A lot of things

Before I get to big news, I'll do a run-down of things that I've done since the last time I posted.

For election night, four trainees gathered in Giessen for what would turn out to be the morning's festivities. Also, a fellow Bethel student who is studying in Wuppertal (northwest Germany) came down. Since the results wouldn't be known until early Wednesday morning, we had a lot of time to kill. Bryce, the trainee there, had a big pot of chilli waiting for us when we got back from the trainstation, it was by far the spiciest thing I've eaten in Germany.



This is Charles.


We watched the results stream in starting at about 1:30 am, on a streaming MSNBC feed on Bryce's laptop.



We finally went to bed at 5:30, after both McCain's Concession Speech and Obama's Acceptance Speech. It was very good to be around other Americans for something like this.

Back here at the Dätwyl vineyard, we have been busy with the Christmas season. Heiko said that they sell 50% of their wine between the beginning of November and Christmas.

I thought I'd show a picture of the room where I spend most of my time during the day. The Flaschen Raum (bottle room) is where all of the bottled wine is stored until it goes out to the masses. While it waits to be labelled, it collects dust here in one of these bins. Each bin holds between 400 and 500 bottles.



Because the dust, they need to be cleaned so they both look nice and so that labels will stick.



After they receive their labels, they are boxed and moved to a different part of the room.




Switzerland
Last weekend, I journeyed to Dombresson, Switzerland. As the trainee representative to the Intermenno Committee, I was able to take part in the meeting. I was able to offer my ideas and add another viewpoint to the many topics discussed. The main reason we gathered though was to decide the second-half placements for each trainee, including myself. Unfortunately for you, I am not able to divulge both where other trainees or I will be starting in February after the mid-term conference. I will post my placement information when I receive the letter, which should be before the end of November. Although if you really want to know where I will be, I may make an exception. But you'll have to email me and then I'll decide whether or not I can tell you. handsareme@gmail.com

We travelled down to Dombresson on Friday and met for the better part of Saturday.


Größere Kartenansicht

For part of the afternoon on Saturday, we did take a break from meetings and Daniel, the other Swiss Committee Member, showed us around. After all, we were meeting at his house. He took us up into the hills above his house and we were able to spot the Alps from our higher vantage point. They were beautiful! Dombresson is in the French area of Switzerland, so we came down from our high roost to the town of Neuchatel. We wandered the oldest part of the city and walked along the lake.


Größere Kartenansicht

We came back and met for a few more hours until 8:30, which is when we paused and had fondue. As always, it was wonderful!

After the fondue, we resumed our meeting and determined the placements.

You may be wondering to yourself why I went to Switzerland and am not showing off the pictures I snapped. Don't worry too much, I have them. However, my computer's hard-drive is experiencing problems so I've been left to use the family computer which does not have my pictures on it. I am awaiting discs in the mail from home so I can do two final tests, then we'll see what the fate of the computer will be. My computer does still turn on, but I do not know for how long that will last.

Earlier this afternoon at about 4, it snowed for about five minutes. It was above freezing and it didn't stick, but it was still fun to see the first snow falling.

Tomorrow I will be going to Worms to do some Christmas shopping. Hopefully it won't be as windy as it was today...it reminded me of a chilly, windy Kansas day!

Until next time,
Jon