It’s the Little Things

I am learning to count even small accomplishments as major victories when done in Geneva. For instance, I felt like I had won when I learned I could order stamps online from the Swiss post office. I know that’s very small but it saves me time and energy and being able to mail letters to the States will make me feel more connected. 

But the biggest victory of all is that I made doctor’s appointments for all three of us. No, I did not do it entirely in French but I did some of it in French and then the nice administrators had mercy on me and broke out their English. Generally, it went like this:

Me: (reading directly from Google translate) “Je voudrais prendre rendez-vous avec le medecin…”

Them: “Bien sûr. Quand pouvez-vous venir?” (I think this is what they said. I had to check it on the Google).

Me: “Eh… what?” (I know I am supposed to say pardon but I get so flustered while trying to listen and understand another language that all manners go out the window).

Them: “When can yoooo come in to see the doctor? I can give you appointment on the twenty of Jzune at fifteen past ten.”

Me: “Yes, that would be great. Wait- the twentieth of June at 10:15?”

Them: “Oui. Twenty Jzune, fifteen after ten.” 

Then we go through my details- name (which is always interesting to hear pronounced in French. “Grizz-lay?”), birthdate (how do you say 1983?) and insurance info. Which we finally have. So that is easier.

I’m counting this as a major victory and am going to lie down now. Or eat a chocolate croissant. My brain is tired.

 

And we’re back…

We had a great month-long visit to the US last month. We had a wedding, a family reunion, my 30th birthday, my brother’s graduation and a retreat fall on five consecutive weekends so rather than doing the flight over multiple times, Forest and I went to the US and stayed for 5 weeks. I’ll admit- it was so nice to drive to Target and drink a Diet Coke while leisurely browsing aisles so full of stuff that I was overwhelmed. And it was nice to not have to worry about waking someone up when I call them at lunch time. But, I was also pleased to find out I was very ready to come home after five weeks away. Geneva was also pleased to see me. You might remember this picture from the snow storm in February:

Well, this is the same view today:

The trees have bloomed, the grass has come in, the tulips have bloomed and gone and now the peonies (yes, peonies!) are blooming. Josh’s garden is flourishing which is impressive since most of the things we’ve purchased and planted have been written in French. But thanks to Pinterest, I did know that ombre means shade so we avoided a few plants that would have died in direct sunlight.

We are also making more friends and in exciting news, we have found a little school around the corner (technically a play group run by an Italian woman) that Forest will go to. He loved our visit- he had the entire activity room to himself and went down the slide several times.  After that, he noticed doll sized strollers that the children use. Forest then went into the snack room and noticed there was one human size stroller parked in there. He immediately turned, walked back to the doll size strollers and brought them into the snack room one by one parking them next to the human size stroller. I wavered between being obnoxiously proud that my child could group like objects and terribly frustrated that he would not stop until each doll size stroller was put in the snack room. Once all four were there, I went to put one back and he followed me, waited until I set it down and promptly pushed it back into the snack room. So they stayed there for the rest of the visit. Thankfully, I discovered the teacher was very understanding and appreciated his “determination.”

Here he is enjoying the swings:

 

Where are the cards?

I realize this blog’s title is somewhat misleading. It used to be mostly for my cards and stationery work but lately, my time has been more focused on getting settled after our big move to Geneva and some of our adventures here. But, I am still finding time to be creative and am trying to focus my creative energy on my handwriting and calligraphy. I’m planning to feature more of my work here later but here are a few sneak peeks.

 

A little town called Annecy

My father in law came to town a few weekends ago and we wanted him to enjoy a typical weekend with us. So yes, we went to the farmer’s market and the garden store but we also took a forty-five minute road trip to what some have called the cutest town in France. I’m not sure who called it that but they were not far off. We first drove through the more industrial side of Annecy, near the train station. Nothing good happens near European train stations. But after following signs to Old Town, we discovered why that person called it the cutest town in France.

Forest and his Poppy at the farmer’s market

Flowers at the Farmer’s Market. Reminds me of Melina.

Annecy. Yes, that is a real place.

Fort in the middle of the river- seems like a great idea. We ate lunch at a cafe to the left.

Playing around with settings on my phone. Here’s Forest waiting for his bread.

 

 

 

 

Rainy Day Blues

Forest has recently discovered the outdoors. He loves to walk with his train (thank you Godfather Kyle) up and down the driveway of our house. He loves to “help” with the gardening  though I often remind him, “Gentle with the flowers.” He also loves to play with water. So last week, in the beautiful 80 degree days we had, his life was perfect. Then, on Friday and Saturday, the rain poured and Forest, confused as to why he was not outside, sat at the window and cried. And lay on the floor and cried. All he wanted to do is to go outside.

They are starting a Forest Kindergarten here called Creche de Bicyclette. Forest Kindergartens are very popular in Europe and take place completely outside. All activities are in the woods (or in this case a park). We are really hoping Forest will get to attend this preschool. It seems like a perfect fit- I mean, even the name is perfect. You can read more about it here.

Thankfully it is just cloudy today so we can go outside and I can avoid the melodramatic response to being stuck indoors. Here are a few pictures of us playing in the backyard last week. Fingers crossed for a similar day tomorrow. Oh, did I mention we live in Switzerland? I feel like these pictures are just too Swiss.

View from our deck

Picking flowers (still working on “gentle”)

View of our house from the backyard

I gave Forest a tub of water to play with. I figured he would pour water from one cup to another and maybe splash a little bit. This is what he did about five minutes into the activity.

 

 

 

Reading Update

I finished a few more books: Unbroken, The Spectacular Now, a great young adult novel and The Sixth Man, a David Baldacci novel about spies and private investigators and national security. It was not any sort of intellectual activity (I even guessed the twist from the very beginning) but listening to it made time in the car pass quickly. So including those, I think I am up to 8 or 9. 

I rarely just read one book at a time so I picked up a few more: The Calligrapher’s Daughter (purchased during a shopping spree at the Strand years ago), Wolf Hall (by Hillary Mantel who won two Booker Prizes, one for this book) and The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout (who wrote Olive Kitteridge, a book I reviewed awhile ago).

Fear

I saw this quote today on Facebook and wrote it out so I’d remember it. I want to be like this mom.

I have mixed feelings…

Most of my posts and communication have been positive or at least optimistic. There are very funny moments in each day that we live in Geneva. But there are lots of not so funny moments too. I’m really bad at moving. Not logistically though there was the vomiting incident after we flew to Geneva because of low blood sugar so maybe I’m physically bad at moving too. But I am really bad at moving. I always get excited about the new place we are headed to (Geneva has great public transportation! Forest can learn French!) and then start hating on the place we were (Houston was so hot! Their public transportation is terrible!). But then we move. And all the sudden, the new place doesn’t look so hot (It’s cold! They don’t understand me!) and the old place looks like heaven (Mexican food! Rodeo!) and it seems like the wheels come off. You’d think after three places in as many years I would have this down but as I realized recently, I do not have this down at all.

Moving is an isolating experience. All your friends are staying where they are. You are the one leaving. You may not know anyone where you are going. I knew one person and the day we got to Geneva was the day she found out she was being moved back to the States. I figured that more people would offer to speak English but they really only tend to offer English once you’ve offered French. It’s like playing chicken with your linguistics- who will break first? Generally my French breaks down too fast to earn the right to speak to someone in English.

I am rereading “1000 Gifts” and was reminded that so much of our pain and brokenness comes from being ungrateful. We look at blessings and see only curses. So, in an effort to break that cycle in myself, I try to find something I am grateful for- for the ability to live in another country, for a chance to learn a new language, for the sweet new friend who texted me the day she found out I had moved here to invite me over, for our new church that is so diverse and dynamic and for our cute, cozy and well-organized house. There are more- like the occasional spotting of the Alps or the fact that France is less than ten minutes away. But, it’s tough to move. I looked back at old posts and felt like I was lying to only point out the funny or charming aspects of this adventure. So there you have it. This whole thing reminds me of a New Yorker cartoon below. I feel like that’s probably true for most things but I definitely have mixed feelings about moving.

Cuts in Translation

One thing I’ve noticed about Geneva is a seemingly strong and interesting local economy. Sure, you have your grocery stores, your pet stores, your clothing stores but every other retail space is either a florist or a coiffure salon (a hair styling salon). I cannot figure out who is keeping these in business. The florists are incredibly expensive and the coiffure salons are so plentiful that I cannot imagine they ever book a full day of appointments. Or perhaps everyone in Geneva goes to the hair dressers every day. That could possibly justify half the number of coiffeurs (hair stylists) in this city.

When we were in Davos, I told Josh I wanted to check out the coffee shop that was rated number one out of all Davos restaurants (and it was just a coffee shop- it had to be good). As we started walking down the street, Josh kept asking “Is that it?” and nodding at different shops. I was confused because there were in fact not that many cafes on the this section of the street in Davos. I said, “Wait, you mean the coiffure place?” Turns out Josh had thought that Geneva was the land of coffee shops. He too was confused when I explained that ALL those coffee shops were in fact hair salons. I’m no economics major but the supply has to overwhelm the demand.

This weekend, I got to practice my coiffeur skills on Forest. See, our sweet boy has a natural mullet. His hair grows faster in the back than the front and if we are not diligent with the hair cuts, he can start looking really rough in no time. So, refusing to pay someone each time the mullet threatens to appear, I decided it was time to learn. I got out scissors and while my mom held Forest and entertained him and my dad took pictures, I started my new career as a children’s coiffeur. Apparently I came to the right town- should be able to start my salon in no time.

Gardening for Peace

My husband is a gardener. He loves to garden. It borders on obsession but it produces such great fresh fruits and vegetables that I can’t complain. One year, we had so many cucumbers, I made two gallons of pickles. We have gardened with chickens in Virginia, ordered 2000 red wriggling worms to our tiny apartment in Brooklyn, rebuilt a water garden in Texas and now, in Geneva,have attempted our best diplomacy at the garden center. 

We diligently researched garden centers both in Geneva and just across the border in France. I liked one called Botanic (which is in fact in France) simply because their signage was great and they had chosen cool fonts for their website and printed materials. Josh followed up my cursory search and confirmed that Botanic had everything we needed. So, we wandered for at least an hour around a garden center unlike anything I have ever seen- aisles and aisles of planters, pots, trees, shrubs, flowers, water garden plants, animals, organic produce, various home and garden decorations- and all with unbelievably attractive signage.  I knew Josh would love it and I was right. He wandered and planned and dreamed and purchased two planters, several bags of potting soil, a few flowers, lots of seeds, a seed starting kit, tools, and soy sauce (that last one was for a stir fry recipe I wanted to try). We bought it all, signed up for the loyalty card and got to the car only to realize we had a baby, a dog, two adults, two strollers and all of our purchases to fit. If we had our American car (a giant Sequoia that should qualify for statehood), we probably would have fit. However, with our small European SUV which is in fact one of the larger cars on the road here, we could not fit it.  I made the executive decision to stay behind with one stroller, one planter, three bags of potting soil and the tools. Josh drove Forest and Crockett and the other items home to Geneva and then he and Forest came back across the border to get me. So while I waited, I unfolded the stroller, had a seat and emailed a few people, namely my sister in law. My email started with “Guess where I am. Did you guess in a stroller in France? Because I am.” It was Good Friday, which is a holiday in France and Switzerland so many Swiss and French citizens were at Botanic and walked by me, an adult in a stroller, playing solitaire on her cell phone while wearing her rain boots and bright blue coat (the Swiss do not wear colored coats). I’m confident I did a great deal of good for the image of all Americans abroad.

Since Friday, Forest and I have gone back to Botanic and bought more gardening supplies. And today, I bought Forest a small set of gardening tools. He kept the watering can on his lap the entire way home from the store and immediately went to the planters to “help.”

We might have a problem…