How I've been improving my German!!

kids books are the best...

worben air!

The events of today were pretty unexpected. A festival/air show was taking place in the grassy airfeild right down the street from me as I woke up, so I grabbed my camera and went on down! After spending a couple of hours watching the nifty planes and playing with my camera I went on a little cruise myself. The f-16 ish thing is a model, rc controlled and jet powered. Pretty sweet eh? Beautiful weather... So the military vehicles. I assemed they were Swiss Army making an appearance, but as they were packing up and leaving I realized that a few of them were marked USA! So, thinking I might practice my English a little, I approached the cammo clad dudes. Well... They were swiss guys, and the vehicles were restored WWII era jeeps etc that had been left behind, and then collected together by these hobbyists... imagine that!

Click on the photo below to get transfered to the 'photobucket' album....

Photobucket Album

nasty milk drink

click here and check this out:

TECHNOLOGY!!!!

Just wanted to drop a quick note about how much easier this has been with my laptop.  With my laptop, I can still check on all things going on at home, I can speak to my wife, friends, and family daily for free, and even with video.  And I can post to this blog to keep even complete strangers up to date.  Overall, this experience has been fantastic, but, as I've described this experience to a few people, 'when its good, its really great, and when its bad, wow it's really bad'.  Fortunately when its bad I can turn it into funny with the folks back home and move on.  I couldn't imagine doing this without any contact, as so many have done before me!

FEUERWERK

I had the great honor of being a guest on a boat for the fireworks celebration of Swiss National Day.  This takes place on Lake Biel, and its an all out show similar to our Labor Day show on the Ohio River.  Here's a few clips.  Thanks Christoph!!!

1st week

Hi everyone!!!

With the exception of missing my lovely bride, I am doing very well.  Although everything is upside down here, and even though French Dressing is white but tastes the same, I've been able to navigate myself through Swiss life just fine for the first week.  I keep myself on the go, so as not to spend much time thinking about the people I miss.  My German is serving me well, and I'm able to communicate the basics with the locals, although they have to 'switch' themselves to German, as it is rather seperate from their native 'Swiss German'.  My senses have been overloaded.  Every one.  My ears hear the Swiss tongue backed by a chorus of cowbelles, my tongue experiments with the chocolates, breads, cheeses of the Swiss, not to mention the local beers and the carbonated water.  My sense of touch has been violated by the large flies that take bites out of me in the night, as I live next to a farm in Worben currently.  But all I have to do to see some neat stuff is look right outside my window:

I was on the phone with my dad when a few of these guys 'dropped in':
I was only here to two days before my first little trip, I drove to Bern, the Swiss capital.  It was about a 30 minute drive from my apt., taking the backroads to catch some scenery.  I took alot of pictures of Bern, the first time using my camera.  Afterwards I discovered accidentally how to format my camera's memory, and lost everything.  Oh well... with it being so close and grand, I'll be making many trips to Bern.  I did capture a few shots at dusk from the hill:

In a nutshell, its the capital, and Einstein did his most important work while employed at the patent office.  Other that that, its just maybe one of the coolest places I'll ever see.  It has a very distinct look and feel to it, especially from the street view.  Google it, its cool.

Friday was Swiss National Day.  August 1st.  Its pretty much like our 4th of July and seems to be celebrated the same way.  Fireworks and grill outs.  I think I'll be making a seperate entry for the festivities and right now just write about Avenches and Murten.  Being as it was the celebration of the beginning of Switzerland, I thought I'd check out a little relevent history.  Avenches (pronounced Avanch I think)  was the Roman capital of Helvetica  yadda yadda, google it.  It was much larger than it is now.  The main part of the town is not featured, as I came to see the Roman ruins that lie in the farmlands behind the town, and neglected to photo any of the city newer than 1000 years old.  It was about a 40 minute drive and they speak French here.  Here is a street view, and if you look carefully in the backround you can see the Roman wall and Gate.  But don't strain your eyes, I have a zoomed in photo below:

The next three photos are of the Coliseum, which according to the tourist signs had a third of the capacity of the one in Rome when it was at its largest.  There are stories of seats missing.  And most of the seats are reworked as there apparently is an opera that performs here:

The tower was a medieval addition, with narrow windows as it served as more of a defense structure:

In the backround you see a glimpse of the 'downtown' area which I neglected to photo.
Heres that gate:
A column, the only one left from a big ol' temple:

And the more exciting of the Ruins:  A big part of this structure was for a theatre.  Like all Roman ruins, It had been quarried for many centuries, leaving very little behind from what it once was:

Here I took some video of me walking around in this old Roman stuff.  Sorry for the lack of clarity, I had to dumb down the video enough so that I could upload it.  I'm sure you'll find the dirty cow footage with no problem....

1st week cont'd: Murten

On the way back from Avenches, I stopped in Murten.  This medieval town is sort of a mini Bern.  There was a famous battle here some 500 years ago and cannonballs remain in the defensive walls.  Otherwise its a load of eye candy.  The streets are filled with cafe's, and it smells like great food!

the castle!

I understand these to be grapes across Lake Murten... I read somewhere this area is somewhat known for its wine.  Or maybe its just corn and peas over there.  I dunno.

The Jura Mountains keep us seperated from the French.  and they speak a lot of French here.

over and out! :)