Kapellbrücke And Ferrys

On Thursday we went to Luzern to walk around the city and see the famous chapel bridge called the Kapellbrücke.

Apparently it is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe. In an effort to sound well cultured I shall pretend like I knew about it and was very interested in seeing it. Regardless of my previous knowledge of said bridge, it was actually quite impressive.

Part of the bridge had burnt down one fateful summer evening in the year 1993 (one of the most momentous events that occurred that August second only to my birth) and was subsequently restored. It is now one of Switzerland's main tourists attractions, a fact which was made evident by the vast quantities of tourists that we encountered as we attempted to cross the bridge.

The famous Kapellbrücke

 After visiting Europe's oldest wooden covered bridge we got back in the car and made our way to the ferry which took us and our car across the lake.

And herein ends another exciting Swiss-Cheese-Land adventure.

Stay tuned for more, maybe.

Hikes And Toboggans In Sattel-Hochstuckli

On Wednesday we ventured out to a mountain in Sattel-Hochstuckli for a fun filled day of adventures. 

We took a cable up to the mountainside and picked a path to hike on. Things started off well, the sun was shining and there was a crisp breeze. Everyone was full of energy and ready to go.

Posing for a picture after being bribed with treats

Hiking up a mountain with two little kids proved to be more difficult than imagined. Especially when one of the children seems to be afraid of nature while the other is a nature enthusiast that wants to run around and touch everything.

Her royal highness being pushed up the mountain in a stroller because she is afraid of rocks, amongst other things. 

Fake.

Seriously, how is this view real?

After the hike we wandered around and found some more fun activities like bouncy castles and mountainside tobogganing.

If you look really close you can see me on the toboggan.

My favorite part of the day was going on the toboggans. It was so much fun that I went on  three times. 

One day I shall buy a plot of land on a mountainside somewhere and build a toboggan track around my house.

It's important to have dreams and aspirations.

Puppies!

Today we went to the zoo and saw lots of puppies, according to Lavi. 

Happy family

Making friends

Flamingo King

Kuzco

Boating

Egg hugger

Swiss-Cheese-Land

Last week The Mad Man and many other family members helped me move out of my apartment in Ariel. There was a lot of schlepping and driving involved but we did it. The sun house now looks like it could be the set of a post-apocalyptic movie in which hundreds of families are displaced from their homes and forced to leave behind belongings as they hastily pack what little they can carry.

There were some halfhearted attempts to try and reign in the chaos but the task proved to be overwhelming and not much progress was made. In an effort to avoid having to deal with the madness, I fled the country.

The Freddie's graciously invited me to join them on their vacation in Switzerland and now seemed like a good time to take them up on their offer. I packed up a little suitcase and The Crazy Lady drove me to the airport so that I could catch my afternoon flight to Zurich.

I found my gate and sat with the others waiting to board the flight. Boarding time passed and we were still sitting and waiting at the gate. Forty minutes later they announced that we would start boarding and began to send us out the door and onto a little shuttle bus. We drove over ten minutes to the other side of the airport, it was the longest shuttle ride I've ever taken. There was speculation of a kidnapping but we pulled up to a lonely looking little plane and disembarked the bus.

It was windy as we began to board the plane. The woman in front of me looked fabulous as her silky hair streamed out behind her looking like she was in a scene from some romantic comedy. My hair didn't get the same memo and flew in front of my face, effectively covering my eyes. I struggled up the stairs looking like a relative of cousin it.

Once we were seated of the plane things went pretty smoothly. I watched some TV and had a chat with the couple sitting next to me. Before we knew it, the plane began to land. We got off the plane and followed the signs to the airport train that took us to passport control and baggage claim. I found my suitcase and went to meet Mr. Freddie who was picking me up from the airport.

After a quick stop at Mami's house we drove to the Freddie's adorable little cabin in Immensee. It was pretty dark out by the time I landed so I didn't see much scenery on the drive but this morning I woke up to this...

I've certainly had worse views.

Violent Music

Yesterday I walked up the mountain to the university for the last time this school-year to hand in the final paper for my second year of nursing school. Mid-august, my summer vacation is finally starting.

My lease ends at the end of the month so in between working on my project I've been trying to pack up my apartment. Yesterday The Crazy Lady drove out to Ariel yesterday to pick up the boxes that I had already packed. Z is taking some classes during the summer semester so he came after class to help with the schlepping.

I'm storing most of my stuff in L&Z's basement so after we loaded up the car we drove to the sun house to pick up The Mad Man and Avi and then headed to L&Z's house for dinner (and to put my stuff in the basement).

I like to think that I have a pretty solid relationship with most of my siblings but admittedly, I don't spend a ton of time with my youngest brother. A point that was made evident yesterday afternoon as I carried some of my belongings into the sun house to store in my room.

Avi and some friends were sitting on the couch playing Xbox. One of his friends looked up from the screen and asked "Oh, where are you coming from with all of that stuff?" to which Avi replied "Uh, she has a job in Ariel, I think. She goes there a lot..." satisfied with the answer his friend shrugged and went back to playing Xbox.

I'm glad he knows that I'm in university and that I haven't lived at home for two years.

Car partially unpacked, we piled back in and headed down to L&Z's for dinner. Following the earlier conversation between Avi and his friend, I thought we could use the time to bond a little. I asked Avi what was new in his life and we spent most of the ride conversing about video games and such.

We arrived at our destination and parked the car. As Avi was reaching for his seat belt he turned to me with a serious look on his face and the following conversation took place:
Avi: I've been listening to violent music lately.
Me: Oh... Uhhhh, what exactly does that mean?
Avi: You know, it's just a genre of music...
Me: What does it sound like? Could you maybe sing a little for me?
Avi: Um, Ok. It mostly sounds like violins...
*Hums some pleasant violin music*
Me: Oh, Violin! That's nice!
*Avi gives me a weird look and gets out of the car*

I'm glad we had that bonding time. I feel like now we're closer than ever!

The Poop And Scoot

This morning I woke up in my lovely little apartment in Ariel with the urgent need to pee. I walked into the bathroom and noticed that I seemed to be standing in a small puddle. First I checked  the shower to make sure I had completely shut off the water after my shower last night. The shower head was dry and nothing there seemed to be dripping.

Next I moved on to the sink where a considerable amount of water seemed to be collecting. I wiped up the water and waited to see what would happen, nothing did. Running out of options I moved on to the toilet. There was a steady trickle of water was dripping from the pipe that connects the toilet to the wall and drains the waste water. I found a container that I deemed worthy enough to sacrifice to the cause and stuck it under the pipe.

I watched the steady drip for a while before realizing that the container was starting to fill up. We needed a more effective solution, perhaps a way to stop the water from dripping out of the pipe. I debated trying to find some tape to cover the cracks but then realized that shutting off the water would probably be more helpful.

Sure enough, the trickling began to slow down. With nothing better to do I took advantage of the still full tank and emptied my very full bladder. I was feeling pretty proud of myself for my quick thinking and superb problem solving skills until it dawned on me that I would probably have to use the toilet again at some point and now the tank was empty. Emptying the tank had taken a while and quite a bit of water had come out during the process and the pipe was now dripping from two places.

I needed help from a professional, so I texted my dad. He told me to send a picture of the leaky pipe to my landlord and see if he could help. Following my fathers sage advice, I sent a picture of my toilet to the landlord and waited to see what would happen. After a couple of hours of waiting I looked at the clock and began to panic. I had a driving lesson in 40 minutes and I really needed to use a toilet, preferably one that wouldn't leak waste water all over my floor.

With no time to lose I grabbed my keys and half ran to the gym that's about a ten minute walk from my apartment. Pretending that it was completely normal to walk into the gym without work-out clothes or a gym bag, I waved my membership chip near the machine and hurried to the bathroom. Luck was on my side for the first time all morning, the bathroom was almost completely empty. I did my business and then hurried back out of the gym attempting to avoid making eye contact with the guard.

I made it back to my apartment just in time for my driving which went surprisingly well considering my eventful and stressful morning. After the lesson I went back to the apartment to stare at the toilet again. My bladder started hinting that it might be time to visit the gym again so after talking to my landlord and confirming that a repair man was on the way, I got suited up for the gym and headed out in search of a toilet.

The security guard nodded at my proper gym attire as I waved my chip by the machine and entered the gym for the second time today. This time, with the intention of actually working out. But since they conveniently had working toilets, I also used the bathroom before and after my workout.

I got back to my apartment just as the repairman was leaving. He informed me that the problem was solved and I was free to once again pee in the privacy of my own home. I cheered. He nodded briefly and got into his car. True to his word, the toilet did not drip when I flushed it.

A pretty exciting experience all around.

A Lesson In Persistence

Five intensive and exhausting but awesome weeks have come to an end. I was pretty nervous about starting my rotation in internal medicine, mainly because my default reaction to any new situation seems to be perpetually stuck PANIC mode. But also because I had heard a lot about the clinical nurse and I wasn't sure that I would live up to her expectations.

The first couple of days were a bit of an uphill battle, I was still getting my bearings in the ward and I wasn't entirely sure how to approach or deal with my patients. I'm the kind of person that likes to rehearse uncomfortable situations in their head. Unfortunately, the person on the other side of the conversation doesn't always get my memos and the conversations never go quite the way I had planned.

On my third day in the ward I went into the room that I was assigned to and introduced myself to the patient in the first bed. Armed with two days of experience, I had things down to some semblance of a science and was feeling pretty confident. The patient glanced up for his phone for a minute and then noticing the blood pressure machine that I had with me, held out his arm.

As I wrapped the cuff around his arm I tried to introduce myself again. The patient gave a pitiful half-smile in return, I chose to take it as a good sign. When we were done with the blood pressure the patient thanked me and got up. I still had to take his temperature and ask him a few questions so I asked him to sit back down.

He looked at me quizzically and said "But you already took my blood pressure." . I smiled and said that I had just a few more questions and it wouldn't take long if he would be kind enough to sit back down and cooperate. Deciding that he had had enough pestering for one day he kindly informed that he was going to change his clothes now so I should probably leave.

I waited a few more moments trying to figure out what I was supposed to do. None of my rehearsed conversations or previous patient encounters had gone on this particular direction...

And that's the story of how I watched a 70 year old patient strip in an effort to avoid talking to me.

I was pretty determined not to let my clinical nurse down so I asked the semi undressed man the rest of my questions and realizing that I wasn't leaving without answers, he reluctantly gave them to me.

Things got easier as the days flew by. I learned more efficient and effective ways to gather the relevant information from my patients and by the end of the second week the clinical nurse trusted me to take care of a full room of patients (between 8-9 patients depending on the day).

During the first couple of week my clinical nurse stayed in the room with me while the doctors were doing their rounds. Deciding that she trusted me enough with the patients, the nurse left me alone with the doctors on days that we were understaffed. Seeing that my clinical nurse trusted me, the doctors relied on my information about the patients to help make decisions about the course of the treatments.

It felt great to be a part of the team and to feel like I was actually contributing rather than just standing on the side and watching other people work. The staff in the ward were warm and welcoming. They always made time to answer any questions that I had and help me when they could, and I tried my best to help them in return.

Overall it was a great experience and I can't believe that it's already over. I have lots more to learn but I think I'm off to a great start.