My alarm goes off in the pitch black, eery silence of my sleeping apartment. I awoke from a deep, cozy sleep and dug myself out of my cave of blankets. Tired from a late night blogging the night before, I quickly decided to allow myself the extra ten minutes before beginning the day. I hit rechazar and climbed back into what felt like a furnace compared to the cold marble floors. My mind began to generate a checklist (throw sheets and towels in the washer so they can wash while I'm at school, pack up my make-up and toothbrush after using them, devotions, check e-mails...) before succumbing to the warmth and rolling over with my body just one more time.
9:30, Wednesday, October 31st.
Wow did those ten minutes make a difference! I felt so rested and the alarm hadn't even buzzed yet! But when I noticed that the sunlight was even peeking through my cave-simulating shades, I knew something had gone terribly wrong. Rechazar means dismiss. It was three hours later and my second class of the day was already in session. Oops.
Yes, I ran to school. Yes, I surely looked like an idiot.
Luckily for me, the "no pasa nada" phrase was used by the two teachers in response to my groveling for forgiveness. And it seems all is forgotten. But I'm setting two alarms for school tomorrow FOR SURE.
This day, however, did not continue in a downward slope. Instead, I found it hard to even be bothered by morning's catastrophe. Why? Because that afternoon, Napala and I got on a plane to Geneva, Switzerland!
The travels went well: Our EasyJet flight had the typical frustrations (long lines, a bit of extra turbulence, limited hand luggage), but no notable problems. Then, when we arrived, we were excited to find out that there were free bus tickets at the airport! (We were also given free transportation passes both of our hostels... which we never actually used because the public transportation drivers never check for tickets. No wonder they are giving them out for free.) We got on the bus suggested by our hostel and stared at the stops on the monitor until it was time to get off.
We got off on the main shopping street and meandered around the center of the Old Town, which seemed like it should've been named Ghost Town. (We've gotten quite used to 9 PM being an early dinner time, not time to shut down every single store and stay in your house.) After a few wrong turns (our GoogleMaps on our phone wasn't working since we were out of Spain) and an inquiry at a small bar (LANGUAGE BARRIER: by the time we left I think he thought we were planning on sleeping in the park or in the church. Our hostel was in the plaza of the church, but of course I haven't learned how to explain that in French yet.), we finally found it.
We dropped our bags, and promptly went on a search for an ATM so that we could get Swiss francs. Let's be serious. We were hungry. And after a day of fasting (after discussing the rising confusion about zombies in the youth of our church, my small group decided to fast on Halloween), I was particularly ready for something delicious.
And delicious it was. I may be biased because of the growling stomach, but I feel pretty confident saying it was the best meal that I've eaten in Europe. The pictures don't do it justice so I'll leave you with this: there is definitely a difference between cooking with butter and cooking with olive oil. One is healthier, but we must remember: Paula Dean sure doesn't choose olive oil.
First meal in Switzerland!
Day 1: Geneva, Switzerland
In the morning of our first day, we took a walk around Lake Geneva. After, of course, enjoying some pastries on a bench.
Lac Léman (Lake Geneva)
Then, in the afternoon, we went to the United Nations for a tour. Since I'm preparing my students for a city-wide mock United Nations conference, this was super exciting for me.
The giant chair (missing part of one of its legs) outside of the UNOG building was placed there to raise awareness about the danger of land mines.
Delegates in a meeting. The interpreters are in the top left corner. Each conference is translated into six languages: Arabic, Spanish, English, French, Russian, and Chinese (Mandarin).
Ceiling in another conference room. The painting is a section of the mural depicting the development of mankind; this section shows the men uniting, in constrast to another section which shows the same four men fighting over a sword.
These doors are two of the four that were built so that the U.S. and the Soviet Union delegates could enter from opposite sides at the exact same time during the Cold War.
After the UNOG tour, Napala and I headed back to our hostel with some groceries to eat and plan out the rest of our weekend.
Our hostel!
A 90° turn to the left of the previous pictures gives you this. Not bad!
Day 2: Chamonix, France
During our discussion the previous day, Napala and I discovered that a trip to the top of the Alps in a cable car was only a bus ride away. So, of course, we hopped on a bus.
Looking out the window... a rainbow!
Because of the high winds (initially completely unnoticeable to us but later recognized by the clouds that passed across the mountains in a matter of minutes), we didn't get to go to the very top to see Mont Blac. But the following pictures are not a bad consolation prize :)
View after going up the first cable car
We then rode a gondola up the opposite side of the mountain, where we fully enjoyed tramping around in the snow.
It was the best packing snow I've ever felt!
These mountains were incredible. As I was surrounded by all of this natural beauty, I couldn't help but ponder the magnificence of the God who created it.
He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if
you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain,
'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible
for you." - Mattthew 17:20
What a challenge. Jesus makes it sound so easy, but do I really believe that I could move the Alps?
Shout to the Lord // All the Earth, let us sing // Power and majesty // Praise to the King // Mountains bow down // And the seas will roar // At the sound of Your name
“I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” - Luke 19:40
Being just a mere gondola ride up these massive mountains, I felt quite small. I began to imagine the mountains bowing and the piles of stones crying out; then I realized that's the future we're looking at. A world where everything is worshiping our creator. One day nobody will be skirting around religion for political correctness and niceties.
Alright though, let's be honest. I didn't just sit and ponder life. I took a break to eat cheese.
Fondue. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
After lunch, we took a train up yet another mountain to see the second largest glacier in the Alps. It's 12 km long and contains about 4000 cubic meters of frozen water.
Mer de Glace
What an amazing, unforgettable day. When we arrived back in Geneva, Napala and I went to the grocery store for fruit for dinner (after all, we ate bread and pounds of cheese for lunch) and then took the (free!) water taxi across Lake Geneva to take a walk around the city at night.
The water taxi was empty... good thing because we took up a bit more space after eating all of that cheese.
Day 3: Annecy, France
For our last day, we took a bus to Annecy, the hometown of my French teacher! The city was beyond cute, which led to Napala and I banning the word "cute" from our vocabulary for the rest of the day. Luckily we found synonyms: adorable, quaint, precious, perfect, picturesque...
Facing the walkway into the main part of the city
Ya know, just eating tarte aux myrtilles by the river.
If you are friends with me on facebook, you have probably seen my 42 pictures of food that I took over the course of this three day adventure. Everything I ate was absolutely delicious (except for the nouget), especially this little pie. However, the following food pictures have the best story associated with them.
Napala and I walked around for about an hour earlier in the day examining menus, seating rooms, and the number of people eating at the establishments. We finally decided on a quaint restaurant where we got seated right next to the raclette station. However, having braved the fondue the day before, we decided we shouldn't eat another meal that was comprised entirely of cheese.
Raclette station
So we ordered a salad to accompany our tartiflette.
Ham, tomatoes, goat cheese crustini, creamy balsamic... what more could you want?
However, as Napala was finishing off her portion of the salad, she held up her fork to see a tiny spider crawling out of the greens. Surprised, we got the attention of the raclette server, who spoke no English. But he did take the spider away and bring us someone who offered another salad as consolation. However, having already eaten our fair share of salad and knowing what we still had coming, we tried to get them to just give us the salad free. No can do. Instead they insisted on bringing us another, bigger salad.
And yes, we ate it. We weren't actually phased by the spider... as Napala said, "My mom would be so happy! That means the farmer who sold them the greens doesn't use pesticides!" Plus, after the incident the raclette kept offering us free cheese to put on our cheese and potato tartiflette. Cheese on cheese. No complaints here. Maybe I should start carrying around spiders...
Tartiflette with raclette!
It took a rather long walk around the lake to work off the cheese baby, but we recovered. And as I'm writing this, I'm finishing off some bread and cheese. So obviously I didn't get sick of it.
Taking a walk around Lac d'Annecy
All in all, it was the perfect weekend away from the city. We saw fall leaves, snow, mountains, and lakes. We ate our way through three different towns in two different countries. I am beyond blessed to be experiencing all of this as my transition into the "real world."
Now, however, it's off to grading piles of essays. The stacks of paper are what happens when you are so focused on your upcoming trip that you don't realize you assigned writing assignments to 12 of the 16 different classes you teach. Oops.
Much love,
Amber
