An Afternoon in Lausanne

My friend, Andrea, and I went into Lausanne for the afternoon. It’s about a 10 minute train ride from Morges. We had two stops on our agenda – an English book store and Starbucks. I loved the book store. It’s so nice to be around books with titles that I can actually read! Our visit to Starbucks was just as good. I had a chai iced tea latte. It cost me seven francs for the smallest size, which is equivalent to 6.50 US dollars. A little on the expensive side but well worth it. We stopped to see the Cathedrale Notre-Dame, too, since it was on our way. I read that it’s the biggest church in Switzerland as it’s more than 300 feet long. I also read that a night watchman continues to call out the hour at the top of the tower (225 steps up) from 10:00 p.m. to 2 a.m. Lausanne is the last town in Switzerland to continue the watchman tradition (according to my Rick Steves’ guide book).

Sausage in Switzerland

Matt loves to go to the market to buy garlic sausage on Saturdays. He has a hard time ordering in French, so he will often times stand there with his hands spread wide open to indicate how much he wants. He gets some serious sausage, like two or more feet at one time. While my parents were here visiting, we took them to the market and Matt demonstrated his ordering skills.

After returning from their vacation, my mom was explaining all this to my 4-year old niece, Rowan. My sister, Lisa, was out of the room and did not hear the story. The other day when Lisa put Rowan's breakfast sausage on her plate, Rowan said, "Matt's sausage is bigger than that." When Lisa asked how Rowan knew this, she said, "Grandma told me." I wish I could have seen my sister's face! Lisa immediately called me and asked how our mom knew the size of my husband's sausage. Hee hee.

Sometimes a Girl Just Needs a Burger

It’s been five months since I’ve last enjoyed a cheeseburger. The hamburger here tastes different, so we’ve given up the search for a good burger. We’ve come to terms with it being just one of those things that’s not the same as back home. A burger from McDonald’s is the one exception. So, my friend, Jen, and I ventured out to McDonald’s today for lunch. We struggled to order our food the last time we tried this. I thought that this time around it would be easier since I know more French than I did five months ago. Guess I was feeling a little too confident. The McDonald’s employee had no idea what I was trying to say when I ordered my value meal. I even got an eye roll from the girl. Some of the simplest things can be so darn difficult here! It was worth the pain though. I enjoyed my cheeseburger.

Weekend Hike

Matt and I ventured out for a walk on Saturday. Who knew there was a beautiful chateau so close to our apartment?! These are some of the things we saw on our hike... This is something we heard on our hike...

Twilight in Switzerland

Last weekend I had my girlfriends over to watch the chick flick, Twilight. For those of you who are not familiar with this book (and now movie), it’s a young adult love story with a vampire (Edward) as the lead character. It’s not just for teens. Thirty-something year old women like it, too! A friend’s parents brought the DVD with them from the States when they came for a visit. It was a fun evening with appetizers, wine, chocolate, vampires and good friends. (Matt says this blog entry is boring but I think our readers need to know that we stay home sometimes and aren’t always off in exotic places!)

Spring!

Spring has sprung in Switzerland. Everywhere you look it’s green. Our town is known for their tulip festival. There are over 100,000 tulips, hyacinths and daffodils in just one park. Well, I think that’s what the sign said. It was all in French, so I can’t be completely sure. Here are just a few pictures of the park. Even Matt said the flowers were pretty. (From Matt: I believe Sandra said “They’re pretty, aren’t they?”, and I said “Yes.” I didn’t know what she was talking about but figured if I agreed with her I wouldn’t get a long follow-up conversation. All the guys out there understand.)

Busy, busy!

Sorry about the lack of blogging. We’ve been keeping busy. Matt and I traveled to Italy for a week in March. Loved it! It was our honeymoon. Only a year late. We stayed in an apartment on the coast and drove all over the Tuscany region. Then our visitors started to come. My friend, Darcy was our first visitor. She came for a week. Not only did we tour around Switzerland, but we also went to Paris for two days. It’s a beautiful city. I hope to go back and spend more time there since it’s only a four hour train ride. Next, my parents and sister, Andrea, came for a week. We had a great week with beaucoup sightseeing. We were active, too, as we did some hiking in the mountains and rented bikes from the train station. In between our visitors, I traveled to Budapest for a long weekend with some girlfriends. The highlight was the outdoor bath. Very relaxing and some good people watching (lots of men in speedos that maybe shouldn’t have been)!