Easter and Annecy

The day before Easter was my 23^rd birthday. My host family took me to Annecy, which is about an hour away in France. Although the city is large, it has the feel of a small village. Annecy is known as the ‘Venice of France’ due to the river that flows through it. Houses and buildings boarder the river, with entrances only to be reached by boat. There is an old jail in the middle of the river, kind of like a medieval Alcatraz, although the peaceful river would be a lot easier to escape from than the water in the bay...

The Jail

The family and I walked around and explored the different streets and shops.  We had lunch at a café, and I saw my first plate of frog legs, which my host dad eagerly consumed. We walked to a large park that surrounds the crystal clear lake, both overlooked by a beautiful mountain.  I found a music shop with a relatively nice guitar on sale, which I bought (Happy Bday Me!!).  We had dinner at a pizzeria back in Geneva and tiramisu birthday cake!  

The River

Lac d'Annecy

Frog Legs

This year my birthday fell in the middle of the Easter holiday, which takes up more than just a Sunday here. Before the entire city shutdown for the weekend, the stores and shops were busy with Swiss loading up on chocolate bunnies, eggs, truffles, pastries, and lilies. When I asked my host mom what the plans were for Easter, she said to stuff ourselves with chocolate- unsurprising because the average Swiss person eats 2x more chocolate than the average American! Hard to believe I know...In preparation for Easter, the boys and I dyed hardboiled eggs, and decorated them with crayons and paint. A little tradition of the family is to hide the dyed eggs in the yard, and in the night the Easter bunny will trade the chicken eggs for chocolate ones. We had a big dinner at the house, and Shayna was able to come. I was very thankful to have a friend help me celebrate my first holiday away from home.

Walls of Chocolate Bunnies

Biscuit Shop in Annecy

So I realize that this post is a little delayed, but hey, better late than never. I’ll try and get better about posting regularly, which will come easier as I travel more.  My next trip is to Interlaken, Switzerland with the Au Pair group that meets near Geneva.  Shayna and I are going paragliding (EEeee!!), and on hikes with the group. I’m so excited to see more of the Swiss countryside! I’ve also started my French lessons, which are two times a week for two hours each class. It’s taught in Immersion format, which means all French, and very little English. I’m finding that there are a lot of cognates between French and English, but learning French is a lot harder than I had anticipated. I’m definitely liking understanding more though-gotta learn how to ask people to speak more slowly…

~Emer