Julie's Birthday and a Fancy German Muffin!

 I love that I have a couple of Bluffton, Ohioans here at BFA with me.  It was Julie Thompson's birthday and so a group of us RAs went to G5.  This is a fancy restaurant that is a bit out of my price range...but since it was just dessert....we could afford it.

 Julie and Amy Cherry enjoy the beautiful caramel tart....looks pretty fancy!!!  They said it tasted wonderful!

I had a milk coffee and a  chocolate raspberry muffin.  Which is fairly impressive and the awe of this muffin can only be truly understood with a closer look....

There are nice raspberry brush stokes on the place with some crazy sugar icicles and vanilla ice cream.  There was an unknown berry that was yellow and had the texture of a cherry tomato with the taste of a nice berry flavor sort of like a strawberry, but not really.  I can't explain it, but you can see the remains of it...  Oh there was also a yummy syrup to pour over the muffin....it was a delicious dessert!  Sometimes the food is worth blogging about!

The Hospital and the Beautiful German Autumn

 Last week, one of the girls, "O" fell off the front steps at the dorm.  Now this does not sound to dangerous until you notice that her knee cap is no longer on the top of her knee, but now on the side of her knee!  OUCH!!  So look took her to the hospital where she had to wait for 5 hours in intense pain until she could be looked at by a doctor.  Needless to say, she ended up spending the night.  I then spent the rest of the nest day at the hospital with her from 9am until 7:30pm.  It was a long day. 

 But it was a beautiful day.  This is a picture that I snapped as I was driving.  The next day I was back at the hospital with "O".  The doctor said she could go home as soon as she learned how to walk with her crutches.  When I got there she was learning and it was my personal mission to get her home!  I was there by 8:45am and by 10:30 am we were walking out of the door.  Now this is quite a feat when you realized that I do not speak German.  So getting her prescription for pain meds, learning how to give her shots (yes I give her shots as part of her medicine!), and just getting the okay to leave was rather challenging for me.  Praise the Lord that one of the nurses spoke some English. 

As we drove home from the hospital, "O" and I enjoyed the lovely scenery of Germany.  This is Riedlingen, a local village.  "O's" mom is now here.  She will have to have surgery in the next few weeks and go though physical therapy.  However, the BEST thing about this event is that through this hardship, the Holy Spirit really got a hold of "O's" heart.  She has grown up in a Christian home, but just recently she has fully come to understand the love of Jesus Christ for her and she has given her life to follow HIM.  She told me this one evening as I was saying good-night to her and giving her her evening shot.  Praise God...He works in mysterious ways!!!

Outdoor Ice Skating

Last weekend all of the boarding students went into Basel to go ice skating.  Now just imagine taking about 200 teenagers ice skating....it is an interesting event.

The first issue after we got to the rink, was waiting in line for our skates.  It took us about 45 minutest to get through.  My group was toward the end.  I am literally just outside those doors.  Then we got our skates and got on the ice.  It did take me a few trips around the rink, to get my balance, but I got it quicker than I though I would.

Here is Luke, the ever cool dorm dad, with some of the girls who were a bit wobbly on the ice.  What a great dorm dad!

Luke (girls dorm-Palmgarten), Marty (boys dorm-Sonne), Greg (boys dorm-HBR), Jim (girls dorm Storch)

For the more skilled skaters there was the option of playing ice hockey...I did not participate is this!  But here are 4 of the dorm dads who did.  They all said they were sore after this.  It was a great night of fun...and I did see some entertaining spills.  I only took a knee once....with no major pain afterwords!!!

Bio Cells

 All of the students in biology are required to make a model of a cell.  Which is a great way for them to remember the small parts of a cell like the mitochondria.  Now most students are procrastinators and that is true of BFA kids as well.  So on Monday when we were off for a German holiday many of the girls were trying to "bake" their cells!

Here is a pizza cell.  I am not sure I am hungry for this one, but it looks great.

Popcorn and pickles are not my favorite toppings!

"C" models her cell and all of the hard work she put into this creation.

"H" is really proud of her cell.  She choose to have a chocolate cake model...yummy...now this one I might think about eating.

Here is a close up view of the cell cake.

The Hike to Hoch Blauen

 I just love the amazing fall colors.  So on Sunday when Luke, the dorm dad, asked who wanted to go on a hike up from Sonne (a boys dorm) to Hoch Blauen, I was excited to go.  In German "Hoch" means high and "Blauen" means blue which sort of translates to "blue mountain."  Which is very fitting from a distance.

This is the hill across the road from Sonne (sun) dorm.  AMAZING!

As we started up the hill/mountain, whatever you want to call it we found some goats that the girls just loved!

At the beginning of the hike, we were all in good spirits.  These are two of my wonderful Canadians!  About 10 minutes into the hike, the girls realized this was less of a walk and more of an uphill hike.  There were not necessarily prepared, but all of them made it to the top without complaining!!  Now that is the makings of a great hike!

Here we are on our first rest break.  Notice that most of the girls found walking sticks.   Around the mid-point Luke states, "I didn't know Hoch Blauen was German for Mt. Everest!"  It was uphill the entire way and were were all very tired.  An RA in Sonne told us it would take us about 45 minutes to get to the top, but he is a marathon runner and very athletic.  Instead of 45 minutes, it took us an HOUR and 45 minutes!!!

But finally we made it to the top and were rewarded with an amazing view!

If you look into the distance you can see some snow covered mountains, those are the Swiss Alps!
It is very rare that you can see them from Hoch Blauen, but God gave us a wonderful gift and cleared the small section where the Alps stand so we could see all the way there!!  What a gift!

Here is the crew resting at the top and taking in the view!

The treat that we got at the top was cookies and peanut M & Ms....we were a happy bunch!  However, we did not have time to hike back down since it was daylight savings day and it was getting dark an hour early.  So we tried to call Sonne and Blauen, the dorms near where we parked our van, but they were gone.  So Luke called Greg, the dorm day of HBR, and he drove all the way up the hill to take us down to our van.  THANKS GREG!  YOU ARE AWESOME!

The Lama Trail

 Now, you are probably thinking...lamas...I thought those were a South American thing and not so much a European thing, and you would be right.  However, there is a small lama farm on a path near my dorm between Kandern and Sitzenkirk.

 I love walking on this beautiful trail, especially in the fall.  Often I will take some of my girls on a walk to get some fresh air and talk about life.  This day I went on a walk with Amy Cherry, who is both a fellow RA and a fellow Bluffton High School grad.  We got "take away"coffee and went on a walk.  This is extremely "American" of us and all of the Germans sort of look at us strangely when we pass them on the path.  We just grin and say, "hallo."

 This is the lama farm.  Look at the colors on the trees, aren't they amazing?

Lama, lama, lamas...

Baby lamas are just too cute...but this might be as close as I want to get to them just in case they decide to spit on me!

Here is Amy with her "take away" coffee cup and the lamas...what a great way to relax on my 4 hours off in the afternoons!

Herbsmesse on the Rhein

At the end of October every year we load the whole school onto buses and go into Basel to enjoy Herbsmesse.  This is the oldest festival in Switzerland.  The kids love going to Herbsmesse because they can eat "fair food," enjoy crazy rides, and it typically when banquet asking begins.  This is when the guys ask the girls to go with them to Christmas banquet which is at the end of November.  The asking can get fairly elaborate.  This year the asking stared early...I have heard quite a bit about "Who do you think will ask me?" "How did he ask you?" "Who are you going to banquet with?"  There have been many squeals of delight as boys have asked with cakes, mini movies, and flowers.

 Basel is located right on the Rhein River.  I love how the modern day Ferris Wheel and the ancient buildings blend together.

 Here I am with Erin, an RA, as we stand on the bridge crossing the Rhein.

Michael, a fellow RA, took this amazing shot of the swings.  The Swiss do big and crazy rides at Herbsmesse.

The highlight for all of BFA is the bumper cars.  BFA reserves an hour for the high school students and staff to ride the bumper cars at a reduced rate. I love that every car has a Swiss flag on it.

The demand for bumper cars was VERY, VERY HIGH!!!  The lights would come on when it was time to switch cars...however there were at three times when the loud music that was blaring changed songs some of the kids ran out to grab their cars. The cars were still going because it was not time to change yet!  Luckily nobody got ran over! 

As staff we would stand on the sides and watch the kids.  Sometimes we would ride as well.   This is Anna, a RA, cheering on the boys in her dorm.

Pumpkin Carvin the Palmgarten and HBR WAY!!!

Now this weekend was my weekend off.  So while I was hanging out with friends, watching movies, reading books, shopping and just chilling out...here is what happened at my dorm: (Which I sort of feel okay about missing!)

Well, everything started out nice...the guys for HBR (Haus Bad Riedlingen) came over to Palmgarten to carve pumpkins.  We did this last year with HBR...so it is now a tradition.

The guys and girls seem to be having a great time carving up their pumpkins, but then suddenly something happens...

See those drop clothes hanging from the ceiling...they are there for a reason. "P" and "N" are coming up with a grand design.

The beautiful "S" has quite a pile of pumpkin guts!

And finally the drop clothes go down and chaos ensues with in the plastic bubble!  Notice that Taylor is happily outside of the bubble taking photos.

Inside the bubble...things are a bit messier!  "C" gives "A" and face full of pumpkin guts....Ewwwwww!

Here we see the master minds behind this chaos...the DORM DADS!!!  Luke and Greg! You can see they too were part of the fun.

 Here is the mess after everyone had a good time getting the inside of pumpkins on the outside.

Luckily, everyone was willing to help clean up and make the place look presentable.

I am pretty impressed...the place looks very clean.

Here is just one of the final products of the evening.

 And here is the whole crew of Palmgarten and HBR that participated in this wonderful event.

Craft Time Extravaganza!!

 My dorm loves being creative!!!  Which works out nicely for me since I love to let my creativity flow!

Here Luke and I are getting "J" to show her face while we make masterpieces with our wire!  This is my new favorite pastime.

The "Modge Podge Phenom" hit the dorm like wildfire...filled with small pieces of cut out magazines and sticky glue!

The creativity is sparked in "H's" mind and she can't stop herself.

"E" made this picture frame that is genius, pure genius.

And when Luke does not have something to keep himself busy...he will literally CLIMB THE WALLS!  I guess being the only guy in a dorm full of girls can make you do crazy things!

Game Night with Maugenhard

 As a girls dorm, a favorite weekend activity is hanging out with a boys dorm!  On a Friday night we hung out with Maugenhard dorm.  It is the boys dorm that is located in the top two floors of our building.  Palmgarten is located in the bottom two floors.  So it was easy to get the girls upstairs to Maugenhard for some fun since we didn't need to drive them anywhere.

The Maugenhard staff planned some awesome group activities.  Here the girls are "shaving" the boy's faces with whip cream.  At first the boys had fear in their eyes, until they told them the girls were just going to use butter knifes!  

 Some of the girls proved to be better shavers than others.  "P" is giving "T" a very close shave!

The next activity was trying to find a slice of cucumber in a bowl of yogurt.   Some of them laughed more that actually looked for the cucumber.

 This is Taylor, my wonderful and awesome co-RA.  She looks on with great joy that she is not required to get messy!

"N", one of the freshman, shows her great cucumber talent.  In the first 5 seconds, she pulls out the slice of cucumber, while the others search in vain.

"H", a senior and the only other Avant Ministries at BFA, is extremely excited that he finally found a cucumber!  

Now for the challenging hanging pretel trick.  The people on the bottom need to eat the pretzel without using their hands....this is very difficult...I have tried this before with little success.

The boys had the opportunity to brush some of the girl's teeth.  "S", the guy in the center, tells "J" that, "I am sure your teeth are clean, so I am just going to brush these teeth in the front.  The girls with the least amount of toothpaste on her face wins...due to "S's" method...they won!

Finally we ended the night with snacks and various card games and board games.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their time together.