I turn 22 today

22 years ago, I was born.

Until next time,
Jon

I named the new calf Gilbert

I left Friday night to head to Bern. The bus driver from Hemberg to Wattwil and I engaged in a conversation in German and I found out he knows all of the trainees that have been here. I went to Bern this last weekend to visit Eliane and had a pretty fun time. Basically a lot of time was spent catching up and planning ahead. She has lots of ideas for things to do in the future and that's great. Saturday afternoon she had a business meeting so I took public transit into Bern and spent that time wandering the streets and into different record shops. In the evening, we met up with some of her friends who were having some sort of dinner party, I didn't catch the occasion. I, however, did take the opportunity to have rosti. It was some of the best rosti ever, covered in raclette cheese with some sort of bacony meet on top. I was soooo full after it! Then in the same restaurant, we moved to the bar and one of her friends was operating a karaoke operation which took up the rest of the night. On Sunday, we went to her parents house for a lunch of schnitzel, beans and fries. Always tasty! Before I left, we had coffee with some homemade apple schnapps and then I was on my way back to Hemberg.

My train route back from Langnau had me switching trains in Luzern, with about 40 minutes to get from platform 4 to platform 5. I decided to take a little walk through the city. Here's what I found:











I came back to a normal day of work on Monday. I made a potato casserole for lunch. The sauce was a cream of spargel soup and it was tasty.

One of the cows was pregnant and began the birth process last night. Unfortunately the calf was large and had to be pulled out by it's hind legs this morning. Gilbert (my name for him) won't even drink any milk. Dirk is thinking he won't last through tonight.





Salome decided to help in the stall tonight. It lasted for about 20 minutes:





This afternoon I made bread. Here are the untested results:



Beginning yesterday I've been getting cards in the mail. Of course, I'm waiting to open them until Thursday. I'm not taking them with me to the committee meeting up in Germany and I don't want to wait until Monday night to open them.

Happy Mardi Gras! I'll be celebrating Basel's version of it, which you can read more about here. Particularly, we're going to the Morgestraich at 4 am. I'll definitely have pictures and a better description.

Until next time,
Jon

I crouch to go into my room

I have a big room but it's just not very tall. I have to crouch when I walk into it. I have yet to hit my head on that specific door frame, but around the house I haven't been so lucky. Anyway, here are some pictures of my spacious room:







And here are some more pictures with a bit more sunlight on the Alps and the valley below the house:





I've been getting a lot of mail and that makes me really, really happy. Thanks for the Valentine's wishes Mom and Nana. Thanks for the birthday wish, Barb. On Tuesday I got a box in the mail from Jessica. I asked her if I should wait until my birthday to open it and she said that if she watches me open it, I can open it sooner. Plus, I won't be in Switzerland for my birthday, so I may as well just open it. So I did earlier tonight and in it is this super awesome blanket:



She made it, with the help of her mom and grandma. It has pieces of old clothes that she's worn. As she put it: This gift was made just for you out of things that have been a part of me. Being in a long distance relationship is really challenging, but if both sides of it meet in the middle (and sometimes go a bit over the middle) then you know there is a future for it. :)

I've been a bit sick recently. Yesterday I was told to sleep most of the day. I believe the bug is on its way out of me. I kept getting some headaches in my sinus region as well as a small cough and a stuffy nose.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to Bern where I'll visit Eliane. It took awhile for me to explain to Dirk how I know Eliane, so for those of you who don't know her, pay attention. A few years ago, Heidi's (my sis-in-law, Tim's wife, mother of blog-staple Gustav) parents were volunteers at the Bienenberg Bible Institute outside of Basel. There, they became friends with Peter and Lisa Kipfer who live in Langnau im Emmental. Eliane and Heidi are about the same age. One year when Heidi was in high school, Eliane came over as a foreign exchange student and lived with Heidi's family. That still doesn't explain how I know her. I met her briefly when Tim and Heidi got married. In 2006, the Hesston College European Chorale made a stop at Langnau and Eliane hosted Orp (good friend from Hesston) and I. Since I'm a bit far away for a weekend trip to Tim and Heidi's, Eliane said she'd be my family here in Switzerland. So I'll leave tomorrow night around 7 pm, to take advantage of my free travel after 7 pm, and make my way to Bern for the weekend. Should be fun.

I was bored this afternoon so I was cycling through my head what I could whip up. My in-head rolodex flipped to No-Bake Cookies. After looking up a recipe online as a refresher, I was off to the kitchen. They turned out wonderfully! Judging by the response after supper, I think I'll be making these again.

Here's the metric version:
380 g white sugar
115 g butter
115 g milk
35 g cocoa
240 g oats
vanilla (this is kind of random, but we didn't have vanilla extract so it was some sugar/vanilla mixture. however, it calls for one teaspoon of vanilla extract)

-Mix sugar, butter, milk and bring to a boil for a minute or two.
-Mix in cocoa, oatmeal, vanilla.
-Dallop onto parchment paper and let cool.
-Enjoy.

And the 'normal' version:
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
5 tbsp. cocoa
3 cups oats
1 teaspoon vanilla

-Mix sugar, butter, milk and bring to a boil for a minute or two.
-Mix in cocoa, oatmeal, vanilla.
-Dallop onto parchment paper and let cool.
-Enjoy.

Until next time,
Jon

I Love My View

This is out my bedroom window:






Sunday was a day of skiing. Not feeling like I was able to tackle going only down a hill, I decided to try cross-country skiing. Maya was my teacher for the afternoon. By the time we were finished, I was actually enjoying it! Here are some views during our ski:







I'll write more next time. It's 9:30 and I'm actually really tired. Bed is in my near horizon. Perhaps I'll have a slice of fresh bread that I made this afternoon...

Until next time,
Jon

I Miss My Nephew

Here's a video of everyone's favorite nephew, Gustav, from my last visit to Tim and Heidi before coming to Switzerland. The giggling should brighten your day.



Until next time,
Jon

I cook, I shovel poop, I sled

That's are about how my days go, not really in that order.

Since Wednesday, the first thing in the morning is to help in the cow stable. This includes, but isn't limited to, scraping poop, shoveling poop, forking hay, letting the cows smell me, throw chalk where it's wet, and drink warm milk almost straight out of the udder. I finally learned why they have cows and it's NOT a dairy farm: they sell them for meat. Same with the sheep they have.

Part of the stall work is to go to the chicken coop, refill their water and feed, open their door to let them out and pull the eggs.

After that, between 8:30 and 9, Dirk and I eat breakfast...with the bread that I made a day or two ago. Then today, we went and cleaned out the stalls that the sheep are in.

Mind you, all this work is made just a bit harder because since I've been here it's snowed each day. There are 20-40 more centimeters on its way over the weekend, too.

The snow makes for great sledding, which is exactly what I've done each day after waking up from my mid-day nap at 2. I go sledding with Salome, the three year old. I think she enjoys getting pulled up (by me) rather than going down the hill.

After that, I help out again in the stall and that usually finishes my day. In the times I'm not doing anything, I could be splitting wood, building a fire, cooking lunch, baking bread or kuchen, playing with Salome, or doing other odd jobs.

I'm their first American trainee, all the others have been from Canada. They complemented me on how I don't 'sound American' which I think means I don't have a country drawl.

Immediately after supper earlier tonight, Dirk and the four kids and I went to a road near here. All along it are signs that say "ACHTUNG SCHLITTER", which means "warning sledders". It's a 3 km sled run and it is AWESOME. There are hairpin turns and long straightaways. Some parts of it go through a forest. It probably takes about 10-15 minutes to go down. We went down twice.

Tomorrow there's a chance I may get coaxed into skiing, but only if I'm taught properly.

I would post some pictures, but I don't have any. The skies have been a bit cloudy with all the snow so I haven't been able to snap a shot of the jagged Alps out my window.

Until next time,
Jon

I Cooked

Wow. What a beautiful place:





That's the view outside my window on a day that's not even clear. If it were clear, in the first picture would be jagged Alps. But it wasn't clear because it was snowing all day. That made for great sledding with the kids, which also happened to be part of my work.

Their are four kids here, three of their own and a 'foster' child. Tim is 12, Jara (pronounced Yara) is 10, and Salome (Sal-Oh-Me) is 3. Cyrill, the foster child, is 8. My first job on Tuesday was to get Cyrill up, eat breakfast, make sure he takes his medicine so he doesn't kill anyone, and then get him off to school. I got him off on time, but he forgot his bag so he was 10 minutes late. Dirk (host-dad) said it was fault and I couldn't agree more. Next, Salome got up around 8:45 and I played with her all morning until it was time for me to cook lunch. I made rice, turkey and a sauce. It was my first time making such a sauce and it turned out wonderfully. I think Salome had 4 plates of it and the kids kept saying it tasted good. In the afternoon, I followed Dirk around showing me different jobs. First we cleaned out the chicken coop. Then he showed me how to clean the cow stall. By this time it was about 6:15 and I was done for the day.

In my blog posts I will not blatantly point out differences between here and the Dettweiler's. I know it will be different, heck, it already is. But the goal is not for comparison of the two places, but experiencing them for what they are.

Before I go on, I'll also point out that this is NOT a dairy farm. I never said that, ever. This is a farm where there just happens to BE cows. We only milk one cow and that milk is generally for a calf. So Nana, don't worry about me lifting heavy milk cans, just heavy shovels of cow poop and large pitchforks of hay.

Today I woke up a bit earlier to help clean the stalls and do some morning chores. Then I played with Salome all morning until I boiled Tortellini and warmed a sauce for lunch. I also made a salad. Then after the mid day pause, Maya (host mom) taught me how to make bread and kuchen. If only I knew how easy it was to bake bread before this. As far as I can tell, there's nothing more satisfying than eating warm bread that you made and baked yourself.

Some upcoming items of interest:
-Perhaps I'll be going to celebrate Fasnacht in Basel with the other Swiss Trainee and Debbie.
-Over my birthday weekend, I'll be going to Krefeld (border of Germany and Netherlands) for a Joint Committee Meeting where we review applications and take care of other business. Hopefully there will be more than the 14 applications that have been sent in.
-Maybe I'll try my hand at cross-country skiing tomorrow morning, it's Maya's wish for her birthday.
-Perhaps I'll go snowshoeing this weekend since there's too much snow for hiking.

Aside from that, hopefully more pictures will make their way onto here.

Until next time,
Jon

New Beginnings

Thursday afternoon, I bid the Dettweiler's farewell.



I thanked them for the wonderful opportunity they provide by hosting trainees. Their farewell gifts were very thoughtful: a bottle of wine from 1987, a t-shirt from the vineyard, and a kids book about work that happens on a vineyard. Heiko took me to the train stop and helped me get my two heavy suitcases onto the train. Eventually I met up with Von at a stop and we made our way to Karlsruhe for the Mid-Term Conference.

The Mid-Term Weekend in Karlsruhe was a splendid affair. While a lot of the time was structured, it was much looser than the orientation conference in August.



Naturally, everybody just wanted to hang out and chat, share stories and have fun. One of my duties as the trainee rep was to have devotions for each night. I asked Matt, the Dutch rep, to help me out. They didn't have to be long so we elected to do songs. The first one we did was by Ben Harper, called Picture of Jesus. Since most people are changing placements, it's good to have reinforcement that you're not alone in situations you may encounter.

The chorus goes:
"I've got a picture of Jesus
In His arms my prayers rest
I've got a picture of Jesus
And with Him we shall be forever blessed"

The second devotion we did was "The Great Storm is Over" which sets a calming and relaxing tone. It was needed because earlier in the day we attended a Bundesliga match (my third) of Karlsruhe against Hamburg. Karlsruhe is in the bottom of the table while Hamburg is near the top. I elected to cheer for Karlsruhe and not just because our tickets were for Stehplatz (standing) but if Hamburg loses, that gives Hoffenheim more chances to stay at the top of the table.



Things weren't looking good for KSC as Hamburg scored within the first five minutes. (0:1) The first half wasn't too spectacular. Hamburg opened the second half in much the same fashion with another quick goal. (0:2) With Hamburg up 0:2, KSC needed to gain momentum, and they did to cut the deficit in half. (1:2) The action began to get quicker and rowdier with two red cards and each side being reduced to 10 men.



Then KSC ties the match and the crowd is singing even louder, trying to get behind their team. (2:2) As the match progresses, it looks like each side is playing to a tie. However, a KSC player is brought down on the side of the field and a free kick is awarded in the added time at the end of the half. The ball is kicked and lands at the feet of a KSC player and he nets the winning goal as the final whistle is called. (3:2) Mind you, with every goal, bad play and bad call, certain fans took to throwing their beer, cup and all, toward the field.



Luckily I was miraculously missed at each chance, though others were not as lucky and were drenched by the end of the match. This was by far one of the best matches I've seen. I enjoy a good, rowdy stehplatz.





Today, we said our last goodbyes and made our way to the train station to head to next term's placements. There's one other trainee in Switzerland with me, but she's in Basel which is about a three hour journey. She and I, along with German/Swiss committee member Debbie, rode together down to Basel. Then I had a train from Basel to Zurich and on to where I'd get picked up. However, the train going to Zurich was late and I missed my train. I don't blame this on the SBB, but rather the French TGV train that I rode on. All was not lost and I was able to get on the same trains, but just a half hour later than anticipated.

I arrived to Wattwil and that's where I met Dirk, my host dad for the next six months. (I still can't believe that it's the second half.) We got to the house and it's a typical Swiss farmhouse. There are some doors and rooms where I must crouch so I don't hit my head. I was told before that I would have Alps outside my bedroom window. This is indeed true and pictures will be coming.

Aside from that, I haven't been here long enough to thoroughly describe the house, family and area. They did ask if I wanted to take more German classes. I'd really like to, but I think if they speak it with me all the time, I'll learn a lot more than I would in a class.

Until next time,
Jon

It's now Thursday the 5th. I leave where I've been for six months and head to Karlsruhe for the Mid-Term Conference. On Monday, I'll meet my 'new' family and begin settling in to the Alps. Time seems to have flown by much quicker than I would have preferred. I feel like there's so much that I haven't done but needs to be done before I leave here, but that won't happen. Oh well, such is life.

During my last week of work, I would label bottles in the morning and then head out to the vineyard's in the afternoon with Heiko. He has been out there all the time trimming the grape plants. My job was to pull the branches out of the wires and lay them in the middle of the rows. I enjoyed going out and getting fresh air and sunlight, it was a welcome change from the bottle room. The weather was good too, though it got colder as the sun got lower in the sky.



This past weekend was my last chance for the two-hour trip to visit Tim, Heidi, and Gustav in Bammental. The visit also brought a really swell birthday present. On Saturday, Tim and I travelled down to Sinsheim and the shiningly new Rhein-Neckar-Arena. We were going to Hoffenheim's first match of the second half of the Bundesliga season. It was also the first Bundesliga match in their new stadium.



The visitor's were cheering for Energie Cottbus, who come from the city of Cottbus which is almost in Poland. They were rowdy and began setting off flares. It all made for a great atmosphere.







Continuing with the momentum they carried into the winter break, they won in a dominating fashion 2:0.

On Sunday I bid them farewell and headed back to Wintersheim.










Later in the night, Kristen, who was a trainee in Kassel, came down. She and I both had some days off yet to use so it worked out well. On Monday, we went to Worms. Tuesday we went to Speyer.

Going to Switzerland, I need an entry visa since tourist status ends after 90 days of arriving in Europe. So yesterday, she and I went to Frankfurt and the Swiss Consulate. There had been some miscommunication in theh email received that had the directions of what I needed to do. For instance, the email said it would cost about 40 euros, so I took 50 along, planning to use the extra 10 for incidentals during the day. The visa cost 60 euros. Then, the email said nothing that I might have to go back the next day to pick up the finished visa. I would not have been happy to go back again, especially on a day like today. Fortunately the man understood and told us to come back at 4 that afternoon. Luckily it was finished. We spent the time waiting wondering the streets of the old city, walking along the Main River, and eating Doner Kebaps.

That should bring you all up to date. Lunch will be soon, then I head to the station for a 2:21 train. I'll meet another trainee on the way and we'll navigate our way through Karlsruhe to the conference center.

Here's my new address for those of you who missed it the last time around. Mail rocks.

Jon Huber
c/o Familie Fellmann
Ruteli <-------------- put an umlaut over the u...you know, those two dots
9633 Hemberg
SWITZERLAND

Here are some pictures of me during the ski weekend that I recently acquired.





Until next time,
Jon