Wishin' Impossible

My friend Tanya recently blogged a wish list. She's the best gift giver I know and she even impressed me with the gifts she wished for for herself. I'm probably the worst gift giver, and what do you know--I can't even think of something for myself. I've been searching my mind for ideas for my gift-givers, but so far I've been doing a really bad job of it, because the things I want are ridiculously expensive. Or just ridiculous. (I could request any one of several hundred books, but I'm a firm believer in libraries.) But how about a Chris Volpe CD? (Love his sound.) Or a new pair of Target moccasins? (Thanks, Lena, for introducing me to them--I love.) What I really want is a 64 GB iPod touch (large enough to hold all my music). I've been kind of dying inside since I sold my iPod. As long as we're posting things that are never going to become realities as Christmas presents, why not add the MacBook Pro (13" or 15"? I can't decide) that would hold all my files and that I've been lusting after for two years now (though I'll probably just end up running my MacBook into the ground)? Or a magical cure for all physical ailments/new wrists? Basically I just like this: Because I can use it for life. But who uses real money these days anyway? (Ha ha. I guess everyone thinks that gift cards are more acceptable gifts than cash, though I'm not sure why, since gift cards can't be used everywhere, and isn't the point that the receiver gets what he or she wants or needs?) Okay, okay, I know my wishes aren't realistic, though there are kids half my age who get similar things and more. So why not just some of the following? Kinder Riegel? A dress made of Lindt milk chocolate truffles? (There had better be something underneath those chocolates, or we're in big trouble in a big hurry!) I think I asked for one of the following for 12 straight years of my life. Yeah, you'd think I would have stopped hoping a long time ago. Nope. Bernese Mountain Dogs=Michelle with a melted heart. Don't you just want to give him a squeeze? Milka Noisette bars? Drool. My own hermit hut in the Swiss Alps with a free-of-charge anonymous deliverer and picker-upper of library books to my heart's content? Duplo? Someone who could make me look like Alexis Bledel every day of my life? Or how about some new running shoes to burn off all those chocolate bar calories, since my shoes seem to have disappeared, never to return? Forget that. I'll never go running if I don't have an iPod. Not worth it. The perfect boyfriend? (No subject for an image exists. Nor does the image for a perfect girlfriend, so don't get mad.) Feel free to use the comments to dubs what you're going to get me. Bwa ha ha. Meh. A gift card. Just go with the gift card.

New Years YSA Conference 2008-2009 in Elm, Switzerland

I met up with these guys in Zollikofen to drive to Elm.













We requested Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up" (Daniel was the DJ) and all sung along:





I was so excited to see Alexa there, and it was so nice of her to bring her skis for me (she wears the same size shoe). Here we are getting ready to hit the slopes on Saturday!













Here's Alexa a few minutes later praying to the ski gods to let Michelle get better at skiing or at least to keep moving. I don't know what happened, but I suddenly became intimidated by this mountain and was almost paralyzed most of the time. Shameful. It also didn't help that I was stuck with gloves that soaked through with water and then froze into blocks of ice. Very pleasing, especially when my thumb was so cold that it hurt when I tried to warm it up.













At least I had lots of opportunities to take beautiful pictures as I sat down along the way. Seeing mountains again seriously warmed my heart.
















That evening, before the dance, we had fun writing and drawing all over the message board. I even added the music to "Mary Had a Little Lamb."













On Sunday, we had sacrament meeting on a snowy hill.
























This was the view:













An area seventy, Elder Weidmann, gave a great fireside which was more like a discussion on the conference's theme scripture, which also happens to be my favorite scripture: Jacob 6:12. I love Jacob. As I'm fond of saying, he's totally underrated.

I decided to do some snowshoeing on Monday. Totally worth it.
















We were so warm at the top and the view was so amazing that no one minded eating sandwiches in the freezing cold.













Wow. So this is what happens when you don't have snowshoes on--you start sinking, surrounded by beauty.













This guy just suddenly decided to stand beside me. If I were a little more warmly dressed like he is, I might be able to claim that I was at the Everest base camp or something.
















Just one more picture with the beautiful mountains in the background, followed by two videos.



















Family night was followed by a dance that was pajama-party-themed. I loved having people ask me who "Reed" was (I had on my family reunion t-shirt).













We played Werewolves and Dippity, Dippity, Dip with a big group of people. We decided to invite the French-speaking YSAs to join us. It was hilarious to hear them trying to say "Dippity." Sometimes it was "Deepity" and sometimes it was "Beebeedee." The girl and three boys on the further side of the circle are the French-speaking ones:





Tuesday, I hit the slopes again and was glad I'd done it. I was able to ski a lot faster. Vera and I made a good skiing pair because we skied at about the same speed and cautiousness. Plus, I had "borrowed" warm, waterproof gloves from the shelf outside of our room. The best adventure was when we went to the very top of the mountain and discovered it was a very steep hill. Vera didn't want to do it though I thought we could schaff it, so we didn't get out of the lift. The whole lift stopped for us to get out, so we had to explain that we didn't want to get out. Then at the bottom, there was no where to get out, so we just had to somehow jump out. I skied straight into a cupboard and she into some cement steps, which made loud noises and sent the men shoveling snow running to stop the lift. Ha ha.













So much dancing and skiing gave my feet some lovely and thankfully painless blisters. Unfortunately, not everyone had dirndls for the Älpler dance, but we still looked pretty good.













I found a lot of the Austrian boys quite good-looking, polite, and interesting. I tried on my friend Michael's Älpler hat. The winner of the Älpler contest was a friend from Leipzig!













The next day, Alexa and I had hardcore colds that left us constantly needing tissues and gave me back my intense sore throat. We were also some of the last ones to get off the slopes to get ready for the New Year's Eve ball and found this crazy sign along the way.













Instead of having showering parties like some girls, Alexa and I both avoided crowds in the showers like the plague. I'm getting better at the public showering thing. I just don't think about it and don't make eye contact with people. Unlike some girls, Alexa and I were able to get spiced up pretty quickly. I convinced her to try some of my bronzer and I think it looked really great on her.













I loved the pig decorations (they're good luck, like the peppermint pig I used to smash with my family) and even found a boyfriend to replace the smoker guy. Say hi to Schwänli.













This makes me think of that book Pigs in Hiding.
















The food was pretty good. Tin foil decorations were entertaining.













I just had to have a picture with my friend David who looks like Clark Kent.













Each night when we got ready for bed, we laughed at mascara and eyeliner smears and crazy hair. We stopped laughing once we couldn't sleep because people were snoring and sleeping through their cell phone alarms that went off every couple of minutes. (Seriously, how do they do that? I woke up one girl four or five times to tell her to turn off her cell phone. She always asked, "Whose cell phone?")













Each day, Alexa's bruises from snowboarding down the icy sledding path got bluer. As she put it, "I have dead people knees."
















Although the weather wasn't as warm as the other days, the amazing amount of snow that fell from midnight til morning gave Thursday fabulous powder that allowed me to ski from the highest slope, which was thoughtfully decked with hammocks to give your knees a rest before the long fall. Also, a tip from a Swiss friend the previous day helped me to ski a lot faster and more confidently.













In the evening, though my knees were completely done and I could have slept twelve hours right then, we took a lift to the top of the nearest mountain and sledded down to the bottom. There were amazing stars and we laughed and screamed the entire time. While waiting in line, I told Alexa about Amy's sledding fiasco, which would be ironic in the hours to come . . .













During the second round, we had to stop in the middle (of course this was only possible at one spot where it wasn't so steep or icy). I was such a horrible driver because I had ice frozen on my eyes and couldn't see anything. It was sooooo cold and sooooo amazingly hard to brake.













And the rest of the story tomorrow or Tuesday. If you can believe it, it gets even more exciting . . .

Christmas 2008 (in Switzerland)

Getting to Switzerland, as is usual with Mitfahrgelegenheit, was an adventure. I couldn't find an available ride, so I offered one and got a plethora of calls and emails of people wanting to go with me. Two of the people wanted to get out and risk the train at the border because the girl isn't allowed to leave the country. Of course, they didn't know where the train station was and we ended up driving to the French border and being checked there. They told us to drive to the roundabout and turn around. So, I was in France for about one minute before I dropped them off at a train station. Woohoo.

The GPS stopped working in Switzerland, which was no problem for finding Bern. However, it took a while to find the train station, and it took at least an hour to find where to return my rental car. Then, dragging all my things, it took me a while to get back to the train station and take the Postauto to Meikirch. When I finally got to the Bieris' a few hours late, I was so glad to eat some delicious raclette potatoes. We had fascinating conversation and finally went to bed.

The next day, the 24th, I helped Pit decorate the tree and Ursula decorate the table, candles included.













Thanks to a senior sister I have been exchanging emails with (Sister Grassli), I was able to go with the sisters in Bern (who are currently a three-some consisting of Sister Langhurt, Sister Fredrikksen and Sister Lehmann) to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Kempa family. (The Bieris had an invitation to meet Sue's fiance's parents, so I used one of their cars to get to the Kempas' house). One of the sister missionaries knows many people I know, as she comes from East Germany, so we had a lot to talk about. The dinner there was so good, the family was so friendly, and I was amazed that they even had presents for me, labeled "To Miss Student." I was particularly excited about two presents: one was mango lotion from The Body Shop, which I've wanted for at least the last 6 years but have been too cheap to buy, and the other was Ds Nöie Teschtamänt, or Das Neue Testament (the New Testament) in Swiss German! Yay!













We had two cakes, one of which was purely made of balls of ice cream with whipped cream squirted in the holes. I brought banana bread, which they considered cake and sprinkled with powdered sugar.













Here are all of us after food, presents, and singing:













The next day, I finally got to meet Sue's fiance, Phillip, a very nice gentleman.













I also got to see Rolf and Bea, who lit the candles on the tree. Sophie was everybody's entertainment as she showed up with angel wings and an interest in anything and everything.





We sang songs, with Rolf and I switching off at the piano inherited from Pit's mother.





Ursula made very artful and tasty appetizers.













We opened presents. I gave everybody socks--the girls got those fuzzy ones in pretty colors and the guys got argyle socks. You know I consider socks to be the best presents.













I was so pleased to get house shoes with the Swiss flag on them, and a Swiss mug!
























The food was so good, Pit asked Ursula if he could lick his plate.













Rolf and Ursula helped me read the Christmas story from my Swiss German New Testament, and then I helped Ursula arrange her cookies on a plate. They were so beautiful, I had to take a picture!
















It took a million tries, but we finally got a suitable picture of all of us except Sophie, who was sleeping (albeit fitfully).













When I got back from jogging, Pit and Ursula were finished setting up the tent they'd gotten for Sophie for Christmas. As soon as she realized it was cool for hiding in, she loved it.













It was negative 4 degrees Celsius, but we decided to go for a walk because it was so gorgeously sunny.


















Rolf, Bea, and Sophie catching up with us was a striking image.
















Here are some panoramas I took:











I was so sad to leave, but the Bieris stocked me up with some beautiful cards that Pit had painted of Bern and brought me to the temple in Zollikofen!