Published Friday July 2nd, 2004





Photos from Lucerne/Luzern..

Wednesday was a day of traveling around.. Got up at 0740, and left with Andrea and my grandma at around 0755.. We got on a bus, a few trains and 2 hours later we were in Lucerne. Lucerne, or Luzern is a very nice city, i think.. Heh.. We were there from around 1000 untill 1315. During that time we walked around the old city and on the edge of a lake which is also there.. We ate lunch and at 1315 got onto a boat which was built in 1913 and just recently restored. It was still powered by the original, though restored, steam engine which was very interesting to see and watch in action.. After 3 hours or so on the boat, we reached the other side of the lake, at a town called Füesen. This town, and the part of the lake the town is on is in the region where the Confederation Helvetica was originally founded, according to history. Which was interesting, because the boat drove/floated by a few really old houses which were originally built in the 1200's where the articles of confederation were drafted and meetings were held for the swiss confederation.. Interesting, heh..

Anyway, in Füesen we got back on a train and after one train-transition, i guess you could call it.. That is to say, after changing trains once, we reached Lucerne again, and from there we returned home, which we reached in 90 minues, this time. Heh. It was nice, over all. I took a lot of photos, as usual. Heh, while on the boat, i started getting a headache, and became somewhat dizzy.. After i ate some food, it went away.. Heh, oops.

Is there a difference between the sound of peoples grunts who speak different languages? I think there is, or im imagening things.. I noticed on the train Wednesday while listening to various people's conversations and in turn, grunts, that those who spoke swiss german had grunts which sounded differently then those who spoke french, as well as grunts which i remember from people who spoke English back in America.. Heh. Somewhat amusing.

I like large train stations. I like watching trains speed by, i like the smell of the rail-ways, and the trains, the many tracks, and wooshing of a train speeding by, the sounds, and the atmosphere. People are in a hurry, rushing, walking quickly. Some are running, and some have all the time in the world. Many different languages are spoken by many different people of many various ethnicities. For some reason i just find it fascinating to sit there, or stand there and watch everyone. I love watching all the people, i love viewing the surroundings and trying to take it all in. Wonder where everyone is going, what their stories are.. Who they relate to one another, what are they doing, where are they going, why are they going there.. I look around and i see others standing there, waiting for their train as i am, pondering the same things i am. We exchange awkward and quick glances at each other, and i'm amused because we're both thinking the same things, a sort of telepathy, without any actual telepathy.. Heh..







Today, Thursday.. was a good day. heh, i got up and helped my grandpa cook lunch, Gulasch i believe the dish was called. heh.. It was good. Until lunchtime, i when i wasnt quickly helping my grandpa, i worked on the photos i took yesterday. Manipulation, sorting, picking out good ones, and such like things.. They did not turn out as well as i had hoped.

Sometimes, i really like my photography, but then when i look at it again, look at a photo again which i liked, i dont like it anymore.. I'm not as amazed and excited about it, and don't really think that its that great anymore, not as great as i thought it once was.. That's what i sort of keep doing with this photo..



Heh, i really like it.. But then, when i look at it again, im not happy with it, somewhat unsatisifed.. I dont know quite what im talking about, but these are the mixed feelings i am feeling when viewing my photography.. I wish i was better, because i think i suck.. Heh. Anyway..

My cousin, Martin finished with school for the school-year and also came over for lunch. After lunch Andrea and I went over to my grandparents/cousin/uncle/aunt's house. (I will from now on refer to them as the Sommer's because Sommer is their last name, and its easier that way.) Andrea and I went over to the Sommer's where we chatted with those who were there, hung about, played some games, had an afternoon snack and then at around 1700 went to this town about 20 minutes away called Schüpbach, i believe it was called.. There, we played this game called Pit Pat.. It's a combination of mini golf and billiards.. You have a billiard type stick which you use to get a ball into a hole navigating various obstacles like in mini-golf.. It was fun.

When we returned to the Sommer's farm/house/place we had dinner with my cousins and aunt and uncle and after, we played a game, which the name of i can not recall. Hrm, it just came to mind that i should mention that a cousin of my cousins, not related to me, but related through my aunt, with whom i have no blood relation, was also there. He's always been around at the same times i was in Switzerland in the summer because he also comes to the Sommer's and visits.. In other words, ive known him for some time. At around 2130 we walked back over to the flat's where we are sleeping at, with my grandparents. Its kind of weird because the sun doesn't really set untill around 2100, and its still light outside past 2200, and then, the sun rises again at around 0600.. It is kind of weird, or different rather.. Different than what i am used to from southern California where the sun sets at around 1900 or something.. Heh.

Heh, every morning, my grandparents wake up in their room, and look out their window. Their flat is on the 2nd floor of this 3 floor appartment building. They never close their shades, so they can always look outside. In the morning, my grandma starts her day off, every day by looking into the trees and watching squirels, and when she stands up, she peers down into her garden and looks at what has changed. A glimpse into retirement, at the ending part of life. I imagine my grandparents waking up on a morning, seeing squirels play around in the forest trees and pointing things out to each other. Mentioning an observation of a change in the garden, or change in a tree to each other. Peaceful..

I heard from my dad, in an email he wrote.. that when he tried to turn on my computer at home, it stopped working and smelled like burning electronics. Great, just wonderful.. heh.. Good thing i have nothing i care for on that computer, ha! See what i care, if you don't work, Mr. Computer. Mwaha! With my luck with computers, tomorrow.. my laptop will fail to boot, and my portable hard drive will no longer spin up. Heh, if that happens, then.. i give up. I'll go dig a trench and jump in. heh.

I noticed today that my memory was improving, again. For a while the few months before the end of high school i noticed that i started losing some of my memory, that is to say.. I was having dificulty keeping little lists of notes or things to do, or whatever kind of lists or whatnot in my head. I was having dificulty keeping this in mind.. Though, today i noticed that all the objectives in my mental list had been achieved, and that i was not missing any objectives; that the list was complete and i wasnt forgetting anything; that i was able to add new objectives to the mental lists, keep the old ones, and succeed with the newly added objectives as well. Ah, yes, finally my memory returns. I love my memory.. When it's working at its full capacity, i can just make note of something to myself, and at the right time, that note pops up in my mind and i am reminded of what it is i was supposed to do at the correct time. Today, we were supposed to pick up some lemons before heading back home from our little excursion playing Pit Pat, and so i made myself alittle note in my head to remind people to get lemons. People being my sister, Andrea, my cousin's cousin whos name i keep forgeting, Mirjam, a cousin of mine, and my aunt, Irene.. Anyway, as we got back to the car, bing! myself reminded me to remind others to go get some lemons.. I was pleased with myself. heh. Memory capacity.. yes... heh.. i got nothing.

Heh.. as time continued, as time progresses further, i will have to censor my blog entires and their contents less and less, because there will be less and less people involved with the entries content, or those who are involved will not read these entries.. Excellent. I hate having to censor some things in here.. But, it being rather public weblog, i must do it.. Im kind of rambling right now.. It's not like a censor that much.. Heh, oh well. I'm going to just start spewing my opinions and thoughts as i think them, without moderation, and if one does not like this then one can not read this. Heh. Yea, like i said, im rambling..

It has been a week since i've been here.. Or rather, it will be tomorrow, and tomorrow which is in about 20 minutes away. Friday it will have been a week since i've been here.. Thursday, today, was a week since i left California. Confusing. Only one week has passed and it already seems like a long time has gone by. I think im kind of boring Andrea. I feel like we need to do something every day, and that she can't be bored, that she needs to have a great time.. This will probably be one of the last times, if not the last time we ever really do anything together as brother and sister with just each other.. I don't want to bore her. Sometimes when we are walking, she is talking to me but i don't hear a word she is saying. I have this thing where i tend to zone out and enter some sort of trance where im just observing my surroundings and studying things, contemplating and suchlike.. While im doing this all or most auditory information entering my ears i can not hear, so when i drop into this weird trance and Andrea is speaking to me, she might as well not be.. I kind of feel sorry for her.. heh. I dunno. *shrugs*

Ugh, the quality of these blog entires has deteriorated a bit again. Run on sentances, fragments, too many periods and silly grammar as well as bad spelling. No! Can't have this. I want these entries to look nice and neat, but it is difficult to juggle this and the typing style which accompany ramblings which i often partake in during the writing of these entries.. Words like 'heh' and suchlike also don't really help much in the overall structure, though the 'heh' phrase is characteristic of myself and my speech.. I visit the word 'heh' very frequently during online conversations. It is universal for responces.. Use it in happy times, in joking times, in sad times, at any time. Heh fits in perfectly wherever, whenever.. For the most part, anyway.

Hrm, there we go, a seemingly clean paraghraph of a breif rambling. Splendid, i think. However, seeing as how i am tired, and how i have run out of things to ramble about at this moment, i suppose i shall conclude this entry and go to bed.. This entry has reached its conclusion.