Joyeux Noël
Merry Christmas from Switzerland!
I've been a bit behind with the blogging, but here is an update to what we have been up to these last couple of weeks:
Return of the Humungous Trees:
A couple of weeks ago about ten 30 foot trees miraculously sprouted from the sidewalk on our block. Our sidewalks are pretty big, but these trees are so wide, that they block about 75% of the sidewalk. It has made it tough when I'm running for the bus to French class in the mornings, but they are actually really cool and all lit up at night they are quite a sight! No repeat of the giant snowmen or giant snowballs from last year, I guess they are out of fashion! ;)
One sandwich short of a picnic:
On the last day of French class we spent an hour teaching the class English idioms. There were two of us from California and one guy from New Zealand, Ben. Ben did the formal teaching while we were in the background for clarifying comments and moral support. By far the favorite one was "Do you have ants in your pants?" It was a hit with the Japanese girls. Personally, my favorite is "It's like herding cats."
The Secret:
Recently I decided to test out a second book club that focuses on personal development, motivation, health, and spirituality. I like the gal who started the club, so I though I would give it a try. At our first meeting we watched a movie called "The Secret" instead of reading (a bit different I know). It was pretty good, it focuses a lot on the power of positive thinking and I think we all took something away from it, but it was also a bit overdone. For next month we are reading "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. I will let you know how that goes!
Holiday festivities:
Despite having no plans last week, we have since been invited to three holiday dinners (one with a group from the GoL gang, one with Mr. & Mrs. Kofi and friends, and a Christmas Eve dinner with 6 other friends of ours). They were all fun and I was really happy we decided to stick around for the holidays.
Where is the snow?!?
On Christmas day we went snow boarding with another couple from GoL. The company was great, but the snow was terrible!!! This has been the warmest winter in Europe for the last 450 years or something crazy like that. It rained all November and now that it's colder, we haven't had a drop of precipitation in about four weeks. The ski resort we went to is one of the few that are open (by making their own snow) and only one run was open. But we were there!!! It was a fun day, but I think we will wait for the natural stuff to fall before we go again. (we forgot the camera, so no pics...)
That's it for now. G has the week off so tomorrow we are heading to Florence for a couple days. We'll be back in town for New Years, although we have no solid plans yet... but I have a feeling things will come together! :)
Hope all is well with everyone. We miss you all, especially this time of year!
Cheers to a wonderful holiday season!
My fiction book club meeting (not the new club) where we celebrated the holidays with English "poppers" (is that the correct term?!?) filled with a toy surprise and a lovely golden crown!
The giant trees on our block... so pretty at night!
This is part of the somewhat strange display for the Fete de Lumières (Festival of lights). These are wire mesh people floating about 20 feet up in the air and they light up at night. There are about 15 near our apartment. These are just outside our neighborhood Starbucks.
The first of the holiday parties with some of my GoL friends (we all got t-shirts with our names on the back!) G couldn't make it to this one... and we have no pics from any of our other parties OR from snowboarding!
I've been a bit behind with the blogging, but here is an update to what we have been up to these last couple of weeks:
Return of the Humungous Trees:
A couple of weeks ago about ten 30 foot trees miraculously sprouted from the sidewalk on our block. Our sidewalks are pretty big, but these trees are so wide, that they block about 75% of the sidewalk. It has made it tough when I'm running for the bus to French class in the mornings, but they are actually really cool and all lit up at night they are quite a sight! No repeat of the giant snowmen or giant snowballs from last year, I guess they are out of fashion! ;)
One sandwich short of a picnic:
On the last day of French class we spent an hour teaching the class English idioms. There were two of us from California and one guy from New Zealand, Ben. Ben did the formal teaching while we were in the background for clarifying comments and moral support. By far the favorite one was "Do you have ants in your pants?" It was a hit with the Japanese girls. Personally, my favorite is "It's like herding cats."
The Secret:
Recently I decided to test out a second book club that focuses on personal development, motivation, health, and spirituality. I like the gal who started the club, so I though I would give it a try. At our first meeting we watched a movie called "The Secret" instead of reading (a bit different I know). It was pretty good, it focuses a lot on the power of positive thinking and I think we all took something away from it, but it was also a bit overdone. For next month we are reading "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill. I will let you know how that goes!
Holiday festivities:
Despite having no plans last week, we have since been invited to three holiday dinners (one with a group from the GoL gang, one with Mr. & Mrs. Kofi and friends, and a Christmas Eve dinner with 6 other friends of ours). They were all fun and I was really happy we decided to stick around for the holidays.
Where is the snow?!?
On Christmas day we went snow boarding with another couple from GoL. The company was great, but the snow was terrible!!! This has been the warmest winter in Europe for the last 450 years or something crazy like that. It rained all November and now that it's colder, we haven't had a drop of precipitation in about four weeks. The ski resort we went to is one of the few that are open (by making their own snow) and only one run was open. But we were there!!! It was a fun day, but I think we will wait for the natural stuff to fall before we go again. (we forgot the camera, so no pics...)
That's it for now. G has the week off so tomorrow we are heading to Florence for a couple days. We'll be back in town for New Years, although we have no solid plans yet... but I have a feeling things will come together! :)
Hope all is well with everyone. We miss you all, especially this time of year!
Cheers to a wonderful holiday season!
My fiction book club meeting (not the new club) where we celebrated the holidays with English "poppers" (is that the correct term?!?) filled with a toy surprise and a lovely golden crown!
The giant trees on our block... so pretty at night!
This is part of the somewhat strange display for the Fete de Lumières (Festival of lights). These are wire mesh people floating about 20 feet up in the air and they light up at night. There are about 15 near our apartment. These are just outside our neighborhood Starbucks.
The first of the holiday parties with some of my GoL friends (we all got t-shirts with our names on the back!) G couldn't make it to this one... and we have no pics from any of our other parties OR from snowboarding!
posted by Swiss Miss | 23:06
2 Comments:
Ok before you start going all Gore on us (re the warmest winter in 450 years) you should note that Winter is only 8 days old at this point (starts every year on Dec 21). BTW it's been really really cold here in the Bay Area? Hmmmmm.
and still no link to the Pigs...
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