Spring!

Sorry I haven't written in so long! This time I have no excuse - just pure laziness.

I've been having a fantastic time here. I am enjoying school and can feel my French improving :) I had a very exciting day a few weeks ago when there was a fire at school and we all got evacuated and then were allowed to leave school early! It was perfectly timed in the middle of an extremely boring History lesson.

Geneva is looking so beautiful at the moment! All the pretty Spring flowers are out. We took a trip on the boat across the lake to Yvoire, France, last week. It was so nice to just walk around the beautiful old town, eat yummy Filet de perches and ice cream and look at the beautiful flowers planted all around! We took lots of photos in the sun :D

After having a few days of beautiful weather, it has gone back to being all cold and rainy again. The weather just can't make up it's mind - is it spring or winter?! I am hoping it will warm up a little before I leave but I don't think that there's much hope in that.

I have also managed to get lots of shopping in, including a good trip to Ikea (which is always pretty exciting stuff). I was rather sad though that all I could buy were 2 packets of serviettes due to my seriously limited space issues!

It's also been great meeting up with our old friends from when we lived here. I have also driven past our old house which was very weird!

On Sunday night I went to see a show called 'Rock the Ballet'. It was basically an entire ballet done to rock and pop music. It was the most amazing show EVER! The dancers were all so good it was unbelievable.

I can't believe how fast this has gone. I am already leaving here this weekend! I can't wait to get back to my family and friends but I really don't want to leave this beautiful place! It's also sad because just as I can feel my French really improving, I have to leave. Oh well - I think I'll just have to come back!

Geneva

Hey y'all!

So this time I actually have a reason for not writing on this blog for so long. I've been sick. I know right - ugh! Anyhoo, I think I'm on the mend :) (crossing fingers!)

I had a lovely relaxing week holidaying in Geneva last week. It included many hours of One Tree Hill watching, some trips to the stables, shopping, and my highlight - a short but fantastic ski trip! We drove up to a cool place called Nendaz (where I learnt to ski when I was teeny-tiny), and had 2 days of great skiing. It took a while for me to get back into it after not skiing for the past 3 years, but I soon got the hang of it and I don't think I was tooo bad! I did manage to fall a few times, but that's ok. I would probably have fallen had I been walking, being my clumsy self! There was one particularly spectacular one where I rolled quite far down the mountain, with my skis flying over my head, but it was actually really fun :D Luckily no injuries were caused!

Then in an effort to add some excitement to our weekend, my exchange student's brother decided that it might be the right time to get kicked in the stomach by his horse and rushed to hospital. This caused for a pretty manic weekend, but luckily he is doing much better now :)

This week has been my 1st week at school. It was pretty scary going to school on Monday and I was just a tad nervous, but all went well and I have really enjoyed it. It's been weird getting used to their very different school system, but I think I could get used to it?! We take the train to and from school, and take the tram around town in our 2 hour lunch breaks! The school works more like a university where you only need to go in to school if you have a lesson. So some days this week I've had school from 8-3pm, others from 10-5pm or whatever! Today I had a 4 hour break so we went into town and met up with the family for a delish lunch at a Chinese restaurant! We then went and did a little shopping, before returning to school for one lesson and then heading home. It's been great doing all the subjects that I wouldn't usually do: Art, Art History, Economics, and even German! I have managed to get myself out of German though, seeing as the only thing I can say is 'Ich heisse Emma', which really doesn't get me very far! It was just slightly awkward when the German teacher started talking full-on German to me on the first day and I just sat there staring at her. I think she then realised that I didn't speak any of the language so I just sat there doodling (my fave) for the rest of the lesson, hoping that she wouldn't talk to me (she is the scariest lady I have ever met!). 

I'm also feeling pretty cool in English because they are reading a book on Nelson Mandela (how cool?!), and the teacher is all excited because we have a 'real life South African girl in our class'. So yeah, feeling like a pretty proud South African :)

I've really loved everything so far though, and it has made me realise how I have gotten so used to life in Cape Town! It's been great changing things up a bit and seeing the world from a new point of view :)

Hopefully it won't be too long until I write about the next chapter in my adventure!