Happy New Year

If I wasn't such a loser I'd go into town and celebrate the new year.  Instead, I'm lying in bed with the intent of a good night's sleep.  Although I had a lovely dinner with some great people tonight.

Hors d'ouvres, is that how you spell it?

happy new years

Schlittle!

Schlittle or schlittel or something like that! I got to ride one today, it's a small traditional swiss sled made of wood with metal on the bottom of the skis.  We all went this afternoon and I loved it, I couldn't stop giggling.  We took the gondola up mannlichen and went down to the midway station on these little trails designed for sledding and I just had the time of my life. Everyone needs to ride one at some point in their life.  You go SO fast!

Here is Hayden in the parking lot. This sled has a little seat for kids and an adult sits behind them and steers.

Bode can go by himself, he's way better than me.

Kenzie and Bode using their feet for braking and steering

It's me posing with my sled

The view from our schlittle trail, hard to pay attention with those mountains always distracting you.

There you have it. The beauty of sledding, it's definitely under appreciated back home.  Everyone get on a sled and enjoy!

I finally got some ski pictures!

So today I decided to ski with my camera, it was a total hassle because I just wore it around my neck.  I also decided to just bring my fisheye lens, I didn't want to be skiing with a camera around my neck and an extra lens in my pocket.  Once I got up there I was so mad I didn't have my other lens because it was a breathtaking morning. My fisheye stinks with the scenery shots, but oh well what can you do. I took some fun pictures, met up with my friends Marco and Andreas and we skied. It was an excellent day and we had a good time.  I'm falling in love with skiing again!  It could be because I feel so free with out all that ski patrol gear. Anywho here are some pictures of my day.

First run of the day

Andy and Marco

My first time on a T bar, with the help of Marco

Bluebird day with perfect snow

The trail to my house, I'm probably only 200 yards from home



nothing too exciting

Just thought I'd keep my blog streak going.  I worked again today, I guess I'm doing a good job because my boss wants me to come in again on friday, I attribute that to me doing a good job and not the fact that it's insanely busy. Ha.  Today was the first day I didn't take a picture, so I'll post something I took a few days ago.  OH yeah, I was invited to go eat toast with some people I work with. I unfortunately didn't go, but I'll probably go next time..to eat...toast.

me and my 400g of chocolate

This is my christmas loot!

Work!

Today was my first day of work.  I had to catch the gondola at 7:30 in the morning.  Kenzie's mother in law works at the same place I do, so she gave me a ride.  We hopped on the gondola and started our 30 minute journey up the hill.  As soon as we were all situated Franny's friend pulled out a pitcher of hot peppermint tea and we enjoyed tea all the way up to work.  When I got there nobody spoke much english so they took me to a table with a knife on it and about 5,000 potatoes. Yep, I peeled potatoes, haha, don't worry only for about an hour and there were lots of other women peeling, not just me.  After that we peeled carrots and apples.  Then we all sat down in the restaurant for lunch, it was great, mashed potatoes, salad, bread and this really good chicken in gravy, quite delicious.  When lunch was over we started the real work.  I've never seen so many people at a ski resort, let alone the lodge/restaurant.  I mostly just kept things in stock, salads, drinks, knives, forks, napkins, etc. It was crazy busy, but things eventually slowed down, around 4:15 right before the mountain closed.  I finished around 5:00 then had to ski down in the near dark, luckily I had Franny to follow all the way down.  It was icy and long, I swear I must've dropped 4,000 feet in elevation, ok maybe I'm exaggerating, maybe I'm not, either way it was long.  So there you have it, more words than pictures.  I work again tomorrow and then I have the rest of the week off.

Morning tea in the gondola

The sunrise as I got off the gondola

Sunday!

I went to church today and it was pretty cool. The time flew by, which doesn't happen for me that often. hehe.  Anyway, it was a tiny chapel and a cute building, but my favorite part was that the nursury is held in the basement, in the bomb shelter. I guess if a bomb hits they are the generation worth saving.

I'd post more pictures, but I don't know how many self portraits or pictures of the mountains you can handle.

quick post

So last night the internet wasn't working so I'll just throw a few pictures on this morning. 

The church bells were going off on christmas, it was great.

Nice one, me and a sad Myles

it was a very merry Christmas.

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve, almost my entire meal consisted of dairy products.  Raclette (i'm sure that's spelled incorrectly), a traditional swiss meal, you melt raclette cheese and eat it with potatoes, or just the cheese if you want.  Sorry Marydee, you wouldn't like it.  Then ice cream for dessert, yeah sure there were also vegetables, but I just want to glorify the dairy for a minute.  We also had a visit from the american Santa, I love Christmas with really young kids, they get so excited.

The living room

Hayden and Bode ready for dinner

Me, Kenzie, Hayden, Myles, Mandel and Bode

My bright yellow shirt throwing off the balance of the picture, ha.

I love this picture, even though it's blurry. It all happened so fast. Santa just on his way in the house, you can see the excitement in Bode's face.

So there you have it.  Just getting ready for bed, the excitement of Christmas in the air.  It'll be a good night. 

ski slopes here I come!

Today I got my season pass for the four surrounding ski areas. The train station is the place to go if you need to buy a season pass, that was a new one for me. The picture was taken through glass, so halfway down my face it gets a bit blurry. That's why.  Then this afternoon, I managed to catch a bus from my house to the gondola of the resort Mannlechin, the gondola ride was 30 minutes! Well, I didn't take my camera, just so I didn't have to worry about it. Man I wish we had some snow, it's pretty icy, but it was quite fun. I'm going again tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll take my camera.

 It's electronic, you don't have to show it to anyone, you just keep it in your pocket and the lifts scan it.

kindergarten

Today we ran a few errands down in town, so I got acquainted with the ways swiss grocery stores operate. You need to put a coin in the cart so you can seperate it from the others, then when you're done you put it back with the other carts and it gives you your coin back. How about that? You also bring your own bags and bag the groceries yourself. After the market we went to Bode's kindergarten christmas party and his class did a little presentation for us. I loved it!

 a view of downtown grindelwald

what will be the end of me

Then at the kindergarten the kids did this cute presentation, when we entered the room it looked like this..

One by one the children walked around the circle to the middle and each lit a candle and placed it somewhere in the pine needles, with some angelic music playing in the background,

 Like so.

this is the finished product, pretty cute. the funny thing was watching these five year olds handle an open flame. Not something that you would see in the states.  It was a really cute celebration, we finished singing o tannenbaum and some other German tunes.



Just a look

Thought I'd give ya'll a look at my great new bedroom and bathroom, They're perfect. I'll get some pictures up of the Kaufmanns soon, cutest family ever.

My bedroom, so cozy.

My bathroom. The shower has great water pressure.

The favorite thing about my room, this cowbell. I contemplated putting it on, but a little heavy.

One more picture of this bell. I love it.

I'm here!

So after several long hours at several airports, I'm happy to report that I made it safe and sound.  I got a few pictures of my new home I'd love to share with everyone.

That's the door to my room on the far left.

Another picture of my new home

I took this at night with a slow shutter speed, you can see the stars.

One more view from my bedroom window



I arrived late in the day, had enough time to meet the kids, eat a delicious dinner of cheeses and salami, unpack my bags and upload a few pictures.  Now I'm off to bed.

Well, i'm off....

For those of you who haven't heard...well, you're on my blog so I'm assuming you know. I'm off to start my new life in the Swiss Alps.  The small town of Grindelwald is where I will be calling home for the next several months.  I leave on Sunday and thought I ought to try posting something, with the help from my Blog trainer Finchie (I don't know what I'm doing).  I'll post a few pictures Finchie and I took; this will help me learn how to post pictures.  Wish me luck:)

Me and my bicicleta

I'm gonna miss this place. Orem skatepark

One more of yours truly

Well, there you have it folks. I have officially learned how to blog.  Hopefully it goes this well with out my professional blogger/friend/bestie/twin Finchie.