Geneva

Hi there everybody. Yep, still alive. As you may have guessed, things have been quite busy for me lately. But I've got a serious backlog of stories and pictures and fun to catch up on, so you can expect a few posts this week. Plus, I'm in London (or at least the UK) definitely for the next month, so maybe I'll be sending more your way than you'd like. Enjoy!

So back on Friday, Jan 13, (did you realize that!?!) I rushed out of work and tried to get to the airport to fly to Geneva. I was busy and got out late and ended up missing my train. Arg! Another one came about 30 min later and I anxiously hoped onto that one. Got off at Luton and looked around for the signs for the airport. No signs. Asked a guy, Luton Airport is one more stop! Oh no! I've probably flown on 30 flights in the past year (I should add that up sometime), but never missed a flight like this. So I run to the platform and prepare myself to seriously hustle to the airport. I catch the next train (10 min) and then have to get on a bus to the airport (another 15 min). Arg! Seriously cutting it close now! I run into the airport (been there 5 times probably), but can't find the checkin counter. So here's me with my backpack and sagging jeans sprinting all over this airport getting funny looks from the Brits. Eventually I get to the checkin counter and she says I just make it. Phew! But she looks at my pack which I usually don't have to check (I pack specially for that) and tells me I have to check it. I tell her usually I don't have to and she sends me to the "Is your bag too big" metal thingy. I've never seen anyone use one of these. So I put my bag in and with a big push it fits. Look back with a please please please look on my face and she gives me a no no no look. Arg. Checked it. Got on the plane. Went to Geneva to see Tristan.

Anyway, that was a VERY long way of telling you that though I seem to travel a lot, I still don't have it down. Someday.

Geneva is a pretty cool city. It's very small (178,400 people) and very French, but still distinctly Swiss. By that I mean, the food is French, the language is French, the people act very French (rude), but there is still the Swiss efficiency. I definitely LOVED the restaurants - tried my first proper cheese fondue in a cozy little place that Tristan and her friend frequent. We had to wait for our table so they gave us a free glass of wine. How great is that? Plus they are trying to do things to make the city more than just a place with a bunch of banks. Like light up this tree on the river Rhone:



We also had a late lunch in this cool sorta touristy restaurant near St. Peter's Cathedral (the main tourist spot). While warming up with a bowl of onion soup, I look up and see a familiar face. It's Ralph! A trader I used to work with! Ralph! He's visiting his friend too and we just happened to stop into the same restaurant for a 3pm lunch. Crazy. So we moved tables around and joined Ralph for lunch. How nice. We took some pics with him, but ended up losing his email address AND phone number (ug), so I'm still trying to track those down. But it was fun to see Ralph here:



On Sunday, we hoped onto the bus for the 1 1/2 hr trip out to Flaine. Feeling pretty tired when we got there, we sat down and had a nice cup of coffee. And then headed up the mountain. The snow was very nice and it was a cool sorta intermediate mountain. Here's Tristan (at the bottom in black and gray) going down like a pro:



The views were quite nice. We were close enough to see Geneva. Except that since it's in a valley between some HUGE mountains, it's almost always covered in fog. It's somewhere down in that haze:



And there were sorta scary signs like this:



But we made it out safely and it was a really great trip. An excellent warm-up for the next week, when Tristan and I met again in France for a week of skiing. But that's where I stop again. Too much to tell! Here's the whole set of pics:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZMnLlm1atGTi&notag=1

Hope January treated you well. Looking like lots of visitors in Feb (my bro Mike!), so I'm really looking forward to that. Soon I'll convince all my friends to visit and share some crazy times.

Cheerios,
Dan

Home

Back in Britain now after a long 3 week holiday. This trip back to the States was simply amazing for me. I was much more relaxed about coming back since it was my second trip back and I didn't worry about all the silly little things as much as I did the first time. I still continued to notice them (the escalator directions are different), but was able to mentally note it and move on.

Someone asked me what I missed most about the US. I think he was expecting things like baseball, a multitude of choices in the supermarket, or cheesy sitcoms. But I instead provided the fantastically disappointing answer that I missed my friends. How typical. But also so incredibly true. Nearly everyone I saw when I was home these three weeks gave me a big smile and we were able to slip right back to the friendship as if no time had passed at all. That trait is one thing that Americans beat the rest of the world at hands down. I have the greatest friends.



So the whole trip started with a fun weekend in NY and then a train ride back to my parents house. It's always fun heading back home in the winter because as you move north the snow gradually covers more and more of the ground until all you see is a winter wonderland. It makes all the houses look old and welcoming.



That's a pic of my house (for those who haven't had the pleasure of visiting).

After getting home, I went to the local bar to meet up with high school friends of mine in a mini-reunion that Rob (class president and joker in the pic above) put together. It worked out great except having to move bars a few times (electrical problems?). I even had a guy I was friends with in 3rd grade come up to me as I was leaving and yell in my face, "You dunked in high school!" Yikes.

The family Christmas was also fantastic and I got to spend quality time with my Dad, who I hadn't seen in 8 months -- he was away when I was home last, and my Grandmother, who is still really cool and a lot of fun to just sit and chat with. After that and a bit of skiing at Windham, we headed back to New York for New Year's.

This turned out to be quite an event because I somehow got invited to a party at a penthouse apartment on 44th between Broadway and 6th Ave. We were very worried about getting to Times Square, but the NYPD opened the barricaded street for us and since all the Times Square people were funneled through other streets, we were able to approach on a street nearly all by ourselves. It was pretty amazing to be standing there on one side of the barricade with just my friends and on the other side were almost a million people. The party turned out to be lots of fun and we could go onto the roof and watch the ball drop.





Incredible! Plus the firemen came up to make sure we were ok and ended up just hanging around while the ball dropped. Nice guys.



So I'm actually finishing this post now from Tristan's apartment in Geneva. I flew down for the weekend and we got to do some more skiing. Geneva is great, but I'll save that for next post!

Thanks again to everyone for making my trip home such a joy. I feel very lucky to be in Europe, but even more lucky to be able to return and spend time with the people who I love.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZMnLlm1atGTR&notag=1

Cheers,
Dan