Two More Reasons I Love Switzerland

1. The Churro Man

There is a man in Geneva who sells churros and other awesome Spanish food substances. He loves me. Lupe, the au pair who had my job before I came here, introduced me to churros in my first week here, and I've been a faithful churro buyer ever since. Churros are basically just deep-fried dough dipped in sugar and cinammon. Well, I say churro buyer, but really it's more like churro eater; the man who owns the churro stand usually won't let me pay for anything. A few months ago, he told a lady standing by that I was his most charming customer. I always have the money in my hand, and I always try to hand it to him, but he nearly always takes my hand (but not the money) and tells me that I can pay the next time. He makes me feel happy every time I visit his churro stand. Yesterday, I introduced Brittany to the churro man, and of course he gave us each a free churro. He really is so nice.

OH, I FORGOT TO BLOG ABOUT BRITTANY! Brittany is my replacement, but I wish I could stay in the area so she could be my good friend. The boys already think she's awesome. Jules told her yesterday that he loves her. :-) It makes me so happy that my boys are going to have a loving au pair for the next year. I hope that she and the Grobets will get along really well for the next year. Anyway, she arrived on Sunday afternoon. By Monday night we were already going to Bible study and our little local pub, The Fish. :-D WHERE was her jet lag?? No, actually, she was jet lagged but working through it really well. Yesterday we went to Geneva for a little while, and I showed her a few things she needed to see - like the train station, some main bus stops, the shopping road, etc. It reminded me of seeing Geneva for the first time myself, only this time with all the knowledge of local geography and history that I needed. :-D It's fun to show people around.

Ok, so on to the second reason I love Switzerland...

2. Charlie, my sometimes bus driver

Charlie is an old man who sometimes drives the E bus route to Hermance. Hermance is the village just after mine on the border of France. Charlie drives the late buses. I usually see him on the 23h50 bus and sometimes as late as 00h30. Sometimes I wonder how he likes driving so late at night. Charlie only speaks French. Charlie loves me. The other day, I was walking through Geneva, nowhere near the E bus route, and I saw Charlie driving a different bus, the 8 bus, as a matter of fact. He saw me too and started honking the bus horn and blowing kisses, which had everyone in the surrounding streets looking and pointing. I started laughing, and blew some kisses back. :-D Charlie is cool. He has my stop memorized, but he always pretends that he's going to pass it so I have to ride the whole route with him. A few weeks ago, I got on the bus at a different spot (in Vezenaz rather than Geneva), and he told me that he had just been thinking about me and hoping that he would see me that night. Then he started singing, "Elle y est, la plus jolie..." (Translation: "There she is, the most beautiful..."). Charlie has been good practice for my French, considering he speaks not a word of English.

I will miss Charlie the Singing Bus Driver when I leave Geneva next week. I will also miss The Churro Man whose proper name I don't know.

A bit sad about leaving,
That girl in Switzerland