A day in Augst and Zurich

We had another holiday yesterday (Pfingstmontag...no idea what it means) and so Nathan, Amanda, Anne, Andrea, & I took a road trip to the Roman ruins city of Augst outside Basel and then drove onto Zurich. Augst was occupied in the Roman era and has a lot of cool artifacts and ruins. We spent about an hour looking around and then headed on down to Zurich. I haven't been back to Zurich since I lived here 4 yrs ago and I forgot how much I love it! We ate at my favorite restaurant there called Tiffin's, which is a Thai restaurant. They have the BEST Thai food EVER and we enjoyed it so much that we've decided to go back next week w/the rest of the staff. We didn't get home until almost 11pm last night and then were up EARLY for school today but it was well worth it. I made a slideshow of some fun pics I took yesterday. Enjoy! PS 4 weeks from TODAY I will be back in Jacksonville :) :) :) YAY!

More pics from the Spring Concert from Anne's camera!

Spring Concert

RIA's first annual Spring Concert was held last night and directed by Yours Truly :) We did everything from Disney to Broadway to Contemporary Christian! The kids were awesome and we had so much fun. I'm bringing home the DVD in a few weeks so I hope to show it to as many people as I can! Here are some pics I was able to take. A few moms have promised to email more so as soon as I get them I will post them. Enjoy!


Dress Rehearsal


Jamie & Chiara before taking the stage!


Me & Andrea before the show



"You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile" from Annie


"Smile, darn ya, smile!"

No place like HOME HOME

Friday Anne & I made our weekly grocery store run. We were both pretty tired after having the day off Thursday and so all we wanted was to get our stuff, pay and go. Well, of course there was only ONE cash register open and everyone and their mother had decided to go shopping that day. Anne and I were standing in line and making small talk when suddenly Anne looks at me with this frustrated look on her face and says rather impatiently "Allison, I just want to go home right now!" And I'm thinking she's talking about home as in Weil am Rhein, Pfadlistrasse apartment, home. So I responded back a bit irritably "Well, Anne, we have to wait in line and there's nothing we can do about it!" And Anne starts laughing and says "No, I meant HOME HOME in the States!" Which caused me to laugh outloud as well. You probably won't find this story very funny and that's OK. I had to enter it b/c I want everyone to know that my roomie and I are counting the days until we get home. I haven't seen my parents since January 4th and by the time I finally DO see them it will be June 26th, almost 6 months! Never have I gone this long w/o seeing them and it's just a big frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I'm still having the time of my life over here and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is where God wants me. It still doesn't make it any easier to know that I still have 5 weeks to go before I step off the plane in Orlando.

People in Jacksonville who read this: I really want to see you guys as much as I can while I'm home! TEMPLE SHERBURNE I DEFINITELY WANT TO SIT DOWN AND SEE WEDDING PICS AND HEAR ALL ABOUT IT SO LET'S MAKE A LUNCH DATE!

Happy Christihimmelfahrt!

Translated Christihimmelfahrt is Ascension Day, which we have off. We had plans to go hiking but it's rainy and gross outside so I'm taking back what I said on my last post a/b hiking rain or shine. I think I meant if it was "sprinkling" which it's definitely not. The roomies and I have resorted to spending our day off watching movies and relaxing in our pjs. We're hosting a social tonight for our small group so eventually we have to clean up. Tomorrow we have school again which will be difficult to get up for after having a day off but all we're doing is going to Laguna for one last school wide swim. I guess I can handle going down waterslides and playing with the kids all morning..haha.

So hope you all have a very happy Christihimmelfahrt! Love ya!

Rainy Cold Day...blah!

Since April was hotter than any April ever experienced over here, May is of course going to be the month that it rains and the temperature drops! It's overcast and rainy all week and I had to pull out a heavier jacket this morning than the green windbreaker I've been toting. If ever anyone longed for the Florida sunshine right now, it's me! Other than that, life is great! We're going on a hike in Switzerland Thursday come rain or shine and I'm really excited! I've definitely become more of the "outdoor girl" over here :)

Temple & Mike

My friends Temple & Mike are getting married today and since I obviously can't be there I wanted to wish them all the happiness in the world!

Oh this week!

What a week it's been! I've hardly had time to sign online at all and so as a result I have a HUGE slideshow to show all of the pics from International Week, Field Day, & our International Potluck Dinner Tonight.

As you know from my last post, this week has been International Week at RIA. We've learned about many different countries including Bulgaria, Turkey, Venezuela, The Philippines, & India.

Thursday was our biggest day as far as parents coming in and speaking about where they were from,etc. Ms. Cora Gatmaitan, mom of 1st grader Ramona, came in and the kids all helped her make traditional fried rice and spring rolls! We had them for lunch and I have never tasted better fried rice than I did on Thursday! After lunch, one or our preschool mom's came in to talk to us about Bulgaria and Turkey which were both very interesting. Our final presentation was by Gioconda Allo, mother of my 2nd grader, Gaby. She did a talk on Venezuela which was also very cool.

Today was Field Day, a first for RIA, and so we had to explain to the kids what it was. They had a blast and the weather held up perfectly for us (it was supposed to rain today!).

To end our week we had an International Potluck Dinner this evening. I have honestly never seen so much international food in my life! We had everything from American to Lebanese to Swiss to anything else you can imagine! The staff also dressed in cultural costumes from around the world. My costume was from Africa and was pink which suited me just fine! It was basically a big moo moo but I was able to pull it off :). Next year I hope to get some traditional German dirndl to wear!

So I will leave you with a slideshow from the last few days. I wish you guys could have been there tonight--it was so much fun and so cool to see all of these different cultures in one room! Ciao for now~Allison

International Week at RIA!

This entire week we are celebrating the diverse culture of our student body. Yesterday we kicked off the week with a lesson on the USA. We sang the Star Spangled Banner and did activities around the school. I was in charge of the Puzzle Center in the library so when a group of students came to see me they could pick a crossword puzzle to do while I read about one of the 50 states (Florida was a very popular choice...woohoo!). Here are some pictures from yesterday:
\
Aarit working hard on his picture of the States


4th and 5th graders proudly showing off their work


Melisa & Rachel Ladle sing "America the Beautiful"



Students listening to "America the Beautiful"

Today we had two cultural lessons. Our first was on Germany and the kids started a puppet making project after hearing the German fairytale of "Little Red Riding Hood." It was a paper mache project so they'll finish painting them tomorrow but so far they look great! At the end of the day, we had a cultural lesson about India and one of my student's, Harsha, helped his mom with the talk. Tomorrow we will be learning about the Philippines and Thursday will be Bulgaria and Turkey. I'm really excited about all of the upcoming lessons b/c it helps our students (and teachers alike) see just how small our world really is! I'll leave you w/a few pictures from today's lessons about Germany & India :)


Students working hard on their paper mache puppets!


Listening to the fairytale of Little Red


Harsha & his mom tell the 1st-5th graders about India

McDonald's Field Trip & a lovely Sunday!

On Thursday, the 1st-3rd grade went to the McDonald's in Liestal owned by the people I used to au pair for! It was a great tour and we got to see the inner workings of Mickey D's! The kids had a blast and learned a lot a/b what it takes to work together in a community which was the main objective of the trip. Here are a few pics I took:



Today was also another great day in Basel! We went to church and met up w/our great friends Jo, Vanessa, & Delice at the service. It was communion today and those are most definitely my favorite Sundays. The praise & worship was amazing and God really spoke to my heart today. Afterwards, Jo & Vanessa joined Anne, Andrea & I for lunch at one of our favorite spots, Cindy's Diner. It's an American style diner but w/European sandwiches and pizza. I had a delicious spinach & mozzerella sandwich and a yummy chocolate gelati. There was a flower market in Barfusserplatz today and so after lunch we said goodbye to Vanessa who was going to see her mom and the four of us went and bought some beautiful flowers! I usually kill plants w/in days of getting them but we'll see how I do w/this one. Anne named hers Sophie, mine is Gracie, and Andrea's is Violet..haha. It was an awesome day and I know I've said it before but I LOVE SUNDAYS IN BASEL!

Oslo for $15

Anne, Andrea & I found a C-H-E-A-P flight to Oslo, Norway this weekend and took it! You read that post right--it cost us exactly $15 roundtrip to fly there and back! We stayed Sat-today (May 1 is Labor Day over here so we had today and yesterday off) and just got home a/b 2 hrs ago. Oslo is a really cool city but not as charming as London or Paris or other bigger European cities. We had a ton of fun and saw lots of interesting things. Anyways, here are a few pics I took over the weekend:



Overlooking the fjord & downtown Oslo


The next Norwegian Idol contestants



Viking Ship Museum


Oslo Harbor