Common Sights

I just wanted to share some pictures of common sights  around  Geneva and CERN. Not beautiful by any means but a glimpse into the everyday. 

Yum!

 

These are in every chocolate shop and I have seen them in supermarkets as well. Anybody know if there is any significance? All of them have the Geneva Canton symbol on the front and are filled with smaller pieces of chocolate and marzipan. 

 

CERN Bustop Parking Lot - The flags were up this day.

 

CERN Bustop at Gate 2. 

 

Restaurant 1 - Looking Toward The Hostel Hotel We Stayed In. Notice the santa's climbing the columns.

 

Restaurant 1 Again - Looking back toward the kitchen of the left. At lunchtime, the place is completely packed and almost every chair is filled. It a world of knowledge in this room and supposedly - decisions get made over coffee and espresso here. 

 

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Apartment Clarifications

I just wanted to clarify the apartment situation for the family back home. After only two weeks of searching we were offered a place on a Thursday on the spot. We were told never to turn anything down, so we accepted and were going to move in on Dec 1st. The morning we were going to sign the lease, we recieved a phone call saying we were accepted into another place. This second offer was a much better deal (almost 500CHF cheaper), larger, and in just as good of a location. Plus the second offer had an "open" kitchen instead of the kitchen closet. It really was a no brainer to take the second one. 

There were some consequences though. There is a 300CHF penalty for not signing the lease because they had already drawn up the papers. The second consequence is that we don't get to move in till Jan 3rd. That means we will be staying in the CERN Hotel till Dec 18. From Dec 18-26 we will be in a hotel. From Dec 26-Jan 3 we will be traveling anyway. (This actually helps us from having to pay an apartment rent and hotel costs for the same nights.)

Rob and I are still debating whether we should get a Swiss Bank Account. People here pay their bills thru the post office with these pink slips. I find it very odd. Below is a snippet from phdcomics.com on the swiss banking/housing circle. I really enjoy reading those comics. Jane is my favorite charactor (for obvious reasons). 

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Snow!!!

It snowed most of Saturday with some splashes of sunlight and blue skies mixed inbetween. Rob and I bundled up and went to lunch with his advisor Daniel and his wife in Ferney-Voiltare. Ferney is right on the french side of the border and actually home to a lot of expats who have children and want to live a hybrid french country town/close to city atmosphere. A fantastic thing about Ferney is that they have a superb farmers market on Saturday. 

Get ready for this one folks, this is going to be a bold statement. It beats SLO hands down in the fresh produce department. They also have quite a few "bonus" stands I shall say. There are at least 5 different french cheese stands. I can't even tell you how long I spent staring at the chevre. The stand people are really friendly and willing to cut off small pieces of this huge wheel for you to try and sample. There are a couple really large seafood stands with everything you can thing of. Everything looked really fresh like it was trucked in that morning. There are also butchers and fresh bakers as well! I was in heaven. If anyone visits us and we stay in town for a Saturday - we are going!   SLO still definitely beats Ferney in lot of categories including atmosphere, food, scale, and entertainment. 

I'll post pictures the next we go and I remember my camera. 

Most of the day the snow wasn't sticking to the ground and melting as soon as it landed on the ground or us. Rob and I looked out our hotel room window last night to the surprise that everything is sticking! We don't expect it to last thru the day Sunday so I got early this morning and took a few snapshots. 

Building 40? From Our Window

Restaurant 1 To The Left From Our Window

Snow!

Saturday Night - Snow Stickyness!

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1 Month To Go

One month to go (last Sunday) and two weeks of work left. Wow. The first 8 boxes got packed up this weekend. And our little apartment seems to have less stuff in it already.

I am starting to try to soak up this California life by cherishing all the little luxeries here.  The simpliest things I think I may miss, my bed sheets, big heavy asian blanket, my towels, and my matress. (Can you tell I am writing this while sitting on the bed).

Travel plans for next year are becoming more like reality instead of wishful thinking. Rob and I recently invested $120 on travel books to all sorts of cities on our "to do" list. I am most excited about Marrakesh, Morroco. I really want to eat a perserved lemon and chicken tangine and buy a tangine to take home with me. There is also a night market that I can totally looking foward too.

I am definately going to miss everyone at work even if they don't miss me. I am definately going into more of a lifestyle where I am not communicating with peers about work, but just trying to communicate and make foreign friends. It may sound exciting but I am also scared. 

I haven't blogged much while preparring to leave, but I do assure you, that once I am over there, this little blog will be full. 

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Massage & Ebay

Today I got my very first profesional massage! It may seem odd to some people that I have never been before now, but it never seemed to be necessary or affordable. E had a guest coupon and I jumped on the opportunity! I was a little unsure on how "naked" I needed to be but the lady was very nice and explained that a sheet would be covering all that needed to be covered. I felt a little adventurous and stripped down to just my undies. Some parts were kinda painful but overall relaxing. I actually feel like my posture is better and I feel a little taller. I also felt damn oily afterwards. Is that odd?

Rob and I have been working on selling stuff so we don't have to store it when we are gone. It is a big sacrifice for Rob but he has decided to sell some of his precious radio electronics on ebay. While doing the photographs today I learned a little bit more about Rob as teenager. He is selling some electric wave measuring machine.... (I don't remember the name) and he informed me that he used to look at his brain waves with it. I was more perplexed then anything and he exclaimed.. "What do you expect a smart 15 year old kid with lab salary to do?" Point taken. My husband is a genius, and was experimenting trying to get a computer to work off of his brain waves a teenager... wow. At 15, I think I was still trying to hitch a ride with my mom to the mall and kill my brain with movies and fast food. Haha... Opposites attract! 

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Crappy Lettuce

Not much is worse then crappy lettuce. Well, a lot of things are worse . . . but crappy lettuce ruined our day.

Rob and I headed out this morning to Fry's to get a hard drive to fix the Powerbook and a CD holder for all of our DVD's. I don't really enjoy going to Fry's for the shear fact of all the nerds inside. Oddly enough, it is a boost of self confidence to be "ogled" by nerds no matter how weird that sounds. We ended up buying our items and coming home. Immediately after opening them, we both were disappointed and bought the wrong things. To cheer ourselves up, we headed out to redeem our bucket of change at a coinstar and grab some lunch before heading back to Fry's across town. 

At lunch - our first encounter with bad lettuce. Just the edges though - still gross.

This evening we went to the Orange International Street Fair.  Don't get me wrong, I love street fairs, but this was just low class and put together wrong. There were way too many people, too many smokers, and bad selection of food. The booths sat in the middle of the streets making walking around awkward and claustrophobic.

To escape the crowds but still be at the fair we went into a diner that Rob recognized as being on the Food Network show about old Americana diners. This place definitely had an old feel about it so we sat at the bar and ordered our dinner. When the food arrived, Rob once again had crappy lettuce. This time it was rotten brown and a slimy. He didn't eat his garden burger and there was no obvious supervisor in the whole place to complain too. We didn't leave a tip and took a picture to post soon. If I was the owner, I sure as hell would want to know about that quality of food that was being served. 

On the up side, the powerbook "project" is almost complete and I'll have my very own laptop! The coinstar machine gave us a $78 itunes giftcard from all the change I have been collecting that Rob just leaves around the house for the past few years. Also on the plus side, Rob and I are looking forward to Erin's dinner tomorrow night and found some good variety of wines to bring along. (HI ERIN - cause I know your going to read this!)

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So Much - An Update

I seem to lose track of the time between posts and a million things seem to happen between them.

Since the last blog post - 2 trips to SLO, a wedding, great margaritas, and Rob's departure to Switzerland for a 3 week stint. Many other little things in between, but those are the major events.

It has only been about 5 days but I really starting to miss Rob's companionship. I haven't felt so alone in a long time. Mainly because after I get home from work, he has gone to bed and I have to wait till I am half asleep to talk to him during his morning time. I think a 9 hour difference is so difficult to manage. I don't per say feel alone like I have no-one to talk to. I can easily pick up the phone and chat. But sometimes chatting doesn't result in much and I don't have much to say without getting political on somebody. Haha. It's just my nature I suppose.

I have pretty regularly been watching Oprah and her summer re-runs. I don't know why I am fascinated by this show. The topics aren't always something I am interested in, but I find them light hearted and engaging. I feel too young to be watching the show, but I know I am not. Is it wrong for me to respect her? Maybe. The jury is still out.

The SLO trips in June brought back so many memories. One was pure vacation with good friends M & E. I have really enjoyed hanging out with them more. They make me laugh and share some great stories. The other SLO trip involved a wedding of Rob's cousin Tori. It was lovely but also a little stressful. My Mom-IL and I decided to help out with dessert. It seemed harmless and easy but proved to take a lot longer then we anticipated. About 10 hours of decorating and countless other hours preparing, I think it went off without a hitch. The Bride and Groom seemed happy, so that is all that matters right?

I start this bootcamp training twice a week at 6 AM next week. I hope it doesn't kick my butt. That reminds me . . . I need to get to bed right now. I have a 6 AM safety leadership team meeting in the morning. These maniacs like getting up that early. I am going to be sleepy!

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Excited But Sad

Today we leave on vacation to SLO town. I haven't been back in years! I can't believe I said "years".

I am sad I am missing my company open house. I really wanted to take shots off the ice sculpture. Haha.

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