I know I haven't written anywhere near what I thought I would here, but you see, there's just so much to take in! So much to do, so much to see, so much to everything! It's amazing. But here's a little list. Before that though, I just have to say that our nearly three weeks here has been incredible. Everyone we've met has been so warm and inviting, we've made some wonderful friends at church, great teachers at school and we're having a wonderful time. I start school next week and have been busily preparing for that (hence my lack of communication but preparing for school always makes it so much easier). And this weekend we're trying to decide whether to go to Paris or Milan. Life's tough and I'm incredibly grateful to God for all the good pouring our way! Here's a few little bits I wrote about:

The great things: Everything is new, new, new

1. Meeting fantastic people who are likeminded
2. Finding a wonderful apartment with views of the French Alps and Lake Geneva
3. Raspberries, blueberries, mulberries - all for breakfast
4. Going to France one week, Italy the next
5. Everyone being so amazingly kind to us
6. Swimming in Lake Geneva!
7. Not understanding people on the trains or buses - it gives me so much more time to think *I've realised what an eavesdropper I was in Australia!*
8. Going to wonderful art galleries where you see Monet, Picasso, Giacometti, Van Gogh, Klee, Warhol, Gaugin etc. etc. etc. all in the SAME museum!
9. Being with a wonderful husband who is so supportive
10. Seeing the old A-Team series in French and other English movies dubbed

The weird things:

1. Getting letters in the mail and you can’t read them - they’re in French
2. Trains without drivers
3. People taking their dogs shopping in Ikea
4. People taking their dogs on the train
5. People taking their dogs to the restaurant
6. Dogs taking their people to the restaurant
7. Going to Northern Switzerland where everyone speaks German and not being able to decipher a thing on the menu (except for “birchermuesli”)
8. Seeing people have a domestic in the cafe and you have no idea what it’s about
9. Staying up so late every night because 9pm feels so early here...
10. Having an ironing pile for once in my life and actually thinking about doing it all at the same time instead of once every day! (This'll be a first for me!)

The funny things:

1. Learning a phrase or two in French, speaking it and then not knowing how to reply when someone understands the first thing I said.
2. Forgetting that everyone outside our apartment speaks French when we’ve been talking in English together all day
3. Trying to explain 100g of Pepperoni in French
4. Having to have a card for everything - train pass, bus pass, residency permit,
5. Not going to bed until at least 11pm every night and then waking up our normal time
6. Constantly forgetting that you have to weigh your fruit and vegies BEFORE you take them to the checkout - and being sent back by the checkout person all the time to do it.
7. Ordering a salad (thinking you're so smart you know a incy whincy bit of French) and then having to eat humble pie when the salad has pastrami all strewn through it and you still want to be a vegetarian!
8. Having a wallet for Euros and a wallet for Swiss Francs! Go figure.
9. I have to say it again - dogs everywhere - Ikea, department stores, restaurants etc. etc.
10. Our temporary apartment filled to the brim with el tacko pictures and figures which I have now safely stashed behind the lounge and in the cupboards!

Love ya all. Oh PS. Rob has a new blogspot it's http://robswales.blogspot.com. He's sure to fill you in more than me! xxxx

Jodie

Our first week in Switzerland

Our first week in Switzerland and France (photo of Annecy courtesy of the fantastic Rob Swales )

Well, here we are! We've moved into our temporary apartment, I've taught myself to tell people I speak a little French, do they speak English? And today, I even managed to buy a cardigan and have a little conversation with a woman. Actually, it was more a monologue on her behalf, but anyway. I've been to the school and met a few of the teachers, been told I'm off to Rome in the first few weeks of school for an excursion and purchased our demi tarrif (half price tickets) so that we can catch the train to Milan, Paris, Zurich etc. for half price. Two of the teachers took us to Annecy in France on Saturday, it was stunning. And then on Sunday Rob and I went for a swim in Lac Leman (Lake Geneva). Everything (of course) is NEW NEW NEW. It's so wonderful. You have to shut your eyes to have a rest from taking in everything! And today, we went to look at an apartment. Legend has it, it's very difficult to find permanent or temporary accommodation in Lausanne. You have to look at least two months beforehand because legend has it again that there's a big shortage. Well, I'm not much into legends, so I've been thinking about how there's a right place for everyone. Today we think we found ours. The school is putting in an application. It has a mezzanine level, stairs that look like they go up to a treehouse (I'm such a kid!) and views out to the lake, that will be covered in snow in winter. In short, it's a perfect cubby. We'll see what Life has in store! Only good of course! Grocery shopping has even been fun and can you believe it, I'm actually looking up my French dictionary to learn how to cook certain new things. Now that's a miracle in itself (the cooking part). I'm starting to do some serious planning for work (I start on the 15th August) and it's all really interesting and exciting. We went to Evian about three days after we were here. And one of the teachers took us to a crazy day spa. It had a polar room where you could put snow over your body (I did of course), a very fun whirlpool that whizzed you around and even a pool that where you could hear classical music when you swam UNDER the water as well as Turkish baths, saunas and other delights. Well, I need to go do some planning for school now, so take care everyone. Au revoir. PS. I have discovered that Rob has a built in GPS. I'm feeling brave with speaking new phrases in French and he's not, and then I'm absolutely hopeless with getting my way around town and he's great. Love to everyone!

3 days to go!

Three days 'til we move to Switzerland and here's my final list of things to do:

1. Clean up rooms (so that Dad can have his house back!)

2. Unlock phone

3. Put my books I can't take into one giant container and hide in one of Dad's cupboards (he he)

4. Do the last load of washing

5. Final packing

So this is what it comes down to - 23kg in the hull/hold/whatever - and 7kg on board. I'm going to be wearing six pairs of jeans, five jackets and three dresses on the plane, so I can get that luggage allowance under control!

In all seriousness though it feels very surreal, very exciting and when I started to think about all we had to do before I sit myself on that plane, I got a little daunted. But I love writing, so decided to write it all down, what I had to do, and voila, that's all I had to do - 5 little things! It just seemed bigger in my head.

We've already had an invite to a BBQ in Basel, Switzerland, in August from some family friends. Thanks to all of my wonderful friends and family who are reading this and have equally amazing adventures to share in their lives. You are an inspiration to me all! My next blog will be written from the land of Lindt chocolate and Swiss Cheese!

13 days to go

I am now officially excited. Up until now there’s been too much to do, but this time in two weeks, we’ll be on the plane, moving to Switzerland. God sure is great! I have so much to be grateful for! Last night I met up with the director of my new school, and she tells me in the first week or so, I’ll be going on a ski trip for a few weeks with the school in which I’ll be snowboarding a lot, that every Thursday night the kids at the school go to the local soup kitchen to serve food to the homeless and that the school also does field trips to Africa to help build other schools. Now I can’t sleep! It’s 2:55am in the morning and later in the day we have our last two magic shows to do. Ironically, I decided to call my Switzerland blog “Grander View” - and without even knowing there's an area of Switzerland called “Grand Vaux” we are now considering an apartment there. The photo shows you the view from the apartment we are considering but we won’t know of course, until we land our excited little feet in Lausanne. And yes, that’s Lake Geneva and the French Alps in the background.

Approx. 53 days until we move to Switzerland. A beautiful friend, June, from the Christian Science Gold Coast church took us out to lunch at a French restaurant today. It was delicious! She also presented us with a Lonely Planet Guide to Switzerland. I can see Rob and I are going to have to "share" it. *he he*. (I'll try nab it when he's in the loo.)

Today is the first day I've actually started to even contemplate how exciting this all is! It's like we've been too busy to even think about it and June's wonderful invitation has turned on my official "You can get excited now" button. Even though we've known about this since January, there's been so much to do and we've been so busy and besides, can you really stay THAT excited for six months?

I'm looking forward to totally NEW adventures. All things new! Yahoo! Thanks June! PS. As I write this I'm watching dolphins playing in the vast ocean over Burleigh. Photo of sunset attached.