Helpston, Grenoble, Chambery, Geneva and lots of good food!

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So its been a while, two weekends ago my parents arrived in the UK for a two-week trip to visit me and some family friends scattered around the country. They came to Cambridge last Friday evening for a quick visit and a meal at the Eagle pub (see my previous entry) and then I drove back with them to the small village of Helpston to visit the Davies family! The visit was a great chance to catch up with everyone, especially since our other family friends the Rinaldis came as well. I had a lot of opportunities to catch up on all of the hot meals I have been missing since coming to Cambridge and to visit with the parents.

I arrived back on Sunday, worked for two days and then on Wednesday I flew to Grenoble, France (yay RyanAir and cheap european flights!) to visit Rosie, an old school friend of mine. Rosie has been studying at the Universite de savoie in Chambery, France for the past year and we had a fantastic time exploring the Chambery castle, the largest natural lake in France, Aux de Bain (a nearby thermal springs town, that seemed to be a tad past its prime), eating the regions specialty potato/cheese/ham dish tartiflette, and practicing my extremely rusty french.

On Friday we took a train to Geneva, Switzerland and wandered around the city for the day. It was nice to be in a country with a currency (the swisse franc--no euros for switzerland, as they have remained true to form as a neutral country and have not yet joined the EU) that has a one-to-one exchange rate with the dollar. However, things were still pretty expensive, for example, a meal at McDonald's costs around 11 swisse francs--so much for the value menu. We also saw St. Peter's Cathedral--where John Calvin preached after fleeing France during the Protestant reformation. Little did Rosie and I know--since we aren't exactly up to date with the sports world--that Switzerland and Austria are currently hosting the European Football Cup. While there wasn't a game on in Geneva the day we were there, we did join about 10,000 mainly Italian football fans to watch the game on a GIANT screen set up in one of the "fan zones" around the city. I guess that's my share of European football excitement for the summer!

On my way back, my flight at the Grenoble airport--a small runway 45 minutes away from Grenoble that has one incoming and one outgoing flight each day--was delayed by five hours because on its way to Grenoble, the airplane hit a bird. Luckily, I had brought some books on the trip with me, despite Rosie's plea that I bring nothing so that I could transport as much of her stuff as back to the UK as possible--as she is moving back to England on Friday.

I did finally make it back to Cambridge and am back to work today. I am moving from my room in the college to a graduate house down the road tonight, as the term is over and they need all the rooms available for conferences over the summer. I still haven't figured out quite how to upload pictures, but I am hoping to get Picasa figured out soon so you can see them that way.

Sarah

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