Super Awesome Swiss Weekend XVIII

Like I said in the previous post, much of my work recently has had to do with fences. On Friday, my afternoon work was to screw in the pieces that hold the electric wires. By hand. After doing about 30 of them, the palm of my right hand had a nice hole worn into it that not even my gloves could prevent. Unfortunately, 30 posts was only a fraction of the number that surrounded the field...the total turned out to be more towards 300, but that's only a guess since I lost count after 220-something. Here's a picture of the field. Notice the lighter brown, unweathered posts, those are the new replacement posts. Also, see the fence posts at the top of the hill, to the right of the large tree? I was also up there...it was a long afternoon but counting made things go quickly.



I'd been looking forward to Friday for awhile, because that meant that Sharon* and Alyssa were coming for Super Awesome Swiss Weekend XVIII**. After I had finished work, Dirk and I had supper as Maya had taken the kids swimming. After supper, I mixed together some bread dough and let it begin rising. Then I took a shower. By that time I was finished, it was time to pick up Debbie and Alyssa in Wattwil, since they were coming after the last bus. What did this mean? After three months of just riding in the car, I finally got to drive the car through the winding roads down from Hemberg to Wattwil and back.

When we got back, it was time to put the bread in the oven. I make enough dough for two loaves and one of the loaves usually has raisins mixed into it. As the bread was baking, Debbie took command of making a batch of chocolate chip cookies courtesy of the chips and brown sugar that Mom had brought when she visited in March. They were (and still are) tasty.

The main plan of SASWWXVIII was to visit Liechtenstein as a day-trip on Saturday. The weather cooperated wonderfully throughout the weekend. Here's a picture from our walk to the bus from the house:



Some fast facts about Liechtenstein:

Population: 35,322 (204th largest country); Hutchinson, where I come from, has about 40,000 people
Area: 62 sq. miles, about the size of Manhattan Island (NYC)
GDP: $4.993 billion (1st in the world)
Main export: false teeth
They also use the Swiss Franc and speak German. There are also many banks and companies registered because of flexible business laws.

I've wanted to go to Liechtenstein mainly because Hutchinson is larger than the country. It's also cute as a button...Liechtenstein, that is. With Debbie and Alyssa, we were set to visit the capital city, Vaduz (pop. 5,109; twice the size of South Hutchinson). The smallness of the country was the draw for all of us.

Alyssa and Debbie, on the bus from Hemberg to Wattwil:



It was a rather uneventful trip. We did, however, manage to ride on a double-decker bus from Nesslau-St. Johann to Buchs. Being the young people we are, we managed to elbow our way in front of old people and sprint up the stairs to get the seats at the front for views like this:



The three Swiss Intermennonites:



From Buchs, it was a 20 minute ride to Vaduz after we crossed the Rhein River. Here's the flag, soon after crossing the river:



Vaduz is a rather interesting town...for a few minutes. Immediately you can tell that it is built for one of the largest trades, tourism. This is evidenced by giant plastic cows in the style of the national flag, which we of course had to take a picture with:



Along with the Asian tourists, we walked up and down the short pedestrian zone purposely not going into the many shops that were selling Gucci and Armani threads. Instead, we decided to get some food and plop ourselves down onto a bench and do what we do best: people watch. We sat ourselves at an outdoor restaurant and promptly noticed that Asian tourists liked to have their pictures taken with random things, such as balloon animal artists:



Vaduz is the residence of the prince of Liechtenstein, Prince Hans-Adam II. He lives in a giant castle above the city and only invites people in on Liechtenstein National Day (August 15). It's pretty big:



We decided to hike up to the castle. This walk took us near some interesting architecture, such as this center for Communication Arts:



The hike also gave us some wonderful views across the valley and of the Swiss Alps:





Switzerland allows the team from Vaduz to play in the Swiss League, since there is no Liechtenstein League. Here is the National Stadium (capacity 6,127):



We finally made it up to the castle and celebrated with a picture:





I ended up making a few purchases, notably adding a bottle of wine from the prince's vineyards to my collection. I also sent a postcard (but to who!?).

As we were waiting for our bus back to Switzerland, we noticed someone had some fun with a trashcan sticker. It roughly translates to 'Please dispose of your dog here'.



I think my favorite part of Liechtenstein was perhaps the license plates. They just looked cool:



I don't think I need to go back to Liechtenstein. It's nice to say that I've been there, but for what? It's small, there are a lot of nice cars (we saw a couple Ferrari's, a Lamborghini, among gaggles of Mercedes' and BMW's), and I think the people are nice.
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Today we went to St. Gallen. There's not much to write about here since nothing was open as it was Sunday. We just walked through the old city and relaxed on a bench for most of the day. I bid Sharon and Alyssa farewell and I made my way back to Hemberg.

When I got back, the kids had made a fire in an old tree stump in front of the house. That was where we had supper. We baked bread wrapped around sticks over the fire while wurst was being grilled. Then, Maya added banana's wrapped in foil that had chocolate added to them. It was all really swell.















After an eventful weekend, full of sun and wind and early mornings, I must retire now to my bed. Who knows what will happen next weekend?

'Til later,
Jon

*I like to call Swiss Committee Member, Debbie, the name Sharon from time to time. It's her middle name and I feel like she doesn't hear it enough, so I took liberties to change that.

**We have not had 18 (XVIII) Super Awesome Swiss Weekends all together, but it needed a snazzy name.

Fences and Bricks

First, a sad update from the previous post. Sadly, I discovered that the International Beatbox Session in St. Gallen we were going to go to didn't start until 9 pm...much too late in the evening. Instead, we went Putt-Putt Golfing in Wattwil! That was probably a lot more fun than listening to rapping and people making noises with their mouths. Maya won the round and I came in second, though I had more Holes in One than anybody else. I also got some new headphones and socks. Sweet.

On Sunday we went to church. Again, the service was plagued with throw-up music, however I could understand a bit more of the sermon. I like it when the main ideas are projected onto the screen so that I can not only hear but see it. That helps me understand more.

Now that the snow has melted, we have shifted gears and gone from winter to spring. While there's no snow to shovel, there are fences to fix. We have to prepare the fences so that the cows and sheep can go into the fields. I'm also learning where Dirk's fields are so that when I am told to go and check on the animals, I know where to go. I enjoy fixing fences. It is fun work. It generally involves shaking the old posts to see if they need to be taken out, reattaching wires, and pulling the wires taut. My arms are also a nice shade of red which I hope will turn to brown soon.

Today my job was to re-lay a couple sections of bricks outside the sheep stall where the ground had partially given way. I was to take up the bricks and level the ground underneath with rocks and sand, then put the bricks back in. This was time consuming work as I finished the last section at 6 tonight, just in time for supper. I was bending over all day. I also had to bring a large load of sand from the house up the stall. This took a long time because they have hills here, as opposed to Kansas.

I intend to post pictures of both the newly repaired fences and re-layed bricks in the next post, so stay tuned.

My German has grown exponentially here. I'm happy about that but it's nowhere where I want it. It probably never will be. I am able to get by on trains, in grocery stores and random small talk. After church, we had lunch with another family in Hemberg. There, the man asked me if I'd had any classes and I said only for 9 weeks. He said my German was good for only that much class. I'm taking it as a compliment. Everyday I learn new words, such as tools that I use.

This weekend I will add a new country to my list of countries visited. On Saturday it will read, in order of visitation: USA, Canada, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. Nice. That, and more in the next entry!

Peace,
Jon

It feels like time is dwindling

Realization: in a couple weeks time, I'll have hit the 3/4ths mark on my life in another place.

There are some things that have happened or happening that makes it feel like that day in August when I return home is much nearer than it is. After all, it's three months and a summer in Europe away from now.

First, I got a plane ticket from Toronto to Kansasland. My complaint is that our itinerary's are separated by Amsterdam-Toronto and Toronto-Home. Intermenno pays for our journey's between Toronto and Amsterdam and we are responsible for getting to and from Toronto. Those two different journey's completely unrelated to each other in the airline's eyes. It's unfortunate because a journey between the US and Canada is a domestic journey and you must pay for a second piece of luggage. On top of that, we are then forced to check-in again in Toronto. This makes for added time and stress. I hope the two hours and fifteen minutes I have allotted for that goes smoothly.

Second, I'm nearing the completion of enrolling in classes for next year at Bethel. This is another thing that is giving this year a sense of early closure. However, this is also giving me a good feeling since I'm not one of a handful of trainees who have no ideas of what they're doing when they're finished. The year of classes will be getting many required classes for my major that aren't in the realm of Communication Arts out of the way. Unfortunately, all but two or three or 100 and 200 level classes. I am looking forward to taking Mennonite Life, History and Thought. As the schedule stands before it's approved by my adviser, I will have 15 credits in the fall and 17 in the spring. Though this also means that I will not be finished with my Communication degree next year. Doing Intermenno, I missed a cycle of classes that I will have to take in the 2010-2011 year.

Now for a list of things that I'm looking forward to yet while I'm still here:

1) Next weekend we're having Super Awesome Swiss Weekend XVIII here in Hemberg. Debbie and Alyssa will come out and on the agenda is a trip to Liechtenstein.

2) We have our spring retreat as German/Swiss Trainees. It will be good to get together for a weekend in Meckesheim (near Heidelberg, train stop away from Tim and Heidi) and share new experiences with each other. Rumor has it that Heidi will be the chef for the weekend.

3) The last weekend in May, I'll be meeting Jessica and her family in Wintersheim and making a German/Swiss Trip from there.

4) Jessica and her family will head to Spain, but then Jessica and I will meet in Munich and then continue on to visit a friend in Prague. From Prague, we'll fly to Amsterdam for a couple days.

5) On July 4 I'll see Steely Dan, Dave Matthews Band, and Chickenfoot at the Montreux Jazz Festival. I'm excited to see one of my favorite bands share the stage with other such talented musicians at a world renowned festival like Montreux.

So those are things I'm looking forward to, how about a little bit of what's going on now?

Yesterday was a relatively bad day. I wish it had gone better. I was informed at lunch that I would not get my daily hour-long nap after lunch. I have gotten used to this time of rest in my daily schedule and did not know how things would go. I was doing without my pause to watch Salome for the afternoon. Dirk gave me instructions to take her out to the garden and pick salad plants, and she was to help me. Unfortunately her idea of 'helping' is not the same idea as mine. She found it necessary to put things like dirt into the basket with the salad plants, step on heads of lettuce and almost break them, and above all, she threw a sizable, quite heavy rock at my hand. After many tries at explaining to her that these actions were not allowed (verboten), she kept doing it. So I took her in and gave her a 15 minute time-out, the first time-out I've ever given-. She didn't like this, so she cried. But I'm not a fan of giving in so she cried that whole 15 minutes on her bed.

Then as it was getting close to time to do the stall, the doorbell rang, but I was keeping my eye on Salome and Cyrill. I go and sell a dozen eggs and I come back and Dirk is yelling (not really yelling, just explaining to me why I shouldn't leave them alone) at me for leaving them, "You must stay here to make sure there is order in the room at all times." Then I showed him the CHF 8,00 and things changed.

Today I finished removing the stones from the grass beside the driveway that the snowblower threw. It was hard and it took a lot of time, however I can be proud of my work. I was armed with a rake and a bucket and it's still not completely clean, nor will it ever be. As I said it was hard, the driveway is cut into the side of a mountain so I had to deal with a steep incline and not falling.

The hard work will be made better tomorrow. We'll be heading as a family to the First Annual International Beat Box Session in St. Gallen. It should be pretty rad. :)

With that,
Jon

Zurich and A Happy Easter

Last Sunday, I met Alyssa and Debbie in Zurich where we spent the entire day on the lakefront. The weather cooperated wonderfully well. For about 6 hours, we just sat and chatted, and did a bunch of people watching.

(l-r) Alyssa, Me, Debbie:



Debbie got interviewed for the radio, but first he was interviewing me. I had no idea what he was saying but I didn't want to interrupt him so I waited until he was finished before I informed I didn't know what he was saying.



And now for people watching:



Look closer, count the legs:



Green shorts, long black socks, blue shoes. Stylin':



AAAAaaaannnnndd, I'm going to see Dave Matthews Band at the one and only Montreux Jazz Festival along with Steely Dan and Chickenfoot. That's how I'll spend my Independence Day:



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Today I spent seven hours traveling home from Rudesheim am Rhein, in Germany. There, I met Philipp. He spent his junior year of high school at Nickerson and we became good friends. He and I played soccer and were in jazz band together. Every time I've come to Europe, I have visited him either in Berlin or Rudesheim. This was the fourth visit. Like the weekend in Zurich, the weather here was absolutely perfect. Sun, no rain, and a comfortable temperature. Every meal except for the Easter Brunch was consumed outside.



Table for Easter Brunch:





Opa, Oma, an aunt of Philipp:



They have a tradition here where you try to smash another person's egg with yours. It's much like doing the wishbone from a turkey:



Philipp's parents, Ursula and Ralf:



Phil has two siblings, both younger than him. This is Freddy, short for Frederica:



Alex, Phil's brother. When I got there on Friday, Phil hadn't yet arrived from Berlin and I mistook Alex for Phil:



Opa got a little wild:









My new European goal is to find these:





Philipp's parents operate a vineyard. However, that's not the only way they make their money (and they make a lot of it). Ralf is a consultant and an engineer (what he consults and engineers, I don't know). He spends a lot of time giving seminars and presentations. I did come away from the weekend with four bottles of wine. Huzzah!



I also found some interesting small glasses in a shop. I now have six glass boots. That's five more than Tim has! Five more!



I like warm weather!

With that,
Jon

I worked in short sleeves yesterday

My shoulder is slowly getting better, but I still notice that I got horned there. We determined that if it still hurts on Monday that we'd go to the doctor, but I don't think that will be necessary.

As the title dictates, things have been warming up and I was almost sweating during a portion of the work yesterday. Since it hasn't been raining, we've been destroying (sawing and splitting) a pile of wood to be burned next winter in the oven.



The big saw is on the right and the splitting machine is on the left:



This is where the finished, split wood goes. It's my job to split and stack the wood, which is why it looks so neat.



I'm enjoying the warming weather. The hills are beginning to get character as the snow is melting and revealing colors of green.

Come May, June and July, we'll be cutting hay on this hill:




On Tuesday I had some free time before lunch so I utilized the chocolate chips and brown sugar my mom brought when she visited and made chocolate chip cookies. Not to brag, but they taste delicious.



Maya's mom, Esther, has been here since Thursday and she's been a hoot to chat with. Today after breakfast she even gave me a chocolate Easter bunny and an invitation to come visit her and her husband over a weekend. I'll probably take her up on that offer sometime.

This is Chico, the family dog:



This is where the hay goes after we cut it and before the cows get it. Notice there are two different colors, which are different kinds of hay:



Today I was going to make a trip to Embrach and Neftenbach for some Huber family research. However, with the forecast of rain in the afternoon, I have postponed my plans for a later date. Tomorrow I'll be meeting Debbie and Alyssa in Zurich where we'll probably just sit on the shore of the lake and hang out. Maybe I'll bring my ukulele and maybe we'll have a picnic. At any rate, it should be better than going to church. I haven't necessarily been enjoying going to church because they frequently sing what I like to call "Throw Up Music". Along with that, the pastor usually speaks very quickly and I am unable to follow the idea of the service, so I go off into my own little world (which is rather quite enjoyable).

With that,
-Jon