Alright so here is what's up

Yesterday my German class ended. It was alot of fun and I'm glad I took it. Now I just have to practice using what I've learned! It's challenging. So now that I have no class I'm staying with a friend of Vitus and Gail's for a week. It's a husband and a wife and four boys. A definite change of pace. They are very cool people and last night we went to see Walk the Line. What a good movie. So I'm not sure what we'll be doing this week but I'm looking forward to it. Then after being here for a week I'll go back to the Barmettler's for a day or two then Vitus is sending me up to his cousin's house in the mountains. That will be for a week as well. And yeah, after that there is just one week left of my trip. Not bad, not bad at all. Oh and I'm 18 now, so that's pretty sweet.

Castle Kyburg

This is where Vitus and I went on Sunday. It had been snowing the night before, snowing ALOT, so everything had a nice fresh layer of snow over it and the sun finally came out making it a great day for pictures. There was a castle in this small, awesome looking village and Vitus and I spent a good while there walking around and seeing the sights. All the pictures are from just outside the village and inside the castle. The picture of the poorly lit room with the Jesus on the cross and the knife hanging on the wall (and depending on the brightness of your computer you might be able to see the weird wheel thing on top of a pole) was the the old torture chamber. That was sweet. I suggest if any of you come to Switzerland, go to this castle. Because there's alot of stuff I didn't take pictures of.

K, so this is post number two of the day. I think I'll make a third where there is something actually useful to read. These first two posts were mainly for pictures.

Zurich

Well on Tuesday we finally got some sun so I went to Zurich and took some pictures. Hopefully this will give you a good feel of what it's like. And tommorow is my last day of class! Dadgum!

Another post is coming today. Maybe two more!

This and That

Hey folks, before I get into the random pictures I would like to say this. A new girl started coming to the German class this week and take a wild guess where she's from. Grand Marais! Isn't that incredible? Now with that out of the way, I shall proceed.

Obviously, the first picture is of clothespins. It's ideal for using as a picture for MSN Instant Messenger. The next one is me holding an orb of magical power I found it under my pillow last night. Then there's a picture of me hanging out with my shirts on a hanger. I posted the picture of the bloody toilet paper for two reasons. The first reason is to remind kids not to play with knives. The second is that I noticed one of the blood splotches resembles the shape of a heart. And I thought that was cool because I'm reading a book that is talking alot about the blood of Jesus and the importance of it. It's a good reminder that Jesus spilt his blood for us out of love. The last three pictures are of pen and paper. Now to clarify, in no way did I have a boring week and spend my time taking random pictures. These were taken over a good period of time and I wanted to share them, I'm not sure why.

So yeah, I have one week left of German classes. I must say it's been alot of fun. The people are great and the language is very interesting. It gets me up every morning and makes me use my brain (something that is very useful I find). And after that week is over that leaves merely three weeks left of my trip. Crazy. I plan on going to a couple more cool places with Vitus and going around on my own too just to explore. One of these days I'll bike up to that little village that was founded in the 1200's and get some sweet pictures. Pictures I will share with you all, whoever you all may be.

I like coffee and I like tea

Usually when I hear "Ski trip to the mountains" I think of being crammed in a van with a bunch of bags a ski equipment and having a 13 hour ride ahead of me. But that's not the case when you're in Switzerland. K, so I was still crammed in a car surrounded by ski poles and bags, but after a mere hour and a half of driving we arrived at our destination. I hardly had time to get comfortable in my seat. So that was pretty sweet. And yeah, we spent the week hanging out in the alps and skiing. It was beautiful, mountains we literaly surrounding us. All the pictures were taken just right outside where we were staying. You may feel like I need to tell you more about the trip but that's alll there is to tell. We skiied and hung out in the alps. And had an awesome time. We played alot of Uno. The only problem with going on the trip was that I missed a week of my german class. That may not sound too bad, but when the class is only 4 weeks long 1 week will get you pretty far behind. So today I will be trying to catch up on everything. That will be ALOT of fun. And other than that, there isn't much else to say here. I say Hello to everyone who reads this, and wish that you all have a good day (depending who you are, if I don't like you I hope you have a terrible day). Thanks for stopping by. And stay classy.

It's been a while

Well I just got back from skiing in the alps. I don't have time to put pictures up so this is pretty much just an announcement saying I'm not dead and I'll give ya an update soon. Tschüss.

Guten Tag!/It's a small world

(This post has two titles, you'll see why)

Hey folks. It's me again. Things are still going good here. Yesterday we went to the capital, Bern, that was alot of fun (sorry, no pictures, but it was beautiful). We were just walking around talking and seeing the sights and as we passed by some tables I heard someone say, "Have you ever been to Minnesota?" I thought that was pretty funny being that I'm from Minnesota and all so I just glance at the table and the guy who asked it is looking at me. It was then that I realized I was wearing a Gophers sweatshirt. To make a long story short he is from Minneapolis and is now living in Zurich and he knows of Mound and all that good stuff and we talked. Yeah. So I gave him my e-mail address and he might contact me sometime so we can meet in Zurich. I won't bring any valuables though, in case he robs me. So we parted ways and literaly ten seconds later I hear a guy say, "Hey, Minnesota! How about them Vikings?" Turns out that this guy is from St. Paul and we also talked for a while. It was crazy. So I pointed out the guy from Minneapolis and he said he was gonna walk by him and make some comment about how Minneapolis sucks, just to see what the guy will do. It was a good time, and there was much rejoicing.


I had my first German class this morning. As you can see from the title I already have a tremendous grasp of the language. I can hold at least a 5 to 7 second conversation. So that's pretty exciting. The class is 2 hours in the morning Monday through Friday for 4 weeks. I am the youngest (by far) in a class of about 12 people and the only American. There are people from Turkey, France, India and who knows where else. There is one particular fellow from Nigeria who I talked to after class while I was waiting for the bus. His English wasn't bad, I was catching about two thirds of everything he was saying, but he said that he is from Nigeria and is now living here with his wife. Then I told him I'm from America from the state of Minnesota and for some reason right after that he asked, "You Christian?" (he had to repeat it a couple times, I couldn't tell what he was asking, but anyway) So obviously I told him, "Yes I am." Right then he got a big smile on his face and yelled "Me too! I believe in GOD." And right there in the middle of the bus station we started talking about God and what He's doing in our lives and just how amazing He is and rejoicing and laughing and sharing all our thoughts and praises. It was awesome. Who woulda thought that a Minnesotan and a Nigerian who have known each other for two and half hours can so quickly have something in common that makes them feel like brothers. It was sa-weet. He had to leave shortly so that's all there is to tell so far, but I'll be seeing him alot. Perhaps there will be something more to inform you about in the future.



Auf Wiedersehen!

Umm...

Hmm...not quite sure what to say here. This is where Gail and I went today. I enjoyed it alot but I can't remember what the town was called. So I ain't got much to tell you. Things are going good here and it's alot of fun being around the Barmettlers. And that's all I have to say about that.

My thought of the day

Could a lightsaber cut a mirror? I wouldn't think so. And if that were the case, the dark side should just wear mirrors as armor. They'd win every time. Those fools.

This is a true story...

Hello everyone, it is now sunday night and boy what a day it was. We woke up at 5:30 to catch the early train down to the South of Switzerland. The ride took about three and half hours so we got there mid-morning. It was kind of cold but we walked around for a while just seeing the sights and taking pictures, it was good. After a while we were thinking of what to do next, not much came to mind so we decided to settle with going to Italy. I mean hey, why not? It's Italy. It was pretty boring.

In all seriousness now, it was awesome. On the train ride I just thought to myself, "Wow, I'm going to Italy." It was kinda hard to believe, but before I knew it I was in Milan. Boy, I used to think that going to Canada was an adventure. Here are some photos of the day.