America... The Beautiful??

The past three and a half months have been spent dreaming of the splendours of America, such as Diet Coke and cheap food. Well, here I am, in America and I hate it. I want to be back home (Geneva). I miss my friends there, nothing compares to you girls. You are my best friends and I want to be running around Francerland and beyond with you. Diet Cokes and free refills are great, but nothing compares to our lives in Europe. Only three more weeks til I'm back in Francerland!

TECKNOTONIK

I feel as if it is about time that we have a post dedicated to the GLORY THAT IS TECKNOTONIK.

Seriously, I have decided that it is the sole inspiration for North American hipsters. Want proof? WATCH THESE VIDEOS.





Amirite, or amirite? Ouai? OUAI?

Anyway, I also think it's about time that we all learn how to dance like this so we can impress our less fortunate friends back home. That is all. CIAO.

I love you all, I'll miss you all terribly, and I know that as soon as I get home this last few months will feel like a fantastic dream, just like university did/does.

But don't worry, by hook or by crook...
I'll be back.

"So...do you wanna go get deported with me next June?"

Whoever said girls don't eat...

Obviously do not know us...

I felt like we could us some more positive vibes on here...

So it looks like it's going to snow in Gex on Saturday, which is mega exciting for me! Last night we were discussing how people in the UK go crazy over even a dusting of the stuff as it's so rare, and more than a centimetre causes 'SEVERE WEATHER WARNING' bulletins on the TV. The quirks of the English...

Also wondering if any of you guys have any old ski jackets etc that I could buy from you? I really don't want to fork out/can't afford to anyway for new stuff especially when we're really only talking weekends in February!

Also, which one of you is going to volunteer to teach me to snowboard?

Garde votre bananes!

I think I speak for the whole crew when I say that it goes without saying that we're here if you need us in low times, and I know I am for everyone else too. My shoulder's surprisingly absorbent. x

7 Years

This post has nothing to do with Francerland, but I still feel like it is needed. 7 years ago today (Nov. 17, 2001), my life changed forever. I can still recount this day like it was yesterday. I was 16, I went to see the first Harry Potter movie with my parents during the day, then at night I went to my friend's house while my parents went to dinner. While out with my friends, my brother called me and I said I needed to come to the hospital because my parents had been in a car accident. When I arrived at the ER the, I found two of my brothers (one was training for deployment in Texas) waiting for me. A nurse came in and told us that my dad was on life support and we needed to say goodbye to him. It was like I was in a dream, everything from the point on did not feel real. I walked to the room my dad was in crying and yelling at the nurse to not let my dad die. My oldest brother came and got me and took me back to where he and and my other brother were waiting. After what seemed like hours, the nurse came back and said my mom (who was also in the ER) was asking to see me. My oldest brother and I went back to her room, she kept saying she couldn't believe my dad was gone. My dad died two hours after the car accident, my mom remained in the hospital for a week, 5 of the days were spent in the ICU. The doctors didn't know if my mom was going to make it or not.

The emotions that I felt during the next weeks are impossible to describe. I used to cry thinking that I would never hear him speak again. That he would never take me on one of our father/daughter vacations again. Eventually, I accepted what happened, but still everyear November 17th is a terrible day to get through.

Things I missed

Taking advantage of:

Tea with milk as THE NORM - on tap, on rotation, constant supply.

Junk food - Supernoodles.

Cheesecake, being that they've never heard of it in France 'avez vous un gateaux de fromage americain' is apparently a nonsensical question.

Being able to text all my friends for free on my contract, and catching up with them all.

Drinking, and walking around the streets drunk (Tara, Erin, last Friday!)

Folk music - BELLOWHEAD

Curry. Tara I'm really sorry we didn't get round to our lesson! But you learnt my cocoa powder trick for chilli...we can do curry in Gex. Who fancies a curry night?

Love to all, I'll be Gexward on Monday morning. x

I miss...

The rest of you, can contribute to the list of things that I miss about the US:

- my family

- my amazing boyfriend

- my pets

- all my clothes

- large quantities of peanut butter that cost $2

- large quantities of food for less that $15

- my AUTOMATIC car

- my GPS

- stores open until 9:30

- restaurants open all day

- fast food open late

- gas stations open 24 hours

- american television

- DIET COKE!

- unlimitted refills of drinks

- soda from a fountain

Thought I'd add my thoughts...

So recently I think we have all discovered that in order to blend in we need to be:

Reserved
Quiet
Uptight
Politically informed (to a 'T')
Well dressed
Smoke
Drink moderately
Converse minimally
Smile less
Laugh little

Need I go on? Maybe this is a pessimistic view of the nightlife here in the Geneva/Gex (aka Francerland) area but, I WANNA HAVE FUN! So needless to say, I think we are moving in the right direction by being ourselves and dancing when we wanna dance, drinking what and how much we wanna drink, laughing as much as possible and basically living how we wanna live. I love life here in Francerland but I am done conforming to the somewhat boring ways of being reserved ALL THE TIME.

I say "live your life" and let's make the most of our time here in Europe, no apologies for being foreign.

Bisous!

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Last night, Tara and I met up with Rosie and her Mom (or Mum) at Cafe du Lys. No, we did not, have any spotting of "O", but we did have a brief encounter with "M" and "P". It was actually a fun evening and we had a great time mocking the French/Swiss girls and their lack of having fun.

I have blogged about the fondue on my own blog. I will not reiterate, haha.

FRANCE

To comment on the last post: yes maybe we should reconsider alcohol.

On another note, I am so happy and relieved to be out of the Brabham household! I dropped Nadia and Ken off at school this morning and now I am free to do what I want until 4:30, which is such a relief. I'm so used to waking for Roirdy to wake up screaming, its so nice to be finally away from the family!

Why we should, perhaps, rethink the whole 'alcohol' thing.

Can I just say that, after relaying it to my friends and family, the ups and downs of last weekend make me sound like I'm having the most ridiculously outrageous time here! I mean, I am, although most of the time it's pretty suburban, but still - I love hanging out with you guys. I've already said that a big part of me wants to stay local next spring so we can stick out the Famous Five (yes, that is our name) for a bit longer, but if I get a job offer in the Caribbean where they're offering to pay for my flights I might just have to ditch y'all and head off to warmer climes.

What is really interesting is the opportunity out there on all of those websites - I don't know how much browsing time you've spent but wow - OK so most families are in the UK/USA (yawn) but seriously, a Nudist family in the south of France? There was one single dad with two little girls who live on a yacht and are sailing from the Caribbean to South America (uhhh yes please) but I don't know how I'd feel about being on a yacht with one other adult when it's a gamble if we'd get on! But you know, some families are offering to pay for flights and that's the big thing for me and the reason I can't afford to leave Europe (for this, or holidays really).

In other news, I really, really want to go to Cuba. And I don't think it's entirely illegal for you guys to go but I did end up on the US website for foreign country information and by God is that one biased article! Seriously, I think they need to look up the meaning of a few words. My grandparents went a few years ago and they loved it, and if you go on tripadvisor.com it actually states that crime is virtually non-existant there! Anyway, that's my rant over for today. I want to go, haha but I'm pretty sure noone there can afford to take on an au pair!

Yvoire?

The Up and Up

In just two short (hopefully) days I will be moving to France! Finally away from Adrian, Rebecca and Roirdy, hopefully I'll be much happier. And of course I'll be in Gex with Tara, Rosie and Pep!

Salut from the Swiss Alps!

I suppose I should throw in my ten cent(imes, seeing as this is Switzerland)

Pretty soon, I'm going to be the only aupair who is living in Switzerland. And boy, do I live in Switzerland. I live right in the Alps in the ski resort town of Crans-Montana. Check out that picture on the right. That is a big field at the end of a hike I went on in my first three weeks of being here. It's just up the mountain from where I live. I am getting really pumped for the winter because well, I live 100 meters away from a gondola station. Totally righteous. I am definitely going to be taking advantage of that once there is snow on the ground.

I arrived in good ol' Switzerland on July 7th. I guess you could say I went through a rough patch at the beginning of my stay, only because I am not super fluent in French yet and I didn't have any friends in the country. But eventually, after I got my 1/2 price transportation card, I made my way to Zürich for a weekend and hung out with my friend Martin there. I would like to go back there someday soon with all the girls. It's a pretty cool city! The picture on the left is from the Sunday morning when I left my hostel. It's taken from the tram stop. It was absolutely perfect weather that day, even though the weather on Saturday was full of rain and clouds. The following weekend, I went to Pavia, Italy to hang out and party with a friend I know through horses, Marco. He was having a big party at his stable and so I came down for that (and to ride, of course!) I seriously can't wait until I bring everyone to hang out in Italy for a weekend. It is so breathtakingly gorgeous there, and Marco is a sweetheart and is an amazing host. Oh, and I think that was the best food that I've eaten all year. Best. Pasta. Ever.

Anyway, I'm really glad that I finally met up with Kelly, Erin, Tara, and Rosie. I have so much fun with them every weekend. I couldn't ask for a better group of girls to hang with! I also think that we're pretty lucky with meeting a good group of locals. We manage to have something fun and not "touristy" to do every weekend. My camera has been dead due to my inability to figure out how to charge it in Europe, so I unfortunately do not have any pictures to post. But I fixed it! So my battery is charging and there will be a plethora of pictures to come.

My mother is coming to visit me on Monday! I'm meeting her in Paris for 5 days, then we're going to Venice for the weekend, and then spending 6 days in Florence before heading back to the mountains to wind down before her flight back from Geneva. I promise to take a lot of pictures and show everyone. I am going to make her go with me to the café that Amelie was filmed at and we already have decided to take a picture of us kissing Jim Morrison's grave. So amped!

Okay, time for me to get some rest! Ciao!

pre-francerland

Before I came here, the previous weekend, I went to a little folk festival in England with some friends and we had a French/Swiss themed party to bid me farewell, which I guess can now be called a 'Frencherliss Themed Party'.

I was a Swiss Goatherd, just in case you can't tell...

My sister and a friend - French Maids

But you know what guys - the week after that, before I came here, I envisaged a pretty lonely life, little did I know I would meet such an amazing group of girls that would make me seriously rethink my entire 2009 and maybe keep doing this for a bit longer. I think I might have been bitten by your bug.

Let's get this party started

So I thought I'd start off by posting some of the best/my favourite pictures that I've taken since I've been here (in no particular order)

Waiting for Erin to pee on a church.

'Sugar' the pony behind my house.

Marco in Parc Ariana waiting for the god damn bus F!

The Gex Trio (soon to be four!)

Ariana at dinner time.

In the forest near Gex.

When the lights went out at the Greniers in Gex.

Hawaii?

Erin and I soaking up the atmosphere.

3am Geneva Time. Lightning bolt reaction to the swan!

By Request

Kelly's scrapbook idea has developed into an all singing, all-dancing suggestion for a shared blog. So we can look back and smile. So accept the request on your email/create a Blogger account too, and get typing. Thoughts, pictures, backdating on Oktoberfest/weekends etc...everything!

Sooo....GO!

Rosie x