Geneva, the Matterhorn, and playing mom

The weekend following my trip to Grenoble, I went with Katie and her friend who was here visiting to Luke, to Geneva for the day on Saturday and then to Zermatt on Sunday. In Geneva we pretty much just laid in the park for hours. We walked around a bit, but it was just such a beautiful day out, that basking in the sun was all we could think about. The duck had the same idea we did! (The first 3 pictures are Geneva, the others are Zermatt)

Then we went to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn (a famous mountain). When we woke up Sunday morning it was really beautiful with only a couple of clouds in the ski, a perfect day to take the gondola up to the top to get a better view. By the time we reached the top, it was white all around us and it started snowing. It was a little disappointing, but we did get to see the Matterhorn in the morning from the ground and after waiting it out a few hours, we were able to see it peak through the clouds a couple of times. A bird's eye view of a mountain range is one of my favorite things in the world to see. It ended up raining the rest of the day. The town of Zermatt itself is really cute. It's small with mountains all around and has the feel of a ski village. It was a nice weekend and good to see more of Switzerland.

This past weekend, well starting on Thursday morning actually, my host parents went to Holland for a weeknd away, leaving me with the three kids. It was my first time spending so much time alone with them and the first time they have ever left their kids for more than an evening with anyone other than their Grandparents. I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but I think the parents were even more so. Besides being exhausted, I really enjoyed the weekend. It was just me with the three of them and I think I did a pretty good job! No one had to go to the hospital and there were no excessive calls to the parents. I did a lot of running them all around town for a sleep over, a birthday party, a piano recital, etc. but the time I did spend with them was fun. On Saturday I had some friends over for dinner and then they brought ice cream and toppings over for desert. The kids especially loved that evening. Not only because they got lots of attention and got to eat a tone of ice cream, but because I let them stay up really late, at least for them. I thought that letting them go to bed later would mean they would wake up later than 6:30am, but I was wrong. I'm about caught up on my sleep now, so that's good. I'm going to miss the kids SOO much and I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to them everyday.

Good Ole' Grenoble

Last weekend I had an unexpected 4 day weekend. I had to go somewhere, as there isn't much time left for me to travel. So, I decided I would make a trip back to Grenoble, where I studied abroad 4 years ago. I didn't really have an agenda, but just thought it would be nice to see how it has changed and to revisit all the things I loved when I was there. My friend Kristina came along as well, though I'm sure she probably got tired of hearing, "Oh, I remember that," and "Hey, we use to go here a lot!" We were going to leave Thursday morning, but couldn't get in touch with Alexis, the director of the program I studied abroad with, until late Thursday, because he was finding us a place to stay. Anyways, Kristina and I went to a BBQ Thursday in Muttenz instead, a town just outside of Basel. We made vegetable kebabs, while everyone else ate sausage after sausage. People looked at us funny, but they were delicious and it was a lot of fun. So on Friday morning we took the train to Grenoble. For two days we basically just walked around and laid in parks. Grenoble isn't that touristy of a city, so there isn't a lot of actual sights to see. We did take the Balls up to the Bastille and I showed Kristina all the places I use to hang out. The picture of the building is where 2 of my friends from studying abroad lived and I use to hang out there ALL the time. We had a couple of different picnics in the park, ate some ice cream and enjoyed the view of the Alps. We left mid-day Sunday and spent a couple of hours in Geneva on our way back, as the train passes through there anyways. I also went to Geneva this past weekend as well, so I will put some pictures up soon of Geneva. It was great seeing Grenoble again, especially since I didn't think I was going to have the time to make it back again. I was surprised how well I could remember my way around. It will be cool to see the change when I go back in 4 more years!!! (well, i hope to at least!)