Adelboden: Palmgarten Retreat!

The dorm staff took our 19 Palm girls to Adelboden, Switzerland to have a little retreat. We packed for snow and yes I even brought my snow shoes...and as you can see...NO SNOW!! As you can see the hills are pretty steep here. Well to get to this quaint little town we had to drive in the night 2 hours and 15 minutes. My stick shift van was loaded down with 8 girls and most of the food. I was following Stephine in her van (she had the GPS) up this tiny little windy road and because the hills were so steep and I had to drive so slowly my van began to stall out. Then it wouldn't start going up hill and would only go downhill. At this point we were totally lost. So I put on the parking brake and ran to talk to Stephanie in her van. It was at this point that the van began to roll backward. Needless to say the girls began screaming in fear. WE all avoided death when I got back into the van. At this point, I was in a sticky situation...then with the parking break on and my foot on the brake we began to roll BACKWARDS! This is NOT good! We were rolling down the hill and yes, I did get a bit off the road and ran over a small road marker...but I was able to back up into a tiny driveway. God took care of us...but boy did that car smell of burnt rubber and I am pretty sure that I won't be the maintenance guys favorite person...but we LIVED!

When I woke up after that scary night I had this view out of my window.

The girls enjoying relaxing and making cards for each other.

Here "H", "J", and "E" enjoy a quiet breakfast with a view.

Later in the morning we set off for a little hike. Here are some fans of the Alps!

This is the Janz Chalet that we stayed at. It was the perfect place to relax at.

The girls admire the Alps before we set off to explore the village.

My hiking buddies: "S", "J", "E", "R", and "J". How cute are they!

Bonnie...the happy Swiss girl in the Swiss Alps.

Here "E" and "J" are actually standing on the road! What an incline!

What a view!

Walking down the road....can you imagine passing another car on this thing! Yikes!

Here is a typical Swiss house. If you look closely at the center of the house you will see that it was built in 1771! It is just a few years old!

The Alps in the morning...what a beautiful thing!

The peaks tower above the clouds.

Dorm Thanksgiving

You are correct if you are thinking..."But Thanksgiving has not happened yet." Since we live in an international community, we have Thanksgiving between the American and Canadian holidays. Here "A" and "E" check out the appetizer table. It was "E's" first Thanksgiving since she is Korean and grew up in Turkey. It was fun explaining all of the the new foods to her.

The appetisers are yummy. I and "K" and "E" are trying hard to to eat too much before the meal actually begins!

The Thanksgiving Fest is about to begin. What a beautiful table setting! Mrs. Shuman and Stephanie put these decorations together.

We also invited all of our dorm subs to partake in the feast. Here little Katie is trying to decide what she would like to eat! Her parents were a huge help during our swine flu quarentine time!

Here "J" and myself wait anxiously for the feast to begin!

The girls were so full after the HUGE meal that they had to roll around on the floor after they heard that it was a family tradition in "Dorm Dad's" family.

The whole Palmgarten dorm. What a cute bunch of girls...and Luke!

A Weekend in Geneva!

Stephanie, a fellow RA, and myself were excited to take a break from the dorm on the first week of November. One of the BFA student's in Stephanie's dorm lives in Fance, next to Geneva, Switzerland. Her parents were kind enough to invite Stephaine and I to stay with them for the weekend. We spent a day in Geneva and the rest of the time just chilling out! It was wonderful!
We did find a free museum. Check out these ancient pieces of armor. I could not imagine putting that on and then being expected to fight someone. I think I would topple over!

Geneva also boast the reformation wall. This is pretty impressive and important to Christian history. Here Stephanie, an Alma mater of Calvin College, poses in front of CALVIN. He is the guy in the middle. If you look closely he is also put just a bit in front of the other men.

I am enjoying the rain, the reformation wall and the really cool Swiss emblem.

Palmgarten & Maugenhard Open House

Palmgarten and Maugenhard dorms had a joint open house with the theme "Evolution of Music." Each floor was playing music from a different time. Palmgarten's first floor had classic music and the second floor had jazz. Maugenhard's first floor (the 3rd floor) had rock music and their top floor had techno music. We all dressed up in one of the styles of music. Sunny and Cher made an appearance at Palmgarten. Luke and Stephanie the Palm dorm parents are rockin out!

Lizzy (RA) and "S" and "K" are enjoying the jazzy style of flappers.

The classic music is elegantly worn by "J" and "S." What beauties who also can actually play classical music very well. "J" is amazing at the piano and "S" is the 1st cello!

Here "E" and "K", two of Palm's quieter girls, show us what they are made of as the "rock out!"

Volleyball Champions!

The BFA varsity volleyball team took the Championship. This is fairly impressive since all of the schools we play are US military schools. We had 2 Palmgarten girls in volleyball this year. Here "H" are strong and tough junior prepares to attack the ball. She was on the JV, but for the championship game the coaches saw fit to take her with them!

Here "K" our varsity volleyball girl spots me as I snap her picture.

The varsity team physics themselves up for the upcoming game!

Herbsmesse

At the end of October the whole BFA school goes to Basel, Switzerland for Herbsmesse. It is like a good old fashioned festival or fair. It is in fact the oldest festival in Switzerland dating back to 1471...pretty cool. Here Amanda, CB, and Anna are enjoying the festivities. The RAs enjoy the social outing!

The is the "bridge" in Basel which goes over the Rhein River. You will notice the giant Ferris wheel in the background.

Up close this Farris wheel is HUGE. It cost about 10 CHF (Swiss Franks) which is about $10 USD. I am just cheap to put out that kind of cash for a Farris wheel!

When ever us RAs have time to gather socially...we rejoice. Here Stephanie, CB, myself, and Anna are chatting it up while waiting for the kids to ride the bumper cars!

Here are the infamous bumper cars. BFA rents the whole ride for 2 hours so everyone can ride and it only cost one Swiss frank! What a bargain! I had a few crazy rides with some of my students.

Walk in Kandern

A great way for me to relax and just enjoy the beauty around me is to take a walk. All I have to do is just walk up the hill from my dorm, Palmgarten. This is the view as I turn around and looks down the hillside towards Kandern.

This is my favorite spot. It is a lovey picnic table the over looks a beautiful view.

This is the view from my favorite spot to sit and think and pray.

Rose hips.

Look at the vibrant colors of the trees up close. In the distance the colors don't look as brilliant as they truely are.

An apple tree in all of its glory. Here in Germany they tend to have small apple trees that bear a lot of fruit.

The trees are ripe with fruit.
The fruit of my walk. In Germany it is acceptable to pick and eat fruit, but not to pick and harvest fruit as you walk by an orchard. Yummm! What a yummy treat for myself.

The beautiful colors of the small apple trees that overlook Kandern.

Feuerbach Strasse and the lovely apple trees. What a beautiful fall day to walk back down the hillside into town.

Here are some Kandern cows just enjoying the sunshine as I frolick down the hillside back toward Kandern. These cow are literally just next to the golf course.

This is the golf course that surrounds the outskirts of Kandern and is in the back yard of my dorm. It apparently costs 10,000 euros to be a memeber for a year and 100 euros to play a golf game. So needless to say, it is not uncommon to see beamers and porsches zip by our dorm out of Kandern. This is a very attractive gold course and many Swiss people come here to golf because it is so much cheaper....just imagine the cost in Switzerland! Yikes!

The sign that I am entering Kandern again. It is right outside of my dorm.

The Palmgarten Dorm is the bottom two floors and Maugenhard Dorm is the top two floors.