Gobble Gobble!

The past two and a half weeks or so have been quite eventful. About two weekends ago, we were invited to watch the Paris vs. Marseille football match at a pub on the Lake in Annecy. We met a teacher from the high school there for dinner and then watched the game at the pub. I love going to pubs and watching football (soccer) matches on TV because it's always such a great cultural experience and although I know nothing about soccer, the energy from the crowd gets me so pumped up.

Last week was full of Thanksgiving festivities. Tuesday night we went with our roomate and neighbor to a Thanksgiving dinner that was held at a beautiful house in a village down the road. The Fiores, a couple from church, cook Thanksgiving dinner every year and invite all of the young people from church. This year they cooked for 65 people! It was delicious and really unbelievable that they cooked for that many people!

Wednesday, Lauren and I spent all day in the kitchen preparing for our Thanksgiving party that we had at our apartment. Now, if you knew how little we had in our apartment, you would be utterly amazed that we pulled of a Thanksgiving Feast for twenty people. It was only by the grace of God that we pulled it off. No, seriously. We had barely enough silverware and thanks to our friends who donated pots and pans and chairs, we were able to make it happen. We ordered a twenty pound turkey and made stuffing, rice dressing, salad, sweet potato casserole, corn bread, green bean casserole, corn, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, and pumpkin pie. Just about everyone that we invited had never experienced a Thanksgiving dinner before. I explained the story of thanksgiving, we said a prayer, and then we GRUBBED! The food was pretty delicious (thanks to mom who brought some necessary ingredients and thanks to the American Market in Geneva) and the company was awesome. Gobble gobble!

Other than Thanksgiving, things have remained pretty busy. We both have started doing some babysitting and Lauren is now volunteering for World Vision International http://www.wvi.org/wvi/wviweb.nsf . She does research for the accountability division and is currently doing research on the role of spiritually in development. She basically researches other faith-based humanitarian organizations to see what role christian values play in their relief efforts among impoverished countries. She has really enjoyed getting to know the people there and she is finding the research really fascinating.

We are still playing volleyball and have joined the ski club here in town. We are supposed to be going skiing this weekend, if the snow keeps on falling! Today, although it was rainy in St. Julien, a good amount of snow fell on the mountains and its really starting to feel and look like winter!

Speaking of winter, the christmas lights are up and they are on! Geneva is so beautifully decorated! I love it! And I can't wait to go caroling with some of my friends in a few weeks in the Old Town of Geneva! Joy to the World! :)

This weekend we will be running in the Course de L'Escalade and we are so excited. There are 30,000 people signed up! It's the biggest Fete of the year and it is sure to be a good time. After the run, Lauren and I will be cooking a big pot of gumbo and some jambalaya at a friends apartment. I don't know if I'm more excited about that or about the race...

Well, it's getting late here. The undefeated New Orleans Saints play tonight and how badly I wish I could watch the game. Who dat!!!!!!

So, I'm a TERRIBLE BLOGGER!

I knew I'd be bad at this whole blogging thing and now I'm wondering why I told all those people I'd keep a blog. I'm terrible at it. I just don't have the blogger personality. But I said I'd do it and I need to keep my word. So here goes...

So, I guess it's been about a month since I've last blogged and SO much has happened since then so I'll not try and recap everything but rather give a brief synopsis of all that has been going on.

Tonight was a great night so, I'll start there. So, lately we have really been having a great desire to get involved with the community here. I really want to get to know the locals here in town and well, I've been dying to play some volleyball and meet some sporty frenchies in town. So today at school I ran into a teacher who invited me to go to aerobics with her! It was such a blast and while we were there, the volleyball club just so happened to be practicing at the gym as well!!! Who knew!! So what do I do? I start sprinting towards the court, find the coach and as him if we can join in. We practiced with them until 10:30 tonight and will play with them every Monday and Wednesday night. I'm ecstatic about this! And what topped the night off was the fact that there was a climbing wall as well at the gym! I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw it. Aerobics, volleyball, and climbing all in one place! What a great night!!!

Although we miss our friends and family back home, we are really starting to feel at home here. We've found a great church in Geneva and a wonderful group of friends there who come from all over the world. It's been so neat living in such an international place. Everyone we meet is so interesting and they all have the most fascinating jobs. A few weeks ago, we had a particularly eventful weekend and met some interesting folks as well:

First off, on Saturday we went to the Red Cross Museum, and passed by the United Nations and a statue of Ghandi on the way. Pretty cool. We had met a group of friends at the museum and spent a couple hours learning all about the history and evolution of the Red Cross. It was so interesting and I have such a great respect for the organization and all that they do is really incredible. All of the NGO's and philantrophical organizations here are so inspiring. I have a new appreciation and respect for the good in humanity and want to find a way to get involved with one or several of these organizations.

Anyway, after that, we headed to town and met up with a close family friend who was doing some banking business in Geneva. We met up with him and some of his collegues at a pub and watched England get beat by Australia in a game of rugby. After the pub, Lauren and our friend and I hopped on the tram and headed to dinner at a typical Swiss restaurant in a cute part of town where we cooked our meat on a hot plate and had a delicious bottle of Bordeaux wine and indulged in some Tolberone mousse au chocolat. Yummy!

Sunday was especially eventful. We woke up and headed to old town to go to church. Church is really great and we really feel at home there. After church, a big group of us grabbed sandwiches from a local bakery and then had a picnic outside. We then went to the museum of Art and History all together. We met a girl who works for an organization called "World Vision" , which is a relief, advocate, and development organization that helps countries all over the world to overcome poverty and hunger, ect. We got her contact information and hope to get involved and are very excited about the opportunity.

After the museum, we then we met our running group that afternoon. We are training for a race that is going to be on the 5th of December (its the biggest event of the year in Geneva)! Every Sunday we meet in the Parc des Bastions and run through Old Town and around the lake some. It's great fun and I can't wait for the actual race. It's supposed to be a blast.

We then left our running group and met up with two guys my age who go to school in Lyon and were in Geneva for the weekend. One of the guys was supposed to be an assistant in Annemasse but then decided last minute to do the program in Lyon. The program they are in specializes in humanitarian work logistics and training. As soon as we met up with them, we all went to the "Doctors without Borders" office and had a private tour of the office and met one of the doctors that works there. It was so fasinating!!!!! The doctor that showed us around was actually one of the guys dad and they are from Lithuania and the dad went to University of Alabama at Birmingham to study. He was such a humble guy and was very interesting to talk with. We ended the night by going to a pub and watched some american football and talking about political theory and genocide in rwanda....and the fact that he was there in 1994. Crazy huh!?

I am overwhelmed by all of the wonderful people we have had the priviliiege to meet here in Geneva and am really falling in love with this special place. I know that God has put me here for a very specific reason and already I have learned so much and have been challenged in so many ways. I can't wait to see what else unfolds but everyday has been an adventure and it seems like we are constantly meeting someone new and facinating.

We have also had the opportunity to do some travelling and we are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of Europe. Over the fall break, my mom got to come visit for two weeks! We rented a car and drove to Annecy, Chamonix, and all over Switzerland. We had amazing weather and the fall colors were really incredible. Switzerland is an incredibly beautiful country. We did tons of hiking and saw some amazing scenery. We really loved the Lauterbrunnen valley and the Lavaux vineyards. We were there at the perfect time too. Not too many tourists, and great weather. We had such a blast.

Since fall break, the weather lately hasn't been the greatest but yet it hasn't been too cold which has surprised me. Despite the clouds and fog, we manage do go running everyday on our beautiful route through vineyards and along the Arve river to a village called Thairy.

Ski season will start up soon and I can't wait! Lauren and I bought a pair of used skis at a thing called "bourse aux ski" where people and ski stations bring their used skis to sell. We will join the ski club in town and our first outing will probably be in about a month.

As far as teaching is going, I am really enjoying working with the middle school kids. I never would have thought that I would have liked teaching the little ones but I'm really loving it. They are so enthusiastic and so cute! I love the awkwardness of the age. It's great fun.

Alright well this post is getting too long and my a.d.d. (and if anyone is reading this, I'm sure probably way past a.d.d.) is kicking in. I will do a better job of blogging, promise. A la prochaine!