Kari & Bobby's Visit

I don't really know where to begin, but I'm going to take you all the way back to November when my good friends, Kari & Bobby visited. I first met Kari while I was working at Cotton Inc. We still kept in touch after I left Cotton, so she and her husband, Bobby, decided to come visit us in Basel. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't the best at that time of year, but we still had a wonderful time together. Their first full day, we walked around Basel...

We took our very first ferry boat ride!

That night we had a relaxing evening at home with Kari's (newly discovered) favorite food, spatzli, for dinner. Those of you who have come to visit, know what I'm talking about. Kari, did you ever find that in NC? :)

The next morning, Kari, Bobby, and I took a road trip to Germany and Austria. When I printed off directions from Google maps, I must have accidentally done the "scenic route" because it took us forever to get there on back roads and we got lost a couple of times... whoops! Fortunately, Bobby was patient and we were able to stop a few times to ask for directions. Sorry guys. But... isn't it funny looking back on it now? ;)

This is funny: The last time that we got lost on the way to the castle, we stopped at a McDonald's (of course) to ask for directions. I went in and asked the first random person I saw for directions. And did I ever pick the right person. This guy was with his girlfriend in line and after I approached him, he just said, "follow me," and walked right out of the restaurant.. got into his car (with his girlfriend) and waved at us to follow him. At first we were a little weirded out... thinking, where is he really taking us?? But after driving about 10 minutes, we arrived at the castle and then he turned around to go back to McDonald's for his "date." Talk about the most random act of kindness ever! But we were very thankful.

I was a little embarrassed for getting us lost, since I had already been there, but in my defense, Nate was my navigator... and I was only concentrating on driving. Not the direction to which we were going. So, when we finally made it, I was very happy!!

Inside the Neuschwanstein Castle's courtyard

After Kari & Bobby toured the inside of the castle, it quickly turned dark. Below is... a view from a window in the castle, K & B in front of the castle that crazy King Ludwig grew up in, and a side of Neuschwanstein.

We then headed to our hotel. We were sooo hungry and fortunately, the food was excellent. I forgot to take a picture of dinner, but desert was photo-worthy. The next morning was beautiful... as you can see in the photo below on the right.

The next part of our trip was the primary reason we took our journey to that area. Bobby expressed interest in going to a concentration camp, so after some research we decided to go to Dachau. Dachau was the very first concentration camp built in Germany. It served as a model for all other camps that followed...

We all know what happened during the holocaust, so I don't have to go into detail on that, but I will tell you that being there at that camp, was one of the most haunting things I've ever experienced. It felt so real. I kept thinking... HOW could this have happened. The words in the picture below read "Arbeit Macht Frei" which means "Work will set you Free." The Jews were told this lie that if they worked, they would be set free...

The audio guide led us through the camp. There were also interviews with survivors, government officials, and journalists. There was one British woman that stood out in my mind. She described the state of the camp when the Jews were liberated and she said that there was an indescribable stench of death. She went on to describe other horrifying things that brought me to tears.

You can see what Dachau originally looked like in the next picture. There were lines of barracks where the prisoners were packed like sardines, especially towards the end. You can read about the cruel medical experiments below. They tortured some prisoners to test the effects of things like hypothermia and altitude pressure on the human body. You can also see how big the area is... but the Auschwitz concentration camp was over 20 times as large in size.

The barracks were burned and the camp is simply lined with the remaining cement foundations.


The Star of David

This is inside one of the barracks that they re-built to show what it looked like. I can only imagine someone looking out the window... hoping that they would one day escape.

Inside the museum...

This next picture may be disturbing, but it made me realize how awful the conditions were for the prisoners. Many died from starvation over the last few years because they were not fed enough food.

The "Brausebad" literally means "Shower bath," but we know that these were the gas chambers. I had a weird feeling come over me as I stood in that place. To think of all the Jews (in all the camps) that went into a place like this thinking they were taking a shower, and it was actually their death. There was truly an indescribable, haunting feeling there.

This is the barbed-wire fence that stood between the Jews and their freedom.

If it wasn't for Bobby wanting to go to the concentration camp, I don't think I would have ever gone and now, I am thankful that I went. For me, it just confirms Jeremiah 17:9 but thankfully, there is hope (Romans 3:23-24).

Spending time with Kari and Bobby was great. We love having people in our home, because we really get to know them better. We wanted to spend even more time with them by doing another mini trip... this time to Portugal... BUT our flight was canceled. The worst part is that I booked K & B on a different flight because we thought ours was full, so they took off before us, and we never got to meet them there! Nate and I were so upset the whole weekend. :( We were so bummed, but from the looks of Kari's blog, they had a nice time... which made us feel a little better for sending them off!

If you would like to read about their trip from Kari's perspective... take a look on her blog:
http://runningyankee.blogspot.com/2009/12/spatzli-and-other-swiss-delights.html

Many Thanks!

Thank you to all of you who commented on the last post! Your words were very encouraging and have given me the motivation to keep on blogging. :)

As of late: Nate and I have been serving as the youth group leaders at our church since Christmas, so we have been very busy with that... but it has been a lot of fun. This past weekend we had a youth ski retreat and our previous pastor and his wife came to minister to the kids. We had a blast. Now that I have started teaching tennis again, it is really hard to find the time to blog! So, today I leave you with this:

Click here to see more pictures from the retreat!

I have devoted tomorrow and Friday to some serious blogging. I will be doing posts on travels to Dachau, Amsterdam, Azerbaijan, and Turkey. We have also had some interesting things go on in Basel... so I will blog about that too! I told you I had some serious blogging to do. Check back in a couple days!

Our Apologies and a Little Motivation

Sometimes life gets so busy that you put off things that you wish you wouldn't have. This blog is one of them... Our apologies for not keeping it up to date. There is a lot to catch up on, so if you want us to keep blogging, we need your comments for a little motivation. If you've ever enjoyed reading or just looking at the pictures on our blog, let us know! To our friends and family back home: We love you and miss you very much.

There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays

There really is no place like home for the holidays. The best thing about being home was spending time with friends and family. Because we had missed everyone so much, it made this Christmas all the more special.

We flew in on a Thursday night and by Saturday, our house was decked out in Christmas decorations and we threw a party for all our close friends... we were able to do that because of my two brother-in-laws... they were a great help!

Some highlights of what we did:
Had Christmas morning at our home :)

Ate at the Angus Barn (our favorite restaurant!) with Nate's family... a little Diering tradition.

Took a Solc family photo for the first time in awhile...

Hung out with Nate's brother, Matt, and the new addition to the Diering family, Buddy!

Jake and Buddy loved to play!

Sometimes it got a little rough though...

Played with Camden, my sister's son. He just LOVED his Uncle Nate! My sister called me yesterday and told me that Camden is STILL talking about Nate. That doesn't make me jealous at all... haha.

Got some long-awaited Raybans for Christmas... a big surprise from Nate!

My little brother and Chelsea got ENGAGED!!!!

We wrote an announcement on the chalkboard at Starbucks. :)

The Happy Couple...

Camden, being cute!


Got to go with Joy to Camden's art class... I think I enjoyed it as much as he did!

Had lunch with some of my favorite Brier Creek Tennis ladies... it was so good to spend time with them! Teresa, in the purple sweater, is a faithful blog reader and commenter! Thanks, Teresa! :)

Girls night with some of my favorite girls... Katherine, Parker, & Shae. Katherine came over, even with her one-month old baby, Haley (in the picture). She is SO precious!

Once Nate went back to Switzerland, I spent most of my time hanging out with family. I love my siblings SO much!! I am so blessed to have them. Me & Josef:

Me & Joy:

All 3 of us... not really sure why my brother's making that face...

I love this picture... it's so happy!

Culture Shock in America..... What!?

Nate and I love that feeling of just stepping off the plane to be back home again. After being gone for almost a whole YEAR, we were overjoyed to be able to be with friends and family around Christmas. The interesting thing after being gone for a year is that you have a different look on life in America. Little things that used to be "normal" to us became a bit of a shock. It's a little hard to explain, but here is a list of some things that 'shocked' us while being home...

-Everything is in English! (You're probably thinking, duh, but this was SO nice!)
-More things, like signs and labels, are now also written in Spanish
-Everyone was speaking English (Another duh, but it was also oh, so nice)
-The majority of people are extremely friendly everywhere you go
-Grocery stores are massive
-Wal-Mart is overwhelming
-We still love Target
-Everything seemed so inexpensive (compared to Europe's prices)
-A Chick-fil-A sandwich, Bojangles biscuit, and sweet tea taste even better than we remembered
-We have missed free refills, ice, free ketchup, and unlimited napkins!
-Portion sizes at restaurants are too big
-Toilets are much lower than in Switzerland (weird, but true)
-Raleigh seemed so spread out after living in such a condensed city
-We spent too much time in the car
-Everyone's houses felt HUGE
-Most Americans (including us) have too much stuff
-Life is more comfortable... sometimes a little too comfortable... and at the same time, too busy

After being away from American culture for awhile, it's easier for Nate and I see how our lives now compare to before. We realized that it was harder to evaluate our lifestyles when we lived in the same place with the same routine. And we are thankful that we have had the opportunity to see that sometimes we lived a life that was a little too comfortable and complacent. We love Raleigh so much because it is our home, but when we come back we hope to take things that we've learned back with us... like:

-Simplicity
-Spend more time with family and friends
-Spend more time outside
-Watch less TV
-Don't take everything in life so seriously
-Practice more faith in God
-Eat more ice cream (in moderation of course!)
-Exercise more (since we'll be eating more ice cream)
-Challenge ourselves more... learn new things, read more books
-Travel more in the States
-Take more trips to the beach and mountains (since they're so close!)
-Be more involved in church and outreach to the community

The list could go on, but these are just a few things that we have learned and I challenge you to do these things too!!

Sorry there are no pictures, but I promise to put up a post of pictures and stories from our time at home soon!

Home for the Holidays... Sneak Peek

We hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a Happy New Year... :)

The Basel Swiss Indoors Tennis Tournament!

Every year, Basel has a professional indoor tennis tournament and since Roger Federer is from Basel, people come from all over to see him play here. It is crazy to think that he was once a ball boy at this very tournament. I wonder if he ever thought to himself... I'm going to win this tournament one day... I'm sure he did.

Again, since Roger Federer is playing in his home town, it is very difficult to get seats and they are very expensive! So, I thought it was going to be impossible for me to go, but when the time of the tournament came, I decided to go to the arena and just see if I could still buy a ticket. Much to my surprise, there was a guy selling tickets right in front and I bought mine for cheaper than face value... I was ecstatic! I was going to be watching professional tennis ALL day!! The only unfortunate thing was that Nate could not join me because of work, but he was happy for me that I could go. He's so sweet. :)

You could watch from two different courts: The center court in the arena, or court 2, which was no bigger than a high school gym and you could sit wherever you wanted. I liked court 2 because I always meandered my way to the front row! Here, I'm watching Korolev. A Russian who's ranked top 50 in the world. And he's Ana Kornikova's cousin!

The guy you see in the picture is Korolev's coach and brother. I ended up talking to him and then he got Korolev to give me a signed tennis ball! He said I was good luck because he was losing and then I came in and he started to win, and ended up winning in a thrid-set tiebreak.

After Korolev's match, the Bryan Brothers (top American doubles team) came in to warm up. I was excited to see them, but I didn't watch their match because Federer's match was supposed to start any minute on the other court. Court 2 cleared out real fast when it was time for Federer's match... poor Bryan Brothers, but I'm sure they understood what was going on!

And there he is.... ROGER FEDERER. I was freaking out inside because he's been my favorite player for a long time and I never imagined being able to see him play!

In action...

More action... I loved seeing how effortless and eloquent he is... even more so in real life than on TV!

The Federer match seemed to go by way too fast, but once it was done, I quickly went to the other court to see Gonzales play.

Gonzales is a top ranked player and really entertaining to watch. Federer and Gonzales were also playing singles at this tournament. I only had the chance to see them play doubles, but I actually think it's more fun because they are less serious and their personality comes out a bit more. Gonzales and his partner were so nice. They came over and signed autographs after their match. :) And I got theirs right on their picture in the yearbook that you see at the top of the post. I was a little disappointed that Federer didn't come over and sign it when I tried to get his attention, but maybe next time. (haha)

DJOKOVIC! I also love to watch him play. His singles match was the last one of the night. He dominated in straight sets. He was on fire!

Look at that concentration...

The stadium is not very big, which was nice. I walked up to the top to take a picture of the whole court, and this is as high as I could go.

Then I went down close because a lot of seats opened up at the end of the match. Some girl asked me to take her picture, so she did the same for me! I was SO happy to have the privilege to see such amazing tennis... it is something I will NEVER forget!

Herbstmesse: Basel's Fall Fair

The Herbstmesse has been a Basel tradition for over 500 years! I'm not sure what it was like back then, but now, it is similar to the State Fair in NC... lots of rides, good food, and fun. It is spread out over the city in seven squares and it doesn't cost a dime to walk through. Nate and I took advantage of that and went several nights just to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. One of the squares is just a couple blocks from our apt. building, so it was very convenient. Here are some pictures of the different times we went:

The Ferris Wheel

The views of Basel from the Ferris Wheel (taken on two different nights)

Some of our friends who are living in Lausanne (the French part of Switzerland) came to visit one weekend to come to the Herbstmesse. Bottom left: Jonathan & Ashley... Ashley is scared of heights so she is closing her eyes. Next to them: Our friend, Adam. Jonathan and Adam are both from NC!

Adam and Jonathan rode some more rides while Nate and I stayed back with Ashley. I think she is still laughing at high how we just were!
I also went to the fair with some of the high school girls... that I've met from church. Noelle (pictured below) and I went on the Romania mission trip together... and I just love her to death now! We rode some rides and ate some good food, like chocolate covered strawberries.. yum!

I forgot that most high school kids have no fear when it comes to riding rides. Well, let's just say... I'm definitely not in high school anymore! I would not ride the following...

Noelle, Hannah, and Hannah's little brother Alex all tried to get me to go on this ride, but I refused.... waaay to scary for me! I know, I'm a wimp. :)

Fall is one of my favorite times of the year and having an amazing fall fair makes it even better. I took this shot on the last night. The reflection over the Rhine was so beautiful!