No Shave November!!

Yes, most...not all of the girls...in Palmgarten dorm decided to participate in NO SHAVE NOVEMBER! Since November 1st the girls signed a contract that is posted in the dorm that they would not shave their legs for the month...well at least until the night before the Christmas Banquet. So on Friday night all of the girls gathered their very un-used razors, shaving gel, and some buckets of warm water...and the shaving took place.

After we shaved our legs, we watched "Miss Congeniality" and ate chocolate fondue and fruit and pretzels. Yummy. Like Miss Congeniality, we too went through a transformation.



Can I just say, that if a girl does not shave her legs for a month, that first shaving experience is not the typical shaving experience....it takes a couple times to get everything...and still there is more to get! I know...I might be crossing the line....but it is true!



A few of the girls were gone and came late to the shaving party, so they used my bathtub to partake in the event.


I too enjoyed having smooth legs after a long and hairy month! Crazy things happen in a girls dorm! But now all of the girls are ready for Christmas Banquet...on Saturday night.

American Thanksgiving

Brandon, (the guy on the right) one of the American RAs in HBR dorm, thought it was ridiculous that BFA did not have Thanksgiving on either American or Canadian Thanksgiving. So his dorm invited all of the RAs over for American Thanksgiving. Brandon and Tommy even dressed up like Pilgrims for the festivities!

Some of the RAs feasting: Kara, Rachel K, Vangie, Timmy, Brandon, Lizzy, Rachel H, Andy.

We had a large table full of food to enjoy...and all while our students were away at school! Sometimes it is good to be an RA! Each person brought something to share for all 25 of us...so we had more than enough.

Andy, Matt, Ellie, and CB wait for some good food.

All of us enjoyed spending so time on the real Thanksgiving celebrating with each other. We did the traditional things and ate our turkey, hung out and played games, or watched games on the TV. Ahhhhh....Thanksgiving.

Snow in Germany!

This weekend we had snow! Wow, the girls were excited as they hoped and prayed on Sunday night for a snow day. We had just a few inches and by Monday night it was almost all gone. I did spot some on the bushes as I walked home this evening in the frigid weather.

On Sunday night I had the opportunity to say goodnight to all 26 girls...well at least those girls who were still awake by the time I got there. I had a great time connecting to the girls as we talked about homework, what they are wearing to the Christmas banquet (which is this coming weekend), and the sermon on Sunday morning. God is working in these girls lives. Please continue to pray for them, for me and the rest of the Palmgarten staff as we try to finish this semester well. The girls have only 3 more weeks of classes and one week of finals and then we all celebrate Christmas break!

A Sunday Night

Life in the dorm on Sunday nights are usually very calm. Last night was no exception. We had a great evening of dorm fellowship...we played games and ate ice cream. I spend most of the time playing hearts...and I came in second place...not as good as first, but I need to let the students win! Then as I began to send the girls to bed I had a great conversation in the kitchen with one girl about grace and legalism.

Then another girl wanted to talk to me about a group of girls getting along and we discussed how to show loved to others. Overall the girls at Palm do a great job at getting along, which I think is very impressive for teenage girls!

And finally I was able to get some of the girls in bed after I answered questions about the dress code, homework, and finally if they were able to stay home from school! Overall it was a great night...and it gives you a little bit of insight to what I do everyday.

Thanksgiving!

Here are the three Palm RAs...ready to celebrate Thanksgiving. Lizzy Schulz, Bonnie Spallinger, and Ellie Weibe.

At BFA we celebrate Thanksgiving between the American and Canadian Thanksgivings. So this year we celebrated on Thursday November 13, 2008. The preparations started early. On Wednesday I got to peal lots and lots of potatoes for REAL mashed potatoes. We spent a good part of the morning decorating and getting the food ready.

Here Les, the dorm dad and certified chef, is doing some finishing touches on the turkey.

We also enjoy homemade stuffing. Which was delightful!

The Thanksgiving meal is not complete with out pies. We had apple, pumpkin, and pecan pies. There were 12 pies in all and most of them were eaten!

We began our meal with a small salad. Here two students and myself (I am in the orange) are getting the salad onto the table.

The table was set beautifully.....

and we enjoyed a wonderful meal!

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.