Times are a changin with the seasons

It is officially fall here. Cold, crisp air, wind blowing leaves all over the city, every plat du jour has switched from salad to soup and every bar is ready for vin chaud (hot wine). It's funny how you don't realize how many corks a place might have until you compare it to something else. Geneva could easily be seen as..well boring. But it's not, it's just different. It's the kind of city that doesn't do your work for you. If you want to explore, you need to take the time to figure out what is worth exploring and how to get there. If you're me, and you don't enjoy putting in so much work just to do simple things daily, Geneva is great for "just getting lost". I do this all the time. I "get lost" in just about everything I do. By, "getting lost" I mean I allow myself to roam wherever my curiousity lies. I go to the grocery store and 2 hours later I'm leaving with the most random selection. I go to the post office and don't get nearly enough of what I need, etc.

Recently, the most wonderful "getting lost" experience happend. Chris and I took our scooter to Annecy, France. It's about a 45 min. scooter ride. On our way home we tried to take the back roads. Then, all of a sudden, we stumbled on the most amazing bridge. It had two castle like towers on either side. It is a walking bridge between to huge canyons over an amazing ravine. The sun was shining, all the leaves were different colors and the white wash castle towers were magical. Who would have thought this even existed? It wasn't on any maps we saw, or guide books. We just happend to stumble across it and bam, a little bit of magic just popped right up and hit us in the face.

These are the types of things Geneve has to offer. Well, not just Geneve but Europe in general. These are just one of the things that make it uniquely different from the West Coast. When you go out for a drink in the city in Seattle, you may be lucky enough to see how beautiful the city looks all lit up at night, but when you go for a drink in Geneva, you may be lucky enough to see gothic churches and amazing architecture lit up at night, just one building here or there, but as soon as you see it, you get the, "We're not in kansas anymore" thought. So, okay, easy enough to believe, Geneva looks different than Seattle...but it's not just the look, it's the feel. It's the people and the culture.

Did you know that women didn't even have the right to vote in Switzerland until 1970?! Yes, it's very different. No women or coed soccer teams for me. We sign up for a gym and the guy automatically thinks I need to take lessons on how to use the machines, even after we tell him that I played a competive sport in college and am used to the weight room. It's interesting here because Geneva is so international that it is really quite libral for true Switzerland standards, which I am slowly learning, I can truly appreciate :). As with any major city you have more access to food, shopping, music, learning, etc. Once you drive about 15 min. out of the city you are piggie back between slow moving suburbia and rural farm lands. Not to mention, jaw dropping cliffs (okay, Alps) at every corner.

Our personal life here is settling in quite nicely. Chris is used to his work routine and, like any time all your constants in life are taken away (besides Chris) I am learning to find simple things that make my day feel stable. Who would have thought that at the age of 25 I would be more interested in finding some normal boring routine, then exploring a new city. Ha, married life has a way of domesticating you (just kidding).

It is a really interesting point thought. Here I am, nothing to hold me back (metaphorically, because actually there is a lot to hold me back, like the language, and the social norm, etc.) and I would perfer to spend more of my day doing familiar things then going outside of my comfort zone. So obviously I have had a lot of time to think about this and I am left with this one simple thought. There are types of people in the world. Each type of person has something that does it for them, it is one thing that is the most imporant. For some types its careers, for some types its travelling, for others its growing, well for me it's relationships. Relationships are at the heart of everything I do. So much so, that ever major thing I have chose to do in my life was based on relationships. I played a team sport, and when the relationship between coach and players wasn't good, I wasn't happy. I picked a career where I work with people, I married at the age 25 and I moved to Geneva to see the most important person in my life fulfill one of his dreams. Now, it's great that I can recognize this, but the obvious is, I don't have relationships here...well not yet. The truth is, it's not hard to build relationships here, I have met loads of people and just really haven't put forth any effort to sustain anything. The reality is, I'm happy, truly happy, and love that I am out of my comfort zone and get to try new things in a new way. But at the end of the day, it's still not home, and it's not home because I can't replace the relationships I have back home. They have taken my entire life to cultivate and there are irreplacable. Funny that you have to go half way around the world to realize something simple, the most important thing to me is family and friends. So, should I sit around a sulk because they are all in Seattle? Obviously not, I challange myself to grow is ways I never knew possible. The point of me telling this, isn't for pity. It's to say, thank you. Thank you to all my friends and family. Life happens so quickly and so many good deeds go unnoticed and I spent time focusing on things that well, just simply don't matter as much as the people in my life do. So I am taking this moment to thank all the wonderful people and to let them know, they mean the world to me, LITERALLY, the world is the people for me.

Also, as I'm obivously on this path of discovery, I ask this question to anyone who is reading this. What type of person are you?

Sorry it has been so long since our last post, a lot has happend, I turned 25, we went back to Seattle, got married, have taken many trips around Swiss/France and, ok that's it :)

Will try to post pictures soon :)

Welcome to the civilized jungle

Almost a month in..still so much more to learn and see. Summer is when Geneva is at its best. This single factor has made the decision to move your entire life to another country much easier. So what if you are lost and you can't ask anyone for directions and you can't just use your phone..it's nice out and your getting a tan. So what if the only way to explore the city is by walking and using a map and no internet...what a nice day to get lost. So what if you are constantly confused on the cultural norms and are scared to even order food because you can't pronounce anything and don't know how to read the weather, might as well take your time because its nice, and besides when its hot out you don't want to eat very much anyways. Thank you weather for making such a big step seem so small.

Let's see where to start. We moved right in to our apartment and absolutely love it, and can't wait till all our stuff comes (in mid August!). We have kitty proofed the backyard and even bought a plant! To Chris's demise...we might be falling into the land of suburbia, well that is if we weren't 10 minutes walking distance to the city centre. Location, location, location. Living in the city, having a secret garden apartment has truly been the best of both worlds. Yes, it would be nice to live in the countryside (which is actually quite close to the city) but it would also be nice for Chris to not have to spend 45 minutes commuting to work. Needless to say, compromises are good, and the countryside is only a 15 minute scooter ride away. This I guess will lead me to the next thing, we bought a SCOOTER! We are super excited and can't wait to make full use of it for the entire summer!

Everything in Genevea is imossibly expensive and even though it is a very walkable city, let me tell you, it's not so much fun to hall a 42' TV two miles up the road. It probably wasn't even two miles, but it still took us 1 1/2 hrs. No taxi would take us, without a 20 CH sur charge, and you know us Hodges, save a penny wherever you can, we're young, athletic, we can just carry it...in the BLAZING heat. Same goes with groceries, accessories, anything you buy at the store you better be able to haul home yourself because there is no magical trunk or valet service, the good news is...I'm losing weight and I'm not even trying to. That in itself makes all the hauling more than bearable. However, we did learn the hard way that you cannot take a tank of propane on the bus. But thanks to Mr. Creative Chris we snuck it on when the next bus game..haha....brilliant we are, or he is ;)

The culture and language is more of a barrier than we thought, but we are happy about this; sort of. Of course we are happy as we want to emerce ourselves in the language and culture and blah blah, but it does get overwhelming and tiring when there is no break, no easy out, nothing. This for me has been the most challanging in a good way for me.

I must say, we have learned a lot. It's hard not to when you have no other choice but to learn really, but what I miss the most about home is just spending time with friends and family. Life here has been a dream, but it's just a place...we are definitely looking forward to visiting friends and family for our wedding.

So cheers to our new home; I think it's a pretty good place to start a life together, what do you think?