Bonjour!

Well I had an opportunity to brush up on my french. And I learned something. I retained very little from my sad 4 years of high school french. But met some new friends and visited with an old one. Well she's not old...we've just been friends for awhile. I'll start at the beginning.

Last weekend we had a holiday here in Europe so I had a 5 day weekend. I had arranged months ago to meet up with Elise, who would be travelling Europe for a few weeks before working in England for the Summer. We settled on meeting in Geneva to experience a little of what Switzerland has to offer. I had time before we could meet up so I flew into Geneva and then took a short bus ride to Annecy, France. It was on recommendation of a friend, thanks Michelle, and was such a beautiful city to visit. I arrived around dinner time on Friday. I hit up the grocery store for some supplies and checked intot he Annecy Hostel which was great. This was my first hostel experience so I was a little unsure. I have heard good and bad stories. But this place was a great and I quickly met people that evening. Turns out there was an annimation film festival in town. The biggest in the world aparently. A lot of people in the hostel were there for the festival, and a couple of girls and I checked out the late show of animated shorts. They were all good, some distubing, but good.

The next day we went to check out the market in town but it was no where to be found. So we split up and I did some shooping and exploring the city. Such a beautiful place. The city has a bid in for the 2018 winter olympics and I felt right at home when I saw the protestors amoungst all of the great buildings of the old city.

 The picture above is the old prison right in the centre of town. The most beautiful prison I've ever seen. Surrounded by water, resturaunts, even swans. And at night it's all lit up. So nice. 

The day was great, I met up with my new travel buddies by the lake, Renee and Kate from New Zealand. At one spot by the lake there is a little birdge with a great view. Notice the swan with his butt up in the air.

I split up with Renee and Kate again so I could go up the hill to the monestary. I went up a very steep hill to get there but ended up checking out an old castle that is being used as a museum now. Some pretty amazing stuff.



That evening I met up with Renee, Kate and Arthur from Norway. We went for crepes, so French. Then we checked out a viewing of an annimated movie in the park for the festival. But alas, I had to cut out early. I had an early bus to catch back to Geneva in the morning. I could go on and on about Annecy, I loved it there. But Instead I will leave you with a couple more pictures taken from the castle and monestary. Such great spots to overlook the city.

I got on the bus at 6:45am and made it to the hotel in Geneva before 9:00. It was a long morning but I was eager to meet up with Elise and her friend Lisa. We were going to travel Geneva for a couple of days before they headed out. We spent some quality time with the concierge of the hotel to make a good plan for the day. Unfortunatly our options were limited with the holiday closures, but we ended up taking a boat ride to Yvoire. It was a beautiful midieval town (since 1305) that to our surprise was actually in France. We didn't really think about the fact that crossing Lake Geneva to Yvoire brought us right into France. It was how we imagined our trip to Switzerland but it was beautiful just the same.

I got a little burned that day but we had a good time and Elise almost had a coke explode on her, so that was funny.

We enjoyed a great dinner that night and headed back to the hotel. The next day we conferred with the concierge again, but this guy wasn't near as helpful, or as funny as the first guy. We decded to go to a museum and then if we had time, check out a park area complete with a mini zoo and lots to see. On route to the museum the plan was to get food. This may seem like a simple task, but I can assure you that when you are relying on public transportation, your own two feet and roads filled with closed resturaunts and shops, it is more challenging than it may appear. We eventually refueled at a little resturaunt with many little birds that had gone rogue inside the resturaunt. Aparantly this is common and excepted, but I'm not a fan of birds flying around my food, indoors.

After a long morning we found the museum...closed. Stupid Francoise the concierge. The frustration started to set in about this point.

So we went to plan B and took the little yellow boat accross the lake, still in Switzerland this time, to the park and zoo area. There were a lot of statues in the park, which made for some fun photo ops. We even took it upon ourselves to become one with the art and be statues ourselves.

 There was a huge statue that was just asking to be climbed on. There was a romatic picture of me staring into his eyes, but I thought the ass-smacking captured the essence of the moment much better.

There was one spot with a great two level old carosel. It was so pretty and creeked like it could give out at any moment.

 The moment Elise was waiting for finally happened when we found the animals. But unfortuatly we couldn't stay long to enjoy them. Elise and Lisa had to catch a flight that evening to their next destination.

 We headed back into downtown Geneva to grab a quick dinner then hopped back on the tram. They headed back to the hotel to back up and get to the airport. I wasn't leaving till the next morning so I had some time to check out more of the city. This church in the middle of the city was so beautiful, but the creepers in the park surrounding it were enough to get me back on the tram to head back to the hotel myself.

 The next morning I had time to check out the shops that were finally open. I only had a couple of hours before I had to head to the airport myself. All in all it was a good weekend and I saw a lot. Though, I think I will need to make another trip to Switzerland. It was great, but I felt like I was in France most of the time. Next time!

Other than the travels last week, things have been good. I finally was able to check out a group at the church I've been going to out here. I was always away or it would get cancelled so I made the last one of the season just in time. I met some good people and hope to connect with them more. Even a few Canadians :) The next night I went out with the girls from the international play group I take the kids too. The mom's (and me) try to do socail nights so we went for sushi and hit up a pub where we got our dance on. No joke, I was actually bustin' a move to a dance mix of Kris Kross's Jump and Cypress Hill's Jump Up. So good. I am starting to meet some great people here. Hopefully it will continue.
I don't have any more big trips planned yet, but I have a few things in the works. So until next time...let the adventures continue.

Tripple Kisses!

So the last couple of weeks have been pretty uneventful as far as work with the kids goes. They are good kids but we have our challenging times. Last week was better and I'm making progress with a few things we want to work on. It was an improvement over the previous week. I seemed to be on a short fuse. After my trip to Florence, I was tired and shifting back to work mode sucked. Plus, I ended up working on Saturday that week. There was a wedding in the family. So I went with the family to the ceremony then took the kids home so the parents could enjoy the reception without chasing after three kids. It was a busy day but fun to go to a Dutch wedding. Things were definitly different. My favourite part was definitly the clothes. Most of it was pretty standard, but the mothers of the couple both wore fancy hats, and all the men involved in the wedding wore waist coats. Tuxedos with tails essentially. So good, I felt like I was in a Hugh Grant movie. Cobble stone roads, fancy clothes and tripple kisses. Oh yes the tripple kiss. I always thought it was standard in Europe to do the double kiss, the air kiss on each cheek. But no, here it's the tripple kiss. It takes forever just to greet everyone. I noticed everyone actively puckering up, but alas, I did not partake. More of a family thing. The day turned into evening and I got the kids to bed only for the little girl to wake up screaming at 1:00 after I had fallen asleep. I was expecting this, but man my heart shot out of my chest. All was good and everyone was soon happliy sleeping, including me.

So that was a long tough week, but like I said, last week was much better. And it lead up to a fun weekend. On Friday night, I had plans to check out a group that meets at the international curch I have been going to. I hadn't been able to go, so I was really looking forward to it and hopefully meeting people. It's hard to make friends, I have a whole new sympathy for kids starting school and not knowing anyone. It's been a while since I've had to do this. Anyhoo, the group was cancelled last minute because it was a holiday weekend and people weren't around for it. Bummer, now I have to wait 2 more weeks before I can make friends.
But the weekend was redeemed when I boarded a train on Saturday morning for an overnight visit in Nijmegen, Netherlands. Just under an hour and a half away, Nijmegen is where my mom was born and her fmaily lived before they moved to Canada when she was eight years old. I knew it would be cool to see her hometown, especially since she's never been back, but I didn't realize how good it would be. My uncle has been back and visited a few times. He hooked me up with his and my mom's cousin Hans and his wife Andy. They were my hosts and tour guides for the weekend. 

Hans and Andy picked me up at the train station. I recognized them from a picture they had sent me. And they greeted me with...you guessed it the tripple kiss!! I was initiated into the long awkward hello kissing tradition. But it was actually sweet and I plan on bringing the tradition home with me :) We drove closer to the city and parked to then walk around for the day. It was scortching hot, but was so nice to see the city. The plan was to walk to the house that my mom was born in and her family lived before coming to Canada. On the way we passed by a bakery. Hans pointed it out as where my uncle used to have to walk to to get the bread for the family. A bit of a walk for a little kid.   

After asking for directions at the bakery, we made our way closer to the house. We passed a little sports and fishing store that caught my eye. It reminded me of my dad. Love the parking sign.

A little bit of Mom and Dad on this trip. A little past the sports store we finally made it to Koroenstraat #18. The house my mom was born in. It was a small house in a row with dozen of other houses. It was so small and so surreal to see the place I've heard mentioned so much over the years. I couldn't believe that 8 people lived in that little house. But it's still standing and in pretty good shape. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Standing infront of the house was so surreal and I strangely felt closer to my family and their history. I starting thinking about how close they were to the war. My mom later told me that her parents remember bombs dropping near by. Wierd how something like this trip can put those things in perspective. I guess being in Canada it's hard to imagine the effects of the war, but we got a nother taste of it when we visited the Canadian War Cemetary. There were thousands of Canadain soldiers burried there. It was breathetaking.

On a lighter note...Hans and Andy took me to see all sorts of sights around the city. But another highlight was seeing a real live windmill up close. That's me down at the bottom of the picture.

The weekend was great and I look forward to visiting Nijmegen again meeting more of my family there. I have really loved exploring the Netherlands and I have learned that the people in Holland aways seem to be happy. Check out what's in this store to find out why.

 I could go on and on, but I will leave it at that. This weekend should b full of more stories and adventures. I am visiting Annecy, France and meeting friends in Geneva Switzerland. Should be good.

Love ya'll
Until next time, Triple air kiss
Kelly