Whew! What a week so far. I was so glad to hear that folks back home in DC/VA are safe! Although I’ll admit that I’m sorry I missed out on the adventure of it! I read from a friend that Sunday morning’s church service was very moving. Since the electricity was out, people brought portable lights and had a worship service anyway. =)
So, onward throughout Switzerland I go! Bianca and Simona and I met up with Ben and Chris in downtown Basel and walked over to one of the huge cathedral there—I believe it was called the Muenster. It overlooks the Rhine River, and I was in for a special treat… We took the ferry across! There are three ferries that take people back and forth across the river, and each one represents one of the three mascots of Basel. I think we were on the one with the dragon-looking character. Anyway, it was quite fun! The ferries are small and love to the water, and they have no motors. They are powered only by the force of the river water and steered only by a small rudder!
On the other side, we went over to the place where Nikki was working that night and got something to eat, then sat by the river to eat and talk for a while. But then the real treat came… After a while, we went over to the city center where there was some festival or fair or something going on. The boys treated me to a Basel-wurst! Yes indeed, Basel, Switzerland, has its own wurst (sausage) made with special spices from the area. Dad, are you sure you wouldn’t want to visit if I end up moving here? ;)
And onward we go! Church Sunday morning was great. I got to meet the mom of the American family at church (the Youngs), and I was able to say my hellos and goodbyes to folks before I left. Because there is an American family, and the church has had several English-speaking visitors recently, they’ve started using Google translator to print out the sermons in English. Ben translated class for us, which was very good, but it was nice to have the sermon printed out to make following along easier. Looking up scripture was easier, too, because they have different names for nearly all the books of the Bible. Most are easy to figure out, but for instance: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are called “1 Mose”, “2 Mose”, “3 Mose”, “4 Mose” and “5 Mose”. The book of James in the New Testament is “Jacob”, and the book of John is “Johannes”, which of course is “John” in German. It’s so interesting! I’m finished being nerdy now. =)
After the service and a few more goodbyes, it was off to the Steinhauers’ for lunch with the young folks! I have to say that I really like the Swiss/German meal style: breakfast is bread (brott) with cheese, meat, jelly (usually from Vreni and Juerg’s farm!) or creamed honey, yogurt (joghurt) and coffee; lunch is the largest meal (Sunday we had miniature sausages in brown sauce with rice, tomatoes, and TWO kinds of dessert—a tart with fresh whipped cream AND three kinds of ice cream with blueberry sauce!); and supper is a lighter meal, usually bread with cold cuts and cheese, maybe some liverwurst (which I REALLY like, by the way!), and maybe some leftover salad or something from lunch. Culinary adventures are the best kind to have, and I think that’s really the primary reason I love to travel! =)
But enough with food! The time with my Swiss family is always the best part. The young adults (that would be Ben, Joel and Tobias Minder, Simona, Nikki, Bianca, and me) have been doing a special study about relationships on some Sunday afternoons at the Steinhauers’ place. Dan led the study, and Ben translated for me. Dan gave lots of handouts, so I have something to do on the trip home in a couple of weeks—translate the handouts! =) I’m actually really looking forward to it—again, it’s the nerd in me!
When the others left after the lesson, I got to sit and visit with Dan and Margrit Steinhauer for a few hours. It was so nice! We sat outside on their deck and talked about job possibilities in Switzerland or Germany for me, and we just got all caught up on our lives. They told me the latest on the church family and Kaleb, their youngest son who is the whole reason I know about the church in Basel, and we prayed together before I left. We ate a light supper, and I said my last goodbyes to Grossmuetter Alice (Grandmother Alice), then Ben took me to my next stop—the Minders’!
And we ate again. Whew! I’m glad to know I’ll be hiking around Turkey the next two weeks! =) They had already eaten by the time I got there (the Steinhauers kept me longer than anticipated—I love being loved!), but they saved some for me. I got to choose sweet or savory, so of course I picked sweet! What did I get to fill it with? Cooked apples from their own back yard! =) The Minders have three kids—Joel (pronounced Sho-well) and Tobias (pronounced to-BEE-as), who came to DC with Ben and Chris last August, and Judith (pronounced Yu-deet—I know I’m being a geek again but I love the way they pronounce things differently!). Judith is the youngest, and I think she likes when I spend the night there. Which is good, because I like it, too! I got to talk with the family for a while—Barbara and Markus (the parents) know pretty good English, and so do the boys. Judith knows some English, but I think she’s shy about it. We stayed up till about 10, and then I just really needed to go to bed! Apparently I needed it more than I thought because I slept till 10 the next morning! They have the amazing blinds at pretty much every house in Switzerland that block out all the light—it’s a dream come true for me! =)
So when I FINALLY woke up, I ate breakfast with them and got my stuff together, then Judith and I Skyped with her friend Sina, who I met on Friday night at our girls’ Bible study. Francie came to pick me up around 11 or so (yes, I felt REALLY bad for sleeping the morning away!), and we went back to her house to fix lunch and eat with her and Holger’s kids when they came home from school. I love that the Swiss schools give kids time to go home for lunch during the day. I think it’s really important after seeing families do it like that!
After lunch, the kids went back to school (by the way, Hendrick made chocolate ice cream in cooking class that morning, so guess what was for dessert!!!) Francie and I got to talk for a while and went on a walk with Pina (Simona’s mom and one of my Swiss Mamas). I love that people go for walks here! It’s for fellowship and fun—the exercise part is acknowledged as important, but that’s not the purpose of the walk, nor does it come up in conversation except in a positive light. Take note, America! We walked around the countryside in Aesch (“ash”) where Pina and her husband live, and I got to see lots of Swiss flowers and fruits and vegetables! I like to see quitten (it’s “quince” in English), which looks like a pear or a lumpy greenish-yellow apple, but they use it to make AMAZING jelly! (Vreni usually gives me several jars, but I was so bummed I couldn’t take any with me this time because of luggage restrains on the plane!) At any rate, we walked around the pretty hillsides and took in the landscape a bit, then went back to Pina’s. It’s so nice to be able to visit with so many of my Swiss family casually like that. =)
So then we went back to Holger and Francie’s. I got to tell Francie one of my ghost stories from the tours I’ve started giving in DC, and she liked it! She thought it was fun that I get to tell stories like that and take people on tours where I live. And she laughed when I told her I get to dress up, too! Yes, I like my life. I hope you like yours because that just makes living that much more fun! Francie is good to talk with because she wants to know about whomever she’s speaking with. She pays attention when you’re talking, and she can bring everything back to the Bible. She grew up Catholic, and she has a very good understanding of her faith. The more I learn, the more questions I have. I think it’s good, and it’s VERY good to talk with someone who understands the fundamentals as well as the brethren do in Basel.
Kerstin came home and we had a snack with her until Holger got home from work. He’d called about possibilities of an American working in Germany (in case it’s not possible to get a work visa for Switzerland just yet), and he ran into the same kinds of problems I did—no no no no! We’ll see where God puts me. It isn’t impossible, just more difficult than we’d like! Hendrick came home soon after that, and Holger took him for a sailing lesson on the Rhine River. Holger was in the German Navy for a while, and he definitely loves his sailing!
The men left to go sailing, Vreni came to pick me up, and we went off to the hills! I truly, truly love going to stay at Vreni and Juerg’s. The farm is beautiful and there are flowers everywhere! We ate supper and got to catch up a bit—we definitely have overcome the language barrier!—then took a drive to one of their other pastures to check on some of the cows that had been sick. Yes, they really do have bells around each cow’s neck! It’s so funny to see and hear them because it’s exactly how Switzerland is portrayed in movies like Heidi—mountainous, green, lots of animals, and bells to keep track of where they are! Going over to the pasture was an adventure in itself. We drove for a while, then when the road got too rough, we got out and walked the rest of the way—I got my hike in! The road was actually really spooky, which made it lots of fun since we were there from just before dusk until after dark!
And when we got back—we ate dessert! Vreni’s mother, Frieda was there, too. I’d met her before, but she is very different now; I can tell such a difference in her demeanor and her outlook. She’s so happy and not distressed now because she was baptized and became a Christian just a couple of weeks ago! Vreni and Marianne (another of Frieda’s daughters), Juerg, and the rest of the church at Basel have been praying for her for 20 years! We all enjoyed dessert—and even had seconds with no qualms about it!—and you will never guess what I had: It was a cross between a Moon Pie, Boston Cream Pie, and a chocolate-glazed-cream-filled doughnut! Beat that. =)
Accordion time! Vreni and I had to almost force Juerg to bring it out, and when he finally did, he taught me how to play a song! He said he wouldn’t pull it out again until I get married, then he would play at my wedding—ha! Vreni called Simona when I wasn’t looking so she could hear me play it—she got an earful! =) So much fun to be had. Love it!
I checked e-mail to make sure everything was ok at home after the hurricane—thankfully all that happened at our place was water in the basement! Then we prayed and it was time for bed! I needed my beauty rest because after breakfast the next morning, we had plans to go to a castle in France! =) Yep, hiked from Switzerland to France, visited the castle—where, interestingly enough, and a man from the New World was held prisoner for 20 years in the 1600s!—and that was just the morning! Pictures to follow soon, I promise!
So, castle adventure, check; French excursion, check. Off to Marianne and Markus Naegali’s place! One of their daughters was away at camp for school, but the younger one, Cheyanne (um, spelling?), came home for lunch. She could have stayed at school with her friends for a singing thing they do at lunch, but she wanted to come home so she could see me! =) Markus works close by, so he gets to come home at lunch, too! After lunch and good conversation, I’ll just be honest with you—I needed a shower! The days had been fantastic, but there are simply not enough hours to do all the things one needs to do!
And what is the best thing to do after lunch and a shower? A nap! I am so thankful for Marianne’s understanding. I was so not bored or uninterested in spending time with her, I was just pooped! So, after the one-hour power nap, we went out for a WALK! We went down by the Rhine and crossed over a pedestrian bridge over a lock. We stopped to watch the lock do its things and let a boat out the other side, then kept walking. It was such a beautiful day to be outside! One the way back, we stopped and got gelato—YUM! She got something blue, and I got something that tasted like strawberry shortcake to me. Yes, this was a fantastic day! And then you’ll never guess who we met on the path on our walk back home—one of Marianne and Vreni’s sisters! Small world. =)
And on home we went! Cheyanne came home again from school, and not long after, Urs (Simona’s Dad) came to pick me up for supper at his and Pina’s place! =) The American family (the Youngs, from Kentucky) came, and so did Nicolas and Anita and baby Jessica! Nicolas needed to give me a book for our English lessons (which we will start on Skype in a couple of weeks!), and I hadn’t yet had a chance to talk much with the April and John Young. Pina is very Italian, so it’s safe to say we ate WELL! I could actually smell it before I even got to their flat! The conversation was great, food was wonderful, and after everyone left, April and John let me go to their place (about a block away) to use their phone and call my family! They have Magic Jack (which I now have as well!), so they can call anywhere in the US as if they were there because it’s through the Internet and not a landline. Of course no one answered because of the time difference, but I left messages and was just glad I got to call!
Pina and I sat out on the balcony for a couple of hours after that and just talked. Simona called to tell me goodbye since she couldn’t come to supper that night, and that was that! Urs and I had to leave the house at 3:40 this morning (yep, sure did!) to get to the Basel-Mulhouse airport by 4. My 6:00 flight was NOT my choice, and I felt SO bad that anyone had to get up that early and take me to the airport, but Urs actually does get up really early, and he said he didn’t mind! I think he has to be one of the absolute nicest, happiest, funniest, genuine people I have ever met!
After a bit of drama about the size of my carry-on bag (I could only have one bag, and I was not about to pay nearly $70 to check one, so I had to fit three weeks’ worth of stuff into ONE bag!), I flew off to Turkey, where I sit now, being called to prayer for the second time today! There was a bit of confusion about how I needed to get to my hotel, but it ended up only being about $15 to get from the airport to the hotel using Havas bus and taxi, and I thought that was a pretty good deal. So that’s that! The hotel manager is very nice and answered all my questions, and I even got to choose which room I wanted. I thought the two they showed me looked the same, so I just picked the last one he showed me and here I sit! Dan ought to be on his way to the hotel now, and Andrea will be here around 10 tonight (her flight gets in at 8:30 pm).
And now the great Turkish Skirmish can begin, my friends!
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