ecstasy.

I PASSED MY GERMAN EXAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

today was perfect. I love life.

after an amazing afternoon grappling through the woods with Dennis and generally feeling happier than I have in a very long time... I got my exam results. I did it, I did it, I did it!!!!!!!!! this is such a big step for me.

I was already (literally) dancing around everywhere (my shower, the train station) after getting the results this evening and then I met up with my friends. I was SO excited to tell everyone even if I didn't think anyone would be as excited as I was... and they blew me out of the water. I love my friends here. it's amazing how people can connect in such a short period of time. but really...

Laura, Kelli, Ashley, Danielle, Robby, EVERYONE... thank you for being SO excited with me -- it sent me from cloud nine to way off the charts. (and Chris and Nicole (DEF couldn't have done it without them!), Ryan, my mom, Dilja, and Morgan who I told before!!!) everyone was so encouraging ALL through this process, and it seriously means the world to me. (not to mention the giant dance celebration this evening. perfect.)

I'm so happy. let's go celebrate in Amsterdam! I loveeeee life.

here's to dreams come true.

more fun with Phipsi's English!

this afternoon:

Phipsi: "Sarah! Nicklas say if I do that then I'm dead. But, it's okay. I do that before and he dead me not."

later...

me: "Hey Phipsi, come with me!"
Phipsi: "Nope, nope."
me: "Why not??"
Phipsi: "I know your tricks!"


He is one amaaazing little sponge! Phipsi's English is certainly my favorite part of my job. This kid didn't speak a word of Enlgish when I came, and now he says "DANGIT!" and "you little sneak!" on a regular basis (including this afternoon!).

I believe my work here is done.

it's times like this...

okay, I know my blog posts are FEW and FAR between. but for anyone who still checks... (Orlando! ;))

I had a wonderful evening tonight, and thought I'd share a little "Augenblick" from my life.

I'm babysitting tonight and just have Nicklas (9) and Phipsi (5). those boys LOVE the spaghetti sauce that I make, so I made them spaghetti for dinner. when Phips came to try the sauce and noodles (as he always must do, I love it), he tasted the sauce and then RAN laps through the house yelling "NUMMY (= yummy), NUMMY NUMMY NUUUMMMMMYYYY!!!" when he returned from the basement where he was bringing Nicklas up for dinner I overheard Nicklas asking about dinner and Phipsi responding that the sauce was "SAUFEIN!" (Idk if that's spelled correctly since there are no spelling rules in Swiss Germany -- but it means VERY GOOD!)

the three of us sat down to a lovely little meal, during which we discussed music. a song came on, and Nicklas asked if it was Michael Jackson. I told him it was Queen, and he said "oh, I love Queen!" the conversation continued:
me: "really, you know Queen?! good boy."
Nicklas: "yeah! they play that song 'Don't Stop Me Now' -- I love it!"
me: "wow, good for you!!"
Nicklas: "it has that part, 'like a sex machine/ready to reload!' that's my favorite part!"

after that I pretty much just laughed a lot... and Phipsi agreed that it was his favorite part too.

the rest of the evening was great with the boys too. it's the little things that make me love my job. and in a time of uncertainty and frustration, it's a very good thing.

maybe more some time... :)

love.

I love Scotland.

more to come, I promise.

a new year

Sorry for the delay in an update! Life is crazy.

I don't want to make this forever long, so here goes. My trip to Texas was absolutely wonderful, the best Christmas ever. Ups and downs of course, but overall really, really great. One downside was that I got back to Zürich a little homesick... but fortunately it didn't last long. (It does show, however, how wonderful it was to see everyone and that my time was too short! I love and miss you all dearly.) The day I arrived I left again to go to the mountains (I seriously almost stayed home to sleep (on New Year's Eve!) because that's how tired, physically sick, and homesick I was). Chris picked me up at the train station, and the minute I was back with the family I was no longer homesick at all. They were all happy to see me, as I was to see them, and we had dinner in their amazing little cabin in Arosa. Then, that night I got to meet up with MATT JONES, MARIANNA, and RYAN (Matt's friend from Alabama)! The three of them had also arrived that day and were visiting for a week. New Year's was wonderful. The four of us were with Matt's Swiss friend, Claudia, and her best friend, Claudia. We were outside with the rest of Arosa popping champagne and watching fireworks in the snowy, beautiful, moonlit Alps. It was truly wonderful.

The first day of 2010 was so incredible and I have DEFINITELY started off my year right. I slept in a little and then attempted to clothe myself for skiing -- much to my dismay. (I really didn't feel like skiing... but Matt and Marc convinced me.) My good friend Marc Sundstrom was in the nearby town of Flims for the week visiting his grandparents, so he came down for New Year's Day which was wonderful!! I met Marc and we went up the mountain to meet everyone else. We all spent the afternoon on the slopes and I DIDN'T DIE!!!! It was amazing. Seriously, Marc Sundstrom (who has been snowboarding for years, unlike all of us who just started that day - the boys snowboarding and Marianna and I skiing) is the BEST skiing/snowboarding teacher EVER. I SKIED IN THE SWISS ALPS! It was seriously amazing. I crashed a few times, of course, (I swear that pole had it coming...) but mostly actually did okay. And, it was SO. MUCH. FUN. I really did not expect to like it so much. But I guess because I was actually able to do it (kind of) I ended up really, really liking it. After a couple hours on the slope we got a nice surprise as we were informed - at dusk - that we had JUST missed the last gondola down the mountain and would now have to ski down. We thought it was a joke. It was not.

Thank the Lord in heaven, some really nice guy who worked there ended up helping us (and by "us" I mean ME) down. I had suddenly lost ALL of my skiing talent. I was sad. Also, this was a more difficult slope with sharp turns and cliffs, as it was getting dark and the slope was getting icy. So, my approach to skiing soon became sit down as fast as I could every time I started going fast. This resulted in a great deal of rolling down the mountain for me. Several times I actually got so tangled up in myself that one or both of my skis came off, or I would just get them crossed in such a way that I could not stand up without Danny (the nice Swiss guy helping me)'s help. During one particular self-inflicted stop, drop, and roll wipe-out, I dropped and rolled right onto my left thumb, which ended up being incredibly painful. (Nicole told me later, though, that the common injury is known as "skier's thumb," so I was happy.) When we finally made it down we relaxed at a bar for a bit with our new Swiss friends (Danny said I could speak German well and it made me really happy) and then ended up having a quiet evening hanging out at Matt, Marianna, and Ryan's hostel.

Okay, I lied about this not being long! But the rest of the visit from Matt, Marianna, and Ryan was really great. I saw them again in Arosa with Marc briefly, and then I came home with Chris. (Also, I think I'm going back to Arosa soon and I'm excited!) I got resettled here and had a really nice evening with the family and gave them their Christmas presents. They LOVED them and it made me REALLY happy. I got to hang out with M, M and R (hahahaha you're a vaccination... oh wow, I should sleep) Sunday (karaoke with Chrisanne! haha so much fun), then they traveled around a little, and I saw them again Wednesday for their last night in Zürich. That night we ended up being out all night having ridiculous and crazy adventures and it was a blast. I was sad to see them go for sure, but we're already planning another trip!

Since then, things have settled down a bit. I've gotten back into my routine of work, German, the family, friends, and traveling. (Not a bad routine, eh? :)) Last weekend, however, was a whole lot of suck. My best friend here, Chrisanne, had to leave suddenly with the family she's working for. It's what's best for everyone, it just sucks for all the people who miss Chrisanne! I also got some bad news from home last weekend and that's been rough and made me feel like I should be in Texas and not here. But I guess this is where I'm supposed to be.

Tomorrow Kathryn and I are going to Vienna and I cannot wait. I've heard nothing but amazing things about Vienna, and I could seriously use a long weekend with my best friend right now. So I'm sure I'll write about that when we're back.

My life is changing so fast that I can barely keep up. More on that later. SORRY for the million page blog... I don't know if anyone will even read it. haha. But if you do, enjoy. It's 2010 and this is my life.

Love.

it's official.

As of today I have extended my time in Zürich until at least October of this year, and possibly until January of next year.

I'm happy. more later.

I'm pretty sure...

...that moving to Switzerland is the best decision I've ever made.





also, I can't wait to see everyone in Texas. love.