Krank

All of us got sick at some point or another this week. I actually lay in bed ALL DAY on Friday. I felt so gross but it was also just sort of nice being snuggled up all day. Anybody seen Firefly? I watched about a billion episodes while bedridden. I still don't know what I think about it. You know when something is kind of so ridiculous that it's kind of good?

Anyway, yesterday Abby and Georgia had more ski races so we all went to watch. I discovered that Nat's snowboots while very waterproof have BUGGER ALL GRIP. So I had a great time trying to walk across the steep ski-fields to where the race was. I secretly liked it though. Those girls were amazing! I mean all the kids were but I liked Abby and Georgia the best. Georgia came 1st in her age group! She was pretty happy about that. They were doing slalom.. So cool. I'd have no chance of doing it.

I was sitting at some little tables up on top of the mountain and taking in the views and enjoying the warm sun and just thinking.. "This is friggin ridiculous!" I feel really lucky to be here doing this stuff :) I like that it's work & play mixed in together. I think if it was all play I would go a bit crazy.

I had a bit of a moment earlier this week thinking about parents.. I was thinking "How can it be that I am inevitably going to be a part of stuffing up my kids - before they're even born! That hardly seems fair!" Because I'm sure not perfect, and even though I might be trying my best I'm going to make mistakes.. And the things I do - good and bad - are going to affect my kids for the rest of their life.

If you're looking for a worthwhile reason to make sure you're becoming the best person you can be, there it is.

Today I have been trying to figure out how to make the perfect rice.

Anyway here are some photos:

Me after 20 minutes of skiing

Taya can ride a unicycle quite well!!

Abby can go upside down quite well!

The general vibe of the race day in Davos

Me being cool

My arms have grown freakishly long since I left

IT'S SNOWING EVERYBODY

Sooo nice

Georgia being amazing at skiing

Another picture of me.. (sorry)

Milk

So the highlights of week 1 in Monstein include:

- Drinking off milk for three days. I thought it was just weird Swiss milk..
- Making a snowman called Roy
- Meeting someone who swears as much as I would like to - a local named Vasha. She also fed me YUMMY indian food.
- Trying locally brewed (like across the road) Monstein Bier.. I like it!
- Playing with the Gerbils
- Finally getting Rosetta Stone to work on my computer
- Eating lots of cheese
- Taking photo's and video's of the town
- Successfully interacting with someone in Deutsch (a 10 year old.. Still counts!)
- Getting smiled at by an attractive Swiss man. No idea who he was though..
- Going Skiing in Davos! Only falling down once!
- Going shopping with Nat in Davos. Having time to actually hang out with her a bit.
- Reading 'The Wise Woman' by George Macdonald with the girls every night.
- Being forced to really rely on God to help me not stress.
- The weekend off.

Lowlights include:
- Missing Trumpet a LOT.
- Feeling out of my depth.
- Feeling discouraged about my poor German language skills.

BUT these lowlights are but little droplets in an ocean of awesome highlights! So all is quite well :)

I've uploaded this video of me walking around Monstein and stuff. It's not really very interesting but it at least gives you a chance to see what the town looks like a bit. I just wish it wasn't quite so shaky.

I wish it would snow just a little bit more..

sleeping sitting up

I was on the plane when I wrote this --

I'm on the plane now. It only took me 10hours to find the powerpoint to plug the laptop in. I just woke up actually. They dimmed the lights at about 2am. I woke up from a dark and silent dream where the plane was shaking and the oxygen masks had just started dropping from the ceiling... Woke up in a fully lit cabin by an air hostess' gentle tap on the shoulder, mouthing words I couldn't hear. Ear plugs. Would I like breakfast? 10 second pause while I remember who and where I am. Yes please. I just slept for 8 hours! Sitting up! How did I even do that?? 

History

I was looking through my browser history just now, trying to find this documentary I started watching last night called "Faster than the speed of light"  and it was kind of interesting seeing the different places I went on the internets in these last 24 hours. So listed here are the sites I visited or things I googled.

1. Facebook x 13415135463435132
2. Isobelle Carmody
3. Time in Davos, Switzerland
4. Steam
5. St. Vincent - Year of the Tiger
6. Alison Moyet gay
7. Startup key combinations for Intel-Based Macs
8. Mac Mini Garageband
9. 128 km Newcastle Radar loop
10. Words with Friends
11. Blogger
12. Monstein Weather
13. Old Man Bridges
14. Tron
15. Total Recall on IMDB
16. Total Recall Quotes
17. TV Guide
18. Jeff Bridges
19. Somebody to Celine On
20. Baby-Sitters Club
21. Baby-Sitters Club Fanfiction (Yes it exists..)
22. No Fracking Way
23. Twitter
24. ABC iView
25. Yacht Island Design???
26. Post Crossing
27. Online Guitar Tuner
28. The Roost Collective
29. Ben Mitchell on Cargo Collective

FASCINATING ISN'T IT?! NO REALLY.. O.k no it's not interesting at all to anybody except myself.. It makes me think that maybe I should get out more.

Preparation

One week today I will be getting on a plane and heading towards Europe.  I feel utterly and dangerously unprepared.. I need to clean up my room for Rhi to move in. I need to decide what to take and what to leave.  I need to find out how heavy my luggage can be.  Do I change money into Euros before I go? How do I do that? Should I really take a sleeping bag? It's so big! When will my citi bank visa card thing arrive? How will I get from the airport to Kylie's house? Where do I buy train tickets? Did I pay too much for insurance? Should I get a simcard for my phone while I am over there? What if I get stuck without internet access? Should I take my guitar? What if it gets damaged? And my camera? Should I take both lenses or just one? Just how cold will it be over there? Should I bring gloves? Do I have enough money? etc etc etc...

I guess part of the definition of 'Adventure' must include it all being scary and risky. But also FUN!

God must be like "Relaaaaaaaaaaaaaax Hannah."

Ok I'll try.