It'll Get Easier

I helped Jasmin with her homework a little while back. It was almost enjoyable to help a kid understand something previously not understood, but at the same time I never realized how much knowledge I take for granted having, such as 19 - 6. I just know this sort of stuff after years and years of using this information on a daily basis. It's easy to forget that a 7 year old doesn't have my experience.

What I found worked best was to apply the information in a way that she could relate to, which I thought was odd because I was basically setting up a story problem which I thought all kids hate doing. At least, I always hated doing story problems because it forced me to read through a bunch of crap to finally get to the information I needed. That was probably all the Ault genetics in me, though.

For example, when I asked her "What's 19 - 6" she would complain a little, and then have to count down from 19 on her fingers before coming to the end result: 13. However, if I told her "You have nineteen apples and then Vivian (who is notorious for stealing food from his siblings) eats six of them while you're at school. How many are left?", she would answer me, "Thirteen apples" without even thinking about it. Interesting...

I haven't figured out if the key to this sudden ease was the increased amount of time I gave her to process the information by walking through it step by step in a life-applicable scenario, or if numbers are simply harder to process at a young age than things that children can relate to and, in Jasmin's case, have often related to. Who know? Perhaps it's only the act of presenting the question as "Mathematics" that establishes an automatic firewall in the child's brain that reduces their ability to solve critical information, like remembering a repressed trauma.

Who knows... maybe the answer is simple and maybe it's slightly more creepy.

Speaking of slightly more creepy, who is this handsome fellow pinned to Jasmin's desk?

What a hunk.

I (We) Should Be Famous

Last summer I was unfortunate enough to have my only means of daytime transportation die early in the summer. I've never had much luck with cars in general; sometimes the brakes give out, sometimes I run out of gas on the way to a movie (it was my older brother Jonathan's fault, not mine), sometimes I run out of gas on the way to lunch my last day of high school (that was also Jonathan's fault, not mine), but occasionally the car just plain dies, as was the case with my beloved white Ford Taurus. I was on the highway coming home when smoke began to billow out of the hood, so I pulled over. I had to climb a fence, ford a ditch and approach a complete stranger to ask for a phone to use because at the time I didn't have a cell phone (this was also Jonathan's fault, but I don't hold it against him). As I waited on the side of the highway for Jonathan and my father, the sun setting before my own eyes, I knew that my last summer as a high schooler was going to be ruined because of this unfortunate event.

However, I could not ever have foreseen the glorious byproduct of my summer-long lack of mobility. Since I was forced to stay home, my good friend Tim Broomall would come to me and we would find some way to have a good time. One of the games we invented to keep ourselves occupied was called 'Food Creations'. Food Creations was a game where we picked out four or five random ingredients from the kitchen refrigerator and tried to make something delicious out of it. I say 'random', but if I remember right we usually just ended up making sandwiches or meat wraps.

One particularly magical day, however, we had an abundance of fruit in my house. I don't know what the process was, or how we got the idea, but eventually we created The Strawbanna, A.K.A. The Greatest Dessert Of All Time. With only three simple ingredients, bananas, strawberries and chocolate syrup, we formulated the recipe for the product that we were convinced would some day make us rich. Unfortunately, we decided to keep The Strawbanna relatively secret, so that no one else would take our idea before we had a chance to patent it, so our genius concoction has for the most part been living its existence shrouded in the realm of the unknown.

Until now!

I decided to make Strawbannas for the family a few weeks ago. Needless to say, they all loved it. I was actually very happy with the outcome, since it had been almost a full year since I'd made one. It's a good thing they're so simple, or I might have made a fool of myself. Jasmine, the daughter, asked if she could watch me make them, which I thought was funny since it's possible to figure out exactly how they're made just by looking at the final product, but I complied nonetheless.

Anyway, here's some pics. I was stoked with how well they were received. So Tim, wherever you are, whatever crazy antics you're doing, this couldn't have been done without you. Who knows? Maybe this will catch on in Switzerland and some day we will know that we started a national trend.

Rene, Ursula and Grandmother Sylvia enjoy them some fine dinin'.

I don't know how to say 'Om-nom-nom' in German, but that's what I would put as a caption here if I did.

What I placed on the table, in all its splendor.

Fun, Fun, Fun, Fun

I haven't posted anything for a while because nothing has happened, other than the day-to-day stuff which is all basically the same. The weekend or two that happened in the time since my last post were uneventful, and I pretty much just bummed around the house because there was stuff happening here, like barbecues and Swiss people coming over. However, this past weekend was pretty exciting for me. I got a chance to take a boat ride and then visit Zurich at night with some people my age, which was a great relief considering most of my time is spent with people under the age of 10.

Early on Friday, Ursula asked me if I wanted to go somewhere that day. I definitely did, but I had to pick from a few different options. I decided to take a boat ride to Rapperswil, a city across the lake from Wadenswil. It is sort of a tourist town, but there's an old castle there, so I decided to check that out. The boat ride was extremely relaxing, and I wished it had lasted longer.

In fact, the boat ride was almost the most enjoyable part of the trip for me. The streets were flooded with tourists, and I generally hate going places with a lot of tourists even when I am one myself. Tourists are too loud.

I found the castle, fortunately, but there was some sort of wedding reception going on and I wasn't sure if I could go in or not. I found a back entrance after walking and getting lost for about 20 minutes. When I finally reached the castle the reception had started to migrate towards me and I was soon lost in a massive number of people, all much better dressed than I was.

Here are some pictures of what I saw. I hate taking pictures of stuff like this, though, so there aren't that many.

After returning, I had only a short half hour before readying myself to meet a man named Sebastian, the son of a friend of Sylvia, the mother of Rene, the father of the family (English teachers across the world just cringed as that sentence was being written). At first I wasn't thrilled about meeting and hanging out with a stranger, but I accepted the invitation to be polite. I talked to Sebastian on the phone, and he told me he'd meet me in the tunnel next to the gate I'd be arriving at. Ursula gave me further details later, since this was my first time taking a train on my own. I headed to the nearby town of Thalwil, but after 15 minutes of looking I found no Sebastian. I found a seat and decided to wait to hear from someone. Finally, Ursula called me and gave me his number (since I didn't have it yet) and I called him to find out where he was. We tried to locate the other for nearly 10 minutes before finally realizing that he was in Zurich and I was in Thalwil. I jumped on the next train and headed to meet him, and only an hour late.

Sebastian was pretty cool. I went to a concert with him and his friend Andy and we had a good time. It was nearly 2:00 AM before I arrived back in Wadenswil, both my body and my wallet utterly exhausted.

It was, definitely, my best Friday yet. I kicked it back, looking forward to the weekend, and had fun, fun, fun, fun.

I Want To See Mountains, Gandalf.

I've been enjoying the first part of each week because it's quiet. After completing my chores for the day I can take in the day as I see fit because the children are at school until around 4 in the afternoon. When Ursula told me last Monday night, however, that Valentin and Jasmin didn't have school the next day and so we could all go do something I was a little cross that I was not going to be able to relax like I've gotten into the habit of doing.

So we three went to a nearby mountain top that attracts viewers from around the Zurich area. I was nervous at first because it was the first time I had traveled using public transportation without Rene or Ursula there to help me. Luckily, Valentin was more than capable of guiding me through the many tasks that had to be done to reach our destination: The mountain

The kids seemed to enjoy it and I did as well, since I had not yet visited anywhere that allowed me a significant view of the surrounding area. Unfortunately for me, climbing a mountain can be tiring for the children, and we had to pick up Vivian after we returned to Wadenswil, and on top of that it was Very hot out. Jasmine in particular was ready to call it quits on the whole journey by the end and sleep on a bench. We eventually reached home, however. Overall, a good day.

Here's some stuff:

Train rides are too long.

Ice Cream Stop

Wistfully looking.

The path leading up the mountain was lined with these elk-lamps.

These kids steal from me.

The question was "What would happen if you fell off?"

And here's a ride Valentin showed me.

This happened when we were waiting for the bus to take us home after we picked up Vivan. It's one of those rare gem-of-a-moments that I'm so happy I got on camera:

You know what they say about getting poked in the eye, right?

They say it's all fun and games,

until someone gets poked in the eye.

I lawled for sure.

Walkabout

Last Saturday I spent the afternoon walking about the Swiss countryside. I didn't actually intend on doing this, in fact my initial intention was quite the opposite. The only areas I had seen after my first two weeks of being here was what I had to walk through daily to get groceries or pick up the children. So, with a napsack on my back I took off to explore the city of Wädenswil. However, after about an hour of walking up hills, I realized I was no longer in a city and was surrounded by fields, animals and miscellaneous farming equipment. It was overall a pleasant trip (with the exception of the cheese I bought for dinner that stank up my backpack like you wouldn't believe), though I was utterly exhausted when I got back. If I'm ever able to upload the footage I recorded, I'll try to update this post. Until then, however, let it suffice to say that Switzerland is gorgeous.

Vivian

Vivian, the youngest Hunziker child, warmed up to me quickly last week. I don't know if it's because of anything specific that I did, or if he's just the kind of child that accepts new people easily, but either way we've gotten to be pretty tight. His day-care is about a 20 - 25 minute walk from the house, and one of my regular tasks is to walk there to bring him home. Unfortunately, walking home with him takes significantly longer than walking there without him. If he has his running bike (a bike with no pedals that he must use his feet to run with) it might take around 35 - 40 minutes. If he has a regular bike with him, then the process might take up to an hour, since the pedals are relatively new to him and I must keep one hand on his shoulder at all times to stabilize him, lest he tumble down the winding streets of the Swiss hillside.

Vivian is up front about everything. Though he cannot communicate his ideas in fully-developed English, he shows me what he wants and how he wants it through gestures and short sentences. Don't get me wrong, his English is magnificent. It's humbling to witness how well he comprehends what I say, considering the fact that I can count the number of German words I know on both hands.

I don't know what else to say, so here's some stuff:

Attic Attack

Earlier in the week Rene asked me to vacuum the attic while they were gone for the afternoon. I had no problem with this request, especially because their vacuum is much smaller, more easily maneuverable and incredibly more powerful than the vacuum we used in my own house in Midland. According to Rene, the upper level of the attic had some cracks in the floorboards and therefore had a habit of raining dust and dirt onto the lower level of the attic, which is where the family hangs their clothing to dry.

So that afternoon I took vacuum in hand and ventured to the upper level of the attic. I was somewhat frightened by what I found, because the attic looked like it had been constructed about a hundred years ago. I found out later in the week that I was wrong; the attic had been constructed about 250 years ago along with the rest of the house. Due to the style of window shutters and lack of glass panes, the attic looked like it hadn't been cleaned in 250 years either.

It took me a while to clean, but when after finishing I saw the potential the attic had for being a groovy place to hang out. I really love old buildings to start with, and once the dirt had been removed from the floor and the windows opened the attic was almost comfortable to be in. Plus, the far window opens up to a breath-taking view of the lake. Who knows? Put a nice rug over the gaping hole in the floorboards and it might really tie the room together.

PS. Thank you to Nathan McConnell for exposing me to The Black Keys