Uplifts

Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought.

It has been snowing for 36 hours!!!!! It is great I love it. Not much of it has been sticking, however. Just now, as I am about to go to bed, there is 2 inches on the ground. I can’t wait to see what it is like when I get up!! Hopefully I will get to take some great pictures Well, at least try to. The snow instantly reminded me of Boston. The villages have a very East Coast feel to them as it is snowing. I feel more at home.

The team won our first Swiss Cup match!! We also won the other League B match. We will play two more Swiss Cup matches before the League A teams enter into the bracket, which will be the quarterfinals. It is still be decided whether I will get to start practicing on Friday, as discussed, or if I will need another week. I stood on this weird machine at the doctor’s last Friday. I stood on metal foot plates and held two metal rods. It was explained to me as a way to measure the muscle mass of each side of my body. I had to enter my age and weight and height…… hmmm. Another interesting adventure yet again at the doctor’s.

We went to Luzern a while back. Our plan was to go there to ride one of the steepest trains in Europe…. but we got off to a late start and did not make it there until the afternoon. But of course, we made the most of it!!! We saw some great churches and a stone carving that is known to be the most sorrowful and passionate in all of Europe. We also got delicious mexican food. yum! Luzern was gorgeous. I thought Geneva was great, but compared to Luzern, Geneva is filthy! haha. To me, Luzern is a must see in Switzerland. We started at the tourist office again. They informed us that a lot of cities in the country have the “steep trains,” but it is something we should do. We decided on the walking tour…… which led us thru the city along the lake and helped us to locate all the significant stops along the way. The main stop, other than the lion carving, was the Musegg Wall. Climbing to the top of this wall and its nine towers gave us a spectacular panoramic view of the city. Although it was built in 1386, it stays nearly intact becasue of its location near the Alps! The view was truly breathtaking and gave us our first big taste of what the alps are really like. Being there gave me the uplift my gloomy soul needed.

the lake of Lucerne

the view from one of the towers

the clock tower of the Musegg Wall

dev emily and steph w mr. lion

commemorates the swiss guards who died during the French Revolution

gorgeous church on the water

flowers outside the church

emily entering the church's front doors

Zurich continued to further the process of the rebuilding of my mental state. Most of the other girls went to shop, but I went to sightsee!!! It is rare that you we see me on a day in which I feel like going shopping. hah. What a phenomenol experience I had simply walking around the city. The trees throughout the entire country are tremendously colorful, let alone in Zurich. I wound up in a wonderful little park. It was a little bit scary because at this point I was alone and there were quite a few characters in the park watching me. I walked briskly thru, taking pictures while I could. I wish I would have stumbled upon it sooner because I would have liked to spend more time there. I am sure I will return at some point.

downtown Zurich!

the sky is falling

museummmmmm

this lake runs thru the whole city

magical park

light rays shining thru the leaves

perfect.

rain on this great day= great rainbow

the rainbow and me

all trainstations should look like this one

shrubbery

fast action near the train/bus

We are fortunate to have made a lifelong friend in Loic, our “team manager.” He absolutely loves spending time with the team. Although our French tongue is coming along slowly, Loic remains persistent. When he discovered we wanted to go hiking in the Alps, during one of our lessons, he immediately volunteered to take us on one of our upcoming days off. It ended up taking some time to get there, which resulted in us trying to get Claude, VFM owner and Loic’s father, to cancel practice later that night. We were not successful, understandably. Loic had also made surprise plans to take us to get some famous dessert made in one of the towns we would pass thru on our way home. We ran out of time for this as well, but he still plans on taking us there at some point. We made it to one of the tallest dams in Europe. It was located next to a giant glacier!! This was the coldest day since we arrived in Switzerland. However, Loic managed to make sure we were prepared for this. We decided to take the trail that wrapped around the entire lake… it took us about 3 hours. What a great team bonding day!!

waterfall we spotted while waiting for the car train

just getting aboard the car train

this is Switzerland

a pretty hillside vineyard

famous village thats on all the postcards for the Alps!

wish you were here!

the gang and our trail :)

milk thistle family? :)

:)

the glacier is wayyyy in the background

the view on the way down….

The watch factory in Saignelegier, which I am amazed I had no knowledge of its location, is giving VFM a tour on Thursday!!!! It is the factory which the province of Jura is famous for, Maurice-Lacroix. Benoit, VFM president, just informed us they are giving a 70% disocunt on watches!!!! Woooooo. So, we will be going on a tour of the factory and learning first hand what watch making is all about, and hopefully picking up a Swiss watch!!! This is such an exciting offer!

Here are the public links to my facebook photo albums of Luzern, Zurich and The Alps!! You do not have to be apart of the facebook community to look at them
For Luzern and Zurich go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320091&id=1817027&l=ebd02e8c79

For Les Alpes Suisse go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2320261&id=1817027&l=fcf2f23cfd

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Tags: Alps, being original, dirty swiss, facebook, learning french, Luzern, Musegg Wall, parks, snow, Swiss Cup, Swiss medicine, swiss metal rod machine, swiss watches, team bonding, traveling, VFM, Zurich