Mon Aventure

I’m 38,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean as I write this post. So far, the ride traveling West is easier than the ride traveling East. Making the long part of the trip during the day is far better than making the trip in the middle of the night. Nonetheless, I’ll be losing a full night of sleep by the time this 18 hour journey is over, if I don’t take a sleeping pill towards the end of the trip. We’ll see.

For the moment, I feel more compelled to write than sleep. As soon as our second plane touches down in Orlando, I will hit the ground running. Every spare moment between now and January 25th will be a piece of gold. I spent the first few hours on this plane making lists and lists and lists on the only paper available: the backs of our printed flight itineraries. Lists of all the things I have to accomplish if I want to return to Switzerland at the same time as my husband. I’m not sure how many times I will be able to write to you between now and then. So. Let’s enjoy this last leisurely moment together for over a month, shall we?

Don’t get me wrong… I’m going to enjoy this next month. I’m one of those weird people who LOVES packing. And I love a good challenge. Most of you know that I’m an artist. Artists are often stereo-typed as scatterbrained and messy. I dabble in messy clutter at times, and love that carefree feeling occasionally, but at my core, I adore order and organization. It’s the reason my painting career started with Realism and gradually branched out into Impressionism. For those of you who don’t know what the heck I’m talking about, check out my website at: http://www.artfortheimagination.com/

After only 15 years of painting in the U.S., can you believe I already have the opportunity to travel, explore Europe and find inspiration in another country!? This is an opportunity of which most artists can only dream. I once painted my imagination of Greece, but my Greek paintings will be far richer after I’ve been there in person. I’m “dizzy with gratitude,” to borrow a favorite quote.

I love the United States, but by leaving her for a while, I hope to gain more perspective and appreciation. I will also gain first-hand knowledge of, and appreciation for her brothers and sisters around the world.

I’m just scratching the surface of Switzerland and I’m already proud of her. I’ve learned things I didn’t know. On Saturday, Chris and I experienced our first celebration day of Escalades, a Swiss national holiday. I have pictures to show you and I’m bursting with desire to tell you about it, but I’m going to wait until I’ve researched the subject more thoroughly.

The most important matter resolved this week is the issue of where to live.

Our first three months, approximately, will be spent in a hotel until we secure an apartment (flat, as they call it). The rental availability rate in Geneva is less than 1%. It’s a popular place. We will have no choice but to use a relocation company to speed up the process, avoid mistakes and even then, a minimum 3 month wait is expected. Chris’ company is taking care of our hotel stay. That is a blessing. The part that was uncertain was which hotel to stay in during those first 3 months. Towards the end of our visit, it became apparent that the lovely hotel we were staying in this week also offers longer stay units and is within the budget. Just in the nick of time! We both heaved an enormous sigh of relief, and asked the front desk for a look at those units. We wanted to have a peek at the place we’d be staying to have any clue what to bring and what not to bring. While the hotel apartment is only temporary, it’s roughly close to the size of whatever place we will end up renting long term. We knew that European flats are smaller than we are used to in the US, but we wanted to see just how small, in order to make more informed decisions about what to sell , give away and keep.

We didn’t look inside of any long term rental flats. One week is not enough time to get that process started. I did, however, tour the majority of Geneva, to get a feel for which neighborhoods to focus our search in, keeping both Chris and my interests at heart.

We would both enjoy living in the Eaux Vives district or the Old Town. Both offer historic Geneva charm.

This is a picture from Eaux Vives. It’s close to the water and my swans, who, by the way, are not mean. We’ve all heard that swans are mean, but these swans will gently eat food from your hand. I saw a woman feeding them and I intend to bring bread next time.

But will he let me pet his head?

We’ll see. I’m told that swans only attack if they think you are threatening their babies. Understandable. I’m sure there have been many unfortunate misunderstandings. And I’m sure there’s the occasional swan who is simply having a bad day without reason. I can relate to that as well.

“Any animal who mates for life is enchanting,” said my Mom.

Back to Eaux Vives..... It’s a 10 min. walk, or a short tram ride from work for Chris, and there is an enormous, enclosed park nearby where I can take my dog and let him off the leash. The park is enchanting. Trees are so tall and thick along the outside so you feel as though you’ve just stepped into the country.

The Old Town is another lovely option, also close to work and close to the water. This section is exactly what I picture when I think of Europe. It’s the stuff we’ve all seen in paintings. I’ll let the following pictures speak for themselves.

This photo is one of several entrances to the old city.

I’m assuming these used to be used as horse troughs?

I bought a charming, pocket sized, hardback French/English dictionary at this Librarie. Bookstores are called Libraries.

This water fountain is the official “Center” of Geneva.

I LOVE the pharmacies in the old town, still true apothecaries, with old exposed beam ceilings and medicines stored in real wood cabinets.

Moss growing on the stairway leading up to the most magnificent building in town.

Walking back down the stone stairway.

You can see why we would enjoy living in the Old Town. However, there is quite a bit of tourist traffic through here all the time and getting in and out involves huffing and puffing up and down cobblestone hills. There are tradeoffs with each neighborhood.

One option some people love, is to live just outside the city in a town called Nyon, a 15 min. bullet train ride to work. It's a 45 min. commute when you include walking to and from the train. On Saturday, Chris and I rode out there to check it out. Beautiful countryside and distinctly Swiss farms, neighborhoods and estates wizzed smoothly past on the bullet train. The minute we stepped off the train, we wanted to get right back on and return “home” to the city. It was the strangest thing. Both Chris and I felt it….. a sense of belonging in Geneva proper. This came as a surprise to us. Neither of us have ever lived in the city. We’ve always been town or country people and we’ve never had a serious longing to live in a big city. So why do we feel we belong in the city right now? Only time will tell.

We boarded our plane for the United States, looking forward to spending Christmas with family in Virginia, but also looking forward to our return to Geneva in a month. We already have a sense of belonging in Geneva. Isn’t that amazing? On the one hand we feel strange and foreign and on the other hand we feel it’s exactly where we’re supposed to be right now.

Destiny even set me up with an American friend from the mid-West. Her fiance works for the same company as my husband and I met her at a work Christmas party this week. We were all supposed to come wearing fun hats. An immediate bond formed with her when she walked in wearing a Chicago Cubs baseball cap. You’d have to be in Geneva for a few days to know how out of place a baseball cap is, let alone an American baseball cap. I have no interest in sports whatsoever, but she was AMERICAN. In so many ways, our lives are opposites. She works at Proctor and Gamble and I’m an Artist. If we met in the states, it’s entirely possible we would never have felt any special connection. But we both share the same story… the wild, fun and scary experience of moving from the U.S. to Switzerland. She had loads of helpful advice for me since she went through this just a year ago. When I’m in the states, I often get caught up in how different I am from this person or that person. But throw us all in a foreign country together and so many externals get stripped away and we find that we have much more in common than we realized. Being born in America comes with a mindset, like being born in one family verses another.

Speaking of friends, living at La Cour des Augustins for the first few months means I will get to see my friend with the curly strawberry blond hair in the breakfast room on weekends. His name is Simon. I don’t think I told you that before.

This morning before hailing a taxi to the airport, Chris and I ate in the breakfast room and learned lots of new things from Simon. I proudly held up my glass of water and said, “Eew?” The word for water in French is “eau.” I wanted to know if I was pronouncing it right. There was a moment of profound silence and then he said, “Ooh.” Ooh is the correct pronunciation. We both laughed. I have no idea what I said when I butchered it so terribly, but I have a feeling it is considered a bad word in French, or at least something VASTLY and hilariously different than what I meant. He started to explain what I had said and then thought better of it. Thank God for a cheerful and understanding breakfast man who speaks many languages and is eager to be one of my teachers.

I will be buying Rosetta Stone online first thing when I wake up in the morning.