Lac Leman

I had the privilege of going on a field trip a couple of days ago with Ana's Mom's class. She is a teacher at a nearby preschool, so I was appointed one of four chaperones for the 16 3-year-old children. We went to Lac Leman, the lake in the heart of Geneva. Sixty percent of the lake lies in Switzerland, and the remaining 40% is in French territory. The Chablais Alps and the Bernese Alps border the lake. It is really nice to walk around the lake and admire the mountains and all of the boats. The commercial center is right there as well.

Here are some pictures of the lake. The first is a picture of me with the jet d'eau (jet of water) to the left. It is one of the most well-recognized landmarks here in Geneva.

When we arrived, we hopped into a little white touristic train that runs along the border of the lake for a couple of miles. There was some audio to listen to describing exactly what we were passing by, but it was pretty tough to hear over the screams of the 3-year-old kids. We got out at the end and walked through some gardens to enjoy the weather. Weather in Geneva is....difficult. It will be 80 F and sunny one day, and then 50 F and rainy the next day; I have been told that the weather I am experiencing is actually far and away the best that Geneva has to offer. It is not Miami weather, but I guess I will get used to it.

Last night I went to an outdoor viewing area with a big projector showing the Swiss soccer match against Honduras. It was full of Swiss hopefuls wanting to see their team advance to the knockout round of the World Cup. Unfortunately for the Swiss, they tied, and a tie was not good enough to send them through to the next round. Spain and Chile advanced ahead of them in their group. Consequently, the streets were packed with proud Spanish people waving their flags in the faces of all of the Swiss fans. They were celebrating as if they had won the World Cup; I wanted to remind them that they were supposed to win, and they still have four more games to go before becoming champions. I am going to the same place tonight to watch the USA match vs. Ghana.