Jura Mountains

Here is a "scrolling" stream, left to right, of the Jura Mountain skyline just behind where I live.

Now for my house location! Right in the middle of this picture there is a pink house, and our house is the white one directly behind it. See the next picture for a closer shot.

So, now you can see that I live right at the base of the Jura Mountains! There is an au pair who lives on one of the roads that goes up the mountains.

I went hiking in the Jura Mountains today, and took these pictures at the highest point I reached, probably about halfway up the mountain. Here is another "scrolling" image, left to right.

In that second picture, you can actually see Geneva, which is evident by the fountain on the lake. Towards the left of the picture and in the middle of the shot, there is a white smudge- that's the fountain that sprays hundreds of feet high. Aha, the fountain has it's own Wikipedia page! It's 459 feet high!


And now for a surprise!!!

I will be leaving Thursday night to go with the family to a suburb of Paris where my host mother's family lives and will be returning on Monday, as the mother's nephew is getting christened on Sunday. So... I get to spend Sunday and hopefully part of Saturday in Paris!!! I'm so excited! I will definitely take lots of pictures! Claire's host father has been kind enough to make a tour plan for me, as he said he would be a tour guide if he didn't work for the UN, so I will hopefully be able to see quite a bit in a short amount of time.

I also have my little trip to Geneva to tell yall about, so I've got some exciting stuff coming up! Wish me luck in not getting lost in Paris!

Picture Perfect

I know I need to write a proper post, but some pictures will have to do for the moment! :) They're not the best quality since I took them with my iPhone, but oh well. I need to take some pics with my camera and check the quality difference.

(You should be able to click on these pics to make them a little larger.)


*drumroll* Mont Blanc! The view from the upstairs bathroom:

A bit closer...

A view from the living room, also the Alps- to the right of Mont Blanc.

The Jura Mountains are on the other side of the house and much closer, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures yet... I'm really slacking... :)


The Château de Vesancy (a nearby town that is even smaller than Gex, and pronounced Vay-zahn-see): Front:

Back:

Cool slit window, view from inside:

A little hallway opening to an original stairwell with a gate at the bottom:

The tour guide wouldn't let us go all the way up to the top of the tower because "it's just the empty, old, original part and there's nothing to see." That's what I came to see! Bah! So we saw the renovated part of the "castle" that they use for the town hall and weddings, but it really wasn't very interesting at all.

This is carved into a little underpass street in Vesancy. I don't know what it means, but if it was carved in 1734... omg. I love old stuff.

And here is the church of Vesancy, almost directly next to the Château.

A pump organ!!! And it looks like it's still in use!

It seems that the churches will have a plaque of those who died in both world wars from the town. Very interesting.

I also have a few good pictures from Geneva, but I'm going to put those in a proper post for you!

Life Goals Timeline

I'm the kind of person that likes to have everything planned out, even years in advance; so, I thought it would be fun to write about where I'd like to be at five-year milestones in my life and see what your goals are as well. And if you are beautifully-aged, add on what your goals were when you were younger and how you reached them or why you didn't!

This would pair well with a bucket list!

What I want to have accomplished when I'm...
>>25 (3 years from now)
Be fluent in French.
Travel to 15 new countries. (see next item for the reason for the high number)
Accomplish at least 20 items on my Bucket List (because there are a lot of traveling in Europe items that I could reasonably do next summer with some time to travel).

>>30
Be fluent in one-two additional languages.
Start or have started a graduate program.
Be married.
Have or have on the way at least one child.
Travel to 5 more countries.
Accomplish at least 5 more items on my Bucket List.

>>35
Be fluent in four foreign languages.
Be called Dr.!
Have three (or more) children.
Accomplish at least 5 more items on my Bucket List.
Buy my parents a cruise trip.

>>40
Be fluent in six languages. (!!!)
Accomplish at least 5 more items on my Bucket List.
Publish a book (which is actually on my Bucket List).

Bucket List

I have always wanted to make a bucket list, and having reading someone else's on a blog, I decided to start my own. I'm sure that I will continually add to it as I discover more things that I want to do, but there's nothing wrong with that! And please don't hesitate to suggest things for me! After reading a lot of other Bucket Lists, I decided to make sure mine isn't ridiculously long, doesn't have anything so ambitious that it's practically unattainable, or anything that could actually get me in trouble or put me in danger. I plan to blog about these as I complete them and link those posts back to this post.

Happy reading, and tell me about your own Bucket List!

Misc.

Go sky diving

Ride in a hot air balloon

Go rock climbing

Drive a car at top speed/Drive a race car

Run/Bike a marathon

Go cave scuba diving
Get Dive Master certification

Make own paper and notebook

Make pasta

Go to a drive-in movie

Send a message in a bottle

Learn to ice skate backwards

Stay in an underwater hotel

Attend and complete graduate school

Learn to knit

Learn the Thriller dance

Eat spaghetti like Lady and the Tramp

Kiss under mistletoe

Swim with dolphins

Participate in a murder-mystery dinner

Donate blood

Tie a note to a balloon and let it go

Make at least twenty things that I’ve pinned on Pinterest

Help with an animal birthing

Attend an opera

Language

Be fluent in at least three languages

Be conversational in at least six languages

Write and publish a book

Read the entire Bible

Make a list of Must-Read-Classics and read them

Read 100 books in a year

Travel

Live in France for six months

Travel to at least thirty countries

Make it to at least six continents

Visit every state in the U.S.

See the Aurora Borealis

Throw a dart on a map and travel where it lands

Watch the Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong

Float in the Dead Sea

Walk where Jesus walked

Cross the International Date Line (not by plane)

Attend Comic Con

Visit all the places in song “Kokomo”

Go dog sledding in Alaska

Watch an Olympic event live

Celebrate major holidays/festivals in their countries

            Carnival in Brazil

            Mardi Gras in France

            Oktoberfest in Germany

            Carnival in Venice, Italy

Australia:

            Dive in the Great Barrier Reef

            Find 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney

            Try Vegemite

            Visit the Sydney Opera House

China:

            Walk the Great Wall

Egypt:

            Visit the pyramids and Great Sphinx at Giza

            Dance to “Walk Like an Egyptian” next to an appropriate statue/drawing

England:

            See the Changing of the Guards

            Ride the London Eye

            Partake in Afternoon Tea

            Walk across Abbey Road

            Stand in a red phone booth

            Stroll through Hyde Park

            Visit Buckingham Palace

            Visit the Tower of London

            Ride on the upper level of a red double-decker bus

            Visit Stonehenge

France:

            Visit the Eiffel Tower

            Visit the Louvre

            Visit Notre Dame

            Don a horizontally striped shirt and a beret for a photo-op at a cafe

Germany:

            Touch the Berlin Wall

Greece:

            Visit the Parthenon

India:

            Visit the Taj Mahal

            Get henna covering hands

Ireland:

            Kiss the Blarney Stone

            Stand in a Ringfort and look for fairies

Italy:

            Make a wish at the Trevi fountain

            Eat traditional pizza

Scotland:

            Scout for Loch Ness
            Watch Highland Games