Thanksgiving? I'm thankful alright.

Today was the best day. I left early this morning with Chris and the two older boys to go to school with Dennis. Today was "Besuchsmorgen" at Dennis's school, which means all of the parents get to come sit in whenever they want. So I went with Chris and it was really fun and interesting to see how everything works. I learned some French! (These ten year old kids are all learning THREE foreign languages, by the way...) Nicole came later and so did "Gomama" (grandma) -- Chris's mom. She's SO nice. She invited me to her house on the lake of Lucerne. They treat me like family, everyone is so wonderful.

After the experience in Dennis's school, I asked Nicole a lot of questions about becoming a Swiss citizen. Just saying... ;)

When everyone was home for lunch this afternoon we got a package from Kathryn! It was a thank-you package for them letting her stay with us, and it was adorable. Scottish shortbread, a beautiful hand towel with all the flowers of Scotland, a postcard from St. Andrew's, and a little Scottish rugby football for the boys. The family absolutely LOVED it. (While Chris was opening it Nicole had some 80s pop song that she loved as a teenager up really loud and she was singing and Chris was dancing. It was awesome.)

After that I worked a little this afternoon, but mostly outside. It was GORGEOUS today -- sunny, in the 60s -- and you could see all of the lake and the alps. Just breathtaking. Thennnnn I went to the post office (I got my residence permit!! It's a legit Swiss ID card, pretty exciting) and grocery shopping for the family all by myself! That was fun, and I made it. :) I love driving here, too.

When I got home I talked with Chris for a long time about all sorts of things. He's so funny, I just love him. I gave them some thank you chocolates and it made Chris really happy, so then I was happy. :)

This evening I spoke some SWISS German in front of Chris for the first time and he got SO excited. It made me really happy. He says I'm on my way to becoming Swiss!

Nicole made a great dinner, as usual, during which Chris and Dennis told me the story of William Tell and the beginning of Swiss independence. (They're going to take me in the spring to where all of the events went down, near Gomama's house.) After dinner Chris and I were still talking, this time about WWII. Then I watched some of a German cartoon (of a Swedish fairy tale!) with Nicole and the kids. I got Phipsi ready for bed in record time, and here I am! (Time for an evening of talking to people and German homework. :))


I am so happy here. I kept thinking that today, over and over. I feel very much at home with this WONDERFUL family, and I could only love them more if they were my own. I am SO INCREDIBLY blessed to be here. Chris and Nicole amaze me more every day, and they boys are so much fun.

I'm particularly glad to feel at home here now, while my "favorite" holiday is tomorrow! It's funny, though. I decided not to try to celebrate Thanksgiving at all, at first because I thought it would just make me homesick (which I truly have not been, even for one minute, since I've been here). But now I just feel Swiss. I know that sounds weird. And don't get me wrong -- I MISS MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS SO MUCH. But I'm not homesick. I am very much at home. And I'm somehow happy not to be celebrating Thanksgiving, because I feel like I'm TRULY here. I feel at home, and in this home there is no Thanksgiving. And although I miss my friends and family dearly, I'm happy here in my new home. I hope that makes sense.

I will take this "thankful" time, however, to note how UNBELIEVABLY grateful I am to be with the Schmid family. They are wonderful.

To MY family, I miss you all dearly. Happy Thanksgiving! I will miss you all, and surely Thanksgiving itself, but know that I am happy here. (Now that it's sinking in, I'm SO happy I'm not trying to do some Thanksgiving thing here... haha. I don't want to be homesick! So this way, I'm not. And that's good.)

I'm very happy here.

:)

ALSO. I forgot to mention the measure of my au pair success thus far. It is as follows:

We've only had ONE black eye. And Phipsi now knows the parts of his face in English, as well as "Piggies" and "Go Fish." Great success.

SWITZERLAND!

My blog is OBVIOUSLY in need of an update... I've been in Switzerland for a month today! And I need to go to sleep now, but suffice it to say that I LOVE IT HERE.

Kathryn came to visit this past week/weekend and it was amazing. I got to show her all the funny little things about Swiss life like how the whole family comes home for a big, home made lunch every day, and how they constantly listen to American pop music. (It's so funny to be sitting around the dinner table eating traditional Swiss German food (which is FANTASTIC, by the way) while everyone speaking Swiss German, and then to have Katy Perry, Rhianna, and Lady GaGa playing in the background. haha.) I've grown to love it, actually.

Speaking of loving it, I love this family more and more all the time. I am in very good hands here. Chris (dad man) got an 80 chf (chf = swiss francs) fine "taken care of" for me (got it deleted from the system), and they were soooo great about Kathryn being here. she stayed with us for five days! Chris picked us up from the train station late Wednesday night and everything. Nicole (the mom) is so amazing and I am learning SO much from her. The kids are great, too, and I think we're definitely getting into a rhythm of things... Phipsi (4) is learning English and teaching me German and loves me -- he's hilarious, we have so much fun. Dennis (10) is so smart and sweet and helps me with my German. Nicklas(9)'s favorite pass times include shooting me with rubber bands, telling me he's not going to do whatever I told him to do, dirtying whatever I'm trying to clean, cheating at the oreo game, and shooting rubber bands at me some more. We've clearly connected.

Like I said, Kathryn and I had the most AMAZING time. I'll need to update on that more soon, but I just wanted to write something now so I don't write the world's longest blog soon. :)

I've been meeting a lot of great people and having a lot of fun. I'm about to start booking some trips and I'm working on planning my trip to Texas for the holidays. ALSO, Matt Jones is coming to visit me and I can't wait!!! :)

I hope all is well in Texas and wherever else people are reading this. lots of love.


ps- PICTURES! I have lots. so far, you can see them here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=153317&id=507878744&l=c5d6e969fa

pps- my German still isn't great, but I'm actually going to class and doing homework and such now, so it's getting better!!

ppps- the picture at the top is from a quick trip to Lucerne with Kathryn. :)