February 2015 Switzerland

February was a busy month!  

The street I live on.
It's a very old village that used to have a moat surrounding it.
It's very unusual that it snows.

Several of the Wycliffe missionaries who are in Neuchatel to learn French: Kate, Matthew and Teresa.
This was the first bon-homme de neige (snow man) that native Californian Kate had ever made.

I was able to meet Lindsey and Warren Cooper.
She is a pediatrician and he is a general surgeon.
They live and work in Nyankunde, DRC.

I took the train to Basel to meet them.
They were visiting Warren's parents who now live in Switzerland.
It was nice to meet them and talk with them.

The same weekend I was able to travel to Zurich to see the sights with a few friends.
We were able to climb the tower of one of the old churches there to get a view of the city.

What's amazing is that there are open fountains which are marked for drinking water.
I would recommend this method, and not drinking from the water already in the fountain.

Along the lake in Zurich you see a lot of interesting people from all over the world;
people who live in work in Zurich, a lot of tourists,
and this very brave lady feeding bread to the pigeons.  

Neuchatel is extremely overcast during the winter.  It is situated between 2 lakes and has a lot of fog and cloud coverage.  I travelled with Kate and Gabrielle, one of the ladies from the church, to the top of the mountain behind Neuchatel.  With the different in altitude, we were above the clouds and in the sunshine.

We took something like a cable car to Chaumont.
We had a nice view of the Alps...

I even had the chance to teach my fellow classmate how to ski.
She is from Panama and this was her first experience with snow and skiing.
It was a very interesting, but fun, experience.

And, if you'd forgotten, I have been taking intense French language classes to learn French.
This is a mix of students and teachers.  All of the teachers are from Switzerland.
The majority of students come from other countries: Italy, Hungary, Panama, the US, Serbia, and one from the Italian-speaking region of Switzerland.

I've been learning a lot and can hold a basic conversation with most people.  I have a hard time sometimes with who is doing what at what time (verb tenses) especially when more than one person is talking, but I'm learning more and more each day.  Most of my practice comes in speaking French with my host family, with the person at the ticket counter at the train station, at the store, or at church.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be in Switzerland.  It will be between 6-12 weeks.  I'm awaiting a response from the people at Samaritan's Purse (the mission organization I work with).

Thank you for praying with me and for me as I continue to learn. The ability to communicate is so important, as we all know.  And, I would like to have  the ability to speak clearly and accurately in French (and, eventually, Swahili).  Also, pray for wisdom in knowing when to return to the US to take the final step of my board exams.  It's a difficult decision to make.