Thursday, February 28, 2008

Lemonade

Life gave me lemonade and I can't imagine why
Born on a sunny day, beneath a tangerine sky
I live life without pretending
I'm a sucker for happy endings
Thanks for the lemonade
Thanks for the lemonade!

-Chris Rice-


Inspired? Of course, I am Maggie.
And beside me, my favourite Swissish Nederlander... Romy.


I am still totally digging life and how things are going.

You know.. well, nothing eventful.

I love Fasnacht. But life is not Fasnacht.

Life is going to school and talking to friends... well, on a shallow Maggie level, not that I am shallow.

Lately... my life has been theatre, all the time. Pretty crazy stuff.


GAH! Medea.

Tommorow gives the premier.. I should be nervous, but I don`t have it in me to be nervous. I will go out there and try and do my best, I am no actor, but I enjoy it.

Lately, let`s see.. the other day I hung out with Roswita and Helena. We just walked around, checked out Vögele or something, a shoe store, Migros, did a round of photos in the photo booth, went down by the water and sang and played the pan pipes.

Pan Pipes?

Yes! Pan Pipes are amazing!

Let`s see.. here are some pics from a theatre walk:

Stephanie and the blue wall...


Oh lay?
Stephanie and Jana, Jorge`s host sister.


Jump. Stephanie. Jump.

So I guess that was our theatre walk.. just enjoiyng the sun, we never see it on stage.

The other day, eh, went home with Jorge`s host sister for some orange punch and ended up talking to Jorge for a while about life in general. Poor guy has been sick for a while.

After Salsa Course...

Lately, a few of us exchangers have found a way to fill up our Wednesday evenings. Salsa. We found a great deal for a 6 week course in Luzern.

It is better than I thought it would be. We make a lot of progress. I figured Jorge couldn`t learn anything (Mr. Salsa Ninja) but I guess there is always something to learn in the dance world.

Currently it is me, Jorge, Patrick, Chris, and Paz. That`s right.. the guys out number the girls. And I just so happen to be a minority! A girl and American. That feels refreshing.

So the course is for 1.5 hours. The teacher mixes things up so we get to integrate with the Swiss people.

I just like getting out there and moving. I could be horrible at it... but I can get the steps down and rhythms without too much difficulty. Naturally it takes effort... but it is quite amusing and even more so, fun.

After the course, we have to way some 30 minutes or more before the right train comes, so we tend to just hang out at McDonalds or what not.

And that is life for me lately... theatre, salsa, walks, hanging out.. life.

Patrick... being a, er, tourist. Bus ride home from Salsa.

Friday, February 22, 2008

My Plan For Tomorrow

I picked a random kanton in Switzerland an am off to explore it tomorrow!

Schaffhausen in the kanton pretty much most Northern, and almost completely surrounded by Germany.

The capital is, well, Schaffhausen (no surprise there).

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schaffhausen_%28canton%29)

Then it is off to the only German city in Switzerland... how is that possible? Poor Büsingen is totally German, but it is seperated from the motherland by a strip of land and Dörflingen. The smallest the strip gets is 1 KM.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%BCsingen)

So that will be a 24 minute bus ride to check out that town... hope they take my GA :P

I also want to check out Stein am Rhein, a 24 minute train ride away from the city... it is supposed to be beautiful.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stein_am_Rhein)

Just a mini adventure.. and a good excuse to take a million pictures.

Explanation and map of Büsingen and how it works.


Stein am Rhein


The town Schaffhausen.


Büsingen


Stay tuned for my own version of these towns and how I interpretted them and took them in through my camera...

Thursday, February 21, 2008

The Toothbrush Incident

I write about the good times.. time to write about a time that was not so good.. and how I dealed with it and how God is awesome.






I like to change my tooth brush every 3 months. Simple eh? When I first came to my host family, I figured it was time to get a new one. They even gave me one. It was pink and soft and oh so lovely.

But three months passed and my dear toothbrush looked like it was shoved into my mouth every day and pushed around... it was. That plaque fighting machine was loosing speed... and I didn`t want my teeth to pay for it.

So finally... I got up the nerve to ask my host mom for another toothbrush. I don`t ask for much. Just a tooth brush.

She told me it would be better if I bought it myself.

Ok... I know this must have been an overreaction, a toothbrush right? But I cried. I cried into my pillow. Not long, not hard, but I felt homesick. I mean, my real mom would.

It was not the fact that I could not have a toothbrush.. it was the concept behind it. The thought. Host families... we are told they will treat us like family. They should. And my mom buys me my toothbrushes.

I am in no way trying to put down my host family. They are wonderful and I am greatful for them. I have no problem if they find this on the internet and read it. I mean.. they give me everything. What is wrong with saying no to a toothbrush? I am the one who was too sensitive.

But in my head were the thoughts... am I not worth it to them? I try to be the best host daughter. Going out of my way to help out how I can. Trying to not be a burden. What am I doing wrong that would make them not want to spend money for a toothbrush for me.

But I knew God was there... goodness yes.

And then I thought some more. Well.. my host parents do buy me lots of stuff. My host mom buys me bananas because she knows I love them. She bought me lots of stuff for my throat. And my very own bag of cough drops. They do care. And I shaped up a bit more.

My mind even drifted to how I hadn`t cried in forever, was doing great... and that I knew somehow God needed me to go through this. He would follow through. I would learn something through this.

And then I realized I still needed that toothbrush. But I was in a better mood, I did my mood shift there on my pillow and was back to normal soon. But that toothbrush. So I decided to totally turn it into a fun event. Something that I could enjoy. I would call it... "Maggie Goes To the Store and Buys the Most Amazing Toothbrush Ever."

Sounds good huh?

Anyways... I left my room when my host mother confronted me... toothbrush in hand. She asked if it would work. I must have looked pretty weird.. like she had given me the moon. But to me, it was the world. It was a toothbrush... for my very own. She cared!

And you know what?

It was even orange.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Rotex Weekend: Grindelwald

Well.. we went to Grindelwald.
(pics by Kyly Hawk cause mine are not uploaded yet)
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Grindelwald.. no idea where it is. Kind of, in Switzerland? It is South of where I live now and near Interlaken, a majorish (for Swiss standards) tourist place-

It was a Rotex weekend (meaning it was run by Swiss young adults who used to be exchange students.

The day started with hopping (not literally) on the train at a quarter to 9 and waving good bye to Jorge as he missed the train. Luckily my host mom was in the near and was able to give him a lift to the next stop.

We got on the train in Giswil that went direct to Interlaken, around 1.5 hours. We were greeted by various other exchangers that were already there including the new Australian representatives (Chris and Eliza).

Interlaken --> Grindelwald

Grindelwald, wow. It was pretty amazing acutally. I mean, the Swiss totally take their amazing country for granted. It never gets old. Going around the bend in the tracks to get a wonderbeautiful view of a city in the basen of a series of mountains. And everything covered in snow. Blue sky day. And with trains, life is always besster.

We even had the pleasure of sleeping in a bomb shelter. Bomb shelter. Those are actually pretty snazzy places, you can cram a lot of people into one room as they have the triple decker bunk beds. All you need is a sleeping bag and you are set to go.

Rotex gave us time to explore the city, go ice skaitng, or swimming. That is one thing I like about Rotary. They tend to give you time to explore and realize that since we are exchange studnets, well, we tend to be a bit more free spirited (wrong word choice) and like to, well, we can get around on our own. We are used to it by now.

A quick trip to Coop, tryingo on hats in tourist places, and then me and Alice went to the park. In the park they had this epic disk. It was like a giant black CD on a platform that could freely rotate and rome up and down. I am totally explaining this wrong, but just trust me... it was worthy of my time.

Ice Skating came next. One again, worth remembering, nothing really too eventful. Ice Hockey? Goodness yes. Making C`s. Sore feet... but it was enjoyable. Just laid back time to do whatever.

Back to the shelter.

Hung out.
Music.
Talking.
Singing?
Picture seeing.

Dinner --> Spaghettis with a whole lot of noodles.

Oodles of noodles.

Then clean up, me and 4 others cleaned the dishes... and Mr. Soap Man Okan got soap on me... and I got soap on him. And once again, more music. Yeah... that was pretty much dishes.

Actvities.

Rotex weekends are never without some sort of game to entertain our evenings.

In this evening, we had a series of games that the two teams competed against.

The two teams? Lahm vrs. the Running Maggies.

Needless to say, I was on the Running Maggies.
And I did not come up with that name... but I do approve.

Game One: Gummi Bär toss with spoons from one player to the other`s mouth. My team, with Sergio and Jorge playing together, won against Sydney and Breanne.... cause we be ninjas. And I think guys in general practice that stuff in their free time.

Game Two: My turn to try and play. Apple in a bowl of water... bite around the edge ina full path. Problem is.. my jaw. I have a jaw condition where when I open my mouth wide (to, to example, eat an apfel) it get`s locked there. So I spent half my time trying to close my locked open mouth. The other team one.

Game Three: Milk Cartons in hands in the Jesus position, arms out. Nelly won verses our teams rep, Chrystie.

Game Four: The newbies got to play, Nicole verses Jackson. They had to first find a candy in water.. and then search for 6 in a huge bowl of flour. It was horrible, messy... as they had to search through the flour with their tongues. A pic is needed here...
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Game Five: Gargling with water and having the team guess what song. Sogns on the playlist inculded Umbrella, Cucaracha, Seven Nation Army, Let It Be, and Jingle Bells.

Game Five: Of course clothes would have to be shed sometime during the evening... we were required to equip a team member with enough clothes to get them through a winter in the Artic. Whoever had the most cltohes on them won. Yes... pants, shirts, bras, shoes, socks, and scarfs were shed.
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And in the long run... Running Maggie won. Which pleased me.

Then we went through a walk at night with torches before getting some international desserts.

We think Rotex takes us out for walks so late to get us tired so we stay in bed that night and don`t try to go out on our own... it worked.

The desserts were amazing!

Sleep.

Woke up at 7:45 by Mr. Soap Man banging pans throughout the bedroom... yeah, I was a happy camper.

Then sledding!

We went sledding twice... go up, 12 CHF for a sled. Head down. Wait for over and hour. Go up. Eat lunch. Sled down.

Sledding down the first time... that was done with Natasha. The entire way we kept passing each other. "ON YOUR LEFT!!" "OK, I am really passing you now." "Stay to your RIGHT!" and so forht... and hand signals when needed.

Sledding the second time... haha... that was epic. First minute, crashed into a pole. 10 people passed me. Verflixt! Then I had to catch up.. but with the training on the Frutt, I was able to do that and slowly move up to catch up with the leads. Not the first, but up in the top 6. Then the silly bus came so we were slow behind it.

We were to follow the Rotex man, the soap guy again, down the whole way.. but yeah, that was pretty much a suggestion, I think. We just headed down and people passed me, I passed them. Then me and Natasha did a harcore slam into the wall... and that was lame. So to catch up, a shortcut was requierd.

Mr. Soap Man Okan was 100 meters ahead taking the curve, and we went straight... it was steep and got the most speed of the entire sled run. I guess that way is not the real way :P And we went crazy fast, got off the path, sledded back on.. and needless to say we caught up with him. In the long run, who knows what place got who. It all depends on what you consdier the end. Perhaps I was 5th? Oh well.. doesn`t really matter. Cause it was fun, epic, and ninja worthy. And I defintily had a faster pulse when I finished.

Train ride home.. normal stuff for the exchagners. Music. Talking. Just enjoying the company of each other? That sounds cheesy, but I did enjoy it. For the train ride home I bought a kids magazine, I normally do. Cause they always come wtih really cool toys. This one had a tripple action suction cup gun.

Oh yes... I totally lost my voice this weekend. Could barely talk at all and it was aboslutley horribly awful. Gah. I got home and my host sister was in hysterics for a minute or more over the state of my voice. I still haven`t found it.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Future Life...



I have been giving my future life some thought.. and really want to skip my last year of high school and get on with things. (I won`t though.. sigh)

What to do?

I have way to many inspirations.

First off.. photography (God... if it is your will, I want my life to involve photography.). My life has cenetered around it since 8th grade or so.. and I have not ceased to, well, love it. Every day, photography. I want to do that for my life!

Massage thearpy. I want this to be a back up.. for now. Just on a whim, thought of that. Dad, you said that is what you thought I should do. I will need something to do if phtography doesn`t work out. But I guess if it is God`s will, it will :P But why not? It would be great for gifts too :P

College.

I want to study abroad (ok Mom?)

Not some crazy prestigous collge. What about a community college abroad. I admit my mind is set on the UK.. Scotland? Sure, why not. I got roots there (McCleod :P) I have been into my waybackthenhertiagewhereicamefrom thingy for some time. Asky my lovely grandma (she has facebook now!). Anyways, I couldn`t I live there?

I tried the abroad in another language experience. It was great. But I am ready for English.

I don`t want to do something all that academic.. English majors? Psch. I am not really arsty.. I don`t know. Communications?

I want a life that I can totally look back on and with no regrets.

There is so much to do! And I am already realizing how short life is.

But then, after all this, I feel guiltiy. I mean, God already has a plan for me. I need to trust him. And what is a life it isn`t spent surving him. But yeah, I want to use my photorgpahy for him some how.. in Scotland. Is that possible?

And then again, I have some 2 years to get it ALL straightened out.. cough.