If any of you were wondering why I hadn’t responded to e-mails or whatnot, its because I was at a 10 day camp in the Swiss Alps. My lame excuse for writing this so late is that I haven’t quite recovered from that experience… besides, its better late then never!

The trips started out with Grace and I taking several trains with a group of the other campers. With each stop, more joined the group. I think this year they had about 60 people. On the train ride, Grace and I met a camper who was staying with a friend in France, but she’s from Texas. It was nice that I wasn’t the only American besides Grace! The camp was all in French, so it was really exhausting for me to have to constantly focus carefully on what people were saying. It was a little discouraging for my French overall because I just wasn’t used to talking in French to people who actually were fluent (versus my university friends who I could easily have conversations with) and so I wouldn’t put much effort into conversations because it was so scary!

But on a positive note, the camp was beautiful and we went on a couple really great hikes, including a 2 day hike near the Interlaken area. It just amazed me everywhere we went how beautiful it was, and I never got used to it! Sadly, it rained EVERY day of the camp, so there was much we couldn’t see because of the fog, and do because of the mud. There was a lot of ping-pong and foosball playing to keep us occupied.

Something that really surprised me was that the food was soo good! I’m pretty sure I gained weight too, because they fed us like 6 times a day. We always would have a 3 sport in the afternoon to help us burn it off though :)

Since I’ll be home in 2 days, I’ll hold back on the details and talk to y’all SOON! :)

Jeudi, 14 Juillet

Today was Bastille Day! In order to celebrate, the family +5 guests packed into the car and headed to Yvoire, France! Grace, Charity, Micah, and I made eclairs and calzones to bring for a picnic. The celebration in Yvoire was amazing! First we had our picnic, and then everyone wandered around the cute little medieval village as the festivities began. Crowds of children paraded through the streets with lanterns,  and in the center of the town there was live music, colorful lights, a dance floor, and people of all ages waiting for the fireworks to start (while eating crepes and gelato, which I eyed enviously). The fireworks were shot off of a boat on the lake. It was such a pretty scene, with the reflections of both the fireworks and of the town’s twinkling lights on the water. They only lasted 20 minutes, but the trip was definitely worth it :)

-bike rides!

-midnight swim with Grace and Chris

-TOO MUCH shopping at h&m and thrift stores

-discovering new parts of the city à pied

-more pronunciation lab, more french conversation :)

-indulging in maybe too many fresh pastries

-BEST OF ALL: HARRRRY POTTER! (2 days before the U.S, double the amount of $$) This also included Grace and I walking ALL the way home from Paquis in the middle of the night and getting lost.

Saturday was quite the eventful day, and I just have to tell it all! The Masters’ friend from D.C., Aarti, came to visit the house today while she was in Geneva for work. She works for an organization raising money for Polio vaccines, with the goal to completely wipe out the disease. She gets to travel EVERYWHERE. It was sooo interesting to hear her talk about her involvement in international humanitarian work and her life growing up in a small village in India. Also, she gave us some good Bollywood movies to watch!! Yesss.

After Aarti left, Grace and I went down to the Plainpalais market! It was amazing! I wish I could have had more time/money, but it was a success nonetheless. The market was hundreds of vendors lining Plaine de Plainpalais selling everything from pastries to vintage clothing. (They had numerous bead shops I had to tear myself away from so I could save my moolah.) They have it every Saturday and Wednesday, so I’m going back for sure.

The other fun event on Saturday was the Lake Parade. I didn’t go to the actual Parade which started at 4, but instead Grace, Chris (a friend of the Masters from Maryland, visiting on his way back home from studying abroad in Italy), and I went around 9pm for the after-party. The party and parade were held on the street following the Lake (obviously), with multiple stages set up for music (mostly electronic/dubstep/dance). This was just something I had never seen before… people were dressed in ALL sorts of ways (princesses, casual, beach, animals, Smurfs, you name it), and there was so much dancing on the streets and in the buses/floats parked on the street. SO fun. We definitely had an awesome time, and we were really tired at the end of the night. BUT, we couldn’t resist jumping into the Lake before going home. :)

check back for pictures later!

Friday after my class, Grace and I went on a bike ride. It was beautiful to ride through the countryside and quaint little neighborhoods. I’ve gotten so bored of seeing the same thing in downtown Geneva, so it was a good change of scenery. I’ve noticed that Geneva has TONS of sunflower fields- so bright and cute… I really want to go take pictures in them :) When we got hungry, Grace and I would stop for a snack break in the blackberry fields on the side of the road. Mmmm.

My photo uploader isn’t working… so check back later for pictures (or just look at facebook).

Mercredi, 6 Juillet

This evening, as a family, we all headed down to a park for a picnic and a free concert! It was a hip-hop group from Johannesburg, South Africa. They weren’t the most entertaining or talented group, but it was still and we enjoyed ourselves :) Grace and I walked around the lake at sunset afterwards.. so great.

I had another good day in French class. Afterwards,Grace met me at the tram stop to go to Carouge. We stopped by Coop for a snack and then went to a thrift store there. While we were shopping, Grace’s friend Andrea called to see if we could hang out with her in Rive. So, we took the tram back and went to various stores with Andrea, including h&m where the sales are AHmazing right now.

When we got home, Grace and I went on a run down to the lake, and then we jumped in! It felt soooo good! I’m definitely going to make this happen more often.

Happy 4th o’ July everyone! Today was another normal day of classes. During my break I had coffee with the guy from Peru and another guy from England. After class was over, I sat in the park, ate lunch, and read a book while I  waited for my optional pronunciation class to start. This was my first time going to that class. There were about 5 of us in the class and we did various pronunciation exercises, but since I’m a visual learner I don’t think they will help unless I’m given something to look at to go with the sounds. Oh well.. I think I’ll go to the conversation class instead on friday.

I took a nap when I got home because I was sooo tired. For dinner, Micah made spaghetti bolognese which was very good! Honestly, one of the favorite parts of my day is dinner hahah. The rest of my night was very laid back… I just listened to music and edited pictures(finally!). Hunter was in the other room working on his writing and occasionally he would belt out the rest of the songs I was playing… ohhh, Hunter, he’s a character.

Today, Grace and I took a little road trip to Isenfluh, a BEAUTIFUL mountain in the swiss alps to babysit 2 kids until Sunday. The mom hurt her back, and the dad was working at the camp there so they needed someone to help with the kids.It was about a 3 hour drive from Geneva. On the way there, we stopped for coke and coffee at a cute little cafe along a little lake in the middle the the mountains. When we got to the camp, we checked out the chalet we were staying in and met the darling kids, Nicholas (nee-co-lah) and Camille (ca-mee). They’re SO cute! We ate some homemade pizza, and played with the kids until dinner. We had a traditional Swiss dinner… fondue with tea and white wine! I was sooooo full of cheese and bread that I was so uncomfortable the whole night. Plus, the kids didn’t sleep very well, so Grace and I would wake up every hour when Nicholas or Camille started screaming. There was also a really annoying fly buzzing around our heads all night. Oh well, we couldn’t complain, because when we woke up we were greeted with smiling children and sparkling, snow-covered mountains.

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Dimanche, 3 Juillet

Today was another day of watching the children. We woke up at around 7:30 to feed the kids and then we went to our breakfast with the rest of the camp staff. I forgot to mention that most of these people, again, only speak french, so at meals I’d get to listen to some funny counseller stories, in french. For breakfast, we ate fresh baked bread, jam, O.J. and coffee.  We put the kids down for a nap and then we hung around until lunch was served (a rice salad, greens, and tiramisu).

We left soon after lunch, and we were driven down to the train station where we were picked up by parents of a camper. They drove us to Nyon where Aunt Mary met us. Mary, Grace, and I walked around Nyon and bought some pastries. Finally, we found Hunter (college student from the U.S. that has been staying with the Masters between trips around Europe the past couple weeks) and Greg Steele(student at Covenant, staying a couple days in Geneva, coming from South Africa). Aunt Mary had let them and the little boys off down by the water before she picked us up, so we all met at a park and walked back to the car. It was about a 30 min. drive back home, and we had pizza when we arrived. I have french class again tomorrow.. hopefully I can go to the optional pronunciation class too.

Bonne nuit!

Today’s french class was so much better than yesterday’s. The beggining went slow, but today instead of sitting by Wei (a lady from China who I CANNOT understand), I sat by a guy from Peru who has lived here for a year. He’s 2o, so we are both by far the youngest in the class. He speaks french pretty well, but he is in my class because he doesn’t know much grammar. In class we had a lot of time for conversation, so we talked for about an hour ALL in french(!!) which was really great for me because I really needed the practice.

After class, I invited him (if you noticed that I haven’t told you his name, its because I don’t remember it haha)  to come with me and Grace to Carouge. Initially, before I invited him, Grace and I were planning on going to some thrift stores, but instead we just walked around Carouge for a bit and then took another tram to Coop for la glace (ice cream). BTW, Carouge is supposed to be one of the coolest parts of town. It used to be a seperate, competing, trading town with Geneva with Mediterranean style houses and shops. I’m sad I didn’t get to look around more, but its very fast and easy to get to from the university, so I’ll be going back often.

Grace and I were going to go out tonight with her friend Ruth, but we decided to hold off for another night because we’re all very tired. Also, Grace and I have to pack because we’re going to Isenfluh (a mountain in the Swiss Alps) tomorrow to babysit for a lady from Church who works at a camp there. She hurt her back and needs us to help her with her kids Saturday and Sunday.