Tea, etc.

J'aime beaucoup le petit café en face de la gare. The tea there is two francs cheaper than across the street at Starbucks. I treated myself tonight after finishing my long-overdue Christmas shopping. Black tea and a green chocolate tart. Yummy.

The woman next to me on the bus tonight had one of those shiny knuckle-ring things on every one of her sausage fingers. And also a bushy gray substance sprouting out of her head that closely resembled the Alpaca wool one might use to make a fuzzy wall hanging (only longer and without the little pictures of llamas). She kept glancing sideways at me like she just knew I was thinking about her...I wasn't really...I was just trying to find the right words to describe her...

In other news, I seem to have gotten Jules' virus. This is not unexpected as his favorite place to cough is into my face, and his favorite place to wipe his snotty hands is my shirt. I don't recall collecting this much mucus on my clothing even when I myself was a sick child. But what to do?? Shall I cancel my weekend in Paris? And how will I properly enjoy my day trip to Versailles if I have a 40 degree fever?? (No clue what that is in Fahrenheit, but at 42 in Celsius, you die.)

The Salvation Army has to work harder here (it seems) than in America. They had a whole brass ensemble in front of the toy store on the Rue de la Croix d'Or tonight but nobody was giving much. I literally watched hundreds of people walk by and look the other way. (Ignoring one guy with an accordion, ok, but an entire brass band??) Come on, Genève, where is your Christmas spirit?? Ok, a few people did donate. That was heartwarming. And the music was lovely. I listened until they left. I'm glad I didn't miss my chance to give to the Salvation Army this Christmas!

But returning momentarily to the subjects of tea and bad hair...last time I was at this particular café a freaky woman with frizzy, gray hair grabbed my arm and asked me in panicked tones if I had heard the strange voice in the air. I assured her that though I had not, the next time I was in I would listen more closely. I heard nothing tonight louder than the Britney Spears song on the radio. But maybe that's why they play the music so loudly. Who knows?

Signing off with a smile,
That girl in Switzerland