Birthday Revels
Tomorrow is Brigitte's 16th birthday! On the one hand, yay! Her friends are now of an age that I can have intelligent conversations with them. On the other hand, shit. I'm old.
Christine planned the party (for today, since it's another cantonal holiday), which was also celebrating the second anniversary of the arrival in Switzerland. She ordered 40 baguettes from our baker and made six German chocolate cakes, and arranged with people who have cars to get tables and such down to the park at Vevey. It was pretty gorgeous:
Mom and Nicolas, Bri's boyfriend of 14 months, setting up.
The adults arrived around noon. Some spoke French, some English; Nicolas' parents are charming people who don't know where Connecticut is and think it's pretty whimsical that there are both a city AND a state called New York. I love it.
Bri's friends came later and threw her in the lake. Then they played volleyball for hours. We bought WAY too many baguettes, so we forced them on our guests, as party favors.
I went walking along the lake, where the paths are lined with roses and stone walls. I was thinking about what someone at work said, that it's very different to visit this place on vacation and to live here. I think I have a good mix of roots and tourist's wonder, so that for all I'll be here for three months and commute etc., it still seems like a fantasy world.
I think that's a good place to be.
Christine planned the party (for today, since it's another cantonal holiday), which was also celebrating the second anniversary of the arrival in Switzerland. She ordered 40 baguettes from our baker and made six German chocolate cakes, and arranged with people who have cars to get tables and such down to the park at Vevey. It was pretty gorgeous:
Mom and Nicolas, Bri's boyfriend of 14 months, setting up.
The adults arrived around noon. Some spoke French, some English; Nicolas' parents are charming people who don't know where Connecticut is and think it's pretty whimsical that there are both a city AND a state called New York. I love it.
Bri's friends came later and threw her in the lake. Then they played volleyball for hours. We bought WAY too many baguettes, so we forced them on our guests, as party favors.
I went walking along the lake, where the paths are lined with roses and stone walls. I was thinking about what someone at work said, that it's very different to visit this place on vacation and to live here. I think I have a good mix of roots and tourist's wonder, so that for all I'll be here for three months and commute etc., it still seems like a fantasy world.
I think that's a good place to be.