I suppose I should post what's happening in the coming days. It's the second part of my long awaited holiday.
Tomorrow after lunch, I'll be catching a bus and ultimately a EuroCity train in St. Gallen that's bound for Munich. I'll be arriving just before supper time to the apartment of Stief. He is the guitarist in the band Philipp is in (Trivial) and is studying in Munich. I'll pick up Jessica from the airport on Thursday morning and we'll sightsee in Munich, most likely going to the Chinese Tower in the English Garden among other stops. (I saw Tim and Heidi's blog and it looks very appealing.) Our train then leaves before 5 pm on Friday. This particular train is bound for Prague.
This will be my first time in "Eastern Europe" and I'm looking forward to it...especially since we have a real, live Eastern European to show us around and speak the language. Ondra, who some Goshen readers might know, will be meeting us in Prague for the weekend. We'll be there until Monday morning, when we take a flight from there to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we'll be staying with one of the Dutch Intermenno Committee Members, Sarah, at her apartment. We'll see what Amsterdam has to offer until Wednesday morning, when both of us part ways and return to our 'homes'.
Work here has been slightly hard to get back to after being on vacation. I pulled weeds all yesterday afternoon only to have Dirk tell me this afternoon that I missed a lot. Little did he know that I hadn't yet covered all the ground.
Weather here has been rainy, which is good for my being gone in the coming days. As long as it's wet there's no chance to cut hay.
I'll be going to the doctor tomorrow morning. It looks like I have the beginnings of an ingrown toenail. Hopefully everything can get taken care of tomorrow at the doctor. I'm not limping or anything yet, but it's red and slightly swollen, with a whitish puss oozing out if I squeeze it in the correct manner.
With that,
Jon
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Strawberries! Pull over!
It seems like after 10 months of waiting, the last 10 minutes seem to creep by like a barge heading upriver.
Fortunately instead of hitting port, my destination was Bingen am Rhein and into the waiting arms of Jessica and her family. They had flown into Amsterdam about two weeks ago and were slowly making their way down the Rhein from The Netherlands. They picked me up and we made our way to the Dettweiler Hof in Wintersheim. The trainee there, Crystal, took over hosting duties as Heike and Heiko always seemed to be out and about. I think we shared only two breakfasts together the whole weekend.
Due to some unknown scheduling circumstances, Saturday's schedule was thrown a bit off cue but we were given more time to sightsee. Instead of going to Worms, we went to Heidelberg. I called Tim and Heidi that morning and asked if they wanted to join us. Heidi and Gustav couldn't, but we picked up Tim and he was a wonderful tour guide for the afternoon. (Thanks Tim!)
I like to catch what I've been calling 'Funny Looking Europeans' in pictures, and the next one is probably the best I've caught in the 10 months I've been here. Why not walk the streets of Heidelberg in Dominatrix attire?
The Fridley's rented a Ford Galaxy which comfortably sat the six of us plus luggage. It also came with a GPS, but in the following picture you'll notice another GPS on the dash. We made due with two GPS's, which always seemed to find the BP fueling stations and IKEA super-stores. Sometimes the two would find different routes and we'd be left discussing whether to turn or not. Luckily, both are programmed to re-calculate the route if you 'miss' a turn.
The first weekend together was Ascension Day, or Pfingsten in German. The Dettweiler winery across the road in Wintersheim put on a wine festival. We had lunch there on Sunday. After, Heiko took us on a walk through the vineyards explaining and taking questions on all things grapes. Then it was naptime! That night, we sat out on the patio and made our own winetasting evening while being accompanied by the band across the street, who also happened to play hits of 80's, 90's and today until nearly 2 am.
We headed out on Monday through the Black Forrest in Southern Germany on our way to Switzerland. We stopped in Freiburg in the late morning. Perhaps if it hadn't been a national holiday and more things would've been open, I would've been more impressed. We stopped in a small town south of Freiburg, Staufen, where we made our signature picnic lunch at the base of a castle on a hill.
We stopped at the German Basel Train Station so that Jessica and I could get our Munich-Prague tickets and Jonathan and Julie could get tickets from Utrecht to Burgos, over Prague. After that, Debbie recommended a traditional Swiss restaurant where we had fondue. Usually fondue is consumed when there is snow on the ground, but we decided to throw that out the window and join it on the sidewalk. After supper, we continued on to Langnau im Emmental, where Eliane's parents opened their house for our posse.
The Kipfer Family knows how to make people feel at home and well-hosted. Eliane took Tuesday off and had a wonderful auto tour planned that lasted until supper. While long and a bit tiring, she showed us her part of Switzerland. The first stop was Trachselwald Castle, a fortress where Anabaptists were imprisoned during the time of Persecution.
We then drove through some mountains and found ourselves driving along the Lake of Thun...
...and through Interlaken and up to an Alpine restaurant.
After lunch we went to the Frutigen Valley. Barb's, Jessica's mom, maiden name is Schmid and this is the valley where her family comes from. She had come with her family in the 70s, but wanted her family to see where they had come from. We stopped at the church and wandered through the cemetery for a little bit.
Then Eliane took us to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We walked through the old town and poked into the random shop.
For supper that night, I sufficiently engorged in Lisa's raclette. I sat beside Peter for most meals, since I was the only one out of the group (except for the Kipfer's, of course) who could communicate in German. He handed me his cheese tray and asked for another piece of cheese. I put it under the grill and then he told me that it was for me...so for awhile I had two pieces of raclette going. I was stuffed full by the end of the night.
Wednesday after breakfast, we left for Hemberg but stopped over lunch and for the afternoon in Zurich. We spread our picnic out beside the Zurichsee.
I took them on a walking tour of some of the churches in Zurich. We visited the Fraumunster and the Grossmunster. There was someone practicing the organ in the Grossmunster, so I decided to take a video.
We also made our way past a plaque that is in the place of where some Anabaptists were drowned in the Limmat River during the Reformation.
The next day, we're on Thursday now, I got to show them my area of Switzerland, the Toggenburg. Our first stop was the Appenzeller Show Cheesery in Stein, where they make famous Appenzeller Cheese.
Then we went to the town of Appenzell, which is a more-than-typical Swiss town. We had another picnic lunch here while the shops had also closed for lunch. Then we walked around the town for an hour or two.
We took a scenic drive past the Säntis, the mountain that I can see out my window. On the other side is a picturesque valley (not that mine isn't picturesque enough). We took a skilift up and then hiked on a special walking trail.
Aside from having lots of cows to pet, it's a musical walking trail. There were different instruments to 'play' along the hour-long stretch that we did. There was a see-saw that had xylophone bells in the middle and when you see-sawed, a ball would roll and make music. There was an iron cage with many cowbells hanging from chains and you can shake it to get them all to ring and sound like a herd of cows. Then there was this one:
Jonathan and Julie left yesterday with the car to return it to Utrecht and tonight they are in Paris.
I took George, Barb and Jessica to the Zurich Airport this morning and came back to a house full of sick people. Dirk and Maya are both spending a lot of time in bed asleep. Salome was sick this past week, as was Tim. So far Jara and I are the only ones who haven't gotten the bug. If it were to get me, my hope would be sooner rather than in the middle of the week because that's when I leave for Munich and meeting back up with Jess. I'm distancing myself from them and not holding hands when we sing before meals and hopefully that plus a lot of handwashing can keep it at bay.
See you 'round,
Jon
Fortunately instead of hitting port, my destination was Bingen am Rhein and into the waiting arms of Jessica and her family. They had flown into Amsterdam about two weeks ago and were slowly making their way down the Rhein from The Netherlands. They picked me up and we made our way to the Dettweiler Hof in Wintersheim. The trainee there, Crystal, took over hosting duties as Heike and Heiko always seemed to be out and about. I think we shared only two breakfasts together the whole weekend.
Due to some unknown scheduling circumstances, Saturday's schedule was thrown a bit off cue but we were given more time to sightsee. Instead of going to Worms, we went to Heidelberg. I called Tim and Heidi that morning and asked if they wanted to join us. Heidi and Gustav couldn't, but we picked up Tim and he was a wonderful tour guide for the afternoon. (Thanks Tim!)
I like to catch what I've been calling 'Funny Looking Europeans' in pictures, and the next one is probably the best I've caught in the 10 months I've been here. Why not walk the streets of Heidelberg in Dominatrix attire?
The Fridley's rented a Ford Galaxy which comfortably sat the six of us plus luggage. It also came with a GPS, but in the following picture you'll notice another GPS on the dash. We made due with two GPS's, which always seemed to find the BP fueling stations and IKEA super-stores. Sometimes the two would find different routes and we'd be left discussing whether to turn or not. Luckily, both are programmed to re-calculate the route if you 'miss' a turn.
The first weekend together was Ascension Day, or Pfingsten in German. The Dettweiler winery across the road in Wintersheim put on a wine festival. We had lunch there on Sunday. After, Heiko took us on a walk through the vineyards explaining and taking questions on all things grapes. Then it was naptime! That night, we sat out on the patio and made our own winetasting evening while being accompanied by the band across the street, who also happened to play hits of 80's, 90's and today until nearly 2 am.
We headed out on Monday through the Black Forrest in Southern Germany on our way to Switzerland. We stopped in Freiburg in the late morning. Perhaps if it hadn't been a national holiday and more things would've been open, I would've been more impressed. We stopped in a small town south of Freiburg, Staufen, where we made our signature picnic lunch at the base of a castle on a hill.
We stopped at the German Basel Train Station so that Jessica and I could get our Munich-Prague tickets and Jonathan and Julie could get tickets from Utrecht to Burgos, over Prague. After that, Debbie recommended a traditional Swiss restaurant where we had fondue. Usually fondue is consumed when there is snow on the ground, but we decided to throw that out the window and join it on the sidewalk. After supper, we continued on to Langnau im Emmental, where Eliane's parents opened their house for our posse.
The Kipfer Family knows how to make people feel at home and well-hosted. Eliane took Tuesday off and had a wonderful auto tour planned that lasted until supper. While long and a bit tiring, she showed us her part of Switzerland. The first stop was Trachselwald Castle, a fortress where Anabaptists were imprisoned during the time of Persecution.
We then drove through some mountains and found ourselves driving along the Lake of Thun...
...and through Interlaken and up to an Alpine restaurant.
After lunch we went to the Frutigen Valley. Barb's, Jessica's mom, maiden name is Schmid and this is the valley where her family comes from. She had come with her family in the 70s, but wanted her family to see where they had come from. We stopped at the church and wandered through the cemetery for a little bit.
Then Eliane took us to Bern, the capital of Switzerland. We walked through the old town and poked into the random shop.
For supper that night, I sufficiently engorged in Lisa's raclette. I sat beside Peter for most meals, since I was the only one out of the group (except for the Kipfer's, of course) who could communicate in German. He handed me his cheese tray and asked for another piece of cheese. I put it under the grill and then he told me that it was for me...so for awhile I had two pieces of raclette going. I was stuffed full by the end of the night.
Wednesday after breakfast, we left for Hemberg but stopped over lunch and for the afternoon in Zurich. We spread our picnic out beside the Zurichsee.
I took them on a walking tour of some of the churches in Zurich. We visited the Fraumunster and the Grossmunster. There was someone practicing the organ in the Grossmunster, so I decided to take a video.
We also made our way past a plaque that is in the place of where some Anabaptists were drowned in the Limmat River during the Reformation.
The next day, we're on Thursday now, I got to show them my area of Switzerland, the Toggenburg. Our first stop was the Appenzeller Show Cheesery in Stein, where they make famous Appenzeller Cheese.
Then we went to the town of Appenzell, which is a more-than-typical Swiss town. We had another picnic lunch here while the shops had also closed for lunch. Then we walked around the town for an hour or two.
We took a scenic drive past the Säntis, the mountain that I can see out my window. On the other side is a picturesque valley (not that mine isn't picturesque enough). We took a skilift up and then hiked on a special walking trail.
Aside from having lots of cows to pet, it's a musical walking trail. There were different instruments to 'play' along the hour-long stretch that we did. There was a see-saw that had xylophone bells in the middle and when you see-sawed, a ball would roll and make music. There was an iron cage with many cowbells hanging from chains and you can shake it to get them all to ring and sound like a herd of cows. Then there was this one:
Jonathan and Julie left yesterday with the car to return it to Utrecht and tonight they are in Paris.
I took George, Barb and Jessica to the Zurich Airport this morning and came back to a house full of sick people. Dirk and Maya are both spending a lot of time in bed asleep. Salome was sick this past week, as was Tim. So far Jara and I are the only ones who haven't gotten the bug. If it were to get me, my hope would be sooner rather than in the middle of the week because that's when I leave for Munich and meeting back up with Jess. I'm distancing myself from them and not holding hands when we sing before meals and hopefully that plus a lot of handwashing can keep it at bay.
See you 'round,
Jon
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Stormy skies and dry hay
The skies began to darken this afternoon around 3. Salome and I were jumping on the trampoline, or rather, Salome was jumping on the trampoline while she made sure I was sitting on the edge and not jumping (or 'gump-ah', as she calls it). Clouds began swirling and I could see rain beginning to fall in the valley toward St. Peterzell.
"Salome," I began, "we need to go in the house, a storm is coming."
"Chico auch!" she replied. (Chico [the family dog] also.)
The skies darkened ever more and about 10 minutes after we went into the house, the rains came and the winds blew. Hard. I haven't seen it get that windy since I've gotten to Europe. We're finishing up moving the green house (putting the plastic over it) but there were still some random things laying out by the garden. Jeff and I ran out in the pouring rain and pounding wind to pick up the pieces. It was a fun storm. Apparently the church in town got struck by lightning. The power was out for a good 45 minutes. Chico gets scared when there is gewitte. He paces and pants with his tongue hanging out and there is unfortunately nothing we can do but say his name in a soothing, calming voice.
Fortunately for the hay, we finished that yesterday afternoon before today's thunderstorms came. Making hay is probably one of the hardest jobs I'll be doing here. Dirk has 'joked' that all the work I've been doing has been training for hay making. I believe him now. I can see my main job while Dirk is sitting on the hay collector is to follow behind him on foot and dragging a giant rake. Remember, there are hills here. It's not your flat-land cut the grass, let it dray, rake it, bale it hay making. Because we have hills, there is some land which is not accessible by machine and all the work has to be done by hand. Sometimes when a machine can go in the area, it's not possible to get everything on the first try which is when we have to follow behind with the rakes. After the collector is full, we follow Dirk down to the barn and proceed to unload it. With 3.5 loads, we filled a room that's perhaps 20 feet x 25 feet and as deep as 8 feet.
When the cows are in the summer stall, they are let out to pasture everyday (or night, depending on how hot it gets that day). There is a large section (read: hillside) that is set aside for the cows. They don't get freerange of the whole section. We divide it off and when that section is all consumed, we remake the fence to enclose the next section. There is also a path that leads from the stall to the cafeteria. All of these fences are electric. I'll post pictures when it's not raining so you can better understand.
Last week on Wednesday I woke up with a ruckschmerz (back pain) on my right side. It felt like a muscle was tensed up and something wasn't allowing it to relax. I was unable to do much of the outside work so I was left to play with Salome. The next day I was taken to the doctor and he gave me some pain tablets, which didn't really help. Fortunately by the weekend things had evened out pretty good. I just hate it when I wake up and am sick. The main reason why I'm here is to work and when I can't do that I feel like I'm letting the family (my employers) down.
Jeff is visiting. He was the trainee here a year ago. The family absolutely adored him and I didn't know how to feel about him visiting. I had my reservations, especially since they called me his name the first three months I was here. Turns out he's pretty cool, though he is sitting in my place at the table. I don't know how I feel about that.
Looking forward,
Jon
"Salome," I began, "we need to go in the house, a storm is coming."
"Chico auch!" she replied. (Chico [the family dog] also.)
The skies darkened ever more and about 10 minutes after we went into the house, the rains came and the winds blew. Hard. I haven't seen it get that windy since I've gotten to Europe. We're finishing up moving the green house (putting the plastic over it) but there were still some random things laying out by the garden. Jeff and I ran out in the pouring rain and pounding wind to pick up the pieces. It was a fun storm. Apparently the church in town got struck by lightning. The power was out for a good 45 minutes. Chico gets scared when there is gewitte. He paces and pants with his tongue hanging out and there is unfortunately nothing we can do but say his name in a soothing, calming voice.
Fortunately for the hay, we finished that yesterday afternoon before today's thunderstorms came. Making hay is probably one of the hardest jobs I'll be doing here. Dirk has 'joked' that all the work I've been doing has been training for hay making. I believe him now. I can see my main job while Dirk is sitting on the hay collector is to follow behind him on foot and dragging a giant rake. Remember, there are hills here. It's not your flat-land cut the grass, let it dray, rake it, bale it hay making. Because we have hills, there is some land which is not accessible by machine and all the work has to be done by hand. Sometimes when a machine can go in the area, it's not possible to get everything on the first try which is when we have to follow behind with the rakes. After the collector is full, we follow Dirk down to the barn and proceed to unload it. With 3.5 loads, we filled a room that's perhaps 20 feet x 25 feet and as deep as 8 feet.
When the cows are in the summer stall, they are let out to pasture everyday (or night, depending on how hot it gets that day). There is a large section (read: hillside) that is set aside for the cows. They don't get freerange of the whole section. We divide it off and when that section is all consumed, we remake the fence to enclose the next section. There is also a path that leads from the stall to the cafeteria. All of these fences are electric. I'll post pictures when it's not raining so you can better understand.
Last week on Wednesday I woke up with a ruckschmerz (back pain) on my right side. It felt like a muscle was tensed up and something wasn't allowing it to relax. I was unable to do much of the outside work so I was left to play with Salome. The next day I was taken to the doctor and he gave me some pain tablets, which didn't really help. Fortunately by the weekend things had evened out pretty good. I just hate it when I wake up and am sick. The main reason why I'm here is to work and when I can't do that I feel like I'm letting the family (my employers) down.
Jeff is visiting. He was the trainee here a year ago. The family absolutely adored him and I didn't know how to feel about him visiting. I had my reservations, especially since they called me his name the first three months I was here. Turns out he's pretty cool, though he is sitting in my place at the table. I don't know how I feel about that.
Looking forward,
Jon
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Wishing Friday was tomorrow
Perhaps I should expound upon the previous post. In 6 days I'll be meeting up with Jessica and her family in Germany and then traveling to Wintersheim. I began this experience almost 10 months ago and she was the last person I saw, being the person who dropped me off at the South Bend airport. I think I can safely say that in our 2.5+ year relationship, this is the longest that we've gone without seeing or visiting each other.
Our itinerary looks something like this:
They actually fly out tomorrow (Sunday) and arrive in Amsterdam on Monday morning. I meet up with them on May 29, when they pick me up at the train station in Bingen, on the Rhein River. Then we make the short trip to Wintersheim and my first placement with the Dettweiler's. We'll walk through the vineyard's, go to Worms, and see the vineyard operation. There's also a wine fest across the street on one of the nights. From W'heim, we go to
Langnau im Emmental. We'll stay with the Kipfer's. Near the Emmental is the Frutigen Valley, where some family history of Jessica's mom is. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can see some of the Berner Oberland. From Langnau, we head to
Hemberg. We'll do some light hiking, visit some cities and maybe even a cheese factory. On Saturday the 6th, they head to Madrid and I'll stay here on the farm to do some work. But wait, I'm not done!
On the 10th I'll head to Munich. There I'll stay with Stief, the guitarist from Phil's band, Trivial. On the 11th, I pick up Jess from the airport and we'll see Munich sites. The next day, the 12th, she and I board a train in the late afternoon and head to
Prague. Ondra, who is a Czech/friend from Goshen will be our host from Friday to Monday morning. On Monday morning, the 15th, we fly to
Amsterdam. There, we stay with Dutch Committee Member Sarah. We haven't done much planning for these three stops, so it should be a fun improv-ed time together!
If anybody wants a more detailed itinerary, leave a comment with your email and I'll try to get one sent to you.
I spent some of my Saturday purchasing train tickets and an airplane ticket to get to places I need to be when they are here. I also spent 5 hours doing odd jobs, like turning dirt in the garden and making a new fence for the cows. We also loaded up some wood and marinated turkey and went into the forest, made a fire, and grilled. There also happened to be a small nature preserve nearby with marshes, so we also went mud jumping.
On the next blog post: Jeff is visiting, explaining making new fences for the cows, and other subjects yet to be determined.
What's that?
Jon
Our itinerary looks something like this:
They actually fly out tomorrow (Sunday) and arrive in Amsterdam on Monday morning. I meet up with them on May 29, when they pick me up at the train station in Bingen, on the Rhein River. Then we make the short trip to Wintersheim and my first placement with the Dettweiler's. We'll walk through the vineyard's, go to Worms, and see the vineyard operation. There's also a wine fest across the street on one of the nights. From W'heim, we go to
Langnau im Emmental. We'll stay with the Kipfer's. Near the Emmental is the Frutigen Valley, where some family history of Jessica's mom is. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can see some of the Berner Oberland. From Langnau, we head to
Hemberg. We'll do some light hiking, visit some cities and maybe even a cheese factory. On Saturday the 6th, they head to Madrid and I'll stay here on the farm to do some work. But wait, I'm not done!
On the 10th I'll head to Munich. There I'll stay with Stief, the guitarist from Phil's band, Trivial. On the 11th, I pick up Jess from the airport and we'll see Munich sites. The next day, the 12th, she and I board a train in the late afternoon and head to
Prague. Ondra, who is a Czech/friend from Goshen will be our host from Friday to Monday morning. On Monday morning, the 15th, we fly to
Amsterdam. There, we stay with Dutch Committee Member Sarah. We haven't done much planning for these three stops, so it should be a fun improv-ed time together!
If anybody wants a more detailed itinerary, leave a comment with your email and I'll try to get one sent to you.
I spent some of my Saturday purchasing train tickets and an airplane ticket to get to places I need to be when they are here. I also spent 5 hours doing odd jobs, like turning dirt in the garden and making a new fence for the cows. We also loaded up some wood and marinated turkey and went into the forest, made a fire, and grilled. There also happened to be a small nature preserve nearby with marshes, so we also went mud jumping.
On the next blog post: Jeff is visiting, explaining making new fences for the cows, and other subjects yet to be determined.
What's that?
Jon
Friday, May 22, 2009
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