Published Saturday July 24th, 2004

Thursday early in the morning, at around 0600 my mom, dad, Andrea and myself got up. At 0710 we were on a train heading back down to Täsch from Zermat. Once we got back down from Zermat, we got back into our car, got some yummy bread at a bakery and then began driving back towards Bern. While we were on a train which ferries cars through a mountain tunnel, or pass, i believe i talked about it in an entry two entries ago. Anyways, while we were in the tunnel being ferried through the tunnel, the small truck in front of us started to roll back towards our car because he probably did not apply his parking break. He was nearly on top of us, about another 2 cm and he would have been on top of our hood, but my dad honked and flashed his lights, and i guess the person in the truck applied their breaks.. Was kind of scary. In a dark tunnel, truck rolling back on you. Ha ha. Heh..

Anyway, my dad dropped us off somewhere outside of a city called Burgdorf at a rest-station off of the freeway. My grandpa came and picked up Margret, Andrea and myself and we then drove back to their place. My dad drove out to Zurich where he picked up Adam, Wes, Tyson and Raymond from the airport. I was unable to do so because of impossible car arrangements; I was not allowed to drive my dad's rental car because of some contract policy where one has to be 21 years of age to drive this rental car companies cars. Heh, stupid. Oh well. The question now stands; How do i get them back out to Zurich.. Oh well, we'll see.

Anyways, yea, My grandpa drove us back home, and then i started to clean up the apartment a bit where my friends and I were going to stay. My mom, Andrea and I moved some furniture back and forth between this apartment where i am with my friends, and my grandparents apartment in an apartment building which is perpendicular to this one. Yeh. Soon, Tyson, Raymond, Adam and Wes arrived. They were all kind of, if not completely out of it and very tired, but most didn't admit it.

I took Tyson and Raymond with me to go shopping at Coop where we spent CHF 142.xx Woo. We returned, and put all of it away, and then I left everyone as i went with my mom, dad, and Andrea to go visit my cousin Martin and Philip.

We drove about an hour towards and past a city called Thun to a small little village on the shores of the Thunner Lake called Lessigen. It was a very lovely, peaceful, idyllic, little village. We chatted and laughed a lot, making jokes, and saying funny things, all of us: Martin, Philip, Andrea, Margret, Roli and myself..

It was nice to see Martin and Philip once again. Heh, it was fun times..

Friday came along and not a whole lot happened in the morning and early afternoon. My mom had cooked a lot and so we did not have to cook lunch. We ate my mom's lunch meal, cleaned the dishes, and so forth, and soon it was 1500 after i took a 90 minute nap.

My Dad, Mom, Andrea and I drove to Lausane at 1500 to go visit my Dad's friend and his friend's girl friend. His friend, Ioanis (spelling?) and his girl friend has visited us before in America.. Anyways, they are nice and fun people. I like listening in on my dad and Ioanis's conversations about their work, lawyers, papers they write, and such things. Its interesting and amusing.

Before we showed up at Ioanis's house we drove around the city a bit, and went to visit the apartment, and general area where we used to live. We drove by the school where i went to kindergarten and first grade. Heh, after 12 years.. I revisited the beginning at the end. I felt kind of odd, weird, in an odd way nostalgic but not exactly missing the past, so really not all to nostalgic, but yet still.. The topic came up: what would have happened if we had not moved. Who would we be, who would i be? I don't know. Though, i certainly am happy with what i am; with who i am; with what i have become so far.. So i can't say that i would pick something different. I don't know..

We went for a little walk through downtown Lausane where their apartment is. They have this very beautiful, spacious flat on the top of this building in downtown Lausane. Its very beautiful, as i already mentioned. I guess one could call their flat a penthouse. Ha ha. Yeh.. Anyways, as it got dark, a thunderstorm had been brewing all day long and it started to thunder, or rather we just saw lightning flashes everywhere. I attempted to take some pictures without a tripod. Didn't turn out so terribly well, but thats okay.

We departed and as we were driving home it started to really rain. It took a long time to get home, because at times my dad was only going half the speed limit of the freeway. It was very fun and oddly peaceful to see the lightning flashes and the rain downpour and such likes. When we got close towards home, or my grandparent's apartment it started the rain really hard, and then, pieces of ice started to fall. Then, more ice started to fall. My dad began to slow down to around 20-30 km/h. Really slow. Then it started to hail even harder. The whole street was covered in white. The hail was falling on the hood and all over the car in a noisy, somewhat chaotic clash. A few bright flashes of light right above us, so bright that it nearly stunned us for a few seconds at a time. My dad was barely able to see anything, let along drive. It was a whole whole whole lot of fun. Insanely awesome, cool, and all those things.

Saturday came along, and Tyson, Adam, Wes, Raymond and i all sort of just hung about. At 1100 i started to cook some potatoes in a skillet, Raymond came as well and had the idea of throwing in some tomatoes as well. Good idea. We all sort of helped to cook. Some stirred the potatoes in the very small skillet, some washed the salad, and some set the table. It was a very good team effort lunch.. And when we finished, this is what we had:





It was actually really good. Everyone loved the potatoes. Excellent. Heh. We lounged around a bit in the afternoon. Raymond, Adam, Wes and Tyson started to get a bit too rowdy and energetic for my liking in a small apartment in the middle of the apartment complex with neighbors upstairs and down so we went outside. I saw a thunderstorm coming in, heading towards us, and i knew we were going to get wet, and this is why i made us all go on a walk. We walked through a forest right outside of the flat and as we had walked around 15 minutes it started to pour, and i mean pour. Withing a few seconds we were all completely drenched. My underwear was even completely drenched. I could feel water dripping down my ass-crack. Ha ha. It was hilariously fun. We walked back to our flat, and stripped outside of the building before entering. My grandma saw us out of her window and she laughed at us. It was really amusing, and funny. Heh.

We dried ourselves off, hung about a bit, and then we started to make dinner. I put in a pre-made pizza into the oven, and Tyson prepared some salad. I also cooked some Milk which overflowed the pan, as i figured it would. D'oh. I couldn't keep us with everything going on in the kitchen and while serving the milk as hot chocolate milk to all who wanted some, the pizza gained some dark colour. It was fine, still edible, just a bit darker then perfect. The pizza was good, and so was the salad. We got salad from my grandma because she now has way too much because all of her lettuce and such was hailed on and more or less destroyed in her garden, and thus all that she had must be eaten. Heh..

After dinner we watched a James Bond movie, Diamonds Are Forever. Everyone but Adam and I fell asleep. Adam and i had a blast laughing at the movie. We had no idea what was going on. Cheesy and corny lines everywhere, really bad special effects, and overly elaborate plots kept us laughing our asses off. After the movie was finished, Adam and I cleaned the dishes and then Adam went to bed. I stayed up until around 0100 watching some random movie called The Killer Hand with Jessica Alba in it. Was kind of odd.. Anyway, yea, i went to bed, woke up in the morning, and here i am.



And now, some random ramblings and other random statements..

It's really cool when there are intensely bright flashes of blueish light in the sky from lightning during a thunderstorm. At night, the area is completely dark, or well, everywhere its dark, of course. Then, there is a flash of light, and for a split second you can see all of the surrounding landscape in this eerie blue tint. A glimpse of the land, and i then get this feeling of wanting to see it again, for longer, but because the flashes last less than a second, it is hard to ever get a full glimpse of everything around me. It's kind of cool, heh.

Heh, when we went to visit my cousin, Martin, i saw on the building he was living in, that it was built in 1779. On the front of the building, the numbers 1779 were carved into the dark wood. It was very cool. Heh. It's been renovated a bit, of course, but it is still really interesting. One could tell, when going inside, that the ceiling was much lower than usual. It's kind of interesting to think about how long that house has been there. *shrugs*


Heh, i heard somewhere that the Swiss drive more train per capita then any other nation in the world, even more than the Japanese do. Interesting, no? They drive the most km via train here per person than anywhere else. It's not hard to believe.. So many trains, so much railway.. Yeh.

Back to while we were in Zermat, i don't know if i have mentioned this anywhere or not, so i will mention it again. Heh, in Zermat there are no cars because they are not permitted there. Instead they have these small little electrical carts, somewhat like golf carts which they drive around. Anyways, because of this, it is relatively very quiet in Zermat, and this was rather peaceful..

While i ramble.. Sometimes someone says something to me, or people talk about me, or of me trying to get a reaction from me while I'm with them, but i don't reply, sometimes. I find that i am often too lazy to move my lips or speak in response to a question, or some response-provoking statement.. Heh.

It's been kind of an interesting experience living with 4 other people in our own apartment. I have to admit, i have been a bit bossy and commanding as far as procedure and what to do, when to do it in our flat. I'm a bit compulsive, and i like things really clean. A bad combination when living with 4 other guys, i think. I want the dishes washed with hot water, all thoroughly, and then rinses again at the end, and nicely dried. I want the kitchen to be clean, and i want the eating table to be clean, too, as well as the bathroom, and generally everything. I've seen some of the guys quickly rinse off a bowl or something with gold water, quickly rub their fingers in it to get some of the muck out, and then call it clean. Ick. Yea, i dunno.. It's kind of interesting. At least I'm respected so that my bossy commands are generally followed. This is probably only because of the position i am in as .. "tour guide". I dunno.. *shrugs*

Well then, that should definitely do it for this one.. I've been having some difficulty keeping up on the weblog entries because so much has been going on, and with 4 friends here, i am much more distracted then usual. Heh.. I also have not been on the Internet in nearly a week. I sort of miss some of the people i have not spoken to in a while.. Heh.. Yeh..

* Photos have not been altered, and could probably use some white-balancing, contrast, brightness, saturation, and hue adjustments. Oh well.