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).