More Cowbell!

We have reached our two month mark- it has gone by so quickly.  Our weekdays continue to be filled with school, garderie, playgroups, and running errands- all the typcial weekday events.  Eliza did     much better this week at garderie, which was such a relief.

Monday was an exciting day for us- we got AMERICAN TV! We decided for now to try Slingbox, which is basically a box that you hook to your cable/dvr box and then can stream shows from there to wherever you are.  So, we hook our computer to the television and are able to watch all the same shows- just still have the seven hour delay- so we DVR the shows and then watch them later.  Thanks to my mom who went over to our house with Geek Squad and having the patience to work with the service guy for two hours while they trouble shooted trying to get the Slingbox to work.  After two hours, I was watching HGTV!  It was a very exciting moment- this week we have watched Modern Family, Parenthood, the Gopher football game, and Ellen!

On Thursday night, I attended Eliza's garderie parent information night... all in French.  For an hour and a half, I listened to a presentation and did not have a clue as to what they were saying.  Thankfully, they introduced me to one other mom who spoke English and some French, so they had me sit by her.  She was able to translate some for me, but then she had to immediately leave- leaving me all alone.  It was truly an eye opening experience.  Being a teacher, I have led many parent meetings, and it never croseed my mind that some of  the parents listening may not know English.  It definitely makes you realize how difficult it can be living in a different country and not being able to clearly communicate.   One thing that was ironic during the presentation was a slide of me holding Eliza.  The women next to me explained that they were talking about the importance of saying good-bye to your child when you drop off!!  I was the poster child for that topic- hmmmm...they must not read the blog!  Although, I am now abiding by their rules and doing a "Minnesota Good-Bye" everytime I leave!

On Saturday, we went to "La Desalpe in St-Cergue."  This is a major celebration that marks the end of the Alpine summer pasture grazing season- over 700 cows parade through the village during their descent from the mountain top making their way home for the winter.  I had read to get there early, because this is a very popular event, so we woke up early and arrived in St-Cergue around 7:30, which was about 45 minutes from our house.  We didn't really know the parade route, but we quickly learned when we heard loud cowbells and saw large cattle coming our way!  I have been to many parades in my life, but this was like nothing I had ever seen- a huge herd of cattle being paraded around by their shepards literally right through the village.  I was really hoping the whole time that the cows would stay on the path- we did see a few stray from the parade- thankfully not by us.  Eliza loved seeing the cows- kept saying "moo", Adalyn was hesitant at first, but in the end was right there next to the cows.  They parade throughout the whole day, just different herds coming down, so we would be walking around looking at the booths, and all of a sudden you would hear the cowbells and suddenly another herd was walking right by you- needless to say, when we got home, all of our shoes needed a good washing!

Warming up inside before the parade-  

 Cow parade!  

 Fancy head wear-

 Alphorns-

Not your traditional parade band!  They played using their huge cowbells as instruments-

 it was pretty cool! 

Saturday evening, the commune we live in, Veyrier, was having a festival so went to check it out.  We walked around a bit, listened to live music, and ate some risotto that our neighbor was preparing- it was a beautiful night so it was great to be outside.

Sunday, was another beautiful day, sunny and 75 degrees, so we decided we better do something to take advantage of the warm weather, because we all know cold temperatures are right around the corner!  We have been talking about renting a boat since we have gotten here, and today seemed like the perfect day.  We decided since we loved Annecy so much we would go there to rent a boat.  We rented a boat on Lake Annecy for an hour and enjoyed every minute!  The girls absolutely loved it- just staring at the water and bobbing to the waves.  We went to the middle of the lake and enjoyed some cheese, crackers, and wine.  Chris even jumped in for a quick swim- the water seemed a bit too chilly for the rest of us!

 The silly poses I have them do!

Giggling together the whole time!

Avoir une merveilleuse semaine!