Blogs from La Plaine , Geneva, South-West, Switzerland, Europe - page 4

Well my mom flew into Geneva yesterday. It was good to see her. And most importantly, she was able to bring Isabelle her Dora sunglasses. Isabelle has been waiting patiently for her special sunglasses. The sunglasses were not the only things that mom brought. It almost felt like Christmas. She also brought some Aunt Jemima syrup, some Kraft Peanut Butter, a new blade for my hockey stick, some toothpaste for the kids and a huge bag of chocolate chips, among other things. Why the chocolate chips you ask? Well, if you want to make chocolate chip cookies here, the only packages that you can buy are used up for one batch of cookies. Not many people bake here. Anyways, another thing that mom brought was some contacts that I had shipped to my parents house. Mom ... read more

I can't believe that I have been with my new students for 3 weeks. Time seems to be flying by, yet at other times, it seems to be going slowly as well. Hence, Einstein's theory of relativity. Anyways, I/we have been busy the last few days. I was able to get a fair bit of planning done on my Wednesday off. However, a lot of that planning was as a result of getting ready for a sub that was coming into my class yesterday. I planned/prepared the same way that I would have in St. Albert, so I hope that all went well for my sub and for my students. I guess that I will find out Monday how things went. Friday was an early morning. I had to wake up at 5:25 am, eat breakfast, ... read more

Well, today we made our first trek in Switzerland - we didn't even get lost! We went to see Château Chillon just outside of Montreux. It was a beautiful castle, built on a small rock island that is located on Lac Léman. There were 40 something different rooms/spaces to see in the castle, so there was a lot of information to take in, which also involved a lot of walking and stairs. I had to carry Myles in the hiking backpack, strollers weren't allowed. We discovered why when we were doing our self-guided tour. There were some extremely narrow passage ways and some short door frames. I had to hunch down quite often to get from one place to another. I felt like the hunchback of Chillon. After our time at Château Chillon, we went down ... read more

Well today I had my first day with my new students in a new country at a new school. I had a good day, and I felt a lot like a first year teacher. The students were educating me about various procedures at the school. I have to say that there was a lot to take in on the first day. I am glad that the first day is over. I feel more confident and I am eager to start again tomorrow. School in Chancy starts at 8:00 am and I arrived by bike this morning at 7:10 am. Therefore, I didn't have much time to be nervous this morning. However, I was a bit nervous for the first 5 minutes of class and after that, the whole teaching thing started to feel normal. The first ... read more

We are used to having people ask us, "Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?" However, I have been asked at my school, "Veux-tu du sirop?" This translated literally means, do you want some syrup. It's not like Aunt Jemima syrup though. This is a type of liquid syrup that you add to water to make a type of juice. It actually doesn't taste half bad. I didn't know that syrup was a drink choice. Today at 4:00 pm Avery picked me up from school and we went to the IKEA in Geneva. We ate supper there and then we went and bought a few rugs for Denis' place to go beside our bed and Isabelle's bed. The best part of the trip to IKEA was that Myles finally met his match. By the ... read more