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.

Zurich 1st,2nd,3rd,4th,5th     

Hi, I am Matthew Reed, an american college student who studied abroad in Italy studying civil engineering. I unfortunately hit some snags that limited my ability to post daily from the 20^th to the 24^th. Thankfully despite fever, allergies, and a pesky internet connection I am now able to communicate my experiences.

     I arrived on the 20^th to Melligen, Switzerland. The journey over was quite easy, despite Melligen not being an ending destination and bad prior planning. I simple went to the information desk, they gave me the information in less than a minute and I was on my way.

    I met Anja at the train station went a distance that was less than a five minute walk over to their apartment. I met her husband Benno and their son Gabriel as well as their two cats. They quickly and in a friendly manner welcomed me into their home.

The meal we had for that night was quite good and authentic. My expectations for good food than home were exceeded, despite prior travels. To better clarify the food was both of a healthiness of fresh produce and cooked meats, as well as delicious as to put to shame even the best meals I manage to obtain for myself back home.

I went Saturday to a soccer game with Benno, Gabriel, and family friends. I drank a beer had the equivalent to a hotdog, but unlike its American counterpart, the sausage and bread was far superior in both texture, taste, and I imagine it being the healthier of the two. Benno bought me a Lucerne hat since we both had connections back to Lucerne, being I had family there and he grew up there. Our Lucerne team, the underdog, scored a point through a good showing of skill and made it quite an interesting watch despite the end score of 1 to 1 against Zurich. It has been in the past reasonable to me to see soccer as a boring sport, but as with most sports actually seeing and just by beginning to recognize the strategy, the interconnectivity, the implications that shots at goal represent, recognizing the decisions being made and reasoning for them. That soccer game did much to convert me to be a soccer fan despite my lack of interest in soccer in sports in general that I had in the past.

Coming home the Saturday was ok, but I was feeling my sickness coming over to me, and my previous plans that day would be cancelled. I went to sleep early and had a coughing fit the entire night. During this time I was offered everything necessary for me to get better and I slowly improved during the course of Monday.

That night I got to play the game Buurejahr with Benno and Gabriel. Now as being a person who has invested significant amount of my time studying how games I expected a 1970’s game a time when the community of game makers, the technique of game design, and so on were being developed to not be as good as the top board games of this millennium that I have played. Yet my openness to this game showed me otherwise, this game challenges so many of the concepts of traditional design I have seen. It was a great opportunity for me, though despite my lost from benno and his precocious son.

Tuesday I went to Bern. There I walked an enjoyable twenty minute walk to get the necessary information for my stay here, which was handled in less than five minutes. Now when I go places I tend to like the explore method to get to know a place, I walk. I got to see the cool architecture of a bridge that a crossed over. I got to see some brown bears when I journeyed down to walk by the river. Walking by the river gave the illusion I was in the wilderness, only to be dispelled if I looked away from the forested rise of earth that I had descended on my right. Walking back and around I stumbled upon a market where I was able to buy a jelly donut for 1 CHF which I considered a deal for a fresh and succulent desert.

I walked past a hotel, in front a globe with water running underneath the globe. Having just taken a fluid dynamics class and read as an example the principles that the globe was designed with. I gave that globe, probably a one ton stone behemoth a spin which was quite amusing. Continuing along I was also lucky to stumble upon a local musician, another market which I was able to buy a nice affordable present, a chess set that had pieces the size of small traffic cones, and lastly a clock tower. Now by that clock tower an amusing man with covered in a yellow blanket with a duck face attached to a stick was making noise, having never seen such a thing it caught me off-guard and gave me a laugh.

That night I watched Bayern versus Barcelona. Barcelona being the best team of the last three years, but Benno told me yeah but Bayern is probably going to win.  Four points to zero and a vast multitude of failed shots on goal Bayern won despite having possession of the ball for only thirty percent of the game. Having watched the champions of this sport was a great experience.

Now it is Wednesday, of which I spent the day with this catch up as well as relaxing at the house. Despite what I have seen of this country, what actually drew me was the culture. Through the conversations I have had, I now have a greater understanding for the Swiss government system. I was used to Politics as being rarely talk about, and I had been stifled in the past for trying explore the possibilities of alternate forms of government. Having both a shameful domestic mess and terrible foreign policy, glossed by the face of politicians and its depths muddled by hyper aggressive media, it was such a relief to have an opportunity to improve my point of view by contrasting them against those of my intelligent host family.   

Winter camp Davos 5.4.2013

05-04-13

After a wild night at the Schanzenbar, which included poledancing with xavi, 90s music and lots to drink, most of the camp was a little tired in the morning. For those with enough energy left for the slopes the leaders had prepared a fun run, where we went around the jakobshorn in pairs looking for different things, like how many snow cannons there were on slope nr. 1, how long the ride on the bräma jet takes and so on.  

In the afternoon Mandolyn the iceprincess made an amazing introduction in figure skating. The participants tried to copy her incredible movements on ice. After a good lesson she presented an exclusive show for us with many spins and awesome movements!

This evening is raclette time, which we are all looking forward to.    

Winter camp Davos 4.4.2013

Thursday, April 4^th, 2013

Diego says:

“Today all the snowboarders and skiers were given the opportunity to ski together and in different groups which each specialized on a new and different skiing experience. While most seemed to be immediately drawn to trying out park and pipe tricks, I felt more inclined to ride along with the social skiing group. This proved be an extremely enjoyable and relaxing day on the slopes, and we were also gifted with beautiful morning weather. It was very nice to ride with a mix of skiers and snowboarders and to socialize with new people.
All the groups met for lunch on the slopes, and we shared our experiences. Sadly the weather did not stay so perfect, and by mid afternoon visibility had become quite poor.
All in all this was a wonderful day on the slopes for me and everyone experienced something different.”

Winter camp Davos 2.4.2013

Tuesday, April 2^nd, 2013

Today, we went unto the largest skiing area in Davos, Parsenn. It was so much bigger than I could have imagined. The interconnections of slopes/pists and skilifts/gondolas were numerously amazing and so intelligently outlaid. The weather was great and the view was just wonderful.

It is just my 4^th day of skiing after not having skied for 9 years ago, I was 9 years old. Indeed, skiing is like biking, one cannot forget how once you’ve done it, it stays imprinted in you. With the great teachers here at the camp, I have awakened this imprint in me and even improved so much in such a short period of time. I can’t believe I’m already skiing all the way down to town from the highest mountain spots.

After a full day of skiing, it wasn’t time to rest our bodies just yet. Some of us went to an indoor sports gym and played fölkerball, football, and basketball. It was somuch fun, this fun is the fuel for our energy for so many activities.

-Maria Rachelle Gallmann (Mara)

Winter camp Davos 1.4.2013

Monday, April 1^st, 2013

Aujourd’hui, le temps était absolument fantastique point de vue de la température et luminosité. Avec un ciel bleu pur, tous les skieurs/snowboardeurs de notre groupe étaient tous hyper motivés.

Off-piste

-Mandolyn Houriet

Off-piste; now THAT sounds pretty intense! As monitor Phillippe-the off-piste fanatic- announced this option to the agenda, I being a fast but totally un-technical skier hesitated at putting my hand up. Mentally, I was with the “fast skiing” group. Should I stay, or should I go with Phillip’s group? Slowly, I rose my hand, feeling quite proud of myself to take that step. Little did I know just how un-technical I was until I completely bailed hard on the first turn on the powdered slope.

Approximately 10 wipeoutslater…

Yeah okay, this is no piece of cake. I just flew uncontrollably and almost hit a tree, lost a ski as well as one of my poles and did some interesting face plants. But that’s totally okay, because at this very moment, I am surfing over this ocean of perfectly untouched powder, a truly remarkable and amazing feeling! I have never experienced anything like this before: you feel so powerful, like you are soaring high above everything and everyone.

Alexander sais

“Although there is the preconceived notion that sledding is less extreme than skiing or snowboarding, this could not be further from the truth. In my sledding experience, I reached speeds of epic proportion! It was also good to, while relaxing the muscles used for snowboarding, still experience the thrill of high speed on snow. The few accidents just added laughter to the mix. Luckily no one got hurt, although the levels of fear where unfathomably high.”

Winter camp Davos 30.3.2013

30-03-2013

We woke up with the higher expectactions, although tired, at the beginning of the day the great breakfast gave us energy. We begun renting the material as fast as we could to arrive early to the mountains. When we went out on the slope the sun welcomed us, but later on she had to go to another place ( Spain). After it although the weather dind’t follow us we had an amazing time riding with fresh snow on the Jackobshorn and we had lunch in the Fuxägufer. But the best was yet to come because after it we broke on the apres-ski, some of us have been rockin the pipe while others try to copy the Spanish weather in the sauna. When finally we arrived home our fabulous cookers made for us and special curry meal that made us feel like at home. We can’t tell you anymore because the night just begun.

LENKtastic II - 9th day

This morning we were allowed to sleep more than usual. We had breakfast at 9.00 and, after our  wonderful duties we had free time in the morning. At 10.30 all the groups met with their leaders to prepare the activities for sunday; everyone will have to find some special activities to enjoy the evening with everyone from camp. At 12.30 we had pasta for lunch, then we got ready for the afternoon. We had to choose between soccer, the swimming pool or helping for the party. A big committee helped for creating a great party. The girls town and the boys town were decorated for it. The party started after our pizza; first in the girls town took place some beer drinking games (of course only for people over sixteen). As well as the scavenger hunt that Fred won. Then the real party took place in the boys town, where was set the disco. Everyone enjoyed dancing together (also the leaders) and as we were good for the whole day and respected all the camp rules we were allowed to keep partying until 2.00. 

LENKtastic II - 8th day

Hier j’ai fait du volleyball et on a fait plein de match puis on a fais un jeux de rapidité on on devait lancer une balle et courir le plus loin et le plus vite possible avant que l’autre équipe n’attrape la balle et la pose à un endroit. A midi on a mangé et après on est allés a la piscine et on a encore fait du volley. On s’est baignés et on a fais du toboggant et on a bronzé et séché puis on est allés acheter a mangé et on est rentrés à la maison.

Cléa

If I don’t get anything to eat, I’ll eat you Etienne !

Nous sommes partis le jeudi 2 août faire une randonnée de deux jours dans la montagne. Jeudi 2 août, lendemain de la fete nationale suisse avec par consequent la fatigue qui s’en suit. La montée s’est effectuée sans difficultés le premier jour, et après une courte nuit passée au chalet (sans douches ! ). Certains d’entres nous se levèrent de bonne heure pour assister au levé du soleil avant de prendre le chemin du retour. Les difficultés commencèrent alors : il s’avère que descendre une pente raide est autrement plus difficile que la monté. Après une courte baignade dans le lac de Flueseeli, nous allâmes nous perdre dans une vallée ou le chemin nous était barré par une rivière. Nous fûmes obligés de remonter une pente inhumaine, ponctuée de menaces de mort à l’egard de nos moniteurs. Deux heures plus tard, le groupe se retrouve à nouveau au lac et trouve un chemin fiable nous ramenant au bas de la montagne. Très fatigués mais heureux de notre exploit, nous arrivâmes à Siebenbrunnen afin de prendre un bus nous ramenant à Lenk. Cependant certains aventuriers se risquèrent à marcher une heure de plus jusqu’à la maison. Nous avons marché environ 8 heures le vendredi, pour un total de 13 heures  sur les deux jours.

Nicole et Mickey

Ieri sono andato a fare un giro in bicicletta insieme a chesper siamo a andati a prendere la gondola siamo andati fino in cima  per riscedere a valle in biccicletta. verso la fine tutto andava bene che  tutto  ad un tratto che mi sono fatto pungere  da un ape e sono dovuto ritornare a casa in machina e non fare nient'altro per tutto il giorno.

Gregori Xander

  

Le matin, on est partit vers 10 heures pour faire des sports de balle : tennis de table et un autre sport qui ressemblait au baseball. Ensuite, en début d'après midi , on est parti à la piscine. Le soir, on à regardé le film The Mist. 

Fred Mayor

  

Sun is shining, the water is clear, such a wonderful day to do some water sports.
After putting my watersuit I went to the water with my kayak, the water was cold but refreshing. I fell down so many times that i've lost my paddel in the lake. And after several minutes of searching I didn't find it so I had to swim back and that was exhausting.

Wind began to blow so I picked up my wind surf and I went so far that I couldn't even see the rest of the group. Martin (the leader) showed of from no where and told me to join the others.
He took the wind surf and I took the kayak because it's easier. On my way back i saw Julian having some issues with his wind surf so I had to take him back him and his windsurf  to the land and that took us at least half an hour because the wind was blowing againts us.
Ahmed Matter

LENKtastic II - 7th day

After our long casino night yesterday, the whole camp seemed to be dead the next morning. However, after hearing “call me maybe” for the 6^th time even the last boys were annoyed enough to wake up. Afterwards, we had a good nutritious breakfast and were informed of our program.

In the morning we had a session of our chosen sport programs. As our group only consists of ball sports we can only report of these events. To warm up we played one of the most complicated games of catching we ever experienced. Then we played some volleyball, danced hip hop and had a good time generally.

When we came home we ate lunch and prepared ourselves mentally for the next stage: Alp Wrestling. There we also met up with the biking group again. Then we travelled to St. Stephan to meet up with a professional, who would teach us how to “Schwingen” (wrestle). There we were divided into 2 groups the wrestling and the ones who played cards. The card players had a very one-sided game due to magical circumstances which helped the one side to play much better than the other. When the climbers joined our group we card players joined them to wrestle. There we were shown some techniques to throw our opponent down and we were destroyed by the professional who beat us easily. Nevertheless we got to wrestle and had a few good matches.

Then we went home for supper where we all wanted to shower because we were so dirty due to the wrestling. However for dinner we had a feast for the 1^st August, the national holiday of Switzerland. We had Raclette and an awesome bread and now we are about to go fire some fireworks. Hope we have fun.

LENKtastic II - 6th day

After our long casino night yesterday, the whole camp seemed to be dead the next morning. However, after hearing “call me maybe” for the 6^th time even the last boys were annoyed enough to wake up. Afterwards, we had a good nutritious breakfast and were informed of our program.

In the morning we had a session of our chosen sport programs. As our group only consists of ball sports we can only report of these events. To warm up we played one of the most complicated games of catching we ever experienced. Then we played some volleyball, danced hip hop and had a good time generally.

When we came home we ate lunch and prepared ourselves mentally for the next stage: Alp Wrestling. There we also met up with the biking group again. Then we travelled to St. Stephan to meet up with a professional, who would teach us how to “Schwingen” (wrestle). There we were divided into 2 groups the wrestling and the ones who played cards. The card players had a very one-sided game due to magical circumstances which helped the one side to play much better than the other. When the climbers joined our group we card players joined them to wrestle. There we were shown some techniques to throw our opponent down and we were destroyed by the professional who beat us easily. Nevertheless we got to wrestle and had a few good matches.

Then we went home for supper where we all wanted to shower because we were so dirty due to the wrestling. However for dinner we had a feast for the 1^st August, the national holiday of Switzerland. We had Raclette and an awesome bread and now we are about to go fire some fireworks. Hope we have fun.

LENKtastic II - 5th day

Cheesefactory

Today we went to a cheesefactory that was situated high up on a mountain. There we saw how cheese is really made. We followed our guide when he was stirring in a big bowl of cheese-water and later he took out the cheese and put it into forms. We got to eat alot of different types of cheese that was produced at the factory and they were so delicious! We also got to taste fresh milk from the cows at the factory.

Later the boys went up to the top of a big mountain and Martin, who wanted to walk fast reached it as the last. When we came back the factory and we wanted to go down the ”city” fast  so that we could go to the pool but unfortunately we went into the wrong direction a couple of times and reached the camp about one and a half later than we had planned... 

Biking

Our group, composed of five camp participants and a leader, set of for Speiz at 09:30 on this summer morning.

After a quick lunch break near a river in the forest, the group finally arrived at destination, exhausted after a four hour trip, but very happy. Thier efforts were rewared by a short visit to Spielz’s castlefollowed  by a dip in the lake of Thun and in the local swimming pool. One hour oft rain-riding later, we were back at Lenk.

Rope Park

Early in the morning we took the train to Zweisimmen and we hiked to the rope park. Since we didn’t know how to use all the gear they gave to us, a strong looking woman taught us how to do so. Then we had to practice our newly gotten knowledge on a baby rope (!), but that was just a little anticipation of what we would get later. They had courses for all kind of people: small ones, big ones, long ones, short ones, and even one that was pretty much all zip-lines.









After a couple of them we ate lunch and headed to the swimming pool, where we played volleyball (on actual sand!), football, went down a big slide and jumped off a diving board. As you may or may not have seen, we had lots and lots of fun. :-)

LENKtastic II - 4th day

Hiking:

The trip of the Hiking group was about 5 hours long and took them to a place called “The Seven Fountains of the Simmental”. The weather was great, there was plenty of sun all day and luckily no one got sunburned. The group stopped at an impressive waterfall for lunch and some of them had a quick bath in the river while the others were taking a short nap. Mario and Ahmed brought their speakers so everyone could listen to music while hiking. One of the hikers was shocked to discover that the cow fences are electric.  The hike was the perfect way to spend the day but the rooftops of Lenk were a welcome sight for the footsore campers.

Biking:

The biking group started their trip with a really easy route on flat land after which they spent two hours riding up a steep mountain. On the way up they took a shower in the waterfall. Eventually they reached the “Seven Fountains” where they took lunch and ran into the hiking group. The bikers continued their journey up another mountain where they rested before starting their way down. While going downhill the group was submitted to four near death experiences, where bikers were sent tipping off the path. After this terrifying ordeal they descended the mountain at full speed in just 30 minutes arriving home intact.   

LENKtastic II - 1th day

Some arrived on time others were very late. On arrival people became friends and explored the camp around. At night we ate and then played some ice breakers, towards bed we heard the party down the hill that continued on into the night that kept some up all night.

Around 3 am their was a constant barrage of firecrackers.

Around 7 I had to get up to start kitchen duty and start the buffet of food. Girls got up earlier to try to fix their hair, after the wonderful breakfast we waited for the oLENKic games in anticipation.

Tuesday

We had an early start today, waking up to have breakfast at 7:00. We did similar activities as we did yesterday. First, we went back up the mountain to continue to clear the paths so that others may enjoy the beautiful Saas Balen Alps. In the afternoon we changed our location to closer to the house but still cut and carried trees near the river. After a hard day’s work, we played a friendly game of all camp soccer on the local field. Despite the rain, we still had fun and all enjoyed the intense but exciting match. We loved the delicious food and were excited to break dance!

Break dance… ->

Thursday

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Saas Balen. Today we worked on top of the mountain, making the trails wider. We made friends with a goat who we named Jolene, who tried to eat our hair. After escaping Jolene (who later followed us), half of our group cut a path for a river through the fields. The other half of our group continued enlarging the pathways to control the waterways. On the way back home some of us rode on the back of a truck, while others stuck with the fire van. Since we were muddy and smelled like goat, we took a quick shower in the cold waterfall by the village.

Monday

It all started as a cloudy morning on the first day of camp. After an hour of delay, we finally got to work on the wonderful Swiss trails. But first, to get to those pathways, we rode in a firefighter truck. We cleared the roads of all debris, and made it safer for travel. This was done by the use of tools and a bit of teamwork. After three hours of hard work, we traveled back to the house for a delicious lunch of soup and an assortment of cheeses and meats. Once we were full, the leaders set us back to work on the roads. We were happy to help maintain the two separate ecosystems in both the forest and the valley. Tonight will be filled with much excitement like bracelet making and bonding.