Today, it is my fifth day in Switzerland.
My flight to Switzerland was complicated and exhausting. I started in Salt Lake City, Utah and flew to Dallas, Texas. In Dallas, my flight ended up being two hours late, giving me a layover of five hours in the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. Finally, my flight arrived and I began my ten hour journey to London, England. I sat next to a conservative Catholic sister missionary from Mexico, who I got to know a bit on the plane. She was a plain woman, wearing all brown and her hair tied back in a ponytail. She was so sweet and nice and I learned that she is a counselor at a Catholic girls school just outside of Geneva. She invited me to come visit the school when I could, so I think I will sometime this month!
The flight to London actually seemed to go by super fast. I drifted in and out of a strange sleep. The whole thing is kind of a haze to me. When the plane finally landed in London, I had missed my original flight to Geneva and had to be scheduled for the next available flight, which meant a four hour wait. I was worried because I had no way to contact the family that was supposed to pick me up at the airport and I was six hours off schedule. I hoped that they wouldn't worry too much about me not arriving on time.
Later that night, I finally hopped on my flight to Geneva. The view from the airplane was amazing! I saw much of London from above and the English Channel. We flew over Paris. It was amazing to get a birds eye view on the magnificent city.Then finally, Geneva came into my sight.
I landed in Geneva and made it through the passport checking line. When I passed through the exit, Yvonne was nowhere to be seen. I thought perhaps she had noticed that my flights were late and was going to come later that night. The sister missionary stayed with me for a while because she wanted to make sure that I could find someone to take me home. She even offered me money for a cab but I declined. Later, some other sisters came to pick her up and she gave me her information to let her know if I had made it safely to my new home. I finally called Yvonne on a pay phone and she immediately came to the airport. She said that she waited for five hours, but had to go back home to put Amélie to bed and was worried that I was stranded somewhere. I feel so bad she had to wait for that long while not knowing what was going on!
The Rémor family are very different than how I expected. Not in a bad way though. They are kind and immediately made me comfortable staying in their home and being a part of their family. Yvonne and Antoine are the parents and Amélie is the three year old girl. I have been teaching the Rémors sign language the past four days, and I am so shocked on how quickly they have picked up! The mother can speak quite a few sentences and phrases already, and Amélie remembers signs as soon as she learns them and can speak in some short phrases and a lot of words. Amélie has shown a profound interest in signing. It's so cute when makes it up and just waves her hands around and points to things. I have also been praising her when she signs to me without speaking and she knows I love it when she does that. So, tonight at dinner, her mom was telling her that she needed to finish all her vegetables before she could have chocolate. When her mom turned her back, Amélie turns to me and signs, "Please, help me eat my vegetables!" while staring at me with her big, brown puppy dog eyes. It was darling!
Well, all I have done the past four or five days is trying to get used to the sleep schedule. It is not working! I don't know what to do. I try not to take naps during the day, but it's so hard when I'm so tired that it feels like there is a thousand knives in my eyes. My head hurts so bad that it feels like it's going to explode and my ears start ringing, cause that's how tired I am. I tried laying down because I just could not take it anymore. I slept for half an hour or fourty-five minutes. I wanted it to be no more than an hour so I could go to sleep tonight. It was still unsuccessful in helping with my jet lag.
When I woke up, it was about 10:30 at night. I ended up eating lots and lots of candy and cookies and chocolates that I secretly bought today. The family is really all about eating organic and healthy foods. I really like the idea of eating healthy foods, but not following a strict super healthy diet. I NEED my sugar. So, because I spent the last four days without anything sugary... I pigged out tonight, big time. And last night. Oh, I gotta tell you about it.
Last night, there was this huge music festival. It's like the Swiss version of Woodstock where there is a grassy field and thousands of people partied while the bands performed. There was lots of good food and good music. It was alright until it got dark, then it got totally awesome. We saw Amy Winehouse, The Strokes, and a bunch of other good bands that played classic songs like, "Like a Rolling Stone," by Bob Dylan. When The Strokes came on, I went to get some cookies from a booth called "American Cookies." I paid 10chf ($12.20) for three pieces of cookies. They didn't even taste American. And they were super crappy too! I can't believe I paid TEN freaking CHF on three cookies! It's so expensive here in Europe. I don't think I will complain about American prices ever again, or take Wal-mart and the Dollar Tree for granted. Anyway, when The Strokes came on, everyone crowded to the tent and they got all packed together to the point where you couldn't move. I had to meet the family at the top of the stadium after getting cookies, but it was so packed that I had a hard time getting through and felt bad about pushing people. But it got hot and I was getting sick of rude people so my aggressive side came out and I was just elbowing everyone really not giving a crap. Then, when I got to the top, we were there for half an hour then the music got too loud for Amélie so we ended up leaving. I was so excited to see The Strokes and Amy Winehouse.
I must say, this has been an amazing experience so far! I love Switzerland!
