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