Kirche, Krauchthal, Ossi und Lotti, und Bieler See

Sunday, August 15th: Peter and Ursula drove me to church. I was so happy because at church I talked to a lot of people - I undertstood them and they understood me! One of the speakers told that seminary donut story about Brother Christianson, so I could follow very well. I told him afterwards. When I paused in a sentence, he said I could speak English, but I told him in German that i needed the practice. This little blonde kid ran around during the meetings and his/her dad was the first to introduce himself to me. His wife (a beauty) went on a mission to the SL temple and taught Relief Society. I was totally loving church until, as usual, someone (in this case the teacher) brought up Iraq and Bush. Then people fought about it and talked about how war is bad, etc. I guess I should have researched it before I came, but I didn't know Europeans are more obsessed with Bush and Iraq than Americans themselves. I wish that MIchael Moore would try to have a positive outlook with solutions, instead of making the problem worse.

Some people at church had heard the name Glauser. The missionaries (Elder Costagna and Elder Nelson) were surprised by my German for only a month. Yay!

Peter and Ursula picked me up and we went to the church where great someone or other grandparents were married, and Krauchthal and Jegenstorf (I saw this castle from 1100 there). I also saw a Swiss game for men called Harnuss. They swing these flexible long sticks and a ball goes flying and the other guys hit it with a big piece of painted wood.

Then we picked up Ossi and Lotti, Peter's parents. As Ursula had told me, Lotti kept forgetting who I was. Ossi kept speaking in a mixture of English and Schweiyer Deutsch about relatives in SL. I didn't catch much.

We took a boat across Biel Lake. Wow. It was slow and relaxing and sunny. We kept changing seats when people got off stops until we had room in a good palce. At St. Petersbourg Island, Peter showed me Rousseaux's monument and the room where he hid. It was a monastery, and now it is a restaurant. We ate these yummy sweetwater fish things (dipped in delicious white sauce with lemon juice), and Lotti kept swatting bees. She hit one into her coke and Peter had to dump it out. He told me that Lotti and Ossi always say they don't drink coke at all, but they order it every dinner. Ursula told me they make a good team because Lotti is healthy but forgets everything, and Ossi's heart has huge problems and he had a stroke last year, but he helps Lotti along. They are worried about him dying and Lotti always asking where he is, like when he went for a cheup. Sad.

I told Ursula a story and tried to explain what embarrassing was so that she could give me the German word. Peter didn't understand either. We talked about idioms and Peter said he thought after 3 bad things come a catastrophe. (American - bad things come in threes, German - aller gute Dinge sind drei - all good things are 3, and now we know the Swiss).

After taking the old folks home, we went back to Meikirch and Peter and I picked berries. I picked a ton more. Ursula is going to give me some plants. Peter marveled that I was so fast and said I could stay. I told him if that was all it took, I'd pick berries for him every day. Yesterday I had thought I was asking to pick berries but ended up with a key to the front door.

When Peter travels, he draws and paints the places. His journals are amazing! They've been a lot of places. I asked if his music was Swiss yesterday, and made a fool of myself. He said he bought it in Utah. He said Ursula loves the tab choir CD and she whistled loudly to show she did. I asked if they understood the words - nope.

We looked up "embarrassing" - "painlich". Then we told embarrassing storiees - I about the fingernail clippers and Peter about eating a bug in his salad so as not to embarrass the hostess. We had meat and salada and hash browns and rolls. Peter "helped" me look up train times, but it took forever and we had to keep going back to change missed things. He called Grandpa and we talked (Grandma too.) Finally Peter went to bed and I typed for a long time. Their keyboards are even harder with all the languages. Yikesorama!