Hi everyone!
Wow. Almost a year has gone by. I cannot believe how fast it has gone. It’s a weird feeling being on the brink of going back to Kansas, back home. I remember this time last year, when I was getting ready to head out. Studying up on French, checking my email all the time, seeing if I had a new email from someone in Switzerland, getting out the suitcases and trying to pack for a whole year. It seems like just yesterday when I opened the door that Thursday before I left to see the surprise party my mom and best friend had planned. Just yesterday when I said good-bye to everyone at KOK. When we drove up to the airport and I sadly waved good-bye to everything I knew, my family, my friends, my country, to head to a place where I had no idea what to expect. What was I thinking?! Thinking back on the months before I left, I think I must have been crazy to want to do this. And for all my family and friends. I can only thank them a million times over, because I don’t know if I would have the strength to watch my daughter or best friend get on a plane, knowing it would be a year until you saw her again. This year was nothing that I thought it would be. Not that I really had any idea though. I’ve had the best and worst experiences of my life here. There was a point in the year when more than anything I wanted to go home. To give up, pack my things and go. But I stuck through it. And I am so thankful to God for helping me through it, because the 2nd half of my year is when I truly feel in love with this place. I have had so many mountain-top moments here. Moments where I laughed so hard, milk came out my nose. Moments where we would sit on a train and just look at the beautiful Switzerland. Moments where I agreed to things, even though I didn’t understand and had no idea what I had just agreed to. Then getting to the activity and telling myself that next time, I would translate it before I agreed. Haha. But I think that now though is where the hard part begins. It is when I say good-bye and see you soon. It is when I leave everything and everyone that I now know and love. To go back to everyone and everything that I love back home. Now is the time that I learn to balance these 2 worlds. I have to figure out how to hold onto this year, but yet, let some things go. I’m on the brink of the beginning of the rest of my life. I feel like I have the world at my doorstep, and if I try, and work hard, I can do anything I set my mind to. And while next Wednesday is going to take every bit of strength I have, and even though it isn’t going to be easy to walk through security at Zurich airport, I have so much to look forward to at the same time. I have all of you, everyone that has supported me throughout this year, on the other side of the world, and I can’t wait to get off that airplane in KCI at 7pm and see everyone that I have been anxiously waiting a year to see and hug. It is going to quite the bipolar day for me I think. Haha. This year has taught me to go with the flow. And while I will still call Becky 10 times when I am waiting in Bern train station, because she is 30 seconds late, freaking out that she isn’t there, I have learned that I can’t predict the future. That God has a plan for me. And while I might not always want to follow it, I know that great things are in store. If my train is a few minutes late and I miss my connection, so be it.There will be another. Life goes on. I think that is the hardest thing for me to accept. I want Wednesday to never come, yet it feels like it can’t get here fast enough. After I leave Switzerland, I will go home and see everyone, and realize that life went on. And that even though it may be hard for me, I have to still keep on going. Go to high school. Study. Find a college. Reconnect with my friends. And somehow, though all the amazing moments I know that are in store for me in this next year, I will have to find a way to hold on to some of this past year. My families here. My friends here. The memories. I now have 2 homes. One here in Switzerland, and one back home in Kansas. There are people that I hold so close to my heart in both of these places. It is, like a said, now a matter of balancing the two.
Wow. What an amazing year it has been. I could not have asked for anything more.
But now, let me try to compose myself, I shall tell you about my past week!
Last Wednesday, Mom left for Kansas. But it was a whole lot easier, knowing that in exactly 2 weeks, I would be home. After, I headed back to my house in Epesses, and Becky came over for a little bit and went swimming with my in the Lake. Then she headed home and Brandon, and his friend from Canada who is here visiting, Lauren, came over to my house and we had a BBQ and then went swimming in Lake Geneva too!
Thursday, I packed up my things once again. No matter how many times I pack up my life here, I still dread it and put it off until the last minute. But, I am proud of myself, as I did start a day ahead. After, I hung out with Simon, my little (15 year old, soon to be 16! Happy Birthday Simon!) host brother and my host sister.
Friday, I finished packing and then hung out with Simon and Line again! Then, around 5pm, my counselor, Francois came and picked me up, and I said good-bye to my host family, since they were leaving for Colombia the next morning. It is so weird saying good-bye. Because it is just so surreal that this time is here. It feels like I will be back tomorrow. Hmm. My counselor just lives in the next village over, Rivaz, with his wife. Once there, we had a “Kansas BBQ”. I love it when the Swiss try to make an American BBQ. Always bring a smile to my face. Partly because it is so cute and thoughtful, and partly because they are so far off. . . 
Saturday, I headed into the middle. Of. Nowhere. Literally. For those of you that know me, I am a girly girl. If I see a lady-bug, I run away screaming in terror. I love cleanliness, I love organization, I love having a shower at least once a day, never leaving the house without my hairbrush in my purse, etc. So when I headed out with Laurence (his wife) and Francois to their house in the Alps, I was a little worried. But, I was looking forward to it, as I wasn’t sure exactly what was in store.
This so called “house” turns out to be a 2 room hut. Haha. No toilet. No shower. No hot water. No electricity. No warmth at night. Bugs everywhere. And right behind the house, cows. Because you see, here in Switzerland, in the summer, the farmers go up into the mountains with their cows so they can eat the fresh herbs up there, plus it is less hot. Then in the fall, they take their cows back down the mountain in this big parade and then the cows eat the herbs in the valley during winter. So there are all this little “houses” up in the Alps for the farmers to stay in summer with their cows. So Francois owns one of theses houses, but doesn’t have cows. But there is someone else that keeps his cows there, so when you opened this one door in the kitchen, there are cows. Right there. In the back room. It was crazy! The whole place smelt like cow you know what though. Haha. Oh. I forgot to mention there is no street that goes to this house. You have to hike there.
So, first thought when I got there, after the hike to get there, was what the heck was I thinking agreeing to this.
It ended up being one of my favorite memories here. We had such a great time! The view was so beautiful. Since there was nothing else to do, we would either sit on the front lawn and just stare at the mountains, or we would go hiking. And we were only going to stay for 1 night. But Laurence and I decided to stay an extra night, since we just didn’t want to leave! I mean, going pee outside wasn’t all that bad! And to shower, since there was no hot water, we set water out in the sun in this case and the water by the end of the day was burning hot! Just because of the sun! It was fabulous! And having to set a fire up in the bedroom at 7pm, so it would be warm by 11 when we went to bed was part of the experience!
The view from the house to the left!
The house! The front is the actual house part, where the farmers would live, and then the back of the house is where the cows are! They are let out at night, when there aren’t so many bugs and it isn’t so hot.
The whole view from our house!
That first night up there, we made fondue! We had to start a while in advance, since we were using a wood stove, which took a while to heat up and get the fire just the way we wanted it! Once the fondue was good, we went out and ate it while staring some more at the mountains!
That night, we all slept in the same room, since there was no other place. But all night long, all I heard was the cow bells. Because here, all the cows wear these big, loud bells. And since the cows are out eating and walking around at night, they made quite a bit of noise. Haha. But it was all good!
The next morning, I woke up to this. The cows staring in while waiting to be let into the barn for the day. Oh, how I will miss my Swiss cows.
Room #1. The kitchen/dining room!
Here you can see the stove we used to cook with, and that door in the back of the room to the left, with those postcards on it, is the door that you open up if you want to say hello to the cows!
Sunday, we went hiking for a good few hours up to the top of this mountain. Look at that view! I was so tired and sweaty in this photo. Haha. I was so relieved when we made it to the top!
Laurence and I at the top!
After our hike, we went back to the house and made lunch, where Laurence and I decided to stay an extra night. Francois had to go back home though because about 4 years ago, he built a sailboat. He never had it inspected, because the guy who is in charge of those type of things said it was totally fine and didn’t need an inspection. Well, a few months ago, that old guy retired and a new guy came in. And decided that Francois had to have his boat inspected. So, he had the inspection on Thursday, at 2pm, but he had to go back early so he could work a little on it and make sure it was all in working order.
So, as we had to hike to the house, we only brought as much food as we would need for the 1 night there. And since there is no fridge or anything, there was obviously not a huge supply of food or anything there. So we had to make due with what we had and we made some potatoes for dinner and then watched the sunset!
Monday, we spent the whole day basically sitting on the front lawn in our P.J.’s, staring at the beauty of the mountains. Since we had only gone up there with the 1 car, and Francois had taken it to go back home, Laurence and I were going to have to get back home via buses and trains. A little hard when you are in the middle of nowhere. So, the nearest bus stop was a 2 hour hike. So we set out with our backpacks at 3, so we could make it to the bus at 5. Well, when we were almost to the stop, after 1.5 hours of hiking, this old couple pulls over and offers us a ride! So we gladly accept, but then Laurence, being the true Swiss person that she is who loves hiking, realizes that this now gives us time to go do this other hike she wanted to do with me. So the couple drops us off at this other place, and Laurence and I figure out that we have exactly 1 hour to do this hike to get to the other side of this gorge to the bus stop. There are these yellow signs all over Switzerland, that give the name and time off all these places here. So we see the yellow sign when we are starting out, that says that our destination is 1 hour and 45 minutes. Now these signs are set up for the average Swiss hiker. But we only have 1 hour. This means that I was going to have to work my butt off to make it through this thing and to the bus on the other side on time. We did it in 45 minutes. That is crazy impressive. I mean, I am a slow walker, so the fact that I was able to cut ONE WHOLE HOUR off of that hike and beat the normal Swiss hiker, is rather impressive. I was proud of myself. Haha.
A waterfall in the gorge!
Basically running through these gorges. Haha.
At the end. I survived! We then continued and made the bus, and then took the train back to this one place, where Francois came and picked us up. Once back at the house, Laurence and I showered, since according to Francois, we smelled “horrifying”. Then we went out for Chinese food, and Quentin, my counselor's son, but who lives in a different canton with his mom, was with us. It was in the middle of this Chinese dinner that I realized that it was the 4th of July. I guess you lose track of time when you go up to the mountains for a few days, totally away from civilization. So, we then went back to the house and had a little celebration, complete with singing “Star Spangled Banner” and mini American flags. It was quite the sight to see! Haha!
Tuesday, I got up early and went with Francois and Quentin to work on this infamous boat! Turns out that a bunch of the wood was rotten, and that it was going to take a lot more than 2 days (like originally planned) to finish this boat. So I threw on some of their old clothes and headed out to the port! And let me tell ya, I was quite the little boat building assistant! I was doing (basically) everything that Quentin was doing! Another shining moment in my life. Haha.
The infamous boat at the beginning of the day!
The car, packed full with supplies.
Quentin hard at work on the boat.
Francois forgot his hat at the house, and so he made this one. It was rather hilarious. Especially when the wind would blow and pick it up. He just needs to grow out his bead and he’ll be Arab!
I think we took a break for ice cream at least once an hour. It was SO HOT. And especially since we were in long sleeves and warm pants! Francois kept buying us food and ice cream I think though as a bribe. Like “if you just sand down this last piece of wood, I will buy you a popsicle!” It worked. Haha. Here Quentin and I are in one of the many break during the day. Enjoying some chicken nuggets. First time I have eaten them since I lived here! I was so excited. Haha. It’s the little things in life.
In the afternoon, we had to make this chemical to coat on the boat, but first we had to mix it. It was SO FUNNY. Since this thing was really dangerous, we had to roll our sleeves down, put on a hair net, rubber gloves, a mask and eye protection. Then we wipped out these chemicals, and had to weigh them on a scale so we could mix the right amount of each one. But we had to do it in the shade, so there we were, all protected, weighing these chemicals on a scale, under those bushes in the back. We totally look like a drug maker, or whatever you call it. Haha. It was quite amusing. There I am all ready for work!
Look at that beautiful progress we made! Cut, sanded, fit. Wow. We are such craftsmen.
At the end of the day. The boat crew. Complete with matching shirts.
Wednesday, while the boys were back out working on the boat, Laurence and I decided to go hiking again! We were going to take a gondola up to the top of those mountains you see there, but in the end, we hiked up. Those mountains. Yes. It was steep. And scary. But we persevered! I have learned that while hiking is not enjoyable in the moment, once you get to the top, it is totally satisfying.
Lake Geneva!
Mountain top moment!
The French side of Lake Geneva. That is what I wake up to every day.
The final ascent! When I saw that, I was a little worried. I mean, that was one steep hike.
On top!
Self explanatory.
Forget me not.
Laurence and I at the top!
Thursday, the boys headed back out to the boat, haha, while Laurence and I headed to a 5 star hotel in Montreux, a beautiful town on the lake, to go to the spa, swim, work-out, and then lounge in these amazingly comfy chairs. It was a nice morning and afternoon.
Then, in the late afternoon I headed back to Chexbres to hang out with my 2nd host family a little and then I went back to Rivaz and made dinner for Francois and Laurence! Mexican! And I am proud to say, it turned out amazing!
The house in Rivaz.
Friday, I got up and packed my bags. At noon, Francois drove me to the train station and helped me get my bags on the train and then I said good-bye, since I won’t be going back there. It is so surreal.
My last photo of Lake Geneva.
After leaving the French part today, I headed to Bern for a little party! Here is Veronica and I!
Brandon hugs have become Swiss famous. Haha. I’m going to miss them so much!
Brandon and I!
And last but not least, my little Ecuadorian, Cris, and I!
After this, I headed to Weinfelden, where I am currently stationed, and will be here until tomorrow. Then I go to Italy with my 2nd family for a few days, come back to Switzerland for a day. And then go home to Kansas. Insane.
I will see you all in 5 days! So much love!
