What's been up, pre-Zermatt

OK, my trip is winding down, and I just received a message from E asking WTF, why haven't I posted?

Honestly, I've thought about that several times in the last week or so, and I guess that I haven't posted because I've just been living in the moment, and I haven't been at home at all except to crash on the couch since last Friday, and well... I've just been lazy.

So, prepare yourselves. This is going to be a long post.

Part 1:
Since my last post, I finished teaching. I really enjoyed my class, and you can find out all about them individually by clicking here to view powepoint presentations I had them make about themselves and their countries. They were all very interesting, but my favorite was Tina, because she's from Slovenia, and though I haven't been there, I pretty much want to live there.

So, Thursday I went into Geneva to meet Sami, a guy I met from an online site called Geneva Online (which is pretty much the coolest free community site I've ever seen) because I convinced him to rent me his little 125cc Yamaha for a few days.
Now, up to this point it had rained and been cold/wet every single day of my trip here, but the weather was supposed to become picture-perfect from Friday until Monday or Tuesday.

--Wait... let's change topic for a second; I had to stop writing for a bit because my battery went dead, so I went for dinner. I had pumpkin soup with bacon, a gruyere fondue with curried pineapple, and DAMN, was it good!

OK, back to business. So I went to meet Sami on Thurs. to pick up the bike, but his helmet was way too small, so he suggested I go to this store about 2 blocks from the train station, which was about a 20 minute walk back across the lake towards the center of town, from which I just came. He had a few more hours of work anyway, so I needed something to do.
I made my way to the little church he used as a landmark, and turned right, as he said. I walked about 5 blocks before realizing he must have made a mistake. So I walked back to the main street, and went 5 blocks the other direction, thinking maybe he was mixed up. No cycle shop. So then I walked 5 blocks in both directions on the next street up, thinking maybe he meant the next MAIN street past the church. No luck. However, I did happen to find the "Sex Place," where there were ten girls perched in lingerie beckoning me to spend a few hours with them. Fortunately, I didn't speak the same language, so they had to use body language in the form of showing me boobs. Nice.

Anyway, at this point, I'd been walking almost non-stop for an hour and a half. I was tired, but still no helmet. Finally I caught a guy getting onto his bike, and in Spanish asked him where he'd gotten his helmet. He said at Manor, which was ironic, because I'd been in that store several times before and in fact, it is the only place I know how to get to. It turns out that there are an additional 2 levels (making a total of 7) that you can only access from a different entrance than the one I'd been using.

So I ran about 3 blocks hoping to get there in time, which I did, with 15 minutes to spare. Sadly, they had no helmets in my size.
As it was now approaching 7, I decided to head back across the lake, to call Sami from the payphone in front of the McDonalds, as he said it was closest to his work, and his apartment was only a few blocks away (tuns out I was wrong about this; he actually lives in Nyon.)

Well, that phone was broken, so I wandered up and down the streets in Oldtown looking for another phone, and about 20 minutes later I found one, though I had to wait almost 30 min. for the guy using it to finish. When I finally was able to call, he didn't answer, so I left a message telling him I'd wait by the bike. I walked the 6 blocks back to the bike, and waited for 45 min. before giving up and walking back across the river again, and finally catching the 9 o'clock train back home. All in all, I walked almost non-stop for 5 hours, and figure it must have been at least 7 miles, though I think it was closer to 9 miles.

OK, when I got home, there' an email from Sami apologizing for not meeting me, and explaining that he was already home, in Nyon.
We decided to meet the next day, Friday, and I arrived in Geneva early, to find a helmet, which I eventually did, and I finally got the bike.
I rode around Versoix and Coppet on Friday, and I was up nearly all the night because we were moved out of our house and into a new one, where the teenaged counselors were staying. I went to sleep at 4, got up at 11 on Sat. and rode my bike to Montreux for a little more poker action. After getting lost in Lausanne, and getting stuck in the downtown parking nightmare of the Montreux Jazz Fest, I finally made it to the casino at 9. The poker didn't go as well as the week before, and I only wound up winning 1800. :)
So I rode home as the sun was coming up, hugging the lakeshore most of the way, but occasionally riding up into these ancient villages clinging to the mountainside. I have to say that as the sun was coming up, the view of the lake combined with the countryside made for the best motorcycle ride of my life. I got home about 7:00 am to find the door locked, so I had to hop the fence and go in the kitchen door.
Sunday I got up about noon, kicked around the house a bit, then went for a ride to Divonne to do some fishing. I walked around the lake there, rod and reel in hand, but saw no fish rising. After it got dark, I rode to the casino there, played cards til about 3:30, and won 500 euros.
Monday I had to return the bike, as well as pick up my rental car, so I rode the train to the airport, got the car, drove home, rode the bike to Sami's work in Oldtown, then walked back to the train, and came home for the car. The whole process took about 5 hours, and by then the girls were home from their 1st day teaching the second session. Since I had a car, I offered to drive to dinner, and we wound up eating in France, in a town called Ferney-Voltaire, where the famous Voltaire lived. Then I dropped them off and headed back to Divonne for more poker.
Now, I know I said it in my last post, but it bears repeating; this area is poker paradise. This particular night, I got a player to put 1100 euros into the pot heads-up preflop, with pocket 2's. I, of course, had pocket Aces. I'd moved into the larger game that night (10-20 blinds), intending to move down to the lower game (2-4) when a seat came open, but the players in the big game were even worse than the small, so I stayed there. In the end, I walked away that night with 2300 more euros than I started with. All in all for this trip so far, I've made over 7,000 US dollars playing poker. It's simply unbelievable.

I finally made it home about 4, slept on the couch, and got up Tuesday at about 11, and got on the road to Zermatt, world-famous village at the foot of the Matterhorn, by 3.
I had intended when I started this post to get to my incredible day here, but I am already tired and need to be up early for the chance (weather permitting) to go paragliding in the morning. So I promise that tomorrow I'll update again. I'll just leave you with this taste: the view this morning from my large balcony. Simply incredible.

T