I like liverwurst!

Guten Morgen! (Good morning!) =)

Whew! These Swiss know how to eat and how to keep an American busy! =)

Where did we leave off? Saturday afternoon, Simona and I watched a movie and made supper that night to have with the boys. Her kitchen is SO big compared to mine back home! We both fit with room to work and room to spare. =) Definitely not a ''one butt kitchen''. ;)

Ben, Chris, and Tobias got there just as we were finishing up cooking, and they brought us flowers and cookies! These Swiss folks know how to make an entrance. ;) Supper was ''wunderbar'', and we had fun talking in English AND German (mostly in English for me, but not entirely!). After supper and dessert (they liked the chocolate nasties!), we watched Black Hawk Down (with Deutsch subtitles). I tell you what, living in DC has really raised my military awareness and appreciation. And it's given me a different perspective when traveling, too.

And then it was Sonntag--Sunday! I love that they all come together for breakfast before church starts, and they all help get things ready--set the table, put out the bread and jams/jellies/honey, thex take turns bringing the meats and cheeses, etc. It all goes very fast and there's so much fellowship wen everyone works together like that. They're such a close family.

And church time! Since Ben translated for me on Friday, I asked Chris if he'd translate this time. Even though I don't understand all the words, I can catch a few, and I get the most important parts when someone can translate for me. It actually kind of helps me pay more attention when I hear it in a different language. And I can at the very least follow along in my English Bible while they read in Deutsch. =) And the singing! Music is absolutely universal. I can certainly hum along with the songs, and it's actually been very helpful in finding out the meaning of words and with sentence structure. Some of the tunes are familiar, so I can sing along in English, which is also pretty interesting to do while everyone else sings the same words in German. =)

Oh, and I don't know if they did this for me or what, but I was SO thankful when we took the Lord's Supper and I discovered they had used GRAPE JUICE instead of WINE!!!!! Whew! What a delicious relief. =)

And after church, in keeping with the church of Christ everywhere, we ate again! This time it was lasagne--wow. Their cheese and cream and all that are all so much better here! And of course there was dessert. Whew. I need to get back into my running shoes when I get home. But for now, I'm just enjoying it! =)

Next stop, Holger and Francie's house! They have two kids, Hendrick who's 13 and Kerstin who's 11. They're good kids, and it was so cool to hear them talk so fast in their language! I love it. We took a walk around their little village of Arlesheim (arles-heim, no ''sh'' in the middle). There are fewer than 10,000 people living there, so it's officially still a ''village'' and not a town or city, and the village wants to keep it like that. =)

They took me to a big, beautiful cathedral close to their house--Catholic churches are so big and beautiful, but they're always cold and empty. That's just my observation. And after that, we went over to this Anthropophysical community--they don't believe in right angles, not even on their buildings, and they're vegetarians. Their main interest and livlihood comes from astrology and biology. Interesting.

When we got back home, the kids did their homework and Francie and I talked over deliciously hot tea. =) Their apartment is beautiful! Francie and I talked about our faith and how it's different here than in America. Her family is still all Catholic. It's so interesting to hear everyone's story here. They just truly have to live their faith every day, everywhere they go. It amazes me. That's why they're so close as a church family, too--they are each other's family.

When the kids finished their homework, I got a little German lesson while we played Rummykube--AH! Numbers! It was actually really fun, though! I wish I'd played it when I was growing up; I think it really would have helped me with my math skills! Oh well. I think I turned out ok. =)

Suppertime! We had the traditional Swiss meal of bread, cheese, coldcuts, and vegetables with sour cream dip. And you know what I discovered? I like liverwurst! Haha. I ate it because I didn't know what it was, then Francie kind of looked at me funny and said, ''That is liverwurst.'' I liked it! Haha. =)

And then it was shower time, and then it was bedtime! Whew. Still feeling the effects of the jetlag, but not too bad. =)

Next time--a trip to the Black forrest and a TRUE German meal! Stay tuned!

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