sigh

Christmas is gone, my family jumped on a plane yesterday for home and now we are left with an empty (very messy) apartment. It was great having my family here- admittedly a little stressful for everyone at times, but wonderful. I can't wait to look through all the photos we've taken.

Now that the family is gone we're trying to catch up on our sleep and get the house back in shape. Unfortunately, I'm sick. I'd been fighting with a stuffy nose and clogged sinuses most of my families visits and now that I've let myself relax a little it's really hitting me. On top of that my face is all broken out in cold sores. it's disgusting and painful. I've never had a cold sore in my life and now it seems every time I look in the bathroom mirror another one is forming. I think I have about 8 at present. What really sucks is I don't know how to get rid of them. I tried calling the doctor because I was feeling pretty miserable and he's on vacation until January 5, did I want to make an appointment for then? Of course not, by then I'll hopefully be feeling better. Geeze, you'd think a doctors office would have more sense than that. Do people normally call up wanting to make appointments for a week later? Anyways I found another doctor who can get me in on Wednesday. I figured I could handle another couple of days without going over the deep end.

So, it was wonderful to have my family, I miss them already. But I am relieved to be able to sleep in my own bed. Hopefully, I'll get a chance to look through pictures from the last week and post some good ones. right now I think I'll try and take a little nap.

Escalade 2008

Once again as Christmas approaches the big event in Geneva is the Escalade, held on the weekend closest to December 12. This is a huge event for the Genevoise. It is a celebration of their defeat of the invading Savoyards in 1602. People are roaming the streets in 17th Century clothing, vin chaud and hot soup is sold at stalls throughout the old town. There are demonstartions of the battling with the pike or the musket. Cannons firing. And it's all finished up with a huge parade, a proclamation and a gigantic bonfire. We didn't stick around for the bonfire, but we watched the pompiers (the firemen) set it up.

All in all a good day.

well, for some reason blogger doesn't want to load my pictures so I'll see if I can do it tomorrow.
no promises because I have a ton of stuff that has to get done tomorrow in preparation for the family inondation, but I'll try my best!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

Yesterday we got our Christmas tree! Yay! Now it really feels like christmas is just around the corner. the house smells of pine and in the evening there's the lovely glow from the Christmas tree lights. I love it. I think I'm just super excited this year for Christmas because my whole family will be here and I can't wait to share with them what it's like to live here.

So, to get ourselves headed in the right direction for a big family Christmas inFrance we went out to Botanic (the local garden store) and bought a lovely little Christmas tree and some ornamnents.

I don't know if you can really see in the photo but instead of a metal stand that you can put water in here they have a section of stump that they drill a hole in and put the tree down in! It's pretty cool Granted you can't really water the tree...but we didn't water ours last year and it lasted for quite a long time. Keep your fingrs crossed that this one holds up just as well. I'd hate for it to be brown and dropping needles before Christmas!

It was fun to decorate and the hubbster was fabulous in making hooks for the new bulbs we'd bought. I didn't get a really great picture of the tree, but here it is in all it's decorated glory.

And in it's lit splendor.

Joyeux Noel !!!

Jingle all the Way

so, even after living in Europe for a year and a half I still have moments of culture shock. On my way home from work today I was listening to WRS (World Radio Switzerland) an English language radio station - I know, I know it's no wonder my French still sucks I listen to the radio in English, watch TV and movies in English, work with people who speak English....but, that's not the point. There was a story on the news about how in Ticino (part of Switzerland down near Italy) there had been huge protest rallies because the Cantonal government (think of State government in the U.S.) decided to allow stores to have extended hours in December. This would mean that for 3 Sundays in December shops could be open AND they could stay open till 9:00 pm on December 23 and December 30. There was a huge uproar over this and massive protests. "What about the people who work in those shops?" people queried, "They have families too. They deserve to have time off as well." All I could think of was, "What the HELL are you people carrying on about?"

It's totally the American in me coming out. I just have the mind set that these people are working in a service industry, that means they have to work when people want that particular service. Hell, I used to have to work on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, Thanksgiving, New Year's Eve, New Year's day and that was at such worthwhile jobs as a gas station and busing tables at a restaurant. I remember my first experience working Thanksgiving day. I was busing tables at a restaurant in my home town. I'd just finished my first semester of college and I couldn't believe I had to work on Thanksgiving, it didn't really make me very thankful. I was sure that it would be a joke, that no one would turn up for this elaborate Thanksgiving buffet we'd set out. Surely, everyone would be home celebrating with their families. They had grandmothers, Aunts, and mothers who cooked huge holiday meals for them...didn't they? Alas, I was so off base. The place was packed. I spent the day clearing off table, filling drinks, lugging more food out and empty warmers back into the kitchen. anyways, that was just the beginning of years filled with working on the holidays. Gas station cashier, yuck, but everyone needs gas 24 hours a day 7 days a week no exceptions. When I got into theatre that meant there was no getting around working weekends and most holidays. I mean, that's when everyone else wasn't working and they could pay for you to entertain them.

So, I'm used to people working on holidays. The funny thing is the government wasn't allowing shops to be open any holidays at all, just Sundays (a big no no in Switzerland - the only thing open is a pharmacy for emergencies) and some extended hours. Jeez, can you imagine anyone even blinking if a store decided to extend their hours? Or open up on a *gasp* Sunday or holiday? Not in the culture that created and embraced Walmart and 24 hour shopping.

Turns out last month there was a similar debate in Geneva. There was such an outcry that the government couldn't pass bill...or whatever it was granting shops the right to be open for 3 Sundays in December. What they did allow was for shops to be open HOUR later. But they had to pay their employees double for that extra time! Can you believe that? I'm still reeling from the thought of it. I've adapted to much of life in Europe, but some days, some things just still hit me as completely absurd.

Who know, maybe they've got it right and the culture of consumerism in the United States should take a step back and look at how we run things. Then again, I can't see how having your shop open during the busiest buying season of the year for a couple of extra days - even if they are Sundays - is really such a huge deal.
What do you think?

Christmas is in the air!

Driving home from work tonight I had a flood of Christmas cheer as I drove through all the little French towns now adorned in lights. It just makes me so ready for Christmas to be here. I'm going to drag the hubby down to Divonnes-les-Bains one of these evenings to stroll through the town and revel in the lovely Christmas decor - and to take photos, of course.

I came home and threw on some Christmas tunes and jammed out to A Very Special Christmas while I did the dishes.

oh crap, just when I finally sit down to blog, the hubby is yelling at me that it's dinner time, someone is chatting with me on gmail so I keep hearing this boop, boop noise, aahhhh gotta go

How is it that EVERY time our landlord drops in the place is a complete disaster? I mean, Saturday the house was clean but between home repairs, the dog, and trying to get pies made for our friends Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday the place is once again in utter chaos. I had plans to pick up today...I just haven't quite gotten there yet. Then the doorbell rings and it's our landlord. She need to get to the cave in the back and forgot her key, can she come through our apartment? Of course she can. Only as I glance around I think, "Great, once again she sees the total chaos in which we live." The dishes aren't done, there's a pile of blankets on the couch making it look like I spend my days lazing about curled up in blankets (it may be true, but I don't want my landlord to know it), the living room is strewn with dismembered stuffed animals parts and their innards (stuffing, that is). Papers are piled up everywhere spilling over onto the floor, there's mud on the couch where Ally jumped up after coming in from her walk this morning, laundry is hanging from every available surface in the hopes it will be dry soon...the list just goes on and on. It's so embarrassing. Now I have the motivation to clean but my landlord is gone. Who will see my sparkling clean apartment? No one but me, the hubbster, and Ally. And you know that half an hour after he gets home the place will be in shambles again - the dog will have pulled the stuffing out of her toys, the dishes from dinner will be piled on the counter...oh what's the point. I should just curl up in those blankets on the couch with a good book and leave the place in the disastrous state it is currently in. why not? Unfortunately... or perhaps fortunately, I have too much of my mother in me to let it remain in such a state. So, I'm off to do battle once again with the cobwebs, dust bunnies, dirty dishes and all the rest.