Friday, August 20th Ursula left lunches for Bea and I. Water was dripping onto the counter from an indeterminable source, so I put a towel on it and made a note to tell Peter. Bea found me at the Postauto station. We talked about relationships and how she had thought her boyfriend was the one and now she was worried because she's "old" and wants to have a family. I told her she'd have cute kids and she laughed and said she needed a husband first. We talked about how gross smok...

Thursday, August 19th Ursula left me some rolls with a note saying to have a nice day. I slept in until 8:30. It was raining. I ordered school books online (there are 15 I need this semester!), and I hope I got everything. Some are at the library. I ate the rolls-mmm! Two had chocolate chips in them! When I got to the rail station, I got off the bus and realized I had left my umbrella. I stood in a line forever, trying to figure out what to say. I couldn't remember the pastparti...

Wednesday, August 18th: When I saw the meat Ursula had out for my sandwich this morning (it looked like bacon), I had this feeling it was going in raw. Which it did. I saw so many kids traveling after 10 that I was confused. What about school? It was the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon, just stuck inside the gloom (as John Mayer would say). However, I thought it was pretty. The huge foggy mountains with more Italian-looking buildings and names the further south I got were...

Tuesday, August 17th Ursula made me a lunch and we walked to the bus stop (postautohaltestelle). This time, ursula forgot her keys, so Peter quickly brought them up. I met some neighbors. They complimented my German, but I wonder how well I really speak. I found the right train and when I got Zurich, wow, I could really feel the leftovers of climbing that hill to the Heidihaus yesterday - in my shins and bum. I'm going to be in great shape when I get back! In St. Gallen, I foun...

Monday, August 16th: We awoke at six and had breakfast. Ursula bought me hot chocolate mix. When she and I got into the car, Peter ran around looking for his keys. Then Ursula was telling me about him always losing his keys, and she tahem in the ignition. I helped carry the bread into the school and then Peter took me to the station. May I say again that I love the three kiss thing? I got an earlier train, but in Zurich I still had to wait for the later one to go to Bad Ragaz. When ...

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 t...

Saturday, August 14th: Wow, I slept so well. I love those duvet things. We went to Sue and Bea's godmother and godfather's house, which was very niear, and had huge Swiss breakfast. Dorothea and Werner were very nice and Sue kept asking if I'd like more and what kind of tea (peppermint) and then Ursula saw me staring at the yummmy braided bread, shiny and fresh, made by Dorothea, so she nodded to it and I nodded back and she cut me two more pieces. They said that the apricot jam was new...

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 he...

Whoa. I had the two biggest charlie horses I've ever had, at the same time, in both legs at 5 am (on Thursday, August 12th). I wanted to scream, but I just bit my tongue. When it finally ended, I stood up, or tried too, but my legs hurt so much! They still hurt when I got up later and packed some and ate some rote grötze and rode the bike to the bus stop with my sore legs even though I couldn't find the key. However, the bus came earlier and there wasn't another for 30 minutes. They wer...

Today is Mike's Birthday. (August 12th). I wrote him a letter and called him. The speaking exam and last written exam went fine. I caught up a bit on my blog. Then I bought a pizza and tried to get 4 milchbrötchen, but the lady didn't understand. Me: I need 4 milchbrötchen. Her: Ja (puts one in a bag) Me: I need 3 more. Her: 3? Me: 3 more. Her: 1,20 (only 3 in the bag). Me: (whatever, I give up). After school Brad and I looked at flights for Municha and Bern. No go. The...

On Monday (August 9th), we had an early wake up call. The guy at the desk offered us an early breakfast, so we ate and then hopped on the taxi. This driver was Speedy Gonzalez. ON the train we sat by these weird dudes from L.A., one of whom looked like that girly singer dude on Wedding Singer. They ate a lot of raisins. I found that funny, so I asked them if Californians do that and they said yes. They've been traveling around Europe for 50 days! We had more curry chicken - mmm! I had...

Some dudes were yelling at each other in the street at 5:30 am. It bounced off the buildings, so it was way loud and annoying. Then Matt's alarm didn't go off, so we missed the bus and barely made it to the end of breakfast. Then when we went out to the next bus, Matt waved at the driver, but he didn't stop! So we walked forever and saw the Rathaus (city hall), sat on a dock, walked up to a beautiful castle, sat on a bench, and then walked up to a famous church, but taking pics of the ins...

We got on a little train thing and went to the Viking Ship Museum. The ships were so old and cool. I had Matt take lots of pics for Katie, and I bought her something as well. Then when we got to the Folk House Museum, I was disappointed because I had already bought her something when the things here were cooler and so much more Katie-ish. We saw so many cool old houses built by Norwegians back to the 1200s! They were on stilts like that Bab Yaga story (is that the name?) and had carved w...

We got up and ate the breakfast provided (I had hot chocolate and muesli with yogurt and these little chopped up pieces of hot dog and thick bread that was actually soft with yummy raspberry jam) We slept in some more after that, then set out to the museums. It turned out to be a longer walk than we though, so we waited for bus 30. The bus driver told us to get on the next one, so we walked and stopped again at the next bus stop. Soem random miracle bus pulled up with no one in it, and th...

Friday, August 6th Wow, it was hard at first to convince myself it was worth it to have no sleep and go jump on a train, but I knew I could sleep on the train, which I did, for a long time. The train pulled onto a ferry and we got to go up top where there were seats, tables, and ridiculously expensive stores to look at the ocean. Mom - half of my eyebrow is gone again, not due to waxing this time (which is DESPERATELY NEEDED, WHY DID I NOT BRING TWEEZERS?), but to a huge yit under it and...