I am having a great time in Lausanne. Here is 7 hours later than Houston, so I stayed up until 7 pm so that I could avoid the jet lag issues. It seems to have worked fairly well.

My sister bought our tickets first class. I love flying first class. I tell you what, if you can afford it (which I probably can’t), it’s worth it. I honestly had the best steak I’ve ever eaten, in terms of tenderness, on the flight out here. They served dinner at 7 or so, our time. Then they served breakfast at 6 am, Swiss time. So really about midnight. But it worked to help you reset your clock.

I arrived at 7:15 a.m. in Geneva yesterday. I got to the train station by walking. It’s attached to the train station.

Going to the bathroom in the train station part (as opposed to the airport part) was a bad plan. $1. Of course, when I got to Lausanne, the bathroom was $2 in the train station.

I waited at the gar for two hours. I had misrepresented the time I would arrive (I thought I was getting in two hours later.), so Stephanie and Brady weren’t available to pick me up. But I had a quiche lorraine and a hot chocolate for lunch, which was great. I enjoyed all the people watching. I also watched Swiss news. They are much more likely to have the whole world on. I saw a section on a riot in Jamaica and a flood in Brazil. Two US sections were on; one about the president and one about the soldiers in Afghanistan.

The Smiths were gracious enough to let me stay with them. Bless their hearts!

I’ve enjoyed getting to know them at all and/or better. Tonight Kathleen and I are going to dinner. I am looking forward to that.

Yesterday I mostly stayed at the Smiths. I did walk around for about forty-five minutes, but that was all. There was a birthday party for the English-speaking students that the girls from Oklahoma Christian were tutoring. I attended that. It was fun.

Then I went to bed.

I told Stephanie I’d be up on my own this morning, but I didn’t actually get up till 9. By then she had other things to do. At 1 she took me to walk around Lausanne. She showed me the cathedral and the city hall (where the party is tomorrow night). That was good. I can find it by myself.

I’ll probably get up tomorrow early (or earlier) and walk down to Migros to go shopping. I need to find some stuff for my family. I’ll probably buy the boys tee shirts. If I see something unusual in shirts, I might get Ron something. They are $$$ though. Here the prices for smaller things are about $2 more.

I bought a 100 ml soda for $3.50 at the gar. Then today while I was walking around the soda was $5. Ouch.

I’ve learned a lot about the school system. Since all the Smith kids went to school here and Kathleen is in the university here (well, actually the polytechnic), we talked about that a lot. I love hearing about that sort of thing.

I have had a blast so far.

The only thing I am sorry about is that I am not outgoing and willing to head to Paris on my own to visit while I am here. I’d like to go to the Louvre.