Swiss Cows, Surprises, and Fun Euro Trips

So I can’t quite figure out what makes Swiss cheese so yummy and what makes milk from a Swiss cow last so long. I think Swiss cows must be part of God’s inner circle. Seriously, the cheese won’t mold (a teacher has been trying to do an experiment for weeks now on cheese and bread in a ziplock bag – and nothin’! You could eat that as a snack tomorrow!). And the milk here isn’t even refrigerated and lasts for over a month. It’s really wild. Speaking of refrigerators, Europe doesn’t believe in making anything artificially cold (other than their yummy gelato of course – more props to the Swiss cow for that beautiful and perfect invention). They might serve you a coke, but it won’t be cold and it MIGHT (if you’re lucky) have a tiny sliver of ice in it. Water is always room temperature. And forget about air conditioning! Blair and I have created our own “fridge” by using our window seal outside our office. It’s our a/c and our cold beverage center – we’re pretty popular around school!

The kids here are really precious. They are working so hard to raise money for the hurricane victims back in Texas. I began counting the money we have collected so far on Friday, and am pleased to report that we have raised over $200 (and counting). That counting took about 2.5 hours, because literally, there were 6 different currencies represented (the Swiss Franc, US coins, British Pounds, Euros, 2 Canadian pennies, and 1 random Slovanian coin that I don’t think is even used anymore). After counting them, converting them based on the current conversion rate (I know, too much math already – is your head spinning or is that just me?), I found that this drive probably would have been more successful if the US dollar wasn’t doing so well. Although the 2 Canadian pennies did equal almost $.0002 US cents – not bad! ☺

A few cute kid stories: 1) Speaking of Francs, I had a 5th grade student come down to donate money today. We struck up a conversation about how many different currencies there were in Europe and how different they all were. During our very intelligent conversation (I didn’t even know there was any other form of money than US dollars at that age!) he says to me, “you know, when we first moved here from the states, my parents said the dollar wasn’t very popular. I didn’t really know what that meant at the time, but now that I’m here in Switzerland, I totally get it! The Swiss Franc has a TON of coins – even for 2 dollars or 5! Of course the Swiss Franc is more popular – it has way cooler coins!” I had to agree. 2) There is a little girl in Pre-K who is Russian and speaks no English and no Italian. That makes it hard to communicate. But here’s the kicker – I feel as if I’m looking in a mirror when I look at this child. She looks just like me when I was that age! I had to take some pictures of her to email back home, which was actually a really great move because she is finally smiling at me (I think she’s happy that someone is acknowledging her). She’s precious! 3) At recess today a group of girls were playing truth or dare. Back at home with my 8th graders, I would have been very nervous about this particular game. Recipe for disaster with them (love you guys, but it’s true. What did I always say? I was born at night, but not last night! I’m not as dumb as I look!). But I was quickly reminded that this is a) an elementary school, and b) Europe. When it was this one girl’s turn to be dared, the other girl said (in my best British accent), “I daaaare you to sing a lullaby in your most gentlest of voices.” Followed by cute British and Italian giggles. How sweet. I love it here!

On a personal note, things are going well. I am getting to do a lot of traveling and a lot of reading for fun, which are #1 and #2, respectively, on why I wanted to do this crazy thing in the first place. Last weekend I flew up to Dusseldorf, Germany to meet up with Eason and a buddy of his who lives there. We actually stayed in Haan (outside of Dusseldorf), and spent most of our time in Cologne (or Koln as they spell it in Germany). It was great fun and lovely weather (see pics)! I was most impressed by the Cologne Duomo. I’m still amazed at all of the truly amazing churches and structures that people built hundreds of years ago in random towns (some of which you’ve never heard of) in Europe. It reminds you of how much there really is to see in the world (and it kind of stresses me out that I won’t get to them all)! We ate lots of sausage and had good German beer – a great weekend, indeed.

This past weekend I actually went on a top secret, surprise mission to London to visit Eas. He thought I was going hiking in the mountains, but in real life I was making the trek to good ol’ Londontown. That’s easier said than done, by the way! I took the 4:30 bus to central Lugano, the funicular up to the train station, the shuttle to the Milan airport where my flight was in the farthest terminal and through 2 security gates. Once there the flight was delayed, of course, and in Europe they make you board and deplane the aircraft on the tarmac and take a bus to the terminal, which is just odd to me! Once in London I spent 30 minutes in the customs line, 20 minutes waiting for my bag, a quick stop to get British Pounds (why won’t they all use the same currency – that’s 3 different currencies I used that day?!), 10 minutes waiting for the train to leave, and once it did I thought I was golden. The 30-minute train ride turned into 1 hour because of fire evacuations in Victoria Station earlier that day. Geez! Then the taxi queue, a taxi to the bar, and finally, I get to see my boy! It was 1:00 a.m. London time (2 a.m. on my clock), and here I was in a bar in London with luggage! That’s a nearly 10 hour trip (I could have flown home to Texas in that time!). But it was all worth it to see the look on his face. He was totally shocked. ☺ His friends were all in on it, so that made it very special! We spent the weekend doing whatever he had already planned (laundry, coffee with friends, birthday party, watching college football) – it was great! Luckily the weather was beautiful, sunny and warm (a rarity in London!), so we spent the afternoon walking around and headed up to the Hampstead Heath to some green grass, some sun, and a great view of the city. It was quite romantic! I was really happy I went!

This weekend is low key – local wine/food festival in Lugano that I think I’ll take part in, and maybe a hike. A friend from high school just moved to France, about 3 hours away, so we may meet up this weekend. Fun times! They want to see the mountains before it gets too cold (smart Texans), and once it gets cold, I’ll be heading to her place on the coast of France – fair trade off, I say!