Give me your milk and watch me drink it

A traditional Swiss cow and its fresh milk. Do you think its a little rude of me to be flaunting drinking her milk right in front of her?

Children of the (Swiss) corn.

Even though it doesn't say Nestle, this is the Nestle factory. That is some nice chocolate.

Throughout my time here, I haven't felt like I've gotten to know Switzerland all that well. Sure, I go to Geneva nearly everyday and I've seen some of its major cities. But I hadn't seen much of the stereotypical Swiss traditions. Finally, it happened.

Jane, Lauren, and I decided to venture out in Gruyere country to find some traditional Swiss delicatessens, chocolate and cheese (if you're curious, Gruyere cheese is what we call Swiss cheese back in the states). Well, to make a long story short, it took us nearly 3.5 hours to drive the 1.5 hours to get to the place thanks to some shoddy directions. But nonetheless, we made it. Late. We missed the last tour of the Nestle factory by about 20 min. At least we got to buy some chocolate. Then we found a cheese-making place, but their tours were down for the day, too.

All was not lost. This area is the most gorgeous land I've ever seen. No question. I simply can not describe this area in words. Pictures help, but not that much.

In addition to this, we found a little tent with a cow, a calve, a horse, and some goats underneath. Underneath the cow was a milkmaid. Behind the milkmaid was a helper boy...all wearing traditional Swiss-garb. That boy then passed out little cups of the fresh milk. Fresh milk! Interestingly disgusting. But at least I tried it unlike my friends.

So there you go...mountains, chocolate, milk, and cheese. That is Switzerland. Not this sad excuse of a city that is Geneva.


I've realized that I don't really talk very much about being an Au Pair anymore. I think that's been because the boys have been very good with me lately. I can feel that they love me more and more everyday. Aiden has actually been giving me kisses good-bye and running to me when I pick him up. He even smiles when he sees me pull in the driveway! Macsen has been consistently loving this whole time. I've introduced him to the Wizard of Oz, and he loves it. I really think that everything is so much easier now because I was so strict with them in the beginning. They still throw tantrums, but they are very abbreviated because they know I won't give in, and I mean what I say.

Ok...that's all. I'm flying off to America on August 1, and I'm VERY excited. I could go on and on with everything I'm looking forward to. I'm tentatively coming back here on the 27th...we'll see how that goes.