Au Revoir France

Well, my time in France has come to an end. Tomorrow morning I leave for London.

After all the excitement in Switzerland it was nice to just come back to Beuvry and spend my last week here just hanging around the town. I spent an afternoon in Arras, took in some French Cinema, went to the Bric Brac market, discovered a great little teahouse/bar called the Quiltie Quiltie (pronounced kitty kitty), and had my first european McDonalds experience (hopefully to be my last). Oh, and I can also add cow tongue to the list of weird things I have eaten.

It is bittersweet to be leaving Beuvry and my new host family. I have truely enjoyed my time in France and being a part of the Sevette family. And although the teaching portion of things didn't go quite as had hoped, I still learned a lot from the experience.

Eric, Martine, David, William, Robin and Lea: Thank you for welcoming me into you home and into your family. There is an amazing spirit and energy in your family that I am so happy to have been a part of, even if only for a short period of time. I will miss Robin's smile, Lea's sass, William's sarcasim, David's constant questions, Martine's cooking and Eric's patience. I won't miss that song (your know which one) playing on repeat for hours! :) I will see you all in June before I head back to the States.

And so know the second part of my journey begins - 4 days in London and then off to Wales for two weeks.

Bonne niut. (good night)

When in Switzerland, yodel.

And, it's a boy and two girls.....

So, this is going to be like two posts in one because there is alot to talk about.

Part 1: Switzerland

After a train ride from hell (which included a suicide committed in front of my train which delayed my train an hour, causing me to miss my connecting train), and 10 hours of travel I made it Interlaken Switzerland Tuesday night and suddenly none of the travel mess mattered because the Swiss Alps are breathtaking.

Coming into Interlaken by train was absolutely gorgeous. The train snakes around the mountains like a rollercoaster, and the occasional sheep or cow right outside your window reminds you that people and things actually live here.

Eva arrived in Interlaken about an hour after me and we kept the night pretty calm with some dinner and a drink at our hostel. Wednesday was spent hiking all day. We took a train from Interlaken to Lauterburren and then hiked to Stechelberg, where we took the cable car up to Murren and then hiked to Gimmelwald and back. It is hard to explain the veiws that we saw, but I have neer seen anything like it - Lake Tahoe has nothing on the Swiss Alps. At one point we just stood and watched one avalanche after another fall from high up in the mountains.

Wednesday night we went for cheese fondu. We kept the tradition alive by eating at a place where we are obviously the minority. Who knew the asians loved fondu so much? Then we hit some of the local bars for a couple drinks. With the price of one drink being 10 swiss franks, the drinks were kept to a minimal. Quick fun fact: Did you know that the minimum wage in Switzerland is 20 Swiss Franks an hour?! (the frank is almost equivalent to the american doller).

Okay, so I know you are all dying to know what extreme adeventure Eva and I chose to do while in Switzerland. Well.... dunt duh da duh....

PARAGLIDING!

Canyoning was actually our sport of choice but there was too much rain lately and the canyons had too much water in them, so the trip was cancelled. So, paragliding it was. And it was beautiful. You are basically flying amongst the moutians - it is sky diving without the freefall (and the $600 price tag).

After our morning view of the moutains from the air we decided to rent motor scooters and ride around Lake Brientz. It was a beautiful day and the lake absolutely sparkled.

This is Eva on her scooter going up into the mountains.

And this was the view in my rearview mirror.

Part 2: Kittens!

So, I think I mentioned before that the family I am living with has two cats. Well, the day after I arrived they found out one of the cats, was pregnant. Since then, everyday I tell the cat to have her babies, and on Thursday night she did! So, there are 3 two-day old kittens here that I get to play with. They are so tiny. They cant even walk yet.

Anybody want a French kitten?!

Brussels.... check!

Next stop - Switzerland.

Highlights from Brussels included the Pavillion of Temporary Happiness (a temporary exhibit commemorating the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair in Brussels), a street market, and finding English television at the hotel - and FRIENDS no less!

Brussels is a city full of history, but we never really found any of it, as it is probaly the worse city ever for tourists. We set out the first day, map in hand, and within 5 minutes we were lost. We continued to be lost for pretty much the entire trip. Thank God for the Metro system which could usually save us and get us back on track. We did manage to find the Grand Palace, Mannequin Pis, The Museum of Musical Instruments (which closed 1 minute before we arrived), the Atomium, several parks and the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas.

We also succesfully managed to eat about 2 tons of chocolate, belgian waffles, and three types of Belgian beer.

Wednesday I head to Switzerland for a day of adventre sports. Yet to be decided if canyoning, hangliding, parasailing, or river rafting will be our adventure of choice. Stay tuned to find out which adventure is next to be checked! off my list.

P.s. I am glad everyone back home is safe following the earthquakes over the weekend. I'm thinking about you.

Not much new from the last time I posted.....

I conquered Bruges, Belgium in one day. It is a beauiful city, but you will never know it because my camera died about 30 minutes after arriving - UGH. The real highlight of the trip was walking through the small alleys of the town listening to my "smurfperm" playlist on my ipod (seemed appropriate as The Smurfs creator was from Belgium) and eating frites (fries) with curry ketchup followed by Ferraro Roche ice cream from DaVinci's ice cream cafe.

I have finished my second book since the start of this trip. It is so nice to have time to read again.

Tomorrow I head to Brussels for the weekend with Eva. Cant wait to spend more than one day exploring a new city. Look out belgium waffles, chocolate, and plenty of belgium beer!

Today I bake a gooey butter cake and make a run up to the train station to look into buying a rail pass, as it seems I will be making a trip to switzerland next week, followed by another trip to Brussels for a music festival at the end of month.