How Do You Like That BIG Apple?!

I stepped out of the bus and arrived a few blocks from our Hotel Hostel. Stepped out with my giant bag into mountains of slushy snow.
The bus driver greeted me with a humourless 'Welcome to New York.' I think he was glad to see me. Probably. The city had been shut down the past few days due to to humongous amounts of snow.
And have now spent the last several days traipsing around the Big Apple. I think I've worn an inch of my height. It's huge.

Memorable bites of the Big Apple in no particular order:

Broadway: Was VERY lucky to see The Phantom of the Opera AND Billy Elliot. I love musicals so much. I could watch them all day. Sometimes I even randomly break into song and dance to be in my own musical. LG Life's Good.



Times Square: This place has so many lit and electric advertisements that it looks like day even at midnight. No kidding. It's amazing. After standing with my mouth open for a good few minutes, I realized this made me look too much like a tourist and tried to keep the mouth closed.



Hailing a Cab: I hailed a yellow NYC cab (very proud - although it did take a few tries....they'll speed right past you unless you throw yourself in front of them. I'm a bit bruised.)

Being sat on: Yes indeed. It's official. I'm invisible.

Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge. And then being able to use my awesome Brooklyn accent once I reached the other side. They're from another country over there.



Visiting JAO Schwartz: Remember the Giant Toy Store from Home Alone? It was based on this store. So.Many.Toys.




Chinatown!: Coming up out of the Subway, having boarded in New York and then arriving in China Town? It's bizarre. Like arriving in another country....like China!

Mulberry St: Dr Suess, eat your heart out!


Lady Liberty: Alas, I only saw her from afar. She acted kind of distant.




Seinfeld: Remember the Restaurant from Sienfield? I met the gang there for breakfast this week. Well, actually they couldn't make it, but I sure enjoyed their food and restaurant.

Walking on Thin Ice: Central Park. Yeah Baby!



Zurich Friends: Who would have thought I'd be able to meet up with 5 of my Zurich au pair friends in New York?! Against all weather odds, we all managed to get there for the same long weekend. So crazy and it couldn't have been any better! Thanks guys for making the trip! See you next time! Wherever that is!

Sweet Home ALABAMA

So, about 2 weeks ago, I was in the Carib. Sweating. I melted, it was so hot.
Now?
I'm in the deep south of Alabama. It's cold. I am not melting.



Since I quit my day job:

I've been shopping. I blame this largely on Katie and her influence. I bought a new bag. Again, it's not my fault.
We went "just for a look" in this giant bag store. The bag I desperately wanted was on the topmost highest shelf.

6 Steps taken to obtain happiness bag:
1.) Jumping.
2.) Jumping again. Higher.
3.) Attempt with ladder. Ladder too heavy. Ditch ladder.
4.) Me on all fours. Katie on my back.
5.) Katie jumping. Ouch.
6.) Me making a ladder with my hands and other body parts. Katie climbing up to the topmost highest shelf.

Success.


I've started eating. You may have thought I'd been eating before. You probably were wrong. We've been making good use of the local drive-through fast drink place (they bring your order out on ROLLER SKATES!) and eating plenty of Mexican (with plans for more tomorrow!).
But, of course, the best. Food at home. Cakes, Cookies, Breads, Chillis, Ice Cream, Roasts, Muffins, BBQ, Biscuits & Gravy, Soups & Marshmallows. So.Much.Good.Food.



I saw my first 3D movie (Correction: I'm sure I've seen one before, but have no recollection. Thus, my first memory of a 3D movie...).


This was accompanied by a visit to a few fish friends (Fish are friends, not food) at a HUGE Aquarium. It was here the Aquarium Staff tried to lock us in a diving cage. We may look happy in the photo, but we were NOT.


Side note: This same cage was the inspiration for Jaws...


I used the Men's bathroom. It's just not fair. Girls always have to wait so long for the loo and the men's bathroom is always empty. So, this week I decided to be brave and enter the unknown depths of an empty bathroom.
Of course, just after I decided to use it, a million men did too. I lost count of the knocks on the door as they waited. I thought for sure an army had lined up. I tried to use my best southern men's drawl to answer "Just a minute!" and "Won't be a second." I think I fooled them.
And when I left the bathroom and had to walk past the one lone impatient knocker, I used that deep southern drawl for a "Mornin'."


I've thought about becoming a Troglodyte. I talked Katie into it too.
And so we went caving.
To an amazing, awesome fantastic cave. I've never seen such a cave. I want to live there. Maybe not. But I want to visit again. I think Dr. Suess got his inspiration from such a cave. The visit was such a treat, so much beauty hidden away underground.

(A pair of wanna-be Troglodytes)


I've been given private tours all over this part of Alabama. By the lovely Katie herself. And her little blue car. We've been everywhere, man.



Today we visited a little Soda Fountain. That's been around since sometime in the 1800's. And mostly still decked out in a lot of original decor.
We were served real Alabama style. Well, real something style. Our waitress kept calling at her husband to come over here and serve us, 'cos she was so busy. With her other customer. But she was kind and gave me a double milkshake.
While we were eating, an elderly gentleman came in and sat down on the bar stools. And we listened as he told the waitress about how he had come to this Soda Fountain for his 10th birthday. And how he'd sat at the same stools and eaten ice-cream.
And I loved visiting a place that had so much history. Maybe I'll come back and eat here when I'm 70.


Alabama is almost finished with me. Has been the most wonderful visit with the Allisons and great to see so much of the countryside where they live.
Will post a few more pics soon.

Next Stop: NYC.
Then it's back to Swissville for wee bit longer...

See you in New York!

Tourist-ing it up with the Sound of Music! (Salzburg)

The hills were alive with the Sound of Music in Salzburg last weekend.

I probably should start this blog with a warning. I'm not going to pretend that the Sound of Music setting didn't form rather a large part of wanting to visit this Austrian city - it was.
I admit it.
And so I took the tour. Had I know about it, I would have also taken the Fraulein Maria's cycling tour of Salzburg where you sing your way through the city.
(Seriously, there is such a tour!)

And so, WARNING: Some Spoilers may follow. Also, some references to the Sound of Music.


We spent a lovely 33 hours in Salzburg and I took in the biggest gulp I could.
These hours included, but were not limited to:


Reinforcing my hardcore status. Rain with lighting bolt symbols was the forecast for the weekend. Undeterred, Steph (my accomplice) and I decided we would go hardcore and see everything anyway. We bought awesome yellow ponchos to support our hardcore status.



Climbing every mountain and fording every stream.


Visiting Mozart's birth house. He was born in Salzburg (but rumour has it that he wasn't too fond of the town).


Meeting Mozart. 'Cept he was the younger, more hip version of Mozart. He even had an IPod, and he juggled, did some interpretive dance, and fire-twirled to the music. He is pictured here with his IPod.



Following every rainbow, and searching high and low.


Embracing tourism and the Lonely Planet. I would just like to take a short moment to give thanks with a grateful heart to Lonely Planet, without whom I would have been lost on the weekend. (Oh, and for Steph - great map following!)


Eating Lonely Planet recommendations. Living in Zurich really limits my eating-out possibilities (hence the 'I could live off cheeseburgers' label) and on the weekend I got to eat.so.much.good.stuff. Who would have thought Italian Restaurant owner with credentials from the Love Boat could make such good Pizza? Who could have known that the all natural-vegetarian-vegan-organic-bio-healthy-kill-me-now Indian Restaurant would be so good?
Lonely Planet, I lift my glass of water to you!


Singing 'These are a few of my favourite things' whilst eating Italian ice cream x 3.


Smiling for Japanese(?) tourists in the Mirrabel Gardens. As featured in the Sound Of Music. We did not share a common language, and so when they gestured towards me with their camera I assumed they wanted me to take a photo of them.

However, it soon became clear that this was not the case. I was dragged into their photo (I still have the bruise marks on my arm to prove it!) and made to smile. Seriously. And then a line started to form....and a new bunch of people surrounded me and grabbed my arm held on tight. I saw my life flash before my eyes and knew I had to get out of there. I think maybe they thought I was Julie Andrews. My singing did kind of sound like her. And I was doing all the right dance moves in the correct places around the garden so I guess it was an easy mistake to make.

Uncanny resemblance.....?






Practicing my moves for the Sound of Music 2. Here I am doing my audition piece on the water fountain. Unfortunately, Steph cut me out of the picture, but you get the idea.



Listening to the Sound of Music soundtrack on the bus as we drove through the hills out of Salzburg. It was just one of those ironic moments in life where you just want to laugh at yourself. A year ago? - I never would have dreamt that I'd be living in Switzerland, on a weekend trip to Salzburg, on a Sound of Music bus, listening to 'How do you solve a problem like Maria....'


Seeing all the places from the movie was pretty cool. You may not be able to see it, but behind my head, Julie Andrews -aka Maria Von Trapp - and the kids are falling out of the boat and Gretl is almost drowning because she didn't know how to swim. You may not also be able to see it because it may have happened 45 years ago.




Biking along the Salzburg River during the late evening. We had to wait until almost 1AM for our train, and so why wait at the train station when you can ride along the river? I love the summer months when it stays light for so much longer!




And, at the end of the 33 hours, it was time for the train home. Rather unfortunately, a supposedly sweet older lady was sleeping in my reserved seat. (Unreserved seats are never mentally the same!) Also unfortunately, it was 1AM and, unfortunately, I was feeling too nice. In the spirit of the unfortunate I think she slept the whole trip. I know this because I didn't. She was also warm under her blanket. (Note to self: Bring blanket next time!)

So Long, Farewell Salzburg!

Have you ever...?

I was with a friend the other day who, in the course of this story, would like to remain anonymous.
Understandably so.
We were walking along. We'd been hanging out. We were enjoying the sunshine.
It was about 2 in the afternoon (This is important).
She stopped and rubbed her knee. Something was a little bit uncomfortable.
We kept walking and then she stopped again. I thought perhaps she had a small crawly creature biting her...?
But no, she reached up her jeans to her knee and pulled out...yesterday's undies!!
Tee hee hee.
We'd been walking around for hours! And she hadn't noticed it before then!!

It suddenly occurred to me that I could embellish this story any way I wanted to. The one person who knows about it is the anonymous friend. And like she is going to come forward to argue the story!

Would the anonymous friend please step forward?

Snippets of a Weekend Adventure.

DESTINATION: Geneva
VIA: Vevey

I leave the safe comforts of the German region of Switzerland. I always travel after 7 (Gleis7 - ha! Take that Inspector Ticket!) and it is about 9pm I think when I switch trains at Bern. It is my first time out of German speaking Europe and all of a sudden I am completely out of my comfort zone. I had a comfort zone? But I hadn't realized how much I knew and recognized of signs and places etc. The train was so crowded and it was hard to find a seat. Free ticket pfft. Everyone is speaking French. And I must have chosen the craziest carriage available. It is full of Army boys and I think school kids on a trip. I think. I really have no idea. But there is a roll call going on and I'm half expecting my name. Everyone else gets their name called out. But all the other kids have one! But I shrink lower and lower in my seat, hoping to disappear off this foreign country of a train. The crazy French.



I wake up to the most wonderful view - I can see France out of my window. It doesn't look any different to Switzerland but, hey, I've never seen France out of my bedroom window before. Actually, I've never seen France at all. It is a wonderful weekend with Aline and her family. Strange how one can feel so at home with strangers. They even had a piano - ah bliss.
And Vevey has a giant fork. You don't see that every day eh?




And of course, there was Mamma Mia.
It was all I had hoped for and more. I allocated a whole blog post for it. It was goooooood.
Aline remembered that her favourite teacher lived near the Geneva Arena and so we popped in to say hello. She was indeed lovely and I now have a place to stay in Geneva :) This however cut our time just a little bit short. We then ran the whole way to the Arena (ok - maybe it wasn't that far but it almost killed me.) I just consoled myself that I would have died realizing my dream. Don't judge me.



After Mumma Mia we were waiting for 7pm so that I could use my Gleis 7 (ha! Take that Inspector Ticket!) and decided to take a look at this cool old church in the middle of Geneva. We walked in through a side door - and into the middle of Mass. But it was a really good 45 minutes or so. A chance to be quiet and have some space to think. Because I sure couldn't understand what they were saying. Pfft. A service in French. In the French part of Switzerland. What were they thinking?



Aline and I are walking home. It's about 9pm. Dark, but Switzerland is safe eh?
We're talking and laughing. Mamma Mia is bright and beautiful in our memories. I've converted yet someone else. All is well with the world.
Until Aline screams. I turn around and there is someone jumping on her. She is screaming and yelling and of course I am calm. Level headed. I take up my fighting stance - I know Karate, Judo, Pilates and Origami. Unfortunately I have no idea what the emergency number is in Switzerland. Or perhaps fortunately, or else I might have called.
Lucky for her brother.
Sheesh. You just don't do that to people.





I let Aline (aka Gung Ho) talk me into riding from her house in Vevey to Montreux. Destination: Château de Chillon. As I alight the bicycle the reality hits me that I haven't ridden a bike for...years. I feel like a kid learning all over again. But the allure of a castle proves too great and I'm a fast learner. Gung Ho leads the way and it is a beautiful ride. Today my behind argues with why I insisted upon visiting yet another castle in the space of a few weeks but it's always talking to me behind my back.
Château de Chillon is amazing. So much history. Lord Byron wrote the poem The Prisoner of Chillon from impressions and memories of this Castle. I even saw where he had carved his name.
Aline and I think we are doing so well. We visit torture chambers and dungeons and secret passageways. It is 10 minutes to 6 (closing time) and we are up to site & sight 21. There are 23 site & sights on the page. So well planned and how Swiss of me. However, then we turn the page over and realize there are acutally 50 odd site & sights. Sigh. I'm not that Swiss after all.
Ah well. Next time.

First Impressions

This is a copy of a letter I wrote to some friends tonight....It took a long time, but it has been good for the soul to think slowly through what I've seen in the last few days. These friends of mine don't use the net, so I'm sure they won't mind sharing with the blogging world ;)

Purple Peaceful Pavlova

A little bit scared. And quite a bit nervous.

I haven't allowed myself to think much beyond the initial meeting of this new family. And why should this meeting be scary? I've already sighted them, and walked up to them without tripping over an invisible object. And I then conversed flawlessly in German with them. Introductory small talk stuff? No worries.

Wait - actually, all that has just happened in my head. And no matter how many times I run through it, it still doesn't bring it to pass.

Eek. Guess I'd better keep on practicing then.

When I start feeling nervous, I repeat a couple of mantras given by some lovely friends. Actually, I think they were just words of encouragement, but I repeat them so often that they've become mantras.

"Nothing to be scared of - everything to look forward to"
"Fear not, the initial week will soon be "last week" and then last month, and then ancient history!"

I know these things are true, I just need to keep reminding myself . And I know that I follow the giver of Perfect Peace!


I was given a couple of lovely gifts today which made me feel very special. A beautiful pen and a gorgeous chocolate cake. The chocolate cake I shall share, the pen, not. And I had a lovely surprise visit from a good friend and my new camera finally arrived in the mail! (photos of my new little purple toy later, perhaps. But he/she needs a name - suggestions anyone?)












Dad turned 44 today - (and he woke up at 4:44am). Thus we had pavlova for dessert (yum!) Happy Birthday Dad!

And, on an odd note - I received in the mail a couple of replacement space-saver bags. One of the ones I bought a few weeks ago was faulty and so I had asked for a replacement. BUT the replacement from the company wasn't their brand. Weird.

4 sleeps to go. I'd better keep practicing.

the beginning of the end

I said goodbye to some very dear friends today - the first in a long list that shall mostly happen in the next few days. It was hard - a year is a long time!

I was approved for my VISA last night/today in CH which is a big relief - only took almost a month, instead of the suggested 6 weeks. Very glad - I think I now have to send my passport away for the VISA stamp. Guess I'm definitely going now! Eeek!

I have been looking after my little friend, who is 2 years old for the last 3 weeks, and today was our last afternoon together. As with every afternoon, we went to the pool - its been about 40 deg lately. But, today, more than ever, I was just so glad for the way the last 3 weeks have unfolded.
- I've been able to stay in Canowindra - my home - for an extra two weeks.
- Looking after MLF has helped me move into the child-focussed mind set that I will need to be in for the year ahead. It's also provided some extra money that I'm glad to have for my trip. AND I've been able to spend so much time in this heat at the pool - most of the time with friends! (some who are mums bringing their kids for a swim). How good is that!!?!
- This last week has been an excellent time to spend with people and get some things in order before I leave, as I mostly haven't had to cook or be in the kitchen.
- I've been able to begin to get to know this new lot of first year students and will hopefully be able to carry on some of these relationships throughout the year.

I didn't mean to start playing the glad game, but in all, the last weeks have provided some excellent closure time which I am so thankful for. I will be very sad to leave this place of home but at the same time am so appreciative of time spent here. Glad to recognize closure for what it is, and to continue to look forward - at the many adventures and friends to be found.

And in other news - after a search for hiking shoes to take with me, Bec, who is the current au pair for my new family, is the same size as me and has offered to give me hers! Yay!

I leave for my family's home from this home in 2 days. Suddenly, time here is precious and I'm not sure quite how to spend it...

Tschüss