Day 1

Bloggers.. I made it to Switzerland! I am finally here! And I am loving it. It's been a blast so far. About my trip, so I took a plane@ 7:50 from SLC to Chicago yesterday. About a 3 hour flight and had an hour and a half layover where I then flew to Philadelphia. Getting off the plane, I had about 45 minutes to get to my other terminal and gate. I got there and everyone was boarding. Perfect timing. I then flew from Philly to Zurich (about an 8.5 hour flight). I got to Zurich at about 8:30 AM (12:30 Utah time). The Kaufmann's who I'm staying with were in Portugal and were supposed to land at about 4 in the afternoon so I hung out in Zurich for about 8 hours. All I heard, all around me was jibberish. I could not understand one thing. So I started asking around. And found a few really sweet people who helped me find my way. I changed my dollars into Franks and was off to the Zurich mall :) I felt like I was still in America, besides the language barrier. Everything was rather expensive though! I ordered a ham and cheese sandwich and the lady said they had no cheese, so I just pointed to something and said that looks great. It ended up being a cheese and pesto sandwich.

At about 4 pm, I finally met the Kaufmann's (who I am staying with). They are darling. Kenzie is the mother, she is from American Fork which is a plus, we have a lot in common, and a lot to talk about. Mandel is her husband, he does not speak very much English but he understands what we say, he is super sweet. Bodee is 4 years old, he is a doll. He is bilingual and has so much personality. Hayden is 18 months and is so funny. He loves to dance and smile. It is a 2 hour drive from Zurich to Grindelwald, where I am staying. On the way home, we stopped at a gas station. We had to pay to get into the bathrooms. You pay for everything here. Everything. It was amazed at the quality of their gas station, there is a ton of bread, fruits, and cheeses for sale. Not rows and rows of potato chips and candy bars and pop etc.. Although there was some of that kind of stuff, there just wasn't a lot. We then finally arrived in Grindelwald. Wow. It is amazing. I will try and post some pictures of the town itself and the cute little shops and hotels. I felt like I was in a movie. That pretty. The Kaufmann home is in the canyon of the Alps. I will post some better pictures, but here is what I have so far.. I live in the same home as the Kaufmann's, but it's not connected. Basically the home I'm staying in is just one big house but it's divided by walls and doors. My house is the only one you have to physically leave the Kaufmann's and walk around the house to. Here is my bedroom:

I finally get to sleep in a queen size bed. This bed is so so so cozy!

My cute blue bathroom. The curtain or whatever on the shower slides across instead of opens and shuts. Interesting.

Side view of my little house.

The front door to my apt.

Looking up to the rest of the house, 4 families live in this house.

I witnessed an avalanche last night where all that snow is.

My view from my front porch.

Another view from my porch.

Today, I woke up at about 8:30. I have not had any jet lag whatsoever. Seriously. I walked up to the Kaufmann's and the family was sitting together eating cold cereal. I don't think that happens very much in America. Mandel had the day off so we headed into town to go to the grocery store. The town of Grindelwald is unreal. Breathe taking. Every home looks just like it does in the movies. Made of wood with flower pots below the windows and shutters. There are a bunch of little shops that are darling and it's just a small town (population 4-4.5k). You pay for parking anywhere you go. and you also deposit money to get a shopping cart. If you put the shopping cart back, you get your money back. Smart. The market was small but I enjoyed every minute of it, just because it's different to me. Foreign. I was just kind of looking around to see what they sold and if there was anything particular that stood out to me. I then stumbled upon a bag of chips. On sale from $7.90 to $5.50. Wow. They do not have baggers at the grocery store, we brought our own bags and bagged everything ourselves. They are all about recycling. Less really is more here. After grocery shopping, we came back and made lunch. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. Kids come home from school, husbands from work, etc. In fact, they don't even have lunchrooms at the schools. The food isn't too foreign, just a lot of sausage, beef, and bread. After lunch, we had a little bit of R&R time and then went mini golfing. The course didn't have green felt, but was made out of cement and was extremely difficult. Bodee was having the time of his life and would not leave one hole until he was satisfied with the number of times he tried on the previous. I swear with every hole he would say "this is my favorite one!" And then we got to the very end and he said "I don't like this one, it takes your ball away."

We then went back home and the families who live in the home (also in-laws) were outside playing. 1 spoke English. The rest spoke German. I had no idea what anyone was saying so I played tractors with the little boys until dinner time :) ha. For dinner, we had 2 different kinds of cheeses, one from France that was delicious and another one that was extremely rich. We had bread, sausage, and ham. Extremely delicious. And now here I am, sitting in my bed about to head to bed! Tomorrow, Mandel's mom is going to watch Hayden while Bodee is in school and me and Kenzie are going to head down to Interlaken. She is getting her ultrasound to find out what gender her baby is and we'll get to spend some time downtown. I can't wait!

Auder!