A visit to beautiful Lake Geneva

I have four day weekends every week but this past week I also had off Tuesday and Wednesday because of Carnaval so I took advantage of the longer break to do some travelling.  Family friends of ours (the Toutains) who I babysat for for years, just moved to Switzerland last summer and I was lucky enough to visit them on scenic Lake Geneva.  I arrived on Thursday night and was fortunate that they were gracious enough to have me until Tuesday.  On Friday, I explored a little on my own.  I took the bus from their little village of Paudex to the center of Lausanne, about 10 minutes away.  Lausanne is a very manageable little city that is beautiful!

I arrived into the city a little after 10 am armed with a map and a guidebook.  After wandering around aimlessly for a little just taking in the town and the scenery, I decided to see the sights.  I first decided to head over to the Cathedral since there were other interesting destinations on the map near the Cathedral.  The nice thing about Europe and the cathedrals is when you have a cathedral as a reference point, it’s typically pretty to see it from a distance.  So I made my way up the (fairly steep) hill to the Cathedral and enjoyed the breathtaking views of Lake Geneva and the Alps. 

Right next to the Cathedral was the Historical Museum of Lausanne which didn’t open until 11am.  As it was only 10:30 I decided to explore nearby and see what else I could find.  I almost didn’t go into the Cathedral because in Europe, after a while and many Church and Cathedral tours later, they start to lose their appeal.  I’m glad I did though because although the interior architecture wasn’t spectacular, the stained glass windows had been redone in the 1800’s and were beautiful. 

I also found the Chateau St. Marie, which unfortunately is an administrative building for the city and is not open for visits, but the exterior was still lovely.  I finally made my way back to the Historical Museum and went inside to learn all about the city.  It was very interesting since I really had never studied much about Switzerland before so this was quite informational.  All of the displays, however, were in French, which I do not speak.  After the first few displays I found brochures for the displays in English, but for the first few displays I was able to deduce the general idea since French is a romance language very similar to Spanish.  I was quite pleased with myself and how well I thought I could understand French, but I was promptly brought back to earth when I stopped at a little café for a bite to eat. I had a petite sandwich with brie, tomato, lettuce and mustard which was delish!  However, I hit a bit of a snafu when I ordered something to drink.  I was looking at the hot beverages when I saw lait.  I thought of café au lait and I knew that I liked that, and it was cheap.  Unfortunately, café would be a key word in that order, so I was initially surprised and then felt like a complete idiot when they brought me a cup of just warm milk.  Oh well.  In the café I consulted my guidebook for other interesting sites to visit and set out to wander the streets some more.  I happened to pass by a plaza with a cool clock right on the hour as all of the pieces were moving, what luck!   After feeling I had seen all there was to see in the center of Lausanne, I decided to make my way to some of the destinations more on the fringe of the city. 

Lausanne is considered the Olympic Capital, or Capitale Olympique as it is home to the International Olympic Committee’s headquarters and the Olympic Museum.  Unfortunately the Museum is closed for all of 2012 for renovation but the park surrounding the museum was open, so I was able to explore.  There were a ton of interesting sculptures that had been given to the IOC by other countries’ Olympic Committees, and there was the container holding the Olympic Flame.  Unfortunately I missed the display at noon with the Olympic anthem, but such is life.

  I finally made my way back to Paudex and the two boys took me to see the lake at sunset, it was a great first day in Switzerland! 

Roses are red...

Everyone knows the rhyme:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Sugar is sweet
And so are you

With my elementary school students this week, we made Valentine's Day cards and they wrote their own variations of the poem.  It was to practice very basic vocabulary and sentence structure, but some of my students ended up being quite creative.

My personal favorites were from two boys in 6th grade.  The first was:
For my mum


My new jacket is beautiful
Barcelona is good
Machines are hardworking
And so are you


My second favorite was a poem one of the boys made for his friend who was a Barcelona fan, and this student was a fan of Madrid.

Madrid is pretty
And flowers are too
Barcelona is ugly
And so are you


The third graders had the easiest time writing the poems because the older students kept trying to make it too complicated.  One student wanted to know how to say "corazon ardiente" which is passionate heart.  Others wanted to know how to say "tus ojos son el color del mar" which translates to "your eyes are the blue of the sea." But I think the lesson went over well since they were all very excited to give their valentines to their parents or their friends.

Super Bowl Sunday!

Luckily since I don’t work on Mondays I can stay up and watch the Super Bowl online.  Unfortunately, the Steelers aren’t playing this year, but I think I almost love cheering against the Patriots as much as I love cheering for the Steelers.  Fingers crossed the Giants win again!  In honor of the Super Bowl, I did an American Football presentation with some of my English classes last week, and it went over really well!  The first thing I did was to show the differences between American football and rugby since when most of my students previously asked about American football their question was “It’s the same thing as rugby, right?” It most certainly is not.  I explained that the basic objective and basic rules of the game and of course I included some clips to illustrate the concepts.  I had the Giants winning touchdown against the Patriots in their last Super Bowl as well as James Harrison’s 100 yard touchdown in Super Bowl 43.  Obviously the two most important things for them to learn about American football are that the Steelers dominate and that the Patriots are overrated.

One class had just finished working on the comparative so each student had to say a sentence comparing American football with either rugby or Spanish football.  Some students used “I like Spanish football more because it is …”  But there were some students who said “I like American football more than Spanish football because it is …”  Typically that sentence was finished with “more aggressive” but I was so excited that I had some American football converts.  I felt like I saved some lives that day.  I have to say though, I think my favorite moment was when one of the girls in the class used the sentence “I like Spanish football more than American football because the Spanish football players are more attractive.”  Considering that most of my clips included Ben Roethlisberger instead of the undeniably attractive Tom Brady, there was no arguing with her logic.

Big Ben

"No tienes abuela"

I learned a few new phrases recently.  The first was courtesy of the bilingual art teacher.  It happened while we were doing an exercise applying the principles of tangents of circles (and I was realizing just how long it had been since I had to think of the principles of tangents).  One of my students does very well in this class and is always one of the first to finish the geometry exercises.  This particular day, other students were asking him for help on the problems and he started to brag(in galician, of course)  "Look how clever I am, everyone needs my help, I am the smartest in the class, etc"  until finally the teacher said to him "Hombre, no tienes abuela."  Roughly that translates to "Geez buddy, you have no grandmother."  The idea is, you would only need to praise yourself if you don't have a grandmother. Obviously it's a well known fact that most grandmothers are a constant source of admiration of their grandchildren.  I have to say, I really like this saying.

Another saying I learned is a French one, courtesy of Fiona.  Of course I learned it in Spanish and not it's original French, but I don't think it loses much in translation.  The saying is "Hablas frances como una vaca espanola" or to translate "You speak French like a Spanish cow."  She thinks it originates from the time of Franco when many Spaniards emigrated to France looking for jobs, and were not exactly received with open arms.  Although my Spanish has definitely improved, I still struggle sometimes with my verb tenses, and now I've started to forget English words.  Recently I tried to tell someone I liked the natureness of an area but not the city itself.  I think at this point, I speak Spanish like an American cow and English like a Spanish cow.  Soy una vaca sin casa. Translation: I'm a cow without a home.

Day trip to France!

Back to my Christmas travels! In Germany, they also celebrate Boxing Day on the 26^th.  Since just about everything in Germany would be closed on the 26^th, we got up early and drove to Strasbourg, France with friends of Uncle Dave and Aunt Cindy.  As we drove along the autobahn and crossed the border we passed an abandoned customs checkpoint.  It seemed strange that we had just crossed a country’s border the same way we cross a state border in the US.  The former checkpoint buildings were starting to fall apart and looked rather depressing, so if the EU ends they are going to have to spend a lot of money updating these checkpoints.

Canals in Strasbourg

Strasbourg is a really cool city.  There are canals running through the city and the buildings are all beautiful!  It’s called the Venice of Northern Europe, and we even saw some boats going along the canals.  We watched one of the boats go through the locks which was pretty neat to see.

Strasbourg Cathedral

Astronomical clock

We also saw the Strasbourg Cathedral which was awe-inspiring!  The Cathedral was started at the beginning of the 13^th century and was completed in 1439.  One of the most unique aspects is the Astronomical clock which was added in 1843. Also interesting was the plaque dedicated to the American troops from WWII.  Because Strasbourg is in northern France, it was one of the first areas to fall under German occupation.

WWII Plaque

The majority of the Christmas markets have their last day the 23^rd of December, but the Christmas markets in Strasbourg last until December 31^st.  And it is Christmas market central, walking through the city we encountered small Christmas markets, large Christmas markets and medium sized Christmas markets.  It was like the Goldilocks and the three bears of Christmas markets with the variety we saw!  A perk of the French Christmas markets was that since French is a romance language like Spanish, I could at least deduce the majority of the signs, whereas in Germany I had no idea!  Unfortunately, although I knew very basic elementary French, when I went to speak to a merchant what came out of my mouth was Spanish.  A typical exchange:

Merchant: Deux euros, sil vous plait.

Me: Dos euros. Gracias. (What I thought in my head was deux euros, merci)

Oh well. C’est la vie.

Christmas Market outside the Cathedral

I tried some delicious French fair food; I had a baguette with goat cheese and tomato, hot apple cider and a beignet topped with chocolate.  Needless to say I am very much looking forward to my next trip to France to try some more dishes.  I have to admit, I think the French have pretty good reason to think their food is the best in the world.

I'm trying to do a better job of keeping this updated, so thanks for taking the time to read it!

First day back tomorrow!

I still have more to say about Germany, which I will come back to later, but tomorrow is my first day back after vacation.  I have to work three whole days this week, life is so tough here.  Tuesday is my busiest day so Mondays I have to set aside a large chunk of time to plan out my lessons.  On Tuesdays I teach two English classes in the primary school, two in the secondary school, three private lessons and then finally a bilingual art class so once my day starts it is go, go, go.  Today I went to a cafe near my apartment so I could plan my lessons without my computer to distract me.  As I was planning my lessons, the strangest thing happened, I actually found myself looking forward to seeing my students again, even the ones who drive me crazy.  I feel very prepared for my classes so hopefully tomorrow's lessons will go well.  Each day it's a surprise how my lessons will go over.  I was not an education major in college and I have no teaching experience so I have been figuring everything as I go along.  Some lessons have been really successful, some have felt like utter failures, so hopefully 2012 will start off on a positive note.  Wish me luck!

Trier

When I first arrived in Germany, we drove to Trier to check out a Christmas market and see the sights.  Trier is awesome because it is the oldest city in Germany and was a capital in the Roman Empire.  There is still some of the original city gate, which is called the Porta Nigra, and is the largest preserved city gate north of the Alps.  The Porta Nigra is even a World Heritage site.  It was awesome to see, and we were even able to go inside.  

I’ve discovered Europeans are slightly more lax when it comes to safety regulations at historical monuments.  In my area of Spain there are also many preserved Roman ruins, and I’ve started to wonder what the Roman would think if they could see the ruins today.  Would they think “Why on Earth has no one repaired the Coliseum, it’s in such disrepair.”  Or would they wonder why we haven’t knocked the ruins down yet, since they aren’t being used for their intended purposes.  I guess if any ancient Romans could see the world today, they would have a lot more pressing questions.  Anyways, it was still really interesting to see the remaining stonework inside the Porta Nigra.

While exploring Trier, I went to my first Christmas market.  It was so fun and I had AMAZING food!  First we split potato pancakes with applesauce to dip them in, and then I also had a bratwurst with mustard and gluhwein.  For those of you who don’t know, gluhwein is hot mulled wine.  In addition to the food it was really neat to see the other booths.  There were a lot of artisan Christmas decorations, as well as cooking utensils, polish pottery, handmade jewelry; really there was a bit of everything.

We also saw the Basilica of Constantine, which is also a World Heritage Site.  It was built by Constantine at the beginning of the 4^th century, and is still used as a church today.  In the 17^th century an archbishop constructed his palace right next to the basilica, and the palace is still there.  It is a little strange to see this impressive basilica and then turn the corner and see the ornate pink palace connected to it.