painted watches that looked like bracelets (as the designer only desinges watches for women and therefore makes all his watches look like jewallary).  I was tempted by them, but not tempted enough.  Then I fell in love!  I fell in love with a watch pendant!  That was it, I knew I was going to get one and therefore have my very own Swiss Watch.  Over dramtic much?!  Yes I know!  But this is love! Ha!  It's vintage, hand painted by the designer (Andre Mouche) wife, handmade in Switzerland (therefore a SWISS watch!  Whoop Whoop!) 18 caret gold and just simply beautiful!  The clock face is under the cover of of the small flower bouqet.

Ah, my little love of a watch................

 
The last Swiss event of the day took place in the top room of a small resturant on the side of the main town square.  We were all to eat some extremly tasty Swiss soup, that you could just have as much of as you wanted (shame that we had all filled up on cheese and chocolate ALL day).  The soup was deilous, but even better than that was sitting down with a group of people, who I had pretty much only met that day and just talking for agggggesssss!  This room that we were all cosily cramed into was full of noise as we all talked and talked learning so many new things and making new friends in the process.

English, Kiwi, American, English/Aussie, Czech, Danish, Cadain and Aussie.....

My soupy soup soup soup...............

Group photo...................

I had a fantastic day full of Swiss fun!  Ive come away finally having made some good friends that I shall be getting to know better as my time goes on here.  I spent the ENTIRE journey on the coach back to Nyon talking to my new buddy Amy from the states, who I get on with amazingly well!  I am so excited about that!  Seriously!  I have been so fortunet to meet so many people that I have truly got on with so well, and felt like we must have grown up toegtehr in another life! Ha!  Amy and I have already hung out this week, starting a beautiful movie buddy relationship already, that will continue with cookies too next weekend!

Tomorrow (very early in the morning, again) brings another Link trip.  This time we are going to Zermatt (where the famous Tobalarone mountain lives) for a weekend of hiking!

I've finally caught up with all I wanted to blog about!

Good night!!!

Back to Basics

Its official!  I have been living on the continent for over a year now!  Adam (my brother) can stick it!  He was placing bets at my leaving party that I would be home after 3 months.  Maybe it's slightly ironic that I did actually leave my first 'family' after 3 months...?  Yet I didn't go back home!  I found another way to continue my experience living across the pond with an amazing host family, who I am ever so grateful to be with.  It is a slightly odd feeling knowing that I have been away from home for so long though, but then again it's become kind of normal for me now.

I live in Switzerland and I have a job here, where I actually get paid and fail to save some of my pay each month (just like everyone else, right?).  I have a place in my 'family', where we talk about our days and help each other out when we can.  I also have plenty of friends (from both church and the many Au Pairs that surround Geneva) who I hang out with and send silly messages to just like I do with my friends back home.  I still get to meet so many new people and get to explore new places at the same time.  So for now this life continues for me, and it will still be that way for the next 4 or 5 months.  Which is fine by me.  It is a pretty good life by the way!

After a year of being an Au Pair having so many fantastic experiences, from the mundane things to the bigger adventures that I will never forget, I have built up a store of memories to take home.  But there are plenty more memories to be made seeing as I am back after my summer break.  That is the BIG news of this blog...I AM BACK!!  But I am back to basics, because I have to find new friends...AGAIN!

So I haven't been left completely desolate in the friends department.  Not everyone I have got to know here has disappeared to their own homelands over the summer (just like a lot of my really good friends did over Christmas time last year) but most of them did!  Yet again I had to get out there and meet new people, find some friends, communicate to those of my own age, find someone to hang out with so that I'm not such a loner on the weekend!  Where is a better place to do that then at Link!?

I've talked about Link before, but just as a recap it is an Au Pair group set up by a christian couple who saw that there was no support for all the young girls (and a few token boys) who flood to Geneva to work as Au Pairs every year.  Paul and Becky are their names, and they are always there to help as well as organising various activities every month where everyone can get together and meet new people, make friends, share our different cultures and even go on trips around Switzerland together!  They are pretty amazing for doing so much for us Au Pairs!

A couple of weeks ago I got together with a friend I had already connected with called Sarah from Utah (she goes to church too, but shes actually the sister and Au Pair replacement of Shelly).  We went to the first Link Au Pair Welcome meeting, which by the end of the night was the biggest gathering of Au Pairs at one of these meetings.  There were 75 young, fresh and either overly excited, anxious or just a bit mehhh people gathered together for the night of 'getting to know you' activities.  This is not even half of all the Au Pairs in the are, there are a LOT more out there!

The new Link Au Pairs (can you spot me?).........

I instantly hooked up with a bunch of English girls, what can I say, we were all just drawn to each other in the mass of American's, a couple of Australasian's, a South African and a whole load of natives from the continent!  There were so many people to meet and get to know that you didn't really get a chance to actually get to know many people, but it was good to swap a few names and know that I could get together and do something with a bunch of these pretty cool and interesting people.

The search for a few good core friends is on still!

The Englishmen in France

Hello!!!

Yes I am alive, and what I am going to write about is old news...in that it happened about two months ago, and that is also how long I have been absent from my blog.  I did say last time that it would be a while till I was back, but that I WOULD be back!  So here I am!  I'll catch up on what is actually happening in my life right now in my next post.

Last time I was on here I signed off saying that I would be going home for 10 days, which I did, and it was great as always!  I got to see a bunch of friends and all my family and even attended an Olympic event!!!  I was so excited about that (it was the men's road race by the way, at Box hill) because I realised last year that I wasn't just missing the Queens Diamond Jubilee by being in Switzerland but also all the Olympic events! After deciding to extend my time here and holiday's were worked out officially around that, it all worked out nicely in the end! However like every time I have to leave to return to Switzerland again I feel like Ive not actually had enough time in the Mother land.  Lucky for me though I was just working another week before my family would come to pick me up before holidaying in France which would kick start my next three weeks of summer off!  Whoop Whoop!

I've decided to talk about my french family holiday (or mostly just show through photos)!  I was going to leave this out and just start up again when something of interest happened on my return to the Au Pair life after the summer (hence the long absence).  However seeing as my summer holidays did start with some of my family picking me up from Switzerland, and continued the fun for a week or so in France, I decided to included it after all.  We were all still in the same time zone as Switzerland!

My Mum and Dad and Ashley and Izzy cam to pick me up on a Sunday afternoon from my home in Geneva (having done the big drive from England across the sea to France the previous two days).  before we could just drive back to our holiday home for the week I had to show them a bit of Geneva first.  We stopped by at the U.N. (United Nations) where the fountains were in full flow.

Dad not actually getting wet at all...........

The U.N. the three legged chair, and oh, there's mum too.......

Izzy and I running through the water........

Just a tad wet..................

Mum, Ashley, Izzy and I (I do not look related to these blonds).....

Mum and Dad.....................

Once we were in the beautiful Burgundy region of France with the rest of the family we fully enjoyed our time away from any responsibility of home!  Basically being really lazy all day and pretending that we were French (or just mocking everything French).  Of course in the process of all our malarkey everyone realised just how bad my French really is, seeing as I spent a year living amongst the natives taking lessons and all!

A bit of Briton in France.............

The local towns picturesque river...........

Lots of pastry's were eaten...or course......

 Playing in the park............

Putting anything we could on the BBQ........

We ate A LOT!!!!.......................

Sunbathing or.......................

....Paddling................................

Silly games............................

Over protection was eventually needed......

Munching on frog legs.................

Looking rather French................

An afternoon canoeing down the river......

We kept of with the Olympics too of course......

Playing in the pool.....................

You've got eat some crepes.......

Dijon (needless to say that mustered was bought).............

After our week in what felt like the middle of nowhere, we sadly had to leave our holiday home and hit the road, but were not going back to the real world yet!  Oh no!  We were going to stop in Paris for a couple of days first!  The first day held a BIG surprise for all the kids, whilst our last day in France would be spent climbing the Eiffel Tour before pegging it in the cars to catch our evening ferry to the home land

This was my sleeping space for many ours.......

All the kids lined up ready to be told a BIG surprise.......

Disneyland Paris for the day!!!!..............

The fireworks were the BEST ending to the day......

The Rose boys getting their French on in Gay Parie......

 The city of love inspires all to share the love.....

 YUK......................................

A lot A lot A lot of stairs........

A magnificent view....................

The Johnson's...........................

Oh the site of the motherland!!!......

Once back on English soil I had almost two weeks to enjoy of my holiday before flying back to Switzerland to start my extend Au Pair stay in Geneva!  Again I saw friends and family and had a fantastic time doing as many English things as I could!  As always though the time came around for me to board that orange Easy Jet plane again to leave my beloved home for the Landscape of Swiss Mountains!  I really am looking forward to going home for good! I'll enjoy my the time that I have still to come in Switzerland, of course!  However it will be so nice to not get that feeling of time suddenly running when I start packing my bag again!

The errrr......'real time' update will be on its way soon!