*Sigh*

The weekend was a great time to get to know some of the girls really well. Got back safely and will post details and pics later.

I am really really starting to miss familiar faces and places. Today was just rather hard for various reasons and I feel a bit down. Haha, crazy I know, I'm in Europe!?! Ah well, tomorrow is a new day . . .

It's been a month!?! Plus pics of me classmates

Our teacher!


2/3 of the class. As the weeks passed the class became smaller and smaller. It was a bit intese. ;-)
It hardly seems possible that I've been gone for over a month now. Wow!

I absolutely love this place and my classes and everything. I cannot believe that I am learning another language and have the opportunity to travel anywhere, as long as it fits into the schedule. ;-)

This morning was the last day of classes for the first half of the A1 German Deutschkurs!!! We took some pictures and then after class some of us went across the street for an espresso in this Italian cafe while the Italian waitor tried talking to us in German. We both spoke "Deutsch nich so gut" so it was really funny. He did however tell me my name was "ganz schon!" Haha, which whether he meant it or not was nice because lol, EVERYONE here spells it "Down" and I try to tell people, "no it isn't walking 'down' the stairs! it is 'Dawn' like 'morgen tag'!!!" Oh well! :-D

After our espressos one of the guys bought me a spinach wahen (I think, spinach cheesecake) to take home and now this afternoon, I am just messing around and shall get ready for this weekend trip with the girls. I swear if I see a rat, I shall just die!!! Should be fun though. :-P

Last week myself and the Mrs checked out some schools in Zurich. There was one in an area which she said many different cultures resided in these few blocks because it was cheaper. She then told me that there are occasionally prostitutes walking around. This area was actually fairly clean, surprisingly. That is one thing that is so surprising about Zurich. Despite the fact that is is an International city, it is realtively small and one can run it to people they know all the time. Twice I've passed aupairs just rambling around. One of the girls said it was NOTHING like Atlanta, lol. The other school is nearby the Starbucks by Bahnhofstrasse so I think I am leaning towards the latter. It does seem to fit into our schedule much better than the other so that is great. If everything works out then after the break during the holidays I will take an assessment test and will hopefully have completed the first part of A1 German and the Last week of September start classes in Zurich!

Last week I also was somewhat successful in taking a message!!! Haha! Somebody called and of course I answered it and said "Hallo" and then there were several German questions. I asked the gentleman if he spoke English, he said no, and then proceeded to ask me if I spoke Italian? No. French? No. Spanish!?! No. Then laughter . . . I proceeded to ask him, "name", which he gave and just my luck it sounded difficult. So I then tried to get him to spell it out and finding that hopeless, scribbled something that would remind me what it sounded like. Lol. So then I was able to ask him his telefonnummer. Yay! I can do numbers! null . . . sieben . . . acht . . . drei . . . He then said bravo and asked me where I was from. Hehehe, so it worked out. Lol. He wished me luck and said in 7 months I should be just fine. We shall see. :-P

This weekend will be lots of fun as I think on our way to the barn we will see a monastery, possibly, and then on Sunday coming back we will do something else and then the huge game is Sunday night. I am going to be exhausted Monday . . . ;-) Spain won yesterday 3-0 and will play against Germany!!! Apparantly this will be a great game!

Habst du gut wochend! Not sure if this was right . . . Have a good weekend! ;-)

Pictures of Italy!!! Sorry the pics are a it out of order . . .

Eating at the Ristorante del Monte
Crossing the Italian border into Switzerland. They did not check our passports.
The Alps!!!!

The garden at the Castello di Masino

The back of the Masino
On of the doors in the Masino. There were these delicate white decorations all over everything and this chinese hand-painted "wall paper" on the walls of some of the rooms. When asked what the white stuff was made of the guide said rice flour, water, and glue. Lol, it was amazing!

The town next to the Masino

Getting a glass of champagne at the Masino Restaurant

On the back steps of the La Venaria Reale
The city were the Reale was.
The back balcony of the Masino and the views around the Masino


A gorgeous hall in the Reale, I almost got in trouble for this one. ;-)

The courtyard outside the Reale
Eating our paninis
There was a wedding in the Villa on Saturday
The front of the Masino

Waitors! They are so good caring all those plates!

The parlous of the Villa


Walking around the Reale
The Gelato place!

O modeling! ;-)

Mwahaha . . .
The GORGEOUS Villa from the front
Once inside the lobby the parlour area

Deutschland vs. Turkei = 3 to 2

Oh my! It was a blast! One of the gals said that this fan area was a bit more civilized than the one she went to last week where she got stuck in a mosh pit with fog horns. :-P There were so many in our area cherring for Germany, it was so neat to feel the energy and then waiting forever for my evening train was hilarious because these drunk Germans kept roaming around singing, lol. Here are some pics and then off to bed for me because I have class in the morning, woo hoo, and the girl from Turkey will not be happy.

Paintings I snapped at the Kunshaus!

Yesterday went great!

One awesome thing was that after class I was making my way to my usual train and it said "18 Minuten Spater" and I could understand it!!! Since it was going to be 18 mins. late I found another train and was only 5 minutes later coming home for lunch. :-D

The kiddos and I did the usual and then I left for an evening of Scottish Country dancing in Zurich. Since I have to pay for my train tickets into Zurich (around 10 CHF) this worked out perfectly because I could cram dancing, aupair meeting, and a bit of afternoon touring into one 24 hour trip ticket! I became extremely lost due to getting on the wrong bus, lol, it was the right number, but I got on on the wrong side and then had to get off in some crazy area and wait forever for the next #31 bus going in the other direction. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was absolutely right when he said that one could set the time by the trains, however buses are an entirely different matter.

I then found the right stop and had to walk to the St. Andrews Church and after having a kind Italian (who didn't speak English, lol) point me in the right direction and calling the dance instructor I realized it was under the church. I then made the huge mistake of walking into the main church area and after smelling insence I realized not the right entrance, lol. I finally walked into the dance 30 mins later. :-P It was great fun and everyone was surprised that I came a second time especially since the last group fell apart. I think I much prefer contra as it is easier for me because for some reason I cannot think in terms of squares and so it was a bit confusing, but they all said I caught on quickly so that was great. I was invited to sing in the choir and join the international women's club, so I shall find out more info about that. :-)

I was then chaperoned to the Stadelhofen bahnhof which is so much closer than the Haubtbahnhof and was incouraged to go to Germany for Christmas to experiance a true German Christmas. :-D

This morning I went to the aupair meeting and tonight if I do not work too late I am going to meet the gals and we are going to go to an area in Zurich with big screens to watch Germany and Turkey play in the Euro 2008. Tonight they play and tomorrow Russia and Spain play and then if I understand it correctly, on Sunday the winners play for the final Euro 2008 games, so it shall be CRAZY! I am so excited! I was also planning on going to the Contra dance on Saturday, but I think instead I shall experiance sleeping in a mouse infested barn somewhere in the Alps(?) with the aupairs. :-P It will definitely be interesting. I found out today that I need to buy a certain pass for a year for 150 Fr. so that since I am 21 I can travel anywhere in Switzerland after 7pm for free which will save me soooo much!

This afternoon I went to the Kunshaus of Zurich, which was an art museum. I was a bit disappointed due to amount of modern art everywhere, but there were some lovely paintings of Delacroix's and all the Impressionists artists, as well as some I'd never heard which I loved. I was lucky at first to sneak some pictures in before I was told to put my bag in the lockers! The pictures are above and the new artists I love are; Heinrich Fussli, Albert Anker, and Albert Welti. The one below cracked me up! I personally do not understand modern art (maybe I am an idoit) but I loved watching this guy listen to an audio guide while studying this "work of art". :-P