Thursday's crafts

This morning I made a Santa and an Elf. I made the brown and skin tone colors on the elf. I'm rather proud of that. ;-)

We will be doing these projects in class next week since St. Nick visits Hungarian children on December 6th.

T'is the Season

As part of teaching kindergartners, I get to indulge my creative side. Here are a few of my creations. :-)

The roses are my favorite. They're made out of folded leaves.

This one I made while still at school, so I had access to some of the raffia there. Eszter (one of the girls I occasionally work with) and I made them with the students.

I made this one while waiting to meet up with Keith and Eszti for coffee. I had some extra green yarn in my bag, so I wrapped the stems of the together to create a rose stem.

This week (and part of last week), I've been sick. The tough part is...at the moment, I'm feeling a bit better...but about two hours after taking my antibiotics, I regurgitate them (vomacillin). So, I decided today was a good day to start decorating the flat for Christmas.

Living room light fixture

This is the window to our porch...if I took a head on photo, you would #1. see the reflection of the flash, #2. see me in my pjs and #3. see our laundry drying on the porch.


Family Fun magazine/website has some great homemade ideas too. In between naps, I was brainstorming crafts to do with my students. I think they could handle this one.
We made one of those "helping hands" wreaths when I was there for .5 seconds (aka a full day yesterday)

We will NOT be making this star. It wasn't easy...or fun...or family friendly

I'm also trying to figure out what to give my students for Christmas. I'm thinking an ornament like this would be good...but I think I need a bigger ornament. Since the school is called, Ladybird, I thought it would be cute to draw a ladybird (aka ladybug for American-English speakers--people speak British-English here) and write the year or something.

Any craft suggestions??

More Photos of Mount Pilatus

So my students ever-so-kindly gave me their germs, and I haven't left the flat since Thursday due to this gross stomach bug and a sinus infection and a lymph node so swollen, I thought it was the world's largest zit (gross, I know). Anyways, my options at the moment include: A. working on my thesis, B. updating my blog, or C. going back to sleep.

I choose option B:

Mount Pilatus is one of the northern most mountains of the Alps. The view was breathtaking--this picture does not do it any justice.



When we returned to the bottom of the mountain, we poked about the town while we awaited our train to return to Luzern.

There was nothing in the town, except a cyclist,
some granny-panties blowing in the wind

and beautiful fall foliage
Really, the fall foliage was as beautiful as the snowy mountains. Everywhere I looked in Switzerland was ridiculously beautiful. Again--I was kind of expecting random animals to come up to us and sit on our shoulders while we sang. Switzerland is a fairy tale setting.


Keith waiting for the train to return to Luzern

Mount Pilatus

The highlight of the Swiss trip (aside from feeling like a Disney princess and not helping small children blow their noses...) was the excursion atop Mount Pilatus.

Mount Pilatus from the train

Legends & Myths

The rugged cliffs above Luzern have been enveloped in mysterious myths and legends for eternity. In the Middle Ages, people believed that dragons with healing powers and spirits inhabited the rocky crevices. It was also believed that the restless ghost the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, found his lasting peace in Lake Pilatus. And so for a long time it was forbidden to climb the mountain - for woe betide any one who disturbed Pontius Pilate!

So basically, a flying dragon with healing powers and the ghost of Pontius Pilate live atop the mountain. Unfortunately, Keith and I didn't see either of these creatures, but we did get to ride on the world's steepest cog wheel train and see some pretty fabulous views of the Alps.

Keith's blog will probably talk about the dragons and other legends...so you can read about it there...

The cogwheel train that carries passengers up and down the mountain first opened on June 4th, 1889 as a steam operation, and became an electric operation on May 15th, 1937. The max gradient is 48% and the average is 38%, making it the world's steepest cogwheel train.
View from the train

I didn't take any video of the ride up because I was too busy trying to pop my ears so I could hear Keith's commentary.


Also, perhaps because I was a bit scared.

On the way down, I stopped caring. The view was incredible. Because of the grade of the decent, it seems like we're going much faster than the 9km/hour the train travels

Once we got the to top, the view was breathtaking. And obviously, one of the first things Keith did atop the mountain was throw a snowball...(please forgive me, I still don't know how to rotate video clips)

Other ways Keith enjoyed the snow--ensuring he gets hypothermia.

On a clear day, supposedly you can see Zurich from here.

The view is best captured with the video we took.

Keith tried to do a Vlog entry atop the mountain, but I was too busy trying to eat my sandwich to really want to participate...you can see my mouth full of food, then a "friend" tried to join in on the fun.

Two things:
#1: When the bird landed on my head, it felt like it lasted a LOT longer than what it looks like in the video clip--it was traumatic
#2: I like the confusion with the camera at the beginning, so I didn't edit it out.

After some running around, we discovered the cave/tunnels with various lookouts. It was awesome.

oooo....a cave!


The non-alps side of the mountain

and I need to include one mushy picture...

awww...we're so cute!

Anyways, post cave exploration, marveling at mountains, and having my lunch threatened by a stupid bird, Keith and I went to the restaurant atop the the mountain for a drink. Shortly after sitting down, this group of people who were probably in their 70s sat down with their spoons and accordions and jammed out. It was too cute! Shortly after we started recording, the batteries died, so we didn't get the best parts of the jam session...but I think you get the feel for it.

And that t'was our day atop Mount Pilatus!

Glassblowing in Hergiswil, Switzerland

I haven't been too good about keeping up with my blog, especially about my trip to Switzerland. Anyways, Keith and I went to this glassblowing factory and museum in a town 10 min outside of Luzern. We got to make our own glass spheres. It was ridiculously cool...also, we watched guys doing glassworks. Check out the videos:

Glassworks Factory

Keith's Glass Orb Creating Process

Meg's Glass Sphere Creating Process

Kalliope

I miss my high maintenance cat, Kalliope. She is currently living with Keith's parents and their other cat. Sometimes when I half wake up in the middle of the night, I think I feel her creeping up the bed to either snuggle or maul my face.

Baby Kalliope


snuggle bug/bed hog


She enjoys rubber bands, sponges, belly rubs, and puzzle pieces

Surprise!

On Friday, Keith and I met up with our friend Steffi from Germany. Steffi and I met last year when we both worked in the Modern Language Department at CCSU..she lives a 45 min train ride from Basel (where we met). T'was wonderful to see her!!!

Fact: Steffi's two favorite things from CT are Cheesecake Factory and squirrels.

She greeted us with a gift of our combined body weight in different types of German chocolate. One of these chocolate delights was a Kinder Surprise Egg

As if I haven't had enough chocolate to eat in the past week...I decided to crack open my Kinder Surprise this evening. Obviously the chocolate was delicious...but the surprise was equally as awesome:

T'was a squirrel from my Squirrel Loving German, Steffi!!! Clearly I need to mail it to her (or go visit her in Freiburg, Germany so I can personally deliver it to her.