So happy new year to all! I had a beautiful amazing grand holiday. My friend from UW-Madison that is studying in Germany, alex, came to visit for 3 days with his brother. For new years we went into Zurich, which has the largest new years celebration in switzerland. We decided to have fun dressing up in tie-dye and I wore my patchwork pants, and face paint. We got to zurich about 9:50 and found a stage to dance at, and on... then we piled onto a bridge that everyone gets on for the countdown and then watched the fireworks, very exciting. then more dancing at the stage until they closed it at 2:30 then dancing in a bar until they closed it at 4:30 and then heading back to bern and making it to our beds at 8am... sore and without voices. We met many kind and awesome people (and had the brilliant idea of making 'buisiness cards' with our fake names [I was peni lane] with our emails in case we met cool people that we would want to talk to again) and had a remarkable time, and we all remembered it quite well.
HAPPPY NEW YEARS!!!
Next holidays- carnival, st. patricks day, hopefully a friend visit, summer solstice and eventually home
Mittwoch, 2. Januar 2008
Samstag, 29. Dezember 2007
holidays
So my birthday came and went. I'm officially legal to drink in the States woopiee.... not so exciting but it will be nice when i get back to be able to go to bars with friends instead of just sitting at home if a group goes out. My birthday was very pleasant. I had a relaxing actual birthday, went out for drinks after my german class with one of my classmates, but nothing crazy. The weekend after I headed up to germany to visit my friend studying there. That was a lot of fun since he is there with a program of about 50 other american kids so I got to talk to a lot of people in english wiipiee....
December wasn't too thrilling in general. We haven't had much snow as of lately and there have been some very warm days earlier in the month, but the last 2 weeks have been quite chilly with everything frozen just no snow. Christmas was very enjoyable. Susannes brother and his partner came down for a few days and they were very nice interesting people (they also both spoke very good english). Most of the celebrating they do on christmas eve, so we went on a nice long walk and watched the sun set over the Alps while drinking gluwein (the hot spiced wine). Then we went back and had a bonfire and ate super tasty fondue and opened presents and then just sat around and talked for a long time. Christmas day I slept in and just relaxed most of the day which was very nice for me.
On the 26th I headed to an organic farm for 2 nights and 3 days. It was quite the experience. There are usually 3 guys that live at this farm, but 2 were on holiday so it was just one, luckily he spoke english. It was in the middle of nowhere which was beautiful. A very hilly area with lots of trees. The house was very cool and old, parts of it built in the 1700s. It was heated by wood so it was very cold, in my opinion. I ended up wearing all the clothes I brought with me the whole time (including 3 pairs of socks). They had 11 cows, lot of sheep, 2 pigs, 9 goats, and lots of cats. I got to milk the cows, scoop shit out of the barn, chop firewood, make butter yogurt and cheese, clean, and cook. I was busy most of the day from 7:30 am until about 7:30 pm. I am still sore from all the physical work but I learned a lot and really enjoyed being a part of a self sustainable group.
Tomorrow my friend from germany will come with his brother for new years. We are going to go to Zurich since they have a large party and it is the biggest city in switzerland. The only problem is we will have to party until 5:30 in the morning until we can catch a train back to bern, so it will be a longgg night.
I am still quite happy to be here and enjoying myself. I look forward to spring when I can go play in the mountains some more, although I could now but I am not so interested in skiing or snowboarding and I dont have tons of cash to spend on such endeavors. Thank you everyone that has been thinking of me and sending emails and letters and the christmas presents. I really appreciate it all and you are making my year away much easier to handle.
December wasn't too thrilling in general. We haven't had much snow as of lately and there have been some very warm days earlier in the month, but the last 2 weeks have been quite chilly with everything frozen just no snow. Christmas was very enjoyable. Susannes brother and his partner came down for a few days and they were very nice interesting people (they also both spoke very good english). Most of the celebrating they do on christmas eve, so we went on a nice long walk and watched the sun set over the Alps while drinking gluwein (the hot spiced wine). Then we went back and had a bonfire and ate super tasty fondue and opened presents and then just sat around and talked for a long time. Christmas day I slept in and just relaxed most of the day which was very nice for me.
On the 26th I headed to an organic farm for 2 nights and 3 days. It was quite the experience. There are usually 3 guys that live at this farm, but 2 were on holiday so it was just one, luckily he spoke english. It was in the middle of nowhere which was beautiful. A very hilly area with lots of trees. The house was very cool and old, parts of it built in the 1700s. It was heated by wood so it was very cold, in my opinion. I ended up wearing all the clothes I brought with me the whole time (including 3 pairs of socks). They had 11 cows, lot of sheep, 2 pigs, 9 goats, and lots of cats. I got to milk the cows, scoop shit out of the barn, chop firewood, make butter yogurt and cheese, clean, and cook. I was busy most of the day from 7:30 am until about 7:30 pm. I am still sore from all the physical work but I learned a lot and really enjoyed being a part of a self sustainable group.
Tomorrow my friend from germany will come with his brother for new years. We are going to go to Zurich since they have a large party and it is the biggest city in switzerland. The only problem is we will have to party until 5:30 in the morning until we can catch a train back to bern, so it will be a longgg night.
I am still quite happy to be here and enjoying myself. I look forward to spring when I can go play in the mountains some more, although I could now but I am not so interested in skiing or snowboarding and I dont have tons of cash to spend on such endeavors. Thank you everyone that has been thinking of me and sending emails and letters and the christmas presents. I really appreciate it all and you are making my year away much easier to handle.
Samstag, 24. November 2007
Visitor Mom
My mom has come and gone. I really enjoyed her visit here.
There were a lot of difficulties on her flight here, but once she got to Bern I met her at the train station and it seemed like smooth sailing from there, at least from my perspective.
We went to Lugano on the Wednesday after she arrived and I got to see my great uncle Costanzo and great aunt. then we went to Spormigarre with them. I got to meet a lot of my family that I had only heard about and I got to see where my Nonna and Nonno grew up. It was a lot of fun and very interesting, and I got a lot of good food. Sunday I went home to work on monday and my mom stayed in Spormigarre.
The following weekend I again met my mother in Lugano. This weekend we just stayed with my great aunt and uncle. I really liked visitng Lugano, because it was like visiting my nonno. Costanzo's voice reminds me of my Nonnos, and some of his actions also. They also had such a beautiful garden in November, especially since I was coming from Bern where there was snow.
We also made a Thanksgiving dinner the night before my mother had to leave. Everything we made was vegan. Stephanie joined us and brought ingredients for pumpkin pie, and bean casserole. All of the food was very good and I ate a lot. I found the vegan gravey with the polenta to be extremelly good. We also had a salad, an apple crisp for desert, and a quinoa quice.
Tonight I celebrated my birthday with the neighbor man, Marcus. We used the gemindashause, the commumity house, and had a small party. It was quite enjoyable and I made a large bowl of pumpkin soup. I got my dancing in, which I always enjoy, but I left quite early because I was very tired.
And now I shall sleep
There were a lot of difficulties on her flight here, but once she got to Bern I met her at the train station and it seemed like smooth sailing from there, at least from my perspective.
We went to Lugano on the Wednesday after she arrived and I got to see my great uncle Costanzo and great aunt. then we went to Spormigarre with them. I got to meet a lot of my family that I had only heard about and I got to see where my Nonna and Nonno grew up. It was a lot of fun and very interesting, and I got a lot of good food. Sunday I went home to work on monday and my mom stayed in Spormigarre.
The following weekend I again met my mother in Lugano. This weekend we just stayed with my great aunt and uncle. I really liked visitng Lugano, because it was like visiting my nonno. Costanzo's voice reminds me of my Nonnos, and some of his actions also. They also had such a beautiful garden in November, especially since I was coming from Bern where there was snow.
We also made a Thanksgiving dinner the night before my mother had to leave. Everything we made was vegan. Stephanie joined us and brought ingredients for pumpkin pie, and bean casserole. All of the food was very good and I ate a lot. I found the vegan gravey with the polenta to be extremelly good. We also had a salad, an apple crisp for desert, and a quinoa quice.
Tonight I celebrated my birthday with the neighbor man, Marcus. We used the gemindashause, the commumity house, and had a small party. It was quite enjoyable and I made a large bowl of pumpkin soup. I got my dancing in, which I always enjoy, but I left quite early because I was very tired.
And now I shall sleep
Sonntag, 28. Oktober 2007
3 months and then some
Nothing too exciting has been happening... hence my lack of updating this blog. I continue to enjoy my time here and am learning a lot, either for the people here or from just spending a lot more time understanding current events and reading a lot more. I am also slowly learning a bit of German, although my reading of it is much better than my actual speaking skills. I have a hard time understanding what people say unless they talk very slow and simplistically.
Hm, so what has been happening. Well this week is halloween, which our little village actually celebrates (very uncommon in europe but i am thrilled about it). I am putting together a little halloween party for the kids and a couple of their friends before they go trick or treating on Wednesday. I am working on my costume today, nothing elaborate... just a jellyfish. I was going to do porcupine until I got some funky purple tights and wanted to incorporate them somehow. I talked Stephanie into going into Bern with me Wednesday night after the kids are done with their thing, so I think that will be a lot of fun...weehee.
I spent last Saturday in Bern, finding some more interesting stuff like a soap store with bar shampoo and I found some nutritional yeast. Yesterday I spent the day in Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland. It is an hour by train from Bern so not too far. It was very enjoyable. It is much more international so there was a lot of English conversations around me, and everyone at the stores speak english. There was even a whole english bookstore. There is a nice river running through the center of the old city, and in general the city was very clean. Quite cute.
In one week and one day my mother will arrive and we will soon embark on a journey to Italy. Yippiee. I think November will go by quite quickly. My mom will be here most of it, there is Thanksgiving, and MY birthday. For my birthday me and the neighbor man are having a joint party (his birthday is the 24th mine the 29th) and on my birthday I will go out with stephanie, and then the weekend after visit Alec (friend from college) in Germany.
Time to enjoy an empty house (the family went on a picnic)... one of my many pleasures. Loud music and free roaming in the kitchen :-)
Hm, so what has been happening. Well this week is halloween, which our little village actually celebrates (very uncommon in europe but i am thrilled about it). I am putting together a little halloween party for the kids and a couple of their friends before they go trick or treating on Wednesday. I am working on my costume today, nothing elaborate... just a jellyfish. I was going to do porcupine until I got some funky purple tights and wanted to incorporate them somehow. I talked Stephanie into going into Bern with me Wednesday night after the kids are done with their thing, so I think that will be a lot of fun...weehee.
I spent last Saturday in Bern, finding some more interesting stuff like a soap store with bar shampoo and I found some nutritional yeast. Yesterday I spent the day in Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland. It is an hour by train from Bern so not too far. It was very enjoyable. It is much more international so there was a lot of English conversations around me, and everyone at the stores speak english. There was even a whole english bookstore. There is a nice river running through the center of the old city, and in general the city was very clean. Quite cute.
In one week and one day my mother will arrive and we will soon embark on a journey to Italy. Yippiee. I think November will go by quite quickly. My mom will be here most of it, there is Thanksgiving, and MY birthday. For my birthday me and the neighbor man are having a joint party (his birthday is the 24th mine the 29th) and on my birthday I will go out with stephanie, and then the weekend after visit Alec (friend from college) in Germany.
Time to enjoy an empty house (the family went on a picnic)... one of my many pleasures. Loud music and free roaming in the kitchen :-)
Samstag, 13. Oktober 2007
travels
The mountains were BeaUtiFul!!... The first night there I got there late but met some really nice backpakers and heard about their amazing travles. Some had been going for 7 months already and planned to go at least 3 more months before returning home. That would be exhausting... but amazing. The next day the skies were quite grey but I hiked for 5 hours in the morning and then returned the the really welcoming hostel to relax away the afternoon. At night stephanie arrived with 2 guys she met on the train ride there and we all played cards with antoher girl I had met that is an intern from michigan in geneva. The next day was clear blue skies and me and stephanie climbed to 2698 m... as high as we could get without more gear for ice/snow. It was quite amazing and exhausting. I will definatly be returning to get to the top of Slithorn (the mountain we were climbing) in the spring when the weather i nice.
Then- London. Quite the opposite of the mountains. Day one was travling from 9:15 am, until about 9:30 pm. The flight was only 1.5 hours about, but it flew out of germany, and then once in london you have a 1.5 hour bus ride to the city and a 45 min ride to where you want in the city and then we took the wrong bus so a 45 min walk to the hostel. All in all long day.
Other days... We got front row seats to see Wicked (a musical about the wicked witch from the west before being evil). We went to the National Gallery and saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers Monet's The Water-Lily Pond Renoir's The Umbrellas and Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks along with many other very awesome paintings...
The National Portrait Gallery, The London Museum (which had basically the history of london which as interesting) The Britih Museum which had the Rosetta stone, lots of the Parthenon and just a ton of cool stuff... one of the most amazing museums in the world.
We took a walking tour of the Roman ruins in London which was very interesting and saw a lot of things we wouldn't have seen just wakling around. We saw London bridge, tower bridge, the tower of london, the london eye, Westminster abbey (we even went to a church service there), Buckingham palace, the House of Parliment, Abbey Road, that 9 3/4 harry potter train stop, The british library, Stonehenge (magical) and lots of little markets that were a ton of fun.
I also went to a night club that was just.... incredibly posh and not my thing.
Overall a very good trip, saw a lot of cool stuff, but glad to get out of london. It is grey and busy and all the people look clean and pressed, where are the scruffy people? Hiding in london apparently. or maybe they just can't afford to live there (veryyy expensive city, even compared to switzerland i think)
Returning to work and switzerland has been nice and relaxing. Nothing too exciting happening here at the moment. Getting excited for Italy in November, or more so just seeing my mom :-). Also planning a halloween party for some kids in the village YAY. I think I will be a porcupine.
Then- London. Quite the opposite of the mountains. Day one was travling from 9:15 am, until about 9:30 pm. The flight was only 1.5 hours about, but it flew out of germany, and then once in london you have a 1.5 hour bus ride to the city and a 45 min ride to where you want in the city and then we took the wrong bus so a 45 min walk to the hostel. All in all long day.
Other days... We got front row seats to see Wicked (a musical about the wicked witch from the west before being evil). We went to the National Gallery and saw Van Gogh's Sunflowers Monet's The Water-Lily Pond Renoir's The Umbrellas and Da Vinci's Virgin of the Rocks along with many other very awesome paintings...
The National Portrait Gallery, The London Museum (which had basically the history of london which as interesting) The Britih Museum which had the Rosetta stone, lots of the Parthenon and just a ton of cool stuff... one of the most amazing museums in the world.
We took a walking tour of the Roman ruins in London which was very interesting and saw a lot of things we wouldn't have seen just wakling around. We saw London bridge, tower bridge, the tower of london, the london eye, Westminster abbey (we even went to a church service there), Buckingham palace, the House of Parliment, Abbey Road, that 9 3/4 harry potter train stop, The british library, Stonehenge (magical) and lots of little markets that were a ton of fun.
I also went to a night club that was just.... incredibly posh and not my thing.
Overall a very good trip, saw a lot of cool stuff, but glad to get out of london. It is grey and busy and all the people look clean and pressed, where are the scruffy people? Hiding in london apparently. or maybe they just can't afford to live there (veryyy expensive city, even compared to switzerland i think)
Returning to work and switzerland has been nice and relaxing. Nothing too exciting happening here at the moment. Getting excited for Italy in November, or more so just seeing my mom :-). Also planning a halloween party for some kids in the village YAY. I think I will be a porcupine.
Mittwoch, 26. September 2007
a perfect world
Totally and completely psyched. Thats right. I'm just grand and dandy. I could dance like a child and laugh until i threw up... well maybe not.
But- I got paid a bonus of 40 Sfr. I got paid my whole month today. If all goes well tomorrow night I shall be in the mountains until sunday. Then I get to play in an empty house (hopefully) for a day or two and then off to Germany to fly to LONDON BABY.
I bought a good yoga book finally... deciding that dishing out the money would reward me in the long run, and started practicing. It makes me sad that things that look easy, that I swear I could do, I just can't, but I am still enjoying doing what I can and stumbling and stretching and flopping through what I can't.
MMM I love adventures, love love love.
And I hate planning them.
Funny thing I read:
A perfect world is where
the french are the chefs
the italians are the lovers
the british are the police
the germans are the mechanics
and the swiss run the trains
an imperfect world is where
the british are the chefs
the swiss are the lovers
the germas are the police
the french are the mechanics
and the italians run the trains
But- I got paid a bonus of 40 Sfr. I got paid my whole month today. If all goes well tomorrow night I shall be in the mountains until sunday. Then I get to play in an empty house (hopefully) for a day or two and then off to Germany to fly to LONDON BABY.
I bought a good yoga book finally... deciding that dishing out the money would reward me in the long run, and started practicing. It makes me sad that things that look easy, that I swear I could do, I just can't, but I am still enjoying doing what I can and stumbling and stretching and flopping through what I can't.
MMM I love adventures, love love love.
And I hate planning them.
Funny thing I read:
A perfect world is where
the french are the chefs
the italians are the lovers
the british are the police
the germans are the mechanics
and the swiss run the trains
an imperfect world is where
the british are the chefs
the swiss are the lovers
the germas are the police
the french are the mechanics
and the italians run the trains
Sonntag, 23. September 2007
2 months
I shall keep track of my time here. I feel it is necessary. There is so much to see and do and only a year, well now 10 months approximatly. I would like to go to amsterdam for christmas. I hear they decorate it very nice and it is very cute, but it is also very expensive and they have a huge new years event so it is hard to get someplace to sleep. We shall see.
I haven't done anything very exciting since my last blog, pretty normal days. Hating planning London but actually getting excited for it now. We have a hostel booked... only 90 SFr for the 6 nights... and there are some fun free things to do in london, a couple free clubs to get into, some free walks, and lots of free museums. I am also excited to see stonehenge.
I may go to a hostel in the mountains for two nights this week also. Thursday and Friday night, it is only 23 SFr a night, and has amazing hiking trails and an open kitchen so you don't need to go out to eat all the time. Supposidly a lot of americans go to this hostel because Rick Starks or something, some tourist writter, included a chapter about grimmelwald (the city) in one of his books... so maybe I shall meet some english speakers and have a good time for a couple of nights.
Tomorrow me and the kids shall go to the zoo. I'm not a huge fan of the zoo, but it is free and in bern and I enjoy going out and doing things with the kids rather than staying in the house all day so woopy.
It is strange how quickly ones mood can change, and how little it takes to make it happen. Yesterday I was somewhat blue, bored, and lonely. Today I am craving adventure and psyched about my trips that are less than a week away. I shall spend too much money I am sure, but oh well, how often do you get to be in europe, minus all the people that live here and are rich enough to come here all the time I suppose.
I also talked to a friend that was in sweeden for a year, then up and moved to argentina and uses poker as his source of income. Sweet, so anything really is possible.
I haven't done anything very exciting since my last blog, pretty normal days. Hating planning London but actually getting excited for it now. We have a hostel booked... only 90 SFr for the 6 nights... and there are some fun free things to do in london, a couple free clubs to get into, some free walks, and lots of free museums. I am also excited to see stonehenge.
I may go to a hostel in the mountains for two nights this week also. Thursday and Friday night, it is only 23 SFr a night, and has amazing hiking trails and an open kitchen so you don't need to go out to eat all the time. Supposidly a lot of americans go to this hostel because Rick Starks or something, some tourist writter, included a chapter about grimmelwald (the city) in one of his books... so maybe I shall meet some english speakers and have a good time for a couple of nights.
Tomorrow me and the kids shall go to the zoo. I'm not a huge fan of the zoo, but it is free and in bern and I enjoy going out and doing things with the kids rather than staying in the house all day so woopy.
It is strange how quickly ones mood can change, and how little it takes to make it happen. Yesterday I was somewhat blue, bored, and lonely. Today I am craving adventure and psyched about my trips that are less than a week away. I shall spend too much money I am sure, but oh well, how often do you get to be in europe, minus all the people that live here and are rich enough to come here all the time I suppose.
I also talked to a friend that was in sweeden for a year, then up and moved to argentina and uses poker as his source of income. Sweet, so anything really is possible.
Abonnieren
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