I tend to make a lot of little mistakes throughout life but when I say little I forget that I leave out the word BIG. The theme of my life might be categorized under fun, spontaneous, and well, frankly, a little oblivious. This particular story all began Tuesday, March 2.
G’s sister lives in Switzerland with her American husband and three adorable kids. I have spent time with them before and I could not get enough of them. On Tuesday, the two older children, 5 and 3, came for a visit on their vacation to stay with Mami, or Grandma. To bring them to Paris, Mami took a train to Switzerland the day before and brought the children back on the train with her. I met the gang at the Gare de Lyon where the train pulled in and from there we hopped on the RER A…now with 2 little children and luggage “hopped” might not be the most accurate word to describe it. Anyhow, throughout the course of the week I would head to Mami’s and help out with the children and spend some time cleaning or helping with meals. I really enjoy these children, they are behaved so well, they have awesome imaginations, they are caring, and they listen well. Also, a HUGE help to me is that they understand and speak English since their dad is American. Now, it is not perfect, but we were able to teach each other new words. Between the coloring, the Uno, the Legos, the drawing, the jumping, the walking, the running, the Poney Club, and all of the fun the week held, it was soon over. Time for the kids to head back home. This time it was my responsibility to accompany the two rascals back to Swiss town, something I was really looking forward to! Mami’s friend who helped out a lot throughout the week assisted us to the train station and helped us get situated on our train. Once we were on it was 3 hours of reading, coloring, snacking, playing Uno, and being the perfect little angels that they are. As we arrived at our stop, actually in France, we met the dad at the station and drove about an hour home to their house in Switzerland. The kids were really sleepy and cranky and I was super excited to see everything. We took the kids home and I saw G’s sister and the baby, he is about 10 months and heartbreakingly adorable! After the kids were situated and I spent a little time there the dad and I went to a part of town to get crepes for dinner. It was delicious! After a while of talking and eating, we took off for my hotel. I would have stayed with the family but the place is small and there really isn’t a lot of extra space for them to offer and besides I would have rather had my own space anyways. The hotel was nice, a chain called Ibis, somewhat on the same level of maybe Holiday Inn in the states. It is not luxury but it is good enough. The room was nice and very clean. Switzerland is known for being an extremely clean country and it definitely shows.
I forgot to mention, the family lives in the French region of Switzerland. There are technically 3 regions, Swiss-French, Swiss-German, and Swiss-Italian (but this region is miniscule compared to the rest). Switzerland itself is a very small country but it is GORGEOUS! The day I arrived, however, it was freezing and windy as heck! There had been a snow storm earlier in the morning there and when we arrived around 7 pm there was a lot of snow. I have to say, I was impressed because Paris never gets snow like that and I was missing it a bit from home. Since, you know, Ohio is obsessed with having snow around forever!
I basically just used the hotel room for sleeping because by the time I got there it was getting late. I happened to find some English speaking channels on the tv which was comforting and I watched CNBC for a while. I fell asleep only to wake up to a huge BOOMING party either next door or above, those walls are paper thin and the loud thumping music mixed with the raised voices and pounding footsteps were not in any way disguised. Besides the fact that I was interrupted for awhile at 3am, I still had a pretty good sleep.
I started my day at 9am and a little later the kids came with their mom to retrieve me. We checked out of the hotel and were thinking of plans for the day. Since it was Arctic weather, we were not able to go to the park that is right by their house, or visit the giant, beautiful lake with a beach, but we thought about maybe going to an indoor pool with heated water which would have felt great! The kids, however, were not full of their normal energy after a long trip away from home and a long travel back. So they would have been too exhausted for the pool that day. Instead, we packed up and traveled about 40 minutes away to a museum, that the name is escaping me, and we hung out there for the day.
It was a very interesting building located in Bern, the capital of Switzerland. While waiting for the arts and crafts class to begin for the kids, the dad and I met a German woman who was just visiting and she spoke some English. She was the nicest old lady and she informed us that the German language and the Swiss-German dialect are nothing the same and she doesn’t understand the German spoken in Switzerland. I thought this was extremely interesting and crazy.
In the class, the kids got to make paper and then decorate it while it was still wet so the paint would set into the paper when it dried. Now I know how to make paper so ya’ll better watch out! After a great craft time we ate lunch in the cafeteria there and it was really good. I had some tuna sandwich with an amazing bowl of some kind of pumpkin soup. The kids ate pasta and were getting really conked out. As we ate, Maman took the little guy home and Papa stayed with the kids and I. We left and took a detour to a castle city where it is all medieval to get some ice cream for the kids. Well, there was a carnival going on so we had to park really far away and walk forever to get ice cream in the whipping, freezing winds so I did not see the town because we stopped at a place just before all of the attractions. I was not concerned because I really did not want to endure the chilling winds for longer than I had to. After the ice cream we went home and played, read some books, and I gave the little 3 year old a bath. Then it was my cue to head out to the train station.
First I would like to mention the Honda CRVs are great cars. That is one of the cars that the family owns and the dad had me drive a bit and I loved that car. Driving in Switzerland is incredibly similar to in the states with a few differences. Nevertheless, it was easy and it felt good to finally drive again because it has been about 5 months! I will be heading back to Swiss town to help out with the kids in April so I was getting used to the driving and acquainted with the roads this time for when I return. I can’t wait to go back! I love their family and I love Switzerland!!!
Ok so onto the train and this time I was taking a train for an hour to the other train station instead of having the dad drive an hour again. So I get some food and I notice it is getting close to the time of my trains departure. I go up to my platform and I notice a train waiting there already assuming it was mine and I could board early. So, I find a conductor and ask him if it isthe correct train and he tells me yes and I say ok it leaves at 18:02? and his reply was….yes! So I get on the train thankful that I have a little time to situate my things before we start moving….and then……The train starts moving…….
Ok so, don’t panic right? Well wrong because it was definitely not 18:02 yet and I was completely confused and feeling like an idiot! So I ask a man across from me and he didn’t know where I was supposed to be in relation to where we were but he was extremely nice and helpful as much as he could be. Then I saw another lady and I asked her and she said that she would suggest for me to stay on the train all the way to the end because I needed to take a TGV and that station had TGVs. For those of you who know or would like to look on a map and find out, I was in Neuchatel and was supposed to take a train from there to Frasne…instead, I was on my way to Lausanne…so as you can see I was not in good shape at the moment.
So my goal was to find a conductor and ask him what to do….when the train stopped at a station I had my plastic bag with food in hand, my purse on my shoulder, and I went outside to follow the conductor whom I saw get off for a minute. So all he told me to do was to go to the ticket office and talk to them, but at this time I left my luggage on the train next to the nice woman who tried to help me previously. As I was talking to the conductor the doors to my car shut because the train was about to leave! And I started panicking to the man and was like no my bags! My bags are on there!!!! And I saw the next car with the doors still open and people almost through so I sprinted to get on and as I did, everything in my plastic bag fell all over and I wanted to leave it but so many nice people helped me pick it up and I shoved it in my purse and frantically kept running to the door….and finally I made it….that scene from the point I got off to talk to the conductor to the point I threw myself back on seriously was like something from a movie. People around me were probably wondering what kind of crazy woman I was but my mind was so flustered I never even thought about anything but being stranded at this station while my bag traveled to a faraway place. PHEW! I got back on and still had NO FRICKIN CLUE what to do.
Eventually an angel overheard me talking with the woman about my predicament. Ok, well maybe he was not an angel per say, but he was definitely a savior. He was helping me look up other trains leaving from Lausanne because he had the internet on his phone. What he told me was alarming because he said the last one was at 7:22 and he was not sure there would be a place and that was the last train so I might be stranded in Lausanne over night. Ok, WHAT? I had no phone, not a lot of money, and I had NO CLUE where I would be!!!! So he kept saying I feel sorry for you and I hope you can get on the train….So as we pulled into Lausanne, he showed me where the ticket office was. Luckily, the man behind the counter saved my day!!!! I had the ticket from Neuchatel to Frasne and from Frasne to Paris. I explained how I took the wrong train and I was refunded part of the first ticket and I bought a ticket from Lausanne to Paris. I will be able to refund my other ticket from Frasne to Paris which I did not have to pay for in the first place so in all, this random act of stupidity costed me about 30 euros. Hey, I can live with that! And so I made it home safe and sound with the help of a very amazing team of train friends, no thanks to the conductor.... hahaha.
I always seem to make little mistakes that have their way of turning BIG when I least expect it. It doesn’t make me mad though because it really does make my life more interesting and it definitely makes for good stories! Hahaha
So I know it has been a long while since I have written but I want to start again! I am leaving out everything I already missed and picking up from here. I will try to continue to do interesting things so I actually have something to write about. On Wednesday I will be volunteering for my first day at a place and I am not exactly sure where or what I will be doing yet. I will let you all know in a few days!!!
Also, I cannot believe it is already March 8th, In about 3 weeks I am headed back to Switzerland, and then at the end of April my parents are coming for 2 weeks!!!! While they are here we are going to Budapest for a few days and I cannot wait to show them all around Paris! Then when they leave I wait about 2 more weeks and Kaylie and Amy are coming!!!!!!!! I can’t wait for an amazing spring!!!! Then it will be summer and the weather will be nice!!!
I can’t wait for some warmer weather…this weather is just getting old! It is always good to hear from all of my friends and family and I can’t wait to see you all in about 5-6 months!
LOVE YOU ALL!!
JESS
