I'm Back!

I am back in the United States, but I wanted to tell you a bit more about my trip to Switzerland.

On the final Friday I was there it was Swiss National Day. We had fondue for dinner.Then we headed up the mountain to a huge bonfire in celebration of the holiday. This was the view as we walked up to the bonfire. A bit of rain was falling and a beautiful rainbow draped the sky.

When we got to the town hall we followed a brass band to the bonfire.There were two boys that were carrying a huge cake. It is a town tradition.


This is the bonfire. It was about 8 feet tall.
Every so often a cloud would drift by the mountain and we would be surrounded by the cloud. It looked like smoke, but it was really cool and moist. It was very cool!This was a wonderful experience of the holidays in another country. Later than night we went back to the town hall and hung out with the very drunk villagers. They were dancing and singing and eating. Just having a great time!

More Pictures

I was finally able to take some pictures outside. We had been working so hard that it had been days since I had left the house.

This is a picture of Christie and I in the tipi the GID folks set up.
This pictures was taken right outside my room actually, and it is Christie, Rashad and myself.
This picture was taken yesterday when we went down to Vevey and took the boat back to Montreaux. The guys with me in the picture from left to right are Ian, Muaz and Rashad.

I am meeting people from all over the world. Even in our team of coordinators we have people from 12 different countries. I will post more information on that later...

Thunder Storm

Last night we had a thunder storm of epic proportions. Apparently most times there is a thunder storm lightning hits the building. If you notice a rather large house at the top of that second mountain, that is where I am staying. I took this picture from lake Geneva yesterday and it was a bit overcast. Also we were miles and miles away, so the building looks rather small, but you can clearly see how high we are.

I hope that at some point this week I will be able to go all the way to the top of the mountain you see in the very back of the picture. That should be a fantastic view.

Hello Europa!

Hello Friends,

I am in Switzerland for two weeks with my job. Initiatives of Change owns this fantastic palace from which they run a series of conferences every summer. I am here to help out with the coordination on one of those conferences.

It was an adventure just getting here. The building is half-way up a mountain. The view is fantastic. Check out my view at lunch time today.
That's Lake Geneva in the distance. My lunch was also quite great!

I will keep you posted on the stuff I do while here.