Swiss Miss #3: Jamie Baumstark has little sleep and a two-burner stove in the land of the Alps

Bonjour,

The days in Switzerland just keep on getting better. I am going to take you back a little bit to the first month of my trip here...

I had been in the city for eight days and knew I had to see the beautiful Alps soon!! Me and three other girls from the team decided to take a day trip to show me the glorious mountains. We hopped in the car and drove an hour to one of the Swiss Alps called Adelboden. After going up the windy roads up the mountain, which didn't make my stomach feel the best, we finally had reached our destination. As I stepped out of the car the scenery was so breathtaking I had to take moment to just stare at the high peaks above and beyond me. The weather couldn't have been better. It was a little chilly being so high up on the mountain but the sun was shining to make it a little bit warmer. Once we arrived we were all very hungary so we stopped at a cafe outside to get something to eat, and of course the mountains were in full view as we at our lunch. After lunch we decided to walk around and go a little further up the mountain to get the full view!! The village is very cute and tiny with little shops and bakeries all around. There were a couple of locals that heard my great English and stopped to talk to me to see where I was from and what I was doing in Switzerland. They were all very nice :) It was a day and a sight that I will never forget! I hope to get back many more times and hopefully once the season is over some of the girls are going to take me to their cabins in the mountains and teach me how to snowboard...YIKES:)

That week we had a tournament in Austria. It was still the beginning of our season so these tournaments were just for fun to help us work on things and to get us ready for the season opener that next weekend. We arrived in Austria to a beautiful little hotel on the hill. It overlooked the city with land for cows to graze in all around. We finally got settled in and two of my teammates and I decided to go downstairs to try their famous Panesch. It is beer with sprite of lemonade in it. It was delicious!! After our drink it was off to bed...I was awoken in the middle of the night by a ringing noise. Sure enough it was the cows grazing in the pasteur. All of the cows had bells on around their necks, and every time they would put their head down to eat some grass the bell would ring. You could imagine how much sleep I got that night. The next day we played a series of four games and ended up playing for first but lost to a very big, dominating, German team; so I was very happy with second place, especially with us only playing together for two weeks.

When I first arrived in Switzerland I was trying to get everything together, including the electrical part of it all. I had bought an adapter in Hermann before I came so I thought everything would work with that one adapter. My computer, hair dryer and straightener but boy was I wrong...NOTHING would work. The voltage is too high here for my adapter so I pretty much had to buy new everything besides my computer!! I have had my fair share of problems here with my appliances!!! I live in a very cute little studio apartment with all the necessities: bathroom, heater, and my kitchen which includes two burners and a mini fridge. Yeah there is no oven or microwave, so I have to be pretty creative when it comes to making pizza and cookies. But I make it all work and needless to say I really love my place and the two burners are better then nothing:)

I have definitely had my days were I really miss home and my family and friends but when I sit down and think about it, this is an experience that I will never get back and I am going to enjoy every minute of it...good or bad!

I really hope you all are enjoying my experiences and I appreciate you all that take the time to read my stories!!! There is much more to come so stay tuned!! I have included pictures of the mountains for all of you to enjoy!!

Au revoir,
      Jamie Baumstark