A Weekend in the Sun

We had a long weekend and many tentative plans were made, most of which fell through for one reason or another, but it still turned out well. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was good to have some downtime, relax, and enjoy the soleil (sun). I spent much of the time lying out in the grass with a book, music, or my much neglected journal. Saturday evening a couple of us went to eat at an Indian restaurant, always enjoyable for me, and spent the evening out. I got back late that night to find post-it notes stuck all over my door from Leah saying that Renaud had invited us to an outing the next day.

He sings with the choir from the University of Geneva, and once a year they have their rehearsal in a little village just outside of Geneva where they spend the whole day practicing in the chateau there and picnicking. Leah had a volleyball tournament that day, but I went with him just for the outing. In the morning I layed out on the lawn behind the chateau and did a bit of homework and fell asleep with the ants. Then we had our lovely picnic in the gorgeous weather, which was great for my French. After lunch, thunderclouds started to gather, so we all made a dash for cover and while they finished their practice, I spent the afternoon doing my homework on the floor of the chateau while listening to the beautiful choral music. It was quite a nice little outing, though when I got back I discovered my little nap in the sun resulted in a rather oddly shaped red square of the remnants of the sunshine on my back.

Monday was a quite subdued and tranquil day, meaning that we pretty much all but fell asleep in class that day. You would think you would be all rested after a nice three day weekend, but I guess that’s what happens when you shock your body into going from a relaxing weekend like that to getting up for class at 8:00 and having five hours of class. All our teachers commented how dead we all were. But Tuesday, that was another story. We weren’t jumping off the walls or anything, but we definitely had a little more life in us. Tuesdays are a wonderful change from Mondays because as appose to the five hours of classes we have on Mondays, Tuesdays don’t begin till 9:00, after which we have an hour break at 10:00, and then one more class at 11:00. 2 class days are not so bad : ) So this Tuesday, Sarah and I took advantage of our hour break and headed into Collonges. I needed to stop at the bank, and she came for the outing, so we ended up stopping at the Patisserie and enjoyed them while we did a bit of homework eating the best pain au raisin and pain au chocolate. It brought back memories of the first time we had come into town at the beginning of the year and had our first pastries, and led to a lot of reminiscing. After class, we headed into Geneva together, which was nice to have some company. I was headed for work as usual, and she was headed to do some shopping and study in town. After work, we met up again at the train station and did a bit of shopping before everything closed and before grabbing one of our favorite meals in Geneva, falafels. We then headed to a really cool little café that has a great atmosphere and sat there and talked for quite a while before walking around town and heading back to school. Nothing terribly exciting, but it was a good girl’s day, and it’s the little things that make me happy. And now I can hardly wait for the days to come, beginning with tonight. Tonight our school is taking us to a play by Moliere, which should be fun. Tomorrow night Sarah and I are extremely excited about, Her and Stephen and Leo and I are going to the ballet!! The only other time I've been was to the Nutcracker when I was like in fifth grade, which doesn't really count. This time we're going to Romeo and Juliet, by Prokofiev, in Geneva's Grand Theatre. Then Friday Leo and I are going somewhere; many places were discussed, but now it's looking like the best use of our time is going to end up being heading towards Lausanne and then across the lake to Evian (as in the water company). Should be fun!