return to Switzerland

I got back to Switzerland last Sunday evening and started back to class Monday morning. I think I'm just about over the jet lag. Below I'm posting some pictures from yesterday. Rachel and I spent the afternoon and evening with our apartment manager (Paulette) and her husband (Steffan). They took us to a few neat places nearby for the views and some ice cream. I'll post some pictures soon from my time at home.

we drove up to the mountains and went to that restaurant - on the top - can you see it?

the view from the top - the valley of Traverse - doesn't it make you want to live here?


the restaurant is called Napoleon's Hat - 3,153 feet

me, Paulette (our apartment manager), and Rachel


Rachel was taking my picture and I just couldn't keep my eyes open in the sun anymore - but I kind of like this one anyway

ice cream

then we went to a restaurant on the shore of Lake Neuchatel - I got coffee.

We came back to the apartment building and had dinner at Paulette and Steffan's. They served us Raclette - a traditional Swiss meal that consists of melting your own little tray of cheese and scraping it on top of potatoes and different vegetables. So good (except for the pickles and onions and other things that taste like vinegar)!

Pictures of my time at home to come...

weekends mostly

pictures from life the last couple of months...

there is a small Christian bookstore in downtown Neuchatel (Le Sycamore) where we go to study sometimes in the afternoon - they have a little "cafe" area in the back where you can sit and read and get coffee or tea

to get from my old house in Cortaillod to the lake shore, I usually took these waterfalls stairs through the vineyards - they're stairs with a stream constantly running over them

the view from the top of the water stairs out over Lake Neuchatel

one day I walked from my town of Cortaillod to downtown Neuchatel (I usually take the tram in when going to class) - it took 2h10m with a few stops along the way for photos - this is a view of Neuchatel from around the lake

one Saturday we (Rachel and I) took a trip to Grindelwald and stopped in Thun and Interloken on the way - this is in front of the castle at the top of Thun which wasn't open because we were there WAY too early in the morning (we went with some friends, Eric and Wendy, who went directly to Grindelwald to ski and wanted to get there early enough to have a full day of skiing)

a view from the train coming into Interloken

in Grindelwald there was an ice sculpture competition - this is me with one side of Russia's scuplture - the other side is happy, but I liked this side better because he has a single tear coming out of the corner of his right eye - can you see it?

just a picture of Rachel and me with a cow in Grindelwald

another weekend we went to the musee d'horlorgorie (clock museum) with Marianne, my "host mom"

another weekend we hopped a cheap Easy Jet flight to London - this is me in front of Windsor Castle with the creative photography skills of Maralee

Maralee's creativity again in front of the Tower of London

Big Ben (the name of the bell inside the clock tower, not the name of the tower itself) and the London Eye

we arrived just in time to go inside for an "evensong" - a daily service that takes place in the evening (or afternoon in this case) - it was spectacular

the trip to school

this was my walk to school my first couple weeks here - now the snow is almost completely melted

my house (the top floor) - my bedroom is the window hidden behind the tree branch

the town of Boudry where I catch the tram


the lights of Boudry and the tram station


walk from my house, across this field to those buildings, then down the hill to the right

me walking across that field

up to the left goes home, down to the right goes to the tram station


cross the river


castle on the riverbank

the tram stop in Boudry

Neuchatel - "my" tram in the foreground

Place Pury, Neuchatel - the public transportation hub where my tram arrives

walking to school from Place Pury - turn right after the reddish brown building on the right (which sells hot chesnuts in the afternoon, if you want any)

walk down here and turn left after passing H&M

walk to the end of this road and turn right at the fountain

cross the street here and turn left up the hill

walk up this hill to the intersection

turn right toward the gare (train station)

up this hill past the museum

and school is on the right

the view from the school balcony

new home

So I'm in Switzerland for the next year or so. I arrived on Friday. My flight arrived in Zurich and then I took the train for two hours to Neuchâtel. Here's a view out the train window:

Here's my new bedroom with my wonderful down comforter and feather pillow:

And the view out my bedroom window:

On Saturday, three of us (there are two other girls in my class who are also headed to Cameroon) took the train to Lausanne for the day, about 40 minutes away. We bought food at the grocery store and had a picnic lunch. It was really cold. Here's Rachel eating with her mittens on:

And Maralee:

A portion of Lausanne:

The rose in the cathedral:

Proof that it's cold. Frost on a chain link fence on Sunday afternoon:

a collection of photos from my family's visit

My family came to visit for three weeks. Here we are after lunch with a couple of my friends - the Andosehs.


Sunrise on safari morning.




Tons of giraffes!

Posing with spears.

flight

I flew through a rainbow on my way home from Equatorial Guinea on Monday. You should have seen it encircle the plane...

my job is very cool

The first text message (aka SMS) I sent from work this morning, to Dennis who was flying somewhere over the middle of Cameroon:

"Just got in from FROG. As of 0730Z the storm was centered over

the Nigerian border 80 mi or so southwest of Garoua."

And then I thought: "How weird is that. 'The storm is over the Nigerian border...'" And my job is very cool.