Wegetables

Today at lunch I was quizing the boys on English words.. They were doing pretty good! When I asked them "Wie heisst Baum auf Englisch," they knew it was a tree, and then Jeremias said "tree hugger!" random things these kids know... However, I knew I would stump them when I asked them to repeat the lovely word, "vegetable." For some reason, Swiss people have the hardest time saying it! They say it as if they had a speech impediment like I did in my younger years! So I can't help but fall off my chair laughing seeing them try over and over to pronounce the "v" sound. Quite the entertaining Mittagessen.

Highlight if the week so far: seeing a fox run into a fence. Haha poor guy looked so confused.

Hop Hop Hop!!

I'm alive!!! Tore up those 10 miles in the pouring rain and cold in 1:34... Not too bad considering the crazy uphill parts. Ouch! My legs are going to be feeling this for a couple of days. The Grand Prix is the most popular race in Switzerland and that was made evident by the 29,000 runners.

Before

I was most worried about getting trampled but they split us up into blocks and we started at different times... So I was fine seeing as I was in the 22nd block. It was a gorgeous run throughout Bern passing all of the famous landmarks, going down the small European alley ways, and trudging through a nature preserve park (despite the fact that it was filled with mud; actually made me feel like I was in 'Nam or something!) It was cool seeing all of the runners from africa finishing it in like a half an hour though. Seriously someone should give them a couple of cheese burgers, they were so skinny. Along the course there were bands playing all different types of music.

After. Notice the darker shade of my pullover...

Before the race started Ana (who came to cheer me on; "hop hop hop!" That's what they say over here...) and I just walked around Bern all day and then freaked out when we didn't know where to go for me to start..but then like a beacon of shining light I heard an english familiar to my hears amidst the crowd! So I basically pounced on this boy and found out he's from oregon. He's also an au pair and was very nice and toom me to all the places I needed to know.

Funny moment of the day: Ana and I were walking when all if a sudden my umbrella popped open onto this random stranger! Entschuldigung..

Highlight of the day: Being so stunned by this man's beauty that I ran into him... His actions went like so: "sorry"-smile-"guten lauf"-another beautiful smile. Ran for him that day.

Today, Sunday just strolled through Bern with Ana and had a picnic whilst overlooking the Aare.

Nice place to have a picnic wouldn't you say?

Sometimes English is Best

Highlights of the week are so far knowing that there is a jaguar running around somewhere (escaped from the zoo), taking a walk round the rosengarten with my friend natasha (i figured out that i can't stay in mittelhausern all day), and telling this crazy drunk man that i couldn't understand what he was saying to me. His answer? "das ist besser" (that is better (that i don't understand him)) Also, benni actually wanted to eat lunch first instead of me having to bug him 5 times. I asked him if he was ready for lunch and his answer, "I actually am ready." I was so happy.

Then last night after Deutschkurs I went to the park behind the Münster and people watched with my british friend. Our game was to pick out the 'swiss.' it's easy to do because they're the ones always wearing socks... Despite the sandals they have on.

Two more mistakes I've made... My host mother was telling me that it was going to be a hot day! What I wanted to say? "I'm so excited!" What I actually said: "I'm so nervous!" ..... Then I was walking through Bern headed to the Library when I was ambushed by one of those organizations who ask you to donate money etc. She began speaking to me in Swiss German and I replied "sorry I can't understand Swiss German, at all." So she switched to High German! Yeah.. Still had a really difficult time.. I knew that she was explaining this organization to me but then all of a sudden she stoppd talking! It was my turn to talk! What she had asked (didn't know at the time) was how would I feel if i had special needs or a disabilty? My reply... "also.. Was machst du hier?" --- "so.. what are you doing here??" So nice, right? Her reply, "Shall I speak in English?" Haha yes please and sorry for acting like a complete jerk! You know, I will never EVER think someone is weird again if English is a Foreign language for them and they say something weird or I think that they don't understand me.

So thus far this is how my week has gone. Tomorrow I'm running in the Grand Prix, "the prettiest 10 miles of the world!" i'll be the judge of that.

Frühling (Springtime)

Heidi had it about right.


This last week has been very spring like. I swear that everything just decided to turn green overnight. Before I went to bed.. Same old brown green ish mountain. Next morning.. Green and lime green mountain.. WHOA?! Says my head as I unintentionally double take. Not only that but there are animals EVERYWHERE! All different kinds of goats, lambs, donkeys, cows, horses, you name it. And they all have babies! My favorite animal encounters so far are seeing two little baby lambs going at it (like head butting one another), seeing the crazed look in the baby horse's eyes as I run by, being stared at by more or less 50 cows all at the same time (kind of intimidating actually), and my favorite is running alongside a herd of lambs and hearing the tingle of the bells around their necks. It sounds so beautiful (like music!) that I usually run past them a couple of times. Something that I don't understand though is why cats think you can't see them if they crouch down... Every time I see this I yell boo with scary hands just to prove them wrong and to see them flee. Heh heh.



Beautiful rose bush. Notice random gnomes in the background that I just BARELY did.

So other than the Frühling in the air, things have been going nicely. I'm FINALLY starting to get a grip on the German and have so far had 3 conversations in German! Well ish. On friday my friend Nadine invited me over for a barbecue with her family. When I first met her parents back in March I felt so awkward because literally had no idea what was going on. For example Nadine's mom would ask me something (what would I like anything to drink?) and I would answer.. "yaaa!" But over dinner Friday (even if they did have to kind of dumb it down for me) we spoke in German for basically the whole time!

Then today at church the cuuutest little old lady smiled at me! So during break I decided that I had to try and say something so I went up to her and said, "Hallo! Ich möchte mit dir sprechen. Aber Achtung! Ich spreche noch nicht sehr gut Deutsch..." translation-- "hello I would like to talk to you! But beware! I don't speak German very well yet.". I think this is what I'm going to say to everyone from now on. "Beware!" So we had a lovely conversation and I learned that she had been a chocolatier! I don't remember for how many years she said because I was already well into exclaiming how much I love Swiss chocolate... She then told me to come over sometime and get some and gave me her address! Don't mind if I do.. I answered that when my German was better in two weeks (hopefully) that I would come. Such a cute lady! Her name is Hedwig and she is about 90 years old.

Nadine + Barbecuing = YUM!

Then the other conversation was with the missionary from Germany. We just talked about simple things and I've found that his High German is a lot easier to understand. But can I just say how proud I am of myself?! Give myself two pats on the back I will.

Other than that Saturday I walked all around Bern with my fellow American friend Kaytlyn and was forced to buy a shirt. When I say forced, I mean forced! Stupid Celsius. It's a little too late to change when I notice on the train that i'm always either dressed too heavily or not enough compared to everyone else. So alas, I had dressed for a 20 or 30 degree fahrenheit day heavy black coat and all when it was indeed a 65 degree fahrenheit day.

Altstadt of Bern

Beautiful Kaytlyn and I enjoying the view over the Aare! Right behind us there is a full blown market in swing.

Potential Christmas Present for my Dad?



Haven't gained that much weight ok Mom...



Das Munster lurking behind the greenery of the trees

 Last, is my new obsession. MAGEN BROT! You can usually find these little turd looking like pieces at any market. What they are is like these tiny little cake/bread pieces with spices like anise, cinnamon, etc... dipped/soaked in chocolate frosting. So basically black licorice chocolate frosting coated spice cake... I love it so much that I coheresed Nadine to make it with me.

Weekend in Lucerne

Well, this last weekend Ana and I decided to visit Lucerne. This city was voted the fifth most popular tourism destination in the world in 2010 by Tripadvisor. All I can say is gorgeous. We arrived late Friday night around 8 pm and then were met by our host we found on couch surfing! This is a program where people from all around the world let you "sleep on their couch." It's good because 1) you save on the cost of a hotel room and 2) you get to meet people from all different backgrounds. Of course when looking for a "couch" you should be a little careful and look for members with a solid background, a lot of references, etc. Once you find said person, you send them a request! They look at your profile and decide whether to "couch" you or not. Pretty cool!! So our host was a 24 year old mechanical engineering student who loved to travel, hike, talk about cultures, and eat Thai food. For dinner we made salad and then just sat around talking for a couple hours.

Lucerne :) (Although in German it's spelled Luzern. Caused quite the confusion for me as I tried to decide which train to take to get there.)

Saturday we went sight seeing, visited the same bakery three times, and then came back to a wonderful Thai meal cooked by our host complete with two pies! Let me just say, we ate goood Saturday. I picked some wild flowers along the way:). Then we decided to go out and went to this club that played half gypsy music, half extreme oldies. I'm talkin' Rocikin Robin by Michael Jackson old. And no offense to Swiss people, but they really don't know how to dance. So combine all of that... equals AWESOME! 

Now you can see why we kept coming back.

Sunday, Ana and I decided to do some more intense sight seeing. The following pictures are basically just a collaboration of everything we saw/did.

What it looks like going under  Spreuerbrucke (Mills Bridge.) The gables are painted with the Dance of Death commemorating a plague that swept through the city in the 17th century. 

Lucerne.

I couldn't decide which picture to put up! They're both so pretty!

Couldn't resist! She looked just like a swan wearing all white clothes and then orange SHOES! Wish I could have gotten her purple balloon in this picture as well. 

Standing under the Kapellbrucke (Chapel Bridge.) The symbol of Lucerne built in 1333. Terrible people for graffiting it (behind me.)

Adorable little Asians enjoying the sun and lake!

Lunch time! Lost count of what number Margarita Pizza this is.

Es ist Fruhling!

View from the flower garden. 

Photo random man from Hong Kong wanted to take of us. This kept happening! 

So... random photo I asked to take back!

 MOVING ON! After just moseying slightly aimlessly we decided to follow an travel itinerary's map. Highly advise doing that! You see so much more and it's all very doable by foot.

Museggmaur. This is a remnant of the old town walls. You can still walk a long it  and go up in  some of the towers. Ana and I decided to do this and were quite alarmed when we all of a sudden walk to the bell and it starts ringing!! Ah! Probably one of the biggest shocks of my life to be in a tiny room with this huge bell tolling.

View of Lake Lucerne from the wall.

From there we headed down to Lowendenkmal (Lion Monument.) There was a very different feeling in the air here. Almost like peacefulness and sadness. This is a monument is an allegorical reference to the bravery of the Swiss Guards who died in 1792 trying to save Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution when the people stormed the Tuileries of Paris.

During Mark Twain's grand tour of Europe, upon seeing this particular monument he said this dying lion was "the saddest and most poignant piece of rock in the world.

Yet another random view of Lake Lucerne

And that's basically it for the weekend! Everything else is going well. I made it safely back to Bern and home last night around 8:30 pm. Onto another normal week!

Palais des Nations

Guten Morgen! -says castle. What the -says I.

This last week in Mittelhäusern was quite a long one. The boys were still in vacation so every minute I was pretty much with them. For the fourth time we poured mentos into diet coke and made a mini geyser. Benny thought that was pretty cool. I basically studied german allll week long and had another dream in it. What gives!!? I'm still no where near to being fluent! But I'm now able to pick out words in sentences and understand some of the phone calls I listen in to on the train :)

Geneve. Such a shame there was so much construction going on everywhere. 

This weekend I went to Basel Friday night and spent it with my totally awesome Colombian friend, Ana. I stayed the night at her house (well host family's house, she's an Au Pair too) and woke up to a freaking castle out the window! Oh Switzerland. When I met Ana's host mom she was saying something to her children and I felt like the worst person in the world because guess why. I didn't understand ONE word. Nothing! Good thing I found out later that she was speaking an entirely different language. Czechoslovakian.

The next day I went to Genèva and Ana made the kind of decision that you can only make in the moment at 7:30 am and came with me. We arrived in Genève by 12 and then met her best friend's from Columbia brother. He is working on some other degree and does something crazy smart and complicated with physics.

We walked around for a little bit, sight saw and hunted for chocolate filled croissants. The lake was nice and the geyser in the middle was pretty cool. Reminded me of a man made yellowstone. Then we made our way to the Palais des Nations! Or the United Nations. Both Ana and I want to work there (or for me work with something related) so it was really interesting. Ana speaks Spanish, Italian, German, English, and French. Go her! She is aspiring to be a translator for the conferences at the UN.

Wandering around Geneve...

After that we went hunting for some good ol, classic swiss fondue. Still not a fan. But the restaurant had a nice ambiance as if you were in a Swiss chalet in the mountains and the company was great. I came home that night quite satisfied! (And tired.)

Ana and the Fondue

Love all this outdoor seating! 

And this would be Geneve's 'Lake Leman' with Old Faithful erupting in the back ground.

Pretty much how pick pocketing in Switzerland would go.

Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room at the UN. This ceiling was Cra-a-azy. It was done by a Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo. From the UN's website it says, "The new dome consists of many layers of paint of different colours, composed pigments from across the globe and sprayed onto the ceiling to generate stalactites."

Globe donated to the League of Nations by Woodrow Wilson in the 30's. It once was gilded in gold as well as spun around in alliance with the North Star. Mt. Blanc looms in the background!

Original buildings dedicated for the League of Nations (post WWI)

Don't remember exactly what this room was called but it is where peace discussions take place. In the right corner there are some doors. On the exact other side there are the same doors. This is because during the Cold War the USA and Soviet Union leaders refused to enter through the same door. Cold!! 

Made it.

Ana looking all Posh in the rain.

Interesting work of art dedicated to the UN by Czechoslovakia. The US's piece was lame! It was like a boat... ugly.. water.. and that was it.

Easter in Italy

Ok, so prepare yourself. Picture overload coming right up! For Easter I went to the Cinque Terre and Portovenere, Italy (northern along the Italian Riviera.) Italy is beautiful country with beautiful people. Everyone was extremely friendly there. Our first day we arrived around 3 pm and just explored the main town of La Spezia...

Our bed and breakfast in the hills of the medieval village of castè

Dark alley way in La Spezia... Oooh... (this is for my overly scared mom.)

Our second day we decided to walk into Riomaggiorie... which turned out to be more like a pretty intense hike. It took us 3 hours to finally make our way to the coast after not getting lost! But wandering around for a little bit. After Natasha said a couple of prayers we were joined by a little dog that we named Brutus (God sent?) who we decided to for some reason follow. Smart idea because he knew where he was going.

I spy with my little eye!!! (Hint: it's the Roman ruin arch/bridge)

Hiking from medieval village to another.

Italy's idea of a hiking trail map.

Where Brutus left us: view of Manoral (Cinque Terre)

From here we went into Riomaggiore and enjoyed some sun, coast, and people watching. Enjoy :)

Little do they know... that they're being watched too!

Crazies/hard cores. That water was freezing!

The two lovers...

Italians..

Not italians...

I think he's happy to be here.

After our little nap, we decided to do the most famous walk of the Cinque Terre called "Via dell'Amore."  It takes you along the coast from Riommagiore to Manarola.

Via dell'Amore

Via dell'Amore. It really was quite spectacular. 

Day #3. We took a train up to the furthest north village of Monterosso. Saw that, and then saw Vernazza. Vernazza was the most hard hit of the villages last October by a flood. It literally looked like a war zone.

Monterosso

This was for Easter. I believe it's Jesus's path. 

Thank goodness for happy colors amidst the gray gray skies!

Atlas lives.

After 4 only ok pizzas I decided to stray and get this Ligurian Classic. I was tastin that pesto for a whilllle.

Really creepy church. This belonged to the association of the dead? It said "mortis et orationis confraternitas" on the outside and all the decorations had skulls in them.

Classic Ligurian architecture.

Inside of a catholic church.

Somewhere in the Cinque Terre...

Vernazza

Poor Vernazza

Our last day there we woke up to craaazy rain. Little did we know that this would turn out to be the most beautiful day. We decided to leave the Cinque Terre and take a bus from La Spezia to Portovenere. If ever you get the chance to go to Italy, Portovenere is honestly worth seeing.

Portovenere

Happy to be here! (Real laughs came after the fake laugh to try and make them laugh for the photo. I think it was a success!!)