the FanZone, Baby

Woohoo, the FanZone in the Plainpalais in downtown Geneva. Big stuff here folks. Actually, it was quite fun. They have a section all blocked off, you have to enter through a gate with security who check your bags and make you throw out any food or drink. There was a stage with lots of lights, a HUGE screen for watching the games, and vendors with good food at exorbitant prices for their captive hungry and thirsty audience. Seriously, it was actually cheaper to buy food and drinks (including Jungle juice) at the fete de la musique! Crazy. But those guys new what they were doing. Once you entered the FanZone you didn't want to leave until the match was over. They got you good with their beer prices and you know EVERYONE was gulping that down on a hot day while watching a football match (that's soccer for all you Americans - see I am becoming more European).

Here's a picture of the bizarre Swiss mascot. I'm not really sure what it's supposed to be. sorry, I didn't get a picture from the front. The face is painted white, there's that crazy corkscrew black hat, and the donut around the waste. If anyone has any idea what this Swiss mascot is supposed to be, I'd love to know! Oh, and you gotta love the black and white diamond tights. Where can I get me some o' those?

There's the DH and our friends all sporting orange in support of Holland. It was cool to be watching the match surrounded by a sea of Orange and Red (the Russians) shouting, cheering, and cursing passionate fans. It was an exciting match too. The Dutch were out played, but they hung in there. Their defense was phenomenal. Especially Van der Sar, their goalie - can you say amazing? He's a 6'5" tall, lanky package of awesomeness. The Russians ended up winning in overtime, but Van der Sar did all he could to stop them...which, is more than I can say for the Dutch defense. Look, I like Holland, I was rooting for them. But, they did seem to run out of steam at the end. I don't know if it was because they were just exhausted from playing 90 minutes plus 30 minutes of over time or if they just gave up because the Russians were relentless.
There's me in my lovely orange straw hat. Provided for me by Martjne (I think that's how you spell it). He had it on hand in case I didn't have an orange shirt -which I didn't. He's Dutch and wanted to make sure we were all visibly supporting his team. Janice, his wife, is American. She's from North Dakota, I believe, and probably wouldn't thank me if she knew I'd posted this picture on the internet. hmmm....let's hope she never stumbles across this! Well, folks. I'm sure you've had a blast (yeah right) reading about the FanZone but I spent a long day scrubbing the house and gardening in the hot sun so I'm tired and ready to go chill out before I hit the sack.
later gator.

I'm still alive!

I know, I know, it's been forever since I've posted anything. I've been a bit busy lately. Between work and the weather finally clearing so I can get work done outside my days have been pretty full. You thought I was spending all my time asleep on the couch, being the lazy ass I am. Admit it, that's what you were thinking. well, ha. Fooled you.

This weekend we were crazy busy and it was great! Thursday night we had dinner upstairs with our neighbor, Beat, (pronounce bat) Marion is at a wedding in sunny California. Along with stuffing ourselves with yummy sausages we watched the Portugal - Germany Euro Cup match - very exciting. Friday night we had a barbecue for the end of Tango...well, the end of year barbecue for the CERN Dancing club. It was fun and has inspired DH and I to try and plan a nice big "American" barbecue for our friends. We'll see how that goes. What do you think a quintessential American barbecue requires?

Besides food there was, of course, dancing. A few of the classes did presentations. I have to say I am seriously considering joining the Oriental Dance next year. It's kind of like "belly dancing". The women looked so cool jiggling their hips making their bells jingle jangle. I really loved it. I dance all the time at home shakin' my booty...so, why not learn an actual dance where booty shakin' is the staple?!? hmm...I'll have to consider this when I haven't been pouring wine down my throat.

Yesterday, Saturday, we did more gardening and then headed down into Geneva for le fete de musique. This is a very cool festival held every year in Geneva. For 3 days (Friday-Sunday) there are stages set up all over Geneva (mainly in the Old Town) where people play free concerts. C'est formidable! There are the standard fair booths scattered everywhere selling goodies. Only here it's not fried dough, french fries and beer. It's Thai food, Portugese cuisine, Sri Lankan fare, and Jungle Juice. mmmm...jungle juice...turns out it's not quite as exciting as it sounds lots of vodka with what tasted like a splash of orange juice and, they claimed, pineapple juice.

We only went to one area, le parc bastion, where the reformation wall is. There were, I think, 6 stages there and we wandered around listening to the performers, eating yummy, exotic food, and watching the street performers. I loved it. We listened for a while to a James Brown Tribute band - how great is that? In Switzerland you can stop and listen to a James Brown Tribute band and the Swiss were jamming out. They loved them some James Brown. Fantastique!! Following are some random pictures we took while wandering the festivities. There was a group of guys doing some type of martial arts to some funky drum beats, a jazz band, and a group of drummers (from Portugal...maybe...I'm not sure)

OK, so I've been drinking quite a bit of wine this evening. It's a lovely local wine. A cote du Jura 2006 Chardonnay. Wine notes? Wine note, they don't need no stinkin' wine notes. Their French. I can't speak intelligently about wine...especially after 3 ...or...more glasses. All I can say is mmmm...mmmmm...good. Perfect and refreshing on a hot and sunny day. So, I guess I'll just have to find some time in my busy schedule cleaning house tomorrow to post pictures about the Fan Zone and the Holland-Russia match last night.
I raise my glass to you all, or all y'all, if you're from Texas. Cheers!!!

ugh!

I just wrote a HUGE post about my weekend and it didn't save! it disappeared! aaaahhhhhh. Well, I'm sorry you'll just have to wait until I'm in a better mood now. My whole post was about the drama academy's end of year performance for family and friends. All the students (over 250 of them) had a chance to perform on stage for their families this weekend. It was great and a nightmare all wrapped into one. The nightmare was spending every waking moment at the theatre getting the groups organized and rehearsed. the joy was seeing them on stage acting their hearts out and hearing the audiences warm response.

We had 3 nights of performances - teens and adults Friday night, 7-9s Saturday afternoon, performing arts and performing arts plus (the singing, dancing, and acting classes) Saturday night, and the Minnies (4-6) Sunday afternoon and the 10-12s Sunday night. Each group had a rehearsal before their performance, and the younger kids had a full tour of the theatre including the light/sound booth where they were allowed to press a few buttons to turn stage lights on and off or do a few sound effects. Some even got to speak on the "god" mic which is the thrill of thrills for anyone!

Even though many of the students had never been on a stage before and some of the final dress rehearsals were worrying in the end every group pulled it off with aplomb. They were great. It was wonderful to see the pride and joy on their faces when they finished their pieces and listened to the appreciative cheering and applause from the audience. Though I'm shattered from the long hours this weekend it really was a great success and everyone involved should be very proud. that's it. I'm going to have to go take a nap now. this is too much effort. Seriously, working 5 days straight when fighting off a persistent cold is just too much when you haven't done it in over a year. *yawn* hmmm....maybe I'll just lie down right here on the couch for a few minutes.....

allez l'Egypte, allez l'Egypte!

"Allez l'Egypte, allez l'Egypte!" (go Egypt, go Egypt!") a little tow headed boy shouted with delight on the bus this afternoon. His father asked him why he was saying this and in his little five year old French voice he replied he was cheering them on in the Euro cup (which is currently taking place here in Switzerland and Austria). "But Egypt is not in the Euro Cup," his father said. "Oh yes, I saw it on TV," was the stubborn little reply. "Egypt is not in Europe, " the patient father explained. The little boy just shook his curly, golden locks and stubbornly refused to accept that Egypt was not a European country and thus not playing in the 2008 Euro Cup. I found it pretty amusing.

The city of Geneva is besieged with soccer (called football here) fans. this afternoon as I rode the bus across town to work I watched packs of fans roaming the streets in their red jerseys, crazy hats, others had Portuguese flags draped around shoulders, all reveling in the glory of the day and the hopes of a victory. Today's games are Portugal versus the Czech Republic and Switzerland versus Turkey. Portugal and the Czech Republic are playing in the Stade de Geneve (which is, of course, here in Geneva) so that explains the mobs of Portugal fans flooding the streets today. In fact, one parent was late picking up her daughter because traffic was stopped due to a large band of Portugal fans deciding to parade down the middle of the street! No, not an actual organized parade, merely a huge group of fans refusing to get out of the road! Fro the first time today I actually saw police cars parked around Geneva - normally there isn't a police car in sight anywhere. At least, I never see them.

It's all quite exciting. DH and I definitely have to head down to the "FanZone" in Plainpalais some time during the Euro Cup to watch a game on the big outdoor screens and experience the general hubbub and excitement of the tournament.

The hippies are coming, the hippies are coming!

My sister's wedding was great. It was the perfect wedding for her and her fiance. They had a very small ceremony on the deck at my parents house with only immediate family attending, then they had a big bash in a tented "reception" also in my parents back yard. We all put in a lot of effort the week leading up to it to make sure everything was ready and it really paid off. There was purple (my sister's favorite color), tie-dye, bare feet, lava lamps, good wine, and great people. My brother-in-law made all the wine for the wedding (130 bottles!) and it was fabulous. The wines he made were Apple, Peach-Ginger, Riesling, um...a red, which was...a nero d'avalo. They were all so good. I was totally impressed. And he made special labels for them too. It was very cool. I so wanted to send some of the left over bottles to Lani and Sam at Will Write for Wine, but with traveling down to Pittsburgh to see the hubbies family it just got shoved to the end of the To Do List, thus it never happened. Oh well.

It's getting late so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures from the wedding without writing too much.
My cutie-cute nephew. Just like his crazy aunt sticking out his tongue!!
The tent looked soooo cool at night, all lit up. The hubby and I will take credit for hanging those up, thank you very much. At night the glow sticks came out! Glow sticks, glow necklaces, glow bracelets! It was so fun.






Once the party started winding down my extended family took center stage - Karaoke, dancing, drinking from over-sized martini glasses, licking faces...
Hope you enjoyed these snap shots of the wedding night. it was a great time. It was a perfect fit for the bride and groom. The weather was nice, cold once it got dark, but we (I guess I should say I) had enough alcohol flowing through us to keep us nice and toasty warm. Good times. Man, I love my family. I miss them. Bah, I'm going to bed now.

Back from the U.S.

We had a nice trip spending two weeks visiting family in the States. We started off our trip in Upstate New York where we got off the plane and were promptly set to work helping my parents get their backyard ready for my sister's wedding.

It was a busy week, but fun. It's always wonderful to see my family. I miss them so much, but we've all been living apart for many years now.

seriously, I was finally all set to sit down and do a good blog, but a HUGE thunderstorm just rolled in over the mountains. It sounds so loud, like the thunder is right above the house...so, I think I'll just turn off my computer now. I'll try to blog soon. no promises though the rest of this week is going to be crazy busy at work for me because all the kids (like 250 of them) are doing a performance this weekend for their families.

Yikes! that lighting was scary. I'm outta here.