Apartment

We may have found an apartment across the border in Gex, France. This photo is (I kid you not), taken of the view of the yard. Gex is absolutely beautiful and seems to be a haven for bicyclists. We will have a basement apartment in one of these chalets with 1 bedroom and tons of windows and a double set of doors in the living room that opens onto this view. It is a bit of an uphill hike from the bus stop and and buses to Geneva run every half an hour to an hour, with less on the weekend, but we can walk into the town of Gex to go to cafes and get groceries. While Geneva is nice, the opportunity to live in a beautiful French village for a few months (at half the cost of a studio in the City) seemed too good to pass up. Matt is already looking at bikes and having the internal debate of whether he wants a mountain bike or a road bike.

Here is another photo taken in the town. We will live halfway up the mountain:



I started work this week and will not be blogging about my job, but will say that I love the subject area and everyone has been incredibly nice to me. Also, the cafeteria at my workplace makes the world's greatest salads.

We signed up for a bank account (for a variety of reasons, with UBS) and I got a long lecture about their requirements that when I move back to the U.S., I must close the account. They also take banking security very seriously here: my PIN came in a specially sealed package and to do internet banking, I have a special card, pin, and reader that I have to plug into my computer.

I think we are starting to get a bit more used to things here. In 2 weeks both of us start French classes and we went to the English language bookstore yesterday and picked up some "Learning French" CDs. There are still times when things shock me; like that at lunch wine is cheaper than mineral water or coke. My legs have been very sore: on Friday with all our activities, we walked about 8 miles and yesterday also involved a lot of walking. Perhaps that will make up some for all the fantastic desserts we have been eating.