Is it really over? Nah...

   What? I've been gone 6 months? I'm home on Friday? You're kidding.

Yep its reality, and I need to get used to it. Summing up the last six months in a blog post is going to be very tough, but I'll give it a shot.
  Here are some one-worders to explain my feelings about leaving Europe and heading home: happy, sad, confused, tired, ready, not-ready, nervous, grateful, awed, simplified, stupified (Harry Potter reference :)),  denial, acceptance, packing (ugh!), goodbyes, hellos, hugs, tears, sleep.
  When I left home in June, I don't know exactly what I expected, but I would've been wrong. With IFYE, you just have to be ready for anything always. Everyday is a new experience or adventure filled with new perspectives and new people. I set out wanting to never say "no", to try everything, see everything, and re-think everything I thought I knew. I think I stayed true to those goals for the most part, and its left me with a lifetime of memories, friendships, and life lessons.
  After all the reunions with family and friends, unpacking of bags, scrap booking  and IFYE presentations are all said and done, then I will truly have time to sit and reflect upon all this experience has given me.
  Until then, I'll continue to live this journey called life, one day at a time! But after IFYE, I'll know to appreciate each day and the new adventure that comes with it!

Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, I couldn't have done it without you! :)

Safe and sound in Kansas!

 Before saying goodbye, ciao, tschuss, bonjour, trah, cheers, & auf wiedersehen, I'll leave you with where I've found some of my favorite things....

• Accent: Scottish
• Bread: Swiss zopf
• Croissant: Paris
• Weather: constant rain of the U.K. (it's fun to hear farmers gripe about too much rain for once!)
• Cheese: Swiss Girenbaderli
• River: the Rhine
• Castle: Dunrobin or Cardiff
• European city for tourism: Rome
• European city to live: Salzburg
• Swiss City: Bern
• Train system: Swiss
• N. Irish site: Carrick-a-Rede bridge
• Scottish site: all the stone fences
• Welsh site: Worm's head beach
• Cake: Battenberg (UK)
• Drink: English Breakfast Tea (UK)

Weihnachten (a.k.a.: Christmas) & Samichlaus

   There are many variances between the cultures of different countries, and Christmas is no exception. In Switzerland, the name for Christmas is Weihnachten, and festivities begin when December does. On the 1st, the Advent calendar is put up, and consists of small gifts for each day leading up to Christmas. In the case of the Pünter family, the two kids alternated the days they got the gifts (one has odd days, the other has even days). Then, on the 6th of December, the real excitement begins! Samichlaus and his bff Schmutzli stop by the house via donkey from the local forest where they live. Each village has their own Schmutzli, because they have different forests ;). Samichlaus is basically the equivalent of America's Santa, and Schmutzli fulfills the role of Santa's elves. A big difference though, is that when Samichlaus comes, he isn't stealthy about it in the middle of the night. He and Schmutzli stop by the house after dinner and talk to the children about what they want for Weihnachten, and things they can do better to be good kids for mommy and daddy. The kids typically read a poem or sing a song for the duo, then if Sami and Schmutzli are impressed, they give the children gifts. The gifts are similar to what we would receive in our stockings...peanuts, oranges and small candies/baked goods.
   So who comes on Christmas Eve then?? Christchindli (translates as Christ-child), is basically the spirit of Christmas. It is what brings the gifts for Christmas, as it is in communication with Samichlaus, it knows what the children really want.
  Christmas season in Switzerland is full of Christmas markets with food, hot wine, and homemade crafts, plus carnival rides! Most cities have lights decorating the streets, and Zurich goes all out!

My host brother, Rico, reading his poem for Samichlaus

Schmutzli and Samichlaus!

The kids on December 1st with the Advent calendar

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" -view from my window

Swarovski Christmas tree in the Zurich train station

hanging lights in Zurich above the roads

Christmas trees everywhere in Zurich!

With Sami and Schmutzli in Zurich

The Pünters (November 11th-December 7th)

   My final host family (#18, can you believe it??!!), was located in the city of Hombrechtikon (population 7,800) in canton Zürich. My host dad Stefan runs an agricultural contracting business, and my host mom Regula is a very active stay at home mom to their two kids, ages 8 and 6 years old, and 2 "mini pigs", Frido & Alto (kept outdoors). Regula was an IFYE to Sweden in the 1990's, so she has an excellent idea of what IFYEs want/need to see and do. The children, Rico and Corina, have far more energy than I do at this point in my travels, but this makes for constant excitement! Having children in the family also helps to learn the language faster as they never give up on making sure you know what they want!
    During my time in Hombrechtikon, I was able to have many Swiss experiences that I hadn't yet accomplished. I played the alp horn, attended a yodeling concert, visited the Matterhorn (the iconic Swiss mountain), witnessed Swiss wrestling (schwingen), brushed up on my Swiss-German skills, attended Christmas markets, went hiking, rode a bicycle in the open Swiss air, learned to knit (European-style), sewed my own traditional Swiss attire, made fresh cheese, expanded my zopf making skills, and ate Raclette and blood-sausage (blutwurst) among other Swiss foods. I even spent a day working in a winery and sampling wine from the Lake of Zürich.
      With the Pünter family I mainly helped with household chores and errands, but lifted the occasional straw bale when a delivery was needed. The weather changed quite a bit during my 4 week stay, from cool Fall  to heavy snow and rain by the end. Snow in Switzerland is simply wonderful. They don't have as much wind as Kansas, so snow stays where it first lands, leaving the white blanket on the trees very much intact. The sight of the snowy mountains isn't too bad either.
   I also spent Thanksgiving away from my family for the first time ever, but it was a good day nonetheless. Regula and I prepared chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, pumpkin soup, salad, and my homemade chocolate pie. It was more of a feast than they were used to, but it worked in bringing a little bit of home to me for my American holiday. I was also able to Skype with almost all of my family that day, giving me the strength to finish out my last 2 weeks in Europe very happily.

In the snow on Klein Matterhorn

With the Matterhorn in the background. Not the tallest mountain, but the most iconic

View from Klein Matterhorn

Blood sausage! :s

The mini-pigs that I fed daily, Frido and Alto

My family: Rico, Regula, Corina, and Stefan

Viewing the yodeling concert from the balcony of a church through Rico and Corina's heads :)

The family, in traditional Swiss attire

Learning to knit (lisme)

At the AGRAMA expo in Bern, with a sugar beet harvester

Found some American flags in the John Deere section

Zopf creations

The alp horn!

Schwingen!

 

The Bessons (October 21st- November 10th)

My second Swiss host family was located in the mountain village of Venthone, canton Wallis, overlooking the city of Sierre. As it is in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the whole family spoke French and little English. The Bessons have about 20 sheep, 20+ chickens, and 12 rabbits, plus an apple juice business ran out of the garage. There were 5 kids ranging in age from 15-24, plus two other kids working on the farm for their apprenticeships. With 10 running around, it was a bit of a full house! I didn't have time to learn any French before coming to Switzerland, (I only studied German before I left), and that made it difficult at times to communicate. I worked with this family a lot more than all the others I have stayed with. The two other student workers and I worked with the host dad weekdays from 8am-6pm at least. Breakfast was bread and marmalade at 7am, then we got an hour or two break for lunch. Dinner was often bread and marmalade/cheese. The apple juice making was at its peak during my stay. We received apples from people in the area, then they paid us for the juice we made from it. A lot of my work was hauling crates of apples around or picking apples from our own trees. We also made the occasional grape juice too. Other work I did was climbing further up the mountain to feed the sheep and rabbits, and working in the garden.
 (These Kansas lungs sure aren't used to elevation!! The highest point in Kansas is just over 1000m, and it's a very gradual elevation increase!).
During my 3 week stay, I traveled out of the village for 2 different excursions. My host mom and I went to the German speaking city of Leukerbad, where there are natural hot springs. We went swimming in a resort's heated swimming pools, which was very nice after a week of hard work! I also took a walk along the river trail. The other trip I took was with my host dad to Kippel, a small village located in a scenic valley.
Unfortunately, I had an unforgettable Halloween away from home. I made a 1st degree burn out of my left hand, leaving a scar that will be great for story telling! This led to an inside look at Swiss health care, after I finally went to the local physician a week later.

the sheep

Rabbits- for eating

Leukerbad

My home for 3 weeks

View of the vineyards from the house after a snow

Picking out apples from the big crate into smaller crates.

Apple juice produced- 25,000 Liters this season

The juice making equipment

View of Sierre from the house

OLMA exhibition- St. Gallen

During October 11th-21st is the big OLMA exhibition in St. Gallen...showing much of Swiss agriculture and products. I was at OLMA on landjugend day and got a look at the following things:

The cow-bell "drumline"

The arena

Celebrating landjugend day

Half of the crowd

One of the games: to drive only on the back wheels

Another: to hold someone up on a cobweb of strings

Tossing bread, catching it, buttering it, then eating

Eating the bread

My favorite pictures on display

Children and their calves

Eating the famous OLMA bratwursts.

Swiss vegetables

Swiss Brown Cow

Many free food samples, including this mozarella cheese

Swiss Brown bull. He's huge!!

View OLMA's homepage here

The Hubers (September 24th-October 21st)

My first Swiss host family was the Huber-Bucher family (Dad, Mom, and 3 kids close to my age), located in the village of Mattwil in the canton of Thurgau.  Also located close to Lake Constance (aka Bodensee), this lake touches Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Canton Thurgau is often referred to as "Apple India" by the other cantons as it is a region with many apple orchards. My hosts run a Swiss Brown dairy operation, with around 80 cows. They do this in cooperation with another part-time farmer. He takes care of the cows that aren't milking, and the Hubers house the milk cows. They have one employee that milks the cows twice a day, using the milking parlor that milks six at a time. In addition to the dairy, they also have around 3 dozen organic apple trees which produce apples for apple juice and cider. I contributed around the farm by milking cows, picking apples, working in the garden, doing household chores, and collecting fire wood. My host mom's garden is pretty awesome! She grows much of the produce the family consumes. The garden has: raspberries, sunflowers, pumpkins, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers just to name a few. I even picked flower petals once to be used for tea!! 
There are mountains visible from the house, though from a distance. I can see the Santis mountain peak, one I went to the top of during my time with the family. The Hubers encouraged a lot of travel and sight seeing, so during my stay I saw quite a bit of northern Switzerland. I spent time in Basel, Luzern, Bern (the capital), Lausanne, Zurich and  St. Gallen, and even ventured into other countries like Liechtenstein, Germany and France. Switzerland is a quarter of the size of Kansas, so travel to other cities and countries only takes an hour or two.  

The family (host sister not pictured)

Matti in Mattwil. Literally!

View from the front yard :) The tall peak is Santis

My home-away-from-home for 4 weeks!

The barn and dairy

The Huber home is right on the edge of town

Santis mountain after the first snow

Home sweet home

The apple orchard

Milking parlor

Swiss Brown Calf

Konstanz, Germany : The statue Imperia overlooking the harbor

Lausanne & Lake Geneva

Lake Geneva

The country of Liechtenstein (population 35,000)

Meersburg, Germany & Lake Constance

View from Santis on a cloudy day

The capital building in Bern by night

The river in Bern that flows into the Rhein

Alphorn musicians on the mountain Pilatus near Luzern

Pilatus overlooking Luzern

War memorial in Luzern

The famous covered bridge in Luzern