Random thoughts about life

I feel like my life is a game of charades. People at church speak to me in French, while acting out what they are saying and I have to figure it out as quickly as I can. It is kind of fun. I think people speak with there hands here more than Americans, but it could just be that I notice it more here since it don't understand what people are saying. The other day this guy was asking me if I was going to the St. Valentines dance. They call dances balls here. A lot of unfamiliar words like St. Valentines and Ball, but I got it because he was imitating ballroom dancing. I am not going, fortunately I will be in France that weekend. It would be interesting to observe how they dance and everything, but at the same time I have never really enjoyed dances. In the words of Garrett Bodily, my cousin "Me and dancing is like mixing bleach and ammonia. It is wrong."

I did actually go to a dance the other weekend, against my will. It was in Geneva and hour and a half away, and there were 15 people there. Sad turn out. I didn't dance, but I did meet a few English speakers.

Geneva is a very diverse city, location of UN and other such government entities. I meet a girl from Canada, who also did not speak French. We exchanges phone numbers and might do something one weekend. It is funny, everyone I have meet that is a foreigner here cannot remember their phone number. Most of us have it taped to the back of our phone. It is only 10 digits, just like in the US so I don't know why it is so difficult. I suppose it is because there is no familiar pattern like we have grown accustomed to.

Back to the dance, it was interesting to hear the music they choose to play. The theme was "The Beetles" so many of those songs were played but the rest of the songs, with a few exceptions, where songs that I would hear at dances in the US. Songs like YMCA, and "Man! I feel like a woman" by Shania Twain.

My family always asks me funny things, Mark asked if they laugh differently here, and David ask if they celebrate New Years. Yes the New Year occurred here as well and no I have not noticed any significant difference in their laughter. The questions are good, it reminds me that it is exciting and different living in a foreign country. It has all began to become very familiar, and I am forgetting what America is like.

I taught my first lesson in nursery, it went well. My lesson was short which was good because 3 year old boys don't really have any attentions span.

Neuchatel, I am very much enjoying living here. People have told me it is the best place to learn French in Switzerland. I don't know why that is, but it is convenient for me. I feel like Neuchatel is a small city (pop. of 30,000 within and 80,000 including surrounding towns) but I think it is mid-sized for Europe. You kind of get the best aspects of small towns and big cities at the same time. It has a university, large public library, amazingly well kept roads and public transportation, and a down town shopping area like you would have in a big city. But at the same time it is small and everything is close by and in walking distance. Also I often bump into people I know from church on the bus, or walking around the city.

And finally I will close with a "Random fact of the day:"

Cheese produced here comes in huge wheels often a meter in diameter and about 6 inches in height. And it is incredibly delicious.