SOLDIER BOY! OHHHHHH!

I am on the tram a lot, going from one side of Geneva to the next and there is always one thing that I can count on. Will the tram be on time? hopefully. Will I get a seat? wait and see. Will there be a couple sitting near me kissing and cunoodling through out the entire duration of my trip? ABSOLUTELY! Honestly! This never, EVER fails! One way or another, I seemed to be smushed, next to, in front of or behind, a male and female who feel it their responsibility as human beings to shower the rest of the world (me in particular) with the love they feel for each other. Last night was not exception. The couple got on the tram, they kissed, I glared, the old, familiar routine.

Sometimes, if I am lucky, there will be a musician on board. I say this with a great deal of sarcasm, as no genevan (?) musician has ever struck a chord with me. Last night, again, on the tram stood a man smack in the middle of everyone. He had a little piano strapped to his waist and a violin in hand. I knew we were all in for trouble when he pressed the "play" button and out came a sound like a circus performance on acid. His violin squeeked and he danced. The boy behind me who looked perfectly normal at the beginning of the trip had turned a shade of green and now had a wad of tissue up his noes. The music had most likely given the kid a noes bleed. I would have been right there with him had it not been for my stop!

Now on the next train, I walked down the isles looking for an empty seat. I finally found one. An empty seat was waiting patiently for me, straight across from a Swiss Army boy. At first I was excited, some of those boys are cute. I want to fold them up and put them in my pocket, like little Swiss Army Knives. However, after a few months here, I have decided that Swiss Army boys aren't that cool. Cute- maybe. But that isn't the adjective you want describing your national army. And they aren't really that intimidating. Have you ever heard of the Swiss invading anywhere? No! When it comes time to train, I am guessing that they have REALLY INTENSE chocolate eating competitions! Yeah! Yeah, that is what they do!

I was entertaining myself by thinking about the silly things Swiss Army boys probably do to PREPARE FOR BATTLE (bean bag tosses, gunny sack races, etc.) In the midst of thought, I dropped my cellphone. I immediately got down on all fours to try and collect it. AH-HA! I found it, and in my childish excitement forgot about the little table above my head. I went to stand up and was immediately hit back down to the ground. I burst out laughing and tried a second time. It was a success! The Swiss Army boy- he did nothing. He just stared at me, I mean, at least do something! A US Marine would have at least laughed.

My name is Madeleine!

"Marie, if Audrey is like monkey or lion, then what am I?"

I was sitting there, trying to say something nice about the type of animal my little friend would be when she interrupted my thinking,

"A cat! I would be a really calm, cuddly cat!"

Perfectly stated.

Everyone should have someone like Maddy in their life. At age 7, she is has so much depth and insight. Sometimes I forget that she is only 7, and then all of the sudden she will do something to remind me of the fact that she is just a little girl. The world is such an exciting place for her. To read a book, go for a ride on her scooter, or just cuddle up on the couch- these are things that she loves and that make her happy.

She wants to be a teacher when she grows up, but is also planning on writing a book. With that constantly in mind, she spews out little ideas about book endings or perfect plots. I wonder if I will get a spot in the story: "and then there was the big haired nanny who like to dance to outkast in the kitchen and always burned the cookies".

Maddy is EXTREMELY articulate! Her accent is very cute, enunciating every syllable, with a hint of French here, or a bit of her Dad's British accent there.

When she is about to do something, she very calmly explains why, that way I "don't have to wonder". And if I am doing something, well, that gets commentary too. For instance, yesterday, I decided that is was time for a bit of good ol' exercise. So there I was, in my bedroom with yoga mat and palettes ball watching Susan something on the T.V. screen as she instructed me on how to do this and that. Maddy, sat on my bed and watched me struggle, pausing the DVD on occasion to adjust my arms or say something innocent like, "She is a lot taller than you. She is pretty strong. This must be hard for you, huh?"

Walks to the school bus are more like musicals, and that is partly my fault. I was humming one day, a song that she recognized and ever since we have been "do re mi fa so-ing" from one place to the next. We will be busy with in the next couple of months because we have a book to write and a play to organize, and then of course there is the dancing and painting and occasional trips to "Princess Land" in between.

It has been so much fun for me to get to know Maddy, and everyday I am seeing more and more of her personality unfold. She is such a joy to be with. Plus, I'm not going to lie, I love being a girl! So this is a perfect fit!

the Audrey-ism

Audrey is 3 1/2 going on some age of divine wisdom. Nothing gets past her. She is very quick and funny. I have this little black book that I carry around with me everywhere. In it, I have a picture of my brother Luke. Some how, Audrey got a hold of it and was flipping through the pages. When she came to Luke's picture, she stopped, stared and then said, "well, he is quite lovely himself".

Last week, we were walking to her preschool and fog was everywhere. "Why are the clouds down here?" she asked me. How do you explain to a three year old the science of fog? You don't, you can't, so you just make something up (at least that is what I do).

"Last night, the clouds, the clouds... they were playing, yeah playing - A LOT! And now they are so sleepy, and so they are resting here on the ground until they are ready to back up to the sky"

After a long pause she said, "Did you just make that story up?"
"Well, yeah..." I replied, slowly, trying not to let her know that I was laughing.

It is hard to predict what Audrey will say or do next. "Woof! Woof!" It has been a week now, and Audrey is still a dog. She occasionally turns into other things like a princess or beaver. Two nights ago she was the Mama Fish and I was the Baby Fish. As I gave her a bath she showered me (no pun intended) with what she liked to call "Fishy kisses". She would pucker her lips up real tight and squiggle through the water until she POPPED out to give me a very sloppy, fishy kiss. When I got her out of the bath she turned into a beaver hiding under a rock, and when I "found" her, she popped up, dancing around her bedroom naked singing, "i'm da mama fish, your da baby fish, i'm da mama fish, your da baby fish".

Being heard is very important to Audrey and she will make sure that you hear EVERYTHING that she has to say, which means that if you don't answer her right away, she will repeat it over and over and over and over and over and... so when she says something like, "I'm da pwincess wite". You have reply right away, or it will turn into something like this:

Audrey: "I'm da pwincess wite? the pwincess? yeah, me, I'm da Pwincess, I'm da one wite? THE PWINCESS - IT ME WITE? YEAH? ME? THE PWINCESS IS............."
everyone: "YES! YES, AUDREY- YOU, YOU ARE THE PRINCESS."

Audrey: (with a big smile on her face) "Yeah, i'm da pwincess. I AM DA PAW-WIN-CESS!"

Last night, after her bath, Audrey walked into the kitchen wearing a pair of sunglasses- upside down. She had a big blanket dragging behind her as she pushed her baby doll in its stroller. She was talking to the baby as she walked into the kitchen, "welcome to am-ewicka, i will be wite back". She left for a few seconds, only return with more blankets, some plastic jewelry and a purse.

I really do wonder what she is going to do when she gets older. When you ask her, "hey Audrey what do you want to be when you grow up?" she looks at you like you are an idiot and says, "well, i'm dunna be big!" An answer like that, is a typical Audrey-ism.

She is endearing, honest, sassy and sweet. I am happy when I get to spend time with her. There is NEVER, EVER A DULL MOMENT!

"I am actually quite impwessive" she said, as she pretended to take pictures of Maddy with my camera.

and that is why, you don't say hi

One thing that I have notices about Geneva is that people don't smile at each other. I found this to be true while in England and Italy as well. In the states, we are all smiles, but here, not so much. A few time I have just smiled at someone, and they have looked at me as if I were crazy. It is funny, they just give me this blank stare. My friend Teresa told me that it is best to just go with the flow of the city, keep your smile to yourself, and it is probably best not to say anything either. This was too much for me to comprehend, so last week I decided to take matters into my own hands. I quickly learned the importance of listening to my friend's advice. While at the tram stop, I saw a friendly looking woman who I thought would no doubt appreciate a greeting and... smile.

"bonjour" I said, smiling as I sat down on the bench next to her.

She just starred at me.

I waiting, thinking "okay, that was awkward, maybe she will warm up".

About a minute later she just started spewing out words, and I didn't understand anything, because let's face it the extent of my French goes as far as the following: bonjour, merci and... well, that is it. Then, she looked at me, well, stared at me, and then she started touching the tip of her tongue to her bottom lip, then her top lip, then her bottom lip, then her top lip. She did this repeatedly, French gibberish filling the breaks in between her lip licking. The whole time that she was doing this, she just stared at me.

The whole time I just kept on thinking to myself, "why Marie?! Why can't you just listen to people, when they give you their WISE ADVICE!" But no, no, I needed to revolutionize Geneva. Never again! Never again I tell you!

Next time I smile at someone, or try to strike up a conversation, believe me, it will be Helen Keller.

Maddy, Audrey and Me

little monkey, big giraffe

ahhh... okay, let's try this again.

So much has happened, I sit here thinking, "what do I write?" because there is so much to say. It is hard to believe that it has been just over a month since my crazy move to Switzerland. Even as I write that I think "switzerland? how did i get to switzerland"! I suppose the "getting here" really doesn't matter. The point is I am here now, and excited to be the new Au Pair for a wonderful new family.

I was able to call home the other night and talk to my Mom for a while. It felt so good to hear her voice. I take great pleasure in saying the following, "so... guess what I can see from my bedroom window? France!" And it true! I used to get a thrill out of saying things like, "And just across that road is Wisconsin!" I never thought anything would compare... until now.

Yesterday we went sledding (in France) on a mountain whose name I can't remember. It was beautiful! Greg, Jill, Maddy, Audrey and I all drove up the mountain to get to the sledding hill. As we drove, zig-zagging our way up, we were surrounded my hundreds of trees, each enveloped in snow. The individual branches with gloves of white, like lady's fingers.

I had wanted to bring my camera but left it behind because the batteries were out. "You don't have no more bapperies on your camma?" said 3 1/2 yr old Audrey, as I set it down on the table before leaving :)

Once we were on the mountain top, my breath was taken away. The view was amazing. The snow covered alps all surrounding with lake Geneva below, the blue sky with the clouds floating around us. It was beautiful! I couldn't stop thinking about everyone at home, especially wishing that my brothers and sister could be with me. As Maddy and I went down the hill I had a flash back to when my siblings and I would pretend to be on the Jamaican bobsledding team, ode to the good old days.

Today was my first official day of work. I woke up and brought Audrey to school. She was so cute. Eager to hold my hand as we walked, and her chocolate covered cookie in a zip lock bag held in her other hand.

I dropped her off, meeting her teacher for the day and then getting a series of kisses before I left.

"Goodbye little monkey!" she said to me, waving as I walked outside. "Goodbye big Giraffe!" I replied, as these were the animal names we had assigned to each other the day before. I was a monkey because I am silly. She was a giraffe because she is so BIG AND TALL.