5/8/2019

The other night I was eating dinner and surrounding me was one roommate making bread with bacon in it, and the other watching Kung Fu Panda. They also sat with me in the dark on the kitchen floor one night while I pretended that the oven light was a campfire and ate marshmallows. I really have no complaints.

            I've done quite a few interesting things since last time, which is good because it has been over a month. The day after my last post we played against the (then) #2 league in the team, Gränichen. It was a 2-2 final BUT I scored a goal! This is the first time I have scored since 2014 (that I can remember) and I was really excited about it. I also got the assist on the second goal so it wasn't that bad of a game for me.

            The next game after that was the cup semi-final which was one of the most exciting games I have played in, not because of the match itself but because of the atmosphere. There was around 170 people and we were at home which was cool. The away team's fans set of flares during the match and there was chanting going on. To Europeans I am sure this seems silly to think so highly of, but for an American that was intense. The most people who has ever been at a game of mine I would say is probably like 50 and I definitely have never had a flare set off at one of my games. We came away with a 2-0 win against Wolhen (who we play again this weekend) and we are headed to the cup final on May 30! I've already been warned to expect well over 200 people at the final. I am very nervous and excited for this match.

Just a few days after the cup game we played against Döttingen and came away with a 7-0 victory. The most exciting thing for me about that game was that I scored again! It should be noted that I have been motivated with the promise of a McDonalds trip for every goal. I have now had McDonalds twice and why no one tried to motivate me with this before is beyond me.

            Saturday night was our most recent game and it was crazy cold. It was raining slush the entire game, I had the Atlantic Ocean in my left shoe and the Pacific in my right. One of my toes somehow got cut open during the match and I didn't even know about it until I took my shoe off and saw the blood on my sock. Also, didn't even feel the pain of it until the next day so that was nice. It was absolutely freezing. We won 5-1 though.

            My time off the field has been filled with some fun adventures. We got to spend a night in Muri with some of the girls from the team and it was fun to just hang out, listen to everyone's different music, and have the argument about the rules of UNO in three different languages instead of one. Cheryl and Sarah also took us to these really cool caves that are inside a mountain. I guess they were formed from the melting of a glacier or something. Me trying read everything on the placards that were in German leads to me not knowing much. They were really cool to look through though. They reminded me a lot of the ones in Tennessee I went to when I was young(er). The weather was really nice that day too. After the caves we went to our friend Manuel's house and I was again super happy because he made fajitas and fajitas are really just tacos and I love tacos and it was the first time (besides McDonalds) that I ate something that was similar to home.

            We spent a day with Maiane's previous host family and teammate. They have the most beautiful house I have ever seen. I really liked how their living room wasn't staged around a television, but instead the windows that are the entire back wall and give view to the most beautifully green hills and in the far distance the big mountains. She has an entire art studio where she paints and her house is decorated with all of the abstract art she creates. Their backyard is huge! It has a small creek, a pond with handfuls of goldfish (some that are as big as my leg), a big grassy area where we spent most of our time kicking the ball around with one of the children. We had a lovely meal with the family and we were invited over again for Easter celebrations the Saturday before Easter. Their entire family was there, including 3 three-years olds, a handful of older children, an massive Easter egg hunt, and our own hidden chocolate bunnies. I was also taught a game where you smash the eggs against each other on the ends and the one that cracks loses. That was pretty fun. We spent a lot of the day there and we just hung out and ate food and enjoyed the company around us.

            On actual Easter day we went with Manuel along with his Mom and Aunt to Laufen Castle. This was unbelievable. It is right on the cliff next to the Rhein river and a big waterfall. Being a holiday there were A LOT of tourist and people visiting but the view was still stunning. You can walk down and have the mist from the falls dust your face and if you want to you can get on boats that go directly at the falls. We did not do this because none of us thought the idea of paying money to get soaked and walk around the rest of the day getting chub-rub was fun. We went into the castle and then crossed the river to get a look from the other side. I love castles, absolutely adore them. But the waterfalls of the river were what really kept my attention. Beautiful but strong, chaotic, majestic, loud, and captivating. We then went into Germany for dinner. We were early so we went into a church in the small town we had reservations and every single time I go in these churches I am blown away by the intricacies. These are just small town churches and in terms of detail they blow away most of the churches I've been into in America. I understand the importance is not the building but really they are so carefully designed. All very "old school" but I personally prefer that look to the modern boxes we call buildings. At dinner I ordered Cordon Bleu which is not chicken. It is pork. That was the first lesson. The second lesson was that it is weird to eat the side after the main. I ate the whole Cordon Bleu and then ate the rice, and I was picked on the whole time for it. And that is okay. It took them this long to catch on to the fact that I'm not particularly fond of mixing foods together on a plate so I guess the ridicule is miniscule in comparison to the amount of time I could have had to deal with the heckling.

            Oliver took us to the French part of the country and surprisingly it was noticeably different. I think the French part of Switzerland looks more different than Germany does. Our first stop was at a chocolate factory. I thought it was nice because the museum for the chocolate explained how this specific brand uses hazelnuts specifically because during the second world war the amount of sugar that could be traded was very low and so the founder started importing hazelnuts because they were permitted and were cheap. I find it really fascinating how much you can see the impacts of the war here. When we went to Interkaken when I first got here there were still barricades that were put in place if Germany ever decided to come in. The chocolate is called Ragusa and it is delicious. Afterwards we went to a very cute little restaurant and had some coffee then continued to look into some small churches that are absolutely beautiful. All of the churches here are nice, with stained glass windows and high steeples and arched doorways. That day we also went into Neuchâtel and took a look at the big lake and the French-influenced architecture. On the way we passed by a castle and took a stop to look around. The original castle was built in the 1200's and then continually added to throughout history. Some of the original was still there and it was cool to see. It blows my mind that on a very regular basis I am passing by buildings and structures that are older than my country. I've passed houses that have older dates than the constitution.

            . Manuel took us to Geneva and we spent the day walking around, seeing different notable things, and enjoying the weather. A big majority of the day was spent walking next to Lake Geneva. We saw the Jet d'Eau which is a fountain that shoots water roughly 460 feet into the air. Originally it was just to help relieve pressure from a power plant but even though it lacks historical significance it is very cool and can be seen from over a mile away. We walked through The Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the city of Geneva which is 69 acres big. I found it historical that out of all of the plants and beautiful things to look at the Brazilians spent the most time watching the birds fight. It should be noted that while at Lake Geneva they stopped to feed the birds our potato chips, just like they stopped in Neuchatel to feed the birds french-fries instead of looking at the lake at all. From there we walked what felt like directly uphill to the United Nations. I do not know what I was expecting but a small city of houses each specifically for one country's political elite was not it. It looked like something from the Hunger Games. The headquarters itself was cool. There were protestors outside from Venezuela asking for recognition and support for the crisis of their country. This being the same day that Maduro claimed that the opposition was dead. We sat at the fountains and watched for a little bit before getting some ice cream and walking back to the car.

            Last weekend we got to meet some of our coach's old team and they cooked a really good dinner for us and then took us out to a karaoke bar. It was nice because a good few of them spoke English, and the bar was very old fashioned. There was one girl there (not part of the team) who took it way to seriously. Remember those kids in middle school who took gym class way too seriously, like they thought gym class was the Olympics? Well this girl was the karaoke equivalent of that but with a higher blood alcohol level. Everyone had a really good time.  

Pictures below!

4/1/2019 Selzach

I've been showering in cold water for a week and a half now because the Brazilians said the hot water is why my hair keeps falling out. So far I still shed like a long-haired german-shepherd and my showers are miserable.

On the 24th was our second game and we won 3-0. Yesterday we played again and we claimed a 5-1 victory. Soccer is going well. We are at the top of our league and I'm starting to communicate a little better with girls on the team. Even if it is only being able to say hi now. We play one of the higher teams in the league next week so I'm looking forward to a tougher game.

I'm not so good at keeping what I'm doing separated by day, but I do remember the important and fun things I've been doing. We went to Hallwyl Castle which I loved because I think castles are awesome. Castles are actually one of my favorite things about Switzerland so far. They are EVERYWHERE. I pass 3 or 4 on my one hour drive to practice. I've driven past some big ones and some that are just a single tower. Some of the small towns, like the one I live close too, are still built around the outer walls of the original village. The elaborate churches I like a lot as well, and these too cover Switzerland. I'm hoping to be able to go see many more and hopefully look inside a few while I'm here. Both the churches and the castles are very beautiful, they're very fitting in the landscape that surrounds them.

I've been watching a lot of soccer and I'm very happy about it. When I was in high school I watched a lot of matches but when I got to college I lost time and resources to be able to do so. I've been able to watch a handful of matches of my club's teams, have watched some games of the teams we will be playing against, and have even watched a few upper-level teams on the tv. I'm very at ease with being completely immersed in the sport again. I've been telling some of my friends how weird this is for me because the life pace is so much different. I've spent the last three years of my life feeling like I was constantly in overdrive. I was always bouncing from school, to work, to soccer, to homework, minimally sleeping and then waking up and doing it all over again. I spent my summers working 50-60 hour weeks so I could save up to work less during the season. I was just always running around. Here I don't have anything to do except soccer really, and it's nice to just slow down and breathe. It's definitely an adjustment though because I feel like I'm not doing enough and that makes me restless sometimes. I sort of feel like my brain is rotting because I'm not doing anything challenging or stimulating a lot of the time. I've decided to start looking up Youtube videos and really attempt to learn German.

We went on a bike ride the other day which was really funny to me. I hadn't ridden a bike in something like 8 years (not including the stationary ones in gyms). I was not very fast, I felt like I had no control, the bike was very wobbly because I was very unbalanced, and I was a little upset with society for leading me to believe I would never lose my abilities on a bike regardless of how long it had been since I'd been on one. Our destination was a few miles down the road so I had time to think and I couldn't help but laugh at the memories from elementary school. I used to ride my bike to school and sometimes my friend Kayla and I would leave for school early to go ride our bikes on the edge of the frozen pond at Cherry Park before going to school (sorry mom). Yet there I was about 10-15 years older riding on the side of the road ten times more scared than I ever was around that pond and I was being ten times safer. Getting older has made me scared and I think that's annoying.
Anyway, we went to the store and picked up some small things then proceded to eat an entire bag of cheeseballs on the side of the road because why not? We had no where else to be and the weather was nice. This was the moment I really noticed how my life had slowed down. I found myself becoming impatient at how long we had been sitting on the side just slowly eating cheeseballs. Kept feeling anxious to get on the bikes and go home, and I had no idea why. I had no reason to want to go home, I had to reason to not want to be eating cheeseballs (i love cheeseballs), this is that adjustment I was talking about. A bike ride and some cheeseballs reminded me how to "stop and smell the roses" and I thought it was nice.

My birthday was on Wednesday and I turned 23. There's this idea that "nobody likes you when you're twenty-three" so it's safe to say I'm looking forward to the next twelve months and my projected loss of friends. All jokes aside, the day was lovely. My friends here went out of their way to make sure it was special for me. I woke up to donuts, candy, and some wine. Apparently, it doesn't take longer than a week and a half to figure out the way to my heart. After we had breakfast I went to Germany again to shop for some necessities and then returned to a traditional style Swiss dinner. It was roast potatoes with melted cheese. Most eat it with things like pickled, the small corn cob that lives in jars, and the little onions that live in jars, but I'm not the biggest fan of vinegar so I just ate the potatoes and cheese and I had no complaints about it. I thought it was really good. The Brazilians decided to throw in some chicken and bacon too. The day was very nice, and I'm very happy to be surrounded by such kind and caring humans. I had very little clue about what I was walking into when I came here, I just knew that Carolyn trusted them and so I did too. It's a blessing, it really is, especially Maiane and Loriane. They're very, very good people.

The weather the past couple days has warmed up a little bit but apparently it's supposed to start snowing Wednesday so you can rest assured that I will be tucked away under my blanket refusing to get out of bed for a lot of this coming week. I'm running out of my ridiculously specific m&m's (if you know you know) so please send reinforcements. Also, to Carolyn, the Nutella filled croissants and active participants in my future heart disease, and my jar of peanut butter is my best friend. Thank you for that advice because I'd be struggling without it! 








Here are just a few pictures of some of the churches I have been inside so far, and the castle I went to.

3/20/2019 Selzach

Hello again everyone! I am alive and well and getting settled into my new home for the next few months. Just a few quick things before I update you all. The first, if you're reading this thank you for caring. Also, please continue leaving your comments because I really enjoy knowing people are checking this. PLEASE leave your name though so I know who it is supporting me! Lastly, I've had some feedback that the "subscribe" button doesn't function as I had mentioned and I think the best solution for this is to bookmark the page so you don't lose it and then check back in when you feel like it.

The flight to Switzerland was good, I slept the entire time except during the meals but other than that I really have nothing to tell. Once at the airport, I got questioned for 10-15 minutes which was longer than I expected and was very nerve-racking but nothing crazy happened. My Brazilian roommates were interrogated at the airport in Amsterdam for two hours so I really have nothing to complain about. I will happily take a ten minute questioning over a two-hour questioning any day.

I was expecting to be picked up and taken straight to where I would be living. I was wrong. I was picked up and taken straight to Germany haha. Turns out Germany has cheaper goods and is only a stone throw across the river. (We got stopped by control on the way out of Germany and I was genuinely scared for my life). I can get to about six different countries in the same time it would have taken me to get from Cheyanne to Alberquerque. I like that about Europe. There are so many cultures in such a small area.

The rest of Friday (the day I landed) was spent getting settled, eating my first ever Kebab (not bad actually) and getting some sleep. Saturday was supposed to be my first game but it was canceled due to weather. Instead of playing a game my coach Oliver took me to explore the city of Lucerne for a bit and then I helped him with moving some furniture that we needed at the apartment for my roommates and I. That afternoon Loriane and Maiane arrived and we introduced ourselves, ate some dinner, and then went to sleep.

Sunday was our first game. Neither I nor my roommates had yet to meet any of our teammates because we hadn't had a training session yet. We spent the morning going over the strategy of the team, our coach's philosophy for the game, and he explained to us what he expected of us and the team during the season as a whole. The girls were really nice even though I couldn't talk to pretty much any of them. The game went well. FC Muri came out with a 6-1 victory. It was raining, and the pitch was a very slippery plastic turf so I don't think I need to go into detail about how many times I fell. Most of you know me well enough that I won't have to say that the first touch I had on the ball I ended up on the ground so I'll leave that detail out.

Monday Oliver took the three of us (Maiane, Loriane, and me) to Interlaken to see some of the Alps and the famous hotel Victoria Jungfrau. We all played like children at a park in Interlaken before going to a small village just outside the city to visit one of Oliver's homes. Such a beautiful, small, and quiet town. The homes were all old styled and had a lot of wood and the village sits in between two of the mountains. There were some magnificent views, one that I thought even looked like a painting.

Yesterday (Tuesday) we all went back to Lucerne to look around a little bit and get some more furniture and then we had our first training with the team. The language barrier is a tough one to overcome but I struggled through it the best I could. We all know how hard it is for me to understand how to do drills when they're being explained to me in English with American coaches. It's ten times harder in broken English with a Swiss coach. I literally don't understand anything that is going on. Not that anyone is surprised though.

Today we have been finishing up moving furniture and just relaxing. Tomorrow will be the same except we will have practice again. My roommates are super cool people and I get along with them very well. They're filled with life and laughter. They are always singing, and dancing, and laughing and just happy all of the time. Our "conversations" consist mostly of pointing, random words, laughing, weird noises, and facepalms. I speak only English, Maiane speaks Portuguese and Swiss-German, and Loriane speaks only Portuguese. It takes about half an hour to get through a two sentence conversation because if Loriane wants to say something to me she has to say it in Portuguese to Maiane, who then has to say it in German to our coach, who then has to say it in English to me. It's like the game telephone. Then when I reply it goes back through the whole process. It's very interesting. I like it a lot. We have figured out that if we are at home where we have wifi we can text and put things through google translate to text back, but we do try to teach and learn each other's language for the rest of the time when we aren't home. I also don't have cellphone service here so it only works when I have wifi and I absolutely love it. I get to take in every scene, every moment, every conversation, without the temptation of being distracted by a phone. I know that I could do this at home when I do have service but I also know that I have absolutely no self-control. This lack of self-control smacks me in the face about 30 times a day when there is bread in front of my face.

Bread. Everywhere.

Not that I mind all that much because it's better than having nothing to eat, BUT I've got a size 6 dress I need to be able to fit in for my cousins wedding which is only a week after I return to the United States so I really need to stop eating bread 30 times a day. The Brazilians cooked dinner tonight and it was amazingly good. I'm very thankful for the people I've met and have entered my life so far. They brighten my days.

On another note, I am very impressed with Switzerland's steps towards helping the environment. I know that sounds like such a Boulder-ite, tree-hugger, thing to say but genuinely it's astonishing. Every single bag of trash that has to be disposed of is tracked and then billed to the person who disposed of it. Yet, grocery stores have recycling bins in the front and all recyclables can be disposed of for free. Also, because of garbage charges it has encouraged composting which then lessens the need for other waste the contains fertilizers and what not. It's a really good thing they've got going on and it seems simple. There are absolutely NO PLASTIC SHOPPING BAGS. You have to bring your own means of carrying your groceries and goods out of the store. You can also purchase sturdy paper bags that are intended for multiple uses at the counter. The packaging on all products here is about half the thickness of those back in the US. Everything is saved, reused, recycled, or billed. I wish the United States acted in similar ways. I have yet to see any litter here and the landscape, experience, and world are better because of it.

I'm still struggling to get used to the time change a little bit. I haven't settled on a steady sleeping schedule yet because I'm never able to fall asleep at the same time, I wake up randomly throughout the night, but there is this cool, automatic, one cup coffee maker in our apartment that I use wayyyy more than I should. A little upset at all those who consider me close and never showed me the beautiful life of Keurig. It's a game changer and I need one. It's magic.

I don't enjoy driving here. It may be helpful that they drive on the right side of the road but they don't have stop signs, they have painted red strips on the ground. They also have extremely aggressive round-abouts that "yielding" means drive straight in and hope for the best. They drive slow too, not my piece of pie.

Over-all I'm very at peace and happy with the opportunity I have going on here in Switzerland.

3/14/2019 Newark

Hello friends and family, and random people who might creep just because they're nosey or bored. I suppose I should start out by openly acknowledging that Facebook is a perfect format for what I intend this separate blog to do. However, I personally do not want to monopolize everyone's timelines with updates intended for my family to keep up with where I am which is why I made this blog. Now anyone who actually wants to keep up with me can (hit the subscribe button and it should send you notifications on when I post things) and the people who I haven't seen since the playground in second grade don't have to get annoyed with my posts if they don't want to. To be honest this is partly for me as well so I can keep up with my memories when I'm old and have dementia.

Today I am writing from the airport in Newark, NJ. By the time you're reading this, I will probably be in route to Switzerland. When I graduated in December I had made up my mind that I was not ready to get a job that locks me down in an office 9-5 everyday. I also knew that I wanted to continue playing soccer. So basically I just knew I wasn't ready to "grow up" yet. With the help of Carolyn, one of the coaches I had in high school, I was able to find this opportunity. I will be playing soccer for FC Muri from now through the month of June, living in Zurich with two Brazilian teammates, and really trying to explore and learn as about the world, about soccer, and about myself as possible. The coaches and staff have been very gracious in helping me out with somewhere to live and a team to play with. This is an opportunity of a lifetime and I plan to take full advantage of it.

After an evening (last night) of staying on hold with the airlines for over an hour, and then being given all the incorrect information, my morning was a bit hectic. Both my flights got changed thanks to the snownado in the Midwest and I had a lot of trouble with baggage. I was very flustered. I landed here in Newark about three hours ago and I was still pretty flustered. That's when I realized I hadn't eaten anything since about 8:30 this morning and also hadn't had an ounce of caffeine. Turns out my mood changes very quickly when I eat and drink coffee. The good thing about this flight situation is that my first game is within the first day of me landing which means I get the chance to hit the ground running. I'm holding out hope that I can somehow kick the jet-lag rather quickly and play well.  

I've met some very interesting people today. The first was the man who sat next to me on my flight who was instructing me on how beneficial it is to live a minimalistic life and to never chase money and to live as simply as possible. He also tried to tell me how he believed George Washington probably had a tail. As physics would have it; the second person I met was a kind lady in the terminal who was telling me about all of her free vacations and her investment money and her lawsuits. Basically emphasizing how I need to learn to make and keep money and that nothing and no one goes around this world without it. She's writing a book and signing it to send to me. It is very safe to say that my brain is confused in regards to contemplating my future financial planning. The lady did give me a magnet that says, "I'm not insane. My mother had me tested!" Not that I have much use for a fridge magnet but maybe the Brazilian girls like The Big Bang Theory.

I won't have the same opportunities to communicate with everyone while I'm there so I'm hoping this will help keep people in the loop even if I am seeming negligent. I learned from my recent graduation that I still have an army of quiet supporters keeping up with me and cheering me on from afar and I really appreciate that support so I hope this will work well for everyone. Time to hop across the pond!