After a weeklong marathon of frenzied cleaning, we turned an immaculate house and car over to the Australian family yesterday. We left our house at 9 a.m. Sunday morning, spent much of the day in the Newark airport where the grandparents were thankfully in charge of entertaining our crazed offspring. We took off from Newark at about 6 p.m. and, after a refreshing hour or so of sleep, arrived in Geneva at 7 a.m. Geneva time, 2 a.m. Cleveland time. Needless to say, the children took it in stride, with Max punching Katrina in the stomach shortly after we arrived. However, it's insanely beautiful in our cute little apartment, the upstairs flat in an adorable Swiss chalet that I assume is older than anything in Cleveland (I haven't gotten those details yet). Katrina danced around the apartment, thrilled with every detail (I think she was expecting something tenement-style), and filled with hilarity that the people on the radio were speaking French. I'm a little apprehensive at the lack of screens on the windows for my little bug magnet, who spent most of the flight furiously scratching her bites. Mark seems to have the computers working - the kids are napping and I'm scared to wake them up, the weather is beautiful and the space here seems beyond idyllic - the students are across a grassy field in a dorm and some seem like potential babysitters (praise the Lord). There's a basketball hoop and a space to ride the bikes, and a rusty little bike for Max (I think it was a dispute over that which led to the previously-mentioned punch). I actually think my French is slightly coming back - the Swiss speak a little more slowly than the Parisians and seem pleased that I at least know German, as some of them seem also to a little bit (the bus driver did anyway).
I read a quiz question to Katrina yesterday that said, "Can you correct this sentence: "I saw two mouses run across the field"." Katrina said "Mouses?" I said, "Right, what would be a better word?" and she said "Sheep!" So there you have it, and don't you agree that she's probably right?
