Undersea creatures

On our second dive we dove off the bay of Villefranche-sur-Mer* across from Cap Ferrat.  This dive was our first 'autonomous' dive - where we wouldn't have a divemaster leading us for the last part of our dive.  Our divemaster, Richard, was awesome.  He first took us down to a sea cave.  We dove over it and saw air bubbles escaping from the ground.  It took me a bit to realize that the bubbles were from divers who had been in the cave 10 minutes before us.  

I am absolutely terrified of diving and then swimming into something:  wrecks, caves, etc.  I always think they are going to collapse on me.  Luckily, this cave was small, but gorgeous.  The top was covered in beautiful cool water coral.

The spiral is where the organism seen in the top left and bottom right attaches their eggs.  I don't remember what they are called...something like spirale and dalmations...but understanding under sea life in French is a tad difficult.  

After he took us to the cave, our divemaster left and we were free to roam about underwater with another diver.  I let the other diver and Dave take the lead, and followed them around like an underwater puppy for about an hour...our longest dive ever!  One of the first things we saw was a HUGE Grouper fish - maybe 3 feet long!  They used to be a rare sight due to overfishing but government regs were put in place and now they can live to be 20 years old.  

Not a Grouper, but a Katfish...haha.

Swimming through schools of fish

Gorgeous red star fish. 

Moray eel - Dave was near it with the camera and he made chomping motions.   I thought I heard a nom nom but I could be wrong.  

 This is a baby Moray eel that we saw.  We found two of them and when we went to take a closer look the huge one sucked back into his home.  Maybe the little one is braver?


This dive was very cool, as we got to explore by ourselves.  One of the cool things was seeing water crash against the rocks from underwater.  We weren't diving very deep so our air lasted forever.  As I was following Dave and the other diver around I wasn't really paying attention to our surroundings.  When it was time to swim back to the boat we had to go quite far as I didn't realize we had wandered so far from our entry point.  I started to panic a bit as we reached a field of sea grass that I didn't recognize and thoughts of popping to the surface and looking around to realize we had drifted out to sea started to cross my mind.   I'm not sure why I started to freak as I had 70 bar of air left (about 30 mins at that depth).  Being able to communicate underwater makes one feel a bit isolated, I guess.  Luckily Dave spotted bubbles coming up from the ground and realized we were over the sea cave, we got our bearings and got to our boat.  

After our dive, I decided to swim while they were breaking down the equipment.  It was quite pleasant and cool.  I thought "I wonder if there are any sharks in the Med, I haven't seen any yet..." and then at that unfortunate moment got stung by a jellyfish.  It was more shocking than painful and I yelled and flailed to get away from it.  Dave thought something was wrong so he dove in after me but I was already halfway up the ladder by the time he saw me.  It swelled up, and since it was Sunday, and this is France we had to find the one pharmacy open in Nice.**  This happened about a week and a half ago.  It was fine for awhile but just a few days ago it started to flare again.  Apparently this is normal, but it kinda sucks.  Maybe this is an adverse reaction from all the wine I drank last weekend...


*Villefranche-sur-Mer is a 'free port' - Charles II, Duke of Anjou wanted to protect his kingdom from pirates, so he established this town and stated that residents, who were willing to leave their farming life inland to move to the coast would not have to pay taxes.  This established a line of defense, and better tans for the people who moved there.  


** Differences between the US and Switzerfrancerland:  Pharmacies are not open during Sundays, and many are not open during lunch.  Most close at 5 or 6.  Cold meds are only given when a doctor gives you a perscription.  To see a doctor one must make an appointment (I made a dermatologist appointment last week...the next opening is November) or go to walk in hours (which is much like going to the DMV).  Thus, we stock up on cold meds whilst in the US, the cashiers think we are crazy, and when Dave's sister Rachel Morse (original) is coming the day after tomorrow (yay!) she's bringing us various fun pharmacy goods!  

Morocco Part 1

We went to Morocco for a week in December and visited Marrakech, Imlil, and El Kebab (where my friend Yorda is working for the Peace Corps.)  This is going to be a series because it was awesome, and I wrote in my journal a lot. 

Welcome to Marrakech!

Em, Dave, and I flew into Marrakesh after a stressful ride to the airport. Our ride had been sick for weeks and did not wake up to her alarm, phone calls from us, or Emily throwing soft yet dense objects at her window - which all occurred at 5 AM.  In a panic, Em called me and my 'brilliant' plan was to take our car and leave a key in the secret compartment and bribe a friend to pick the car up from the airport.  Luckily, Emily's host mom was awake (since she was leaving for Nicaragua on the same morning) and she awesomely drove us to the airport.  After running through the airport trying not to knock little old ladies and families down - I believe Dave hurdled over a chair, we saw that the terminal was quite far.  So, we had to run down a hallway, down a set of a stairs, over a moving sidewalk, through customs, and up another set of stairs, and we finally make it to the gate, with maybe 2 minutes left.  Somehow, I was one of the first people on the plane* and managed to snag us 3 exit row seats and we were finally off to Morocco.  

We booked a beautiful Riad (Moroccan guest house) through Homeaway that fit 8 people for the same price as a hostel. It was a traditional Moroccan house with 3 floors, beautiful stonework, a rooftop terrace, and a courtyard with 2 orange trees and a fountain where we ate our breakfast.  When we arrived Fatiha, our host, served us traditional Moroccan mint tea.  Yum!

D outside our room on the balcony overlooking the courtyard.

Our beautiful courtyard.

Our Riad was a quick 10 minute walk to the main square of Djeam el Fna. We left and went to meet Mounir, someone I contacted though CS in order to get a real, un-touristy view of Marrakech.  We quickly became friends because he is awesome.  We could not have gotten through our time in Marrakech without him, and our friend Eric would have been stuck in Fes but more on that later. He took us to an AMAZING restaurant and juice place called Agnaoue which we went to every day we were in Marrakech for their juices.  We then walked around the famous Marrakech souk (market) and ooggled at the beautiful fabrics, crafts, shoes, etc. 

The twisted derbs of the souk - getting lost is half the fun!

Beautiful Cookies

That night we visited Djema el Fna - a UNESCO world heritage site.  It is crazy walking there - you have to walk through narrow streets dodging people, motorbikes, cars, bikes, donkeys pulling carts, horses pulling carts, people pulling carts, beggars, merchants with their wares spread on the ground and more!  The Djema at night is amazing:  storytellers, gnawa musicians, impromptu banjo and drum concerts, women applying henna, and people selling these amazing delicious cookies.  During the day the huge square is full of snake charmers, monkeys, water sellers, and merchants.  By night is totally different:  more people, more things to see, and my favorite - where bare concrete was a few hours before almost a hundred restaurant stalls are set up!  It was amazing.  

Storytellers speaking in Darija so we didn't understand it - but very cool!

Dried fruits/nuts stalls

We went back to our Riad where Fathia had spent hours cooking a traditional Moroccan dinner- a fresh salad with argan oil, Beef Tagine with prunes rolled in sesame seeds, preserved lemons, and soaked almonds.  For dessert:  an amazing chocolate, banana, and orange blossom pie.  Wow!  We spent the night drinking a Cote du Rhone style (Moroccan!) wine in our awesome candlelit courtyard.  We tried not to eat the whole pie, buton unsuccessful. 

Fatiha decorated our courtyard with candles and put our amazing dinner in the dining room. 

LOOK AT THIS PIE!!!!

"The smells are amazing:  Fathia's cooking, spice stalls, people, diesel.  The last two don't smell bad, just different - it actually reminds me a bit of the Philippines.  As I write this the call to prayer is sounding and I'm sitting on our rooftop terrace watching the sunset.  What an amazing city!" 

*  Differences between Europe and the States:  EasyJet doesn't assign seats, so its basically first come, first served, much like Southwest used to be.  However, people don't really line up, its more of a giant mob. 

Esquire!

Long time no update!  D and I traveled to Morocco in December with some friends from SwitzerFrancerLand, Baltimore, and Belgium.  It was great fun and I can’t wait to share it.  We went to NY for Christmas where we battled the Great Compost Fire of 2010 and survived the Crazy Blizzard of 2010.  I will share the Great Compost Fire story soon.  D and I were supposed to travel to Las Vegas to spend New Year’s Eve with my family.  However, the Crazy Blizzard was on Sunday 26 December, and we were going to fly out on 30 December but everything was still not back to normal and we finally flew here on 3 January.  

Yesterday, I was finally sworn in as an attorney!   It’s been a long road and I am so appreciative of my family and friends.  I couldn’t have done it without you all!  Thank you for all the support and love for the last three years.  

I was supposed to be sworn in on 4 November 2010 at the 1^st District ceremony with most of my friends who stayed in the Chicago area after law school.  The Illinois Supreme Court even sent the tickets to our house…in SwitzerFrancerland.  So, obviously I couldn’t go.  I figured I would just get sworn in at the Embassy.  Organizing that was a huge pain, and in the end they told me I could get sworn in at the Embassy but that no one could come in with me, I couldn’t bring a camera or cell phone, and I could only come in the walk in hours and if they had higher priority issues, I would have to come back the next day.  The Swiss Embassy is 3.5 hours away from Geneva.  I knew I was going to be in Las Vegas, so I figured I could get sworn in here.  

Scheduling that was a bit of a pain as well, the IL Supreme Court granted me permission to get sworn in at another district.  I found a list of State Court judges and called them to schedule a time to get sworn in.  I finally found a judge who agreed to swear me in, and told the wonderful woman, Jan, who I have been working with at the IL Supreme Court.  She told me I would have to pay for the overnight shipping, which was fine.  I get a call back a few hours later and Jan says that she has no record of me taking the Bar in IL.  I have a minor meltdown and realize it’s because I used my maiden name with my married name.  OK minor glitch that’s fine.  A few hours later I get another call back and Jan says that they can’t find the judge in their records – because the judge I was working with is not a federal judge.  Jan tells me I have to get a FEDERAL judge to swear me in.  OK major glitch – where am I going to find a FEDERAL judge to swear me in within the next 3 days?!  So, I Google the Federal District Court of Nevada find the judge list…and start cold calling Federal Judges.  Luckily for me, the first judge I called agreed to administer my oath.  I confused his assistant quite a bit, as they don’t normally get calls like this…

Me:  Hi, I’m looking for a Judge to administer my attorney oath.  I passed the Bar in IL but missed my swearing in ceremony in November.  I need a federal judge to administer my oath, and the IL Supreme Court Clerk will send everything necessary to Las Vegas for the oath.  Does Judge Foley have any free time to administer my oath?

Assistant:  I’m sorry, what?  I wasn’t really expecting a call like this, so could you explain it again?

Me:  explains again

Assistant:  OK let me talk to the Judge….[she comes back on the phone]  Hi, I’m sorry I’m still a bit confused, you are an Illinois attorney but you are getting sworn in here?

Me:  Yes

Assistant:  How?

Me:  Well, they gave me special permission to get sworn in here because I missed my ceremony, and I’m here visiting my family.

Assistant:  And why don’t you get sworn in in Illinois?

Me:  Because I live in Switzerland.

Assistant:  ….OK, um hold on.  [she tells the judge, I hear them laugh]  Well, we are very excited to meet you. 

Me:  THANK YOU SO MUCH!  Also, my family would like to come is that OK?

Assistant: Sure no problem. 

So the Honorable Judge George Foley, Jr.  agrees to administer my attorney oath.  Awesome.  Yesterday, we leave the house very early just in case.  We have to take 2 cars because there are 7 people coming to the courthouse.  We pop the address into the GPS and drive to 333 Las Vegas Blvd. – yes I was sworn in on Las Vegas Blvd.  We drive to the where the GPS says it is, and see the buildings for the City of Las Vegas.  We park, and try and find the Courthouse.  We can’t find it and finally talk to someone who tells us its not here, and a few miles down the road.  We run back to our cars and drive like madmen down the street.  Dave and I are in the car with Justine and her boyfriend Jayce, who is making evasive maneuvers because the GPS told us the wrong way to go again. We finally see the courthouse and Dave and I jump out of the car and run in.  The cars have to park, and FINALLY with maybe 2 minutes to spare, we make it to Judge Foley’s courtroom.  It’s locked so we get buzzed into his chambers. 

We meet Judge Foley and his assistant and they tell us that their courtroom is occupied because there is a trial going on but another Judge has allowed us to use her courtroom.  THe Federal Judges in Las Vegas are awesome.  We walk in the back way and my family is excited that we get to go into a Federal District Courtroom.  Everyone gets into the courtroom and then starts taking pictures.  Justine says “Wow I’ve only been in a courtroom when I’ve been in trouble!” (She means traffic court).   Judge Foley administers my oath, I say I will uphold the Constitution of the State of Illinois and the United States Constitution and then I’m a real lawyer!!!

 

I take pictures with the Judge and thank him for accommodating me.  D shakes his hand and says thank you, my dad introduces himself and shakes his hand and says thank you…and then introduces him to my mom, my sister, my sister’s boyfriend, and my uncle.  Hahaha!  I told my good friend Stacy about this and she says that this judge will be talking about this for the next few months because they don’t normally do these things, and that I probably should have warned him that I am Filipino and that a LOT of my family was coming. 

Mom, Dad, and Uncle Marcial had to go back to work, so Justine, Jayce, Dave, and I went out for a celebratory lunch.  Since I was sworn in on Las Vegas Blvd, we thought let’s just make it super Las Vegas-y and eat on the Strip.  We decided to eat at La Cave in the Wynn.  It is a great wine and tapas bar, and the service was incredible.*  Our server, Rafael was probably the best server I've ever experienced.  The food was so fresh and they had a fantastic wine list.  We celebrated with champagne, Justine found a new favorite wine (Kerner), and I highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Las Vegas! 

After a fun and delicious 2 hour lunch we went to Max Brenner in Caesar’s Palace.  It is a chocolate place and everything was so rich and decadent.  We had hot chocolates and hazelnut milk chocolate milk shakes.  We also had peanut butter, chocolate, and marshmallow pizza.  We also had a ‘sharing’ which consisted of chocolate fondue, chocolate bark, chocolate brownies, chocolate egg rolls, chocolate crispies, chocolate waffles, and even more stuff I can’t remember.  Then we rolled home. 

Last night we had some family and friends over to celebrate – I am very lucky to have such a wonderful and supportive family!

* Another difference between SwitzerFrancerland:  customer service is practically non-existent unless you are at an amazing restaurant, and it extends to more than restaurants: schools, banks, etc.   

Bar Trip # 1 - Burgundy Wine Region

Our home for the week!

A few weeks after arriving in Europe, we had a great visit from Stacy and George.  Stacy is a good friend from law school - I wouldn't have made it through without her.  

We rented a house in Change, France through Homeaway.com.  Homeaway.com is a site we always use to book vacation homes.  It was a wonderful place, a former winemaker's home, complete with fireplace, pool, sauna, and a washer and dryer!*

Hospice de Beaune

 The first day we were there, we visited the Hospice de Beaune, a charitable hospital in Beaune, France, which operates to this day.  Hospice de Beaune also owns 61 acres of vineyard, many Grand Cru and Premiere Cru.  A very important wine auction is held in November of each year, and this charitable wine auction sets the prices for wine of the region for the next year.  The Hospice de Beaune has a beautiful glazed tile roof, which is common in the region.  We all remarked that we did not think that this would be the architecture of French countryside, and looks more like something from Germany. 

We also attended a Burgundy Wine class at Sensation Vin.  It was an interesting class to learn about the wines of the Burgundy region.  Our teacher taught us the basics that we already knew - how to taste, etc. and had some very useful charts in addition to the basic wine wheel.  She also taught us how to read a Burgundy label, and about the terroir of Burgundy.  It was quite interesting. 

The Cellar

The next day we took the 'Prestige' wine tour at Patriarche Pere et Fils with sommelier Jean-Michele.  I fully encourage going on specialized wine tours such as these if you really want to learn about Burgundy wine.  The normal wine tours are 10 Euro/person and you go on a self guided tour of the cellars, taste the wines set out for guests, and receive a tastevin for which to taste.  These were used back in the day to help winemakers taste the wine.  Now, its a kitschy tourist thing.  According to Jean-Michele, they are given out to ensure that the individuals taking the tour won't get drunk.  

Our Wine Tasting

Our group with Jean-Michele

Jean-Michele took us on a private tour of the 13th century cellar.  It was amazing!  They have over 3 million bottles of wine, the oldest from 1907.  (If I remember correctly) At the end of our tour, we had a private tasting with Jean-Michele in a candle-lit private room in the cellar.  The whole cellar had very low light in order to protect the bottles.  We tasted 8 interesting bottles of Burgundy, from Village to Grand Cru.  It was a wonderful tour and at the end we were each given a bottle to take home.  The tour costs 40 Euro, but the bottles given to us cost 35 Euro, which brings it down to the cost of a normal self-guided tour. 

The next day we did a similar tour at Marche aux Vins.We did the 'Best of Burgundy' tasting.  It was interesting, but we liked the wines at Patriarche better.  That night, we had a wonderful picnic (mostly cheese) in the world famous Montrachet vineyard. 

We drove around the Burgundy region - in both the Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune.  The area is beautiful - many rolling hills with vineyards as far as the eye can see and beautiful little villages. 

 

We visited Clos Vogeout - one of the larges Grand Cru plots in the region and even helped harvest grapes!  We were there during harvest time and asked some pickers of we could help them for a bit.  It was great fun, but I probably would not like doing that for more than 30 minutes.  

We also visited the Romanee- Conti vineyard, one of the most famous wines of the world, and definitely the most famous of Burgundy.  They only have 1.8 hectares and produce about 450 cases per year (about 5,400 bottles).  Each bottle costs about $6,000!  We did not try any while we were in Burgundy.  

The last night of our Burgundy trip we took a tour of Domaine Monnot Roche.  The owners were the agents of the owner of the Homeaway house and showed us around the home when we first arrived.  We asked if we could visit their winery, and they were happy to oblige.  They presented many (many, many, many) of their wines and even treated us to a Burgundy specialty - gougeres.  Little cheese puffs with spices.  Delish.  After our tasting they took us on a tour of their winery, we saw the barrels, the fermentation room, aging room etc.  We purchased wine and they let us label our wine ourselves (we weren't very good).  They even let us taste the 2009 Burgundy (great year) straight out of the barrel! It was a wonderful way to end our trip.

Next Post:  The Cow Festival!

* How things are different in Europe # 2:  There are very few dryers here - most everyone line dries their clothes.  Great in general, as we normally do the same back in the States, but sometimes you just want a freshly laundered warm towel or to shrink your jeans back to size. 

The Great Apartment Hunt of 2010

But first...The Chalet!

I mentioned that D's experiment graciously rents out a ski chalet (for summer students only) as temp housing.  That is great, because omigosh is rent expensive here! We stayed there for a month.  We got off the plane, drove directly to CERN, and then after an hour or two, drove to the Chalet.  Our friend Nil drove us as it is easy to get lost.* We get to the Chalet, which is in a gorgeous area, literally on the foothills of the Alps.  BUT, for a summer many, many physicists have been running in and out.  Most physicists are boys.  Most boys are dirty.  (Hope no one takes offense to this, but that's my experience) The Chalet was so icky.  So icky.  D and I picked our room and then took on the task of cleaning, because it was (have I mentioned?) so icky.  First task: bathroom.  I am very lucky:  D is quite clean (or has become? I'm not sure).  Regardless, I'm a great cleaner but D pledged a fraternity and can deal with a lot more dirt than I can.  D literally took a Brillo pad to tub.  It went from being gray to being a gleaming white.  Seriously.  It took him at least half an hour to clean the tub.  D also mopped the floors.  He is so awesome.  The kitchen had to be cleaned as well.  It took us about a week to clean everything up and do a bunch of laundry because people just left the (dirty) sheets on the bed.  Ew.

In the end, it worked out fine - and the Chalet had Satellite so we could watch British TV! It was also our first experience with real functional shutters!  Every night we close them, and every morning we got to open them and look out onto the foothills of the Alps.  The first time it happened, D said I looked like I was in a Disney movie!  Every time I opened them, I sang. It was great!

But we moved out into an amazing apartment on 1 October! 

Finding an apartment in Geneva is ridiculous.  There are too many people and not enough housing.  So began our great apartment search.  We were actually VERY lucky.  D had to work all day, so all I did was look for apartments.  I looked on Glocals (which is a social networking site here), WRS classifieds (World Radio Switzerland - English radio channel), CERN Marketplace, and the UN housing ads (the last two are only available if you work at CERN or the UN or if you know someone who does).

Regies:  Here in Europe many apartments are owned by the Regies.  They regulate the apartment, and replace stuff after a certain amount of time, etc.  But, boy they are a pain to work with.  First, you have to see the apartment, fill out a crazy amount of paperwork, and there are generally like 20 people viewing the same apartment you are.  You have to have a certain amount of income, but also be under a certain income.  It was intense.  After a week of working through the Regies, we find out that the Swiss Embassy messed up our visas - we were given visitor visas instead of resident visas.  So no Regie would take us anyway.

Apartment 1:  Kitchen Closet

Location:  Paquis, Geneva, Switzerland

Area:  20 meteres squared

Pros:  In Geneva, close to public transport, furnished, had a lift (for 3 people).

Cons:  1500 Francs, not including internet or electricity.  D had to duck to shower.  Tiny.  Oh, and the KITCHEN WAS IN A CLOSET.  It had a college sized fridge, and a microwave with a burner on it.  It was not big enough for 2 people.  

I took this picture on the other side of the apartment.  Seriously.  This is the one room of the apartment.

Apartment 2:  Regie Experience

Location: Meyrin, Switzerland

Area:  22 meteres squared

Pros:  In Meyrin, close to D's work, farther from Geneva so cheaper, balcony

Cons:  We visited and there were at least 30 people there looking at the apartment.  It was still 1 room, but the kitchen was a bit bigger.  1 room.  It was still 1400 Francs. 

Apartment 3:  Unfurnished - literally

Location:  Meyrin, Switzerland

Area:  25 meters squared

Pros:  Great building, great hardwood, 1200 Francs.

Cons:  Here in Europe when an apartment is unfurnished, it doesn't just mean that it doesn't come with a bed.  It doesn't come with a fridge, or a stove either.  So we would have to buy that stuff.  No.

Apartment 4:  Camping Cabin

Location:  St. Genis, France

Area 30 meters squared

Pros:  Very close to CERN

Cons:  Everything else.  I wish I had a picture of this place.  It was literally a camping cabin.  There was no heating - only by wood stove.  If we wanted hot water for the shower we had to turn on a little box which would heat up the water.  It was 'furnished'  with a bed, stove, fridge, and the worlds oldest radio.  I felt a bit bad for the man, because he was really nice.  But, on our apartment tour, he told us that people had stolen stuff so he had to put bars in the window, and that the steps leading up to the apartment are very slippery.  Last year he fell on them and hurt his leg.  Did I mentioned the framed Men In Black poster on the wall?

Apartment 5:  OUR APARTMENT!

Pros:  EVERYTHING - its in a renovated farmhouse.  It was renovated 4 years ago in an ecologically friendly way.  It is attached to the landlord's home.  We have solar panels, underfloor heating, the insulation is hay, and the walls are made of plaster and mud.  We have a compost in the backyard, we can garden because WE HAVE A YARD.  The landlords are wonderful.  I can see the foothills of the Alps from our desk, along with the ski lift that is in our town. It's great and we can't wait for people to visit! 

Our Kitchen/Living Room

Our Yard!  The Jura and the ski lift in the background

Our Living Room/Kitchen

I just love our yard. :)

Our Bedroom

Bathroom

The world's smallest washing machine!

We have already had Stacy & George, and Anita & Warren visit.  It has been great fun showing our friends life in Europe.  We hope more people can visit! 

* How things are different in Europe # 1:

Amazing thing:  If you don't have a map, and know the city you are going to - Europeans are AMAZING at labeling what city is where.  At roundabouts you will see signs to the city you would like to go. For instance, in Gex, there was a sign to Paris, perfect!

Un-Amazing thing:  If you want to navigate (say from googlemaps) on road names, you are outta luck.  Road names are posted as tiny little things, and roads change names a lot.  Also, if you are coming from the wrong direction, you may not see the road sign because it is pointed so only one direction will see the sign. ugh.