Swiss Miss Girl Not to be Found

Hey all....I just got back from Switzerland yesterday and after a long night's rest and a relaxing day in Kensignton Gardens, I figured I'd tell you all about my adventures. Rowdy (rhymes with Cloudy) and I arrived in Basel, Switzerland on a beautiful sunny wednesday. we spent some time walking around and getting a feel for the town, grabbed some lunch, and then took a nice nap because we had decided to sleep in the airport the night before. however, i did not get a wink of sleep. some people were actually snoring from sleeping and there i was on the cold tile floor miserable!! anyhoo, after our nap we went to this jazz jam session at a bar. It was okay, but we were still pretty wiped out so we headed home about 11. the next day we ventured all around the city. it is such a super cute city and we saw the basics like market areas, little stores, old churches, a river that goes through the town, etc. I'm not used to hills because London is awfully flat...kinda like kansas!! I definitely got my exercise though. that night we decided to go to this bar that supposedly has some diferent artists playing, but we were there an hour and a half and there was nothing. the Swiss defnitely need to learn a thing or to about night life because that play was DEAD at night. No atmosphere. so once again, we headed home pretty early.
friday was definitely my favorite day, because we took a train ride to Freiburg, Germany. it was amaaaazing. it was also the most beautiful day!! OMG. the town is surrounded by the different mountain ranges of germany, switzerland, and france so it is just tucked away ever so neatly. the little square areas were so cute, the towers, and everything. they also have this smaller river that goes trhough the area and then teeny tiny water ways all down every street. very cool. we took a break from walking around to get teh best chocolate sundae of my life as we soaked up the sun. after that, we started walking and found a mountain you could climb up to see the entire town. we walked up this really steep mountain and rested on this big stone overlook for awhile and then climbed up even higher to get a better view. we then looked behind us to see this tiny tower up even higher you could climb so we climbed up there too!! the view up there was breathtaking! there was a 360 degree view and you could see the mountains forever! the sun was also so bright and just gorgeous. we then started walking down and found a lift so we rode that down to a nice park garden area. we chilled there for awhile before walking across the town to see this otehr beautiful church. we then grabbed soem dinner before getting back on the train. that night we were both just exhausted so i took a shower since i was icky and we read and played cards.
Saturday, we took a train ride to france and hung out in Mulhouse. it was a pretty cute french town, but it was torn up for a new tram system so that kinda blew. it was also a little rainy too. it has a big suburban area and that was cool to see. it wasn't like despearte housewives though people. :) we got this super yummy waffles with nutella because we couldn't find a crepes stand and we were tired to look for one. we sat in front of a church with a carosel in front of us. it was a crazy carosel because it has the basic horses around it and then all of a sudden tehre was a harley davidson motorcycle on it. i thought it was pretty humourous! we headed back to basel around 5 or so.
that night we decided to just ride random trams to see where they would take us. it sounds dumb, but it was actually pretty fun. we stopped at one place and went to a gas station to get a coke. we found a huge group of people outside this place and we were going to see waht was going on and then it downpoured so we headed back to the hostel.
sunday morning we took a bus to a small swiss town, Liestal. we definitely passed a place called Saline which made me think of Salina!!! I miss that place! it was pretty rainy that morning but we still enjoyed walking around. it was literally in the side of a mountain with fog all around. it was pretty cute! we then headed back to basel and walked around the town a little more one last night. we sat by the river for a long time just soaking up the views before going to the airport.
I was eager to get back "home" though, I have to admit that. you can imagine how frustrated I got when it took like 4 hours to get from the airport to my flat. i then was excited to see my flatmates and of course none of them were home when i got there. I was not in the best of moods......however......one thing did make me awfully happy yesterday and that was............Easter!!! Rejoice for He HAS risen!! That made me smile all day long!!
in fact, my roommie is making a later easter dinner now so i better go back to my flat and eat it.....so all in all, switzerland was great. although I don' t understand german at all because it sounds like people are always mad at one another and I didn't find the Swiss Miss Girl, I had a blast. I got tons of chocolate and made up a word: whtzngargen. it means, "where are you going?" i suggest using it as much as possible!!
well, just a month more here in london and then i'll be home! I can't wait to see you all. much love!!

Bumming around London

so although I'm on spring break, I haven't done a ton yet. I got done with school on thursday at 12:30 so I ventured off to Camden Town which is a cool market area. It is really hippy, but also punk too. I kinda stuck out. I walked around all day because it was beautiful and walked clear across Regents Park. It was great!I spent St. Patty's with my British friends and we totally went bowling. I was expecting the shoes to be like designer stilettos or something, but they were just like our good american bowling shoes. after bowling, we headed back to a flat for tea of course. Friday I just went to areas I haven't been to around London before ending up at Regents Park with some of my flatmates to fly a kite. it was a beautiful day! Saturday I went to an apologetics seminar with my church all day. it was awesome! I learned soooo much. After that, we had a big dinner at a flat and then we just hung out until like 3 am. it was a blast! Yesterday I didn't do too much besides go to church and hang out. we went out to dinner at this famous chicken place called nando's here. a guy paid for me so it was free. it was great! I'm sorry my life has been a little boring. I've gearing up for Switzerland though--I leave wednesday and I'm super stoked. it's going to rock. i'm also going to jump over to germany too. Can I just say that on March 16, was the first day I have NOT worn my coat since being in London. I know most of you have been having like 70 degree weather, but it has been cold here! I've been spending as much time as possible outside. It's been super!!
Since I haven't done a ton, let me tell you some crazy stories....so have you heard about all the crazy crime over here recently? I had been thinking how safe I felt in this city and then all this crime errupts at once. A guy got mugged outside the tube station right by my flat and got his glasses broken against his face. Some guy got beheaded with an axe on a street here in London. Apparently some people are stuck in the old days. I'm sure it confused some tourists. They have also been catching a ton of terrorists here. THey had to stop the tube to arrest some terrorist on it. crazy!! I also saw this fight where a guy pulled out a knife. I'm sure this isn't making you guys feel good about me being over here is it? I assure that I'm being sensible, but it is just crazy! there also have been a couple of murders and stuff. I'm beginning to feel as if I am back in America again or something.
Well, I'll end my post on that disturbing note....i'm just so nice....
much love!

Errr....lots of stuff

Okay, so I've been bad again and I haven't written for quite a long time. I'm trying to think of all I've done. Well, this past thursday we got to tour the houses of Parliament which were quite extravagant!! Even though I've never been to D.C., but I'm sure it makes it look like the ghetto. I walked down the exact hallway that the Queen does when she makes her annual Queen Speech. Pretty cool eh? there is also a wing to the Houses that is literally 1000 years old!! It was crazy cool!! We got to talk to a a rep from the House of Commons which was pretty cool. He reminded me a lot of Hugh Grant. I really zoned out on what he was saying (sorry political stuff just isn't my cup of tea) but I enjoyed looking at him. After the tour, i had the whole day to go explore or see a show, but I took a 4 hour nap. Whoops. I must have been tired so I figured it was okay. Thursday was another awesome Bible study!! After that we headed to Soho to go to the 4 story O'Neills Irish pub. wow, I just wrote I went to Bible study and then to a pub. i'm sure that sounds bad. We danced to some awesome 80's music before calling it an early night. Friday, I went to the British Library which was actually very cool. they have some truly amazing artifacts!! i looked at 1300 year old Bibles including the guttenberg Bible!! I also saw the Magna Carta!! They also had a few of the original pieces of paper with lyrics from the Beatles. They also had Jane Austen's writing desk!!! My particular favorite though was the original manuscript of Jane Eyre. I stared at it for like 10 minutes in awe. There was also the original composition of the Messiah by Handel and the first editions or manuscripts of Beowulf, Alice in wonderland, Cantebury tales, David Copperfield, and so much more. They also had the very first picture of Shakespeare in there. After that, I headed to this knitting exhibition for my mum. Not too exciting, would have been cooler if it were a scrapbooking one! :)
Friday night I went and played badminton with my british friends again and then we headed over to their flat to eat and hang out. I do have to mention that during Badminton I suggested we combine ninja moves and badminton together. it spiced up this classic came quite a bit. I had a hard time hitting the birdie though as I jumped and kick. it was fun regardless! we also played scrabble at the flat and I discovered I have the vocabulary of a 4 year old--very depressing as you can imagine!
yesterday, we headed out of London to Leeds Castle which was beautiful. It was set on yet another beautiful estate with water surrounding it so it was like an island. It is still used for meetings and was actually still lived in until the 60's. It was much more homey than the other castles I've seen. i could definitely live there. They also had a cool maze with a grotto under it. I think that is what is is called. It has beautiful seashell art and waterfalls. to me it looked like goonies so I was looking for gold and Sloth, but I was unsuccessful at both attempts. Last night I went to this awesome program at the Royal Albert Hall called Prom Praise. It was a huge orchestra with a huge choir along with 2 soloists--the male one reminded me of Josh Groban so yes I did fall in love last night. :) they played some contemporary christian music and hymns. they also presented the gospel too which was very awesome to hear. It was just incredible seeing like 2000 people sing. There is also a HUGE organ inside that just blew me out of the water. I loved it and the best part was that my tickets were only £4 !! It was probably the cheapest thing to see there and now I can say I've seen something in the Royal Albert Hall.
this morning, I went to the changing of the guards. It was pretty cool. they definitely just don't clock in and clock out for that job. I think I got some cool shots with my awesome zoom lens. You can't get close to them so I don't know if I'll get an attempt to make one laugh. Crushed dreams I tell ya....
After that, we had a huge dinner in our flat. I havne' t had really good food in sooooo long. I then took another nap...hehe...then I went to church which was awesome!!! I love my church here and all the people!
so that is what I've done...what about you???? this week I'm seeing 2 shows for school, going to a museum, and then I start spring break on thursday!! woooo!!
let me know how things are.....love you all