Weekend

gegr

So. Yesterday we woke up around 9am to head over to Stans to go grocery shopping for lunch and dinner. It was pretty cool due to the fact that there was a Farmers Market going on at the time and it was amazing to see so many greens and yummies that looked fresher than what I'm used to. It was a bit awkward though since we couldn't speak any German, but we survived. Heading back to the apartment, we had brunch and hung out till we headed back to Stans to see a German version of the brothers Grimm Sleeping Beauty at 2pm. The actors were ahaying and although I couldn't understand 99.99% of what was being said, I got the story well enough to enjoy it. 

That night, we were in charge of dinner and decided to make tacos. Sadly, our host mother desnt really care for cumin so we missed having it in our meat, but we somehow made up for its absence as the family enjoyed the meal. Happiness....

Today, Alej let us sleep in till midday, but my alarm decided to be evil and go off at 6am after I'd forgotten to shut it off. And it was all the way across the room so this morning, at 6am, I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled across the room to make the stupid thing shut up. For some weird reason, even though I got back to sleep, waking up at midday was a pain for me. Alej enjoyed taking pictures though.

Alej had already woken up earlier and had made a batch of chocolate chip cookies for our host family, and so far their a hit. They may not be the same because of the slight differences due to the absence of some ingredients, but they're still really good.

 Later, it started to rain and Alej and i couldn't resist but go for a walk out in the rain. Alej took a sweater and umbrella with her, me, t-shirt and jeans. Cold. It was still fun though and I just changed into a long-sleeve and sweats when we got back inside to regain the heat that I lost.

In the end, it was a good weekend. I'm gonna miss all this green when we leave...

-Jessica and Alejandra Villa

Hullo.

 Friday was our Zoo day, a very exciting day, especially since we were able to meet up with Keya. Alej had us wake up early again today so we could stay on schedual and make it to the train station in Basel in time to meet up with her, so it was a day when we woke up early. Again.
We munched on bread, ham and potatoes for our breakfast, assuming it was enough, but when we walked into the Coop at the Luzern train station, we realized it wasn't quite. I ended up gettting a blueberry muffin (which was AMAZING) and a coca cola while Alej went for a tempting miniture loaf of bread. We both enjoyed our second breakfasts as we waited for our next train.

On the train itself, there was a young woman who boarded on the first stop and asked if she could steal the seat next to me because it was convinient for her and her baby. I consented of course, saying no would be rude on so many levels and I was no reaon to refuse. Besides, who turns down the chance to sit next to an adorable baby? They'd have to be out of their mind....
ANYWAY, I had fun playing with the little guy and the mother soon caught on that Alej and I spoke yero German and understood zilch. Still, she trusted me to keep an eye on and care for her child as she fixed her hair to keep it out of baby-reach. It's interesting yet comforting to see how much trust there is between people here. In America, a woman would most likely never trust her baby with a total stranger. I ended up helping the mother by carring the baby off the train as she rushed to get the stroller off the train, it waits for no one. He behaved himself in my arms and allowed me to carry him off the train without any problems. I dont care what guys say about girls and babies, theyre amazing and can totally make your day.

 

We got to the train station in Basel at the right time and wandered around on our platform in search of Keya and luckily found her. After our awkward introductions, we  headed for the Zoo, following the helpful signs and laughing as the awkwardness began to fade. It was interesting having someone around who could speak German, and pretty helpful when a German dude told me off for being in the way....in German. I couldn't understand a thing, but she just told him to chill. My awkward American moment was saved.

 

 (animal picture.....sleeping rihno)

 LUNCH was full of laughter.

Water is a necessay thing.

Gotta love smiles

SUNGLASSES BUDDIES!!!

 We found Hedwig!!!

 These were the fluffiest and fattest chickens I've ever seen. Some of them even had afros that would stick out everywhere.

-Jessica and Alejandra Villa

Ballenberg, Zurich and Basel

Ballenberg:
The open-air museum close to the Brienzersee is difficult to describe; there are so many things to see. Various styles of farmhouses, a saw-mill operated by water, and many different animals. The diverse roofing materials used were very interesting: steep thatch roofs, wooden shingle roofs, some roofs had rain-gutters and another house had special chimney with lid; something I had never seen before. I didn't manage to look at every house but what I saw and read was very informative.



Zurich: Swiss National Museum
It is difficult for me to decide what I liked most here; the temporary Animali exhibition was very impressive, history of Switzerland was extreemly interesting and the whole museum in general has a great set-up. The Animali exhibition focuses on animals and mythical creatures from ancient times to the modern day. I was fascinated by the different myths and how many of them where similar eventhough they came from different places and civilizations. It was also interesting to find out what various animals represent and how many mythical creatures were derived from real animals.


Basel: 
Augusta Raurica, the ancient roman city
2000 years ago about 20000 people lived in Augusta Raurica, today it is the largest archaeological park in Switzerland.
The first thing I visited was the museum; they have an interesting simulation of an ancient roman house. I learned that the romans had very little privacy, their doors where kept open and few of the rooms were unaccessible to visitors; infact, the higher the status of the visitor the more acess he had in the house. The wealthier romans had a whole bathing complex in their house; consiting of a changing room, a hot-bath, a warm-bath and a cold-bath. The hot-bath was particularly interesting because the water was kept hot by an oven under the floor. Like in many cultures the woman was expected to stay at home and weave; in the richer families a woman was respected if she left the house as little as possible.
The ruins of the ancient ciy were quite impressive, the theatre is still partialy intact and I walked through an ancient sewer about 100m long under the earth (not recomended for claustrophobic people since it is very narrow).


The zoo:
On my last day of the program I met the Villa sisters that are also doing the discover switzerland program. It was nice to not visit a place alone for a change and we had a lot of fun walking around the zoo together. I particularly enjoyed speaking english the whole time! The Basel zoo has a great set up, they have about 600 species of animals. The monkeys have really cool climbing ropes and trees to jump around on and the aquarium is amazing, lots of different kinds of fish, corals and we even found nemo!  



I really enjoyed this program and there are things I still want to see and learn about. The program is over now but I'm sure I'll still visit the hyrdoelectic powerplant in Grimselwelt or visit a chocolaterie one day. I learnt a lot about Switzerland, it was definately worth all those hours sitting in the train!




 

Off into the land of Bliss

Chocolate.
Chocolate.
Chocolate.
Cheese, Grommit, Cheeeeeessseeeee...

I guess you could say is what convinced me to wake up at 6 am on Thurday to catch a three-hour train ride. We were headed to the Gruyères cheese factory, "Masion du Gruyère", and the "Broc Fabrique". When we arrived at about 11:30, the cheese factory was reaching the end of the cheese-making process so the ticket seller told us to head to Gruyères castle till around 1:30....great...

Kinda-sorta-maybe stalking some other teenage Americans whom we overheard were heading to the castle too, we slowly and tiredly made our way to the castle. It was all uphill sadly, and by the time we reached the entrance of the casle my calfes were burning.

It was pretty amazing, the original structure was there along with the orginal battlements (I hope I`m naming them right...) that I somewhat willingly climbed to pose for Alej at her request.

We wandered all the way to the caslte itself only to discover that you had to pay to enter the historic building. Crestfallen, we wandered around looking for somewhere to sit and kill time being bored, in my case.

We came across too cats who clearly lived there, and of course, I couldn't resist and had to pet them. One lady, American by her accent, came across the small crowd of picture-takers and curious tourists who had their undivided attention on the cats and loudly exclaimed to her husband, "Look! Look!!! Its a CAT!!! THEY ACTUALLY HAVE CATS IN THIS COUNTRY!!!! QUICK! TAKE A PICTURE!!!"

 kittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittykittymustpetthekittyandlovethekittypurrrrrrrrrr

We got free cheese, I was so happy. But also a bit annoyed. it turnes out that if we had actually gone into the castle, the ticket would have also gotten us into the cheese factory. So we'd just missed the wonderful opportunity of enterying a magnificent castle because of the misinformation. I blame my luck.

During this entire time, we were trying to meet up with our dear mother after she'd missed her train because she'd accidentally slept in. Trying to firgure out where to meet up got confusing because our communication skills are positively horrid and by the time we'd gone back to the chesse factory, seen everything, and walked back to the train staion, we had no idea where our mother was. She has told us she'd call once she had the train scheduals figured out she'd call, but in the past couple of hours we hadn't recieved anything. We ended up catching a train back to Bulle and I texted Mom to let her know we'd meet her there. She later texted back as we waited and said that she was currently on a train to Gruyères....how convinient. I called her and worked out the kinks, telling her to catch the next train to Bulle. So we waited.

Finally Mum arrived, and just in time to catch the train to Broc for the chocolate factory. JUST in time. 
We went through the chocolate factory, filled with the smell of cocoa that would make every chocolate-lovers drool. The tour lead us through a long and creative telling of the history of chocolate with a lot of interactive and kid-friendly mini-shows that told of the past. It just made me even more impacient. One room seemed to come after another and I thought that we'd never arrive to the "tasting room" which we were all told of at the beginning of the tour. I was ready to chew through a wall just as we arrived to the mysical and marvalous room of chocolate. I was happy, and in heaven full of my favorite candy.

Satisfied, we headed back to Bulle in search of dinner (mom said chocolate didnt count. darn.) Wandering around downtown, we came across many restraunts, but none of them were serving dinner till 6:30. After having looked at the bus and train scheduals, we knew there was no time to was for them to serve. Instead, we headed to the nearest Coop (grocery store) and brought our dinner and some snacks for the next few days there. We ate at the train station since our gates were right next to each other and our trains left at the same exact time, and enjoyed our last while together for a while.

Seaperating ways, Alej and I made it back to the train station in Stans in less time than it took us to reach Bulle, and sat waiting for the bus that would take us home. While waiting, I stared at the vending machine at the station with curiosity, something caught my eye and I moved in closer to investigate. Well, now I know that Switzerland sells Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea, condoms, and pregnancy tests in vending machines....

*ahem* ANYWAY...... it was fun and interesting in general....good day, good day.

-Jessica and Alejandra Villa

The heat of the day

I forget if I`ve said anything about the weather here or not but the last few days here had been murder. Heat soaked through the air and beat down on us. Thankfully it wasn`t humid but it might as well had been, my sister and I could bearly handle it to such a point that even she was suffering from heat exhaustion.
So as a solution, we made the obvious choice. We decided to go to Trümelbachfalle!!
The program described it as being  a series of chutes you could hike through to see a waterfall within. We had always planned on going there but Wednesday seemed to be the perfect day to go. We set out early, of course, to avoid the heat we knew was coming. That day was predicted to be above 94 degrees.We even managed to do a good deed of a sort, helping a group who were headed in the same direction get there. I was so scared I`d get the directions mixed up and get not only me an` my sister lost, but the whole group who thought I knew where I was going. But we got there, I did not get any of us lost.

NOW it started to get hot. We got there just as we started feeling it breathe down our backs. We rushed to the shade of the trees and were welcomed into their shady embrace with relief.

 

 After paying the proper entrance fee, we both felt so excited for no reason. Jesse even started SKIPPING! We were just so excited and happy to be outside. The forest was amazing, our redwood trees at home paled in comparison with the green you can find here. Well, duh, afterall, their called redwood trees for a reason. But it was so nice to be able to step under the shade of the trees on a hot day. So much so that we ran up more than half the way now keep in mind, the whole way is stairs because we are literally climbing a cliffside.

So the waterfall itself is not exactly off the cliffside but nor is it in the cliff itself. It`s more like the waters run through here so long that erosion has dragged the falls deep into the embrace of the earth. Running from one edge to another. To actually see the falls, you need to go through a series of natural chutes where stairs were placed for the convenience of tourists like us. And all you did was climb higher and higher and deeper into the cold embrace of the earth. Just to the see the falls where little of the nautural light did reach. Some chutes brought us so close that I had that problem with the camera again, where it focus on the water droplets instead of the image itself. 

We had lunch once we were back down. Though we were thourghaly soaked as we made our way down, we were dry by the time we sat down to eat the ham sandwiches I had prepared (tyipical Swiss food, I know). We also snacked on grapes that I had bought that morning. They`re worth 7 dollars a pound here! That`s scary!!! But we missed fruit so much we couldn`t resist buying a bags worth, even if they did have seeds.
We finished with the whole thing surprisingly early. So we decided to follow some of Mariann`s advice and headed towards Interlaken, which apparently, and I quote "a city worth visiting." Our train took us to Interlaken Ost (Ost I later learned means east) and got off to wander. We wanted to find mainstreet but there was no hint or sign to let us know where it might be located. We prety much just picked  the biggest street we saw and walked down it, hoping we`d end up on Main Street eventually. Our pick was a lucky one and after a gelato stop for Jesse (it was so hot in the city that it wasn`t even funny, there was hardly any shade along the sidewalk) we found ourselves at tourist central. We had wound up in Interlaken West, which goes to show just how far we had walked. But once there, we couldn`t resist stopping in the cheesy tourist shops. I found a good few souviners for my lil` brother and a hat for myself (note, for ME Corrin).

After all that, we decided to head back, all our previous energy was completely sapped to such a point that I found it hard to even take a single step. I, to my embarrasment, managed to fall asleep on the train ride back...

*Ahem* Yeah...I was tired, alright!! Do you know how hard it is to NOT fall asleep on a train?!? ...*sigh* I`m getting nowhere with this, am I? Oh well, more later...

With love,
A & J

Engelberg

Yeesh, I can almost hear all of you breathing down my neck. Yes, again this is a late post but what can I do? A girl needs her beauty rest, I`m posting when I can.

So I owe you all to what my sister an` I did Tuesday. Take a BIG wild guess without looking at the title which I bet you`ve already done. Yep! There it is, we went to Engelberg, another idea of Mariann. Her original plan was to take us up to Titles, a famous skiing place for tourists and the reason Engelberg is so bustling but, since it cost too much of a pretty penny for the two of us, we had to pass. We`re still trying to get our host family to realize that if it`s not part of the program then it comes out of our own pocket. Instead we went hiking, what other better thing to do in Switzerland? Of course, it was above 90 degrees outside, so a waterfall is only logical, right?
We did not expect to find what we did. You heard them before you got near and then you could feel the mist on your face if the wind was blowing just right. So I get out my camera, ready to get some awesome pictures of the falls to baffle you all. I did not take into account how WET it`d be. I could not get within a twenty foot radius of the falls without my lenses being blinded by the water and even if I stood at a distance the camera kept INSISTING on focusing on the water droplets on the lens instead of the object of interest. I hope I got some good ones amoung all the fuzzy ones. There must be ONE good one among them, right?

So after seeing two waterfalls and nearly losing ourselves in the woods (more than once despite Mariann saying it was impossible to get lost) we decided to head back to Engelberg. Although Engelberg was famous for all its activities for all tourists, my sister and I had no money to spend (at least, not enough of it) which meant there was little for us to do except hike. Of course, after hiking for more than four hours wore my sister out more than she`d like to admit. It`s strange, she`s the one who`s been suffering from the heat when I`m the one who`s usually more succeptable. She was tired. We found our way to the Bahnhoff (trainstation) with my awesome sense of direction and she got an ice cream and a cold cola while I snacked on Gummi Bears (how I`ve missed Gummi Bears) and, slowly, she began to recover. I think it was the train ride, itself, that brought her back. We had the...*ahem* FORTUNE of sitting behind the perfect steriotypical image of Young American Adults, namely a group of traveling college girls from Chicago. Loud and blond. They had no qualms about gossiping about their latest boyfriend troubles and how to make sure you got to have sex with him as well as that dislikable girl who slept with two men and made out with seven guys in one day. Jesse had trouble keeping the Cola out of her nose while I had to focus on not choking on my gummies.
Through some miracle we survived the trip and came off rolling with laughter. Never before had I seen a more perfect example of how the rest of the world must see us Americans.

That`s all for tonight, I hope to catch you all up on the action by Saturday.
With love for those at home and elsewhere,
Alex an` Jesse

Pilatus

Okay, yes, I realize how late this is but if I don`t write it now you`ll will never learned what happened on Monday. I`m gonna say that it`s not our fault that you`re learning the happenings of that day this late as well as Tuesdays, which you might have to wait for a bit more due to the fact that I`m expected to wak up at 6 am tomorrow *groans*.

Anyways, Monday Mariann had insisted that we go to Pilatus, home to the world`s steepest Cog railway system. I don`t think she`s realized yet that if we do anything out of the program we have to pay for it out of our own pocket. We got half off on the tickets thanks to our swiss passes but still, it cost a pretty penny. So we got our tickets and onto the train with Mariann and her 8 month old nephew (me and Jesse were estatic, Mathew`s all grown up and we`ve missed the gurgles and the pudgy cheeks). The train ride was alright, except for the fact that my ears were yodeling their own tune as we rode higher and higher. It was pretty scary to see just how steep of a mountain the train was climbing.
So eventually we reach the top and to get out of the train there`s this small flight of stairs we have to climb, easy-peasy, right? HA! As if! We were gasping and heaving for air before we had even reached the top, the air was so thin! I was surprised! Then again, I don`t think I`ve ever been as high up as I was on Pilatus.
Now the whole place was built for tourists. Two ritzy hotels stand at the summit with a whole viewing deck laid at their base as well as two peaks (of Pilatus) you could climb to view the scenery. Of course we could have just hiked the mountain as we saw some daredevils doing *laughs* and gotten in free, but we were so high up, I cannot see how they managed to do something like that! *shudders*
We eat lunch there (yes, I tried something new, I`ll have you know that Jesse and I BOTH ate a tomato sandwich. All of it. No, that does not mean that you get to strat feeding them us at home now, Jesse has already vowed never to eat a tomato again once she got home) then left Mariann to wander on our own. We found this cool trail that passed through the mountain in a series of tunnels with a bunch of historical facts dotted here in there telling why Pilatus was so famous. The best part was that it was in english so that I could actually READ it! It was actually really interesting, their was a whole series of legends of how Pilatus was considered to be the land of the dragons and sacred only to them because humans could not (yet) scale the mountain.

Once we got out and Jesse nearly had a heart attack due to the height, we took a...oh jeez, I`ve forgotten what their called. It`s like a cart that hangs from a cable to-a cablecar! Yes, we took a bunch of cable cars one after another and then went on a horrible walk in 95 degree weather to a bus with no air conditioning to finally end up in Lucern, where we spent the rest of the day wandering. Well, I say wandering but Jesse had a purpose. She had seen an advertisement for a tourist shop and happend to see a bag in the background so she dragged me halfway across the city just to get the bag. She`s happy and my feet are sore. It wasn`t all bad, though, I got to see this monument of a lion carved into a cliff since it was close by. Do not ask me what it was called, you know me with names. I just remember it being something mom showed me in her little tourist book on the plane, it being a monument for the Swiss mercernaries who died in the front wave of the French Revolution. It was really sad to see, a mighty lion brought down by a hail of spears. I wish I could post a picture but me an`Jesse have yet to figure out how. *Sigh* Well, it`s late, I`ll have to write about what happed Tuesday and today another time. I have an early start tomorrow *groans* Until next!

And with love,
Alex an`Jesse

Lazy Day

Today was weird, period.

Me and my sister had planned to spend today recovering from the last few mornigs we had to spend waking up early. So we slept in late enough for me to feel guilty. We had planned for this to be a sort of baking day and refilling. I managed to use up all the memory on the SD card of both my camera and my sisters. I find that a bit scary, goes to show you just how much of a tourist I`m being. My sister and I also wanted to make some goodies as a sort of thank you to our host family for taking care of us in this strange land. Of course, though, we had to plan to do this on a Sunday.
All the stores were closed. I can see why, it being a church day and all but it was just WEIRD. Back home only some stores close and usually the smaller ones, not ALL of them! We didn`t know what to do with ourselves! We did a bit of laundry, my sister finished the last of the books she brought with her (and has resigned to the curse of boredom as such), we went to the creek that runs next to the house we`re staying in and got drenched by some boys who were tossing buckets of water on the unfortunate  passerby not to mention sink to our knees in mud at the creek. That part was fun, as strange as it sounds. I was wading through the creek when my sister (who had gone ahead of me) comes up to me shaking in fear and sandleless telling me that she just escaped from the cold grasp of the river. Looking at her I could see the pant leg of her right leg was caked with mud up to her knee and that she carried only one sandle in her hand. So of course I laughed at her, saying it couldn`t be that bad. Being the good sister that I was, I told her I would find her other sandle. According to her, it was lost deep in the mud somewhere, she didn`t know where she was so scared that she didn`t notice when it fell off. So I follow her to the bank and watch in amusment as she prodded the earth in front of her carefully each time before she took a step. Eventually I just pushed her aside, heading where I could see a footprint she had left in  the mud.
I will never admit this to her, but I nearly had a heart attack. No sooner did I take that step that I plunged straight into the mud, a foot away from the actual creek. I felt my heart in my throat but I plastered a grin on my face. My mind went to accounts of quicksand and the adventurous stories I read of the main characters who almost met their demise in such a way. I went to try to get that foot out when my other foot sank in the mud to meet it. I was completely cemented, knee-deep in mud that would not release me. I laid myself out over the mud, trying to work myself loose and learned how my sister lost her sandle. My own sandles were weighing me down, making it nearly impossible to drag my feet out of the muck. I say nearly because I ended up dragging myself out through brute force. The whole time, of course, I`m laughing at my sister and asking how she could have possibly been scared with something to entertaining.
Eventually I realize that you could only sink so far in the mud, there was a sort of floor underneath created by layers of packed clay that prevented me from sinking farthur. By then I had also given my sister my sandless so the murk didn`t have anything to hold me by. I also found my sisters shoe, by the way. My arms could reach deep enough so I ended up just stepping in her footsteps which eventually lead to me stepping onto her shoe, heavily caked with the mud/clay.

We also learned a different to make Mac`n Cheese today. Unlike using the powder mix that we are so used to in America, we literally melted cheese and cream to coated boiled noodles. The result was...interesting, to say the least. The cheese cooled on the noodles before we could mix it properly and so we had cheese clumps and noodles.

All in all, we are very recovered.

Till next!
Alex and Jesse

To the Zoo!!

 Another day in Switzerland, another day of wandering and much fun of getting ourselves lost in the cities. Today we were going to go to see a cheese and choloclate factory usuing intructions that my sister had written down after a couple hours of research on the computer the night before along with transport information for the next three trips we planned to take. We had woken up early in hope to catch a 7:20 bus to the train staion in Stans to get an early start before the three hour train ride ahead. Since it was a Saturday, everone was sleeping in and one of the family members, a cousin who'd spent the night after a movie marathon, was sleeping on the couch. Now, the kitchen doesnt have any way of being enclosed to block out sound and the couch was literally outside the kitchen doorway. This made every single sound we made while eating cornflakes for breakfast, seem like we were dropping an atomic bomb. We were trying so desperatly not to wake anyone up and were relieved that we didn`t.

Though, as we made it outside to the bus stop, Alej realized that she didn`t have the instructions with her and so I ended up being sent all the way back into the apartment of our host family and try not to wake everyone else up. Again. I never found the intructions for the factory trip so I just grabbed the zoo and falls trip travel information as a just-in-case.

We ended up deciding to head to the zoo in Zürich and took a train (A TRAIN! WE GET TO RIDE TRAINS!!!!!) from Stans to Luzern so we could then grab a train to Zürich and make are merry way to the zoo. We never actually got lost, after all, we found the bus that would take us to the bus that would lead us the a tram that takes you straight to the zoo. Problem was, we went the wrong way. Right bus, wrong direction. We managed to figure that out, though and got off before we got to the end of the line and switched to the same bus (that was going in the direction we needed) and at the same time, found a doves nest. So it wasn`t all too bad.

So we got to the zoo, managed to get our hands on some tickets and made our merry way in. I-I cannot even begin to describe what we saw. There was so much! There were the animals, of course, but there was more! I don`t know about you, but all the zoo`s I have been to are more for adults than kids. Sure us kids enjoy seeing all the animals butwe also hate waiting as our parents read through EVERY SINGLE WORD on the board that describes the animal, it`s condition, where it`s from, a child only has so much patience. But Zürich Zoo was a dream. We were never bored. There were the coolest playgrounds that America could never even imagine building. You got a close hand experiance with the animals and still learned everything you`d ever want to know! They even managed, it still baffles me how, to build a rainforest indoors. Of course the building was HUGE but my eyeballs were rolling! Birds and monkeys swung overhead as you wandered below! Jesse even made a Capuchin friend when we passed through the primate section. The little guy ran up to place his hands on the glass in front of her as she came to observe him. She fell in love, naturally.
Me? I didn`t make a friend but I documented the whole trip by camera. I`m sorry that I can`t post any of them, I`d have to download everything onto this computer and I`m not sure how kindly the host family would take to that. ;)

We made it back safe an`sound after the whole thing ended. I only wish that my little brother was here with us when we went, the trip would have lasted longer then. Mathew I miss you!!!

Till Next and with love for those back home (and those we are closer to),
Alex and Jesse

Hiking & Bern

Know I should have posted sooner but I was too darn tired. I fell asleep at 4 o`clock in the afternoon when we first arrived here and I slept straight through till 3 AM. It was really impressive if I do say so myself. But I woke up to the most amazing sunrise so it was worth it. My sister and I had decided to spend our first official day in Switzerland doing absolutely nothing. To recover and plan for the rest of our stay. Though that wasn`t to be. We ended up going on a hike with our host, Mariann, and her 79 year old mother. I`m surprised I was able to even keep up with the two of them. That mother was leaving me in the dust! Do not ask me the name of where we hiked, you`ll kill me. The best I can say is that for the way down (because we hiked pretty far up) we rode on the world`s tallest outdoor elevator. It was so scary! I usually do not have a problem with heights unless I`m going down and jeez were we going down. The elevator was about three miles tall (I`m going off what my sister said so don`t blame me if I`m wrong) and lasted 30 seconds. We went fast enough to give me a heart attack but it was so smooth that I hardly felt anything. And that`s quite something from and elevator hater like me.
So of course the hike gets us all hot and sweaty, so our wonderful host takes us to the lake. 50 degrees of freezing and a blessing after that hike. I swam out to some sort of island a good distance off of Lake Lucern`s beach and dove into a good many feet of freezing water. Our host`s son joined us too and did some freaky dives that had gooseflesh traveling up my spine. He gave me plenty of more reasons why boys are so crazy. All in all it was fun and my sister dropped dead asleep afterwards with no problem.

Today was not as successful. My sister and I got so amazingly lost that even I was surprised. Our goal in Bern was to find the Organization of Swiss abroad to pick up some money for the program. We recieved directions from the organizationg the night before so we figured we`d get there with no problem. Heh, but it`s hard to tell head from tails on a map you can`t even read. It was all in German. But still we went on! Thinking we could alwasy give up on pride and act like cheesy tourists asking for directions.We ended up going the opposite way we were supposed to from the train station and ended up following the river until we found a street that was actually listed on the small map we were provided with. I cannot tell you how may times I wished I could give my teeth for a proper map with all the street names listed on it. But still, we got there after a good two hours of wandering. After that, I knew exactly where I was going. I had my headings and a basic understanding of the streets. We did not get lost again and went on our way to visit anything that caught our attention. We walked down the historic main street to the cathedral and then to the bear park. After that we went in hunt of the Botanical garden where we spent a good many hours (it was so big!). Then we found our way to the Government building to find our way back to the train station. It was an epic battle to not doze off on the ride back, we were more than a little tired. Tomorrow our plans are to find a chocolate and cheese factory, we`ll see how that`ll turn out.

Hugs and kisses to those back home.
Alejandra

Day 3 & 4

On Wednesday I changed host family; they live in beautiful, lively house in the Bernese Oberland and I felt at home right away. In the afternoon I went for walk up the hill, all the paths have signposts - its nearly impossible to get lost here! While exploring I found a partially restored cave castle called Rothenfluh. It is the only cave castle of its type in Canton Bern that has preserved wall remains; it was first documented in 1298 and was already a ruin in 1577. It was interesting to see that people managed to build this castle in such an inhospitable environment; building a stairway up the cliff must have been a big challenge without modern tools, not
to mention constructing the castle itself!




Today (Thursday) I visited the Trümmelbach falls. They are the only glacier-waterfalls in europe that are accesible even though they are inside a mountain; they drain from 3 glaciers: Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau.  In total there are 10 waterfalls plunging down about 100 meters of the cliff; the rushing water, the erroded rock and the patterns in the stone where all very impressive. The water carries 20'200 tons of boulder detritus per year which contribute to the errosion of the rocks.

In the afternoon I wanted to go to Grimselwelt but when I got to Meiringen I found out that the pass was still closed; so I took the train back to Brienz and crossed the Brienzersee with the ferry.

Jessica and Alejandra Villa:
We just arrived in Stans, Switzerland where we finally got to meet our host family for the first time. Its strange not being able to understand what most people are saying, but I guess its a good thing to realize that this is how it feels for a lot of people when they arrive in a new place...
SLEEPING was the one and only thing on my mind when we got to the apartment where we were to be housed for the next two weeks. So, naturally, we plopped down on the beds we were given and slet as much as we could. 
We woke up this morning at about 5 am and watched as the sun rose over the green mountains and came to greet us over the tall houses and pastures that surround us. 
So far, even though we've only been to train stations and on trains, I've learned that paying attention is necessaary. We missed a train because we walked too slow and had to wait another 20 minutes to catch the next.
It's so beautiful here....after the busy, crowded and urban streets of San Jose, CA, the moutintains, pastures, farms, trees, you name it. It's an amazing place to be, and everwhere you look, it's like there's something new to discover or learn. (the keyboards for instance, they seem to have switched the "y" and "z".... :P )
I'm already excited to explore, but I have to admit it's kinda weird being in a foreign country with just your sister to keep you company from home. Homesickness has gotten to me at times...but I'll survive :)

Discover Switzerland Day 1 and 2

Hello, I'm Keya Braun; I'm half Swiss and German but I grew up in South India. It is the first time I'm  in Switzerland without my parents and I decided to get to know my native country a little better.
On the first day I visited Bern. I took a long walk to the ASO and then I continued on to the Bären Park. There I managed to spot 3 bears, they looked very peaceful and not at all bothered by all the cameras that everyone was pointing at them.
I then walked on to the Botanical gardens. There I learnt about butterfly's, bees and medicinal plants, it was all very interesting. All the plants and trees have name plates and some of the plates had more detailed information on them. The garden is landscaped in a creative way, it is very beautiful.

While walking around the historic city center I noticed that all the streets were laid out in a organised manner that still functions today. The Zytglogge tower served as a guard tower in former times and today it is a clock tower.









On the second day I traveled to Luzern. From the railway station I proceeded to the Swiss museum of Transport. The exhibits there are all incredibly interesting, one of the most interesting exhibits was the evolution of the railway system. I particularly enjoyed walking underneath one of the old trains because i got to observe the machinery in a way that is normally not possible.

After visiting the museum I went to see the Nadelwehr and the Spreuerbrücke. The Nadelwehr allows the level of the lake to be regulated by hand since it was constructed in 1859. This is done through the removal and placement of wooden posts. The Spreuerbrücke was once connected to the city's mills, after they burnt down in 1875 the mills were replaced by turbines. After about 50 years the turbines became outdated and were thus replaced by an electricity generator. This generator produces up to 4.3 million kWh per year.
I really enjoyed my trip to Luzern, it is an exquisite city and the lake is extremely beautiful.