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.
