Me, Catherine, Nathan, and Rob at church yesterday.

More on match-making

If you frequent this blog you will remember a post called "Match-making??" Since then I have discussed this matter with many different people and have even witnessed in action the concurrence of missionaries and online dating.

Case sample #1: I met a friend of a friend who is a misssionary in Geneva and was about to ask her what she thought about this topic when she proceeded to bring up how she'd met her boyfriend through a Christian discussion board about the Emerging Church/Postmodern Christianity.

Case sample #2: Actually, right this very moment as I post this, I am with a fellow missionary along with THE GIRL HE MET THROUGH EHARMONY!! Yeah, she stayed the night at my house even. I'll keep you posted on how this crazy adventure turns out.

Yesterday I received an email from a friend (who posted a great comment on this blog concerning this topic--you should go back and read that if this interests you) who happens to go to the same church as the children of the "first Wycliffe couple." When I visited her church a man told me that his parents were the first two people in Wycliffe to hook up. That was back in the 30's I think, right after the organization got going. Apparently, he told my friend the other day that Cameroon Townsend (missionary hero, founder of my organization) had encouraged them to hook up and that Uncle Cam was a relentless matchmaker! That makes me happy that I'm simply following his legacy :O)

The other day I asked a French friend here if he thought it was valid for missionaries to hook up online and he was like, "Well, just because God is going to bring a girl her husband doesn't mean she holes up in her house all day waiting for him to appear on her doorstep."

OK, as you can see, I really haven't been doing anything too interesting lately, so I'm a little stretched for Blog topics. If you think this is stupid just be glad I didn't do a post on flash cards or grammar drills. Although I won't excuse myself too much because unless you live in an internetless vacuum you're probably aware that online matchmaking is a hot topic around the globe.

Warning: meeting your online "match" can be awkward.

OK, so it seems to work out

These cars seriously freak me out. So tiny!

A picture this cute has to go on the blog. This is Rob (pilot with Wycliffe) and Annelies (New Zealand friend from church)

I confess I'm putting this picture on my blog just so I can feel cool that I have Iranian and Russian friends :o)

Swiss Rant

So is there a stage of culture shock called "THIS COUNTRY IS TOTALLY RETARDED"?! I just walked to the store to buy groceries and it was closed. Apparently on Mondays it doesn't open until 1:30pm! And that's after having been closed since 5pm on Saturday! Sheesh, a person could starve. Sunday night all I had left to eat was some dried fruit and nuts, and I already ate the last of those, so what am I supposed to do for lunch today? It's rather ironic because on my way to the store I was composing a blog post in my head about the good aspects of this culture and on the way home I was trying not to describe it with profanities.

Alright, just had to get that out. Seriously, I came home, threw my stuff on the bed and grabbed my computer. I guess this Blog is a sort of therapy for me sometimes. Like somewhere out there people are reading this who understand and sympathize with me. Thank you, dear cyber-therapists. But actually I'm a little bitter that right now my readers back home are probably sleeping, as it's 3am, yet if you so chose you could run to Winco right this moment and get all the food you wanted, while I'm without lunch at noon. Sigh.

Oh well, I should be thankful--the majority of people in the world today will probably only get one meager meal the whole day. Here in Switzerland I make a lot of comparisons with the US, but I better get over that before I go to Africa, eh?

OK, I'm going to go scavenging in the woods now.

Happy Swiss Day

Monday was the Swiss Nat'l Holiday. I went on a beautiful hike with team Wycliffe and swam in Lake Neuchatel. It was great. Hiking in the forest and swimming in the lake is my favorite exercise! It made me nostalgic for Oregon, though, to be amidst the natural woodsy beauty. Here's a few photos from our outing.

Me and Marian and beautiful scenery.

Hiking with Rob is an adventure. He doesn't stay on the trail for long!

Nathan, Rob, and Marian on a bridge

Jean-Pierre invited us out to dinner for Marian's going away. It was fun. Everybody thought I was drunk, but I was the only one who didn't have any alcohol! :o) Crazy American.

The Butterflies.

Today my housemate Marian (who leaves Friday, sniff, sniff) and I went to the Papiliorama...that means butterfly...o-rama...in English. So many butterflies! It was great. Except that I was all sweaty because they have to keep it humid since they're tropical, but I suppose that's TMI. OK, just enjoy the pretty pictures.

It's hard to choose between the dozens of fantastic photos I captured today. This one wins a slot on the blog because it's got both a pretty butterfly and space-age flowers.

I was very proud of this photo, but after a moment of reflection I realized anyone could make this look good in a picture! It's God who is the Great Artist!!

They were everywhere! It was wonderful, but it did make me think of an Alfred Hitchcock sequel.

The flora was just as impressive as the butterflies. This flower, I will admit, did enjoy some slight embellishments from my photo editor. But only slight.

Excursion and Peanut Butter Update

On Wednesday we did our last excursion with the university program. It was one of the most impressive. We went to Ballenberg, a "museum" of old Swiss houses, like a little town on display. We also stopped by Interlaken for a tremendous view of the mtn Yung Frau.

One of the funnest parts, however, was on the bus: my Californian friend Kelly had her mom send her a bag of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. I can't express the joy that this brought us! I'm sure they've never tasted so good before. We had a great time giving them out to people and watching their reaction as they tasted the wonder of chocolate with PB for the first time. Almost everyone liked it! Comments included: "Mmmmmmm." "I have the impression of having travelled." "Tastes like Snickers." "Where's the ketchup?"

Ballenberg is like a living museum. The houses are representive of different Swiss regions throughout the past few centuries.

Another Ballenberg house

The view of Yung Frau from Interlaken was stunning.

Alma the Cow and Yung Frau.

Thanks to me, Jill, and Kelly, the love of Reese's PB Cups has been spread around the world.

My own cartoon!!

OK, so this is about the coolest thing that's ever happened to me. In my class at the university I met a German boy named Ferdinand. He's only 17 but he's a cartoon artist! I translated his cartoons into English for him, which you can see soon at www.FerdinandLutz.com. To thank me he made me my own cartoon! I told him I wanted a picture of something typically Swiss and here's what he did for me. So cool!

Cool, huh?!!

Pidgin English

An unfortunate consequence of my French studies is that I am now unable to complete a sentence in Spanish, a language I studied for 9 years. What is encore worse (as evidenced by my unconventional use of the word "encore") is that my English has been completely weirdified. For example, the other day I told my mom, "We're having a grill tonight." (which still sounds perfectly normal to me) But she was like, "You're what?" "We're having a gr...uh, a BBQ." Another expression that is used quite naturally and regularly among the expats here is to say something happened "by hazard," meaning "by chance." I enjoy the fact that this is rendered encore funnier due to its similarity to "bio-hazard." So now I can say "It was a bio-hazard" instead of "It was an accident"! Voila, a new slang expression is born!



Domestic Animal of the Day: Jane, just because she's my cat and she's cool because she has curly hair and I miss her and the cats here aren't friendly.

Ethnic Identity of the day: Swiss German--gotta love these folks! There are so many here learning French and they've got the greatest accents. Plus they're super cool because they can understand everything German people say but the Germans can't understand them! Very stealth. If you've got satellite you've gotta check to see if you can get any of the Swiss German music programs. They call it "country" but this ain't no Toby Keith. It's like Heidi meets the 21st century. You never know when they're going to bust out a yodel.

Maniac

This morning Marian commmented, "I've never seen anyone clean the balcony with a vacuum before." Had to capture the moment in a photo for you. Jean Pierre cleans the balcony ALL THE TIME. I thought balconies were to be cleaned a couple of times during the summer...the Swiss would be appalled.

He's a maniac, maniac!

More things taken forgranted.

Since writing my top 10 list of things I took forgranted before coming here I've thought of a whole bunch more that should be included. Consider this the "Top 10: Drink edition"

10. Consumption of caffeine purely for its effect: I've been told that Mtn Dew should be on my list, but since I don't really do the Dew, I thought of this wider category. Caffeine definitely seems much more drug-like in the US.
9. Starbucks: I wasn't even a huge fan, but you miss it when it's gone!
8. Water is water is water: Here it's like "What kind? Carbonated? Flavored? Mineral? Natural?"
7. Milk and juice are found in the refrigerated section: OK, I still can't figure out the boxed milk here that you just get off a regular shelf. Real milk needs refrigeration!
6. Christians and alcohol don't mix: OK, so I don't actually believe that, but as an American it's still rather shocking when people bring beer to the youth group BBQ.
5. Large coffee: I've hardly seen a decent sized mug since being here, let alone the option of "venti."
4. Free ice water: Want some water at a restaurant? Yeah, that'll cost ya.
3. Free-refills: Ah America, land of the free and home of the glutton. Seriously though, here I never get the impression that I've gotten my money's worth when I pay 3 bucks for one glass of Coke.
2. Chai frappuccino: How I miss thee.
1. Ice cubes: This definitely merits the #1 slot. I mean, a cold one that isn't cold is hardly a one at all*.

*Strong Bad from Homestarrunner.com quote

Excursions Galore

The university program I'm doing right now offers two excursions a week. It's a great opportunity to see Switzerland and most of the trips are a lovely combination of natural beauty and urban activities. We've had picnics in the mtns and visited museums and done wine tasting and toured castles. Below are some pics from recent excursions.

All the vineyards in this region (hour from where I live) were destroyed a few days ago by a hail storm.

The town of Gruyere (famous cheese!) is very charming.

Here's where we had a picnic. These are my American friends.

We found ourselves walking through a cow field. Very charming with all of there bells clanging.

Wow.

Ten Trivial Things I Took Forgranted

10. Indian buffet
9. Stacks of Mexican tortillas that cost a buck (it's like a dollar apiece here)
8. One-piece bathing suits
7. Having my mom section my grapefruit for me
6. Free public restrooms
5. Making jokes that other people think are funny
4. Drive-thru coffee. Drive-thru anything, for that matter.
3. Saying simply "Hello?" when I answer the phone and being able to understand the person on the other line.
2. Applebee's half-priced appetizers (Nicole, we're totally splitting a veggie patch pizza when I come home!)
1. Peanut butter, esp PB with chocolate

These are some of the things I think about regularly, paticularly the food items :o) Peanut butter landed as #1 because I had no idea how strongly I felt about it until I found myself amongst people with absolutely no appreciation for the stuff! Last week I was actually angry because a Swiss man could not understand the concept of PB with chocolate. He tried to compare a Reese's Peanutbutter Cup to a chocolate-covered peanut! I'm sure I sound ridiculous, but I find that it's these little things that I can't explain that make me feel alone and culturally frustrated.

I got to have an "American moment" last week though. My housemate Marian can't get over the fact that I tried Nutella (creamy chocolate and hazelnut spread) with peanut butter. I can't get over the fact that it seems weird to her. Marian recently returned from Holland where she recounted my horrible act to her family. Apparently they responded with stunned silence. I love the image of this serious Dutch family stupified over my American antics :o) The best part of the story is this: I was with 2 other Americans at the university and told them this story and they both exclaimed, "Oh! Nutella with peanutbutter is great!" Nobody ever told us to eat them together, it just came naturally!

American Christian...oxymoron?

Had an interesting encounter at the university yesterday. It's time I broached the subject of politics on my blog. Not that I want to debate anything, or even air any opinions, but you need to know what it's like over here. The subject of American politics, as unpleasant as it is, is brought up rather hastily here. Sometimes one of the first things a person will ask me is whether or not I voted for George Bush. Everyone is very quick to denounce the war. The interesting fact of the matter is that, while it was the evangelicals of America who got Bush re-elected, European Christians are generally against the war.

Yesterday I was talking to a Catholic (possibly a German, but I don't know) who insisted emphatically that war and God absolutely do not mix. (Not sure what Bible he's reading, but that's another story.) But he did have a certain logic: Christians don't kill, war kills, voting for Bush means voting for war, voting for Bush means killing, voting for Bush can't be done by Christians. I'm not here to analyze that, just to present you with the way people think here.

But here's the real pill to swallow: Another man (also German?) said that the 2 biggest threats in the world today are 1) Atomic weapons and 2) The USA. Hmmm. Luckily some sort of defense mechanism shut me down and I was unable to respond to this statement. But actually, I can see where he's coming from. The US and our President seem very agressive from the world's viewpoint. I'm not sure how that makes us more of a threat than the terrorists who are blowing things up everyday, but even so, I can see how he could make such a statement.

So there you have it. In case you had any delusions that the world thinks of us as great heros, I'm here to tell you they think quite the opposite. Makes being an American on foreign soil...interesting.

Bonjour! Thought I'd put a photo of me and an elephant on my blog. The other day was surprised to see 5 elephants walking down the street. They'd just arrived for the circus.

Back to School. Again.

Friday I finished up my studies at Inlingua, the language school I've been at for the last 3 months. The last week was great because there was just one other girl there, so we practically got private lessons for 4 hours a day.

Today the 4-week summer program at the university got off to a GREAT start for me on many levels. First off I had to take a placement test. I felt good about the written part, but I didn't know how much the oral part would count for and I didn't feel as confident about that, so I was a little concerned that I wouldn't be in one of the 3 top classes which enjoy a slightly different schedule, including presentations on culture, history, and literature. In the meantime, I met up with a Swiss German girl that I knew briefly at Inlingua, and also (out of the 160 or so students) happened upon another American named Jessica! Considering there are only 5 Americans in the whole program and I only met a couple of people, it was a weird coincedence. The 3 of us had a great time at lunch, enjoying the fact that all of us already spoke French fairly well, even with decent accents.

In the afternoon all the students gathered together to be grouped into classes. First they called the names of the students in Superior 1 (the highest class possible) and I was completely astounded to hear my name called! It was a very pleasant surprise and encouraging to my little linguist self. As equally nice was that my two new friends also achieved the same level. Strange that we'd found each other before being put in the same class. Destiny seemed to have played a role! Jessica and I were also happy to have done our part in defeating the stereotype of Americans who are either monolingual or have terrible accents!

I thank God for this opportunity to deepen my French and also to meet people from all over the world. My class is definitely multinational: 4 Swiss Germans, 1 German, 1 man from Lichtenstein, 2 Iranian girls, 1 woman from Poland who lives in Norway, 3 girls from Russia, and 2 Jessica's from the USA :o) What an incredible opportunity to encounter people from all over the globe. I feel blessed to be able to be an ambassador here on behalf of my country and above all for the Gospel. I'm also pleased with my professor who has taught at the summer program for over 30 consecutive years just because he likes it so much. All in all, I couldn't have asked for a better start. Thanks God!

Go "Team Missionary"! Me, Marian, Rob, Nathan, and Greta gathered at my house Sunday for one last meal--Greta and Marian are back home now.

Just wanted to share this beautiful picture. Took me a lot of tries to get it right, but the butterfly was patient with me.

Oper-cool!

Some people collect stamps. Others collect coins. In Switzerland you collect the tops off of the little coffee creamers. That's right. And they even have some sort of quasi-scientific name: opercules.

As a gesture of solidarity with the Swiss I have begun my own opercule collection. It was a light decision, but little did I know that coffee creamer collecting is serious business!

The first thing to do when you begin such an endeavor is to tell Jean-Pierre about it. The first couple of days I would come home and find several creamer covers waiting for me. About the fourth day after beginning my collection, I came home to find an entire bowl full them! Apparently that's about how long it took for everybody in town to know that they're supposed to save them for Jean-Pierre's missionary :o)

But it's not necessarily as easy as it sounds, although I'm certainly glad I don't have to drink the cream of every cover I collect. But the real work begins once you have the covers and you have to organize them. You actually buy at the supermarket album sheets with little slots for the opercules. The images on them come in series, so I organize them into groups. Fascinating, I know. Don't worry, everyone back home can see my collection in person when I come back in December. For now you'll just have to satiate your curiosity with the few photos I've included below.

I felt very Swiss Saturday morning, organizing my opercules over a cup of tea at breakfast.

Here's just a glimpse of part of my collection. Yes, there are album pages made just for nerds like me.

The ones with animal pictures are some of my faves. Plus, these cows and swans are just so Swiss!

Cherry Trees and Yearbooks

Every Sunday a family in the church opens their home for whoever wants to come eat. This Sunday the welcoming home was where my friend Rob rents a room, so we ("we" being me and my friends, aka the other expats, aka "team missionary") all went to see where he lives. He happens to live in paradise. In the back yard is a big garden with such treats as strawberries and raspberries currently ready to pick and eat. Also, I enjoyed standing underneath the cherry trees, gorging myself on the tasty fruit by the handful.

This idyllic environment inspired me and my mean Kiwi friend Annelies to take some pictures. Think highschool yearbook/senior photos. (By the way Kiwi=New Zealander and in New Zealand mean=cool.)

Not your classic yearbook pic, but the cherries just had to make it onto my blog. Mmmm...

Classic senior photo. I think I still have pictures of several of my friends in this same tree.

Cutie pie Annelies. Too bad I can't put sound files on here so you could hear her wicked accent. (Wicked also means cool in NZ).

Why didn't I have a chicken in any of my senior photos? Zut! I need retakes!

By the way, there was also a carousel practically in the backyard. Of course we had to ride it!

Yes, I do still shave my armpits in Europe.

Geneva with a friend

This last week was a treat for me--took the week off of school (it's a language school where you just pay week by week) and went to Geneva on Monday to meet up with my friend Missy from George Fox University. She's on vacation in Europe for a few weeks.

At 10pm Monday night we realized we needed to find a place to sleep :o) We located a youth hostel and were so thankful they still had a couple of beds left. Funny though--it wasn't hostile, nor was it only for youth. It was clean and friendly and breakfast was included. Not bad for about $25! We were very pleased with ourselves for pulling off this new adventure!

Tuesday evening we headed back up to Neuchatel, where Missy stayed with me until Friday afternoon. We did a lot of walking, just enjoying the beauty that is Switzerland and Missy got a glimpse (and taste) of my life here.

It was fun to visit Geneva. This "big city" of Switzerland has just 400,000 people in the entire canton. The population is 40% foreigners, so English was much more prevalent than in my home. Enjoy the photos.

This is the famous Jet d'eau, symbol of Geneva. The fountain spurts up 7 tons of water 140 meters into the air.

We got very wet walking about the city for two days in the rain! This is a fountain at the Jardin Anglais by the waterfront.

Ever seen a real guillotine?!

My first youth hostel experience.

We visited the UN and took an overpriced tour, but it was cool to be where a lot of important decisions are made.

We visited the powerful Red Cross/Red Crescent museum, which is mostly about their wartime work over the past century

This beautiful flower was highly photogenic

Missy was treated to a traditional Swiss Raclette at my house. I'm getting pretty good at preparing it now!

There are precious little ugly ducklings following the swans around now

I enjoyed walking with Missy through my beautiful neighborhood

I was sad to see the tulips and daffodils go, but now it's rose season!

Balancing Act

Just to balance out my last post, I'd like to post a few verses that are dear to my heart. Actually, it's not so much balancing, as putting in focus what really matters, not putting more importance on marriage than is due, and remembering that most of all it is a reflection of the relationship God wants to have with His people, the Bride of Christ.

"Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." Colossians 3:1-4

"I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs--how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world--how he can please his wife--and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world--how she can please her husband. I am saying this for your own good, not to restrict you, but that you may live in a right way in undivided devotion to the Lord." 1 Corinthians 7:32-25

"At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven." Matthew 22:30

"Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.'" Revelation 21:1-3

Match-making??

One of my favorite hobbies is matchmaking. I enjoy predicting who will hook up or even suggesting to others who they'd go well with. My record isn't too shabby either :o) My friend Angela, faithful reader of this blog, can attest to that--married now for close to 3 years! Something I've joked about for maybe 2 years now is making my hobby into an official Wycliffe vocation. The last few days, I'm actually wondering if I should take it more seriously...

I've often joked that we should have our own missionary matchmaking service. Most missionaries are fairly isolated from one another, with few opportunities to meet others with the same calling and interests. But it has always remained a joke to me because it seemed rather "unspiritual." Yesterday, however, I discovered that a missionary friend (who shall remain anonymous!) has started using E-Harmony. I was totally shocked! But after some thought I've decided that if I were this person I'd probably do the same thing. And others who found out about it were like, "Yeah, why not?" Then tonight I started thinking about all the arranged marriages that have taken place over the centuries all around the world and about how finding a life partner doesn't have to be "spontaneous" or out of nowhere. Even in my culture it's often a friend or family member who introduces a couple to each other because they think they'd go well together. I also think about the people in the "Wild West" and missionaries of old (and even today) who married out of "convenience" because there wasn't time for a long courtship. Also earlier this evening I stumbled upon the personal ads in the local paper here. The Christian man whose house I live in met his wife 30 years ago through such an ad!

So I want to hear from you...Why not have a similar system for missionaries? My friend using E-Harmony has to wade through all the profile matches that aren't missionaries and the personal ads contain few Christians. Almost all the single missionaries I know would like to find a mate. Sadly, many of them have climbed in years, and I imagine these single people wishing and waiting as they're scattered around the globe without a way to get into contact with each other. I know that God is completely able to have people cross paths even in the remotest of locations, but would it be bad if that crossing of paths were facilitated? I've yet to think through exactly how I could go about creating this facilitation, but in general what do you think? Missionaries, I'd especially like to hear from you!

OK, so I feel like a total dork for posting this :o) Hope it goes over well!

Post away!

For some reason, I just now figured out that I could change my blog's setting to allow anyone to post, not just those with a blog. So if you weren't able to post comments before, you can feel free to do so now!

Hiller watching Napoleon Dynomite, which I gave him for his birthday!

Happy Birthday Hiller!

My nephew turns 4 today! Happy birthday, Hiller!

In honor of this special day I must share with everyone the cutest stories ever. A couple weeks ago my sister and nephew saw a purple motorcycle. This is a pretty big deal to a 3-year-old motorcycle-loving guy and he exclaimed, "What a beaute! That's a real beaute, Mom!" My sister laughed and asked where he'd learned that expression, thinking maybe it was from his grandpa. "From my heart," he answered. :o)

Story #2: H asked my sister, "Does Jesus live in our hearts?" "Yes," she said, "If you ask him to. Have you invited Jesus to live in your heart?" "No," he answered. "Do you want to?" "Yes." So my little Hiller-Boy prayed and invited Jesus into his heart! Later he asked, "Is there blood in our hearts?" "Yes." "And Jesus lives there? With all the blood?!" :o)

Verse of the Day: "I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better." Ephesians 1:16-17

Family member of the day: Hiller, the birthday boy, of course!

Dessert of the Week: Foret Noire=Black forest