I have changed my mind about Bern. I spent the day and actually enjoyed myself and could figure out where i was about 60% of the time, a huge improvement from last time. They had their farmers market today, smaller than one that is on saturday, but it was nice. I enjoyed a nice lunch of organic or here 'bio' vegetables and some bread. I also stumbled across a street vendor selling hand spun wool yarn from just across the border in germany and some machine spun in switzerland, so i purchased some beautiful yarn to make some nice warm winter gear for myself. My other... exciting find was an organic store with everything you could want including QUINOA, and AMARANTH. I was worried I would be without these two beautiful grains for a long time, but alas I have been saved.
Tomorrow is August First (Switzerlands Birthday) so everyone has off work including myself but nothing is open to do. There will be a village party of drinking and listening to some conservative politician give a speach (that i won't understand) and of course, fireworks. Tonight is card night, some sort of German game. I will see how it goes but I'm not a huge card person, but it will give me reason to try one of the swiss beers I got today at the organic store 'vettera'. Things are good, life is short. Too much I want to do in one year. Thursdays I will be working at the organic herb farm. It is small but BEAUTIFUL... and a good 45 min uphill bike ride away... Yay for my thighs i suppose, but a nice coast home.
P.S. No one has screens on their windows here.. there are barely any bugs! Well.. compared to what I am used to.
Dienstag, 31. Juli 2007
Sonntag, 29. Juli 2007
cruel at heart?
Saturday and Sunday have been beautiful here. (until tonight... matching my mood perhaps)
saturday was spent biking and hiking around mostly in the country. I stumbled upon a sign with a large Raspberry, and decided to stop and have a gander. I pulled out my trusty german (high german not swiss german so it doesn't always work around here) dictionary and looked like the tourist i am trying to read this sign. I got: pick your own raspberry's leibwil. I couldn't figure out this leibwil, so i assumed it was either the name of the farm, the street or some form of direction. I picked a direction in the fork and biked about 10 km up a large hill, seeming like forever after biking 12 km to this sign, and finally gave up. Turns out leibwil is a 'village' (old farm houses) somewhere up this hill... but i didn't stumble upon it. The day was still enjoyable with some hiking and beautiful views. I also ran into some towns people in search of magical mushrooms in the cow poop, at least that is what i deciphered from their broken english german dialect language.
sunday was an early day after a late night. The whole family trained into geneva, and i spent a couple hours walking around with them and then we parted as i toured the city by myself. A brazilian english speaking man introduced himself to me, we talked a bit, he lived there and offered to show me around. I accepted, although not being particularly attracted to this elder of mine (29). He showed me some nice places, tourist attractions in geneva, and also bought me dinner (a 20 SFr ordeal, i was planning on just a snack for the day to save money). This is my cruelty showing, knowing i wasn't interested but... playing along for an enjoyable afternoon. think what you must, for I had a good time and got some good pictures.
P.S. although the trains here are wonderful they confuse the heck out of me. i bought a 100SFr ticket to make any train after 7pm free, so i went on a train without a ticket then i was told i had to buy a ticket, so i bought it from this ticket checker, then i got on another train for transferring with a ticket (after 7) and when they came to check mine they asked why i bought a ticket, i explained it all and they laughed, apparently i didn't need a ticket for either train
ahh there goes 53SFr (that i may be able to get back sometime... if someone speaks english and apparently is sympathetic to my mono linguistic self)
Father and Mother and Me
Sister and Auntie say,
All the people like us are We,
And everyone else is They.
-Kipling
(not something i feel just like the sound and perhaps what we all subconsciously think)
saturday was spent biking and hiking around mostly in the country. I stumbled upon a sign with a large Raspberry, and decided to stop and have a gander. I pulled out my trusty german (high german not swiss german so it doesn't always work around here) dictionary and looked like the tourist i am trying to read this sign. I got: pick your own raspberry's leibwil. I couldn't figure out this leibwil, so i assumed it was either the name of the farm, the street or some form of direction. I picked a direction in the fork and biked about 10 km up a large hill, seeming like forever after biking 12 km to this sign, and finally gave up. Turns out leibwil is a 'village' (old farm houses) somewhere up this hill... but i didn't stumble upon it. The day was still enjoyable with some hiking and beautiful views. I also ran into some towns people in search of magical mushrooms in the cow poop, at least that is what i deciphered from their broken english german dialect language.
sunday was an early day after a late night. The whole family trained into geneva, and i spent a couple hours walking around with them and then we parted as i toured the city by myself. A brazilian english speaking man introduced himself to me, we talked a bit, he lived there and offered to show me around. I accepted, although not being particularly attracted to this elder of mine (29). He showed me some nice places, tourist attractions in geneva, and also bought me dinner (a 20 SFr ordeal, i was planning on just a snack for the day to save money). This is my cruelty showing, knowing i wasn't interested but... playing along for an enjoyable afternoon. think what you must, for I had a good time and got some good pictures.
P.S. although the trains here are wonderful they confuse the heck out of me. i bought a 100SFr ticket to make any train after 7pm free, so i went on a train without a ticket then i was told i had to buy a ticket, so i bought it from this ticket checker, then i got on another train for transferring with a ticket (after 7) and when they came to check mine they asked why i bought a ticket, i explained it all and they laughed, apparently i didn't need a ticket for either train
ahh there goes 53SFr (that i may be able to get back sometime... if someone speaks english and apparently is sympathetic to my mono linguistic self)
Father and Mother and Me
Sister and Auntie say,
All the people like us are We,
And everyone else is They.
-Kipling
(not something i feel just like the sound and perhaps what we all subconsciously think)
Freitag, 27. Juli 2007
Happy Endings
The end of the week usually brings some form of joy. Perhaps just knowing you have 2 days to yourself if you are in the more 'traditional' work group. Perhaps exciting events around town on Friday and Saturday nights. For me, good news and good times.
Biked into Bern (nearest big city about 12 km) on Thursday hoping for entertainment. Didn't find it very thrilling, although beautiful with a nice river I would like to swim in (very clear water straight from the mountains but chilly). There is a street with only shops and no cars but it is all very expensive, but I found a bead store. Something that I shall occasionally treat myself to when I am feeling homesick perhaps for I love my crafts. Yet to find any yarn stores, I may have to order something online or have it delivered. Any volunteers to deliver me some yarn? I'll pay you back for the yard and 10% on shipping :-).
Although I haven't had any responses from my flier sent down at the dairy, I have found something that just might work out. There is an organic herb farm 2 villages away (a pretty easy bike ride although uphill). They speak english! (one of the harder things to find in a country farmer) And, they are used to WWOOFers, people that are set up through the internet for volunteering at organic farms. This means they are used to people coming and helping for a period of time while they teach them what they are doing at the farm. Although this volunteer position isn't guaranteed, it sounds almost too good to be true, Organic, Close, and an interesting topic, herbs. They make teas, spices and a couple other things that I can't read off the german brochure. They have a website ( obereichi.ch ) if you are interested and can read some german. I am meeting with them and with Susanne on Monday to learn more. Hoping for the best.
Tonight also brought some entertainment, although not a typical friday night for me. After a long days work of what seemed like constant cleaning (it is amazing what destruction two children can do and what little cleaning can get done by one 'adult'), and a good filling supper, I joined some of the village men (and one woman) at the community center for some good clean boccie ball. I was a little.. nervous.. at first, not sure how serious they took the game and knowing my skills would be less than extraordinary, but I had some good luck at times, and some bad luck at times. Out of the two games I played my team won both and I had a really great time and finally a beer. My first legal beer :-). Never again in my life will I be illegally drinking, for when I return I shall be deemed mature enough to drink alcohol. This beer (that I am finishing right now, only 2 hours to consume it ha) is from switzerland, but isn't a New Glarus or anything of the sort. A little, dark for my tastes, but I suppose it shall have to do. Hopefully tomorrow I will find some of the local beer at a grocer and perhaps it will be more enjoyable.
Heres to a great weekend
There is no good, there is no bad; these be the whims of mortal will:
That works me weal that I call "good", what harms and hurts me I hold as "ill".
-Sir Richard Burton
Biked into Bern (nearest big city about 12 km) on Thursday hoping for entertainment. Didn't find it very thrilling, although beautiful with a nice river I would like to swim in (very clear water straight from the mountains but chilly). There is a street with only shops and no cars but it is all very expensive, but I found a bead store. Something that I shall occasionally treat myself to when I am feeling homesick perhaps for I love my crafts. Yet to find any yarn stores, I may have to order something online or have it delivered. Any volunteers to deliver me some yarn? I'll pay you back for the yard and 10% on shipping :-).
Although I haven't had any responses from my flier sent down at the dairy, I have found something that just might work out. There is an organic herb farm 2 villages away (a pretty easy bike ride although uphill). They speak english! (one of the harder things to find in a country farmer) And, they are used to WWOOFers, people that are set up through the internet for volunteering at organic farms. This means they are used to people coming and helping for a period of time while they teach them what they are doing at the farm. Although this volunteer position isn't guaranteed, it sounds almost too good to be true, Organic, Close, and an interesting topic, herbs. They make teas, spices and a couple other things that I can't read off the german brochure. They have a website ( obereichi.ch ) if you are interested and can read some german. I am meeting with them and with Susanne on Monday to learn more. Hoping for the best.
Tonight also brought some entertainment, although not a typical friday night for me. After a long days work of what seemed like constant cleaning (it is amazing what destruction two children can do and what little cleaning can get done by one 'adult'), and a good filling supper, I joined some of the village men (and one woman) at the community center for some good clean boccie ball. I was a little.. nervous.. at first, not sure how serious they took the game and knowing my skills would be less than extraordinary, but I had some good luck at times, and some bad luck at times. Out of the two games I played my team won both and I had a really great time and finally a beer. My first legal beer :-). Never again in my life will I be illegally drinking, for when I return I shall be deemed mature enough to drink alcohol. This beer (that I am finishing right now, only 2 hours to consume it ha) is from switzerland, but isn't a New Glarus or anything of the sort. A little, dark for my tastes, but I suppose it shall have to do. Hopefully tomorrow I will find some of the local beer at a grocer and perhaps it will be more enjoyable.
Heres to a great weekend
There is no good, there is no bad; these be the whims of mortal will:
That works me weal that I call "good", what harms and hurts me I hold as "ill".
-Sir Richard Burton
Mittwoch, 25. Juli 2007
People do this for free?
I love almost everything about this country of Switzerland. I would love it more if I could speak german. I thought long and hard about what I want to get out of my experience here, and I decided I would like to travel and see things, and learn things that I can't easily learn in the states when I return. To travel it would be much easier if I had a traveling partner so I am thinking of auditing a class at the University of Bern that is taught in english. Then I can learn something, perhaps bland, but perhaps meet some interesting english speakers in my age group. I also have a date for friday night to play boccie ball with the men of the village. Apparently many are on holiday right now so not many will show up and it is usually only about 6-10 men, but I am told sometimes some guys between 18 and 21 play... maybe? But I was also told there was a girl that was 18 that spent the last year in Canada and now I am told she is 16, so hmm I'm not sure if I trust their age judgement, but anyone closer to my age than 10 or 42 that also speaks english will be appreciated.
I also put up a poster at the dairy in german stating that this young american is looking to help with goats or sheep for free. It is a little too decorative and perhaps strange for most of the local farmers though, so I doubt I will get any responses, but it is worth a try. I actually stopped at a sheep farm and asked if they spoke english, and in an abrupt response I was told "nien" and that was that. Oh well, I shall try and perhaps be known as the very annoying american.
Interesting tidbit on Switzerland. They pay about 18 SFr (swiss francs) for about 10 small bathroom sized garbage bags and you HAVE to throw your garbage out in these bags or the garbage people will not collect them. At first I thought this was very strange and not something I would enjoy but it makes a lot of sense in that it keeps the people from throwing out too much garbage because it is so expensive to throw things out. They also have a very good recycling system. Paper in one area, tin in another, and most bottles in another. That may not sound too much more exciting than our system, but almost all the packaging is done so that as much as possible can be recycled, EX: the yogurt has a paper wrapper with the print on it that is removable and recyclable and says on it recycle this piece, and then you toss the actual plastic of the yogurt. Small example but you get the idea.
Oh the heading, I just had an 11 hour day and I couldn't imagine being a housewife that had to do this everyday, but I did work at entertaining the children and I am sure most parents don't entertain their kids the whole day... perhaps why television for children is so popular these days. The Riese-Failing family only allows 2 hours of television a week unless it is a horribly rainy week... i like that rule.
I also put up a poster at the dairy in german stating that this young american is looking to help with goats or sheep for free. It is a little too decorative and perhaps strange for most of the local farmers though, so I doubt I will get any responses, but it is worth a try. I actually stopped at a sheep farm and asked if they spoke english, and in an abrupt response I was told "nien" and that was that. Oh well, I shall try and perhaps be known as the very annoying american.
Interesting tidbit on Switzerland. They pay about 18 SFr (swiss francs) for about 10 small bathroom sized garbage bags and you HAVE to throw your garbage out in these bags or the garbage people will not collect them. At first I thought this was very strange and not something I would enjoy but it makes a lot of sense in that it keeps the people from throwing out too much garbage because it is so expensive to throw things out. They also have a very good recycling system. Paper in one area, tin in another, and most bottles in another. That may not sound too much more exciting than our system, but almost all the packaging is done so that as much as possible can be recycled, EX: the yogurt has a paper wrapper with the print on it that is removable and recyclable and says on it recycle this piece, and then you toss the actual plastic of the yogurt. Small example but you get the idea.
Oh the heading, I just had an 11 hour day and I couldn't imagine being a housewife that had to do this everyday, but I did work at entertaining the children and I am sure most parents don't entertain their kids the whole day... perhaps why television for children is so popular these days. The Riese-Failing family only allows 2 hours of television a week unless it is a horribly rainy week... i like that rule.
Sonntag, 22. Juli 2007
Sweet but always some sour
Being from the United States it seems like we have such a view of Switzerland as being the perfect country, and in comparison it may seem that way, but there are always problems. I mean the grass has to be greener on the other side right?
In Switzerland it is very expensive to live, so to make it possible for people to live anything you buy that has gone through a person in any way (so everything) is very expensive so they can afford to live. After thinking about this a bit I was curious how so many people in Switzerland could be farmers. I know in America they have a very hard time coming out ahead or perhaps even breaking even and have to work very hard to get to that point, and our cost of living isn't extremely high. So in Switzerland the government subsidizes the farmers very much, which may sound like a good deal, but it promotes a lot of people to farm in Switzerland, and with farming comes farmland, and with farmland comes less undeveloped land. The family I am living with is upset by how 'organized' the country seems to be. Rarely are there areas where weeds are growing and flowers are just sprawled about carelessly. It seems that most of the people have their dark brown houses with red geraniums int he window pots surrounded by farmland. Beautiful to foreigners because it symbolizes the Switzerland we see in movies, the very traditional style, which is what a lot of people are striving to keep alive in Switzerland, but this also means not moving forward for environmental purposes.
On a more personal note:
The whole family visited a gnome garden this morning. Sounded strange at first but I was pretty excited, and it turned out to be very cool. Large concrete gnomes created by a man that was once a photographer but couldn't continue to make a living that way because he didn't like the idea of using so many computer programs for photography. I saw some of his photos and he talked about them (in german, but i got some of it translated) and they were very impressive. Some examples were a priest floating in the air (this was accomplished by 120 balloons tied to him that are out of sight of the camera) preching to a group of people in a large black bag being taken by satan. Now he charges 10 Fr. (swiss francs) for people to come see his clay gnomes in his yard. This children especially enjoyed it, as some of the gnomes could glow, make noises, and spout water when you walked past them.
This evening the family had a lot of their neighbors over for desert as a sort of welcoming party for me to meet them. It was very nice with champagne, red wine, and many many deserts. Sweet... but... The children took a lot of desert because it wasn't really being guarded by the adults, and went on little sugar highs, and the come down wasn't sweet, but rather SOUR. Johannes threw a very violent temper tantrum which taught me quite quickly to limit sweets at all costs possible. To top it off when he started calming down and stepped on some warped wood and got a very large splinter requiring two adults, nail clippers, tweezers, and 30 minutes time... involving much screaming and crying.
My hands shall be full as the kids enjoy playing ruff but it always ends in someone crying or thinking something isn't fair, but I think I shall learn a lot about dealing with children and just understanding how people have to deal with me also.
Samstag, 21. Juli 2007
Begining
I have arrived at my destination into what seems like a dream land. It was very strange having a night of only about 3 hours of darkness as our plane quickly escaped the sun around 9 at night and then it quickly began to rise again at 12 in the morning. I couldn't sleep on the plane because of the excitment brewing inside of me. It felt good to be traveling alone, independent and knowing I will now have the confidence to do more traveling alone.
Two quick landings in Ireland, once in Shannon, the western boarder, and once in Dublin on the east side. The landscape was beautiful, everything very green and rolling for miles, but the weather was rainy as I was informed it has been doing for the last 43 days. It would be very interesting to visit there, since it is so beautiful with so much history but yet they speak ENGLISH! My language of choice.
Landing in Geneva was very beautiful also. The plane was lowered below the cloud level as we flew over Geneva Lake like they were trying to persuade you that Switzerland really was an amazing place. I am guessing that very many wealthy people (i think most people here are wealthy but the wealthiest perhaps) live in Geneva. The houses were very large with a lot of pools scattered along. It looked quite similar to Las Vegas suburbs from the sky with the clay style roofing, although there was much more green farmland scattered throughout.
I took a train from Geneva to Bern, and along the lake I saw beautiful grape vines for miles. It made me think of nonno and his that I always thought was so large, now compared to all the miles of grapes I was truley impressed. The train ride was very beautiful, but by this time I was getting very tired so I didn't see all of the landscape.
Finally Bern, only 12 km from the house I would be living with. I met up with Susanne and was greatful that she was so warm right from the begining, we had lots to talk about and enjoyed the train ride to Mittelhausern (their village of about 800 people) until the train got stuck in Kionisk (sp?) because of the severe weather they have been having lately one of the creeks flooded the train tracks. Marc and the kids came to pick us up and I was greeted with hugs and hand shakes. The children, well are children, innocent and accepting from the begining. They let me sit between them on the ride to their house and showed me everything in the house including all their toys and books. I feel I will be in good hands for the following year with this very kind and accepting family.
The house is really beautiful, a townhouse with another attached at the other side. My room is on the first floor (of four total) with a nice cork floor and a beautiful bed. One wall is almost all windows, or doors actually, facing the front of the house with the little flower garden. The back yard of the house has a vegetable garden and beyond that is a corn field and then just land until the mountains are seen in the very far distance. It is really beautiful, although a little chillier than what I am used to.
This morning the family all went on a bike ride to a creek about a mile away. A very easy ride there for the creek was in a deep valley. The ride back wasn't something I was used to and could only get my bike 3/4 up the hill until I had to start walking it and panting. Very beautiful landscape so close to their house. We also stopped at the dairy, which is within their village and has lots of cheeses, milk, fresh bread made from someone in the lower village of Mittelhausern, and even Ice cream. They also have a little corner store with local fruit and other things, but we didn't stop there.
I think I shall enjoy my time in Switzerland.
Two quick landings in Ireland, once in Shannon, the western boarder, and once in Dublin on the east side. The landscape was beautiful, everything very green and rolling for miles, but the weather was rainy as I was informed it has been doing for the last 43 days. It would be very interesting to visit there, since it is so beautiful with so much history but yet they speak ENGLISH! My language of choice.
Landing in Geneva was very beautiful also. The plane was lowered below the cloud level as we flew over Geneva Lake like they were trying to persuade you that Switzerland really was an amazing place. I am guessing that very many wealthy people (i think most people here are wealthy but the wealthiest perhaps) live in Geneva. The houses were very large with a lot of pools scattered along. It looked quite similar to Las Vegas suburbs from the sky with the clay style roofing, although there was much more green farmland scattered throughout.
I took a train from Geneva to Bern, and along the lake I saw beautiful grape vines for miles. It made me think of nonno and his that I always thought was so large, now compared to all the miles of grapes I was truley impressed. The train ride was very beautiful, but by this time I was getting very tired so I didn't see all of the landscape.
Finally Bern, only 12 km from the house I would be living with. I met up with Susanne and was greatful that she was so warm right from the begining, we had lots to talk about and enjoyed the train ride to Mittelhausern (their village of about 800 people) until the train got stuck in Kionisk (sp?) because of the severe weather they have been having lately one of the creeks flooded the train tracks. Marc and the kids came to pick us up and I was greeted with hugs and hand shakes. The children, well are children, innocent and accepting from the begining. They let me sit between them on the ride to their house and showed me everything in the house including all their toys and books. I feel I will be in good hands for the following year with this very kind and accepting family.
The house is really beautiful, a townhouse with another attached at the other side. My room is on the first floor (of four total) with a nice cork floor and a beautiful bed. One wall is almost all windows, or doors actually, facing the front of the house with the little flower garden. The back yard of the house has a vegetable garden and beyond that is a corn field and then just land until the mountains are seen in the very far distance. It is really beautiful, although a little chillier than what I am used to.
This morning the family all went on a bike ride to a creek about a mile away. A very easy ride there for the creek was in a deep valley. The ride back wasn't something I was used to and could only get my bike 3/4 up the hill until I had to start walking it and panting. Very beautiful landscape so close to their house. We also stopped at the dairy, which is within their village and has lots of cheeses, milk, fresh bread made from someone in the lower village of Mittelhausern, and even Ice cream. They also have a little corner store with local fruit and other things, but we didn't stop there.
I think I shall enjoy my time in Switzerland.
Abonnieren
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