Lucerne

Keith was busy all day dealing with all the paper work of immigrating from the United States.  So the kids and I took the train to Lucerne to spend the day with Barb Hurst and her family.  It was such fun to see them  and in spite of the rain, we had a fun afternoon.  We took a walking tour of the city, had lunch at the local Migros, and then got drenched in the rain walking to see the famous Lion Monument.

Making Friends

Yesterday, June 28th, we had a great day and yet didn't really go anywhere.  My friend Monique and her son Nelson came to the hotel where we planned our day.  Kelly went with Monique's daughter Naomi to school for the second half of the day.  After school the two girls plus another friend of Naomi's went to the grocery store and then back to one of the girl's apartments to make muffins.  I would have thought the experience of being in a school for the first time with kids that really only speak German, and then spending the next three hours with two girls that only speak a little English would be very intimidating, but Kelly had a great time.  Yeah!

While Kelly was busy, Josh, Nelson, Keith and I went to lunch and then ran through the fountains to cool off.  Afterwards Josh and I went back to Monique's house and enjoyed learning some German, playing with their chocolate lab, Hershey, ( how appropriate to have a chocolate lab in Switzerland, they should have named him Toblerone ) and exchanging magic tricks. We are so very lucky to have such good friends that have helped make this whole transition so much easier.

The picture of the building is The Swiss National Bank, where all the gold from all the very wealthy swiss people is stored.

Neuchåtel & Moråt

We had a terrific day, roaming around with no plan.  We went to Neuchåtel. We had heard about how cool that town was from our neighbor Dan Debry,  and also Heidi Romney who had each stayed there in french language study-abroad programs. We took a boat to Moråt.. a small town with a medieval walled city in the middle, on the shore of Murten Lake.  There are three large lakes interconnected by canals, and a boat network that visits all the villages along the shore.  It was hot today, so the 90 minute boat ride was a little long.. but fun and beautiful.  We bought food at a COOP and stopped at a small park to have lunch in the shade, where we got caught in the middle of a 6th grade bicycle-club water fight -- which then evolved into a duel between Josh and Kelly.  Josh got more wet, but that happens to him a lot, whether there's a water fight, or just some water nearby.

Just a Few Pictures

Our First Sunday

Today we had to wake up early to get breakfast before we caught the train to Zollikofen for church. Kelly was worried about her young women's class, but she actually thought it was quite fun. We met several people who had been emailing us, the Kidd's and Müllers, and many other families. Meetings were entirely in German... and the FM systems to broadcast translations weren't quite working because the missionaries doing the translating didn't understand Bern-Deutsch very well. But Kelly had a translator in young women's which worked out really well. The Müllers, Thomas and Olivia, had us to their house for dinner with the Kidds who are moving to London next Friday. That was a great dinner, and a lot of fun. Later, they showed us around the school and some available apartments in their village of Schüpfen and have nearly persuaded us that we should live in the country. They then drove us back to the hotel through beautiful country roads. Thomas is going to help us meet one of the landlords tomorrow. The Mullers have five children, none of which match up to our kids grades, but they are close. Their school actually has class every day and every afternoon, except Wednesday. This is different from the other town we are looking at which has school only two afternoons for Josh and three for Kelly.

That evening we walked around downtown Bern where people were literally dancing in the streets. After living in Bern for four days, I totally get it.

Lunch w/Naomi & Nelson and Thun

We got our Swiss Passes today. It was a big decision and a lot of money, but we now have the freedom to go anywhere in Switzerland for a year. We can even take the boats across the lakes.

We went to our friends the Pratisto's for lunch. They had a lovely spread of fruit, meats, chesses, and yes - chocolate croissants. I love these people. They have a son a year older than Josh and a daughter Kelly's age. We had a great time and Naomi, the 13 year old, took us around and helped us look at a few flats we are considering. It is going to be a tough decision. Do we live in a less attractive place, smaller, more expensive, yet very convenient. Or do we live further in the country, beautiful, yet much farther for the kids to walk to school and me to walk anywhere?

I do love it here. Lots of clocks, lots of chocolate, and after the way Kelly acted today, I am glad there are lots of children eating Ogres. Hope they get her.

After lunch we went back to the room and all took a nap. Then took a short train ride to Thun. It was beautiful and I loved every minute of it.