Back in the Saddle Again

  

I have unpacked my birthday presents… Colin and I finished this puzzle in about 20 minutes my first night home. Thanks for the bday present, mom. :)

I hate unpacking. I know I am not alone in this, but when you have to do it so much, it’s even more of a chore (Woe is me, right – I’m just always traveling to these great places, so I have to unpack all the time. Life is rough.) However, if there’s one person who hates unpacking more than me, it’s gotta be Colin. Not because he’s reluctant to unload his suitcase, wash any dirty laundry and put everything back into its rightful place… nope. on the contrary – Colin may be the BEST unpacker there is or ever will be. No, I think Colin hates unpacking because it means… waiting around for me to unpack all of my junk, while being forced to live in a place that quickly resembles a 15-year-old’s bedroom. And so, I thank God once again for my dear husband who has to endure constant criticism from yours truly, but can bite back his own judgments for—it’s been, what—almost a week.

One of Livia’s bday presents to me, now living on our oven–aka the only magnetic place in our apartment. Two days ago, the far right one (is that tuna sashimi?) fell into the oven and got a little cooked… oops. David and I were able to rescue it–it’s now looks about medium-rare.

You may have guessed by now that I have not unpacked for my trip, yet. Despite the fact that the clutter puts me on edge, I just look at the growing pile of stuff (growing because I add things each day) every morning getting out of bed and every night getting into bed and say to myself, “I really need to do that.” I’ll eventually run out of clothes and will unpack only out of absolute necessity. I only have one (excellent) excuse for my laziness. Our friend David arrived in Geneva for a visit almost exactly 24 hours after I returned. (Thanks David, for giving me an excuse NOT to do one of the things I hate most.)

I haven’t found a home on our walls yet for these beauties, my birthday present from sweet Edie and little August. Nathalie is going to make me feel really inferior as a mother. If you can read it, check out the title of the tree painting… v. meta. Maybe, if that’s what meta means.

DAVID IS HERE! He will go down in history as our first Geneva guest! Pay no attention to how exhausted I look.

Since we were both battling jet lag (though I was one day ahead), we’ve been mostly relaxing. Sunday, I did not change out of my pajamas, and it was amazing. That afternoon, David and I looked at each other (from across the couch) and said, “We’ve been so lazy today.” Colin replied, “Speak for yourself! I’ve done hours of work, showered, got dressed, cleaned the kitchen and went grocery shopping.” Oops. Have I mentioned yet in this post how wonderful my husband is? Long story short (too late), when Monday morning came, getting out of bed to shower and make my way to French class was much more difficult than I remembered it being in January.

David made leek and cauliflower soup one night. He may be my favorite guest ever. The rest of you have some big shoes to fill.

Like I said – big shoes to fill… Monday night dinner, David made pork loin, smothered in some sort of delicious apricot sauce, with roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes and une jolie salade verte!

Now, after three days of my class, I feel like I’m finally remembering words, grammar, you know… all the basic elements of a language. That doesn’t mean I can utilize them yet in normal speech, but slowly but surely, it’s coming back to me. I’m definitely improving in talking with people over the phone… (the ellipses mean a story is near….. ….. …….)

Facetiming with Livia. Were people able to stay friends before Facetime and Facebook and stuff?

Yesterday (Tuesday), after watching an overly-dramatic Bacherlor Women Tell-All (I guess they are all overly dramatic, so does that just make it… just a run-of-the-mill Women Tell-All in the world of The Bachelor?), David and I were trying to Facetime with Livia. Not only was it her birthday, but also, it’s Liv and I’s “tradition” – in quotes because we’ve done this since the beginning of this Bachelor season. Can you call that a tradition, yet? Anyways, lucky for us, Livia wouldn’t pick up because not five minutes later, I got a call from my friend Courtney. I answer with my usual respectful salutation—“Wut up grrrrrrllllllll?”—to be answered by Courtney, frantic and barely holding back sobs, saying, “Someone is in my apartment.” Needless to say, I did my best superman impression (okay – I didn’t change my clothes, although David did put on socks and shoes and throw on a ball cap) and ran to her aid. I am in awe over the timing of this in multiple ways: a) I was with David, so I was feeling especially confident and take-charge-y (don’t ask me why that was, I think just having another calm person there, esp. one like David who is a problem-solver, made me feel like could do something to help); b) in my January French class, we had a unit in which we studied all the vocabulary words for a crime—how to say “a burglar,” “a robbery,” etc.; and c) earlier that day in French class, our teacher taught us the Swiss number for 911 (weird, right? Only hours before I got Courtney’s call). I didn’t have to use point (c), Courtney had already called the police directly, but I still think it’s a strange coincidence. Back to the story though, everything is okay—Courtney is doing great and nothing was even stolen in their apartment (phew!). Zach, Courtney’s husband, joked (upon seeing all of Courtney’s jewelry tossed on to the bed – someone was obviously pawing through it, looking for valuables) that it was lucky he only bought her cheap jewelry. Ha. Courtney didn’t seem to think this was necessarily “lucky,” though she agreed that it was nice that none of her jewelry was stolen. So, the afternoon progressed with me speaking in French to various people over the phone – the police, the apartment owner, a locksmith – and I have to tell you… I felt almost comfortable! Except for the fact that the city is a loud place so I had to put earphones on to be able to listen to anyone on the line, I could basically understand everything said to me and asked of me. It was an exciting moment in my French life – also in Zach and Courtney’s real life.
While all this craziness was happening, David’s husband, Casey, had arrived in Geneva from London. After the locksmith (qui ne parle que le français) had finished, David and I left to meet up with Casey. So, yup – we had an exciting day which led up to a great dinner with new friends (Zach and Courtney–don’t worry y’all are almost “old” friends now) and old friends (David and Casey). Just another day in Geneva.

Crazy day, fantastic night. So glad to be friends with these people.

The remainder of Livia’s birthday cake. Thanks for the excuse, Liv!

Oh yeah – and after dinner, we baked a cake for Livia’s birthday, sang her happy birthday (complete with iPhone virtual candles) and then proceeded to eat her birthday cake while she watched via Facetime. True friends, right? Right, glad you agree.
So, in preparing for a blog post, I tend to keep some notes throughout the week (or however long it is between blog posts) — yes, this makes me a huge nerd, but come on, you benefit from it. I didn’t want to interrupt the awesome narrative I had going in the paragraphs above, so here are my random thoughts that I wrote down after returning (or in the process of returning) to Geneva.
1) The organization of lines in the United States is the worst. I think I mentioned this in my first post from Houston, and leaving the US only reaffirmed my opinion. It’s insane. I actually think that someone, rather than thinking up the most effective way for customers to get to desks–be it border control, baggage check, security, etc.–, thinks up the stupidest and most inefficient means possible. For instance, at the check-in counter at IAH for United… UNITED — you know, one of the largest air carriers in the world –, there was a little line, separated by ropes, for each gate agent (or computer screen, really). So, rather than having one big line (which, admittedly, I have seen in the states — what’s up with you, Houston?), there were multiple tiny lines and someone who got in line, say, 10 minutes after me, might get to check their bag first because they chose correctly. When several of the domestic flight computers opened up, an agent shouted, “Next in line!” which made me scoff judgmentally for two reasons: a) no one knows who’s next in line — there are like six lines!! and b) why have separate computers for domestic flights if it doesn’t really matter. Ugh… I was happy to return to Switzerland where I quickly retrieved my luggage and walked through customs in a timely fashion. Houston, I still love, but you have some stuff to work out, and until that happens, I don’t know if we can be together.

The flower clock was looking particularly Spring-ish on Tuesday afternoon. After arriving to a gray, rainy Geneva on Friday, Tuesday was a picture-perfect day.

Perfect day à Genève. Note those snow-capped mountains in the distance.

2) Going from two to many back to two. In Geneva, it’s been, sort of, Colin and me against the world! And that’s been fun and a definite learning experience. My friend Kelly, whose husband is in the Coast Guard (and thus they move roughly every four years), told me that moving to an entirely new place either strengthens or tears apart a marriage/relationship. And she’s right. Colin and I have had to rely on each other for almost everything here. So, returning to Houston and being surrounded by an huge network of people who would help me through/with anything (again – woe is me! I have so many people that I love and care about that love and care about me!) was overwhelming. Coming back to Geneva after being immersed in that support for 19 days… another shock. It’s not that one is better than the other; they are just different. There is a sense of calm in just 2. We trust that we can get through anything with just us (even though, now we certainly have a network in Geneva), but also that we can stay at home in our PJs and not feel like we are neglecting folks. In Houston, we can see people every night of the week, if we want, and that is so fun. It really transforms your friends into your framily (like that cell phone plan). I love that, too. So, while, like I said-both ways are great, I think it’s definitely good for Colin and I to figure out how to make it, just us two. That being said, Houston, I miss you already. That being said, Colin, you rock. That being said… etc. etc. etc.
Lastly, 3) David, Colin and I laughed a ton during our, what we called, “coolest night ever.” We found ourselves playing board games, Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride, to a homemade soundtrack of Audra MacDonald, The King’s Singers and Voces8. There are moments in my life when I truly recognize myself as a nerd, and this was one of them. However, it was a pretty awesome night, if you disregard how horribly I played Settlers. I recommend choral music or a musical theater soundtrack to accompany the highest-of-brows game nights. We haven’t played a board game since we got here, so David, thanks for our bit of home. And the rest of you, don’t worry — we will turn these Geneva ex-pats into huge nerds soon enough. We have to establish a trusting relationship first (see above story about the robbery)… we’re so close… Until next time, here are some final pics…