Endlich war der Tag da!

(Transferred from my old blog on 18 August 2008.)

On Friday, August 13th, I heard my host family leave at 4 am and checked to see if the clock stopped - yep, at 1:30. I reset it and couldn't sleep because I was so afraid of missing everything. My legs were so sore from the biking and they were already sore from the horrible charlie horses. I have to walk and not swing my legs all the way back. I packed, ate yogurt, wrote my host family a thank you note (I can't believe they were so nice to let me come!), and the taxi came. The driver helped me . . . okay, he carried my heavy suitcase. I spoke with him and did a pretty good job. At the station Ryan came and we found an empty, non-reserved compartment. Good thing Ryan was there to carry my suitcase! I almost called him Matt. However, after about an hour, I couldn't wait for him to leave. It made me wonder how I could have been interested. He is boring and serious and negative and complains about everything and had too strong of opinions about things that don't even matter. Maybe I'll feel differently later.

There was a German dude who came in and we talked a lot. It made me so happy to know I could understand and speak and correct Ryan's German. When we got into Switzerland, oh my gosh, I could tell! I was so glad to be there, I felt like crying. The mountains rose up out of the land, and it was GORGEOUS! Seriously I can't explain it. I immediately wanted to study here. The dude (Frank) said he also loves Switzerland. He also showed me his book about men-woman relationships and rolled his weed. Hmmm . . . I couldn't wait to get there and see the Bieris! When we got off our train (it was a very long one), somehow we were very lucky, because I spotted Sue immediately! She and Ursula said, "Me-chelle?" Oh my gosh, I was so happy! I went right over and hugged them. Sue did this kissing thing and said, "Sorry, in Switzerland it is three kisses!" So I did that correctly with Ursula. We brought our bags to Urula's car and Sue asked me what we had been doing, so I told her we studied German. Then she told Ursula they needed to speak in Hochdeutsch. WOW! Their Hochdeutsch is so much better (slower and very clear) than the supposedly perfect northern German Deutsch! We talked, Ryan and I switching (whoa, that just took me five minutes to spell - my English is gone) walking with Sue or Ursula. Sue is BEAUTIFUL - much more blonde than I remember with great eyes and stylish clothing. Ryan wanted to put a thousand dollars into a Swiss account, so Sue guided us to different banks, but they were closed or not big enough to do international accounts. I felt really stupid going in there. The Swiss German is really cool! They say sh instead of s, such as "Wo bish du?", not "Wo bist du?", etc. Sue showed us the Bundeshaus and towers that were very old and we met up with Ursula at the clock tower with the man who hits the bell and the bears dance around. (We didn't see it, though). Then we went and saw a church that was built by a 17 year old. People made fun of his idea, so on the outside he had inscribed, "Try it before you laugh." IT was very ornate. Next to that is the "platz" where people hang out. It overlooks huge gardens and houses and the beautiful, GREEN Aare river! It started getting windy, so Sue let me use her darling long khaki jacket from Singapore.

We went to the bear pit (they were in the shelter, though). There we met up with Bea. Holy cow. I thought it was just someone they knew! She is gorgeous too - blonde hair, big eyes, and, like Ursula and Sue, extremely short! Also, they all have those tight handshakes like I remember - small hands. We walked up some giant hill to the rose garden and didn't really look at any roses, we just like the view of the amazing city. I loved talking to them in German, and apparently Ryan did too. Sue works with babies and is now doing midwifery. She has a boyfriend, Andreas or Andy, for 7 years. Bea just broke up with hers and Sue told me she cries if you talk too much about it. (Wow, I know how that goes. Not just talking, but seeing couples.) We met Peter at an Italian restaurant after seeing the other side of the Aare and the oldest pharmacy (with cool little drawers everywhere). It even smelled old. I did not recognize Peter. For some reason I thought he looked different. He reminds me so much of Uncle Mike - calm and very intelligent. He told a story about traveling in Spain and no one would take their credit cards and they felt like starving and paid their last money for water. His German was also great. We had pizza and I ate the entire thing. Then Sue, Bea, Andy, Ryan, and I went and saw the movie I read about in the newspaper the first day I was in Germany, making fun of Star Wars, Star Trek, etc. I didn't understand much and Ryan and I were falling asleep. They had an intermission. No way. (eine Pause) Then we walked through the dark city and drove back. Andy, like every other European, brought up Bush and Iraq and it was a mess. Ryan had to give his strong say and then throw it my way. The house - oh my gosh - is the coolest, most modern, feng-shui-ish house I've ever seen! Wow! Cement and wooden beams and glass or black things.