Welcome to my blog- A Summary of Me

1. I moved to Switzerland with Frederic*, the funnily-accented character I was dragging around California, summer 2004.
2. Found I liked Switzerland, so forced Frederic to marry me (at gunpoint) July 9, 2005, at a small ceremony here in Switzerland, with my mom and Mike and Frederic's brother and sister-in-law.
3. Spent a year teaching math at an International high school here in Lausanne**.
4. Got bored with teaching, so I got pregnant*** as an excuse to stop.
5. Baby expected to make an appearance in late January, 2007.
6. Planning to go get my teaching credential**** starting next October. That will take about 2.5 years, because unfortunately, they actually take teaching seriously over here and will force me to finish my master's, but I still won't want to go to school full-time, since I'll have a rugrat to tote around and heap love upon.

* A note about my husband: Frederic is a lawyer, was born and raised in Switzerland, and likes to spend his free time studying American law, English, or my beautiful eyes. I met him rock-climing in France, and knew immediately I would have to marry him, just to have such a cool "how we met" story for the future. Luckily, he also turned out to be a very nice person, in addition to a pretty bad climber. You may not recall this about my personality, but it has been my constant belief since the age of three that I am the smartest person I know. Well, Frederic is as smart as me! So you know that's saying a lot. He loves to visit California and see my family, mostly because he likes to translate French jokes into English and then laugh at himself when no one understands the punch line. I'll admit, there is an age difference between Frederic and I... but considering my advanced maturity and intellect, and his youthful good looks, it offers only benefits with no drawbacks.

** A note about Lausanne: We live in the suburbs of Lausanne, one of the larger cities in Switzerland (approx 200,000 people). If you look at a map of Europe, you'll notice the countries are pathetically tiny, which means things like single-family houses are few and far between, and priced like California real estate. In addition, Switzerland, land of banks, offers only one bizarre type of mortgage and in order to procure it you need 25% of the house value in cash! So, yes, this American must put her dream on hold of vegetable patches and painted walls, and find happiness in an entirely white-walled apartment and potted plants. From our balcony, we can see the lake (same lake Geneva is on), and it makes for a 20 minute walk or 12 minute jog to the beach. Once there, there are sand beaches, grassy hills, or an exercise trail that follows the shore. It's actually a beautiful location. We've managed to spend the last three years with no television, though I admit I download Lost and Desperate Housewives.

*** About the baby: We think we've narrowed down our name choices to Earl or Ursula, but will be leaving the baby's gender an unknown until birth. Since Frederic lets me open my birthday presents early, we figured we should at least leave something in our life to surprise. I've been reading up in Dare to Discipline, and Frederic and I are currently debating between a belt or a wooden spoon as the best means of obtaining immediate obedience. Not to be too Brittany Spears-ish, but I'm looking forward to being a young mother. :-)

**** About my career plans: I really enjoyed teaching math, though didn't enjoy the private school setting. The Swiss system though, is a rather intense public school system that I'm looking forward to diving into. I will need my masters, which I'll be getting in Physics and Environmental Science for Education, or something of that sort, then I'll need to get my credential, a year long process, then I'll need to do an internship of one semester. Luckily I already almost got my master's in Environmental Engineering, so they are willing to count those credits, leaving me with one semester to go. Don't ask me why I dropped out of that program with only a semester and a thesis to go- I was being retarded at the time and planning my shotgun wedding...

Although Frederic's English has improved dramatically these last couple of years, his joke telling has not, so we've decided to stay here in Switzerland for the time being, where it's not necessary to make jokes during the interview process. Frederic has set himself a long-term goal of passing the CA bar exam, but it will be more for the challenge than for the job prospects. I've set a long-term goal for myself of training my child to hate soccer, and of working as a true member of society by the time they hit school-age. By then, we will need the extra income to support the therapy for our child, the only kindergartener in Europe who doesn't know the difference betwen a "red card" and a "yellow card".