Knights in Switz!

We both know that if I were to give a day-by-day recap of the past 2 weeks, we would both find ourselves sitting here for an absurd amount of time.  So, in attempt to shorten this update I am going to make a list of memories that were blissfully and innocently made during the past 14 days or so.  

First off, however, I’ll give you a little time table of my family’s Suisse Adventures.

March 6th, they were supposed to arrive in Italy at 8:50am but due to many unfortunate events they ended up flying in 10 hours later, without their luggage.  

March 7th, they took the train to Neuchatel to watch me play

March 8th, they took the train to Lausanne and saw the Olympic Museum, vast vineyards and  large Cathedral.  Then they took the train to Montreaux where they explored the massive castle de Chillon.  I met them in Montreaux after my game on Sunday in Troistorrent.

March 9th, We took the train to Zermat and went hiking, and then trained it to Brig for the Night

March 10th, took the train back home to Chiasso

March 11th, went to Como, Italy and took a boat tour of the lake

March 12th, Trevor and Sarah went to Milan while Cory, my parents and I went for a nice walk, went to my Presidents Vineyard and looked around the town of Riva San Vitale.  That night I took everyone to Cinthia’s house where my family met Cinthia’s grandmother and her aunt, Onorina.  For dinner, Cinthia, Sarah and I made gnocchi for everyone!

March 13th, went shopping and site-seeing in Lugano 

March 14th, toured a vineyard owned by one of Cinthia’s friends, taste tested wine, and then went to the castles in Bellinzona.  That night we ate authentic Ticinese food, polenta!

March 15th, drove Trevor, Sarah and Cory to the bus station:( My parents stayed until the 17th so they came with the team as we went to Syon for an away game.

March 16th, went to Lugano and rode the cable car ride at San Salvatore

March 17th, dropped my parents off at the bus station!

So, there you have the outline of what their/our trip looked like, but now onto a few of the more intimate details of our experience.

Lists are the theme for this week, definitely not going to be in order since I am just writing them all down as they come to me, so here we go again;)

Walking around aimlessly at night in Neuchatel looking for the bus that was supposed to take us to our hotel and having absolutely no idea where to find it!

Finally on the bus and heading to our hotel, when a crazy woman gets on and starts yelling at my dad in French.  I don’t know if she was preaching the gospel or calling my dad every word in the book, but for some reason she didn’t take her glaring eyes off of him for a solid 5 minutes while she continued to rant and rave in a language that none of us could understand.

We won our game against Neuchatel!  My family must be the good luck charm because Neuchatel is the best team in our conference and in the past we have usually lost by 50pts or so...crazy.

First dinner in Neuchatel eating cheese fondue.  We had the pleasure of being served by a cheerful, robust man, who had a thick white mustache that curled up into little swirls at both ends and who spoke only French.  Watching him speak French to my family while they all stared blankly back at him was pretty entertaining, he didn’t seem to realize that we had no clue as to what he was saying.

Fondue in Neuchatel

Cory getting yelled at by the Swiss/Italian police as he unknowingly crossed the Swiss/Italian border on the wrong side of the street.

Boarding the wrong train, luckily it only went for 5 minutes in one direction and then headed back to where it came from.

Mom hiking up the snowy slopes in Zermat with the type of black, leather boots that she would wear to work...but you do what you gotta do when your hiking boots along with the rest of your luggage doesn’t make it to the airport, right?!

Zermat:)

Going for a morning walk in Neuchatel and having everyone smile at me and say “Bonjour!” I felt like I was in the movie Beauty and the Beast, “Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour! There goes the baker with his trey like always...!”

My family’s attempts at trying to learn Italian, ha all in good fun, Trevor and Mom;)

Driving up a mountain on our way to a vineyard, my mom was so scared she almost got out and walked.  The roads over here are quite narrow.

Loredana talking about her vineyard with Dad, Cory and Cinthia. 

I acted as the translator when we were at Cinthia’s friends vineyard.  For the most part I was able to close the gap between my family and Loredana as she talked about the history and process of her families vineyard.

Mom and I at the Castles in Bellinzona

Going over to Cinthia’s mom’s house for a merenda (snack) and then leaving to go get ready for my game.  I left my family there with Cinthia’s family...they don’t speak English and my family does not speak Italian, but they were able to communicate! Ha, I was told later that a lot of hand gestures were used;)

  

Hearing Cory yell at me in English during my home game, oh how I miss that;)  Hearing him made me laugh though because I doubted that anybody in the gym could understand him.

  

My family and part of my Swiss family after a home game.

Laughing while listening to my brothers refer to european cars as “golf carts.”  American SUVs are nowhere to be found in Switzerland.  My teammate actually just told me that in Switzerland they are trying to ban SUVs since they are so dangerous when colliding with a smaller car.

  

 My brother Cory and one of the golf carts.

My family in Lugano!

Listening to Cory talk with Lucas (Cinthia’s boyfriend) about the T.V show, Seinfeld.  I am still having a hard time picturing Kramer, George and Jerry speaking Italian;)                            

Dad and I at the top of Mt. San Salvatore.

All in all it was a very memorable 10 days.  I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to travel through Switzerland with my family.

Since my 6 roommates have vacated from my apartment, I have spent my time practicing and getting ready for the playoffs!  We have our first playoff game tomorrow against Troistorrent.  The first round is best of 3 games, so we play away tomorrow and then home on Thursday and if need be, again at their place.  I am planning on winning in two games and moving onto the 2nd round, but they are a very good team and it will not be easy.  

Besides attending practices and workouts, this past week I had the chance to make a dessert called, Totelli.  Tortelli is a traditional dessert that is eaten on Father’s day, which occurred this past Thursday in Switz.  Cinthia’s grandma had made a large amount of batter, which she spooned into little balls and then dropped into a vat of boiling oil.  Once the balls of dough had risen to the top and turned a golden brown we would place them into a bowl, and then it was my job to sprinkle them with sugar.  They were basically like homemade doughnuts, YUM!

Well, I hope that all of you had a refreshing spring break and are enjoying some good NCAA college basketball!  Good luck (Auguri) to the women’s team tomorrow in Notre Dame!

Love, 

Leslie