Distant Cousins in Switzerland

Novemeber 8 & 9 was my weekend off for the month. My friend Carrie Beth (CB) Watson and I drove a car from Black Forest Academy to Andelfingen, Switzerland. This is only an hour and a half drive on the autobahn from Kandern, Germany.

Ernst & Elizabeth Bichsel and Regula Spalinger on the Swiss train.

There we met Manfred & Regula Spalinger. This lovely couple both speak English and I am related to both of them distantly. Manfred and I are both from the same generation and after 9 generations we have the same ancestors, Hans Konrad Spalinger 1686-1756 and Elsbeth Manz. So Manfred and I are rather distant cousins. Regula's maiden name is Bichsel, which is pronounced Bixel. Bixel was my Grandmother, Ellene Spallinger's maiden name. We also met and stayed with Regula's parents, Ernst & Elizabeth Bichsel. They spoke some English, but we tended to try to use sign language. I tried out my German...which is really just a few words. They enjoyed teaching me some Swiss-German words.

Ernst is the leading genealogist on the Spalinger family. Here myself, Elizabeth, and Ernst look at some family pictures and learn about our families. Ernst had some information about the Spalinger family prepared for me. He spoke in Swiss-German and his daughter, Regula, translated into English for my friend CB and myself.

Ernst also pulled out the family Bible from the 1600s. He said this is the only Bible of its kind in Switzerland. This Bible has been handed down from generation to generation in Elizabeth's family. Here Carrie Beth looks at the ancient Bible.

Ernst also told me that the people from the village of Marthalen, Switzerland were indentured servants or serfs to the monks in the monastery. The Spalinger family originated in this village. The people had to pay a toll to cross the bridge or the leave the village. There was a point in 1754 when the monks needed a large sum of money so 3 men of the town met with the monks to make some negotiations. The last names of these three men were Wipf, Toggenburger, and Spalinger. Finally they decided for 30,000 golden (or florin) the people of Marthalen could buy their freedom. Just to understand the value of a golden, a cow costs 15 golden. So this was a high price. The people of Marthalen went to the honorable citizens of Zurich and asked for credit. Eventually the people of Marthalen were no longer serfs to the monks. The above document is the paper the Marthalen people received when they were free from the monks rule over them.

Here I am with Manfred Spalinger at the local restaurant in Marthalen. We enjoyed pumpkin soup, venison, red cabbage & chestnuts, and ice cream.

Herbsmesse & Carving Pumpkins

On Thursday the whole school went to Basel, Switzerland for Herbsmesse. This is a fall carnival that happens in the city. There are rides similar to fairground rides, lots of carnival food, and loud music. It felt like a bit of American culture in the middle of Europe. We had a great time and I enjoyed a coffee from Starbucks and some roasted chestnuts!

On Friday the girls did not have school so the dorm parents picked up some pumpkins for us to carve. The girls had a good time and at least one of them carved a pumpkin for the first time in her life! I was with a fellow RA, Lizzy, and one of the seniors. We decided to carve Perry our van into the pumpkin.

This in Perry the van. He is called Perry due to his lovely Periwinkle blue color.


This is our pumpkin...the one on the left. Can you see a resemblance?

Palmgarten Open Dorm!

On Saturday October 25, 2008, Palmgarten opened it's doors to the BFA community. The theme was "The World Wide Web." So each hallway was a server-either Firefox or Internet Explorer and every room was a different web site. I chose www.echoranch.org because I love it so much and my room is already decked out in Alaska parafanilia. Every sitting area was a different "chat" room.


We served "cookies" as our refreshments. The girls made over 1,000 cookies. Here on of the seniors is demonstrating some of her hard work.

These two roommates are very excited to have people into their room. There room was a Koren web site that is similiar to Facebook.


This is Ellie, she is a fellow RA with me in Palm. The girls created her "Facebook" page for all to see. It was an excellent night and we had at least 300 people over to our dorm. Even today a BFA missionary commented that it was a wonderful open house.

The Black Forest in the Fall

The autumn leaves have been very vibrant this fall. What a change for me from the evergreens of Southeast Alaska to the colors of the Black Forest. The hillsides have been decorated in oranges, red, yellows, and browns. These pictures do not do the beauty of the Black Forest justice.

I went on a walk with my good friend, Carrie Beth, and we came across 2 of the seven dwarfs. The German people seem to enjoy yard gnomes and decorations. I had a great time with these two.

This is the small village of Kaltenbach near Marzell where the Sonne dorm in located. As Carrie Beth and I walked along we came across goats and cows on the hillsides. The small villages of Germany are very quaint and everything you would expect of a German village.

Bonnie's Birthday Party at Palm

We celebrated my birthday on Tuesday Oct. 16th so that the seniors could attend. Many of the seniors help with middle school small groups on Wednesday nights. There was a lovely birthday spot at the table and I was crowned Princess for the day.


There are some birthday traditions at Haus Palmgarten. First the birthday person gets to choose the dessert for the evening meal...I chose cheesecake! Yummy. Then at a random point during the meal two girls will rush at the birthday person and give them Nutella kisses. Yes...it is exactly what it sounds like....they have Nutella (chocolate spread for toast) on their lips and the kiss the bithday girl and put Nutella on her nose! As you can see...I had my Nutella kisses.


Finally all of the seniors...which there are 9 of this year sing a song to the birthday girl. They take a song and rewite the words to fit the birthday girl. My song talked of Alaska and lumber jacks...not that I spent a lot of time with lumber jacks or anything. It was wonderful. I had an excellent birthday with the Palm dorm!

Bonnie's Birthday

Today is my birthday and I wasn't quit sure what to expect....but so far...it is turning out to be a pretty wonderful day! Last night one of my lovely girls made me this wonderful GIANT birthday card on the sidewalk with chalk. She was so excited about it she showed me last night. It was a huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY sign.





After breakfast where another girl and her visiting parents sang "Happy Birthday" to me, then Les and Elva gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers. Then we had a dorm staff meeting and I baked some cookies for the girl's lunch snack. After quickly washing dishes I met my wonderful friend, Carrie Beth where I had lunch with her and she also gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers. Then after she dropped me off from lunch, a nice German man brought me yet another bouquet of flowers from my wonderful parents.

Never had I had some may lovely flowers. Above are my 3 lovely bouquets of flowers. Below is me with the flowers from my parents. I am sure the rest of my day will continue to be wonderful.

Roman Ruins!

On Wednesday October 8, 2008 the Palmgarten dorm staff went to visit the Augusta Raurica Roman ruins. They are just 10 minutes outside of Basel, Switzerland.

August, Switzerland is where the Romans claimed this land for themselves. They built the entire town...Roman style. So there is an amphitheater. Here you will see myself, Elva Porter (dorm Mom), Lizzy Schulz (RA), Ellie Wiebe (RA).


This is the amphitheater now...and what is looked like originally.


Elva and I are enjoying are quaint view of the amphitheater. We are such bad kids to be climbing in the windows! Opps!


This is Les Porter the dorm Dad. As you can see, you don't want to mess with him. And yes, if any guys at BFA want to take one of the Palm girls out they have to ask Papa Les for permission. So, needless to say there are a few intimidated guys at the school!


The Romans loved their games and we loved it as well!


Would you want these people to take care of your children?

All in all we had a lovely time enjoying the past. We ended the adventure at the Fumph Shilling, a nice German restaurant. The pumpkin soup was wonderful! Germany is pretty amazing in the fall!

Lost in Zurich

On Wednesday I was asked to help drive some juniors to a college fair in Zurich, Switzerland. It was about an hour away. I was told I would have no responsibilies and I would be able to wander around downtown Zurich. This sounded wonderful, especially since my good friend CB was also going to be driving.

Only 2 vans were needed, not three, so I decided I would ride along with CB as Luke, the guidance counselor lead the way with his GPS. We found the hotel Marriott that the college fair was at and let the kids off. Then we were going to park in the parking garadge. Down we went, but the parking attendent would not let us park due to the size of our vans...so after a 16 point turn in not very much space we left the parking gardge with Luke and his GPS in the lead to find a place to park.

Soon we had to turn around again, but we were seperated from Luke. So without GPS or a map, CB and I tried hard to find a place to park. Soon we were lost in Zurich...for an hour an a half and were in a GETTO part of town then we got to the highway. I could have followed the signs home...but we didn't have the students so we needed to find the hotel again. So I started to PRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And suddenly we saw signs for downtown Zurich....and we followed them...and after a few turns...God brought us to the Marriott! Praise the LORD! I asked the parking attendent where we could park our HUGE van (which would be small in American terms) and he said around the building. So there we went and again prayed for a spot...and there one was that was easy to park in. Please notice the wonderful parall parking job CB did! Pretty Amazing.

The next day CB and another RA, Vangie, were in a school van and got side swiped by a HUGE logging truck and should have died...but lived to tell the story. If you would like to read about this story and see more pics of me then look at my friend, CB Watson's blog at www.cbwatson.blogspot.com to see more details.

Hide and Seek

On Friday night, we found the dorm rather empty. Girls were away for sports, they were at friends houses, or they were just out living the lives of teens. So the few girls that were around decided to play "Sardines," which is where you hide with the person when you find them.

The first person to hide was Becca. She listened closely to the boundaries and set off to hide while the rest of the group waited in the kitchen. Now to fully understand the "greatness" of her hiding spot, you need to know that Palmgarten dorm also houses the Janz Team (mission organization) headquarters and a German church. Between the dorm and the Janz Team offices are a set of double doors with a 6 inch space between them. This is where Becca chose to hide.

I was sitting out the first round, but after a LONG time, I too began the search. She was nowhere to be founds. Finally we had to make her clap so we could locate her in her secret hiding place. We played many rounds and had a great Friday night. Can I just say, being behinds a couch, or under a counter, or behind a door with ten teenagers is fairly entertaining and squishy!

A Black & White Affair

The Black Queen & the White Queen of the Chess Set

Friday was BFA's annual "Fall Party." The theme was "A Black & White Affair" and all of the students and staff came dressed in black & white costumes. It was fun to see the creative juices flowing. Some of the students preformed on stage in their outfits. From Palmgarten dorm we had an entire chess set that ended up winning the "Best of Show" award. It was good fun. I went as a maid.

Two Days in Luzern, Switzerland

After an eventful day at Strasbourgh, France, CB and I were ready for another country and more beautiful European scenery. So off we went in the RA car that we named Howee! We found Luzern, Switzerland without a problem...but finding our way around Luzern proved to be a problem. We were without a map and driving blindly. We happened to turn into the museum...which we wanted to see. So we went in case we never found it again!

After the delightful time learning about Swiss things we were ready for our packed lunches. So we walked to the lake the Luzern surrounds and had a lovely lunch enjoying the day, the lake, and the Alps in the background. Not too shabby! We liked the spot so much we had lunch there the next day and became friends with some ducks. CB took pity upon them and fed them some of her sandwich.

We then found a parking garage to store Howee. And off we went to explore downtown. The train station takes you right into the heart of the city. Next time, I think I might just take the train. We began the search for our hotel...yep it was in the pedestrian area where you could not drive...so we set out to find a closer parking garage. But we couldn't get out of our parking garage. We tried to pay the ticket with CB's creit card, but it didn't work, so I ran back to use mine, but I needed a pin number that I didn't have and finally I realized I had a 50 bill Swiss Frank (CHF). So I put my bill in there to pay my 4CHFs and thought I would get bills as change.....WRONG! I suddenly had 46CHF in change. Can I say my back hurt from carrying all fo the coins! But out of the parking garage we were! Finally we found a closer parking garage! But it was for another hotel...a fancy hotel! I had to use another CHF to get out of it and we never even parked! So we just took Howee back to where he was and carried our luggage a couple blocks to the hotel. It was nice and clean and very very small.

One of the coolest things about Luzern is the covered bridges. They are beautiful and have stories with pictures written on the inside of them. I have no idea what they were about since I can't read German!

We also wanted to see the Lion of Luzern. Ernest Hemingway called it the saddest piece of rock he had ever seen. It is amazing, but it was less so since it was being worked. But it is impressing and thought provoking.

Fianlly before we left Luzern, we drove around the area and found this quaint spot. The locals were swimming in the water. I couldn't resist putting my feet in the beautiful lake. What a rest to see God's amazing creation.

A Day in Strasbourgh, Franch

Last weekend was my first weekend off! My friend Carrie Beth (CB) also had the weekend off! Not yet overly tired we were ready to explore Europe...so we set our sights on Strasbourgh, France. It is a beautiful city that is right on the boarder of France and Germany. A river runs through the town and CB and I hopped a tour boat and got all of the historical information. I saw old, old buildings and the boat even went into a locke where water was either added or taken away to make the water level even with the water in the rest of the area.

There is a beautiful Cathedral. It was amazing to see this amazing artwork in the stained glass and even on the pulpit. It clearly points to Jesus Christ being the Savoir. The building was filled with history, but it made my heart sad to see so many lost people who need to hear about how to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. There are many, many different booths to be used for confession when all people need to do is confess to Christ not to a priest.

After a quick lunch at a cafe on the street the weather changed and we needed to find a warm dry place to go as it rained outside. So we found the Strasbourgh Museum. There I was most interested in the shinny armor the knights and their horses wore. I even had the opportunity to try a helmet on. I am not sure how they were able to sword fight in those things! Too funny!

My Palmgarten Girls

Living in dorm with 26 teenage girls is bound to be full of adventrue and excitement. I have enjoyed getting to know each of the girls and they have truely been a blessing to me. One of my favorite things we do every Sunday eveing is have "Dorm Fellowship." It is a time to connect with each other. Sometimes we just hang out or play games. Other times we share what God is teaching us through the week and pray for eachother. But not matter what we always end with Sundays! Ice Cream Sundays on Sunday! What could be better? Not much!

Yesterday in "Dorm Fellowship" we sang some praise songs and then we splint into classes. Palmgarten only has sophmores, juniors, and seniors. I had the seniors and it was such a blessing to hear how this past week, spiritual emphis week, had an impact on them. One girl shared that she is learning how she needs to turn to God before she turns to her friends. Another spoke about her heart for her friend who is going through a tramatic experience. It is so awesome to see their desire to live for Christ and make a positive impact on those around them.

I have to say one of my favorite parts of my "job" is greeting the girls after school. Here Elva, the dorm Mom and I are greeting some of the girls. It is amazing the wonderful things you can learn about the life of a teen while they eat a snack or sit on a swing!

Move to Germany

It has been a while since I have written and for that I am sorry! But a lot has happened in the last month and a half. I have spent quality time in Ohio with my wonderful family which has included one of my nephew's first birthday and an all family camping trip. Then just days later I flew across the big, wide ocean into Basel, Switzerland. In this beautiful city on the Rhein River Switzerland, France, and Germany all come together. Here I am standing in downtown Basel. Note the very narrow buildings that are all connected in the background. People bought what they could afford. On this excursion to Basel, I ventured into a very old church and found John 3:16 written in German.

When I arrived at Black Forest Academy I had to go through 3 weeks of orientation to learn how to be a useful RA. One of the most important skills I learned was how to drive a stick shift van through the narrow streets of Europe and learn my way around the Kandern area of Germany. I was lucky enough to be with an amazing group of fellow RAs. Below is a group of us on Hoke Blauen (a hillside) where you can see France, Switzerland, and Germany. From this point we hiked down the hillside. I am in the middle center in the red shirt.

Then all of the RAs had a banquet to celebrate the beginning of a new year at Black Forest Academy. Here I am with CB (Carrie Beth) who was my roommate these first weeks. Even though we are not in the same dorm, we are excited to take some fun trip together.
Finally, I was assigned to my dorm. I am in Haus Palmgarten with is located in the beautiful village of Kandern, Germany. Palmgarten is a girls dorm. We have 26 amazing girls in 10-12th grades. Kandern is exactly what you would picture when you think of a small German town. The school is also located in in the village. I am so excited to experience this new year!