Annecy: After Dusk

LAST ANNECY POST

After the sun went down we just relaxed, and retraced our steps! We visited the Christmas market and looked over what they hard. They had a snowman, an Elf and a reindeer!

As we were walking to a shop we heard loud music and a little light show on a building (the one behind the snowman). It was such a cool performance!

The Castle was all lit up at night. A wonderful French woman took this one, she did such a good job! Thank you kind strangers!

After we got off the bus in Geneva, we made one last attempt to see the largest fountain. One the way to the lake, we found a few interesting lights... What does this mean?

Pacman Christmas lights=love!

Brent at the Lake! It was a really spectacular.

Annecy was such a wonderful experience. It was such an enchanting time. For being there for 11 hours we never got bored. The weather was like an early spring day, the town was vibrant and alive. I would love to go back there again sometime. It was a really rough morning but it turned out to be a one of my favorite days in Europe so far. Brent and I really enjoyed being able to have this experience together!

Geneva: Reformation Park

Note: I will be posting a few post daily, so check back frequently!

We once again are traveling in Europe again before we are finally heading back to the States for a long while! Our first stop on the way home was Geneva Switzerland. Now I have no idea why Brent and I chose to go to the most expensive place in Europe last, but we did. To be able to afford this we ended up staying in Ferny- Voltaire France. To get into Geneva we have to walk about 35 minutes, then take an incredibly rare bus and then transfer onto another bus. It is a process to say the least.

Once we got into the city we made our first stop Bastion Park.

This park is famous for two things. First, GIANT CHESS! This is at the start of the game.

Brent took the first prisoner.
But quickly realized he was no match!


It took a little persausion, but I finally overpowered the king and was crowned victor!

The other famous aspect of this park is the Reformation wall. This is a huge tribute to the leaders of the Catholic Reformation, Guillaume Farel, Jean Calvin, Theodore de Beze, and John Knox.

Brent searching the map while I stare at the pavement... At least the pavement here is pretty interesting to look at!
As we began searching for Jean Calvin's church we stumbled upon a wonderful little playground!


Charging on the wooden horse!

Brent was sore after only a few rounds.

It was an awesome beginning to the day. We had so much fun just goofing off. This tourist thing is hard, so it was nice to get such a great start to it all!

Geneva: Finding Calvin's Church

THE FIRST GENEVA POST IS THE NEXT ONE!!!

The great thing about touring Europe is that most of these ancient cities we condensed into a small space, so everything we need to see is fairly close, making walking a great mode of transportation. Brent and I wanted to visit Calvin's church but didn't know exactly where is was, so we just started walking. First, we found a place to wash our hands.

And and interesting clock. I am not sure how you are suppose to read this, but we saw two or three around.

We found and old time canon, with stained glass mosaics in the background.

After all our searching, we ended up here! Jean Calvin's church!

It is actually two buildings that were connected later. This is the spire in the middle. It is in a pretty tight square so it was a little difficult to photograph.

I like that the doors had an appropriately sized lock. Giant building, Giant Lock!
I think these were for the choir or something, but I enjoyed how intricate all the carvings are!

A great picture from Brent to emphasize how beautiful the inside was.

Across the street from the big church, is actually where Calvin preached. It is a much more modest church. In many way I enjoy the simplistic decorations more than the big elaborate churches.


The chair in the back is Calvin's actual chair. I couldn't see a bum print, so I questions how many times he sat in it!

After we finished up at Calvin square we found a bench to eat lunch. Brent ran off to take pictures of the huge buildings and then took some of me scarfing down a half PB sandwich and granola bar!

It was turning out to be a gorgeous day. This made Brent and I realize that we are both in great walking shape! Not once did we get to tired to walk and our feet never hurt anymore! I love this aspect of European living.

Geneva: Museum, Russian Orthodox Church and Parks

THIS IS GENEVA POST #3, KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR THE FIRST TWO!

Ever since we went to the London Museum, Brent and I have been looking for one to rival it! For this reason we went to the Geneva Museum of Natural History. Like the London Museum it was free (a price we tend to be addicted to!)

Inside we found a lot of interesting things. Glowing rocks, prehistoric skeletons and more! There was a full story full of stuffed animals of different habitats. Brent wanted to be in the desert with the dik diks.

I preferred the water based animals. The museum was neat but no London Museum, we will just have to keep looking!

Brent also wanted to find the Russian Orthodox church. He really enjoys the idea of the gold Cupola's. He couldn't find it, so I found it for him!

Another famous aspect of Geneva is the famous flower clock! Here it is! Not quite as pretty as when it is in full bloom, but still a dependable watch!

In the park with the flower clock Brent found this unusual statue!
The Flower Clock park is by the harbor where the highest shooting fountain is. Brent made it clear to me that he had to see this fountain at night when they light it up. We saw it during the day but didn't take any pictures. When we got there after dark, the fountain had been turned off. It is sad I know, but I am pretty sure it is because of the freezing weather made it a little more dangerous to shoot, or something!

Geneva: The United Nations

GENEVA POST #4, FOR THE FIRST THREE KEEP SCROLLING DOWN!!!

What is Geneva truly famous for? Banking and the United Nations. Well I don't think anyone would be interested if I posted pictures of banks, but I thought the U.N. Geneva head quarters would be cool. Brent and I hopped a bus to the U.N. Building. Of course we took it one stop to far. "No big deal" we thought "we will just walk back!"

As we began our walk back, we stumbled into this amazing building called Ariana. Yes, this building had a name all of its own! It was so pretty Brent and I had to take a closer look.

Turns out it was a museum, or dishes with a few odds and ends thrown in! This is a beautiful candle holder (standing chandelier?)

when I saw this statue I literally gasped! If you have ever seen the new Pride and Prejudice, you will have seen a similar statue when Lizzie is visiting Mr. Darcy's manner. I have seen that statue 1000 times and always thought it had to be fake it was so pretty. Turns out it wasn't faked, and it was carved from real marble (or at least it could be, the one in the movie was probably Styrofoam!) Some people are so talented to create such wonderful things!

After we got done exploring Ariana, we found the UN. Out side was this giant three legged chair. No idea what that is about!

Brent in front of the sign. The top is French (the national Language) and the bottom english.

Here is the most famous view of the building. I thought I found the American flag but it was really far away from me and most the flags are similarly colored. They should have had a poster showing where each countries flags are so tourist could try and find them!

After the UN, Brent and I went back down to the Lake to try and see the fountain (which was off) and stumbled into the Mausoleum. It was gorgeous. Some guy left it in his will that one was to be built for him, after he died. Pretty smart. I am thinking of doing the same!

After we had seen all that Geneva had to offer, Brent and I went to book tickets to Annecy France. We had had great weather all day, but it started to rain, our train left super early the next day and we were tired. In the end the last three hours of trying to figure everything out and get home, made the day a lot longer than we wanted it to be :(

Get ready because the next blog is about France... Spoiler Alert: We LOVE France!

Final Good- Bye To Budapest

So today (Yesterday by the time I post this)is the last time I will be in Budapest in a very very long time, perhaps forever. I decided that a farewell blog is in order, so here is goes.

I never in my life I thought I would move to somewhere like Budapest. In fact I didn't even know where Budapest was on a map. All I knew coming out here is that I wanted to travel the world, and this was how I was going to accomplish it! When I arrived it was very different from home. I didn't know the language, I didn't have a car, phone, internet, friends, or basically anything. We decided to live with another couple in a small two bedroom apartment. Everything seemed like it would be a disaster but it was such a good exercise in stretching yourself!

Although I am going to enjoy having a phone, and the internet and everything else back, I am going to miss many things around Budapest. The Chain Bridge, Passing St. Istvan's Basilica everyday walking home, Aquaworld, city park, flea markets, Christmas market, chimney bread, trying new foods and restaurants, and all the exercise I get just by walking everywhere. More than anything else though I am truly going to miss the people here in Budapest.

Okay not all of them, mainly our international branch! We have made so many friends here in such a short time! I have never had the chance to meet such wonderful, down to earth, giving people in my life. So here is a small tribute to them!

The Salters. I don't have any new pictures, but I am going to miss playing with Scarlett and Lila all the time! They are such good little girls, and too cute as well! I am also going to miss having dinners over at the Salter's, topped off with games! Jared and Kelli were always more than willing to give travel advice (trust me we needed it!) and help us with anything we needed!

The Chapman's. This is our Branch President, Brandon Chapman. He is a strapping young buck who works for the foreign service. When we first arrived his wife had just had a baby and was stateside waiting for paperwork to go through. Brandon wasted no time in taking us under his wing. He took us to great places like Vapiano's, introduced us to Chimney bread and basically told us what was great about this city. He is really laid back and cool!


After about half our time, Monique (his wife) and kids finally made it home! Haley (7), Melia (5), Dylan (3), and Logan (4 months).
This is such an awesome family. They are such good parents! I really hope I am half as reasonable, calm and collected as they are! In fact, I would never guess Monique or Brandon has four kids because they are still into having friends over and being active. I can not express how charitable and giving they are. They truly make their home open, welcoming and a second home to all those who visit. Monique and Brandon are such a good example of living the gospel in their home. It made me excited to have a big family of my own to get to share the similar experiences they have. They are a great model of living, sharing, serving and spreading the gospel no matter what they are doing! They accomplish all of this in such a modest way I can only admire how humble they seem to be about it!

I love their kids as well. Logan has single-handedly made me believe I could handle a baby. Monique and Brandon were so nice to let me spend almost every second cuddling him! Brent also fell in love with him and got him really excited about becoming a dad (One day NOT SOON)!

Last (but Certainly NOT LEAST!) Arvid and Kelly. I would say that these two people are my parents away from home (because they are the same age as my parents) but they seem way to young to be considered parents! I know they have 5 kids who are all moved out but I loved hanging out with these two! They are so interesting and genuine. I guess I am used to being treated younger but not here! I always felt like I was just one of the gang. I am so appreciative of how much these two were willing to give and sacrifice! They put us up for a weekend when we no longer had our apartment, they were willing to invite us over and feed us dinner, Kelly taught me piano ( I learned more in one hour than my whole life!), letting me run wild with their apple tv, Arvid allowed me to talk his ear off about being a doctor, and although we have only known each other a short amount of time, he has been truly supportive of my ambition to join the medical field! Kelly is so easy to talk to about anything! I don't think I have gotten such great insights about important topics in such a short amount of time.

These two people are very very special and anyone who gets the chance to meet them really should feel very privileged!

All of these people understand what it is like to have people constantly moving in and out of their lives. Monique said she has learned to make fast friends with people because they usually leave quickly! I feel like I have been given the chance to meet so many outstanding people here. I will miss the city a lot, but I will miss the people the most! I told Brent that I have never felt more welcomed, or connected to any branch or ward in my life and so I am really going to miss everything about these people.

I know I will never be able to repay everything these people did for us. The love and support Brent and I received from them was really meaningful to us. I feel like everyone understood what it meant to be in a far away place and took it as a challenge to make it difficult to leave here (Challenge Accomplished!!!). I would love to say that we were as wonderful as everyone here, but it just wouldn't be true! Every single one of the people mentioned has taught me so much about what true giving is about. When I get home, I hope I am able to be a fraction of how wonderful the people here are!

This is probably a rambling blog so I apologize, but I hope everyone home and abroad understand that these people are really amazing and although they only were apart of our life for a short time, we hope we see everyone of them again in some capacity or another!

The Surgery

Arvid Carlson (in our branch) is a doctor. He works for the embassy and travels around Europe checking up on Diplomats and things. He is also amazing! Since we got kicked out of our apartment on Friday the Carlson's we kind enough to let us stay with them for a few days until our plane arrived! One perk is that Arvid is always so willing to help with everything. Late Sunday night Cade told Arvid that he couldn't hear out of one ear and was afraid that he had compacted earwax. So now I present the story of Cade's Compacted earwax.

The Subject
First Arvid pulled out his tool to see if there was actually ear wax in there. There was. Arvid is so wonderful. I am so interested in everything medical so Arivd let me take a look inside the ear. He showed me the ear drum but the utensil died before I go to look in the clogged one!

During the procedure Cade had to hold his own water catcher! His eyes are watering because it felt weird.


The Procedure was squirting water into the ear canal hoping to dislodge the obstruction.

Eventually he went and got a little pick, and wedged it out. Here is what it looked like! Arvid let me poke at it!

Dr. Carlson is a really great doctor! He is so modest in his abilities and always willing to help out someone. Even more than being willing he is willing to TALK to me about what it is like being a doctor, the schooling involved, some of the other options in the medical field and so on! Maren always talks about how she wishes she would have been a dentist, and I think I feel the same way about being a Doctor. The discussion I have with the Carlson's are always so uplifting and inspiring. I simply think the world of them!