Switzerland Visit Day 2: Champery, Chillon Castle

I kicked off Day 2 going for a run (in Switzerland no big deal) in Gland where my parents live. I ran on some of the roads and through the shops and apartments. It's awesome to see mixed residential areas. Lots of buildings have shops on the 0th floor and have apartments on top of them. Switzerland has 0-based floors by the way.

All around Switzerland there are water fountains, which I imagine provide 100% pure water from the top of a mountain. But seriously it's cool because you can fill up your water bottle and it tastes good and it's nice and cold.

I then hit up a cafe and had a hot chocolate, and read some. I learned how to say "hot chocolate please" in French and then she spoke some more French and I was like crap I don't know what you're saying. And she switched to English and said that I can sit and she'll bring it out to me. My French is a bit rusty (I don't know any).

My family later went to visit Champery, a town that exists on a hill in the mountains. I went there several years ago on a band trip and loved it. You enter the start of the hill and there's a playground on your left, and you look up the hill and it's a beautiful little town. There's a clock on the left as you go up less than a mile, and off in the distance during the night time you can see a lit-up cross. It's breath-taking. It's easy to take good pictures there because the town is very picturesque. I bought a miniature cowbell there. Awesome.

We also ran into some other Americans there in Champery. It was nice to see some people who spoke English. We had an instant bond both being from the US. They were super nice and had fancy cameras and have websites where they put their photos online. I'll maybe comment on this post later w/ the website urls.

After Champery we hit up the Chillon Castle right on Lake Geneva. Pretty awesome. A part of me wanted someone to attack the castle while we were touring inside of it, just to make it the full experience. It did not happen. I did learn that the color blue was considered super rare back in the 14th century because you got blue powder from rubbing a rare stone together. As a result, only royalty had blue. So if you had blue back in the 14th century you were kind of a big deal. I would have probably tried to get some on eBay.

On our walk to the car after the castle visit, we walked along Lake Geneva. The lake is super clear, and when it's warm enough you can swim in the lake and look at the mountains and watch the sailboats. Win-win-win.

Later that evening we got back in time to watch VT beat Miami on espn360.com. It was funny watching Virginia Tech play football from Switzerland. Technology is connecting the WORLD together in a beautiful harmony, I think. It's deep I know :)

We also Skyped with my brother which was fun. He lives in Boston.

Switzerland Visit Day 1

Day 1 of visit to Switzerland. First a quick background. My parents moved there circa 9 months ago, with my Dad getting a new job for World Wildlife Fund. Not sure how long they'll be there. 3 to 5 years, maybe less than 3.

This is my first visit to see them. The traveling was just fine. Flew from Richmond to DC, then DC direct to Geneva. I met my sister in DC and we caught the same flight over, which was nice. She gave me a Tylenol PM on the flight and that knocked me out. A good note to self.

We mostly took it easy on day 1, since we arrived at 8am in the morning, which was weird. It felt like the longest day of my life. I took a nice nap which was oh-so needed. We also walked around Gland some, where my parents live. It's next to Nyon, which is next to Geneva. ish. I convinced them to visit my Dad at work, which rocked. Met his boss who is super cool, and his work place is a 3 minute walk to where they live. Win-win. We also walked to Lake Geneva. Really nice lake, and HUGE!

Part of the chillin' back at the homefront involved playing some Nerts. Love that game.

We had some home-cooked dinner and it was amazing. My Mom doesn't mess around when she cooks. That was nice. I mean pasta or eggs over easy for dinner is good too back when I cook for myself, but, I prefer my Mom's cooking. :)

They have a fun place. They're renting an apartment, and it's right atop of some shops. They walk to the grocery store. They're also just across a lawn from an elementary school. You can hear the kids laugh and play during recess throughout the day, and if Joy had a sound it would be that.

Those are the big things for day 1. Pictures to come. So far it's been a blast. :)

The code for http://urlme.cc is now hosted on Google Code.  What this means: you can go to http://code.google.com/p/urlme-cc and submit requests for new features, bugs, etc. on the Issue tab, and, grab the source code if you want from the Source tab.  Go Google.

Alien talking with humans

Don Miller is one of my favorite authors.  Lately I've been re-reading Searching for God Knows What because it's a good book.  There is a part where Don imagines what a conversation would look like between an alien and humans, if an alien were to land on earth, having a completely different way of life back in its own alien world.

I'm going to paste a screenshot from Google Books.

Ready?

Ok here it is.

Dramatic Cupcake Dog - Revelation

Initiative Against Depression, Oswald Chambers

Initiative Against Depression, Oswald Chambers article rocked my world.

“Arise and eat.” —1 Kings 19:5

Marathon

On Saturday I ran the Suntrust Richmond Marathon. 26.2 miles. 2:23:58. The guy you see in the picture to the left isn't me. It's another guy.

Thoughts and memories (in no particular order):

• At about mile 24.5, after I turned onto Grace street, I heard some bagpipes playing. It took me back to Virginia Tech, when some guy would occasionally walk around campus playing the bagpipes. I think I could listen to bagpipes all day. I love 'em. That got me fired up.
• I beat my previous half-marathon time!
• Around mile 7 ish, Brian Beasley came up beside me and ran with me for a little bit. That was awesome. Much needed!
  
• Towards the end, circa mile 24, I started to walk for a sec, and some guy behind me said "hey, keep running. I'm following you." That was really encouraging. So we ran together for a little while, talked about life.
  
• I saw a friend from Virginia Tech on the sideline cheering her sister on. Towards the very end of the run, but before the finish line was in site, she jumped on the course and ran with her sister. She encouraged her to keep running. That was so cool to see. I started to tear up a little.
• After turning off of Boulevard/Hermitage, after Boulevard mountain (a little hill that felt like K2), my mind shifted to "I'm gonna finish this thing." I hit a few cramps after that, but it didn't really matter because I was gonna finish. Coach Chelle ran alongside for a little bit and said "drink poweraid!" and I said "ok."
• After mile 18, a group of friends and my parents cheered me on towards the beginning of the Boulevard leg of the race. I got flashed by Jason and Brian, high-fived by a few, cheered on by all. It was awesome.
• Some made it to the finish line and yelled out my name as I was making the last few strides. Oh so encouraging!
• The last couple steps across the line. I can't even describe the feeling. All the training, all the support from friends and family, the people I've met along the way. It's like it all culminated into those last couple steps.
• I had a slice of pizza afterward. Who would have thought? Pizza at the end of a race. Yes please.