March 10, 2010 by Seth g.

As you are all aware, Claire gets so much holiday that she feels guilty about it.  That’s a lot of holiday!  However, this post is just so that she doesn’t feel quite so bad, showing what I have gotten up to in the time between her last couple of holiday breaks :)

In the last month I have made a bit of a habit of going night skiing with my friends Daniel and Lucie.  Night skiing hasn’t always been my cup of tea, but with limited time it seems to be a great way to hit the slopes at least once a week and still have your days free to do other things…like work.

The closest night skiing to us is in Wildhaus in the Toggenberg valley about an hour away.  This is on the northern edge of the Swiss Alps and provides lots of the talent that we saw kick butt in the Winter Olympics.

The mountain is small and has a bar right at the bottom of the lift.  After their first win in ski jumping, the Swiss started to really get excited and on the next weekend they had set up a full-on party at the bottom of the lift, with an ice bar, bratwurst stand, big screen TV and local television coverage.

The Swiss showing some pride after their first win.

The party at the bottom of the ski run, the dome is the bar, and they set up a huge TV to watch the show.

I have also been seeing the inside of a climbing gym pretty regularly.  Winterthur has one of the best publicly subsidized sports facilities I’ve ever seen.  They have a pool (actually make that 3 pools: outdoor and indoor Olympic size pools and a 30deg C, adjustable depth, 25 m warm-up pool with a water slide), an indoor sand volleyball court, an indoor skate park, and of course, a climbing wall.  All of this is accessible for less than $50/mo and if you can commit to a 1 year membership it’s more like $30/mo.  Pretty sweet.

Climbing here was kind of funny at first.  You go in and pay your fee, sign a release and they hand you a rope, and harness and say ‘viel Spass’!  No instruction, no talk about edict, nothing.  Then the real shock…this is a lead-climb only gym!  There are no top ropes, so you just have to sack up and lead the climb if you want to do it.  And it gets better, they provide all the gear, minus a belay device.  So not only is it lead only, but you have to belay with a Munter hitch!  These guys are hardcore.

Hardcore food at the climbing wall.  This Coke and…well…hot dog-dick can be yours for only CDN$ 8.50!

As Claire pointed out to me the other day, doing things I like has lead to finding more friends.  I met Daniel and Lucie by going skiing and then, in the same way, I met my friend Tim. I went with the Coop Ski Express to Davos, and as a telemarker was one of the first people back to the bus. The only other person at the bus was also a telemarker (go figure) and we shared some beers and got to talking. Tim has since become my weekly climbing and skiing partner.

As a group of fun people Daniel, Lucie, Tim and I had a pretty good time last weekend doing the Winterthur ethnic bar crawl, starting at the rasta bar and ending at the surprisingly authentic Thai karaoke bar where the local Thai population gathers to sing love songs in their native language and drink Chang beer.

I think that the Vancouverites will know that the weather has been pretty screwy this year.  In Winterthur we got basically the opposite of Vancouver.  January was frigging freezing and even now it continues to be pretty cold.  That said, last week was a glimpse of spring.  The mercury hit 10deg C and with longer days it was making me ready for summer.  However there was one last push at winter waiting for me this weekend…

Saturday was a total snow day here and thankfully I had gone out on a limb in the warm weather last week and planned on skiing.  Good idea.  Sunday was one of the best in-resort powder days I’ve had in years.  Off-piste isn’t a European specialty and Daniel, Tim and I were able to rip up some sweet powder right off the lift!

Daniel in the pow.  That is the lift at the top of the photo and this was at almost 10am…

Me and Tim about to hit the sicknar.

Tim, Daniel, me and Lucie at lunch.

  Planning my 007 escape.

Beers in the parking lot waiting for the bus.  Now a regular event - and legal here.

View from the bus on the way home.

I haven’t ever talked much about work because it isn’t really the point of this blog.  However, that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun in its own way.  The people that I work with are a good group. The tribology and polymers groups are6 full time engineers and 2 interns (including me).  We sit on the 4th floor and generally have quite a bit of fun. Below are some photos.

Zimmer ski day at Pizol.  Daniel in the middle with my boss Thorsten on the right in the blue and red jacket.

Look at that!  Only 8,300 km home!

My colleagues Eik and Christine on the way back down to Pizol.

Making my American colleague feel at home during his visit by building him a cubicle (we don’t have them here).

Maria (the other intern) and me doing Zimmer’s dirty work.  Literally.

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February 27, 2010 by claire.

Hello!
So after a rigorous 6 weeks of work, I am now on the first of my 2 14-day holidays this spring. (I really am spoiled working in the school systems in France - compared to Seth’s Swiss 40 hour work week and regular holidays, it is starting to make me feel a bit guilty!) But it is also a great opportunity for me to spend some time with Seth, and see some more of Europe. I spent the first week of my holiday skiing with some of my roommates and friends in Grenoble. The second week, I went on a road trip to Italy with my roommates, then picked up Seth in Switzerland and we went on to visit Elaine and Patrick in Amsterdam. Below are some of the pictures from this wonderful holiday. Tomorrow, Seth unfortunately has to go back home, but I am going to make a brief stop in Brussels on my way back to Grenoble to visit my cousin Kate who lives there. She tells me there are over 3,000 different kinds of beer there, so I am not sure if 24 hours will be enough time…

The first is a picture of my beautiful bedroom in Grenoble, and the second is the group of kidsthat I get to teach snowboarding to each Wednesday. The photo is taken on a warm, sunny Wednesday - one of those days where being paid to be there feels a bit unreal. On the snowy, windy, freezing days, it is a little bit harder to feel quite so lucky!

These pictures are from the week of my holidays I spent in Grenoble. Two of my roommates were on their last weeks of being unemployed (both have recently found jobs), so we found time during the week to make delicious lunches and do some snowshoeing and skiing. My favorite outing was a warm sunny day where we snowshoed up a mountain, but brought sleds for the ride down!

For the second week of holidays, all 5 of my roommates, myself, 2 guitars, and a hookah piled into a rental van and drove down to Florence to visit a friend and spend a few days in Italy. Loic, a friend from Grenoble who is doing part of his doctorate in Florence, was a wonderful host, showing us the local markets and cultural sights. However, we were horrified at some of the things we could buy at the market - things like testicles and noses. In the end, being French, we ended up with croissants and cheese…not very adventurous! Olivier and Jeremy tried out their guitar skills in front of the Duomo, surprising everyone by making enough money to buy us all lunch!

That is all I have for now, I am going to wait for Seth to upload some of his pictures from our time in Switzerland and the Netherlands. We have spent a really great time together here in the Netherlands, and I will be sad to see him go tomorrow and return to a normal life of work (for the next 6 weeks).

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January 31, 2010 by claire.

We have both been keeping busy with work since Christmas, but have also been doing our best to maximize our weekends to explore the majestic mountains in the area. We are currently hanging out together in Saas Fee, which is a beautiful town in the south of Switzerland surrounded by 18 or so 4,000 metre peaks. We have decided that it is the Swiss equivalent of Aspen, Colorado, and have been enjoying exploring the town deciding who has the most skintight ski bunny suit! We wanted to upload some of the pictures we have from the last few weeks of mountain adventures, both separately and together. Here in Saas Fee, we rented an apartment for the weekend, with the intentions of exploring the over 200 km. of pistes in the ski area, but when we arrived and saw the temperature forecast (-48 with windchill!!!!) we quickly revised our plan and spent the time cross country skiing on the valley floor, walking around and looking at the views, and cooking delicious meals. It has been a really wonderful weekend, but we are looking forward to skiing together in March, when the temperatures will be more humane.
The updated weather report showing only -41C

Claire on the balcony of our room.

Some photos from around Saas Fee

Breakfast.  That’s fresh squeezed blood orang juice!

A panorama of the end of the Saas Fee Valley

Claire on the cross-country ski track

Seth here, I have spent the last couple of weekends checking out the skiing in eastern Alps, spending one day in Davos at Persenn and one day with friends in Lichtenstein at Malbun. Below are some photos from those trips

My friends Lucy and Daniel at Malbun

A view from the lift at Parsenn.

The longest gondola EVER at Parsenn. The ride was more than 20 min!

And now it’s Claire, and I am sharing some pictures I have from exploring some of the local Grenoble massifs with two of my roommates. I have moved into a new apartment with 5 French people, and have been really enjoying learning french cooking with them (we all cook and eat together most nights, around 10pm or later!). Luckily, they all like to ski, and Oliver 1, Olivier 2, and me explored an area in the Belledonne range. We hiked up the mountain, took the skins off our skis, and then proceeded to have one of the funniest descents I have ever experienced. It came to light at the top that while one of the Oliviers loved the mountains and was an avid snowshoer, he had only ever skied once. Needless to say, the descent was slow and comical, as he tried to learn to snowplow for the first time in knee-deep power.

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January 10, 2010 by claire.

I find that the regular routine always starts up again so sharply after Christmas break. One minute you are stuffing yourself with delicious pie, sleeping in every day, and seeing friends and family, and the next moment you find yourself with a full inbox and late for work. This first week back for me was a little hectic as I started a new tutoring position, worked my first afternoon as a snowboard instructor (which I realize now is just a glorified name for professional nose-wiper and mitten-finder) and resumed my hours at the high school. It is nice to be back, but Seth and I sure had a wonderful two weeks of holiday together.

First Seth returned to Grenoble, where we spent Christmas in my new apartment. We made a wonderful Christmas dinner that included an apple pie made with a cream-red wine caramel sauce (all my favorite things in the same sauce!) and a whole trout, which Seth lovingly plucked the bones out of.

We also had the chance to go for a hike, because the weather was unseasonably warm and lovely. We started by checking out the excellent map so we wouldn’t get lost, and then started on our way. Almost immediately we found a little dog who appeared to be starving, and called the number on its collar. It was so cute that we ended up giving it a good portion of our lunch before the owners arrived, and were quite surprised to find out that he had not been lost for long. We were very concerned by the number of his ribs we could see, but in the end we were told that he is a hunting dog and just runs a lot. I still think he could use some more food. We did feel a little bit uneasy after that moment, since his owners were hunting wild boar in the same forest that we were hiking, and we were dressed completely in boarish-brown and taupe colours!

We also got the chance to check out one of the ski stations nearby, Deux Alpes, and had a truly excellent day ranging from sun and powder to ice and sleet in our faces.

For New Years we were able to meet up with our friends Patrick and Elaine in Marseille, where we spent 4 days being tourists, walking around checking stuff out and going for a hike along the ocean.

We celebrated New Years in our hostel, on the streets, and in a pub, and you can track how much fun we were having by the state of the ‘flare’ on my head…

With the wonders of the French school system, I now have 5 weeks left of work before my next 2 week break, where Seth will be taking some time off of work and we plan on going to Holland and doing some more skiing together in Switzerland.

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December 22, 2009 by Seth g.

So this post is kind of late in coming, but that should not diminish it’s importance!  For two weekends in a row I was given the great pleasure of hosting not only Claire (yes, twice in one fortnight :) but also my parents!

The weekend of Dec 5th and 6th was Claire and Seth time.  We pretty much just hung out together and did romantic things such as go to the pool, and drink beer with friends.  Daniel, who has featured on this blog before, has become a regular drinking buddy and generally comes out with us to find a watering hole.  At our new favorite place - a bar with a 4 page beer menu - Daniel acts as translator of the various drink descriptions.  This is a great thing, but we have learned that having a translation is not really a guarantee of ordering success…

The week after Claire left my parents arrived.  I managed to find a really nice B&B in the old town of Winterthur called Bagels, just above a coffee house of the same name.  The people there were really friendly and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for accommodation in Winterthur (link - opens new window).  Funny thing though is that they don’t really eat bagels in Switzerland and we heard more than once someone asking what a “bag-el” is…  In German, the English pronunciation would be obtained from Bägel, which we thought might be a good change of name for the coffee shop.

The first few days of their visit were Seth and mom time.  My dad had work in Düsseldorf and flew there Tuesday, returning Thursday.  I worked most of the time, but got to spend evenings with my mom, practicing German (generally embarrassing both of us), watching German TV, eating and drinking.  We spent some time in the Christmas markets, but those are for the most part seen one, seen ‘em all.

Not much changed in that routine when my dad returned.  We went out, ate food, and walked around the old town of Winterthur.  On the Friday I took my parents into my work and showed them around.  They got to see the production facility and also meet my colleagues.  Unbeknownst to us, the Research Dept Christmas party was the night before and my normally social work group was acting elusive…I later found out that they were pretty much all hung over!

Claire arrived on Friday night and on Saturday we spent the day in Zürich.  I really like Zürich and with the help of my parents I found another reason why: Kunsthaus (link): the city art gallery.  As a lover of modern art I felt like a kid in a candy store.  We went in, had a bit to eat and then scattered to cover as much ground as possible.  Claire and I stuck together, but we didn’t see my parents again for about 2 hours while we walked around gaping at the collection.  Magritte, Picasso, Kandinsky, Rothko, awesome.

Alas, all good things come to an end and on Saturday night I had to say goodbye to my parents.  They flew out on Sunday morning, but I look forward to seeing them when they return for their 10 day bike trip in June (it’s blogged, now it’s official!).  The next day Claire went home and I returned to my normal routine, but somehow better…

Claire, Bob and Seth in Zürich

Politzei keeping those Amnesty international hooligans in order in Zürich

German Santa and his totally sinister buddy. In Switzerland he has two sidekicks, both whom carry clubs to f*ck up bad kids! (I’m not kidding)

Winterthur house of stars.

Claire and Seth after a visit from Mr. Blobby (Gilchrist family version of Santa)!

Claire and Seth in Zürich.

Sadly, as the official family photographer, there are no photos of my mom in Switzerland, so I’m putting in the following Photo-shopped (actually GIMPed link) image to give you the idea.  Claire and I were really happy to haver her around.

Seth, Sally and Claire in the Swiss equivalent of FAO Schwartz.

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December 19, 2009 by claire.

Well it feels like Christmas has arrived in Grenoble all of a sudden, with an amazing (pre)Christmas dinner and a lot of snow!

I have decided to move apartments over Christmas, because although the family I am currently living with is really nice, I miss living with people the same age as me. I was lucky enough to have some of the French people I know here offer up a room in their lovely, huge, 6-bedroom apartment in the center of town, and of course I said yes. It is really neat, because it is the same apartment that my friend Kristin lived in when she was here a couple of years ago, with even a few of the same people. I really appreciate her introducing me to them, because they are really nice and, as I found out last night, excellent cooks!

They invited me over for a Christmas dinner to celebrate the beginning of the holidays, and that day it began to snow. By the time I was walking over to their apartment, there were several inches! It was really lovely to sit inside the living room, listening to them play some Christmas carols on the guitar, and watch big flakes of snow drift down past the window.

The evening was certainly one to remember. We started eating at 9pm, and we finished the last dessert (yes, that means there was more than one) at 2:54am. When I arrived the kitchen was bustling just like you see in a restaurant during the peak hours, with people running around and things sizzling. I retired to the living room to listen to the music and keep out of the way, and soon everything was ready. We all sat around the dinner table, and then proceeded to eat, talk, and sing our way through the next 8 courses, and 6 hours. We did take a short ’snowball fight’ break, but it literally did go on for that long.

The Menu…truly magnificent!
Entrèes
Un purèe aux carottes, avec coriandre et crème fraiche
Un pot de crème, melangè avec les tomates seches et du jambon cru A little pot with cream, sundried tomatoes, and proscuitto
(Served with a sparkling white wine)

More Entrèes
Les huitres, cru, du pain avec du beurre salé huitres are oysters. cru is raw. I was not a fan…
(served with Gevertzraminner - not sure how to spell that…)

Plat Principal
Les St. Jacques, avec les poireax à crème et du pain Scallops fried with onions and herbs, and leeks cooked with cream. And bread.
(served with un bordeaux)

Plat Principal #2 (this one took me by surprise because I thought we were done…)
Un ragoût du sanglier, avec du chou et les pommes cuit Wild boar and potato stew, with stewed cabbage
(served with some other kind of red wine…I kind of lost track by this point)

Du pain et fromage, fait à la main Bread and homemade cheeses

Digestif
Sorbet aux citrons verts avec vodka Homemade lime sorbet with a shot of vodka poured over it

Dessert
La bûche de Noel The traditional French Christmas cake, shaped like a log, covered in chocolate cream. Delicious.

I think the funniest part of the evening was when we tried to go retrieve the Christmas cake, which had been chilling on the balcony, and realized that it was completely buried under the snow.

Seth will be coming to join me here on Thursday, and we will be hanging out in Grenoble for Christmas, hoping to do some skiing, sleeping in, and hopefully, more good eating!

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November 29, 2009 by claire.

So I am still pretty much in love with this city. And over the last few weekends, I have been thrilled to be able to share some adventures here with some visitors!

First Seth made the trek here from Switzerland, and we had a wonderful weekend of activities, most of which consisted of either hiking or eating. First we went shopping at the markets, which is always hard because everything looks so good and there is so much choice. Within 5 minutes walk of my house here, there are 4 big markets. After we had bought fresh chestnuts to roast, a whole chicken, homemade yogurt with fresh fruit, and all kinds of other delicacies, Seth seemed to think we would never be able to eat it all. (of course, as usual, we managed!).
The next day we met up with our friends Kate and Ken, who are here from Vancouver for work for 7 weeks, and took their rental car on an adventure. We tried to find a hike that I had heard about, but seeing as we had sketchy written directions in French and no map, the day did not start out well. After driving for over 2 hours on twisty mountain roads (which was awful considering how much wine we had all drunk the previous evening) we ended up not at a trailhead, but in another big city called Chambery, far away from where we had intended to go. We reassessed the plan while picnicking in the parking lot of a gas station, all feeling quite depressed, but decided despite our raging headaches to have another attempt. After finally buying a map, we located a different hike on the way home, and hiked up to a beautiful lookout. We saw mountain goats and tramped in the snow, and figured that after a shaky start, it ended up being a wonderful day.

The following weekend I joined a weekend hiking trip with the international student’s club at the university. At least, I thought it would be a hiking trip. I should have known…international students always tend to be a bit more serious about partying than studying! We took a crazy road up into the mountains - look closely and you can see the little tunnel where the road goes! -
and ended up at a little refuge in the mountains. We did some hiking, although not as much as I would have liked, because everyone seemed to be intent on returning to the refuge so they could start drinking. Well, I am usually not the life of the party, but I can generally hold my own. Here, I was definitely outclassed. They had brought a huge dinner for everyone and a DJ for after, and I danced until after 3am, which I thought was pretty good for my old age. However, I realized how much of a grandmother I was when I got up at 11am, and some drunk guy stumbled past me mumbling in french about how it was time to go to bed! As much fun as it was to explore some new regions, I don’t think that is really my scene…

Finally, this last weekend my friend Reike, an assistant working in a town a couple of hours away, visited me. We were blessed with warm, summer-like weather, and made the most of it by walking, shopping in the markets, and exploring the town on foot. Yesterday afternoon we were invited over to the apartment of an American friend of mine here, who had for some strange reason decided to take it upon herself to cook Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people. She did a wonderful job, and we all ate so much delicious pumpkin pie, pecan pic, stuffing, and mashed potatoes that all I had for dinner last night was popcorn! It was neat to see the reactions of all the french people there, because apart from myself and 3 others, everyone was French and it was their first taste of things like ’stuffing’ and ‘pumpkin pie’. The pumpkin pie was especially surprising as here in France they make something similar, but it is not sweet at all and is eaten as part of a dinner.

This morning I slept in, and am having a lazy Sunday with coffee and an omelette, resting up before another week begins!

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November 23, 2009 by Seth g.

So I wanted to share a few things that have alternately made me smile and cringe since I’ve been in Switzerland:

First to smile:
For your cold-blooded furry friend!


Next to cringe, (and maybe cry a little):
I don’t think I need to translate this one…  It’s from a right-wing political party and basically promotes religious and racial profiling in immigration.  These posters are everywhere, from major train stations, to barn doors in the country - where I took this photo.


And finally to laugh again:
Have you ever wondered where your recycling goes?  Well, in Winterthur they have no secrets!

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November 12, 2009 by Seth g.

This last weekend I decided it was time to go find the mountains in Switzerland.  I had originally planned on going the weekend before,  but the weather was predicted to be bad so I stayed home and scrubbed the floor and worked on my PhD.  A good time until the weather turned out to be 180 degrees from the forecast and it was one of the best days I have seen since I’ve been here!

Again, as the weekend approached the weather report was not very good.  This time I thought, “Maybe their trains run to the minute, but the Swiss are as good at weather prediction as the Canadians.  I’m going for it!”  Well this time they were right and I was in Grindelwald for the first snow of the season…

Grindelwald after the snow.

Grindelwald is a small town in the Swiss Alps that is basically at the base of the Eiger.  It’s no wonder that it is snowing there in mid November and even with the poor weather the views were stunning.  Kind of like an attractive woman in sweat clothes, generally there’s not much to see, but every once in a while…wow!

The north wall of the Eiger.  If you look closely you can see the peak in the clouds.  Oh yeah, that’s it…mmmm.

Not wanting to miss out on the fun of being at the Eiger, I was determined to do something.  Since a round trip to the top of Jungfrau (the highest peak in the Alps) cost CHF 170 (!!!!!!) I decided that come hell or 8 cm of snow I was going hiking.  I couldn’t convince any of the other tourists at the hostel to go with me…so I headed out alone.  This isn’t as foolish as it sounds. It is Europe, so pretty much every inch has people and I was headed for the town of Kleine Scheidegg (map), so I could follow the railroad the whole way.  As an experienced adventurer I was sure to go properly prepared, so I strapped on my running shoes, put on my jeans and headed in to the winter.

Me with a hole in the clouds.

Four and a half hours of this led to some pretty wet socks.

I got to the town of K.S. about 12:30′30″.  The train back down leaves at 12:30, 1:30, 2:30… Damn their punctuality! I looked into the conductor’s eyes as the train left and walked inside to buy my ticket for the 1:30 train.  I was fairly cold at this point, so I just hid my head and waited for the next train.  Hey, at least I wasn’t walking down!

The cog-rail of salvation.

The trip down was really cool.  The track steep, and always that feeling of, “man I hope these engineers knew what they were doing.”  Of course the trip down went smoothly and I found myself back at the train station 3 min before the train back to Interlaken.  This would have been sweet except that my bags were stashed in the ski storage at the hostel (which was now closed for a month for renovations) and the next train wasn’t for an hour.  Had I known that Claire was sailing around France in a free car at this point I would have known just where my luck was being siphoned off to!

Never mind.  I went back to the hostel and collected my bags before heading to the local sports center and into the pool.  I didn’t have a swimsuit, but they had hot showers and that was all I really wanted. The showers turned out to be a room with no door, open to the co-ed change room, so walked to the last stall and just stood in the water, all modesty frozen with my still wet feet.  As my feet thawed, so did my modesty and I retreated to my soggy trousers, but dry socks.  A quick watch check told me I had 40 more minutes, so much to the displeasure of the other patrons I spent 20+ of them standing at the hairdryer with my wet shoes.  Worked like a charm and I had dry feet for my trip home.  And that was sweet.

I wandered back to the train and my trip home was very smooth.  The law of averages was working in my favor and I never waited more than 5 minutes for a connection.

The trip from Gridelwald to Interlaken.

I will come back to this area, but next time there will be MORE SNOW, and I will be prepared with plastic footwear, two planks and waterproof clothing :)

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November 11, 2009 by claire.

Events over the past few weeks have been truly remarkable. I have had an amazing string of luck, and I am not sure how I managed to get it. I am not even Irish! I wonder if it was those weird gnomes in Winterthur….

After sadly leaving Seth in Winterthur, I went to visit another language assistant, Reika, who is placed in a small town in the mountains near Grenoble. We both enjoy hiking, however, after several hours of searching for a way to get from her village to a trailhead for a hike, we felt quite frustrated. During the winter there is lots of public transport so that people can go skiing, but because we were there in the ‘off-season’, there wasn’t really anything practical. We sadly decided we would have to find less adventurous things to do and started looking for a little path next to the river to walk along. Well even that proved difficult to find, and finally out of frustration we stopped an older woman and asked her if she knew about it. That was the beginning of an amazing new friendship, and by the end of the evening we had taken tea with Odile and her husband, had been invited for dinner, AND been offered their car for the next few days. Yep, that is right. Some random woman just gave us the keys to her car. I am not sure if I would do the same thing in her place, but it was certainly an incredibly trusting and welcoming gesture, and we were able to thoroughly explore the countryside and do some wonderful hiking. We called the car ‘Flocon de neige’ and she served us well!

Next I stopped by Grenoble for a few days before taking of to visit Talia and Steph in Paris, and in the space of 24 hours found a posting for a job and managed to talk them into hiring me. Again with the luck - I was searching for something else online and came across a posting for a snowboard instructor. I called up the number, arranged an interview for that same day, and was offered the job pretty much on the spot when the guy found out I was from Vancouver. Whistler is pretty well known around here, and I think simply the fact that I live within 200 km. of the mountain was all he needed to hear. Of course, he did look at my other experience with kids, but I do think it was mainly the fact that I was Canadian that got me in. Starting after Christmas, I will be taking up less advantaged kids to the slopes on Wednesday afternoons, and I am really happy to be able to do that, both for the extra money and to be able to get outside a bit more.

Well, to complete my week of luckiness, I found a free bike and also found out my friends, Kate and Ken, from Vancouver, are moving 100 metres from my house here in Grenoble for 7 weeks for Ken’s work. We are now living closer together than we were in Vancouver! It will be nice to see some familiar faces around for the next little while.

I ended my holidays with a trip to see Talia and Steph in Paris, where we had a thoroughly girly time going to the Turkish baths, trying on ugly wedding dresses, and making crepes. I am now back to the ‘grind’ (okay, not so much of a grind…) and am looking foward to having Seth come visit Grenoble this weekend!

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