This week we had to get the car fixed from the mishaps earlier in the year. Everything is more difficult when you don't fully understand the language. But I'm definitely getting better and can struggle through most conversations. I've been listening to the Book of Mormon in french and following along reading it.
Everything I learned in the Michel Thomas lessons starts really sinking in when you hear and see it over and over again. I'm to the point where I can get about 80% of church and church related things. 80% of food ordering situations and 60-70% of just general day-to-day situations. I wish I could practice more, but everyone speaks English and wants to practice their English. Oh well...
On Monday I dropped the car off and on Thursday I picked it up. Luckily the insurance paid for most of it. The lost key at 280 euros is a huge bummer, but stuff happens. When I got the car back I had noticed that there was some sunscreen from one of the kids on the side door of the car. I wish I would have known that sunscreen eats the clearcoat. Basically we have permanent handprints on the car now. Wonderful. I'll need to get that fixed before we start to sell the car in the next couple weeks.
Friday night we headed off towards Switzerland to visit Isabelle. We met her 16 years ago in the deaf ward in Provo. She's been a really good friend to Kim and our family for many years. She is the sweetest lady you've ever met. She was in a terrible car accident where her fiancé died. Her injuries make it very hard for her to walk and to hear. She has a cochlear implant which helps, however, it is still very difficult for her.
She is an inspiration to our family because of the way she attacks her challenges. She does it by helping other people. Literally everyday she visits a 63 year-old mentally and physically disabled man in a nursing home. She has developed an amazing relationship with this man who cannot talk. She met him by asking "Who doesn't get visited..." She is committed to visiting him until he dies. She also visits a member of the ward who is in prison. It takes her a couple of hours to get to the prison and then she pays 80 francs to get home via a taxi. That is a huge sacrifice for someone on a fixed income.
Basically, she is one of the most Christ-like people I've ever met.
Driving through Switzerland is an amazing experience. It is soooo beautiful. We drove about 2 hours through some crazy switchbacks and canyons to get to Chamonix. It is Mecca for extreme skiing and snowboarding in Europe.
We arrived in town, parked and headed up two trams to the Aiguille du Midi, which is just below Mont Blanc. They claim it is the "Real" top of Europe. It was absolutely incredible. The steepest tram that I've ever seen. We enjoyed the visit to the top and couldn't believe how jagged the mountains are. They are the prettiest mountains we've ever seen. It was shocking to see how their glaciers have been receding in recent years. You can literally see where the glacier was and where it is now. Pretty scary how much ice has disappeared.
The Matterhorn is near the middle, way off in the distance.
Mont Blanc is the tallest roundest one in the background
It was pretty cold up top, so we didn't spend a ton of time up there. But enough to be thoroughly impressed. We're not sure how Bob and Brody Macfarlane boarded that lift because it looked like the only way down was straight down. So we're excited to talk to them about it... We were excited that we could both Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn way off in the distance. We didn't think we could check that off the bucket list so that was pretty exciting.
There were hundreds of paragliders heading up the trams around Chamonix. It must be a really good spot for it.
There were hundreds of paragliders heading up the trams around Chamonix. It must be a really good spot for it.
Emilee and Jake were freaking out at this point. Looking down through the steps was wide open air probably 1000 ft above the ground.
There were tons of people climbing this face.
After the tram ride we had a delicious lunch at a French cafe. They know how to make great sandwiches. I had a Monsieur Croque, which was a cheese covered ham sandwhich. Awesome! The kids had paninis and Ashton had a rasberry macaroon sandwhich. I know, I'm a bad Dad!
We then headed up to an Alpine slide and rode that for an hour. You couldn't fall off it because it was on rails, so we basically went full speed every time down the mile track. It was awesome and all the kids had a great time. Even Ashton held his hands up the entire time the last couple rides down. The weather was perfect, the scenery was beautiful and we had a great time.
We got home about 7:30, ordered some pizza and had a delightful evening talking with Isabelle and Mike. He rents a room from her and helps her with a ton of things. He's a nurse at the local nursing home. It was a big bonus that his parents were Portuguese, so between French and Portuguese we could communicate pretty well!
Sunday morning we headed to church in Neuchatel. There was a nice, small church building there with a great ward. We went to priesthood, sunday school and finally sacrament meeting. The kids didn't get much as it was all in French. I bore my testimony in English and sign language so that Isabelle could understand and a missionary translated it into French. I basically thanked her for being such a great example of someone that truly lives the gospel.
The drive home was pretty uneventful except the oil light flashed on for a second. We found a gas station and tried to figure out what type of oil to put it. We are getting the oil changed on Monday, so we needed just a quart to get us home. Everything went well the rest of the trip and we were excited to get home and sleep in our own beds.
We have 6 weeks left and are starting to really think about all of the things we need to do to get home. First on my list is getting health insurance as we'll come off the state insurance here on the 16th. Sure glad Obamacare has changed things so I don't need to worry about getting insurance anymore. Just need to pick a plan and pay for it. Nice!
Until next week...
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