Musings by Rebekah Stewart: Grüezi! Girls are Grazing Cows

Now we're catching up. All the posts from the email will be added the same day here.

Guten Tag alle,

Well, even though i did a few things this week, I think I will take a moment to write about other things.

- The boys saw their first hummingbird this week. Libby has a bush with purple flowers out front and early in the morning, it came by for a while to enjoy nectar.

- They all had a safe trip to Serbia, another poor as dirt country, Alain told me that 1 Euro goes a long way. He went to withdraw money from the ATM just to find out that you can only take out 4 Euros at a time when 200 of their money = 4 Euros. The monthly income is 150 Euros a month. Do the math. Billiana's and Sergio's re-wedding ceremony and party was wonderful (they are married but they renewed their vows), they had a lot of technical difficulties with broken planes, broken taxis and the limo forgetting to pick up the bride and groom. Libby said that Alain danced the night away, a beer in one hand and a cigar in the other. LOL.

I can't believe I haven't spoken about the neighbors! Their landlords are Indian; very nice people. Their neighbor who rents the townhome unit next door are weird. Since I'm out front often Libby warned me that the husband likes to wander around in his undies and I thought
that maybe she meant like boxers or tighty-whities. So I'm with the boys and they're being handy helpers by putting clippings in the bag when the wife comes out and I wave hi. They don't speak English and at the time I knew no German. She came out with her water can and started
working on their flowers. Now they are an older couple, maybe in their fifties or sixties, she's wearing pajamas and her husbands calls for her and she responds. Suddenly he steps out, wearing nothing but a little black bikini bottom and smiles and waves. I wave back; the boys
getting a glorious view of saggy skin, beer gut and grey body hair. LOL.

Okay, so I was alone this weekend and I rocked out, taking vengence on the neighbors below us who decided to have a party that lasted all night long playing their shitty music untill 6am without turning down the music. Saturday I make the trek to St. Gallen. A 2 hour train ride
through the countryside. On the way i took a train that rode next to the Rhine and it was very beautiful. We had to go through Germany for a moment but luckily "Kontrolle" didn't come on the train. My GA pass only covers fare & routes for all of Switzerland.

There was barely anyone on the train for about an hour and a half until we got to Romanshorn where a group of teenage girls decided that out of the entire empty train car that they were going to sit adjacent from me. We took off and they started eating loudly, smacking their chompers and eating with their mouths open. It was very annoying but i soon found out that it provided the perfect soundtrack to the pastures of grazing cattle outside the window. Then after they were done they were suddenly very loud and annoying, a few others who sat in my car at the time were, "shush"ing them constantly. Then one of the girls held out her hand to the friend in front of her and said very loudly in English:

"Hello! I am a frog! Hello! I'm a frog!"

"And what do frogs eat?! Flies!" said the other.

"Hello! I am a frog that eat flies!!" she repeats.

"Rararaaaazooooom!" screaches the thrid one.

The look on my face was priceless. A man came over and spoke to them. They giggled at him as he walked away. It was the longest 30 minutes on a train.

St. Gallen is a fairly large city. Houses one of the oldest libraries in existence, has a gorgeous rose garden in the center of the city and on Saturday is market day. All the stores are located in St. Gallen, open for business. People were handing out free chocolate, free bratwursts, Asian chicken, free wine etc. There was also an open air market where farmers sold their breads, crops and flowers. I visited the Textile Museum which was very nice, depicting the history of the textile industry in Switzerland. Also, companies had samples made available for citizens to purchase.

On the way back i took one of the regional trains, which i like riding. They are different from the Thurbos and S-Bahns. The regional trains have the tables, dining cars, lounges, etc. The one i rode was the IC that goes from St. Gallen and hits, Zurich Flughafen, Bern Flughafen and Geneva Fluhafen - so technically it rides across the entirety of Switzerland. They have a kidding play train car, places where large groups can sit and have meetings or chill out and areas where you can catch a snooze.

The IC doesn't go to Schaffhausen so I had to get off at Winterthur and i ran into my German teacher Frau Provolli. She asked me what i was doing in Winterthur since I lived in Schaffhausen. I was rather proud as I told her in German, "Ich komme auf St. Gallen. Ich gehe zu die Textile Musuem. Das Bahn nicht geht zu Schaffahusen. Das ist warum Ich bin in Winterthur." she got the point.

Sarah saw me off as I drove out of the driveway to get Libby, Alain and the boys. I thought i was going to be late since a ricer car was going 60 on an 80 highway, but there was one lane due to construction. One i got to the autobahn and the speed signs at night show a gray stripe, i gophered the guy in from of me. Normally its 100 which you can go 120 but the gray ban means that you can go as fast at your car can take you. It was awesome going 140! I made up time until i got to Zurich, then it dropped back down to 100. By then i was early. Booyah!

The boys were exhausted from the trip and I let them sleep until 9am (they normally wake up at 7:30), we had a fun morning (they are napping now). We watch Baby Einsteins (the animated series) in German, the boys love singing with the girl, Susan. Pip and Pepper, a German kids show with these muppets who cook and they share fun recipes for kids. Then after some reading and wrestling I got them to tire down by watching a show that Libby hates but they boys love it, "In The Night Garden" on CeeBeeBies (BBC kids station). Its a weird show, practically pointless but the boys love the music and they love the main character who floats off in a boat to the garden, he has a "blankie". Its about getting ready for bed and they like to wave to
all the characters as they go to sleep.