I think the first thing to write about is the wonderful time I had last week with my lovely Andreas. On the Friday, I successfully managed to bus it all the way from Annecy to Geneva (with the buses the way they are here I consider that an achievement in itself) and got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. After waiting an hour or so, being hassled by an insane Scottish lady and almost killed by a child whizzing around the terminal on a scooter, I finally met Andreas as he came out at arrivals. Typically of course he was the last one! It was so great to see him, to see a familiar face at last! We had a big cuddle and after a wander around the shops in the airport, we were back on the bus.
Our weekend together was absolutely blissful. We did lots of walking together, shopping, and eating - perfect! Annecy itself was already pretty lively; the whole weekend, there was a Venetian festival on, basically people walking around all dressed up masquerade-like, which was interesting. i'm not really sure why they chose Annecy to have a Venetian festival, there must be some link ... either way it was pretty interesting to see. On Saturday we went to the most gorgeous little bistro called Le Regann, where we had the most delicious lunch, and befriended some tourists who were visiting from Dijon. After exploring the shops and lazing in the sun, we stopped off for a Quick burger and walked back to Les Pensieres.
Wandering around Annecy ...
Sunday was definitely my favourite day. Pretty much everything is shut on Sundays here so the day before we went to the supermarket to get some things for a picnic, so after a lovely lazy morning, we headed out to find the perfect spot to have our picnic - thanks to Andreas, who insisted we try a different direction (I'm clueless with directions even with a map, so once I've found one route somewhere, I tend to stick to it!) we found the most gorgeous little spot on a little wooden jetty, secluded from the road and the traffic, and right on the lake. It was wonderful, I took some pictures but still need to upload them! We even befriended a few ducks who took a liking to our mustard crisps, one of which even jumped up onto the pier and tried to steal them from us! We spent the pretty much the whole afternoon there, fattening up the ducks and lazing in the sun. Blissful!
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Andreas' new best friend, Pierre the duck.
Monday came around all too quickly, Andreas didn't want to leave and I didn't want him to go! After getting him on the bus in the morning, I had to go straight to work, which was rubbish after the wonderful weekend we'd just had! I plan to go and stay with him over the Easter holidays, as I have a few consecutive days off again and plan to make the most of it!
This week at work I feel like I've made quite a lot of progress. I've worked really hard this week, done a lot of hours and even extra overtime. There have been a lot of conferences this week, the biggest being one yesterday for GlaxoSmithKline, so I was running around like a headless chicken, showing people to their rooms, organising taxis, sorting keys and food arrangements. I feel like now they have given me a lot more responsibility and more complex tasks to do, but I am up for the challenge! I feel more like an actual staff member rather than just a student there. I enjoy the job, and although it is challenging and there's lots of stuff to do, time passes really quickly. I also feel my French has improved too, and my English skills always come in handy too - during another conference last week, I was stopped by a French guy who asked me which university I was at in Newcastle - it turned out he had done a year at Northumbria, and knew all about Geordies and life in the toon - it was nice to be reminded of home, even from someone who wasn't even English!
Today has been a lovely, less hectic and a bit more of a peaceful day compared to last week. I've again been into Annecy, where again there is some sort of festival going on, this time circus-themed, with parades and stuff. Even now, I can still hear and see it going on across the lake. I'm making the most of having a quiet day today as I'm back at work again tomorrow, but this time I'm by myself on reception, welcoming some English-speaking clients arriving for yet another conference, and also there is another stagiaire arriving tomorrow so I will be welcoming her and showing her around. I'm looking forward to it, it will be nice to meet someone who is in the same boat as me, as so far I've been the only stagiaire!
Bisous xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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