It's a Zoo

Monday morning we headed to the French-speaking part of Switzerland to another split city. I lived in a beautiful city up in the mountains called La Chaux de Fonds and half the cast lived at the bottom of the mountain in Neuchatel.

I was hosted with the Stehlin family who had two boys, Max who was 10 years old and Joey who 15. My roommate for the week was wouter from the Netherlands, who was my roommate during staging in Lakeland.

Tuesday was our first community impact day where I had to chance to volunteer at Europe's small zoo with four other people. I have alway loved animals, so I was very excited to be working at a zoo.  Once we arrived, we were divided into groups and I was assigned to the vivariun with Andrew, our lighting technician.  When we arrived to the vivariun, I learned that it was the facility where they housed an overwhelming about of venomous snakes and horrifying spiders. We were taken into the basement where all the species that are not on display are kept. We walked passed a particularly odor-filled room with countless tubs.  I quickly came to learn that it was the room where thousands of rats and mice are kept to feed the snakes. Our job for the morning was to clean out the tubs that no longer housed rats. I do not think I have ever had a more disgusting job in my life than to clean the tubs without gloves, but Andrew and I made it fun and we had many laughs.

During lunch, we all ate in the break room, and since we were at a zoo, I was not shocked that there was a parrot walking across the lunch table. We all took turns having the parrot sit on our shoulder as we ate.

In the afternoon, Andrew and I were given a tour of the vivarium and the zookeepers explained to us all of the species they kept on display. We then want back downstairs to see the animals not on display where we got the chance to hold several snakes and lizards.  I also saw some of the biggest snakes I have ever seen in my life, which was rather horrifying. Although we did some dirty work, it was an awesome day.

The following day we headed back to the zoo for a different project.  We were taken to the edge of town to a large hill.  We were told that frogs live on this hill, and when it warms up, they cross the road to get to the pond on the other side.  Apparently, many frogs lose their life in the battle to cross the street, so were were asked to build a wall to stop the frogs and funnel them into an underground pipe that takes them safely to the pond.  I've never seen so much effort to save frogs, but we sure stopped the frogs from crossing the street and saved some lives.

In the afternoon, we headed back to the zoo to finish up a little sweeping and some last minute chores.  

Thursday was our Regional Learning day where some of us went to a watch museum in the morning.  La Chaux de Fonds is one of the first cities where people began making clocks.  We had a tour of the museum where we got to see some of the most intricate and ornate clocks that I have ever seen.  Even after all that we learned from the museum, I still cannot figure out how clocks and watches work.  However, I do know that some of the hundreds of pieces it takes to make watches can hardly be seen with the naked eye.  It was a very interesting morning and I was very fascinated by all that we learned and saw in the museum.  

In the afternoon, we took a walking tour of the city and learned about the history of the city.  La Chaux de Fonds is a unique European city in its layout because the roads were constructed in a grid pattern, which reflects our road layouts in the United States.  Furthermore, because most of the people that settled the city were clock makers, the buildings were spaced far enough apart so that the shadows of the surrounding buildings would never block the light of the other houses.  The clock makers used the light from the sun and the shadows would cut their daylight hours down.  It was a very educational day and it is always nice to understand and know the history of the places in which we get to live.  

Friday and Saturday were our show days.  Friday was our show in La Chaux de Fonds and Saturday was our show in Neuchatel.  Again, we had fantastic audiences.  Since we have arrived in Europe, we have given an encore performance after every show that we have done because the audiences want to see more. 

Saturday, I got to meet a very special family.  My father's host family that he lived with for four weeks when he was living in Switzerland in 1980 came to see me perform in Neuchatel.  It was like I had known the family my entire life.  They were the sweetest family and were just as excited to meet me as I was to meet them.  They welcomed me with a large box of Swiss chocolates and also brought old pictures of my parents to show me.  It was such a joy to spend the evening talking to them and hearing stories about my parents.  It was certainly a very special evening for me and one that I will always treasure.   

On host family day, went up into the mountains to see the Alps.  We joined another host family who was hosting Sage from California.  After three weeks of being surrounded by the Alps, you would guess I'd have seen them by now.  However, it has been so cloudy since we arrived in Switzerland that I have not had the chance to see the beautiful Alps.  And while I did not see the Alps, I did see a lot of nice Swiss snow.  

After attempting to see the Alps, we headed down the mountain into Neuchatel to walk along the lake and the harbor.  We walked along the lake for a bit and then stopped to have a drink outside at a cafe.  After our drinks, our host dad wanted to take us to see the Grand Canyon of Switzerland up in the mountains.  We went up and up and up in the mountains until we finally got to the trail to walk to this Grand Canyon.  However, the path was covered with two feet of snow, so we did not make the journey to the canyon.  Again, we just enjoyed the beautifully white Swiss snow.  

We headed down the mountain to Sage's host family's house to have a nice dinner.  Dinner was filled with lots of laughter and delicious food.  Once we finished eating, it was karaoke time.  We spent the next 3 hours singing karaoke in the living room and then moved the party upstairs to jam out on the piano.  It was a fun way to end such a great week.  

The Hills are Alive

From Geneva we headed northeast to two different cities.  For this week, our cast was living in two cities near each other.  This was the first of several split-cities on our European tour.  Half of the cast lived in Weinfelden while I lived with half the cast in Frauenfeld.  Throughout the week, we would do community service in our respective city, but we would come together for our shows.  We performed one show in each city.

My roommates for the week were Robin, from Sweden, and Brian, from New York.  We lived with a mother and her 19-year-old daughter.

Tuesday was the coldest Community Impact day I have ever experienced, yet it was one of the most interesting and unique opportunities I have had.  I went to work at a vineyard with eight other cast mates.  We were divided into two groups and one group went into the woods to help clean up the branches.  I had the opportunity to tie the grapevines to wires in order to help the grapes grow in an organized manner so it is easier to pick the grapes during the harvest.  We got to use this special tool that makes tying the vine to the wire very simple.  We froze outside because we were working in the snow, but our community service was so unique that we were not even worried about the cold weather because we were so fascinated with the process of growing grapes.

After a full day of working in the fields, we came in and got to taste some of the products sold at the vineyard.  We tried the most delicious grape and apple juices.  Furthermore, they make cheese at the vineyard, so we tried several different kinds of cheese in addition to the freshly baked bread they had waiting for us.  It was a perfect way to end such a fun day.

Wednesday was our first show in Weinfelden and Thursday was our show in Frauenfeld.  Our show in Frauenfeld was extra special because we had 60 alumni from Switzerland attend our show and they loved every minute of our performance.  It was a very energetic and enthusiastic audience.

Because it was Easter weekend, we were given three days off with our host families.  Our host family helped me, Brian, and Robin plan a trip to Salzburg, Austria.  Friday morning, the three of us headed to the train station for a six hour train ride to Austria.  As we left the city, we slowly began to get closer to the mountains.  They grew larger and more magnificent as we got closer until they were right outside our window.  I cannot even describe the stunning beauty and grandeur of these massive boulders jetting out of the ground capped with untouched snow at the peaks.  I felt as if the train ride was taking me into a postcard.  The six hours flew by as I stared out the window trying to take mental pictures of the beauty I was witnessing.

We finally arrived at 2pm and quickly headed to the hostel down the street to drop off our things and head out exploring the town.  We made our way to Old Town where the streets were laid in stones and the buildings looked like they were constructed in the Medieval era.  Salzburg is the famous city where the Sound of Music took place, so many of the sites we walked by were scenes from the film.  I could not help but sing Do-Re-Mi all afternoon as we roamed the streets of Salzburg.

We kept walking until we came to what looked like a mountain with a massive castle at the top.  It was the mountain fortess that overlooked the city.  We began an endless trek to reach the top-first with an infinite number of stairs followed by unending pathways that felt like 90 degrees straight up.  After several pitstops, we finally reached the top and began exploring within the fortress gates.  I felt like I had stepped back in time and was a knight living in a castle.  We made our way to an open area that overlooked the entire city.  It was like I was on Mount Olympus looking down at the Earth and all the commotion of everyday life.  I could have stayed on the top of the mountain forever with the crisp spring air blowing on my face, but we had to make our way back down the hill for dinner.

We walked back through Old Town stopping in all the cathedrals we could find.  The peace that I felt as I entered the cathedrals made me aware of my surroundings and how blessed I was to be standing in such a glorious place.   As we left the cathedrals we began looking for restaurants to have dinner.  We could not make a decision until it started raining, which forced us to find the closest restaurant.  We sat down and warmed up with a delicious bowl of beef soup and a beer.

That evening we made it back to our hostel and looked through our pictures from the day.  As we looked through the pictures we started realizing that we had visited almost every spot from the Sound of Music without even knowing it.  I laid in bed that night struggling to fall asleep because of my excitement for another memorable day in Salzburg.

The next morning we woke up and had a nice breakfast before heading back out to explore.  We spent the morning checking out a few stores and making some nice European purchases.  After buying some new clothes we made our way back to Old Town and found a nice pizzeria for lunch.

After lunch we decided to walk around the giant mountain with the fortress to look at what was on the other side.  We slowly made our way around the mountain stopping every once in a while to take pictures and make some funny movies.  Once we made it to the other side of the mountain, we realized we had a long way back to walk.  We decided to climb the mountain instead of going around, so we followed the path that cut through the mountain.  Little did we know that once we reached the top, we would find multiple castles surrounding the giant fortress.  We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the mountain looking at all the castles and buildings.

We made our way back down the mountain as it began to rain, and eventually, made it back to our hostel to change for dinner.  We took a little break to rest at the hostel and then walked down the road to have a delicious traditional Austrian meal.  Once we had dinner, we walked around looking for a bar to have a drink and enjoy our final night in Austria.  As we sat down to have a beer, all we could talk about was our experience over the last two days and all the memories we shared together.

I woke up Easter morning with a smile on my face thinking about how blessed I was this Easter.  Spending Easter away from home made me miss my family, but it also made me grateful for the experience I was given in Austria.  We took the train back to Switzerland getting to enjoy the natural beauty out the train windows once more.  When we arrived home we greeted our host mom with flowers and she had prepared a special dinner for us called raclette.  We sat down and had a feast with melted raclette cheese covering potatoes.  She also made us some chocolate fondue that I could not stop eating.

After dinner our host sister, Rachel, invited us to go out to the karaoke bar with her friends, so we ended an incredible week relaxing in great company.