So, this is my last blog ever! It's hard to believe, but this is my last week in Switzerland. I'm leaving here on Saturday and going to the Intermenno conference in the Netherlands. On Tuesday, most of the other trainees will be flying back to Canada, but I'll meet my family at the airport and stay here for another week and a half with them. So, my time here is short and not-so-short at the same time, depending on how you define "here". To be honest, I have been counting down the days until I leave for the conference, and I'm relishing the fact that I only have to work three more hours.

But before I get into reminiscing about the past six months, I'll catch up on what I've been doing since my last blog. I had my last Sunday at Schaenzli, which which actually pretty disappointing because most of the people that I wanted to say goodbye to weren't there. Because I've taken most of my vacation time in July, I haven't been to church or youth group hardly at all this month. It was nice to spend vacation in my last month, but at the same time it was too bad not to see a bunch of people from church again. I can't remember when my last time at youth group was, because I either haven't been around or didn't want to go golfing/jogging/some other activity in Swiss German that I didn't understand. Since school ended at the end of June, youth group has been on the holiday program which didn't interest me much.

This past weekend I went to Paris to meet Leslee. She was in Senegal for SST, then in the Czech Republic for a violin camp, and came to Paris a few days before her flight back to the States. It was really hot in Paris, but we had a good time and I'm glad I got to see her before she went back. Unfortunately, her flight was overbooked and she couldn't fly home with the rest of her SST group. To my knowledge, she flew home a day later, and I'm hoping everything worked out for her.

So, now all of my vacation time is over with, as is most of my year. I can still clearly remember riding the train to my first placement, but by now it doesn't feel like yesterday. I was for some crazy reason afraid of riding the train, which is a feeling so foreign I can barely remember it. Overall I have had a good year, but I am not looking forward to the sick feeling that comes when your life abruptly ends and picks up somewhere entirely different. I prefer subtler transitions.

As for my last few days, I have to work three hours tomorrow and then I have the rest of the day off. That means I'll be washing and packaging lettuce or radishes for the last time ever. In the afternoon I'm planning on cleaning up, packing, and finishing some details, and in the evening Elizabeth and I are going swimming because we have free passes to the pool that we got from the Gemeinde when we registered to live here and we haven't used them yet. Friday is Switzerland's national holiday. And on Saturday I leave in the morning.

Last week I went to Copenhagen, Denmark and Vienna, Austria for vacation. I was in Denmark with Jessica Falk, another trainee, and in Austria we met up with two other trainees, Nikki and Elizabeth. I posted pictures here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=48776&l=6b391&id=645732058

I took the night train to Copenhagen and met Jess there. The first thing we did was change money. Danish krones are worth about 4 krones to the dollar, so when I changed money, I got over a thousand krones. Weird feeling! The prices are equivalent to any other European country (possibly higher, even; Scandanavia is generally expensive) so we weren't actually saving money with the good exchange rate. So while we were there, we worked on our mental math skills by dividing everything by 7 (because 7 krones = 1 Euro) to figure out how much things cost. It's weird paying for things there; we paid 35 krones for coffee and I spent 200 krones on a pair of boots, which seems expensive, but actually isn't.

We were in Copenhagen for four days, and we walked around the city, saw some sights and buidings, and did some shopping. I've been in a lot of European cities, and Copenhagen is mostly a big city, good for shopping and expensive restaurants. It's on the river, which is very pretty, and Jess and I spent a lot of time sitting by the river.

We stayed in a youth hostel in Copenhagen, and it was dorm-style with 36 beds in one room. There were dividers between every four beds, so there was some privacy, but we could still here whenever someone came in, when people were talking loudly at 3am, and when someone was snoring. All of those things happened our last night, evenly spaced so that as soon as the snorer stopped, then loud people came in, so by the time we left the hostel we were pretty happy to be leaving. There were only two showers, two sinks, and two toilets for the whole room, too.

We left Copenhagen on Thursday morning and traveled 11 hours on the train to Ingolstadt, where Nikki's placement is. We met the family and ate ice cream, because the family has an ice cream shop. It is some of the best ice cream I have ever eaten! We got there late, and we were glad to sleep in nice beds, and we left early the next day. We spent five hours on the train the next day to get to Vienna. While in Vienna, we saw the sights and buildings that Vienna is famous for, and we walked around and shopped. It was good to talk to other trainees and it was fun to hang out with them. We stayed in a pension in Vienna, which is more like a hotel than a hostel, so it was nicer than the hostel we stayed at in Copenhagen. We had our own room and our own shower.

On Monday Jess and I left a little before noon, and I had a 10-hour train ride back to Basel. It wasn't boring though, because I had to switch trains three times and each time I nearly missed my train. I had short connection times, and the second train was late. The third train waited on the second, and if it hadn't I would have missed it. But then, of course, the third train was late, and we got to the station a minute before my fourth train left. If we had been later, I don't think the train would have waited, and then I would have gotten home two hours later than expected. I'm happy that I made it there as planned!

The vacation went really fast, even though I was away for over a week. Since I've been back, I've been working again, helping out on the farm, and we're currently redoing the living room. We've already scraped all of the paint off the walls, and they ordered a new sofa which is coming on Monday. I'm curious to see what the sofa will look like; the last one was purple.

Today I was at Schaenzli for the last time. I only have two weeks left, and I'm already starting to count lasts! Time is going quickly. I know I'll be sad to leave, but at the same time, I'm very happy to see my family again, and I've begun to look forward to going to college and starting a new chapter in my life. One of my goals in this year was to have a break before going to college, and now I feel like I'm ready to go, and that makes me happy.

I tried to post pictures relating to this blog, but couldn't, so here's the link for the pictures on facebook.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=46006&l=2ab80&id=645732058
You can click on the photos to see larger versions and read the captions.

The EM came to an end this past weekend. Sunday was the final, Germany against Spain, and Spain won. But the previous week, Basel hosted a couple of the games, and consequently, Basel went crazy on the game nights. I was in Basel the day of the Holland-Russia game. Even in the morning, the city was filled with orange, crazily dressed fans. Elizabeth and I were in Basel for most of the day, and as it turned into evening, the city got steadily more packed. I heard that there were supposed to be 100,000 fans there, but I have no idea if that's actually a good estimate. There were a lot of big screens throughout the city, but it was still hard to get to a place where you could see the screens. It was hard to walk back to the train stations (none of the intercity trams were running, because of the crowds) because of the massive crowds of people. I can't say that I like being in places that are so full, but it definitely was an experience. Elizabeth and I hardly saw any of the first half, and I left at halftime, and got home in time to see the last seconds of the game because there was a half hour overtime. Elizabeth stayed for the entire game, and she got home at 4:00 in the morning. I'm glad I didn't stay so long. Russia won, which was a big disappointment to the majority of the fans who turned up for the game. I'm not sure how many of the orange fans were actually Dutch; I think there were a lot of Germans and Swiss who dressed up orange, despite not actually being Dutch. This includes Elizabeth and I :)

Sunday was the final, which, sadly, is the only game that I actually watched. A lot of the games have had overtimes and last-minute goals, so I was pretty sad that this one didn't. I was also sad that Germany didn't win, because I was in Germany.

Debbie knows a choir director from Oregon, who brought his choir to Europe on tour, and they stayed with us last weekend. Debbie was their tour guide of sorts, and three of them stayed at our house. It was honestly a lot of fun to have them around. Two of them were interested in the Intermenno program, one of whom was sure that this is what she wants to do. I was happy to tell them all about the program. Elizabeth and I hung out with them a lot throughout the weekend. There are only 12 in this traveling choir, but they are one of the most amazing choirs I have heard, especially for being only a high school choir. After almost a year of hanging out almost exclusively with Europeans (except for other trainees), it was interesting to hang out with Americans again. It's interesting to see the differences between the American youth and European youth. European youth astound me; there are 17-and 18-year-olds, and even 16-year-olds, that I can hardly believe are younger than me. With the Americans, I could tell, which is meant in no offense, merely that I can tell which culture I've done most of my growing up in. I will say, though, that I have a bit more respect, and possibly awe, for the way that Europeans seem to grow up.

That weekend the choir from Schaenzli had its final concert. This is the choir that I sing in. Unfortunatly, I don't have any recordings of the songs, which is sad, especially for the Swiss German songs. I thought of it too late :(

This past weekend, I went to Halle, Germany, to visit the youth group from First Mennonite. They were there for a week and a half doing service. I think they had a good time, but I was with them the last weekend that they were here (they left on Monday) and I think they were pretty tired and ready to go home. It was a bit weird to see them, an odd familiarity and a reminder of home, a bunch of people and an establishment that have been absent from my life for 10 months. Honestly, I'm happy to witness the ways that I've changed and grown away, even if they didn't notice. Nancy told me that I look exactly the same, which is probably true. She did also say that I have probably changed on the inside, but I doubt anything was particularly noticed in this weekend. The experiene with my own youth group and with talking to Debbie's choir was entirely different. My prediction is that none of the youth group will come to Europe as a trainee, or as anything else, probably. I find that a bit disappointing, but I have to remember that I chose to leave, myself.

I arrived on Friday evening, and on Saturday we got up early and went to Weimar. Craig, who is from Goshen, was our tour guide, and he gave us a tour through the city. He was a history major, and gave us a lot of really interesting information. I've been to a lot of European cities, but usually without a tour guide to tell me all the interesting things about the place, and this was a really nice change. In the afternoon, we went to Buchenwald, a concentration camp. I haven't been to a concentration camp before, and it was a neccassary though depressing experience. It was amazing; the camp is actually build in a very beautiful location, on top of a hill in isolation, with a beautiful view overlooking other German towns. Sometimes if you're in a place where you know lots of people have died, or significant violence has happened, you feel a sickness overcoming you. I seem to recall this feeling from somewhere, but I can't remember where or when. Anyway, I felt none of it in Buchenwald. In fact, it was hard for me to fathom the atrocities that happened in such a peaceful-feeling place. Of course, that changed when we went into the buildings. Most of the barracks have been destroyed, leaving an open area that stretches for most of the camp. However, there are two buildings left inside the camp; one houses the museum, and the other is the “doctor's” office and crematory. There are some pretty grotesque things in there, but you can read about them in the captions of the pictures. And, just a note; Buchenwald was originally not designed to be a death camp. Instead, it was a work camp, though the point of the camp was to break the inmates' will, and death as a punishment and a result of starvation or being overworked was not avoided. As the Nazis started losing WW2, and losing some of the other death camps, the inmates from those camps were send to Buchenwald to be murdered. Also, the entrance to the camp is still intact, including the cells used to imprison the most “dangerous” of the inmates.

On Monday, the youth group left, and I went to Berlin for half a day, before catching a 7-hour train to Basel. I actually wasn't very excited about going to Berlin, and felt like going straight back to Basel, but now I am so glad that I went to Berlin. It was a beautiful day, and despite what my tour book said, it actually is nice to walk around to see the sights. Most of the sights that I wanted to see were in close proximity, so walking wasn't a problem. Plus, there are good sign everywhere, to point tourists to the main attractions. I saw the Brandenburg Tour, Unter den Linden, the Potsdamer Platz, the remaining portion of the wall, the former Checkpoint Charlie, the Topography of Terror, and the Jewish Memorial. It was all fascinating and thought-provoking. There are loads of history encased in all of the sights, and there were many places where one could stop and read through history and stories for hours on end. And I was only in a small part of the city. The highlights were seeing the original wall and the Jewish Memorial. That's a memorial that you've probably heard of; the one with blocks, that you descend into and are suddenly lost. I was told that the memorial is designed to reflect how racism works; it starts out as little, and you slowly get absorbed in it, until you're in over your head. It's a powerful memorial. Overall, Berlin is definitely a city that I would want to go back to.

From last Thursday to Tuesday I was in Northern Ireland, visiting Caitlyn Reames, whom I met last summer through the !Explore program. She's living there until the end of June with RAD. She works at a YMCA and lives in a house with other volunteers at the YMCA. She lives in Newcastle, which is on the beach, and the house she lives in is across the road from the beach. The beach is really gorgeous, and the weather was actually really nice while I was there. My pictures are posted at:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=43462&l=dfd78&id=645732058 You can click on the photos to view them larger.

I flew to Dublin from Basel, and it was my first time flying by myself. It actually wasn't that difficult, but while I was waiting to check in for my first flight, the woman in front of me had some issues. Ryanair is a cheap airline, but they make their money off of people whose luggage is too heavy. If it's over 15 kilograms, you have to pay 24 francs for each extra kilogram. The woman in front of me had 6 extra kilograms, but she refused to pay. She had two children, and claimed the extra kilograms were for their luggage, even though it says that no pooling is allowed. She made a big deal about it, and they had to call the police. I don't know what I expected the police to do, I guess drag her away or something, but they didn't. They talked with her, and I think it was something about their authority that seemed to calm her down. She was still unhappy, and so they went to the side (out of line) and talked with her. I saw her on the plane later, so I guess they worked something out. I was impressed with the police; they handled the situation very well. They were mediators, and not forceful at all.

There were two other people that I saw on the plane going to Dublin that I also saw coming back to Basel. One was a woman who spoke English to her daughter, but her daughter spoke French to her. The other was an American-sounding couple.

I flew into Dublin and took a bus to Newcastle. Apparently they don't really have trains in Ireland. It surprised me, which I find amusing. In Switzerland (and Germany, as well) the public transportation is really good, with trains, buses, and trams, and they're all clean. In the States there really isn't much publin transportation at all unless you're in a big city. I guess I'm used to Switzerland, though, because I couldn't believe that there wasn't a train I could take. I was surprised, too, that one of the buses wasn't very clean. In Switzerland everything is clean.

Newcastle is a cute little town, and I had fun exploring it. There are a bunch of cool little shops, including a used bookstore where I found a hardback copy of Harry Potter #6, which is a book I've been looking for. I have the 7th, but I can't read it until I've read the 6th. I was pretty excited about getting that book! We met a bunch of Caitlyn's friends, and one of them who had been in the States told me that everything is too commercialized in the States. In Ireland they have a bunch of small shops that differ from town to town.

Newcastle is on the beach, and so we spent time on the beach, too, except it was pretty windy, and the wind was a bit cold. Despite the fact that I bought my own book, I read a book that I found at Caitlyn's house. It's called Lords of the North by Bernard Cornwell, and it's a really good book. I read the whole thing over the weekend. The people in Caitlyn's house are from a lot of different countries, including Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, the US, and Ireland. The book belonged to one of the Germans, and I was pretty impressed at the level of English that he could understand in that book. I learned from the Czech guy that there's no word for “the” in the Czech language. One of the Irish people taught me how to play pool.

I learned about some specifically Irish things, like the tea. They mix milk in with it, just like you would with coffee. I thought that sounded a little gross, but it was actually quite good. Caitlyn told me that Irish are apparently obsessed with tea and biscuits. I also ate fish and chips, which is a British thing, but Northern Ireland is part of Great Britain. Caitlyn told me, though, that when she visited Great Britain, they wouldn't accept her Northern Ireland pounds; she had to get them changed into English pounds, even though they're worth exactly the same. She said because of all the fighting in Northern Ireland, Great Britain is a little hesistant to claim Northern Ireland, and they don't really belong to Ireland either.

Speaking of violence, there wasn't any that I witnessed. I think the violence has died down a bit since the last couple of years, because it used to be a lot worse. Caitlyn said that when she was staying in Belfast (I think it was Belfast) she was warned to be careful about what you say about your faith. While I was there visiting, one of the groups (of kids) from the YMCA had to be escorted back to the YMCA by police. I don't know what that was about, but it sounded a little scary.

Back in Switzerland, the European cup began on the 7th of June. Basel is one of the hosting cities, and everything is revolving around the Euro 08 (pronounced oyro nool-acht; it doesn't sound as good in English). Unfortunately, Switzerland has lost both of its games so far. One of their best players was injured in the first game, so it looks like they have it pretty tough now. (It's soccer, by the way, and they're obsessed with it.) Yesterday at dinner we were talking about popular sports, and how soccer isn't popular in the States, but baseball, basketball, and football are. Andi tried to have me explain the rules of football, since they don't have it here, but it definitely didn't work very well, because I barely know any of the rules. We established that it's sort of similar to rugby but not really.

	This is my room. My parents asked for the picture, which I didn't post for awhile. But here it is. Notice the bed cover; it's just one piece, with an outside cover that gets thrown in the wash. This is a normal European bed cover; they don't have layers of sheets like Americans do. This particular one is a winter one, and there are thinner ones for summer. They're actually really warm, despite being only one piece. In the part of my room that you can't see in this picture, there's a sink and a window.
	On Sunday Andi, Max, another lady named Barbara, and I went flying. Andi has some sort of a pilot's license and we went flying over Basel, Fullinsdorf, and some other small towns. Max is Margret's nephew who spent two weeks here because he's interested in farming. The other woman, Barbara, won this plane ride in a raffle. This is the view from the plane.
	We flew right over our house.
	The view of the fields was gorgeous.
	This is the Rhein.

I'm in the choir at Schaenzli, and on Sunday we sang in the morning service. We had Communion, and we sang a song in English. Our concert is at the end of June, and we've been practicing a bunch of cool songs for it.

Today Margret and I made strawberry-rhubarb jam. I really like homemade jam, and I figured it would be really hard to make. To my surprise, it wasn't at all!

We had pancakes for supper once. Pancakes are strictly American, and maple syrup is Canadian, so Max and Matthias (two boys who live with us, both to learn about farming - Max in the nephew and Matthias is the student) weren't familiar with it. Max has never eaten maple syrup before, and Matthias has never eaten peanut butter. In Europe, "syrup" means a concentrated juice (from rhubarb, cherry, etc) that you mix with water and then drink, so Matthias tried it with maple syrup. I don't think it tasted very good.

The first cucumbers are ready now, and this week we've been planting even more. The tomatoes are about to start, too. We still do a lot of radishes, and Andi told me that every week we produce 200,000 radishes, equally a total of 10 million radishes each year. Radishes are produced year-round in the greenhouses.

Last weekend Elizabeth and I went to Zurich, to the Flea Market. It was really cool, kind of like a bunch of garage sales all in the same place. The prices were really cheap, but for buying clothes, you don't get to try it on before you buy it. In Zurich, the dialect is slightly different than in Basel, and they say the word for "five" kind of like "foyf," which is almost more similar to English than to German (fuenf).

I wrote earlier something about how the traffic lights here don't change directly from red to green, they have yellow in the middle. This week I decided that's so that people like Andi have time to start the engine before the light changes to green. Gas is expensive here, and Andi tries to save gas by turning the engine off at traffic lights. I always thought that starting the engine takes extra gas anyway. But I don't know.

I also decided that Swiss people must be really good at remembering names. In general, when you greet people, you always say there name. Every morning, Margret says to me "Guten Morgen, Rebecca" and she always says my name. When I met Barbara, the woman we went flying with, we introduced ourselves, and when she said goodbye, she said my name again. At youth group, people usually go around the circle and green everyone who's already there (with a handshake or hug) and say the person's name. Even people that have only met me once and I don't know well will still remember my name. I think Swiss must just have good memories!

	Last Sunday I went on a biking tour with my family. I didn't know how far we would go when we started, which was a really good thing. First we biked to the place where we buy tractors. They were having an open house because it was the business's 25th anniversary. Then we continued on through a bunch of towns (or around a bunch). It was up and down for the first half, because there's a lot of that in Baselland. This is the view from the top of some hill on our bike tour.
	We also visited some people we don't know very well, but might do business with. This is Martina with a pet turtle.
	Then we biked to the old and beautiful city of Rheinfelden, where we ate a pizza supper. After that, we headed home. We biked 41 kilometers (25.5 miles). It was a bit difficult, but definitely beautiful. As I said, I'm glad I didn't know what I was getting into.
	The Rhein, close to where we ate in Rheinfelden.
	On Sunday, I went to Debbie's house for the afternoon. We went biking again (though not near as much as last week!). This is the view from where Debbie and I biked to. After sailing down the hill, we relaxed by watching a movie.
	This is from Banntag, May 1, which I wrote about awhile ago. They're shooting their guns, a tradition on Banntag. The hats are a Banntag tradition, too.

Last Tuesday, youth group was small groups, and I went with Lynn, who also lives in Fullinsdorf. I really like this youth group, and I was impressed at how many people invited me to their small group. I was invited three times last week. Anyway, Lynn can't drived yet, so her father drove us. He was in Indiana 20 years ago. He was in Shipshewana, and mentioned eating at some Essenhaus place. I was astonished – I used to work there. I'm halfway across the world and somebody has heard of the Essenhaus! Lynn and her father were both interested in hearing about the Amish, too.

The weather has been really spectacular this week and last. I'd guess 70's pretty much every day, with clear skies and seldom rain. We've been eating outside a lot, and grilling a lot as well. They roast marshmallows occasionally, and the bag of marshmallows says “US specialty” or something like that on it. They've also made chocolate bananas, which is made by cutting a slit in the banana, sticking chocolate it, and putting it on the grill until the chocolate melts. We've grilled a lot of Wurst (sausage, except more like hot dogs, except a lot better), and we've made kabobs too. Once they made grilled cheese and told me that it was an Eschbach specialty. I was pretty amused at that. Debbie told me that although Swiss eat a lot of cheese, they don't usually grill it between two slices of bread. The grilled cheese did at least taste different than at home, because it was made with real Swiss cheese.

Since the weather is so nice outside, Margret and I cleaned the patio outside. How would an American clean a porch? I guess I expected to sweep it off, and brush the spider webs off the walls and the corners of the overhang. I can't quite imagine what else you could possibly need to do to a porch. I used an outdoor vacuum and vacuumed the porch. I also had a special tool to dig the crud out from inbetween the bricks (there are actually some gaps between them, in the corners). Then, we mopped the porch, with water and soap and a broom, and then put moss killer on the moss. “Like new!”, according to Margret.

This week, after a holiday on Monday, Matthias (the praktikum student who lives with us) came back after being away for 4 weeks at school. Margret's nephew Max also came today. He'll be here for two weeks, because he's interested in farming and will be working here for the next two weeks. When he met me, he talked to me in English because he knew I'm the trainee. Nicola and Martina were in the room too, and Nicola said, “She speaks German really well!” I love hearing things like that. It's such a confidence boost. At any rate, the house is pretty full and there were lots of people at the dinner table.

On Thursday I'm going to Langnau, Switzelrand, to see the Hesston choir sing. I'm excited!

I finally posted my Fullinsdorf pictures.  Here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38331&l=af97b&id=645732058

This Thursday was a holiday.  The first of May is always a holiday, and I think it's like Labor Day.  Thursday was also Fullinsdorf's Banntag, which is a day when people from the town walk around the town's borders.  Andi told me that it used to be that people would actually check the stones that mark the border to make sure they're in the right place, but they don't do that anymore.  It's traditional for the men to where hats with a certain flower stuck in it, and some men walk behind the rest of the people and shoot into the air every now and then.  There was a marching band, too.  There were two groups, so we didn't actually walk around the entire border of Fullinsdorf (thank goodness!).  It was long enough only doing half.  At the end we got free food, though. 

After that I went to Debbie's house and helped cook supper.  Elizabeth's parents are here visiting now, and they went to Debbie's for supper.  Thursday was their first day here.  Elizabeth was really excited about them coming, and I'm excited for when my family comes in August!

I went to youth group last Tuesday again.  It was kind of a game night, so I was a little wary about going because I'm not very fond of games, especially when they're not in English.  But it was actually a lot of fun.  The youth group leaders made up the game, and it was taped all over the floor.  We played in teams, and we had to answer questions and do random things.  It went kind of fast and was all in Swiss German.  I had a little trouble understanding it, but it was fun anyway.  Matthias, who is my ride to youth group, talked to me in English on the way there and back.  He was just on a mission program for two months, where he had to speak English, so he can speak it really well.

This week we planted the last of the tomatoes.  I like working with the vegetables, but planting tomatoes is my least favorite job.  It's in a greenhouse, and when the sun is shining, it gets extremely hot.  That paired with bending over to plant the tomatoes, and standing up too quickly, isn't very fun.  On the bright side, though, the weather here has been getting a lot nicer, and when you're not in a greenhouse, the sun feels really nice.

Last weekend I went to France and stayed with Jessica Goldschmidt, someone I met at youth group at Holee.  She grew up in France and still lives in France, but her mother is American and her father is Swiss.  She lives in the Alsace region of France, which traditionally has German influence.  She speaks English, French, and German.  She's a really great person and I had a great weekend with her.  On Saturday we went to a small, slightly touristy but very pretty town.  We drove through fields and fields of grapes, which was quite pretty, even though they're not green at this time of year.  We went to Koenigsburg, a large castle.  It is very well renovated and was amazing to walk through.  

For lunch we ate Flammekuchen, which is a typical food from Alsace.  It was so much fun to be there with Jess.  She was almost like a tour guide, and she speaks French, so she ordered all the food and asked all the questions.  In the evening, we went to her parents' farm for supper.  Her parents are also really cool people, and it was nice to speak English the whole weekend.  

On Sunday, I went to church at Schaenzli instead of going to Holee with Jess, because the sermon was in English.  The guest speaker was Ron Matthys, who is from Canada and works with MCC or something like it.  It was really nice to understand an entire sermon.  In the afternoon, I went back to Jess's along with three other people from youth group.  We played games and talked the whole afternoon.  It was a lot of fun.  We talked English most of the time.  Two of the girls, Corinne and Rahel (who are my ride to youth group) can both speak English very well.  The other girl, whose name is also Rahel, has only been taking English for half a year, so probably didn't understand much of what we said, but sometimes we said things in both English and German.  It was nice to speak English, and nice to switch from English to German so quickly and constantly.  When Rahel said she had only taken English for half a year, I thought she probably wouldn't understand anything, since half a year isn't very long.  Then I realized that I've been learning German for barely over half a year.  It's different than learning it in a classroom though.

A couple years ago there was a French exchange student at Bethany.  She was a year older than me, and so I didn't get to know her very well, but I remember her saying that she lived close to the Swiss and German borders.  I realized that she probably lives close to where I am now, but I could only remember her first name and didn't figure I'd find her anywhere.  I mentioned her to Jessica anyway, and she said, “Was her name Viviane?”  I was so surprised, because it turns out that Jessica's family and Viviane's family know each other pretty well.  Jessica called her house to see if she was there, but she wasn't because she's studying in a different part of France.  

I've started going to choir at Schaenzli.  This week we got new music.  There's a song in French, one in Russian, two African songs, and one Swiss German tongue twister.  It's quite a variety, and it's a bit difficult for me since I don't know how to pronounce most of the words.  We have one song in English, though we only get to sing two lines of the words.  

I went to youth group again on Tuesday.   They spoke in high German for me, which is much better than Swiss German, and when they were speaking in high German I actually understood a fair amount of what they were saying.  Not the whole time, though. 

My birthday was last week on Thursday.  I requested tacos for my birthday meal, which isn't a normal Swiss meal.  Margret and I made them together.  We even made the tortillas ourselves.  We also made a black forest cake.  Debbie, the committee member, and Elizabeth came over for supper.  It was great, though unfortunately, Martina and I were both sick during the night.  Andi got sick later, and the grandfather (who lives upstairs) was also sick.  Debbie and Elizabeth didn't get sick, and the grandfather hadn't eaten the food, so I don't think it was the food.  

Over the weekend the other two trainees in Switzerland came to visit, and all four of us stayed at Debbie's over the weekend.  We hung out in Basel on Saturday and then watched a movie, Sieben Zwerge, which is a German comedy.  We watched it with subtitles, though!  We went to church on Sunday and then watched a soccer game, which was the Basel team versus Bellinzona.  Naturally, we were cheering for Basel, and they won, 4-1.

On Monday I went to choir with Debbie.  I liked it a lot, and I think I'll keep going.  I've also been going to youth group.  Last Tuesday a choir from Minnesota gave a concert at Schaenzli (the church I attend).

Today is Martina's birthday.  She turned 12.  Oliver's birthday was a couple of weeks ago (he's now 9) and I think Nicola's is coming up too.  We made Gries for lunch and Cinque pi for supper, as well as a chocolate cake.  

I've been helping a lot in the vegetable garden.  I usually help in the mornings, with washing and packaging vegetables.  Today I also helped in the afternoon, planting tomatoes.  
  

Friday and Monday were holidays, and for Friday and Saturday Elizabeth and I went to Interlaken.  On Friday it was snowing in the morning and raining in the afternoon.  It was foggy and cold, and everything was closed because it was a holiday.  We walked around enough to get our shoes soggy, and then watched a movie in the afternoon.  Saturday was a lot nicer, with sunny, clear weather.  In the morning, we walked around Interlaken, took some pictures, and browsed in the stores downtown.  In the afternoon we went ice skating.  Interlaken has a bunch of activities that are available, like skiing, sky diving, etc.  We didn't do that, but we did manage to get one winter sport in! :)  While we were there, we cooked all of our own meals, too.

On Easter I went to church with the grandparents.  It was the first time I've been to their church, though I have been to the youth group before, so I know some people there.  It was interesting; Andi told me that ususally there are less people at church on Easter because so many people take short vacations because Friday and Monday are holidays.  Margaret's brother and his family stayed here over the weekend, and on Sunday afternoon we all went to see lions and tigers that are housed in Fullinsdorf.  I'm not entirely sure why they're there, or why it's legal, because it wasn't in a zoo, it looked pretty much like a farm.  The guy who owns them used to be in the circus.  Then we went to see some storks.  It's pretty cold right now, so it wasn't that fun to be outside.  The weather so far has been pretty mild, but there was snow this weekend.

Oliver's 9th birthday was on Tuesday.  He got a Lego police station that he's wanted for awhile, so he, Nicola, and Martina spent most of the day building it.  He got calls from relatives that live far away.  We sang Happy Birthday to him.  We sang it first in English, save “dear” which was “lieber” instead, and then we sang it in german.  The lyrics in German are: “Zum Geburtsday viel Gluck, zum Geburtstag viel Gluck, Zum Geburtstag liebe(r) (name), zum Geburtstag viel Gluck.”  I thought it was interesting because it my 7th grade introduction to German class, we tried to translate the lyrics of this song into German, which I don't think we did correctly.  I also think it's interesting that they sing it in English.  I've heard it in English other places too.  

This past weekend we had a lot of guests over.  On Saturday, we celebrated Shabbat, a Jewish tradition, at the Eschbach's with two guests from Israel who now live in Switzerland.  At supper, we read a bunch of readings and Bible verses about Shabbat.  On Sunday we had two families over for lunch.  It was a diverse group; there was a Bulgarian woman, an Austrian woman, two Swiss, a German, and me.

The kids' Easter vacation started this Monday, and they have at least a week off, maybe more.  On Monday Margaret, Martina, and Nicola left to visit Margaret's mother in Germany, and they were gone until Wednesday.  Since they were gone, I worked in the vegetable farm instead of in the house.  I actually really liked it.  The men work in the fields and the women work inside, washing and packaging the vegetables.  All of my jobs were easy, like putting plastic on boxes, labeling things, and putting packaged vegetables into boxes. 

On Tuesday I went to youth group again, which was small groups this time.  Last week Eveline invited me to go to her small group, so I did.  We made pizza and then played pool.  I've only played pool once before, but some of the other girls hadn't either.  I had fun, though they definitely overestimated my German abilities.  I'm glad when people don't translate things into English for me, but sometimes it can be really hard to understand. 

On the train on the way home, I met an American from Indiana, who is here on business.  He works for a pharmaceutical company that has a plant in Fullinsdorf.  He said he travels a lot with his job, but he seemed pretty exhausted, and he said that he had to work so much that he didn't have time to do much sightseeing in Switzerland.  I felt mildly sorry for him. 

I said before that the Eschbachs won't be getting a trainee next year.  That's not true, they are continuing the program.  Sorry for the misinformation.  

I think I already wrote about going to the youth group from Schaenzli.  On Friday, I went to a different youth group.  It's the youth group from the church that the grandparents go to.  I asked them about the youth group, and they set up a ride for me, with Rahel and Corinne Mueller.  I had a really good time at this youth group, too.  It's smaller, but they're really cool people.  There are a bunch of students from a Mennonite colony in Paraguay.  They're here studying theology.  There's also a girl who lives in France (she lives about 40 minutes away), but her mom is American and her dad is Swiss, so she speaks absolutely perfect American English, French, Swiss German, and German, though she claims that her German isn't perfect.  Her family has an interesting story.  Her grandparents are Mennonites, and moved to France from Switzerland to avoid serving in either military.  They made sure all of their children were born in Switzerland, but since they lived in France, they avoided participating in the military.  

At youth group, we watched a movie which is called “The Ride.”  I didn't necessarily understand it all (because it was in German), but I think it was really good, and worthy of recommendation.  We also sang “Happy Birthday” to someone.  I was the only one who sang “Happy Birthday;” everyone else sang “Happy Birsday.”

This week and last week we've been repainting the doors in the house.  But before painting, the old paint has to be removed.  Roland, a worker, and I (I've helped a little) use machines with sand paper on them to remove the old paint.  It makes an amazing amount of dust, that Margaret and I have been diligently cleaning up.  Today while removing the old paint, Roland and I wore masks over our mouths and noses to avoid breathing the dust, and I wore my glasses to keep the dust from getting in my eyes.  I wore an old shirt and a hat, too, because yesterday I was covered in dust after helping.  Some of the doors are done, though, and they look really good.  Also, Roland brought some of his German music, which is really cool.  If you want to listen to it, it's Annett Louisan.

Margaret is a good cook, and likes to try lots of different things, so we've been eating really interesting food, and I've been trying to write down recipes.  This week we made Spaetzli (homemade noodles) by hand, instead of with a machine.  The whole family claims the handmade ones taste better.  We have also eaten liver and lamb, which were both really good.  We also made fried eggplant.  Margaret was really surprised that I've never eaten eggplant before.  It was really good, and she said that sometimes she fries zucchini, too.  We also ate sauerkraut, which is surprisingly, one of my favorite German/Swiss foods.  I used to hate sauerkraut, but I really like it now.  It's especially good cooked with apple and ham pieces.  Last week, we ate spaghetti with a fork and a spoon, instead of with a knife.  Then we ate salad, and I caught myself wondering how I was going to eat the salad without a knife.  I'm very used to eating with both a fork and knife all the time.

One evening, I saw a fox, which really surprised me, but Andy said they're common around here.  

I called Matthias to get a ride to youth group, but he wasn't there, so I had to explain to his mom in German why I was calling.  I find it amusing, that after three years of Spanish, I was scared of calling a native Spanish speaker to arrange an interview.  Here, I talk to native German speakers all the time, including on the phone (even though that still isn't my favorite).  I went to youth group on Tuesday, with Matthias and Deborah, but neither of them actually went to youth group, so I was alone.  I was a little nervous, since Matthias and Deborah are the only people whose names I can remember.  But it was no problem.  I was there early, and talked to the people who were in charge of the evening (who are also youth).  One of them was in the States for I think only a couple weeks, but he can speak English really well.  He asked if I could understand Swiss German, to which I said no, and so both of them did their whole presentation in high German, for me.  I felt mildly bad, because it was still difficult for me to understand.  In youth group, they always do a 20-minute prayer with partners, which we did all in German, though I still prefer to pray in English.  After youth group was over, we stayed and talked, and I was talking to a girl named Evelyn, who thinks that my German is good, and she and another Matthias (whose name is the French version of Matthias, which I can neither spell nor pronounce) said that I don't even have much of an English accent.  I don't know if that's true, but it still made me happy, even though even I can tell when I get my words in the wrong order and say things incorrectly.

The dog, Fiona, barks at everything that goes by, but no longer barks at me, because she knows I live here.  Instead, she tried to get me to pet her.  I like her, a lot more than I like the cat, who has a tendency to eat whatever gets left on the counter, including meat and pizza.  We try to avoid that.  

I went to church on Sunday with Debbie, the Intermenno committee member who lives close to where I live.  She goes to Schaenzli, a Mennonite church.  I like this church and I think I will regularly go there.  On Tuesday, I went to the youth group from Schaenzli.  Margaret arranged my ride for me.  I went with Mathias, Damaris and Deborah Matter.  They're really nice and I had a good time at youth group.  It was odd, though; some people asked me who I knew at Schaenzli or why I was there.  I had to answer, well, I don't really know anyone, besides Debbie.  The people are nice, though.  In youth group, we all had to do an introducing-yourself thing.  We made a paper about ourselves that will get hung up.  At youth group I talked German to everyone, and they spoke German to me.  I talked with Deborah a lot, who is really nice.  On the way home, the five of us in the car talked English, because they like speaking English.  They can all speak English really well.

Today, in the morning, Margaret and I assembled a dresser.  In the afternoon, Nicola and I put together a desk.  The desk was a lot harder and took us all afternoon to finish.  But now it looks really nice, and even though it wasn't very complicated, I'm proud that we build it!

Last week Margaret and I went shopping in Germany.  The German border is really close, and Margaret can buy some things in Germany that aren't available in Switzerland.  She can also get the 19% tax back because she doesn't live in Germany. 

In Switzerland, there are two breaks during the day.  The first, at 9:00, is called a “snoonie” and the second, at 4:00, is called a “svierie.”

My favorite part of work is baking pies and cakes, which I seem to do often.  It's fun and I am definitely collecting new recipes.  I even made some bread.  Margaret makes sopf, a special kind of bread, every Saturday for Sunday morning.  Since I don't work on Saturdays, I haven't made any yet, but I intend to learn sometime. 

One thing that's interesting about being 18 is to see who uses “Sie” (the formal you) and who uses “du” (the informal) when talking to me.  Since I'm 18, I'm on the line between being a “child” (and being called du) and being an adult (being called Sie).  There was a cleaning-supplies salesman at our house, and he called me “Sie” whenever he talked to me, even though he is obviously older.  Margaret and I had to pick up the dresser that she bought, and when we met the woman, Margaret introduced me as “Frau Martin,” and so the lady called me “Sie.”  I know it's normal in German, but it still sounds funny to me, and I still need to get used to using a formal form. 

I've now had my first full week of work.  My jobs include cleaning the kitchen, helping with cooking, mopping, vacuuming, laundry, ironing, and of course other odd jobs.  I iron almost everything here.  Apparently it's a German thing, though my last family didn't do that.

On Saturday, Elizabeth and I went to Liestal, the town in between us, and hung out.  Then we went back to her house, ate supper with her family, and watched a movie.  I've met her family before, and they're really great.  On Sunday I went to church with Debbie, the committee member who lives close.  She goes to a Mennonite Church.  We didn't stay long afterwards, but I got to talk to some people, and I think I like this church.  After church, Debbie came to the Eschbach's.  We played games with the kids, ate lunch, and then picked Elizabeth up and went to Basel.  We wanted to watch a movie, but got there early, so we walked around Basel for awhile.  Fastnacht (Carnival) was last week, and this weekend there were a bunch of drum-and-piccolo bands marching around playing songs.  We watched the movie in English, with German and French subtitles.  Since Switzerland is so diverse with its languages, it's important to have a variety of languages in the theater, too.  Of course, that makes movies really expensive (18 franks!).  Debbie had gift certificates that she let us use, so we didn't actually have to pay it. What's funny is that buying a DVD costs between 10-14 franks, which is cheaper than seeing it once in the theater.  We went to Starbucks, too, which is also ridiculously expensive in Switzerland (7,30 franks is average).  Good thing I don't like coffee!

Last Sunday was the town voting day.  Debbie's mom is the mayor of her town and was reelected.  Andy, my host dad, campaigned for a position for the first time and was voted in.  His job will start in July and they'll meet once a week.  The voting was different here; Andy ran with two other people as a team.  There are eight people who get elected into City Council, and one of those eight will be elected mayor.  For Debbie's mom's council, there were nine people running for eight spots, so she only needed to beat one person.

The Eschbachs and I have begun watching a film called “Heidi,” which is a Swiss German film, though it's in high German.  We only watch a little of it every few days so we haven't got that far yet.  It's apparently one of the kids' favorite movies from when they were younger.

Once we were talking about skiing and snowboarding at a meal.  The German word for “snowboard” is exactly the same, because it was taken directly from English.  What's funny, though, is that it's a verb.  So using German grammar rules, it becomes “gesnowboardet.”  I couldn't help but laugh when I heard that.

Also once at the table, Andy said some sentence, with the word “kundigen” in it.  I don't know what that word means, so he tried to explain it to me.  He gave a couple of examples, and then asked me what the word is in English.  I understood what the word meant, but couldn't translate it into English, so he looked it up in the dictionary.  He found about four different English words for one German word.  I feel like that happens a lot, when they explain something to me, and then expect that there should be a direct translation into English, and a lot of times I don't think there is.  Anyway, we went through the list of English words and I clarified their meanings.  Margaret's English is really good and Andy's is pretty good, too.  I'm pretty happy to say that they really don't speak it to me.  Sometimes they translate the words in a sentence that I don't understand, but they don't speak whole sentences or paragraphs to me in English.  There is a worker on the farm from Eritrea, and he has been here since January, but I'm guessing he doesn't speak much German.  Margaret took us both to register in town, since we're foreigners, and she spoke to me in German but to him in English.  I was actually impressed at how good her English was.

When I registered in the town, the lady spoke to me in German, and I was able to answer her questions.  Also, I bought Halbtax and Gleis 7 at the train station, which are both discounts for trains, and though Margaret was with me, I did the talking.  The only thing she had to clarify was the phone number.

My host family tends to eat really slowly.  Yesterday Andy asked me if I was eating anything because I was finished with my bread long before any of them were.  Today I watched Oliver paint his jam on his bread perfectly before eating it.  At the Lichti's, the table was relatively quiet while people ate, but here they're always talking.  Maybe that's why they eat so slowly.

Yesterday we ate Racletta, which is (I think) a Swiss thing.  It's a special mini-oven-thing, and each person has a little tray that can be filled with cheese, leek, peppers, bacon, etc, and put on the mini-oven-thing, where the cheese melts.  Then you pour it over a potato.  It's really good.  Cheese fondu is also a Swiss thing, but I don't really like it.  It's a relatively strong cheese mixed with wine, which I don't think is a good combination.  We've also made Auflauf, which consists of mushed up bread made into a dough, then baked with berries.

I posted an album on facebook, which includes pictures from Neustadt and the Midterm Conference at Karlsruhe.  Here's the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30648&l=45edc&id=645732058

I also uploaded an album from Tessin, Switzerland, where I was on vacation with my new host family. 
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30769&l=18aff&id=645732058

My last blog was awhile ago, and a lot has happened since then.  My last short week in Neustadt, I packed all my stuff and left on Thursday.  I got some goodbye presents: Dora gave me a Spatzle maker (a unique German noodle), a cookbook, and a book about Neustadt.  Elisabeth drew me a picture at kindergarten of the Lichti family.  The grandmother gave me chocolate.  Leaving was sad.

I spent the weekend in Karlsruhe, Germany, with the rest of the trainees.  We had a good weekend.  We had devotions and sessions concerning our time in Europe, walked around Karlsruhe, attended an opera, and hung out and talked a lot.  On Monday we all left for our placements.  My new host family was on vacation in Tessin, Switzerland, which is in the southern, Italian-speaking part of Switzerland.  The train ride to Basel took two hours, and the train ride from Basel to Tessin took another four, so I was on the train for awhile that day.  On the first train, to Basel, I was with the other three trainees who are living in Switzerland, as well as Debbie, who is a committee member for Switzerland. Elizabeth (another trainee) and I played Guess Who, and ended up playing it in German with the man who was sitting across from us.  

My host family and I were in Tessin until Thursday.  It was a really great experience for me.  We were in a town called Locarno, which is in the Alps.  I arrived Monday evening, and we went skiing in the Alps all of Tuesday.  The rest of the family already had skis, so I went sledding, and Margaret, my new host  mother, let me borrow her skis for awhile.  It took about 20 minutes for me to get to the bottom.  The path was really curvy and absolutely beautiful.  It was a wonderful first day in Switzerland!

The family was staying in their grandparents' vacation house in Locarno.  It was a really nice, comfortable location.  On Wednesday, we went walking around a small town.  We saw a bridge that was built 2,000 years ago, by Romans, and saw a place where people bungee jump.  In the afternoon, Andreas (my new host dad), Oliver (8 years old) and I went flying around the Alps.  Andreas has a piloting license of some sort.  It was beautiful.  I was actually pretty astonished, that I was able to do so much in my first two days.

On Thursday we cleaned up the vacation house and drove home.  There was so much stuff in the car that only Margaret and I fit in, and the other four took the train.  Once home, I moved into my new room and got acquainted with my new home.  The Eschbach's house is really big, and there are a lot of hills here.  I took a bike ride into Fullinsdorf, but couldn't ride the bike back because it was too steep.  

My new host family consists of Andy and Margaret, the parents, and three children: Martina (11), Nicola (a boy, 10) and Oliver (8).  We've been playing a lot of games.  I'm pretty proud to say that I haven't spoken much English with my host family.  Occasionally Andy or Margaret will translate difficult words into English when they try to tell me something.  Though I live in Switzerland, where Swiss German is spoken, the family speaks high German at home for my benefit.  In addition, Margaret is from Germany, so she speaks high German well.  I've actually been able to understand a lot of what's going on at home, a lot more than a week ago at the Lichti's.  I think it's because the Lichtis speak Pfalzisch at home, which is a lot more difficult for me.

I worked my first full day on Friday.  Everything here is really particular, from how I fold towels and socks to how I put silverware in the dishwasher, to how I hang laundry on the line.  There is a particular way to do everything, and the phrase I've heard Margaret say most often is “Das macht kein Sinn”, when she's explaining why any other way wouldn't make sense.  She also keeps track of each hour that I work.  At the Lichti's it was kind of loose; if I needed to leave early to get to my German class, or when friends came to visit, it was no big deal.  Here, Margaret's theory is that I can work extra some days and then take the hours free some other time, like to take an extended weekend.  It's true, that does make some sense, but it seems overly particular.  

At my last placement, I was the last trainee, and I am once again.  I was a little disappointed when the Eschbachs told me that I'm the last trainee here, too.  Both of my host families have had trainees for quite a few years, and I think that being at the end is probably a different feel than being at some of the other placements.  Oh well.  I'll just hope that I'm a good end, for both families.  

The Eschbachs have a house church, but this morning we all went to the International Church in Basel.  It was mostly young people, and I had a headset with English translation, because the service is all in Swiss German.  It was actually pretty interesting to listen to the translator.  At one point, the preacher was reading a Bible passage, and naturally the translator was also reading it in English.  The translator stopped speaking, and there was a long pause while the preacher was still speaking, and I was wondering what happened to my translation.  Then his voice came through the headset again: “Don't worry, it's just longer in German.” 

I'm certainly invited to go to the Eschbachs' house church, though I also have the option of looking for my own church.  The International church is one option.  I can also go with the grandparents, who also live on the farm, and I can attend a church with Debbie, the committee member.  I also get to look for a youth group to attend.  This is something I really want to do, though it's a little more difficult this time.  At the Lichti's, I always went with Sonja, but here, I have no contact person. 

This afternoon some friends of Margaret and Andy came over for tea.  They asked me a couple questions, and then the woman asked me “Warum ist dein Deutsch so gut?” which means “Why is your German so good?”  The question completely took me off guard.  I told her that I lived in Germany for the last six months, and she and Margaret both said that my German was pretty good.  I was so happy! 

This past weekend was my last weekend in Neustadt.  On Friday, I went to youth group like usual, and had to start my goodbyes, since I won't see the youth group again.  I had a good time at youth group, though.  I was talking to someone who said that my German is now "ziemlich gut" (fairly good).  I was talking to Timo, one of the youth group leaders, and we were discussing university, which was actually a very interesting conversation.  We were talking in English, mostly because he wanted to practice his English.  In Germany, university used to be free, until recently when the cost was raised to 500 Euros per semester.  People in Germany think that is really expensive and have been protesting.  I couldn't believe it; college is so much more expensive in the US! 

He also told me that every day on German news there's news about the upcoming US elections.  I was so surprised that they hear so much about it, even in Germany.  Then he asked me if there's ever news about Germany on the US news.  I had to say no, but I felt so bad saying it.  I wish our country could focus more on the rest of the world, and not just the parts that we have troops or enemies in.

Sunday at church was time for more goodbyes, too.  At one point, Elisabeth and I were playing a game, where we had to stack things and see how high we could make the stack before it fell over.  Our stack fell, and Elisabeth said to me, "Next week we can build it even better!"  I didn't have the heart to tell her I wouldn't be there.  Leaving is so hard!

On Sunday afternoon, Dora and I went to the Laubersheimers.  We went on a walk, and then had coffee and tea with them.  I was really happy, because it gave me a chance to see Sonja again before I left.  I'll really miss her.

In preparation for leaving, I had to go to Frankfurt to apply for my Swiss visa.  All went well, and now I'm ready to live in Switzerland!

This week I'll be doing a lot of packing.  On Thursday I leave for Thomashof, where the retreat is, and on Monday the 11th I'll go to Switzerland.  I'm meeting my family on vacation, and I don't know if I'll have internet access to write a blog.

Last weekend there wasn't any youth group, but I went to a youth rally with Johanna, Phillip, and some other people that they know.  Volker asked me if I wanted to go, and I said yes because I wasn't doing anything else.  It was at least an hour away, and the car was cramped, and I didn't have my contacts in so I couldn't read the words to the songs that were on the screen, and because it was so far away, no one that I knew was there.  And, we got home really late.  On the bright side, though, I did get to hear some German rap. 

We took the autobahn (which is simply a "highway" in German) on the way to and from the youth rally, with Volker driving.  The highest speed I saw was 160 kmh, which is about 99 mph.  For the record, though the autobahn has no set speed limit, there is a "suggested" speed limit, which I think is 110kmh (or 68mph).

On the way home, the people in the car were talking about something, which is about the most I could decipher, but then I heard Volker say "There's an American in here."  It's such a weird feeling, when that happens - I don't know what's going on, but suddenly I hear myself mentioned.  Arthur, who is one of Philipp's friends, wanted to know how old you have to be to get a license in the States. 

Youth group was regular this week.  It included a handout, which I was thankful for, and I could actually understand what the paper said.  Reading is a lot easier than hearing.  On that note, I decided it was about time I tried to read a book in German, so I bought Holes (by Louis Sachar) in German.  It's a relatively simple book, and I already know how the plot goes.  I'm pretty excited about reading it.  I started reading it, and it takes awhile because I have to look up so many words, but I've already learned a bunch of words. 

I only have one weekend left here - a total of one and a half weeks.  I can't believe I have to leave so soon.  I definitely don't want to.

Last week I went to Barcelona with two other trainees.  It was a great trip; you can check out my pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27933&l=f4652&id=645732058

Jason, a trainee who also lives in Rheinland-Pfalz, and I flew to Barcelona on Monday.  We arrived and successfully found our way to the hostel.  When we got there, we  met Jessica, who had arrived earlier.  She told us that her purse had been stolen.  She was sitting on the beach and someone stole her purse, which was sitting right next to her.  She had already filed a police report.  She still had all her money,camera, and birth certificate with her, but her passport, driver's license, and Switzerland Ausweis (visa) were all stolen.  So we made a couple trips to the Canadian Embassy in Barcelona. 

Our hostel was right by the beach, with a marina close by.  We saw all sorts of sites in Barcelona; Antoni Gaudi, a famous architect, has a lot of famous buildings in Barcelona.  A couple are in my pictures.  His most famous work, La Sagrada Familia, was one of my favorite sites.  It was started in 1882, and isn't half-finished yet.  When, or perhaps if, it's finished, it will have 18 towers, one representing Jesus, one for Mary, four for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and 12 for the apostles.  We saw a miniature of the completed tower; it's magnificient, though unlikely that it will be finished in my lifetime.

We also saw the Arc de Triomf.  There's also an Arc de Triomphe in Paris; I'm pretty proud to say that I've traveled enough to have seen both!  We tried to find the Olympic village, but there's not really much there that shows it was the Olympic village once. 

We took a day trip to Girona.  We meant to go to a different town, but the bus wasn't there.  That was okay, though, because Girona is actually quite a nice city.  We walked on the wall that once surrounded Girona, which gave us a really beautiful overview of the city.  Our lunch consisted of Spanish baguettes, chorizo, which is a Spanish meat, and Spanish cheese, all from a grocery store.  We had Spanish pastries for dessert.  It was a really good meal.  While in Barcelona, we also ate tapas, which are like appetizers, though they were really good.  We also ate paella, which is apparently a Spanish specialty, but I didn't really like it that much.  It's rice mixed with other stuff, like vegetables, chicken, or seafood. 

Now that I'm home, I can't believe my time here is almost up.  I have about three weeks left here until I go to my next placement, which is in Switzerland.  My time has gone so fast!

Youth group this Friday was a worship time and a prayer day, and it was a combined youth group for the youth group in Lachen, the one from Neustadt, and one from Hassloch.  On Saturday, Johanna, Phillip and I went to Lachen again, for a birthday party/goodbye party for two of the people in the youth group.  It was really interesting, because Johanna drove us in the tractor.  She's 17, and people in Germany get their licenses when they're 18, so she couldn't have driven us in a car, but apparently it's legal in a tractor.  There's only one seat, but we managed to squish five people in.  Once we got there, she had to find a place to park a tractor on a kind of skinny road.  While we were there, we played Dutch Blitz, which was really fun.  At home we play Dutch Blitz a lot, bu that's with little kids, so it was fun to actually play a fast game. 

This week Elisabeth asked me if I know Jingle Bells.  She started singing the song, which was really cute, because she knew the general gist of the words, but you could tell that they meant nothing to her.  I think it's really cute when the little kids speak English.  At dinner once, Michael was apparently showing off his knowledge of English (he just started it in school) and said "What's your name?" which Matthias repeated.  It's funny, because you can tell it sounds foreign to them. 

Next week I'll be in Barcelona.  I'm going with two other trainees.  It'll be a short vacation, but I'm excited.

On New Years Eve (Silvester), shortly before midnight, we all went out to the road, where we parked the vans and lit fireworks for nearly an hour.  Dora told me they used fireworks that they found in the trash a few years ago.  It was pretty fun, and by the time we were done, the road had firework-ends all over it.  There were lots of other people with fireworks too; not close to us, but we could see their fireworks going off too.

As we were going home, Dora saw one of the neighbors out, and went to say Happy New Years, and we ended up going inside and staying to chat for awhile.  I thought it was really odd, because it was at 1:30 in the morning.  But I guess New Years is an exception.  The kids, especially Mathias and Elisabeth, were really tired and whiny.

The 1st was Volker's birthday, so some of his family came over to celebrate. 

Today part of my job was to take down the Christmas tree.  I took all the decorations off, which was hard because the tree is so prickly, and because it fell over.  Luckily, it fell after I'd already taken everything but the lights off.  But I still got sticky stuff all over me.