Lego by Noah

This is the Lego Power Miners Underground Mining Base. It is a present from my grandma Nana. It is very big and I like it.

Recent stuff

Bonjour, C'est Rachel. We are about half way through our time without Dad. He is still in the States and has been visiting with friends. He is going to send back mail, MY SKATES, and other things. Because we were so sad he was gone, we took a trip to the lake and got ice cream for dinner! It was really good. Today we also got a huge box in the mail. It contained amazing American neccessities, like Lucky Charms and Reeses. It also contained a long awaited present for Noah, which he will blog about later. I am not one to spoil surprises so that's all for now.

Museum of Natural History and Adventure Course

This is Molly: Yesterday, my dad, Noah, and I went to the natural history museum. The museum had a real turtle that had two heads. It was named Janus after the roman god with two faces. The turtle was born at the museum. When we saw the turtle, it wasn't really moving because one head was trying to go one way while the other head was trying to go the other way. At the museum, we also saw lots and lots of dead and preseved animals in dioramas. The museum was really cool and I can't wait to go back!

Farmer's market at Rue de Rive

This is Sean with another weekend blog, and I am under orders From Rachel to keep it short. Nancy was away teaching a course in India this week, so I tried my best to keep up some of her weekend traditions, including the trip to the local farmer's market. This one is walking distance from our house - involving a nice stroll through the Parc Eaux Vives across the street, which takes you down to the beach on Lake Geneva, and then toward the flower clock which is near one end of the farmer's market. The pictures are of the children's beach on the lake (with a playstructure made of bike tires), the flower clock, and some lovely raspberries and blueberries at the market.

Col de la Faucille

Hi this is Rachel. We haven't blogged for a while, so I think I'm not going to be the only one blogging today. Anyway, I am going to talk about something we did exactly a week ago, today is Sunday the 13th. We went to Col de la Faucille, an amazing ropes course/zipline place in France. We went with our friends Nina and Sally and their adorable boys Milo (6) and Cy (4). My height allowed me to do the adult course, which is amazing, except my muscles were aching for days. The adult course goers were me, my dad, and Nina. My mom and Sally monitored the other courses. Molly and Noah did the junior course, a ropes course ranging from 6-20 feet off the ground ending in a zipline. Cy did the kiddie course. The adults course consisted of 6 ropes courses and ziplines, ranging in difficulty from green to red! It was really hard but fun, too. I am thinking about having my birthday party there come April, but then again, it is not enjoyable at all if you are afraid of heights. The adult course must have been 40 or 50 ft high! At the end, we had crepes. Yum! I have attached a picture of me going down the first zipline and one of all the kids. Left to right: Cy, me, Noah, Molly, Milo.

First Week of September

Hello! This is Sean. Saturday, Sep 5 was a gorgeous day in Geneva. Bright, sunny, and 16 degrees Celsius. In apparent celebration, we witnessed the start of a hot air balloon festival right outside our living room window (pictured above). We then had a nice family outing to the Rue de Rive farmers market. On the walk home, we stopped for hot chocolate and a lemon crepe at a little shop near Le Jet D'eau. Also pictured above is our annual first day of school photo, in our new "backyard" (see first day stories in past blogs).

Hi! This is Rachel. The video of the alpine horns has been posted on YouTube. Please check it out and come back and tell us what you think right here on the blog. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC1wU3xXFAQ.
Enjoy!

3 cheers to cheese songs

3 Cheers to Cheese Songs
By: Molly Tunis
Non-fiction
Once upon a time there lived a girl named Molly. She had just moved to Geneva. On her second day of school, she went to her first English class of the year. Her teacher was Mr. Dennie. When she entered the classroom, he was holding lots of toilet paper. He told each child to choose a small number and gave them that number of pieces of toilet paper. Molly chose 3 because that is her name. The students were confused. Each child had to say as many things about themselves as pieces they had. Some people said stuff like “I forgot my name” and other dumb stuff. The class laughed. They think everything is funny. When it was Molly’s turn she said, “I like writing cheese songs. I change the words of songs in musicals to cheese.” (She wrote the songs with her friend 2.) Mr. Dennie asked Molly if she would mind singing one. Molly said she didn’t mind and asked the class if they had heard of “Fiddler on the Roof”. Most of the class had. Molly asked the class if they knew the song “To Life, L’chaim” The same people had. Molly told the class she would sing a song called “To Cheese, the Chicken” instead of “To Life, L’chaim”. She sang it. The teacher and class laughed and clapped. They loved it. They wanted to hear more but there was no time. The girls and boys who had been in her English class that were in her other classes encouraged her to sing more songs but there was no time. Everyone had loved the song. Molly had a good day. She likes cheese.
The End
That was a 100% true story

Dogs in Switzerland

This is Nancy again. I hope that a few of you out there will appreciate the observations I have, so far, about dogs in Switzerland or, at least in Geneva. This seems to be a very dog-friendly society. Here are my observations:
1. Dogs are welcome in stores. I have been in Ikea, I have been in drug stores, I have been in markets. There seem to be dogs (mostly very small ones) on leashes IN THE store, consistently. Clearly a different set of health codes (or sensibilities).
2. Doggie poop bags are available from neat (of course) metal dispensers on all city streets. There are trash receptacles on most corners, and there are yellow dispensers of doggie plastic bags on most corners with cute little pictures of dogs on the dispenser in case you were to mix up the purpose of the bag.
3. The incredible park across the street from us is huge, beatifully manicured, and is generally spectacular. It has sections for different purposes - the section with the huge playground, the section with the soccer field, the section with the rose garden, and, of course, the section with the dog run.
I imagine most of these dogs respond to commands in multiple languages as well.

My First Day by Noah

Hello this is noah. my teacher's name is mrs. howe. she is from southafrica. i met a person named lapo. he is cool. he is from holland and his dad's italian. he is the tallest one in the class. another person at my table is named tio. i do not know where he is from. i have french class 5 times a week. i could not play with the legos in the chicken coop because they were so tempting i thought i would take them.

(note from rachel: the chicken coop is my father's nickname for the gartery, the aftercare spot for younger kids to hang out until the high school/middle school students have finished their classes)

My First Day of School --by Rachel

Hi all.

So today was the first day of school. Soooo different. At RP we walked down the hall quietly in a line. Here we have a 60 minute lunch (instead of 30) and 30 minute break (non-existant at RP). So I guess I like this style better- more independence, but still, I'd rather go to RP because I miss my friends soooo much. Apparently my French test was good because they put me in Intermediate one(pourquoi???) Anyway, here is my schedule.

Monday- Mother Tongue English (MTE), Biology, break, Intermediate math, Intermediate French, lunch, MTE, beginner Spanish
Tuesday- Geography, Mentor session, break, double visual arts, lunch, MTE, French
Wednesday- Visual arts, Math, break, French, Spanish, lunch, double chemistry
Thursday- P.E., math, break, Spanish, French, lunch, English, Geography
Friday- Double physics, math, break, Spanish, English, lunch, French, Geography

(There are three semesters. Semester 1- Visual Arts and Geography. Semester 2- Music and Economics. Semester 3- Drama and History)

I have made some friends and I like my school a lot. I had a request about grocery stores and food in them. Well, to be honest, I don't really notice the differences, except everything is so exorbitant. The chicken tastes different, that's true. And everything is also a lot nicer, like once I got some chicken and it was stuffed with spinach. Blech. Email me at rgtskates@gmail.com.