Hey Everyone,
I hope this blog catches you all in good spirits. All is going well here in Switzerland, and we are nearing completion with this house we have been working on. Today's work was dedicated to tying down loose ends like hanging curtains, replacing smoke detector batteries, and ensuring all the lights were connected and functional. The house we are preparing will be inhabited by 20some female students from the German side of Switzerland who are coming here for school, so naturally we are trying to make the house as warm and welcoming as possible. After work today we came back and grilled out, then took it back to the Raleigh State Fair with some deep fried Milky Way bars for dessert...they were a hit among the Euros.
So I can't really remember if I have commented earlier on our luck thus far with The Dark Knight, but the saga is just to epic not to mention. A movie could be made about our pursuit to see a movie. When we left the states, our flight departed Washington, DC on July 13 while the Dark Knight released in theatres later that week in the USA. Then came Ireland. Ireland was an interesting journey for us, in that of the 8 or so days we were there, we slept in the car (remember, a VW Golf) for 5 of them. Needless to say, after day 3 or 4 days, we weren't exactly thrilled to be in the car, and were really excited about merely turning off our brains for a couple hours and enjoying some good ole fashioned Caped Crusading in what we thought would be the Irish opening of The Dark Knight. We arrive at a theatre only to find out that it opens in three days, which is conveniently one day after we arrive in France. I wish I could express to you all the dissapointment in our hearts that night, really, it was one of the greatest let downs I have experienced in a long...long time. Fast forward to last night, the grand opening of the Dark Knight here in Switzerland. We arrive at the theatre, make it through the lines, and purchase tickets, excited for the masterpiece which will soon unravel before our eyes. Luckily Matt payed attention in French class, and after confirming it with the ticket salesman 4 times, discovered the showing was in FRENCH, yes FRENCH, and the ENGLISH speaking theatre across town which was showing it was already sold out. You must be joking. No Blake, not joking at all, I am really without explanation as to how this movie is so difficult to on the big screen. After last night's events, I have just decided I can wait until I make it back to the states, my heart can't take this kind of emotional volatility any more. Thus concludes my European saga with The Dark Knight. If any of you have not seen it yet, and are reading this from the greater Washington, DC area, maybe we can go when I get back, though I can't make any promises that the movie will actually play while I am sitting in the theatre.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Christmas Hope and Powertools
Today started out as an overcast day here in Switzerland, and shortly after lunch turned into a flat rainy day. We, however, didn't let the rain dampen our mood, and continued to try and be productive around here at the base. We finished our shed project yesterday, which brought us to a slow, gradual renovation process in a house turned dormatory that YWAM owns here. This has consisted of a good deal of moving, rearranging, and finally today, setting up some of the rooms for students who are going to arrive here next Monday. While moving, we discovered an old box FULL of random stuff like the complete works of Mark Twain and National Geographics from the early 80's, and also within it held a little jewel known as "Christmas Hope" (http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Hope-Various-Artists/dp/B000H0MMN6/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1218568059&sr=1-9). This joyous selection features some of your favorite Christmas tunes sung by various artists like Michael W. Smith, Gary Chapman, and everyones favorite...4Him. Needless to say,
once we found a CD player, we embarked on a Christmas journey not traveled by many, and not soon to be forgotten. Once that started playing, productivity skyrocketed, and the rainy day blues couldn't hold us back. Turns out I'm an electrician...who knew? Speaking of unrealistic resourcefulness...I think I may go see The Dark Knight tomorrow. I might have already seen a bootleg version of it, but really I feel like it is pretty irreplaceable on the big screen, so standby for reactions. Anyway things are going well here, the food is still good, the people are still nice, and Michael Phelps is still winning.
once we found a CD player, we embarked on a Christmas journey not traveled by many, and not soon to be forgotten. Once that started playing, productivity skyrocketed, and the rainy day blues couldn't hold us back. Turns out I'm an electrician...who knew? Speaking of unrealistic resourcefulness...I think I may go see The Dark Knight tomorrow. I might have already seen a bootleg version of it, but really I feel like it is pretty irreplaceable on the big screen, so standby for reactions. Anyway things are going well here, the food is still good, the people are still nice, and Michael Phelps is still winning.Sunday, August 10, 2008
The Land of Expensive Shoes
Happy Sunday All!
I hope this blog finds you all good wherever you are. Things are great here in Switzerland and the adventures keep coming. So first off, how about the opening ceremony the other day? Wow,
pretty remarkable, I think they probably employed a group the size of Fiji to make that thing happen. It was really neat watching the opening ceremonies in another country and truthfully I dont know that I have ever been more proud to be an American. I know it sounds hokie but its really true. When you see an Olympic team showing up from a country like Zimbabwe or Sudan, knowing what these people have come from and will go back to, I just cant help but feel so fortunate for so many liberties which I was literally born into.
Yesterday we went into Lausanne for the day and explored around for a bit. We first stopped at this store called Jumbo which is equivalent to a Dicks Sporting Goods in the states. This was a sobering visit when I went to the shoe isle and found picture A. 199 Swiss Francs for a pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 11's? These shoes are about 90-95 USD in the states, and the swiss franc and the dollar are trading at about 1.08 Francs to every 1 USD. That means that these shoes are selling for 183.94 in dollars?!? Aparently, however, Switzerland is widely known worldwide as having one of the highest standards of living which really doesn't suprise me. Aparently Starbucks baristas get paid something like 26 francs an hour, Beth do they pay you that much at Murky?
Anyway after that cultural lesson learned at the Jumbo, we pressed on to the International Olympic museum which overlooks Lake Geneva in Lausanne. Really what are the odds of
American being in Lausanne, Switzerland while the Olympic games are taking place? Exactly...pretty slim. The museum was pretty incredible, so much so that we spent 6 hours in it. I could go to length about all the artifacts they had preserved from before the time of Christ, or all the torches used from all of the modern day Olympics out on display, or even all the sweet signed olympic gear they had (signed pair of Jordans, '92 Dream Team, really), but this blog really couldn't do it much justice, so you'll have to wait and hear it in person. Anyway after the Olympic time, we came back to the base, ate dinner, and pretty much laid low the rest of the evening.
American being in Lausanne, Switzerland while the Olympic games are taking place? Exactly...pretty slim. The museum was pretty incredible, so much so that we spent 6 hours in it. I could go to length about all the artifacts they had preserved from before the time of Christ, or all the torches used from all of the modern day Olympics out on display, or even all the sweet signed olympic gear they had (signed pair of Jordans, '92 Dream Team, really), but this blog really couldn't do it much justice, so you'll have to wait and hear it in person. Anyway after the Olympic time, we came back to the base, ate dinner, and pretty much laid low the rest of the evening.Sorry for the lack of brevity, but its my blog and I do what I want.
Love
B
Friday, August 8, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Euro Toilets
Morning All,
Brett Favre is a Jet???? What? Sorry I just had to get that out there as I cant really keep up with the inns and outs of pro football and I am just confused right now.
So one thing that continues to throw me for a loop while I scoot around this crazy continent is the toilets. Yes the toilets. So the basic fundamentals of use are all self explanatory (if not then we would have real issues), but then the challenge shows up when it comes to flushing. I dont think I have come across a single toilet in my time here which has a flusher handle in the standard place. Wierd. Look, for example, and the following picture. You may ask yourself "self...where does one flush such a toilet" and after searching and testing various things it turns out it is the square above the toilet. Who knew?
In other news, things here at the base have been great and we have had things to do every day. The shed we were working on is now washed and sanded down, and we are waiting for it to dry as we had some rainfall yesterday. We also moved a bunch of stuff yesterday which is never fun but always fun at the same time. Anyway I hope you guys are good and getting amped about the Olympics...USA! USA! USA!
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Change of Course
haha hey y'all,
I have appreciated all of your notes and comments regarding that crossing back to the states, but upon further review and discussion have opted out of doing it after all. I thought a lot after I had that spot on the boat on whether it was really for me or not, and remembered one of my goals for this whole trip was to see some of Europe, and while that has been accompished thus far, I felt like I could do better through another route. So with all that said, I hate to dissapoint, but I just didn't feel that was where I was being led. Anyways we are now in Switzerland at the YWAM {youth with a mission} base near Lusanne. Matt stayed here about 5 years ago, and still had some contacts here, so we came up and are getting to stay here for free. While we are here we will probably do some renovation work around the base, and will likely take day trips on the weekends. This morning we scrubbed dirt and mold off of a shed at a nearby property, and this afternoon holds lots of sanding and painting of this bad boy, pretty sweet. The funny thing is the work that is going down here doesn't really seem too different than what we were looking to do down in France, so it seems this is something we cant really escape. Anyway we are here safely, and enjoying all the food we can eat.
I have appreciated all of your notes and comments regarding that crossing back to the states, but upon further review and discussion have opted out of doing it after all. I thought a lot after I had that spot on the boat on whether it was really for me or not, and remembered one of my goals for this whole trip was to see some of Europe, and while that has been accompished thus far, I felt like I could do better through another route. So with all that said, I hate to dissapoint, but I just didn't feel that was where I was being led. Anyways we are now in Switzerland at the YWAM {youth with a mission} base near Lusanne. Matt stayed here about 5 years ago, and still had some contacts here, so we came up and are getting to stay here for free. While we are here we will probably do some renovation work around the base, and will likely take day trips on the weekends. This morning we scrubbed dirt and mold off of a shed at a nearby property, and this afternoon holds lots of sanding and painting of this bad boy, pretty sweet. The funny thing is the work that is going down here doesn't really seem too different than what we were looking to do down in France, so it seems this is something we cant really escape. Anyway we are here safely, and enjoying all the food we can eat.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Sorry for the delay
Friends and Family,
Sorry it has taken me a few days to make a post, as I have been fairly busy working! The afternoon after my last post, our phone rang saying I had work in Cannes the very next day. After that days worth of work, I came back to Antibes, and decided to walk the docks to see if I could dig anything up there, and sure enough I came up with 3 more days worth of work which concluded today. Oddly enough, all three of us have had the exact same stroke of luck and have all had 4 consistent days of work leaving us all with at least 400 euros which is clearly a nice little buffer. In other news, instead of waiting around for my flight which leaves on September 29 to come back to the states, I have been accepted to be a mate on a boat which will be crossing the Atlantic starting August 12. As a result of that decision, we decided to go spend some time away from France with the little bit of time we have remaining, and will go check out Switzerland on Tuesday. Haha I know that this is really throwing many of you for a loop, but I realized that this is really probably the only opportunity I will have in life to cross the Atlantic under sail, and know that if I dont take advantage of this shot, another one wont likely pop up. Also, some good news is that we will be arriving in Annapolis which is so close to many of you, so I will be back in DC pretty much when I get back! Anyways I will be able to do more from the Swiss base we will be staying at (as we will have free internet), so I look forward to catching up on some of your emails, and making a couple more posts. I hope and pray you are all well, and cant wait to hear from you!
BCW
Sorry it has taken me a few days to make a post, as I have been fairly busy working! The afternoon after my last post, our phone rang saying I had work in Cannes the very next day. After that days worth of work, I came back to Antibes, and decided to walk the docks to see if I could dig anything up there, and sure enough I came up with 3 more days worth of work which concluded today. Oddly enough, all three of us have had the exact same stroke of luck and have all had 4 consistent days of work leaving us all with at least 400 euros which is clearly a nice little buffer. In other news, instead of waiting around for my flight which leaves on September 29 to come back to the states, I have been accepted to be a mate on a boat which will be crossing the Atlantic starting August 12. As a result of that decision, we decided to go spend some time away from France with the little bit of time we have remaining, and will go check out Switzerland on Tuesday. Haha I know that this is really throwing many of you for a loop, but I realized that this is really probably the only opportunity I will have in life to cross the Atlantic under sail, and know that if I dont take advantage of this shot, another one wont likely pop up. Also, some good news is that we will be arriving in Annapolis which is so close to many of you, so I will be back in DC pretty much when I get back! Anyways I will be able to do more from the Swiss base we will be staying at (as we will have free internet), so I look forward to catching up on some of your emails, and making a couple more posts. I hope and pray you are all well, and cant wait to hear from you!
BCW
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