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.