Today

In college a buddy of mine's parents told him as he dropped him off that the next four years would be the best years of his life.

And that made me feel so depressed. What about life after those four years? When I switched majors, I certainly didn't cram extra classes into the semesters in order to still make it under 4, because I saw it as an opportunity to make those "four best years of my life" into those "five best years of my life."

But

it

can't

be

so.

I cannot believe that life peaks when you go to college and after that it's like Crap, now it's just maintenance mode until I die b/c I had all the fun and excitement that I was going to have.

And I remember the first time I went back to visit campus. I stayed at my old apartment, and despair gripped me so tightly it took the breath out of me. Why am I not here anymore, I thought. Why am I not here with the close, deep community that I knew so well. Why am I now at a job that I loathe in a place that is not Blacksburg VA? It's been much better since that first visit whenever I go back, but it's still hard for some reason.

I just watched a NOOMA video where Rob Bell talks about this sort of thing, where if we're holding onto the way things were, then our arms aren't free to embrace today. He says that life is not static. Things change, friends come and go, people lose jobs, friends die, people get married, people don't get married, so on and so on. And that's the way it is.

He illustrated w/ the story of Jesus reappearing to Mary Magdalene after Jesus resurrects from the dead. This same Jesus drove out 7 demons from Mary's life, so you can imagine how excited Mary was to see him. She must have wanted for things to go back to the way they were.

But Jesus told her, "let go of me," and he tells her to tell everyone what happened. He gives her a role to play. He later gives his disciples the Holy Spirit and says Go, I will give you what you need in life with this Holy Spirit of mine, which is Myself.

So we are to receive this new Spirit, to receive whatever role Jesus is giving us, and we are to walk forward and embrace today.

Blackberries and Alligators

Sometimes I get annoyed when I'm talking to someone and they're playing with their iPhone or blackberry during the conversation. So instead of getting bummed out about it, I am going to start saying random things to see if they're paying attention.

"And then the alligator looked straight at me, and that is when I knew: today is the day I fight an alligator."

Love it when God interrupts me

God, what about A, B, C?!

"don't worry..."

OK OK thanks I won't.

...

But what about THIS?! Dahhhh!

"don't worry..."

But have you tho--"I said don't worry"

And that is my favorite part. When I keep asking/worrying and God finally starts interrupting me in my thoughts with a gentle, "do not worry, I told you, do not worry."

I'm glad he does that.

Switzerland Visit Day 7: Lucerne, Lion + Mirrors + Final Day

Last day in Lucerne. Woke up and had another good Swiss breakfast. Had 2 nutella-filled donuts this time. In heaven they will serve those.

Just up the road from our hotel there was this lion statue that is like the logo for Lucerne. Some war happened and this lion sketched in this wall of rock symbolized it in some way that I now forget. The lion was gigantic and had a spear in the side, and tears flowing from his eyes. It was majestic because I think both lions and horses are majestic.

Next to the lion there was a glacier museum which was pretty sweet. Back in the day Lucerne was covered by glaciers, so the museum contained remnants of these glaciers. Pretty amazing. They had these glacier potholes which were gigantic. There were also these super ancient artifacts. The common tool known as the "knife" has been around for a long, long time.

Towards the end of the museum, there was this room of mirrors. It was a maze that you had to go through. You have to walk 1 mph with your arms stretched out and if you're lucky you don't walk into 10 mirrors, and then get nauseous. They should have called it a "slice of hell."

After the museum we took the train that goes a million mph back to Gland. Trip to Lucerne = Success.

Switzerland Visit Day 6: Lucerne, Mt Pilatus - God Likes to Dazzle Us

Woke up and had some breakfast in the hotel which was amazing. Bread + nutella yes please. Donut w/ some nutella inside said donut, yes please. Also had some super tart grapefruit juice which was a good kick in the face. Loved it.

We took another excursion to Mt Pilatus, and the round trip involved 5 different modes of transportation: (1) boat to base of mountain, (2) super steep death train type thing to get to the top, (3) big container that goes on a line like that one episode of MacGyver, (4) mini version of #3, and (5) bus. (2) was my favorite b/c it was at a 48% angle and you look ahead of you at this track going straight up and you think this is my last day on this earth and you look to the right and see a drop-off and you again think, today I will see heaven because I am going to DIE. We did not die though. 48% angle by the way was the steepest in the entire universe said my Dad who did research.

So we made it to the top of Mt Pilatus and it was breath-taking. I think God makes these beautiful parts of the earth just to dazzle us (I think this idea is from To Own a Dragon by Don Miller, you should read it if you haven't). Mountains all around and there were these guys chillin' in little chairs with wings on them that were flying thru the air. I want to do that one day, maybe next week I don't know. But there they were flying around us, livin' the dream. Maybe the first time I go I'll go tandem with a professional, because I'm not sure if that's something you can just "feel out" when you get up in the air. Maybe you can.

At night we walked around the city, and I started to notice the swans. They are these huge gigantic birds and you can get real close to them but be careful b/c they're a little irritable. This made me want to mess with them some, to push their limits. I went pretty close to them but they did not attack my face thankfully.

At one point we heard some Ricola instruments playing and flocked immediately to the source of this beautiful sound. This group of Ricola players, Ricolists if you will, just gathered and started playing for passer-byers. I thought, yes I am officially for sure in Switzerland because this is what you do in Switzerland: start learning how to play Ricola at a very young age (3) and then become awesome at it and get together with other Ricolists and play for people in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Excellent day in Lucerne.

Switzerland Visit Days 5: Lucerne, Tower + Brewery + Starbucks + Long Pants

Lucerne! - the sunshine state, gorgeous! (10 pts if you can guess what movie that is from)

Days 5-7 we took an excursion to Lucerne, 2 nights at a hotel in the city. It was fun to get away for kicks and pretend like we're world travelers. We took the train which went a million miles per hour, and whenever the train staff wasn't walking by, I would put my feet up. They don't like that, but I'm not always one to follow the rules.

There is a wall bordering part of the city, with lots of towers. We went up 5,000,000 stairs to get to the top of one, and the billion stairs was so worth it. The view was amazing. There was this llama hanging out in a field, with a light panel getting energy from the sun to power the surrounding electric fence. That is how wireless energy is going to work I have decided.

One interesting super-not-substantial thing the four of us noticed is that no one ever wears shorts. Long pants 24/7. I wore shorts and I definitely stood out. I wonder if that's just not their style, which is totally fine. I did see runners wearing shorts tho, so I gave them a high five when they passed by as a "way to go against the grain!" (I didn't, but wanted to).

On night 1 we went to a brewery, and Lucerne is in a German-speaking part of Switzerland, ipso facto the beer was really good. I had 1 light beer and 1 dark beer, thank you very much. Not at the same time b/c that would be just crazy. It was good beer and it complimented the mac & cheese that I had as an entree. Win-win.

There is this absolutely beautiful river that runs through the city, and a part of it was under construction with a make-shift dam (dam!). So this water was getting backed up, then it just released in the corner at the end of said dam. It was just beautiful and I took lots of pictures. I'm not sure why I was taken aback by the dam so much, but just the water gushing thru was really cool, and you can go right up to it. I wanted to jump in and have an adventure but then I thought if I drowned then I couldn't enjoy more of Lucerne, b/c there were more things to see than just the towers + brewery + people wearing long pants + dam.

There were a couple of bridges that crossed the river, and one of them was super historic and wooden, and a good chunk of it caught fire in '93. A boat went underneath and got caught and there was fire. Sucks to be that guy. Lots of original paintings in the bridge were wiped out.

That night we walked around some and I hit up Starbucks. There was an upper level which overlooked the river, with Iron & Wine playing in the background and it was ah so nice.

Switzerland Visit Day 4: Nyon + France

A-ma-zing day. We went to Nyon, the town right next to Gland where my parents live, and took a boat across Lake Geneva to see France for a couple hours. That is the day summed up. The end.

Just kidding I'll talk about Nyon first. I talked about the city some in my last post. On day 4 we walked around a good bit, and it's very hilly but has fun houses that are high and right next to each other. Semi-related note: people in Switzerland are not afraid to eat right next to strangers. Por ejemplo: in Lucerne I saw a couple of friends sitting at the same medium-sized table as a group of four friends. It's fun because they don't know each other, but whatever why not sit next to each other. I want to sit next to someone in a coffee shop when the rest of the place is empty. Just a heads up if you find yourself in an empty coffee shop.

Back to Nyon. We walked around some then got on the boat across Lake Geneva to see France. I re-enacted the scene from Titanic where Leonardo stands in front of the ship and Celine Dion is singing her song. See above. The boat ride was fun.

France was similar to Switzerland, but had a slightly different feel to it that I can't really explain. We stopped at a restaurant that had CREPES (ya know, the little pancakes). I had an egg + ham + cheese crepe, then shared a Nutella crepe with my Mom. I could eat one Nutella crepe a day they're so good.

We got back on the boat back to Nyon, and then hopped on the mini-train tour. I felt like I was on those trains you see in amusement parks that kids are on (where you secretly want to be on them too, or at least I did). It was awesome. Trying to think of interesting tidbits I learned from the tour... zero, I don't remember any sorry. I should have just typed "it was cool" :-P Wait we did pass a school that had been there forever. Yep.

I think we played Euchre that night. My Mom and I teamed up against Tamara and Shelly. Love that game.

And........... that sums it up. Next up: visit to Lucerne, days 5-7.

Switzerland Visit Day 3: Hike + Cows, Church

Day 3: slept in and eased into the day. We went to some mountain (forgot the name) and hiked on it. On the way we saw some cows that had cow bells on them. As we were hiking, we could hear the bells off in the distance. Then we came across some a few feet from the path, and I could have watched them all day. Love cows. Perhaps I was meant to grow up on a farm! Picture above is one that I took.

We booked it towards the end of the hike so that my Mom and I could check out West Lake Church in Nyon, Switzerland. It's an English-speaking church, so all the sudden I feel like I'm back in the US. It was nice, comfortable. The guest pastor spoke about his mission work in India, where he has been for 30 some years. Incredible - he set up businesses to employee girls otherwise selling themselves in the sex trade. He would enter an Indian village, live there, and create businesses there where these women would work. He spoke with so much passion it was convicting. Here this guy is talking about his gritty, in-the-trenches work in India. So cool.

After the service ended we walked to the train in Nyon. It's a cool city. And the trains are ALWAYS on time. You can bet your life on it (I wouldn't tho because it's not worth betting your life on a train. doesn't make sense). I appreciate that about Switzerland: their public transportation system rocks and they're super on top of it.

We capped off the evening watching Boston Redsox vs. Yankees. Brother lives in Boston which makes us all insta-Redsox fans.

Day 3: success.