Bonus Day: Musee d'Archeologie

After I finished posting all these journals I realized somehow I never wrote about the Musee d'Archeologie, which is a crime because it was by far one of my favorite museums in Grenoble. It was so great I visited it twice. So this place was originally built in the fourth century and throughout changes in history more and more was built onto it. What is so remarkable is that it houses a crypt. There are skeletons partially excavated all over this place. The entire floor of this church has been excavated so you have to walk out onto a suspended ramp they built for viewing, and below you is just this incredible burial site.

They have this video that projects onto the wall of the church that explains the entire history of the site and how it changed and was built upon throughout centuries. I was so happy to find the museum has this video on their website. Check it out here.

one of the many entrances to an underground crypt

the ceiling of the main church

you can see in a later century they tried to build
over the original architecture with the new rock archway

the floor of the church

Day 40: Departure Day & Everything I Love about France

Friday, 28 July 2018

Doomsday. I’m being dramatic, but I really do not want to go home. It took a while, but I’m not homesick anymore, and now the thought of leaving France makes me feel ill.

There are so many things I love about being here: the cheese, the lettuce, the climate. I think I like the humidity. It’s nice for my hair anyway, I don’t have to condition and it’s still silky smooth. The climate also makes it possible for flowers to bloom all summer long.

There’s so much more foliage here than I’m used to seeing. People take care of their yards and garden. I haven’t seen a single yard or balcony that wasn’t adorned with flowers. And although very hot, it’s still a lot more mild of a summer here than in Utah. I hear from Mike they’re still hitting 100 degrees pretty regularly at home.

I also like the fact that there is no air conditioning. It means that I am not freezing every time I walk into a building, or even my own house. I heard the kids fighting and Amy whining and crying the other day when I was talking to Mike and just the thought of feeling overwhelmed by the kids, my emotions struck dread inside of me. 

I finished packing every last thing and ate breakfast with Helene and Rémi. We talked about children. Sometimes Rémi has to go to schools to teach sports for the day and he says he was a rambunctious kid, so he always spots the trouble kids first and takes a lot more time explaining things to them. He says they are his favorite.

I thought this was good advice that I should try out on Hunter. Just the acceptance and being willing to take the time to really give him thorough instructions, because most the time he is not listening. I told them how we took Hunter to get his hearing tested when he was very little because he was such a terrible listener we thought he was deaf. Helene said she did the same thing with Remi’s older brother, exactly the same, and we laughed and laughed. I am going to miss them.

Day 39: A Cake Named Success

Thursday 27 July 2017

Morning class again today. I only slept 5 hours again, but it was one of those day when it didn’t affect me. Instead of going to the caves though, I went downtown to buy gifts for family, and flowers for Helene. There are so many flower shops in French cities, they are everywhere. Being a florist in France is a serious occupation. Silly me, I thought that certain flowers have certain meanings so when I went inside the florist shop I told the woman that I needed a bouquet to say Merci, and au revoir. She looked at me funny and said any flower will do, what’s my price range, and then she asked me what colors I wanted, and if it was for a woman or man, and helped me arrange a beautiful bouquet of purples and pinks. It really was quite striking. I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. Helene was also very energetic when I gave it to her, very excited and jolly. She even greeted me the French way. I think I finally worked my way into that woman’s heart. I think Helene and Rémi both are also kindred spirits and I couldn’t have asked for nicer people to stay with.

Before I came home and gave the flowers to Helene, I met up with Katrina and Kayla at the Falaffel restaurant we had eaten at the week before. While I was waiting to meet them there, I asked the waiter if I could have a glass of water for the flowers and he was very kind to provide one, so they didn’t die before I got home. The girls showed up and we had a great lunch, sitting on the sidewalk and talking about all the good times we’ve had here. It was hard knowing this was the last time in France we would be able to meet up for lunch together. I’m actually happy we did that instead of the caves.

I loved this flowering bush in Helene's yard.

I went home and began to clean my room, put things away, and get ready for packing before I had dinner with Helene and Rémi. Since it was my last dinner, we had drinks in the sitting room before the meal. Fruit juice for me, and a beer for Rémi. The conversation this night was about forest animals. I learned the French have Marmots and Weasels. We had my favorite salad for dinner, those sweet tender green leaves with a little bit of chopped onion and huile de noix with  cidre vinaigre de pomme for dressing. As per Helene’s usual style, she cooked fish for dinner, a baked cod or halibut I’m not sure, but it was a white fish, thin and flat, like the kind we catch when we go fishing in the mountains. It was very good with lemon squeezed over the top of it, and for vegetable there was baked cauliflower and potatoes in a creamy sauce. After the main plat Helene brought out the cheese and knowing it was my last cheese in France I tried to savor every bite. I had a hard chevre which was very good. Helene surprised me after the cheese by bringing out another dessert. She had bought petite gâteaux at the patisserie which had little golden medallions on the tops of them that said succès.

The table where we had all of our outdoor meals

Helene's little side garden
with the tomato plants we
enjoyed in salad so many nights

The word means success in English and I thanked her for wishing me success and for doing something special on my last night. They were little cakes of a very thick creamy chocolate mousse, a layer on top and bottom of some kind of crust and the whole thing dipped in chocolate. They were so delicious and so thoughtful, I thanked her again for wishing me success. Then I asked her what the little cakes are called, and she told me the name of the gateau is succès. I almost burst out laughing, it was so silly of me, but perhaps my French was so poor she didn’t even realize I thought she was wishing me success, and didn’t realize it was the name of the cake. 

Day 38: A Study Abroad Dinner

Wednesday, 26 July 2017

I heard about a cave not far away, near the Seyssinage Chateau. A very small chateau just outside of Grenoble. We made plans to go to it, but we also had morning class on Wednesday, and I was so tired from returning late from the fondue restaurant, and then calling Mike and the kids, and then trying to book my flight home and not being able to log into the booking system, that I didn’t go to bed until 1 am, and woke up for school at 6am. I felt bad changing my mind at the last minute to not go to the caves, especially since I was the person who suggested and organized the excursion, but it was so worth going home.

We were supposed to meet at a restaurant that night. The University was paying for all the Utah students to have dinner together. I knew if I didn’t get some sleep I wouldn’t enjoy the dinner that night. I went home and slept for 3 hours solid. Sometimes I have very little sleep and it doesn’t affect me, and sometimes it does, and today was one of those days it did. I’m so glad I slept because it felt so good.

Dinner that night was really fun as well. I shared a table with Katrina and Anthony, and even though Eric was at a different table, he came over to talk with us periodically. It was Katrina’s idea to talk about your middle school self. It was actually really funny to hear what everyone was like in middle-school. I just remember a lot of laughing and sharing embarrassing stories.

The restaurant was good too. We had a salad to start, with something like a giant circular crouton in the center with melted blue cheese on it, thick juicy tomatoes, lettuce that reminded me of Swiss chard, but of course softer and sweeter, and a slice of cantaloupe. For the next course I had chicken which wasn’t that great but I don’t really like chicken, so I’m a harsh judge. There were also creamy scalloped potatoes which reminded me of Grandma Horman’s, and green beans. For dessert we had a tarte de noix which was very good, and had been a bit burned on top.

Katrina and I took the bus together to go home. It’s so sad that this last week is when we realized we could have been taking the same bus all this time to get home.

Anyways I’m glad we got to hang out for a bit just the two of us before we went home. It turns out she had been praying to find another friend in France, at the same time I had been praying to find a good friend. It’s definitely no coincidence that we met each other when we did. Without her company, this trip wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable as it has been.

I had a 30 minute walk home from the bus stop. I saw wild white rabbits scurrying through the neighborhood on my way. It was a good thing it was a long walk because I had time to think about how I couldn’t book my plane ticket, and then I worked it out in my mind why my password wasn’t working, and when I got home, I was able to get it to work, so that was nice to not have to worry about that any longer.

Day 37: We celebrate Katrina's Birthday with Fondue and a Movie

Tuesday, 25 July 2017

We had afternoon class and then right after I went to the Pathe Cinema at Chavant. I met Katrina there with Bianca, Anthony, Kayla, and an Italian guy we met Monday night at an extracurricular French event, which basically amounted to meeting with other French students and speaking French at a bar. That turned out to be really awkward. Bianca invited Katrina and me to come with her to it, and since we had nothing better to do we thought fine.

We thought it was going to be a bit more educational though, and the guy I got stuck talking to the whole time was very difficult to understand. His first language is Arabic (he’s from Libya) and he also speaks English, but is learning French. Aside from speaking in a very thick Arabian accent, he didn’t talk loud enough and the bar was very loud with everybody else talking.

There was another guy talking with us as well who was from Spain and he also knew English, but I had no trouble understanding him. Still, it was like one of those awkward dates where you’re just sitting there talking, but really you’re trying to think of an excuse to leave early. At the bar Bianca met the Italian named Gabriel and invited him to the movie as well.

Katrina wanted to see Dunkirk for her birthday. I’m not really not into war movies, but I was happy to have something to do and people to hang out with. Oh dear, perhaps this is becoming a theme, doing things I wouldn’t do normally just to avoid hanging out in my bedroom by myself all night.

After the movie Anthony went home to have dinner with his host family, but the rest of us stayed out to try another fondue place. I’m so glad Katrina picked it. I wanted to try another fondue place to compare the two. We shared another cheese with herbs but also got a chocolate fondue to share with fruit. We tried the cheese first, and honestly I could not tell any difference between this cheese and the fondue place in Geneva, so I’m guessing both places were good. The chocolate was so rich. It had that darkness kind of flavor without being too bitter. My favorite were the pears dipped in chocolate.

This was the first night (besides being gone on the week-ends) where I had missed dinner with Helene and Rémi. I was kind of sad not to eat with them, but I’m glad we got to celebrate for Katrina. She and I get along really well. She is most definitely a kindred spirit, such a great genuine person.

Days 35-36: Where I visit the Chartreuse Monastery & Helene and I talk Protestantism and Mormonism

Sunday 23 July 2017

I was supposed to go to Mass this morning with Katrina, but she was at a concert with her host family last night that didn’t start until 10 pm, so this morning she texted that she felt like staying home, and so I decided not to go anywhere as well. I just felt like the day wouldn’t be as fun if I was in Grenoble by myself all day. It actually turned out to be a really great thing that we didn’t go.

The original Monastery which now houses the museum

The monks rooms

I thought I would catch up on some writing, which I did in the morning. I had lunch with Helene and Rémi and it was so delicious and amazing, and things I had never thought to prepare before. It was really simple, as are most of her meals but still, she sliced tomatoes and red peppers and drizzled them with olive oil and vinegar, fresh sliced basil, thin sliced white onions, and three large rectangles of feta cheese, one for each of us. Another thing which had never occurred to me was to serve feta whole, instead of crumbling it up. I don’t know how, but it tasted so much better whole.

At lunch I explained how Katrina didn’t feel like going, and so then Helene asked if I wanted to go on the tour of the monastery in Chartreuse, and I was like, um yes! Who wouldn’t want to visit a monastery in the mountains that is over 1000 years old?

Monks workshop

The museum isn’t in the actual monastery because the actual monastery is still in use today, and these are silent monks, meaning they take a vow of silence. Even though they live in this compound, they all have separate quarters and use this box in the wall system to receive their meals. If they need to communicate they leave a note in the box.

We got to see how they lived anciently, what their rooms looked like, and what they look like today. It’s very minimalist, which I could totally appreciate.

After the museum, Helene wanted to take a hike, so we walked up this really long road to where the actual monastery is. It’s pretty huge, and it looks like a castle. It is surrounded by a stone wall, so you really can’t see inside, and you can’t see the monks.

Monks room

The road to the new monastery

On the walk we started talking about religions, mainly Catholic and Protestant. I feel like I really don’t know a lot about Protestants, so I was asking Helene who started Protestantism, and why it was started. She explained to me about Martin Luther, and how he thought religion should be for everyone, not just the rich. He was especially against the idea that you could buy your way into heaven by giving the Catholic Church money, so he started the Protestant church in Germany. He also didn’t believe the King of Germany was appointed by God, which made the pope really mad, but the wise King of Germany allowed Protestants to practice anyways.

People started practicing Protestantism in other countries as well, and in France the pope was worried about losing power over the people. He instructed the King of France to round up Protestants and kill them, so many of them immigrated to Germany. That’s the short version, but really interesting history.

As we were talking, I asked Helene if she knew about how the LDS church was started. She said she knew it was started by a man named John Smith (Joseph Smith, but I didn't have the heart to correct her) but that was it. Anyways we started talking about Joseph Smith.

The new Monastery still in use today

Usually I feel really weird talking to people about religion, and I certainly don’t want to seem like I’m forcing my religion on anyone, but the conversation continued very casually. So I started explaining in French Joseph Smith’s first vision and ended with the story of how he was killed. Rémi asked me to keep going, so I kept telling the history until the pioneers came to Utah up to present times. Rémi said one time he was in Geneva and remembers talking to the missionaries on the street. I didn't go on a mission, and I'm pretty reserved, so I have very little experience talking to people about religion outside of church. I was pretty nervous to talk about my church's history, but this turned out to be a wonderful conversation. It was so interesting to share our church's history, and didn't feel awkward at all as I had always feared a conversation about religion would be.

Then when we got home Helene and I were eating dinner without Rémi because he was having dinner at his Dad’s house. I couldn’t stop thinking about the Book of Mormon, because I’d told her about the angel Moroni and how the book was translated and thinking that I had that French copy I had brought with me. I thought I was going to finish reading it while I’m here, but I actually never picked it up. Helene wanted to keep talking theology, and explaining to me what Protestants believe and asking me what Mormons believed and it was all very cordial, and it was enjoyable learning about each other. I mentioned I had a copy of the book in French if she was curious. After dinner I brought it out for her, but then I had to call Mike as I do every night. Because of the time difference between 9-10 pm is the best time to call him. 

Monday 24 July 2017

The next morning at breakfast Helene was very excited to tell me immediately that she understood the book was about ancient people who migrated from Jerusalem to the Americas and became the Native Americans. She said it was very interesting and such a wonderful thing that we had this history. What I was most surprised about was that she treated the book as truth. Maybe she was just being polite, but not once did she say or even portray that she might be thinking Joseph Smith was crazy or that the Book of Mormon was a fraud. I think I automatically expect people to be distrusting of Mormons and our beliefs, so it was wonderful to have a conversation that was mutually respectful. Helene is such a wonderful woman, I am so lucky I ended up at her house.

Day 34: I visit Vizille and learn about the French Revolution

Saturday 22 July 2017

Castle Grounds

I left early in the morning to meet Marianne and Katrina at the Gare. Due to the bus schedule I arrived half an hour early, so I began reading The Sun also Rises while I waited. It is the perfect book to read while in France, because Hemingway casually describes the places his characters talk about and places they go, streets they take, which are all in Paris, and France, like Alsace and Strasbourg, and the Tuileries. I could picture each place perfectly that I had been to as his characters passed through these same places.

Once we’d all arrived we took another bus to Vizille. It’s a small town outside of Grenoble where the Dauphine (heir to the French throne) once lived in the Chateau Vizille, the grandest castle in the Daupinois region. An assembly was held there in 1788 and because of this Grenoble is thought to be at the forefront of the French Revolution. The Chateau now houses a collection of artwork and artifacts pertaining to the French Revolution.

Inside the chateau I was especially struck by the artwork of David portraying the murder of Marat. I also learned that the revolution was a crazy time. During this period 5 different Constitutions were drafted and the parties who controlled the government were in a state of constant change. Napoleon finally brought stability to the government, but then got crazy thinking he could conquer all of Europe. I like the exposition very much, but my favorite part was walking the grounds.

Path to the honey harvesting house

The Chateau has 320 acres surrounded by a rock wall. There are grassy areas, ponds, ducks, geese, and swans, forested areas, and a path around the entire park. After having lunch at a nearby Brasserie where I ate a salad with raviol, (tiny ravioli’s sautéed in oil, instead of boiled) we took this path. It goes quite far, and once we could no longer see the chateau we found a small house with people inside harvesting honey.

We entered, and found we could watch them through a glass partition. They were busily cutting off the white waxy lid the bees had put on their honey, and they placed the trays in an extractor to be spun, using the centrifugal force to harvest the honey.

People extracting honey

A man with bushy grey eyebrows and white hair, and an oddly shaped head, wide at the top and narrower at his chin came out and talked with us. He recounted how he had been to the United Stated, New Jersey, doing a summer camp, and he remembers seeing Neil Armstrong walk on the moon when he was there. He held a tray of honey and invited us all to ‘gouter’ (taste) with our fingers. The honey was so sweet, and the taste was so different from any other honey I’ve tried that it tasted like something else entirely. It was especially sweet, and make me think of a mandarin orange drenched sugar, made syrupy. That’s what it tasted like.

At the back of the park we found elk, an entire herd that would have been kept in historical times for hunting purposes. They were a beautiful sight to see and made me think of Mike.

As the trail bent left to round the furthest perimeter, we found ‘mutants,’ or sheep. They were very friendly, all coming up to the fence and putting their heads between the wires. They are grass right out of our hands. I felt sorry for them, as they looked dirty, and not very healthy, and clearly loved human company. I wondered how many people visited them each day, and if they were lonely. Behind them in the distance, I could also see what looked like a very small moose or Élan. I wasn’t sure though, because Moose in North America are so large, I checked with Mike and Rémi, and moose do not live in Europe, so I’m not sure what it was, but it was the size of a deer, with very large horns, and at the tip of its horns, it had palms instead of points.

As we turned left again and followed the path back to the chateau we passed a peacock house. Perhaps one of the peacocks had escaped, because he paraded proudly on the roof of the enclosure. I would have liked to stay there all day, but I did not have the bus schedule downloaded to know when the latest bus came, and Marianne and Katrina wanted to get back, so we left. 

Days 29-33: Dinner conversations of Helene's childhood, Strasbourg, Politics, WW2, & Suffrange

The bushes surrounding Helene's yard

Monday 17 July 2017

Had afternoon classes, breakfast with Helene and Monique in the garden. Dinner with Helene Rémi and Monique again. Terretare again for dinner.

Tuesday 18 July 2017

Afternoon classes, missed breakfast because of doing homework in my room. At dinner we talked about the childhood of Helene and Monique. They grew up in Strasbourg and told me about its history. It was part of Germany for 40 years, then became French, then in the war it was occupied by the Germans, before becoming French again when the war ended. This explains why a French town has such a German name. In fact I thought Strasbourg was part of Germany before they gave me all this history.

Wednesday 19 July 2017

The garden table where we eat with guests.

At our dinner conversation today Helene and Monique told me about about the first time they saw American soldiers. They were about five years old. Monique said when she first saw an American soldier running into the town she thought he was German at first and was very afraid, but he gave her candy and when he spoke she knew he was American and was so happy. The first American soldier Helene saw was a black man. She had never seen someone with dark skin before and was scared at first, but he also gave her a piece of candy.

Then we got into a conversation about education. The two old ladies argued over whether Latin and Greek should still be taught at school. They were getting so heated about it, it was great to watch.

Thursday 20 July 2017

Another dinner conversation about politics. I learned about Federations in Switzerland and Germany, and we debated whether or not the Presidents have too much power in France and the US. Talked about suffrage and Monique explained why France was so late to give the vote to women. She said it’s because of being Catholic and patriarchy which she described as being under their fathers thumbs.

They both talked about the first time they went to vote. Their fathers told them who they were supposed to vote for, and they both said, “Merci Papa” politely. Then they voted for the person of their choosing. They remember what it was like before women had any rights, and they are very passionate about living the way they want to live. Definite feminists.

Monique said that my French has improved as well, but that is more than likely because I am less afraid to speak in front of them.

Helene's tomato plants

Friday 21 July 2017

After school I went to centre villle and looked for a tea set but was unsuccessful. I walked home in the rain and it felt wonderful. I was quiet at dinner, I think I was a little bit tired. It was Monique’s last night with us. I was sad to have her go. She is a very happy person, as is Helene and Rémi, but I think I enjoyed most watching her and Helene talk about their childhood or debate about politics.

Helene served stuffed tomatoes which were more delicious than any stuffed tomato I’ve ever had. It was also Remi’s 45^th birthday, and they had champagne, and sang Joyeux Anniversaire.

Helene told the story of Remi’s birth very excitedly. The doctor kept telling her to wait, wait before pushing and left. When he came back he told her again to wait, but Helene said she told herself, if the doctor was not back by a certain time, she was going to push anyway. The doctor walked in just as she began to push, and had to catch Rémi on the table, he came out so quickly. She laughed and said she thought Rémi was just in a hurry to get into the world. For dessert she also served chocolate and small biscuit-like cookies to celebrate. I love how simple the dessert is here, it feels so good to have fruit after a meal.

Day 28: Where I attend Protestant Services in a Cathedral, eat fondue, and meet Monique & Remi

This looks like several different
buildings, but they are all connected
pieces of the cathedral.

Sunday 16 July 2017

Sunday we decided to go to Catholic Mass in St. Pierre’s cathedral, and then have lunch in the old part of town before catching our bus back to Grenoble. We got checked out of the hostel, and took the tram. We had to switch trains, but we couldn’t see that any of the trams stopped near the Cathedral, so we ended up walking a long ways to get there, but that’s ok, good exercise right? And we still made it on time. We told the door greeter we were there for mass, and he said, “no, this is services, this is Protestant cathedral”. . . . “oh, we said. . .ok, we’re here for services.” So embarrassing! We had no idea it was protestant, and apparently Geneva has a history for harboring protestants when all the religious wars were going on, so quite the faux pas, but they still let us in.

It was kind of dark inside with the only light coming through the stained glass windows. We found an empty pew and laid our weekend bags with all our stuff on the ground by our feet. Pretty quickly services began with the sound of an organ being played. The pipes were behind us at the back of the cathedral, and I never could figure out where the organist was sitting, but the playing was so professional. It sounded as if this person had been born to play organ and spent their entire life perfecting their gift. I thought I was at an organ concert, not just Sunday services. I have to admit, I was in musical heaven.

The Organ Playing

When the organ stopped, the pastor stood up from his seat on my left side of the cathedral and began his sermon. He spoke very clear and slow and I felt like I understood so much of what he was saying. I even recognized scriptures he was quoting in French, like “love the lord thy god with all thy might, thy heart, they strength”. After about 10 minutes of speaking, he asked us to stand, and we sang these beautiful, what sounded to me like medieval hymns that related directly to what he had been speaking about. This repeated another 3 times, he spoke, quoted scriptures, we sang about it. Every time the organ music was spectacular. I couldn’t believe that we got to sing with the organ, our poor voices certainly didn’t compare to the precision and beauty of the instrument, but still, I loved the idea that we were singing because we love God, and surely he would not reprimand our voices.

At the end the organ played another solo and this time I couldn’t help but record the music, even though I covered the lens so there would be no picture. It didn’t seem right to take video of the service, but I had to capture the sound.

A man, probably in his 60’s or 70’s sitting in front of us turned around after the service ended and introduced himself. He was wearing blue jeans, and blue denim jacket, with a blue scarf around his neck. (Can I just say I love that men wear scarves in Europe, I don’t know what it is, maybe just that it shows men take an interest in fashion and accessories, and I don’t think it makes them any less masculine. That’s another thing about guys in France, they kiss each other on the cheek to say hello, they use man bags, and wear scarves, and still manage to be sexy and masculine.) His name is Michel Weiss. He lives in France, only about 20 minutes outside of Geneva.

After introductions were made he asked what our plans were, and we told him we wanted to find a restaurant to try Swiss Fondue. He actually walked around the neighborhood with us to help us find a fondue place. Before leaving us he said it is great to meet young people who love God, and told us how much he also loves God, and wished us well in our journeying.

At the restaurant the menu said cheese fondue with herbs was $27 Swiss Francs. We asked if this was per person, or if it was big enough for all of us to share one. We were told we could share one, so we thought, perfect, we will split the cost. When we ordered, we told the waitress we wanted Fondue to share between 4 people. Then she asked for 4? And we said yes. Then she said, do you want different types, or all of you want fromage and herbs? We said all the same, and were a bit confused, because we wanted to share one, how could we each have different flavors?

First fondue

She left, and we began to worry, what if they were going to bring out 4 different bowls of fondue and charge us $27 each? We decided we needed to clarify and when she came back we asked her again, specifying we only wanted 1 fondue. She seemed really upset with us and said, you will be hungry, it’s not a lot to share between 4 people, and then ran back to the kitchen to change the order. Thank goodness we clarified! She wasn’t very nice about it, and then we were worried it would be really tiny and each of us would only gets a bite or two.

I also ordered an endive salad which was really disappointing, except for the goat cheese. It had canned apricots, straight up, canned, not fresh apricots. The tomato was diced so tiny you couldn’t even taste it in the salad, and it only had 4 lettuce leaves with a ton of endives. The cheese on the other hand, were these large chunks of goat cheese that were so soft and creamy they melted in your mouth, like glorified whipped cream. It was by far the best goat cheese I had ever tasted.

When she brought out the fondue, we were relieved. It was a huge pot, with a huge basket of bread, there was more than enough to share between the 4 of us. During the meal our waitress warmed up to us a little bit as well. At first when refilling our water, she said she was sorry for us that we got Trump as a president. We’ve all heard this before, but without any prior conversation with her, it seemed like a pretty rude thing to say.

Then when she came back, we talked to her a bit more and she got really into politics with us, talking about how the young people don’t vote enough, asking if it was the same in the US, and how the Swiss vote about everything, even minor things, all the people vote and that is how everything is decided. I like that, and I wish the US let us vote on more subjects than just regional and national elections. Even then though, I think our voting system is defective, when someone can get elected without the majority of the vote due to the electoral system. I much prefer France’s way, where it’s just simply the person with the most votes, period. So much simpler.

After talking to the waitress, I realized that the way Europeans make small talk, is to talk about politics. To Americans, this seems intrusive and a bit rude and brash, but here, it is a way to get to know people. My first reaction was dislike of the practice, but now I realize the politics gets a lot of good conversations going. More to say on this from later in the week.

another lovely fountain in old Geneva

We walked to the bus station and took our bus home. There’s really not anything interesting worth mentioning about that. I took the new bus route to get home. The bus which goes directly to the stop near my house only comes every 4 hours on Sunday, but there is another bus that comes every 10 minutes, and stops a 30 minute walk away from my house. I decided to take this bus instead so I’d have a good walk, and wouldn’t have to wait a couple hours for the other bus. Earlier in the week I used the GPS on my phone to map the walk from this bus stop to my house and explored the area. It’s really pretty, one of the streets is called Chemin de la Chartreuse, and it’s a very small shady path with a stream running along the side. I like this walk very much.

When I arrived home, as promised by Helene, her son Rémi was there along with her friend Monique. Before dinner, as Helene always does when she has guests, we had drinks in the sitting room, a syrup flavored water. Rémi can speak English, and per Helene’s request I spoke English to him, but when speaking to the group I spoke French because Monique doesn’t speak English. It was actually quite interesting, the conversation continually switching from French to English, back and forth, and Rémi was really nice, always explaining parts of the conversation to me in English.

Helene also likes to eat dinner in the garden when she has guests. I’ve had so many mosquito bites since I got here, that I’ve learned it’s best to take precautions, so I quickly changed into long pants and long sleeves and doused myself in bug spray before going in the garden. Helene has a low wooden fence around her yard, but growing all around the fence, in the way I have seen all fences in France, she has planted tall bushes, non-flowering, and also rose bushes and other flower bushes I do not know the name of. In one corner of the yard there is a large tree, similar to the one that grows in my Utah front yard, and this is where the outside table is. It’s just white plastic, but Helene puts nice cushions on the seats, and always uses a nice table cloth so it seems fancy.

Rémi brought a bottle of red wine, and of course they all think it’s strange that I don’t drink, but they are always considerate to have a carafe of water on the table for me. Helene is a chef if you ask me. Most of the meals, aside from the octopus and sardines and anchovies, have been better than any restaurant I’ve ever eaten at. The first course was cantaloupe. The main dish was another seafood dish, which was not my favorite. It’s called tartine or terretine, something to do with the clay pot it is baked in. It’s basically like a meatloaf, but made with fish which she bakes in the oven, then puts in the fridge to cool and is eaten cold. She says it’s good for summer because it’s not hot. It kind of reminded me of maybe what a fish pâtée would taste like. I didn’t love it, but it wasn’t bad either. I do love the salad, the leaves here seem so much more delicate and sweeter than the leaves at home. We had a very funny conversation as I tried to ask what the lettuce was called.

For desert Rémi also brought some stinky cheese from Dijon, where he lives. It was orange on the outside, creamy on the inside, and very stinky, but the taste was much milder than the smell and I liked it a lot. After that, fruit for dessert as usual. I was very tired from traveling and so after dinner I begged their pardon to be excused and went to bed.

Day 27: We explore Geneva, Switzerland

Jet d'eau

Saturday 15^th July 2017

Caught the bus at 7 am to Geneva. Arrived in Geneva tired and grumpy. The bus dropped us off on the other side of the city, much further away from the hotel than we expected, so we couldn’t get our bus passes or put our stuff in the lockers there. We paid $3 euros for a tram ticket that we only took for 3 blocks before we saw an open air market and got off to buy breakfast. We ended up going to McDonalds instead to use the bathroom and I was able to mix my barley grass juice and blueberry powder. Katrina had an epic fall in the McDonalds. I didn’t witness it, but heard she went straight down, wish I had seen it.

In the market I bought a pretzel, and olives with Provence spices, vervene tea, chèvre, a red pepper, and braided bread. We’ll use the food for breakfast and lunch. Then we walked to the Swiss army knife store because Kayla wanted to get one. We waited outside because none of the rest of us wanted to buy one. Then we thought we lost Katrina. She went to put makeup on and then didn’t come back for a really long time. We were worried, but turns out she had just stopped in several stores on her way back and forgot about the time.

From there, we decided to go straight to the hostel so we could at least put our stuff in lockers, even if we were too early to check in. Lake Geneva bordered the road on our right and a bridge filled with cars ran parallel to our path. As we walked I noticed we were passing very high end stores, like Gucci, Prada, even a Jimmy Choo shoe store. I will admit I’m not immune to nice things, meaning I’m tempted all the time by expensive purchases, but stores like that make me uncomfortable. I think it’s because I feel like I could buy a house for what a single pair of shoes costs, so it’s not even in the realm of dreams, but it’s also so grossly expensive to me, it’s not even attractive. There were stores like this all over Geneva, which is I think one reason why I didn’t love the city. Aside from luxury stores like those, everything else was also overpriced. I didn’t like being in such a pricey area.

After we had rounded the tip of the lake and made our way to the left bank we had to start making our way between the buildings, away from the lake. A few streets in we made a left and walked straight for a long ways before we got to the hostel. Along this backstreet, we noticed a sex shop, and then another across the street. This was mid-day though, so we kept walking. Nothing to be afraid of here. As we walked, I noticed a woman on my right wearing a really tight short dress. I wondered, “is she a prostitute?” She was just standing there leaning against the building smoking a cigarette.

Nothing to worry about. We kept walking. Two more blocks down, another woman, in a skin tight short black dress, with the most enormous breasts practically hanging out of her dress was leaning against a building, smoking a cigarette. 1 + 1 = hookers. They had to be. She didn’t acknowledge us girls walking by, so I thought, alright, we’re still ok.

Nothing to worry about. One more block down I looked to my left and down an alley in a store front window I saw a sign “Bienvenu feu rouge district”. Oops, I guess I booked a hostel in the red light district. Should have done my research, was prostitution even legal in Switzerland? Anyways, we walked a little faster, turned the corner where the hostel was, and everything looked nice again. The inside of the hostel was really nice too. Nothing to worry about.

United Nations

The reception desk was closed for lunch, so we decided to eat our lunch in the waiting area. I ate the red pepper like an apple, it was so delicious and fresh. Kayla let us borrow her Swiss army knife to cut our cheese, it was really good.

We were still an hour early when the guy came back to open the reception desk, but we were lucky they had two rooms cleaned already so we were able to check in early. The rooms were basic, a bunk bed, lockers, a desk, and a sink. Community bathroom in the hallway, but it was very clean. One thing I do love about France, even though most bathrooms are missing toilet seats, and are disgusting, every stall has actual walls and door that locks. I hate US stalls where the locks are always misaligned, and everybody can see through the cracks in the panels. Anyways, these bathrooms were very nice, very clean, even had vanities separate from the sinks with hair blow dryers.

Our stuff locked away in our rooms we decided to explore the city some more. The first thing we all wanted to see was the Red Cross Museum, and the United Nations.

L'horloge fleurie or Flower Clock

Hunter and I built a Lego set he got a few Christmases ago of the United Nations, so I really wanted to take a picture of the real thing. We got there, and there was this huge red chair, huge as in, the size of the giant in James and the Beanstalk, but the chair only had 3 legs. I think it’s supposed to be symbolic of something but I’m not sure. So I took my pictures and was thinking it looked nothing like the Lego set which was all white clear glass colored. Then Katrina said, “I bet it was the United Nations in NYC.” What? There’s more than one UN? I had no idea. There you have it, it wasn’t the same building we made out of Legos. It was cool to see all the flags at the front, but it was not open so we didn’t get to take the tour inside.

Streets of old town Geneva

The most interesting thing about the Red Cross Museum was the lady who checked us in. It was free with our hostel passes. There were two couples ahead of us in line. To the first couple, the receptionist spoke German, fluently, beautiful German. Then when she checked in the next couple, she spoke French. I couldn’t even tell if she was German or French she spoke both equally well. Then when she checked us in, she spoke English in a British accent. So that solved the mystery, she was British, but she was so fluent, I couldn’t believe it.

The rest of the museum was a huge let-down. Maybe it’s because we were all so tired, but instead of being interesting, all the exhibits were depressing. A lot of them were video recordings of people who had been affected by war crimes or dictators. I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but it was not what I was expecting. We ended up only spending 30 minutes there before we decided if we didn’t like it by then, it just wasn’t worth the time that day.

We had our free transportation passes from the hostel and found out there was a little train that goes around the city giving tours. We rode the tram back to the tip of the lake and waited to take the little train. I must say, it was a big disappointment. The train only drove from the tip of the lake, over to the right bank, only covered maybe 1/8^th of the bank and then came back. There really wasn’t a lot of interesting information on the train either. I’m just glad we didn’t actually pay for that tour.

View of the backside of the city from the park

On the way we stopped and got a fast bite to eat. I got a croque mesiure which is basically a grilled cheese ham sandwich. This one was awful. $6.50 for white bread, smashed panini style, with a piece of fake cheese, you know the kind that come sliced and individually wrapped, with one slice of ham lunchmeat, buttered with mayonnaise, and a glob of butter on the inside center. It was so gross, but I was really hungry. Fortunately not everyone ate at this nasty place, and the restaurant we stopped at later sold fresh juice. I got fresh squeezed apples, oranges, ginger, and something else. It was really good.

Next on the must see list was the Cathedral of Saint Pierre. We used the google map on my phone to navigate there, which I have been loving. The GPS on my phone and this little blue dot on the map which tells me which way I’m facing has been an amazing life saver for getting around. The best thing is that it all works offline as well. On the way to the Cathedral we found old town Geneva.

Finally a place in the city I loved. Narrow cobblestone streets everywhere with fountains and cute little shops. It was 7 pm so everything was closed, but it was so refreshing to get away from the touristy hustle bustle by the lake, and get into this hilly little neighborhood that had so much charm. We walked all over that section and ended up at a park overlooking the back side of the city. It was beautiful. I didn’t want to leave that area, but we had to go home at some point.

Cathedral of Saint Pierre

Also, the metro system in Geneva, super difficult to navigate. Their maps are kind of useless, you can’t tell which lines are bus and which are trams, and there are no landmarks on the maps, so it’s super difficult to find the stop you want. We ended up avoiding all the busses and taking the same tram into the city and back to our hostel and walking to everything else in between. It’s not a huge down-town area, so I guess that was fine, but I feel like we could have explored a lot more if it had been easier to navigate.