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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Jura Mountains

Here is a "scrolling" stream, left to right, of the Jura Mountain skyline just behind where I live.




Now for my house location! Right in the middle of this picture there is a pink house, and our house is the white one directly behind it. See the next picture for a closer shot.


So, now you can see that I live right at the base of the Jura Mountains! There is an au pair who lives on one of the roads that goes up the mountains.

I went hiking in the Jura Mountains today, and took these pictures at the highest point I reached, probably about halfway up the mountain. Here is another "scrolling" image, left to right.




In that second picture, you can actually see Geneva, which is evident by the fountain on the lake. Towards the left of the picture and in the middle of the shot, there is a white smudge- that's the fountain that sprays hundreds of feet high. Aha, the fountain has it's own Wikipedia page! It's 459 feet high!


And now for a surprise!!!

I will be leaving Thursday night to go with the family to a suburb of Paris where my host mother's family lives and will be returning on Monday, as the mother's nephew is getting christened on Sunday. So... I get to spend Sunday and hopefully part of Saturday in Paris!!! I'm so excited! I will definitely take lots of pictures! Claire's host father has been kind enough to make a tour plan for me, as he said he would be a tour guide if he didn't work for the UN, so I will hopefully be able to see quite a bit in a short amount of time.

I also have my little trip to Geneva to tell yall about, so I've got some exciting stuff coming up! Wish me luck in not getting lost in Paris!



Monday, September 17, 2012

Picture Perfect

I know I need to write a proper post, but some pictures will have to do for the moment! :) They're not the best quality since I took them with my iPhone, but oh well. I need to take some pics with my camera and check the quality difference.

(You should be able to click on these pics to make them a little larger.)


*drumroll* Mont Blanc! The view from the upstairs bathroom:

A bit closer...

A view from the living room, also the Alps- to the right of Mont Blanc.

The Jura Mountains are on the other side of the house and much closer, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures yet... I'm really slacking... :)


The Château de Vesancy (a nearby town that is even smaller than Gex, and pronounced Vay-zahn-see): Front:

Back:

Cool slit window, view from inside:

A little hallway opening to an original stairwell with a gate at the bottom:
The tour guide wouldn't let us go all the way up to the top of the tower because "it's just the empty, old, original part and there's nothing to see." That's what I came to see! Bah! So we saw the renovated part of the "castle" that they use for the town hall and weddings, but it really wasn't very interesting at all.

This is carved into a little underpass street in Vesancy. I don't know what it means, but if it was carved in 1734... omg. I love old stuff.


And here is the church of Vesancy, almost directly next to the Château.




A pump organ!!! And it looks like it's still in use!

It seems that the churches will have a plaque of those who died in both world wars from the town. Very interesting.


I also have a few good pictures from Geneva, but I'm going to put those in a proper post for you!


Thursday, September 6, 2012

My Progress

Salut! Sorry that it's been so long since I posted - I've been busy! What has happened since I last wrote?...

Well, I'm slowly getting better at everything as each day passes: driving, finding my way around, understanding the language, understanding my tasks, getting used to the way of life...

And I have to get used to military time!

With driving, I'm more afraid of getting lost, etc, than not being able to drive a standard properly, but I am still far from perfect with the driving!!! I can say, however, that I'm thankful for mistakes because they teach me what to look for next time. For example: I stopped at a stoplight and put the car in first, or so I thought; it took me two and a half light cycles with people passing me for me to figure out that I was in third instead of first! Oh la la! I felt like an idiot after that, but now I know that that's something I need to be especially careful of and something to look for if I have the same problem again! With the traffic, there are a ton of round-abouts and, particularly in the smaller towns, the streets have no rhyme or reason to how they are organized, and so it's hard to learn how to get around. But, I'm getting by, even if it means arriving somewhere a little late because I got momentarily lost.

I don't know how to track my language progression except for basic explanations. For the most part, I can understand almost everything that is said with a combination of current knowledge and context clues, but there are still many times when I simply don't understand. I'm still pretty bad at speaking because of a combination of lack of vocabulary and stage-fright/thought translation lag, but I'm hoping that all of my "absorbing" with oral comprehension will soon translate to better speaking!

My French classes start on October 1st, and I'll be in the same class as Claire (we are the two American au pairs of Gex!); I'm ready for them to start because I hope they'll help me with my grammar so that I'll feel more confident in speaking. I'm also using Duolingo to brush up on basic vocabulary (and as I advance in the program, learn more difficult vocabulary), and I have a little phrasebook that I skim through. Soon, I'll also start using Livemocha and see how helpful it is, because I got an all-access key for really cheap. I get motivated for language work by Benny the Irish Polyglot, who stresses immersion, among other things.

I'd say the most stressful thing is learning how to take care of two small children, as I've never done so before. Erine is in the stage of testing me to see if I'll respond to bad behavior like the parents do. Oscar is still warming up to me, but it's coming along. My patience is definitely being tested, particularly when I don't know the vocabulary to tell them to do or not to do something or to explain an answer to their questions.

I'm sorry I haven't posted any scenery pictures, but it has still been so foggy that I can hardly see the Alps in the distance. But here are some pics of my current room vs. future room!

My current little space
The insulation being worked on in my future room

The walls on opp side being finished

The main view from the door

(I don't know what's up with the spacing, btw. I worked on it for ages and it wouldn't work right.)

I'm going to learn how to make a Croque Monsieur (typical French dish- like a toasted ham sandwich, basically) tomorrow, so I should have a lovely food post for you on Friday!