Our first post!

Marianne and Katie here:

Right now we are just finishing up our packing to go up to the mountain hostels where we will be working. Unfortunately, we have to leave behind almost half of the stuff we originally packed, haha. Marianne was having a little bit of a stress attack. Packing makes her stressed.

Anyways, this is how the trip has gone so far:

Friday we arrived and mostly just settled in at Annemarie and Markus house. They are both great! Love them. That day though, we both practically felt like killing ourselves, since we forced ourselves to stay awake for 30+ hours. It was insane, and quite painful, but worth it, since now we are adjusted to the time change :)

Saturday was time for Yodelfest! This was ironic considering everyone always asks Marianne if she can yodel when they find out she is Swiss, the answer of course, is always.. no. But on our second day in Switzerland, we find ourself surrounded by yodeling! Haha, it was fun. However, after seeing it all day, being packed into a boiling hot room with hundreds of other people (touching you) it got a little sweaty. We "enjoyed" ( not Katie) our first beers of Switzerland, compliments of Markus. Katie didnt even finish half, and gladly passed the rest on to Uncle Paul (whom was yodeling in the Yodelfest). There were 200,000++ people in Luzern, over 100,00 yodellers alone. It was so packed walking back to the train station in the evening that it was like a mosh pit. You couldnt even take a step in front of you, that is how squished against other people you were. Kind of fun, even though. The fireworks were amazing, not just amazing actually, more than that. It was more like a light show than just a set of fireworks, they had ones that they dropped on the water and later exploded and all types of different ones. We even got our first encounter with some Swiss boys ;) (more on that later)

Sunday was our visiting day. First we went to pick up Mariannes grandma from her apartment. She is the most beautiful old lady in the world! So sweet too, unfortunately Katie couldnt really talk with her, but she said she understood because when she goes to Canada she cant understand anything either. Then we went to Mariannes Aunt Idas for lunch and the afternoon. This is where we met the hot cousins! Marianne had alot of fun hanging out with them etc. but Katie was not really able to speak, but she enjoyed the eye candy :) Next was a stop at Mariannes Uncle Pauls (the one from Yodelfest). He lives on an Alp farm in the mountains, pretty much exactly like Heidi. Mariannes little cousins are the cutest things ever, one named Hannah, looks exactly like Izzy. We also played soccer with Flurin, who is planning on being the keeper for the Swiss team when he grows up. Marianne said he has to tell them that she taught him how to head balls, and he said " Well.. if i remember.." haha. Jakob, was choked that his poor little kitten Silas, was a girl. His heart was broken, it was so funny. And he would not call it anything other than Silas. It was an overall really good time.

Today we woke up late, biked down to the train station and validated our rail passes, almost got lost coming home, and now packed for the hostel. Tonight we will take a train to Engelberg and stay there for awhile. Everything is just kind of falling together, not alot of solid plans, but thats the fun of it :) Hope ya`ll are havin a good summer so far!