Liliana

We just wanted to put a special thank you up for Liliana, our wonderful friend in Switzerland. She has lived her whole life around the lake of Lugano. Some years ago, the missionaries knocked on her door and she let them enter (her house is just above the Church.) She has been a contact of the missionaries on and off since that time - BJ was privileged to teach her during his mission. While she has never been baptized, she remains a good friend.

We were able to stay with her while in Lugano for 2 short days. She cooked us some pasta al forno and rice for dinners, prepared some incredible lunches and took us out on a tour of the city and lake! She was up early in the morning until late at night to make sure we were taken care of extremely well. She said it's what anyone would do for their child, but it was 5 star service non-stop. She is an incredible woman and we are so greatful for all she did. Grazie mille!

(This is her when she 'fell' down to get the best picture possible for us! Amazing)

Switzerland

We've spent the last couple of days in Switzerland and it has been wonderful. I wanted to write a few of the things that makes Switzerland unique, or different from Italy!

Money
Switzerland is one of only a very few European countries that does not use the Euro. Rather, they use the Franc which is one of the strongest currencies in the world because of its stability. Currently the franc is almost a 1 to 1 exchange.

Additionally, there are tons of banks here that take care of tons of money. Walking down the streets of the city you'll find banks on every corner and every street. Many from outside the United States, including America itself, has a bank account in Switzerland for it's money. We were walking downtown yesterday and our friend Liliana showed us a bank where they only accept clients with more than a million dollars - imagine that!



Also interesting is the tax system in Switzerland - here is a link where you can read a little about how taxes work in the country.

Language
Switzerland does not have one official language, but rather 4! Italian is spoken in a very small area of the country knows as Ticino. In the rest of the country is spoken French, German and Romanish (which I've heard called also a Swiss-German.)

Only about 6% of the people in the country speak Italian as their primary language and almost everyone speaks at least 2 languages if not more. I've met people who speak 5 languages fluently here. It's rather incredible. They start at a young age by learning 2 languages. If you choose a certain degree in college, you have to learn at least 3 languages. The daughter of the lady we are staying with speaks Italian, currently works in London - speaking English, and had the best marks in here class in Spanish - incredible!

Food
In the canton of Ticino, many of the same foods that Italians make are also made. They enjoy many pastas and pizzas since we are just across the border from Italy.

However, they also enjoy other foods such as cheese fondue and a number of fresh cheeses made in the alps! The other morning for breakfast we had toast with butter made in the alps on top and also had some swiss cheese along with it. It was incredible!

There is also this yummy stuff called Swiss chocolate. I don't have any pictures currently, but the stores have a huge selection of chocolate. I will try and add a picture to make you all jealous when I have one.

Clean
The country of Switzerland is extremely clean. The taxes they pay make sure that the country stays in the best condition. Phone booths are extremely clean and work very well. There is no garbage on the streets; the sidewalks are smooth with no holes. They even have people that clean the outside of public garbage cans.


and Switzerland is beautiful! At least the canton of Ticino is incredible - here is a picture of the beautiful city of Lugano. We miss you all, but are also enjoying our stay in Switzerland.

Bidet :D

One of the greatest, or strangest inventions ever has to be the bidet! However strange it may seem to Americans, it is an every day part of life in Italy. A bidet is a small toilet shaped device which normally is found near the toilet in the bathroom. It has a faucet that comes up from the back that shoots water from it at about a 45 degree angle. Also, there is normally a towel holder near the bidet for ease of use, and for exclusive bidet use (I wouldn't use this after washing my hands if I were you!) Here is a picture of a typical italian bidet.


That's right, it's a butt bath! Every bathroom I've been in that has a bidet (which most bathrooms have a bidet - not public bathrooms, but home bathrooms.) also has toilet paper to use. Thus, don't be worried that if you go to the bathroom you're stuck using the bidet. Now, I will explain how the bidet is to be used.

Step 1
Use the toilet and probably a little toilet paper to remove the worst part.

Step 2
Flush and move to the bidet - like I said, it's usually right next to the toilet!

Step 3
Turn on the water and let it clean the excess. (NOTE: The water can be set at your ideal bum temperature) Use of the left hand (not the right! that's your shaking hand) is also permitted to make sure that cleanliness is achieved. In almost every Italian home there is bidet soap as well for the freshest clean!

Step 4
Turn off the water and use the bidet towel to dry up. Typically each person would have their own personal towel!

Step 5
Wash your hands thoroughly!

While it may seem a bit strange at first to use the bidet, or like excess work, there are a lot of advantages to using the bidet. For example, cleanliness! Also, toilet paper can be a little rough sometimes when used a lot or if you bum is sensitive. There are probably many other advantages, but as I don't want to keep going on about cleaning out bums I hope this has been informative.

Citofono

Italy is made up lots of apartments and very few houses (opposite from America which is mostly houses and fewer apartments.) However, unlike in America, it's not as easy as walking up to a door and knocking if you want to talk with someone - you have to ring their citofono (or doorbell in a sense.) For example, I wanted to show Christie where the elders lived and we took this picture of the label and button that would have to be pushed in order to get to the elders door.
After pressing the button, the person in the apartment would pick up a phone in their home and ask who it was (you, standing at the citofono would be able to hear what they are saying because of a speaker.) You could then let them know who you were and what you wanted. If they knew you they can then let you in by pressing a button which unlocks the door to the stairs to get up to their apartment.

Many of the houses also have this same feature by having an outer gate and a button that must be pushed in order to speak with the owner of the home.

As missionaries, we had a difficult time doing door to door because we would often have to communicate our intent through the citofono which was quickly shutdown. Of course, their were tricks to try and get in to the apartment to knock each door:
1) Ring someone and tell them you're the mail man (mail boxes are usually just inside the apartment door.)
2) Push all the buttons at once causing lots of people to pick up and hopefully someone will just open the door rather than try and figure out what's going on.
3) Ask someone to use their bathroom
4) Wait for someone to go out, then hold the door open just before it closes
Not that I know anything about any of those!

Italy through Christie's eyes part 1

Ok, so I just wanted to write a few things I have seen/heard/and felt while being here in Italy. Things that BJ probably didn't notice cause he has been here before..as well as things that we both have noticed.

- Remember when you were a kid and afraid that you were going to fall into the toilet cause you were too little. Well, I feel like that here. The toilet is HUGE and I literally hold on cause I just know I am going to fall in. lol

- There are pigeons EVERYWHERE!

- Since when does water or "aqua" cost so much money at a restaurant. Especially since a drinking fountain is hard to come by.

- Italian people are one of the kindest people I have met and have made the trip amazing thus far.

- At our hotel, you have to slide your room key in a scanner kind of thing to get the lights, tv, and air conditioner to work. That way electricity is not lost when you leave..cause you take your key with you.

I am sure there is more, but these are a few of the things I have noticed in Torino, Italy thus far :)

Closed? - it's lunch time.

Welcome to Italy! Christie and I arrived this morning to Milan, Italy! It was a decent flight, about 9 hours, which we spent a much shorter time sleeping than we would have liked. Regardless, we made it alive - here are our pictures shortly after getting off the plane.



We then gathered our things and rented a car and headed to Turin, Italy. First thing we did was eat some pizza (we'll post about Italian pizza another time for sure!) and then went to get on the bus to explore the city for a bit. It was around 1:50 when we set out for bus tickets. The first place was stopped was a bar (there is a bar on every corner here. Not quite like an American bar, more like a Starbucks type thing, but with alcohol as well.) The bar tender was nice, but said they didn't sell bus tickets. I asked where we could get them. He then told us that any tabaccheria would sell them, however all those would be closed until 3. He said he didn't know where else we could buy any and apologized. We fortunately found another bar that sold tickets and were fine.

The part of the culture that I wanted to highlight is the long lunch breaks. In Italy, it is normal that everyone takes a 2 hour lunch - it's standard. Shops close and familys reunite, usually between the hours of 1 and 3. What I love about this tradition is the fact it shows that family/friends are more important than work to the Italians. In America, everyone is always going, working, but here they are enjoying their lives and days. The tradition of long lunches has been around for a long time in Italy, and hopefully the tradition will continue to go forth as it has.

Exciting News!

The secret is out! I am PREGNANT! BJ and I are very excited to start our family and to share this news with all of you.

This is a video of BJ's reaction. I took a pregnancy test (which we bought from the dollar store :D) in the morning after having a dream that I was pregnant, and sure enough the test was positive immediately. I was like, "no, really..no it is too early to find out. I bought this at a dollar store. It is probably just a false positive". So I set the test on the counter in the bathroom and closed the door. BJ and I said our morning prayer together and I just kept looking at him thinking about the test. BJ was getting ready for work and didn't have a lot of time so I thought I would wait to tell him. I went to clinicals and thought about it the whole time. So as soon as I came home I took another test, once again the test came back positive immediately. I looked at the mirror and looked back at the test and said to myself, "really....I am pregnant!" I started to get really really excited but had to wait for BJ to get home. I decided to decorate the bathroom with all the baby stuff I had accumulated over the years and surprise him.

So, when BJ came home I told him there was a spider upstairs in the bathroom that I needed him to get. He is used to this and smiled and took his flip flop and headed up the stairs, while I followed him with the camera.

(not sure why our voices sound funny, he really doesn't have a lisp or talk that high)

I am currently 12 weeks along and due February 20th, 2010. We have already been to the doctor for our first appointment and went again today. We were able to see the heart beat at 61/2 weeks and actually heard the heart beat today. The doctor said the heart was racing at a good 160 beats per minute and according to the old wives tale that signals that it is a girl, but we will know for sure in 4 weeks. :DHere are some pictures of our cute little one. While the doctor was taking the photos, the baby was just moving all around it was so fun!

The arrow is pointing to the babies hand. It looks like the baby is sucking his/her thumb.



Doing a little pose!