(April 17, Geneva): Team Housewife

On Tuesday the Fantastic 4.5 was sadly split up because Jonathan had to go back to work.  That meant that Ryan, Melanie and I were left to our own devices.  Thankfully Melanie is more responsible than us because if Ryan & I were in charge I feel very confident that we would have slept in our bat cave for the next 5 days.  Jake would have been able to have his way with the kitchen cabinets and by the time we finally emerged from the fortress of hurricane shutters, no lollipop or glass dish would have been left standing. 


Jonathan's return to work gave birth to Team Housewife.  Our little trio took on Geneva over the next 3 days and hilarity ensued.  Now, let me preface all of this with the fact that I am the product of an incredibly awesome stay at home mom/housewife.  There's not a snowballs chance in Houston in August that I'd be able to be a functioning adult without her.  I am WELL-ACQUAINTED with the fact that it is the hardest job on the planet.  Obviously not because I was difficult- I was a dream (haaaa) - but because it just is.  It's non-stop.  No sick days.  Completely ungrateful employees/staff.   Staff who flush entire rolls of toilet paper down the upstairs toilet causing it to overflow into the light fixture in the kitchen below.  You know- that kind of thing.  I could go on but I'm pretty sure everyone is on the same page. 


So, I thought I was prepared for the challenge.  Apparently I AM wrong sometimes. Consider my face shoved.  Let me just give some mad props to Melanie because being a housewife in Geneva (and I suspect all of Europe) is HARD WORK.  Cobblestone and strollers are not BFF.  Navigating the strictly time-controlled bus doors by yourself with a big stroller can lead to some precarious situations.  It's hard to fit babies AND groceries into a stroller.  Sometimes sacrifices need to be made (don't worry - it was never Jake).   Melanie works so hard and does such an amazing job that I just feel it should be pointed out.  Jake and Jonathan are two very lucky men.  One would think that having Ryan & I to "assist" would make things easier on her.  I'm not sure that was really the case, but we had a fabulous time getting to tag along and at least provide some comic relief.


So, for Day 1 of our Team HW adventures Melanie decided to take us to Rue du Rhone which is Geneva's fancy shopping street.  En route we stopped by the mailbox which contained an exciting surprise regarding the GPS Melanie had ordered a month (you read that correctly) prior in the form of a letter in French.  All that we could really determine was that it was not the GPS and that it seemed to say that the GPS was in Zurich.  Since we hoped to have it for our trip to Italy on Friday, we decided to swing by the Post Office to see if a little Fren-glish could get that situation sorted out.  That was most definitely a fail.  Something about taxes and receipts.  More on the GPS in my post covering Friday.

There's a cute little boulangerie/coffee shop type place within walking distance of Jonathan & Melanie's.  I think we went here nearly every day we were in town.  We made a quick stop before taking on the Swiss Post Office.  One needs fuel when trying to take on the government after-all.

While we're on the subject of French, let's talk about Ryan's grasp of the language, shall we?  I am not sure I've mentioned it on the blog, but I've been taking French at work.  Once a week during lunch we have class at the office taught by an employee who is fluent.  I am by no means picking this up easily.  However, I have at least a working knowledge of a few phrases, the numbers, the days of the week, a variety of nouns, etc.  I am super intimidated to use it though because I know that I butcher the pronounciation and French-speakers are not the most forgiving.  Conversely, Ryan has taken 0 French in his life and has absolutely no shame in using any phrase he hears.  What phrases did my beau hone in on?  Let's go through them.

1.  S'il vous plait.  (there's an accent here that I'm too lazy to look up how to type correctly).  This is pronounced (essentially) seel-voo-play and means please.  I would venture to guess most non-French speakers are familiar with its meaning.  Ryan would not be in the majority because I told him at least 4 times what it meant.  Typically after he would just randomly proclaim "s'il vous plait!"  For at least the first half of this day's journey he probably sounded like a kidnap victim running around saying "please! please! please!"

2. C'est bon!  This is pronounced say bawn and means "it's good!"  I'm not sure what day Ryan figured out what this meant, if ever.  Again- did not stop him from using it.  He would alternate between "c'est bon!" and "non c'est bon!"  The latter is not correct grammar.  Perhaps my favorite time Ryan utilized this phrase was as we were walking towards the bus stop, we encountered a lady who's yorkie took a #2 in the middle of the sidewalk.  Ryan looked her in the face as he maneveured the stroller around it and said "C'est bon!"  That, my friends, is actually NOT c'est bon.

3. Mon feces.  This means nothing but it's what we were under the impression was the phrase for "my son".  It was later determined that my son is actually "mon fils," pronounced mon fees.  You know Ryan was fully on board with pushing the stroller around and saying "excuse mon feces," at every opportunity possible.  And I do mean EVERY opportunity.

Most people say that French-speakers are much more apt to be nice to you if you at least try to utilize the language.  After 1 day of Ryan Martin in Geneva, they may be re-evaluating that policy.

Our view headed to Rue du Rhone.  C'est bon!  S'il vous plait!

Eventually, mon feces, Melanie, Ryan & I arrived on Rue du Rhone.  Those Genevans know how to jack up some prices, I can tell you that.  I fell in love with no less than 15 pairs of shoes.  Ryan convinced me these matches were just not meant to be by informing me the exchange rate was about 1.8.  I typically have a good idea of what the Euro exchange rate is from work, but I don't know the first thing about the Swiss Franc rate.  Jonathan later confirmed at dinner that it is 1.08.  Let that be a lesson ladies- study up on your exchange rates before you shop abroad or your sig others might talk you out of a shoe marriage that was meant to be!

After we had our fill of broken dreams, we decided to grab some lunch and head over to have a mini-picnic on Lake Geneva.  Melanie and I opted for some deli sandwiches on baguettes.  Ryan, being the adventurous eater that he is, selected a Greek shop to get his take out from.  All sounded on the up & up until we realized that the shop was empty and Ryan actually had to wake up the gentleman manning it to put his order in.  Luckily, no food poisoning was contracted and Ryan claims that his gyro was delicious.

Beautiful park on Lake Geneva.

Lake Geneva and it's iconic big fountain thing.

Our view while we ate.  Hey hotties!

Lake Geneva... now with boat.

My awesome partners in crime.

Ryno y yo.

After lunch it was pretty late in the day and we decided to head back to the apartment to start preparing for dinner.  Melanie made some mouth-watering baked chicken.  I maintained my usual post as watch-in-awer and every once in a while retrieving Jakey's truck from under the rolling island.  She also made the BEST cupcakes I have ever tasted for Ryan's birthday the next day.  They were white cupcakes with chunks of real fresh strawberry in both the icing and the cupcakes.  Just thinking about them makes me hungry.  I'm telling you... we were spoooooiled.

Yup, I married that.  P.S. This is the front entry/parking lot to Jonathan & Melanie's building.  Aren't the flowers awesome?

After dinner we once again shared a bottle of wine and watched some TV.  This particular night we got addicted to Family Feud.  The Steve Harvey version is SO MUCH better than the Al Borlin (I dont know his real life name) one.  Yet another fab day in the books.

Next up: Ryan's birthday and touring St. Peter's!