The Beginning

I thought it would be good to share a few more stories of our adventures here in South Korea. To start, the first night I got into Seoul was pretty stressful for me. Zurich had made a big mistake with my luggage, which I luckily caught before my flight out of Zurich but which wasn't completely fixed. They ended up NOT connecting my luggage with my next 2 flights out of Frankfurt and Beijing. I actually almost missed my flight out of Zurich because I was working with a supervisor trying to fix it. I ended up having to hurriedly say goodbye to Heidi which was really hard and didn't feel right after all our time and adventures together to just give a quick hug and fight back tears to rush through passport control. I left Zurich in the evening so as we were flying out of Zurich I looked down and could see the whole city and lake and river below me. I pointed out several places to myself to reminisce and I realized then that I was actually NOT going to be coming back. It was actually a little sad for me.

I got into Frankfurt and had less than an hour to talk to someone and see if my bags were going to be connected at least to Beijing as well as having to check back in again! And if anyone has been to Frankfurt they know that this airport is HUGE!!! I somehow managed and was able to have someone grab my bags to be put onto the flight to Beijing where I would again have to talk to someone to make sure that they made it to Seoul. This next flight was about 9 hours long but it was a redeye flight so most people fell asleep. They only showed one movie and this was only during the last hour and a half of the flight. I don't know why they did that. I really didn't like the airlines I flew on which was Air China by the way. All the Asians on the flight, which were the majority of people, were wearing those white doctor masks because of fear of getting swine flu I suppose. And they are SERIOUS about it. We all had our temperature checked at least 2 times once we landed in Beijing. We had to wait on the plane for everyone to get checked and then we had to go through a little quarantined area to fill out a health form to see if we were feeling sick. Although I had actually been really sick the week before I did NOT mention this on the health form because they for sure would have had me quarantined and I did not want that. After trying to get my bag situation figured out during the hour I had in Beijing, I was told that my bags were not going to be put on my flight to Seoul but that there were several more flights to Seoul later that night and my bag(s) would be put on one of them. I figured that was the best I could do and hopped on my last flight to Seoul. After filling out another health form and having someone make sure I wasn't carrying the swine flu, I talked to someone about my bags again. They would be here later tonight, I was told, and will be delivered to me in Anseong.

So I sat down to wait for Kaeleen who was supposed to be getting in at 7, which was 2 hours after me. I waited until 7 but no Kaeleen. So I decided to ask the airlines if by any chance my bags had arrived yet. Amazingly, one had arrived! At the same time I heard my name and Kaeleen was calling me. She had been there since a little after the time I got in and was looking for me the whole time! A little Korean man who was there to help us had had my name paiged and everything but I did not hear it. Luckily though, I had one bag and was told the other would be delivered to me in Anseong in the morning. So Kae and I hopped on a bus to Anseong, which was about 2 hours away, and eventually made it after a loooong trip. Cody met us at the bus terminal and took us home where we had something like potstickers and went to bed exhausted. I had been awake for over 36 hours and Kaeleen was somewhere near that as well. We slept a lot the next day!

The next night, Friday, we went out to dinner for our first Korean meal when Cody and Brad were done with work. It was really good! The next day was Saturday and Cody and Brad were hosting a large group of people from Chungju which is where Erin and Isaac live and work. Kaeleen and I were soooo excited to surprise Erin we could hardly wait! Finally, when they were on their way, I went outside to meet Erin and say hello to Isaac. I then told her to come put her stuff in one of the rooms in the house, which was where Kaeleen was hiding. Erin had no idea!! Cody made delicious shish kebabs and we met a lot of new people. We had to walk up a large hill where we played volleyball and badminton. Later, we hung out at the house for awhile, ordered some pizza, and ended up going out downtown for a few hours. It was a great day. Then on Sunday, we took it easy and watched the others play basketball. We went out for Chinese food in Korea, which was also really good. Then the next day Erin and Isaac had to go back to Chungju for work. It had been a great start of our trip!

Adventures in the Koreas

Korea is so fun. I am into my third week here and will be leaving next Sunday. It will be pretty hard to leave. It has been great hanging out with Cody again and my friends Erin and Isaac who are working in a nearby city. One of the most pleasant things about the trip though is that Kaeleen came in the same day I did in order to surprise Erin. It was quite impressive that we were able to keep the secret from Erin since so many knew about it except her. When Kaeleen, who was supposed to be in Portland, popped up in Cody's house to surprise Erin, it was one of the best moments ever! Erin was so shocked and confused. I was jumping up and down while Erin couldn't stop yelling and Kaeleen laughed the whole time. It was so great to be together again.

I really like so many things about this country. I can't tell you what a relief it is to be in a country who takes an interest in me again. There have been so many times here where I have said to myself or aloud "This would never happen in Switzerland". Every time Kaeleen and I would be walking around lost or looking for something, people would actually ask us if they could help us! When we were trying to find our hostel, we had a man come up to us and ask if we needed help. He then got out his own cell phone and called the hostel for us to get directions and then proceeded to walk us THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION HE WAS GOING to the hostel door! This would NEVER happen in Switzerland. We also had people come up to us and help us with the ticket machine for the subway. And at night we had several people try to get us to come have a drink with them because they like our blue eyes. People are so friendly and actually want to talk to us and ask us questions.

The food is really good here. The only thing is that I think I would get pretty tired of it if I was living here. I have been craving good bread and cheese and I have only been here a few weeks. But perhaps that is also because that was my main foods in Switzerland for the last 9 months.

Last week Kaeleen and I went to the DMZ (or Demilitarized Zone). We took a tour and rode on a bus to the border of North and South Korea. It was a little scary since there are so many tensions between the U.s. and North Korea right now. But it was very safe and there are so many rules that we have to follow that keep us safe. It was a really interesting experience. I can say that I have actually been to North Korea now. We saw a few North Korean soldiers as well as Propaganda City which is an empty "city" with unused buildings that were created just for the purpose of North Korea seeming outsiders to be a progressive country and look like a normal modern country, which of course it is not. I will post some pictures of the DMZ and that whole tour. Again, if you click on the slideshow below you can see the pictures better and slow down the show.



Some other pictures in this slideshow are from our visit to the Seoul Tower at night. It was beautiful and so so so high! There were locks all hanging onto the fence around the main viewpoint and around the tower. I don't really know the significance of these but it looked cool. Also, there were "love benches" we could sit on at the viewpoint. These benches, as you can see in the picture, were bent in the middle slightly so that the couple has to sit close together. There was a light show that was performed on the tower and loud music playing. It was really cool. The view of Seoul from the viewpoint was also amazing. We went up to this tower with some people we met who were staying at the hostel Kaeleen and I stayed in. We ended up going out with these people and some others later that night in Hongdae, a pretty hip and cool section of Seoul.

Also included in this slideshow are pictures of our Dr. Fish adventure. There are cafes here where you can order a coffee and a waffle and then spend 20 minutes sitting with your feet in a big tank of water filled with little sucker fishes. These fishes swarm to your feet and bite off the dead skin. It feels so weird. I actually was not really able to do it. I could not get both of my feet in the water, and when I finally did get one in, I could only leave it in for about 3 seconds. It was just too weird and scary for me. But Kaeleen and Cody both did it and they claimed their feet never felt better when they were done. Gah!!!

I have other stories to tell about my time in Korea as well as pictures to post but I will have to do this later!

Princess Cake, Swedish Meatballs, and a Cheese Plate

These three food items are some of the best things that Sweden has to offer. If I have learned anything from traveling around Europe, it's that I judge countries by their food. If a country has underwhelming food, I am extremely disappointed almost to the point of regret of making the country a priority in my travels. However, I wholeheartedly give Stockholm, Sweden a two thumbs up and an A+ in the food department. For those of you who don't know what Princess Cake is, it is cake with mainly cream and a little cake. The most delectable part of this cake though is the fondent (sp) frosting. It is, I think, always green ... bright green. As for the meatballs, if you haven't been to Ikea for the meatballs, you definitely need to! I would have to say they are quite authentic. And oh my gosh! The CHEESE plate!!! I mean, I looooooove cheese. It is one reason why I chose to come to Switzerland to be an au pair. The cheese plate we had in Stockholm was so good! We almost went to the same previous restaurant the last night we were there, after our first dinner at a different restaurant, just to order their delicious cheese plate again. Oh and of course! I almost forgot to add the Cheez Doodles ... basically Cheetoh Puffs. This might sound weird to a lot of people but for someone who hasn't eaten a Cheetoh in at least nine months, it was a huge relief to crunch on some again. If all else in Stockholm had been a disaster, I think I would still call the trip a success because of the grand culinary aspects.

Unfortunately, Stockholm doesn't get higher than about 18 degrees Celsius. For those of you who don't translate this, 18 degrees is freakin cold (it's like high 60's). While we were visiting the city, it was actually sunny almost the whole four days. However, the wind coming off the sea was so chilly. One night we about froze to death walking back to our hostel from the old town. Mind you we were not expecting it to feel like January again so neither Jill, Heidi, nor I had brought many warmish clothes. I definitely could not live there. I was actually happy to return to Switzerland where the weather has been in the mid 20's!!

Our first full day in Stockholm was spent mostly walking around the city to get a feel for it and do a little shopping. Stockholm is about as expensive as, possibly even a little more than, Switzerland ... which is quite a feat. Although I loved the style there, I didn't go too crazy. That night we went out to the Ice Bar. This was super fun. I was a little hesitant at first because it was sort of expensive to pay the entrance fee which only included one drink. However, by the time we got in there, I was so glad I went. It is technically the Absolut Vodka Ice Bar so the drinks were cocktails with Absolut vodka. They were really good! And lucky enough for us, we had some guys buy us two more rounds. The ice bar was, probably needless to say, really really really cold!!! We wore these big eskimo capes and thick gloves and were still numb. The bar, walls, tables, chairs, glasses were all made of ice. It was really neat and we met some cool guys who were fun to talk to. They all worked for Sony Ericsson and told us that they lived in California but had to fly to Stockholm for a week once a month. I don't think I would like/be able to handle this much flying.


After the drinks at the ice bar we needed to warm up so we headed to a regular old bar down the block. After this we three girls headed back to the hostel (but not before stopping at a 7eleven for Cheez Doodles). Once back at the hostel we met and hung out with until really early in the morning some great people. Another cool thing about Sweden is that it's only dark for a few hours. It gets completely dark around 11pm and starts getting light around 3:30am. After staying at this hostel for two nights, we moved to our new hostel which was actually a boat. We stayed in a cabin that was made for five people but the three of us were actually the only ones in there the whole time, which is obviously really nice. I got a little seasick every time I was on the boat for long periods of time but I think I was getting used to it after the second and last night.

Another fun part of Sweden was taking a boat ride out to Skansen, an outdoor museum. There are lots of Scandinavian animals, like a zoo, but there is also an old time village where tradespeople held their shops (such as glass blowing and a bakery, etc). I loved walking around and looking at all the animals, especially the reindeer and the bears and fox. I have a great video of a fox getting mad at a mama bear and her cubs for entering his area. He is freaking out at them and the bears are just kind of like, "who is this annoying guy barking at us?" ... It was pretty funny and entertaining.



Also, below is a slideshow of some pictures I took of the trip. *I think the slideshow also includes some pics of the new place I am staying at.



This Thursday I am flying to the Netherlands to hang out in Amsterdam for two days with Heidi. I wanted to get in just one last trip before I leave and it should be lots of fun.

A few pics of my travels with my parents before my camera died!

There were never such devoted sisters:


Abbi and Allie:


Eating lunch in a square in Thira ... basically being bums:


Ladies Night every night at our favorite restaurant on Santorini Island:


One of the only pictures I took of our one and only short night in Athens:


A Santorini port area:


Santorini beach:


So pretty:


Greek Orthodox church ... there were so many everywhere!:


Abbi learning how to walk and failing:



Great views all over the island of Santorini:


Wine tasting in Greece:


We waited for hours for this disappointing sunset:


A lone donkey hanging out near his cave by the side of the road:



Sadly I don't have any pictures of the rest of our Greek visit nor of anything of Austria or Spain.....

The End is Near

Tomorrow I am leaving for Sweden for four days with Heidi and Jill. It should be a lot of fun. Apparently one of the hostels we are staying in is a ship... like on water. I hope I don't get seasick!!

I made it through last week living in Ebertswil (I just found out that is the name of the village I'm staying in a few days ago). I really enjoy the family here. And of course their cat. I'm trying to teach Pippin to say "kitty". I know I have mentioned before, German speakers have a hard time saying my name. The dad asked me the other day if I had a nickname or shorter version that I like to go by. I told him Mere was fine and he said that he thought maybe Merry, "and then there would be Merry and Pippin." Hahaha! I thought that was so cute. I actually am pretty sure that his son is named after Pippin the hobbit.

I have been working long days but mostly I have enjoyed my time here so far. Both parents are fun to talk to and very helpful. They offer me the car and they always offer to drop me off or pick me up in places kind of far away. The mom is really sweet and easy to talk to. She used to be a midwife and I like asking her questions about that. Her daughter, Yara's, father is Morroccan and she and Yara are going to Marrakesh for a few days next week since Yara has not been very influenced by that side of her culture. Yara really likes me and wants me to stay with them forever. Compared to the seven year olds that I used to look after, she seems so mature and well behaved so I like spending time with her too.

This last weekend, Abbi came to Switzerland from Vienna to visit me. She arrived on Friday and we hung out at the family's house that night. The next day we met Heidi and Dragan in Zurich where we walked around for awhile so Abbi could see the city. Since there is really no touristy things to do in Zurich it did not take long and we went back to get ready for the night. Saturday night we went out to a few bars in Zurich and on Sunday we had a picnic near the Limmat River in Zurich. We were going to go for a boat ride around the Lake of Zurich but we found out it cost almost 25 francs each for about an hour boat trip. We decided against this and traveled to Zug where we hung out at the lake for awhile there. It was a sunny and warm weekend. Abbi left early this morning to catch a train back to Austria.

Next week I am taking a short trip to Amsterdam with Heidi. It will officially be my last traveling experience around Europe ... for now. And then in just over two weeks I will be headed to South Korea!!!

An Update for Those Who Have Been Sitting on the Edge of their Seats

I have to admit that I am disappointed that I did not do any posts for the entire month of April. And April is one of my favorite months! But I do have good reasons for the lack of posts: 1. I was traveling Europe for the first two weeks and 2. The last two weeks I didn't have internet access in my place of living. And of course you are all asking the big question, "Where the heck ARE you living?" I am still in Switzerland and I have been staying with one of the nicest families I have ever met in my life. With that said, of course you all know that they are not actually Swiss. The mother is Latvian (Ieva-pronounced Yay-vah) and the father is English (Robin). They heard that I was looking for a place to stay and they offered up their basement, practically with no strings attached. And the first 10 days I was there, they were on holiday so I had the house to myself and the cat, Simba. Oh and Amanda stayed there with me the first week because she left her family and is now back in the U.S.
Anyways, this family has 4 children and they are quite lovely. They speak English at home so I feel so much more comfortable there and I don't feel like such an intrusion, even though I really am, whereas at the previous family whom I actually worked for I felt completely out of place. I did have to watch the kids one night and they were quite rambunctious, especially 4 year old Raymond, the only boy and youngest child. Florence, Anastasia, and Rebecca range in age from 9 to 6.

However! I am not living with them anymore. I moved to a city just outside of Lucerne, to stay with another Swiss family for a week. The mom broke her foot last week and she has a 1 year old boy and 8 year old girl and another on the way. They have a typical old Swiss house with narrow and very steep stairs that she can't really maneuver on her casted foot. They are friends of Ieva and Robin's and Ieva asked me if I wanted to help them out for a little while. Having nothing else to do, I agreed and I am now stuck out in the country about an hour away from where I was previously. The parents are both wonderful but the little girl, Yara, does not speak any English. We have been getting along ok though. Pippin is a little more work and I worked about 13 hours today so I am pretty exhausted. However, I prefer them to my first Swiss family.

Next Tuesday I leave for a four day trip to Sweden with Heidi and my friend Jill. After that, I will hang out for another week or two and then fly to South Korea where I will stay with Cody and Erin and Isaac for a few weeks. AND THEN I COME HOME! Although I am disappointed that there are still countries that I have yet to visit here, I am so ready to come home. I have lived in 4 different households since I have been here and have had to put up with a lot of kids.

I will have to comment later on my trip with my parents and Abbi. Greece was great and sunny and very beautiful. Austria involved a lot of driving but we were able to see several really amazing places. Barcelona was a little disappointing because it was rainy and fairly cold but still great. Pictures will be posted later, too.

Homeless?

Last Friday was my last day with the Bergers. I packed up all my belongings, which is definitely a lot less stuff than what I have ever had to move, cleaned my room and bathroom to perfection (parents and grandparents would be proud to see it), and took off. It was a little sad saying goodbye to the kids and to Christian, the dad, who was always really kind to me. But Jana, even in the end, proved really disappointing ... Lets just say that I left without any regrets.

I do not really have a place to live right now. I am staying in the room where Heidi usually lives. She is on vacation this week with her mother and grandma so she generously lent me her space. They are traveling around Switzerland, and then to Madrid and Paris. Her mom and grandma arrived this last Friday and I went with Heidi to pick them up from the airport after she picked me up from my old house. Of course, everyone was really happy to see each other and it made me that much more excited to go to Greece where I will see my parents for the first time in seven months. On Saturday, I helped with the touring of Zurich for the benefit of Heidis mom and grandma. Unfortunately the weather was horrible, it rained all day. We walked around the Hauptbahnhof and showed them the old town. We went to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, which is called Tibits. Really though, one day is enough to see Zurich ... it is not exactly the most hopping/touristy city, even in great weather.

As we were about to leave Zurich to head back to Gossau, we made one last stop in a Swiss watch store in the Hauptbahnhof. As we were looking around, we saw this man walking across a section of the HB. All of a sudden, he just falls over-collapses! He fell flat on his face! We still are not sure if he just fainted or had a seizure or was on something or whatever else. We did not know what to do but tons of other people crowded around the man, trying to see if he was ok. After a terrifying minute, the man rolled over and tried to get up. The crowd was trying to help him because he obviously was not ok. Since he fell on his face, he had several gashes right above his eyebrow and near his nose and mouth. It was horrible and for a minute I thought I would be sick after seeing him bleeding. However, the man did not want anyone to help him. He just got up and pushed people off him and tried walking, or rather stumbling, away. I do not think he knew where he was going because he just kind of walked around in a circle for a minute, brushing off people who were trying to get him to stop and sit down and wait for a paramedic or something. The last we saw of him then, he was walking away as fast as he could in the opposite direction he had been originally going. Several people followed him to make sure he was ok, I think and I saw some people on their cell phones, apparently calling security or the police to come quickly.
Well, after awhile, we decided to catch our train back to the little town of Gossau. After a train ride into Wetzikon, we have to get on a bus for a ten minute ride to our stop. Well, we all got onto the front of the bus and all of a sudden, who do we see? Yep, the man who fell in the HB! This is crazy considering how unlikely it is that he would be on that same bus to that same small town at that same exact time as us, who actually saw him fall! He was sitting in the very back of the bus so we could not see him well but we kept stealing glances back at him to see if he had gotten himself cleaned up or if he was still acting really weird. As we got off at our stop, we waited for the bus to pull away before walking to the house so that we could see a close up of the man one last time. We looked and we noticed that his cuts looked like he, or someone else, had cleaned them up. I was really glad. I had actually been really worried about him and it was nice to know that he was ok.

Well, tomorrow morning I am waking up really early to head to the Flughafen, or airport. I am catching my flight to Athens to see my parents and to meet up with Abbi who is already there. I have to fly up to Dusseldorf first and I have a two hour layover there so I am planning on meeting Ali for awhile during my wait. Just another thing to look forward to!

"Where the car sleeps"

The above title is Sanja's response to our recent conversation about where she was going to roller blade at her friend's house. She doesn't know the proper English word "garage", probably because they don't have one so I've never had to use it before. I will definitely miss some of the funny things that my kids say.

Yes, you read correctly: I will be leaving the Bergers this Friday. I think it's best for me to leave this family now because I have been really unhappy with a lot of things here. I won't go into too much detail but I am more than ready to leave. What am I going to do now? Well, if you think of something, let me know. I really don't have many solid plans yet. I leave next Tuesday for Greece where I will meet up with my parents and Abbi. We will spend the next two weeks travelling around Greece, Austria, and Spain. I have already purchased a ticket from Barcelona back to Zurich at the end of our vacation, so I will definitely be heading back to Switzerland. My visa for Switzerland is invalid once I leave the Bergers so I will only be allowed to remain here for three months after that. Tentative plans include finding a place to live (still in the works) and doing only babysitting jobs. I already have one job lined up for two days a week for the summer with the possibility of another one. Babysitters actually make waaaaaaay more money than live in au pairs in Switzerland.

Anyways, I wanted to talk about last weekend. Amanda, Heidi, our new Serbian friend named Dragan, a couple of Swiss guys we met earlier in the week, and I all went out last Friday night. Sam, our Swiss friend, took us to a bar we hadn't been to before, nor had we ever even heard about it. It is the oldest bar in Zurich and it's pretty small. It has wood floors and walls and two wood beams hang low in the middle of the ceiling. Anyone can try to lift themselves up onto the beams and if they can do figure eights through the two beams, they get a free glass of wine. (Only wine is served at this bar.) The other neat thing is that once you complete the task, you must drink the wine while hanging upside down on the beams! When you are all through you get to carve your name on the wall, where hundreds of other courageous souls also received the honor to carve their names and forever mark their accomplishment. Sam claims that he has done it a couple of times but I don't know if he was just trying to sound cool or not. While we were there we saw several attempts, only two guys were able to actually do the figure eights. It was really entertaining and of course the whole bar was cheering and clapping for them. The server told us that apparently a blind man was able to do eighty figure eights through these two beams.

I made a video below of one guy's accomplishment:

"Lieeeechtenstein"

The week after I got back from my vacation, the kids still had one more week off from school. These weeks are my least favorite times because this means that I have the kids all day long on my own. However, I managed to make it through the week. We rode to the lake one day because the weather was really great. It was quite sunny and actually pretty warm. We rode to the Volg, a little mini mart, and got a loaf of bread to feed to the ducks and geese down by the lake.





Another fun thing to keep the kids entertained on the long days is to cook with them. I always have them help me in the kitchen because they actually really like to cook. We made several different dishes that week that all turned out pretty well. For example, we made these french toast type muffins that were so yummy and sugary so of course the kids loved those. Dutch baby is a favorite meal of the kids now as well. Mini pizzas were another good way to get the kids involved in the kitchen and fun for them too.

That Saturday, Heidi and Amanda and I decided to take a short train ride to Liechtenstein, the smallest German speaking country. It has been Amanda's goal to go ever since she got here and I have to say that it was pretty underwhelming. The country only has 35,000 inhabitants and the capital city, Vaduz (where we went), is pretty small and uneventful. Although the landscape is magnificent surrounding the city, the downtown area was like a ghost town even though it was a Saturday afternoon/evening. Most of the shops were closed and there were hardly any people out even though it was another beautiful day. We had to go to the tourist office to pay to have our passports stamped. We walked around the city for about an hour and a half and this was more than enough time. We actually ended up just sitting around in one of the squares killing time before our bus came.
Another funny thing is that Vaduz does not even have it's own train station. We had to take a train into a city outside of the country and then bus in. Oh well, at least now I have another country stamp in my passport to show off.

Is it Halloween in Dusseldorf? NO! It's Carnival!

Friday morning, Heidi and I checked out of our fabulous hostel to catch our flight to Dusseldorf, Germany. My friend Ali is an au pair there and that week was the start of Carnival. Carnival is basically a huge celebration throughout the whole city, it's a lot like Mardi Gras. People dress up in crazy costumes and roam the streets with their beer. Heidi and I had missed Thursday, the opening night of the Carnival, which is also the craziest night apparently. We met a really nice guy on the way from the airport into the city of Dusseldorf. He was German and we started talking to him because he had helped us figure out our tickets. He had lived in the U.S. for awhile when he was in high school and his English was really really good. He told us all about Carnival and helped us figure out the right tram to take to Ali's house. The next night, we ended up seeing him again out on the streets! It was really fun to run into him again. Unfortunately, my camera died early on the first night we were in Dusseldorf so I don't have very many pictures.

Anyways, after Ali made us a delicious dinner of pizza, we dressed up in "costumes" to hit the town. Since we didn't have much time to put together an outfit, I went as a hippie with a headband and a peace necklace, Heidi went as 1980 with pink feathers in her side pony and Ali went as a cowgirl. See below for our first night out in Dusseldorf:



We hung out with Ali's boyfriend who is Australian and his good friend who was Irish. We went to one pub where the crowd was mainly 50 years old and older but the old man who was the bartender, came over and gave us all large spoons. He then poured in some alcohol, I am not sure what it was called but it tasted very cinnamony. We had to take this as a shot but it was a little difficult since it was in a spoon. This shot is apparently called a Loffel, which means spoon in German. I think the bartender was just happy to have some young people in his bar so he gave us two for free. After that bar, we went to another one where we all had liter beers. Needless to say, it took me awhile to finish mine.

The next day, we walked around Dusseldorf for awhile looking for a costume for that Saturday night. The little part that I saw of the city, I thought was really pretty. We ate at an Irish bar and then Heidi and I bought some wigs to wear that night. We went out earlier that night to Carnival. There were already so many people out drinking and in costumes. There was music playing and people dancing all over. It was so fun. Again, we met up with Ali's friend Mark and his other friends from Australia. I didn't buy a drink that whole weekend because I wouldn't even be finished with one beer and I'd have another one handed to me. That's the Carnival way I guess. We didn't walk into many bars this night because so much was going on in the streets and you could buy alcohol outside, too. It was fun to see all the funny and random costumes people came up with. For example, below is a picture of some of my favorite costumes. A group of about 5 or 6 adult men dressed as rabbits carrying around a giant carrot.



I have to mention this one pizza place we went to both nights. The pizza was soooo good! It was cheap, only about 5 or 6 euro, and about the size of a plate. I think Heidi and I ordered three or four of them. They were delicious, I want to go back just for that! Below are some pictures of Heidi and I in our blue and pink wigs:





We were all really tired so we ended up calling it an early night. We had been out since early that evening and Heidi and I had another flight to catch Sunday morning. Carnival was absolutely so much fun. It was great to see Ali again, too! It was a fabulous way to end an already fabulous vacation.

I Suppose It's About Time For This

I suppose since it's been close to two weeks since my return from one of my best trips ever, I should probably write something about it. Like, I said, it is definitely up there in amazingness for trips for me. Heidi and I set out on a sunny Friday afternoon (Fri. the 13th actually) to catch a flight to Dublin, Ireland. The flight ended up being delayed because of bad weather somewhere else but once we got to Ireland, we had pretty good luck in that area. The first night we got to Dublin, we were pretty tired so we didn't do much besides grab some dinner and hang out at the hostel. We got a really good deal on this hostel because the computer didn't charge me the correct amount (less) and then we were booked in a different room than one that we had requested so the hostel worker only charged us I think 9 pounds for the night for both of us. We were only at this hostel for one night and then we had to go somewhere else the next day. It took us awhile to find our next hostel because the bus system is a little confusing in Dublin. I loved how the signs that listed the times for the bus to arrive at the stops said "arrives AROUND every 10 mins". One reason why I love Ireland is because people are more laid back as is shown by these signs. Also, we had a lot of people help us in Dublin. Heidi and I are not used to this living in Switzerland where people are so closed off and unapproachable. For example, we had a couple of bus drivers give us a lift to stops when we didn't know where we were going for free.... just to be nice!
So the next hostel was also pretty nice. We shared a room with five or six other girls. One Spanish girl had been living at this hostel for over a month I think and had been living in hostels for the last three months. Yikes!

Our second day in Dublin, we decided to check out the city. We went to the Guinness Store House which was pretty cool but not necessarily worth the 15 pounds one has to pay for a non guided "tour" and a free pint of Guinness at the end. But I suppose you can't go to Dublin without stopping at Guinness (the pic at the top is of me in front of the Guinness Waterfall - not actually a fall of the beer but the water they use for making the beer). After Guinness, Heidi and I tried to find the Kilmainham Gaol without any luck. We ended up just walking around for a few hours in a weird part of town instead. However, I did get this picture from the adventure so it was worth it.... this is for you Mom:



Our third day in Ireland, we decided to go on a guided bus tour. We booked it last minute and I'm so glad we did. We had to get up early to get to the bus but it was so worth it. The tour guide was great. He was funny and professional and knowledge about everything. Heidi and I got to see parts of Ireland that we would not have been able to if we hadn't done this tour. We went to a place called Avoca where there was a weaving mill. Unfortunately it was a Sunday so the weavers were not there but it was still neat to see how complicated and how much work goes into making things like blankets and scarves and sweaters. Heidi and I both got a scarf here. Here's a picture of some of the machinery:



I have to be sure to say that everyone thought we were silly for visiting the UK in February but we were in Ireland for four days and it did not rain once while we were there. Same with Scotland, where we stayed for four days as well. We actually experienced great weather. I should also add that before the weaving mill in Avoca, our group stopped at Dun Laoghaire which many of you may remember from the movie "P.S. I Love You". It really is a beautiful place and the weather was really great that day as you can see in the picture:



Our fabulous tour guide then took us to a place called Glendalough Valley. It was a monastic village or something like that way back when. It's basically an old old old graveyard with lots of super old tombstones and ruins of churches. There was an old stone there with a cross carved into it that used to be a place of sanctuary. Anyone who touched this stone was considered "safe" in Glendalough. See me touching the stone below and a picture of some of the tombstones:






After Glendalough we went to another great spot. Supposedly it "never snows in Ireland", as our guide told us over and over, but there had apparently been tons of snow all over the week before we were there. I'm glad we chose the week we did. There was still a little bit of snow but we were able to drive. Anyways, we went to a huge waterfall up in the hills, where there were lots and lots of sheep. It was a beautiful view.:



Our guide also mentioned a bar called "The Brazen Head" where the vikings sat and drank beer in in 1198. It is the oldest pub in Europe. Heidi and I were intrigued so we decided to check it out that night. It was really fun. There was a great live Irish band and we had fun dancing and singing along to the Irish songs. We met some other Americans there and the walls had bills (as in money) plastered all over it. Most of the bills were American one dollar bills but there was quite an assortment of other currency from all around the world:



The next day we had some time to kill before catching our flight to Ediburgh, Scotland. Heidi and I decided to pass on the Jameson Whiskey tour since it was still early in the morning and instead went in search of the Kilmainham Gaol again. This time we managed to find it and I'm glad we did. It was an enjoyable experience. It was a little depressing because the tour talked a lot about the troubles Ireland went through and the people who were treated so horribly in the jail. The conditions were unimaginable. I was cold enough with all my layers on just touring the place, I can't imagine what it would be like having to live in the tiny freezing cold cells with barly any food and no warmth or bedding. Here's a picture of the main holding area:



Later, we caught our flight to Ediburgh. I have to say that I can't really decide if I liked Ireland or Scotland better. Both were so great and the people were so friendly and helpful. It was more like home than any other place I've been to so far in Europe. We got in late to our hostel, which was about half an hour from the center of the city. Luckily there was a shuttle to and from the hostel every hour and we managed to make it just on time! This was another really great hostel. We shared a room with six other occupants for the first night. That first night we met some people from Liverpool, England who were roofers working in Edinburgh during the week and staying at the hostel and who returned home for the weekends. We also met an Australian guy who was a worker for the hostel and he ended up being really impressed with Heidi and I because we tried some Vegemite he had and we actually likd it! He was so impressed that he gave us a jar! (which is a really rare thing for an Aussie to do apparently). Here we are taking a bite out of our Vegemite toast:



We woke up really really early the next morning because we had another tour scheduled for Scotland, which was supposedly similar to the one we took and enjoyed in Ireland. We got ready but missed the shuttle that runs to and from the hostel and ended up calling a cab. Unfortunately, the cab driver didn't know where he was going. And we missed the tour. Since we could not get refunded and we had already paid, we decided to stay another few days in Edinburgh instead of leaving for Dusseldorf in the morning. So we rescheduled our flights and did the tour the next day. It was really great, too. We had another fabulous tour guide. Our group wasn't as large this time (only 9 people instead of the 15 or so we had in Ireland) but the trip was longer. We went all over Scotland. Up into the highlands and to many different lochs. Most importantly though, and honestly, probably the main reason we stayed the extra days to do the tour, we went to the Loch Ness - home of the Loch Ness Monster named Nessie. This has always been a life goal of mine and I am so proud that I was there. I didn't see Nessie, unfortunately, but I took some great pictures and had so much fun. The Loch Ness was a huge lake with really dark water. The boat wasn't running this time of year so we couldn't go out onto the water but it was still really great.
Heidi and I in the Highlands of Scotland:




Heidi trying to help me get away from the grasp of the Loch Ness monster that was dragging me in:



Since we ended up being in Scotland from Monday through Friday, we had a few days to explore the city of Edinburgh. It is probably one of the most visually pleasing cities I've been to. The architecture is great and the buildings look so old and majestic. There's a castle right in the middle of the city looming on a hill above. We ended up in another weaving mill and had an opportunity to get our picture taken wearing traditional Scottish outfits and holding swords... needless to say we took it. I took a picture of the picture because it's pretty funny. Heidi and I came up with the pose ourselves ... I'm not really sure why .... :



Also, we tried some of the traditional Scottish meal called Haggis.... which is actually sheep lungs, I believe. I'm not a picky eater but I really was not a fan.



Here's a picture of the castle overlooking the city. Also, in our ramblings around the city, we happened to run into the Elephant House - also known as the place where J.K. Rowling began writing the Harry Potter books. I should mention that we also saw the school, which looks like a mini castle, which was the inspiration for the Hogwarts school in the books.





One more story before I stop this massive post. One of the nights we were in Edinburgh, we got invited to attend one pound drink nights at a bar downtown. We went and ended up waiting in line for a good half hour before we actually got in. But while in line, we made friends with four or five Americans going to school there for the semester. We hit it off with them and had a lot of fun!

I will have to write about our trip to Dusseldorf and our Karnival experience later because this is long enough as it is!

Down By the Banks of the Hanky Panky...

So last week, we had amazing weather here in CH. It was relatively warm (about 10 degrees celsius) for the majority of the week, as you can tell by the picture above. Well, all this week it has been snowing like crazy. Boo! I thought that we were through with winter and last week got my hopes up. However, nature decided to crush them again. I guess, on the bright side of things, the snow is melting faster than it used to.

As of tomorrow evening though, what do I care? I will be enjoying Irish weather with the excitement of looking forward to traveling on to Scotland and then Dusseldorf, Germany. The kids start their "sports break" next week. It is another two week long vacation from school and kindergarten. My family will be leaving on Saturday for a week of skiing and snowboarding fun so Heidi and I decided to fulfill our desire of visiting some of the UK. We will be in Dublin for three nights, Edinbourgh for 2 nights, and then Dusseldorf for the rest of the week. Why Dusseldorf? you might ask. Well, my friend Ali is an au pair there and I've been really wanting to visit her. Next week is the beginning of "Fasnacht" or Carnival, which is kind of like a big Mardi Gras celebration here. They have a huge festival in the city of Dusseldorf where everyone dresses up and drinks a bunch of beer. In Luzern and Basel (CH) there are apparently festivals similar to the one in Dusseldorf, which would have been fun to visit since it would be in Switzerland. But then again, I really have been wanting to get up to Dusseldorf and see Ali so it should be a fun fun fun time.

Last week, I finally saw the movie "Twilight". It just came out in theaters here, even though it's been out in theaters for months now in the States. Other than that, I had a pretty chill weekend. I did have a little confrontation with Jana about some issues I've been having here. It was to the point where I was actually looking for a new family. After the talk, I felt a little better and decided to continue here for another month or two at least with the Bergers.

Today the kids and I made butter cookies, heart-shaped of course, for Valentine's Day. It's definitely not as big a thing here as it is in the States. The kids didn't know what it was. I guess they don't have parties or hand out candy to all the kids at school. But Sanja is taking some cookies to her friends in Kindergarten tomorrow because of my explanation of what you do on Valentine's day. Jaime recently received a love letter from one of his classmates. I can't remember exactly what it said but it was something along the lines (in German) of, "Dear Jaime, I miss you and your kiss..." Maybe it should, but it definitely doesn't surprise me that Jaime has been kissing other seven year old girls. He didn't seem embarrassed at all by the note and actually kept it with him during the week. Ahhh, young love. Speaking of, I got a package in the mail last week from Cody. It was a Wii game, Mario Kart. Since this was my favorite N64 game, I was pretty stoked. And the kids were almost as excited. Needless to say we've been playing it quite a bit this last week.
Below are some cute pictures of the kids over the last week. Nick is a monkey on a tree in their sweet treehouse, Sanja created a "tiger" out of dried tree needles (she was soooo proud of this), and another picture of Sanja coming out of the fort she created.







Well, I am off to pack for my fun-filled, action-packed, week and a half of traveling the world!

Chewy's Birthday Today!

I'm glad that January is finally over. And I get to look forward to the fact that February is a short month. I have now been here officially for over five months. Only seven more months to go...yay... Also, don't forget to say Happy Birthday to Chewy today, it's her one year mark with me! So last week, I had some free time Monday afternoon. After letting the kids play the Wii for a little while, I announced I was going into Zurich. Nick surprised me by asking if he could go with me. I didn't mind him coming along because I was just doing some errands like picking up some makeup and looking for a book. He went and asked his mom who said yes. This was a different experience for me because I really haven't been many places alone with the kids outside of Maur. Nick thought it was really fun riding the bus and train. It was actually a sunny day outside so the weather was not an issue. We hung out along the Bahnhofstrasse (one of the main shopping streets) and in the hauptbahnhof (main train station) for an hour or so. I picked up the things I wanted and we headed home. It was nice having Nick with me because it reminded me of when I used to drag Isaac to places with me when I had to run errands. It was a good day until I got home. I walked into my room and immediately noticed that 2 multi-packs of gum that were sent to me from the States were missing. And a large bag of gummi bears, also from the States. And a sucker that was given to me for my birthday. Oh and a large box of Sprungli chocolates (the really expensive fancy Swiss kind) was also missing. I knew at once that Sanja and Jaime had come up to my room, YET AGAIN, to steal these. I have been having problems with this lately. Sanja has been stealing whole packs of gum from me (which is really expensive here) and Jaime has been known to steal candy from my room as well. This is why my mom sent me these things from the States in the first place. Of course, I asked Jaime and Sanja about it and they both denied denied denied! Obviously, they had taken this stuff but they were fervently lying to my face about it! I was so mad and eventually found the evidence (empty wrappers) in the large room upstairs. I again, tried talking to them about it and explaining (for the third or fourth time) that lying is not ok, nor is stealing from me. But they still both started yelling at me that they did not take anything. The week progressed as usual. I had a box of cake mix and frosting that my mom sent me for my birthday that I decided to make with the kids on Friday. They helped me with the ingredients and the stirring and, of course, the licking of utensils. When the cake was baked and cooled, Jaime and Nick helped me with the frosting. They actually did a pretty good job, I didn't really have to help them much. For the final touch, we added sprinkles and voila! our snowman shaped cake was created! I asked them if they wanted to cut it up and eat it then or wait until Mami and Papi got home to show them first. The kids hesitated but eventually decided to wait to show Mami and Papi. They were supposed to be home at 19:00. I got a call at 20:00 from Christian asking if it was ok for him and Jana to stay and "have one more drink". Exact quote, mind you. Obviously, all I could say was yes, although I was planning on going to meet Amanda and Heidi. I figured one more drink meant another hour at the most. So I put the kids to bed and read for a little while. Around 21:30 or 22:00 I eventually went upstairs. By this time it was too late to try to catch a bus to Heidi's since it would take me about an hour and a half to get there. I was annoyed to say the least. I just decided to watch a movie and listen for them to come in, which had to be soon. So at 1:45 AM, I hear Jana and Christian come in. No phone call, no text, nothing, since the call at eight asking if it was ok to stay for one more drink. I felt pretty used at this point. And the kids went to bed without even trying their cake since they wanted to wait for their parents to see their work. The next day, I went to meet Heidi at the Hauptbahnhof for our trip to Mulhouse, France. This is a two hour train ride from Zurich and it's just on the other side of the border from Basel, Switzerland. We arrived in the early afternoon and just walked around. It's not a touristy place or anything so there weren't really any sites to see. We did do some shopping, though. The stuff outside of Switzerland is cheaper than buying it there, even with the franc/euro exchange. We ran into some sort of African wedding party when walking around Mulhouse. There was a crowd outside of a church and several drums and a guy with a really long and slender horn. He would wave this horn over the heads of the crowd and blow on it. I have a video of the horn, it's hard to see the dancers and drummers but at least you can hear the funny sound the horn made. It looked like a cool party, there was dancing around and good music. It was funny because we had several people come up to Heidi and I and say something in French, which we figured they were asking us what was going on. We didn't know either and none of the people knew how to speak English because they just walked away after we said we didn't speak French. We have this happen to us a lot. After hanging out a bit we went back to Basel and got some coffee. We ended up going back to my house to get ready to go out to an Irish pub we visited last week. It was pretty late by the time we went out, and there weren't as many people in the pub as there had been last week. We tried another bar in a different area of Zurich and headed back to Heidi's house on the night train. Below and above are a few pictures of the kids with the cake we made. Also, there's a picture of Nick in his robot costume he made and Sanja, well, being Sanja.

Some more reasons why not to have children

The last few weeks with the kids have involved the usual craziness. Last week, I worked quite a few more hours than normal but although I was scheduled to work on a Saturday night, Jana and Christian decided to stay home so I ended up with the night off. About a week or two ago, I was in charge of taking Jaime to the doctor. He had stitches in one of his fingers because that weekend he had cut it on a mixing blade. Probably trying to lick off whatever was being mixed. I am just glad that he did not do it when I was there because I get very nauseous around too much blood. Anyways, my job was to take him to the doctor for the removal of the stitches. I have to admit I was a little nervous because, as I said, I get have been known to get pretty sick when it comes to things like that. I was really hoping I wouldn't faint in front of the three kids while watching the stitches being pulled out and I'm happy to say that I did not.
However, the whole situation leading up to the actual arrival at the doctor's office was enough to make me feel sick. As usual, the kids and I finished lunch and I had to get them all ready to go. Sanja was taking forever to put on her jacket and shoes so I was helping her when Nick asked me for the key to unlock the car. I gave it to him and finished up with Sanja. Upon approaching the car however, Nick let me know that he dropped the key somewhere on the ground right outside the door of the van. Ok, well shouldn't be that hard to find then, right? WRONG! The kids and I searched under the car, around the car, in the car, all around the house and driveway, and no key to be found. I asked Nick if he was sure that he had dropped the key right around here. He assured me that he dropped it right outside the door and showed me the spot. Well, no key was to be found. By this time we were ten minutes behind. I started freaking out a little because this was the only key I had to the car and Jaime had to get to his appointment. I was just about to give up and make the call of shame to Jana, when I picked up Nick's hat that was lying on the seat of the car. And what do you know? Out fell the stupid key. Eventually we made it to the doctor's office just a few minutes late.

Last week, I returned from Vienna with some presents my mom had sent with Abbi for my kids. This included these 3D puzzles for each of them, a Muppets movie, and a princess tiara and chapstick for Sanja. They were super excited and Sanja and Jaime wanted to do their puzzles right away. Hers was a butterfly and his was a tiger. I have a picture of Sanja with her completed butterfly below. There is also a picture of Jaime with his completed Tiger above. And me wearing Sanja's princess crown while holding her butterfly (not my idea).






Last week, I had a sort of reviewal of things here with Jana and Christian. There have been some issues lately between mostly Jana and me. I think that these are largely due to the very different personalities we have. I'm hoping that the talk will prove to be productive.