The Swiss Miss #6: Jamie Baumstark hits the crepery with another American girl

Salut One And All,

Christmas is approaching and I am sure everyone has been getting ready for the holiday season as are all the people here in Biel. It is SO beautiful here with all the decorations in the city, but I have not been lucky enough to see white on the ground yet. One day I was a little teased with a very light snow/rain but other than that, none has filled the streets of Biel. The mountain peaks are covered and look even more mesmerizing then they did before. Although they are in a distance I still find myself staring at them for minutes at a time taking photo after photo. I will share with you all the things the Swiss people do to get ready for Christmas next week so for now I am going to talk to you about the wonderful day I had enjoying the beautiful city of of neighbor Neuchatel.

Before I came to Switzerland I had found an American girl through facebook that was playing in Switzerland, too, and sure enough she was playing in a city about 20 minutes from me:) Since I had arrived in Biel I wanted to meet her and see what her city was like. So we finally made it work and on a Monday I took the 18-minute train ride to Neuchatel where she was there to greet me at the train station.

We had met a couple times before when we played each other but this time it was off the court so it was more relaxed and chill. I greeted her with a big hug and we headed to Mc Donalds to get a cafe and have a chat. After speaking of volleyball, our city and how much we love Switzerland and of course.......the men in our lives, she wanted to take me around to show me her city. Neuchatel reminds me somewhat of Biel, but the one thing she has that we don't is the view of the snow-topped Alps in the distance behind the lake.

She walked me to the apartment where she stays (which is on top of a club, I am sure she doesn't get much sleep at night) and then we made our way onto the city cobblestone streets. I was starving, so she wanted to take me to a crepery to get some famous crepes. Oh my lordy were they GOOD!!! I had a spinach and cheese for lunch and then dessert I had to have the chocolate cream with ice cream on top!! It is making my mouth water just thinking about them!!

After we enjoyed our crepes we went walking some more until I found......a candy store!! I had to get some candy so I got a bag and filled it up with candy I had never seen before but it all looked so good. Then I saw something I had been missing since I have left the US, peanut butter M&Ms and they had them. Of course I had to get a bag of those along with.....ROOT BEER!! Two of the things that I missed so much from back home so I knew this was the place I needed to come back and visit, many more times!!

After I satisfied my sweet tooth we took a walk to the lake so I could get some pictures with Rachel, sorry I didn't mention her name before. It was a little cloudy that day, but you could still see the Alps in the distance, what a lucky girl:) I plan on going to see her much more in the future.

It was so good to spend the day with Rachel just to remind me of back home. No offense to any of the girls here...I love them but it is nice every now and then to have a conversation with someone that you can very much relate to.

I will be home very soon for Christmas with my family and I CANNOT wait!! I hope you all are enjoying the holidays and will write soon).

Love,
        Jamie Baumstark