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!