Yee haw - I get to leave the country after all! The EU customs people are letting me to go Italy for New Year's sans passport, so I'm no longer on house arrest in Geneva.

I hope you all have a great New Year's, and I'll write again in 2007!!!

Much love,
Liz

A little older, a little wiser

Hello all,

I'm back from Tunisia and safely ensconsed in my apartment in Geneva. Or maybe trapped might be a more appropriate word, since I'm passport-less and unable to leave.

Let me backtrack a bit. My mom and I left for Tunisia last Friday. We had a great first few days, travelled around, saw some heartbreakingly beautiful ocean views, drank strong Turkish coffee, made friends with a camel and visited awe-inspiring Roman ruins. Unfortunately, the trip ended on a pretty sour note, since I was mugged on a train and got my entire bag stolen, passport, wallet, camera and all. So sadly I have no pictures to share, since they're all gone.

My mom, who unluckily decided to put her stuff in my bag that night, also got her wallet and passport stolen. As a result, our last two days in Tunis were very frantic - we ran around visiting different police stations in tiny Tunisian towns, made friends with the lovely staff at the Canadian Embassy and convinced the border control police at the airport to let us out of the country. Luckily, my mom has friends of friends in Tunis - wonderful people who drove us all over the city to get our paperwork filled out, argued with drunken police officers in Arabic and just generally took good care of our penniless selves. But we made it out, and now we're back home. (Well, home for me - my mom still has to get back to Vancouver tomorrow.)

I have to say, that this certainly hasn't been my best birthday ever so far - I've spent the morning on the phone with embassies, consulates and police stations, trying to figure out how to replace the things I've lost. And my planned trip to Florence tomorrow is now officially cancelled, since I can't leave the country. But, in true undying optimist fashion, I'm still hoping that things will look up before the day is over. I figure, the universe owes me now, right? : )

So from Geneva to all of you, I really hope you're having a better holiday than I am! I wish you long afternoons with your loved ones, late lazy mornings, and delicious things to eat.

Much love.

Dead horses and Japanese baths....welcome to Switzerland!

Hello hello!

This is just a quick update, sadly sans photos since I've been chronically forgetting my camera lately. I promise to get better, really I do. Especially since I now have my mom here to remind me - something that mothers are very good at : )

My mom got here yesterday - she's staying with my for the next week, and then we're going to Tunis for Christmas. I'm very excited!

Day 1 of her first visit to Europe was a complete success. We took a little day trip to a nearby town, Yverdon-les-Bains, which has a fantastic thermal spa - just the thing to cure a weary jet-lagged traveller. We were accompanied by my friend Hélène, who was the mastermind behind the whole brilliant idea.

The only hitch in the trip was right at the beginning - our train hit a horse on the tracks and we ended up stuck in the middle of nowhere for awhile. Luckily the train didn't derail and everyone on board was fine, although the same can't be said for the poor horse or for the dented train. Poor poor horse.

Otherwise, our day was very nice. We spent the afternoon hopping (or rather, lazily sauntering) between outdoor hotsprings, a sauna, a steamroom and an outdoor jacuzzi. Ça à été vraiment tranquille....I could feel every muscle in my body relaxing. Those Europeans definitely got it right when they created spas like this. After the thermal baths, we wandered around a little Christmas market and introduced my mom to raclette, chocolate crêpes and hot wine. All in all, it was a very Swiss day.

Mea culpa, mea culpa

Dear loved ones,

I get the message - you can stop emailing me to tell me to update my blog! Wow, I never knew so many of you actually read this thing! (I guess I should be more careful what I write, huh? : )
I promise to be better from now on and, in that spirit, I give you last week's news. I actually started writing a week ago but then didn't get the time to finish:

Liz's week in review - beginning of December

Yay! First grad school application submitted - on time and everything!

In other news, winter is finally here. There's snow on the alps & the Christmas window displays are in fine form. Geneva really does know how to do shopping luxury, I tell ya. There's this really beautiful winter lights festival going on in Geneva this weekend, so last night my friends and I walked around last night and looked at the lights. We also found delicious hot wine, free coffee, an outdoor skating rink downtown and live music. It all was very picturesque and possibly a little cliche. But you know, in the best way possible. Here are some pictures, although they really don't do the gorgeous lights justice at all:





Skating rink!

You can't really tell, but these people are sculptures made entirely out of reflective chicken wire lit up by carefully aimed spotlights. They're also sitting on the top of a bank building that's about 20 stories tall.

Geneva was packed with people this weekend - on top of the light festival, there was also this big race called the "Escalade". The race tours the whole old town in Geneva and several thousand people participate. Why a race in December you ask? Well, let me tell you, but first let's go back in time a couple of weeks.

I've been seeing these chocolate soup cauldrons in store windows all around the city for weeks now, and it was driving me absolutely crazy trying to figure out what they were all about:

I mean, really - what in the world would do the people of Geneva need with thousands upon thousands of chocolate cauldrons? And then, my friends, I learned. I've been informed that in the something-or-other-century (16th?), when the Genevois were driving out some French invaders, a big and important battle ensued. And at the hight of all the hubris, a lady leaned out her window & threw a big pot of boiling stew onto the soliders, which apparently caused them to all run away. Hence, the chocolate soup pots (called "marmites") everywhere.You're supposed to get yourself a marmite, buy some marizpan fruit to put inside, and then get together with your loved ones and let the youngest in the group (me!!) smash the pot, before you all eat the pieces. Fun! Oh yeah, and they also symboically re-enact the battle every year by holding the giant race through the old part of the city. So happy Escalade everyone!

xox
Liz