Merry Christmas!

Snow Day!!!!!

I remember in Ross Elementary, or in Meramec Elementary, lots of snow meant either no school, or at least inside recess. It was always hard for me to really understand the point, and I'm delighted to see that here, snow is "celebrated"!

Sam was told to bring his sled last Friday afternoon, and Léa too, on Monday. Instead of PE, they spent the time sledding on a slope near the school. Isn't it just great?

         

Léa's outfit everyday, to go to school: stockings and pants, and ski pants overall. She wears her clothes, plus a fleece, and her ski jacket, hat and gloves. Of course, she walks to school with a bunch of her friends.

Sam also walks to school, hand in hand with me (of course, his class doesn't start at the same time as Léa, apart from 1 day in the week..., but he goes to the same school!). He just lets my hand down when we get into the school yard. See all the little ones (K), all bundled up, wearing a safety triangle, so that they're seen better on their way to school!

PS: we were told on a quite short notice that on Friday, provided there are enough parents willing to go along, and weather permitting, the kids K-2 would go to a ski/sled day!

Fresh air...

This week, it's been snowing from Tuesday evening till Friday morning... Some fine snow, very compact, like made to build igloos! So there are not feet and feet, but a nice layer still.

This afternoon, we went to the village next door, in order to go sledding on some nice "slopy" fields, that I had noticed while nordic walking yesterday.

Big and small, we all had a blast! The advantage of living approx 2300ft altitude! Not the real mountains, but you get 3 days of snow instead of 3 days of rain!!!!!

The landscape was wonderful too, as the cold air prevented the snow on the branches to melt. Nice, but treacherous... better not take a walk in the woods, for fear that a branch might fall on you!

It's snowing!

It's still fall break, and the program keeps changing. OMG, I hate that, especially when it's a kind of Murphy's law...

BUT we'll keep a positive mood tomorrow - provided it goes on snowing all night! - building the first snowmen of the season!

First bike ride as a family!

That was a première!

For the first time, we could all ride one's own bike! Nobody was pulled, or tracted... It was so nice! 

I'm looking for a "bike vacation" sometime next year maybe!

Just around the corner

The other day, I went for another walk with the kids. We left home, and walked about 4 miles I guess. It was so nice to be in the nature, right around the corner, without having to drive for 30 mins or more before entering the forest!

We walked on a "sculpture path", and through the forest. Simply....

A hive... for Debbie!

Fall is here!

Indeed, Fall is here!

I remember walking through Whispering Hills, crying because I thought I'd never see these beautiful colors anymore. That was 2 years ago...

For sure, I loved Fall in Missouri: the beautiful landscape along the Mississipi River (mmmhhh, Elsah..., and that lovely restaurant: "My just desert"... And of course, I loved the temperature, that fooled us, and let us believe that Winter was just an idea.

Now, back "here", I realize that Fall in Switzerland can be really nice too. Not as warm, for sure, but sunny and lovely as well. The trees also put on their nicest colors, and seem to be burning before they get naked.

The kids took a walk with their dad this afternoon (while I was napping, yeah!), and enjoyed the time outside.

Life on the countryside

You know how I'm happy to live away from the City... lots of space, lots of green, a very quiet environment.

You also remember that we have this fireplace, that worked soso when it was so cold. Today, a chimney sweep is coming to check if it should'nt be taken care of.

Anyway, a few weeks ago, I ordered fire wood. Approx 35 cubic feet... It was delivered in front of the house, and I could roll up my sleeves to stack it behind the house!

 As I don't have a cartwheel, it took me a good 3.5 hours to do the job!

A good workout, in a nice, fresh air (not too cold, though!).

Done!

Illumination

   

This week-end, we had the opportunity to take part to a "social sculpture", as Muma, the artist, calls it: the illumination of a National Museum in my home village, Prangins. 

There were 65'000+ candles to be installed and lit in the gardens by approx 500 volunteers,

and it was really something to be part of it!

   

First, we had to allign photophores, then place teapot candles in...

Icare's dream

Obviously, Swiss man like to fly. For such a small country (7.5 M), we have a lot of "Sky people".

One of them, Bertrand Piccard, was the first to fly around the globe in a hot air balloon. He now works hard on a project of a solar plane that could fly around the Earth. He's the son of Jacques Piccard, who was "the deepest man" because he explored the Mariana Trench, during the Deep Challenge, and grandson of Auguste Piccard, who was the "highest man" (72'177 feet, in a balloon too!). What a family!

Another on is Claude Nicollier, a NASA Astronaut who went 4 times in the Shuttle, and even took one space walk! He followed his dreams too. Seeing his eye sparkle when he speaks about his life in the sky is really a treat.

This is "FusionMan"... Yves Rossy, another who followed his dreams, and became a bird!

Tomorrow, Sept 26th, Yves Rossy is going to try to cross the Channel with his powered wing. I wish him good luck. You'll be able to watch it here, quite early in the morning. 

How wonderful it must be to like that in the sky... to fly like a bird!

Interiors

Here are a few pictures of the interiors of our house. Not everything is very tidy - most of the time not - you know me!!! But I took the advantage, the other day, to take a few pics!

Léa's room: you pass a thin pink drape, and enter a nice, cozy place

     

Sam's room: much more "naked". I'll try to find nice curtains, but for the time being, I haven't found any. Here, they cost the eyes,, and the cheaper ones are not even nice! I should have bought some more at World Market!!!

My kitchen. Too small to dine in, I still like it. I was shocked to see how small the appliances were..  that's terrible.

 

On the other side, I already got used (back) to it!

The other day, I wanted to make mini-muffins, and the pan I brought back from St.Louis didn't fit in the oven!

      

 The fridge is quite tiny as well, even if for swiss standards, it's not too small.

Did you know that milk is bought here in quarts?

Actually, 7 walking minutes away from home, there is a dairy shop. I wanted to buy bulk milk over there, as it's possible. BUT... there's no container that would fit in the fridge. So I have to buy long past milk (that used to not be available before my trip to the US!)

After Ike

My dear Friends, 

My computer is still set up with the Midwestern time. Now, it's 11:20 PM in St.Louis. I quit watching the weather forecast, because it was somehow depressing. But I still read the news, STL today online... and my best time at home, is when I can listen to NPR over the Internet!

So I've read and heard about the flash floods that occurred in the aftermath of Ike.

I hope that you're all doing well in this wet condition, and I just want you to know that I don't forget you (how could I?)

Take good care, I miss you!

Caroline

About the title

As the name to this blog will be kind of hard to memorize, you better put it right away in your favorites!

On the other side, if you understand what it means, you might find it easier to keep in mind. So I'll try to explain it.

You all know Midwest, as it's where I met most of you.

So.. imagine, we also have a Midwest in Switzerland! Well, it's called "Midcountry", which is "Mittelland" in Swiss German. No, we don't speak german where we live, but at least that's the denomination for the area.

It's more or less flatland, between the Jura mountain, and the (pre)Alps. 

So maybe, after 3 happy years in St.Louis, that's why we feel so much "at home" in this part of the country! The people are very laid back (the state of Fribourg, where we're now, used to be mainly agricultural until approx 20 years ago), nice, and not stressed, like for instance in Geneva or Zürich.

I'll tell you more about it next time!

For my US friends

My dear friends, I've been happy in your country, where I've lived for 3 years. These years were mostly happy, some periods were really hard, but on the whole, good memories are stronger than bad ones.

Now that I'm back in my homeland, I want to tell you how much you've meant to me, and to my family, when we could meet more regularly.

You've asked, and also I promised I'd blog for you, in English, so that you can "see" where we live, how we live. I'll try to keep up with this blog as much as I can, and especially, I hope that your comments will feed it!

I will start today with a very typical picture of our everyday life: the weather has been very rainy and ugly lately, and it's cold. Our heating system isnt' on yet, so we tried to keep warm as well as we could: a good cheese fondue for dinner, and a nice fire in the fireplace. The only problem with the fire is that, although the chimney was open, there was quite a stunk in the house. Maybe because it was the first time it was in use after some work had been done to it? We'll know next time!