Skiing in Switzerland

Davan and Lena are still with Lena's family in Lenk, where Lena's grandparents live.  They had another day of skiing today.

Yesterday, as a special treat, they got pizza after skiing.  They even got a vegan one for Davan.  It's takes a lot of pizza to feed a big family.

Picture Dump from Switzerland

I received a few new pictures over the weekend from Karin plus Davan figured out how to send pictures from her camera and, as a result, I have a whole lot of pictures to share today.  Some are from the very beginning of the trip.  One is from today. 

Here we go!

Davan decided she would do a scale in every airport on her travels. 

She ended up doing one in an airplane bathroom, as well.

Lena has a cool room.

Up the hill behind Lena's house, looking over her village.  Lena's house is the one with the trampoline.

A snowman Sofie and Davan built together.

One day Davan, Lena and Sofie went to the zoo in Basil.

 Davan and Lena went to Basil alone another day and went to both a paper museum, which sounds pretty cool, and the movies.

Davan is also experiencing regular family life with it's ups and downs.  Karin's aunt passed away last week, which, while her aunt was quite old and had had a good life, was a sad event, causing Karin to be away for several days helping her parents deal with everything that needed doing.  There was also a funeral to attend for the whole family.  Karin, I'm sorry for your loss and my thoughts are with you.


There was a family trip to the three corners (Switzerland, Germany and France all bordering), causing partner trick celebration to break out.

Also last week, an epic day trip on the train took place.  They visited Bern and took a series of train trips on the way there and back.
 

Today, they went skiing.

Davan is letting us know in lots of ways that she is having a great time.  I'm so glad she's gotten this opportunity to have this adventure.

She may be in for more!  She got the news a couple of days ago that she is a semi-finalist for one of the scholarships to study abroad next year that she applied to.  This is the Germany one.  Unfortunately, the mandatory interview happens while she is still in Switzerland.  It's the interview for both Oregon and Washington.  She decided, with my blessing, to contact them and see if maybe she could do an interview in California or Idaho (if those interview dates happen after she gets back) and we'd drive there for it, but, to my knowledge, hasn't heard back.

On the plus side, this is the first date for hearing about any of the scholarships and, having made semi-finalist for this one, that's a good sign that she's a strong candidate for the others as well.  So, hopefully, it won't end up mattering if she can't make the interview.  The Germany one, while appealing in it's own way, it's at the top of her list.  We shall see what happens.

Partner Piece in Switzerland

This weekend, Davan and Lena sent me a link to this great video of the two of them.  They were working on this routine just before Lena left to go back home.  Now they've finally had a chance to complete it.

10 Food Update

Today is day 7 of the 10 food challenge.  Meanwhile, Anthony has been eating any 'ol thing and there have been quite a few things at work this week, it seems.  My weight is going up.  His is going down.  Can you say unfair?

I'm having serious thoughts of calling it quits after today.  That'd be a week of eating only 10 foods.  That's a pretty good challenge.  Of course, it's not the challenge I set out to do, but it'd be pretty good.

I did realize this morning that the time period I'd planned on is really 11 1/2 days rather than 10 days, which is what I said I was going to do.  So, I'm really at a point where I'm considering three different paths:

a)  Stick with it until dinner on Valentine's Day, which was the original plan and would be a total of 11 1/2 days.

b) Stick with it for 10 days, which was also, sort of, the original plan.  I'd be free on Wednesday then.

c) Finish up today and call it good with a week.

I am truly up in the air about it at this point.

The hardest parts?  Going grocery shopping where there are so many different foods.  Having a craving on Thursday night for a peanut butter, banana and chocolate chip sandwich on Dave's Killer Bread.  Going to my work meeting on Friday and having to watch two of the guys I work with eat exactly that.  I mean, what are the chances?  Feeling full but not satisfied.  No eating out. 

I've gone through periods of being really down about food this week.  I don't know if I'm eating too much to make up for not eating what I really want to eat or what is causing the weight gain (after an initial loss - still down over all).  My Fitness Pal tells me I've been under my calorie goal every day, but the scale tells a different story.

Besides the not loosing weight in spite of feeling deprived thing, though, I just get depressed about the idea of meals.  It's not that the food is bad.  It's not that I don't get full.  It's just that, well, it's somehow depressing in spite of all that.

Cheery little post, no?  Ah well, there is the other one from today of Davan in Switzerland to balance us out.

Field Tripping in Switzerland

After Basel on Wednesday, it was back to school with Lena for Thursday.  Friday morning was back to school once more, but then Karin took Davan on a field trip to a Roman town called ‘Augusta Raurica’ and pictures were taken.

 

And then today, there was sledding and drinking hot chocolate/apple cider by the fire place.

 

What a life.  Keep enjoying your trip, Davan!

The Homestead

So, what have the rest of us been doing while Davan is off on her adventure?  Well, a lot of the usual.  Anthony, Ranger and I went to a large off leash dog area for a hike after dropping Davan off at the airport.  There have been bike rides by various people.  I've gone to my martial arts classes regularly.  I'm walking the dog a lot.  The big thing I'm doing, though, is doing a 10 foods for 10 day challenge.  I'd been going to do it for two weeks, but there was this Groundhog's Day party on one end and Valentine's Day on the other, so there it is.  Now that I'm four days into it, I'm thinking 10 days is plenty long.

I got the idea from this book, which I have not really read.  I came across a review about this book somewhere.  I'm pretty sure it was a blog.  However, I no longer remember where.  I tried to find it.  Our library doesn't have it.  Powell's doesn't have it.  I found out what I could online, including her list of 7 foods.  You see, she does a different theme each month, looking to cut out excess.  One month, it's food.  She decides to eat 7 foods for a month.

Here's her list, if you're curious:

chicken
eggs
whole wheat bread
spinach
avacados
sweet potatoes
apples

I became enthralled with doing something like this.  I did, eventually, find the book at Barnes and Noble, but I only read the first chapter.  Okay, more like skimmed, even.  Still, I really wanted to see if I could do something like this.  I met some resistance from Davan, though, who wouldn't have stopped me, but was definitely not on board and not real excited about me doing it, either.  With her off in Switzerland, I decided to give it a go.

I decided on 10.  I'm wild like that.  Here's my list:

quinoa
chickpeas
tofu
kale
broccoli
apples
clementines
onions
avacado
potatoes

Oh, and I do allow seasonings and cooking spray.  I believe Jen did salt, pepper and cooking spray, but I could be wrong on that.

I started on Sunday.  It's certainly a challenge.  I dropped weight that first day, but have been holding steady from there.  I feel hungry often, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  It's nice to be hungry for meals.  I have food cravings and, for the most part, these aren't healthy foods I'm craving.  It's more like pizza and cookies.  I do really want bread - whole wheat would be great! - so it's not all junk food I crave. 

Mostly, though, I think my body is just rebelling from the lack of sugar.  I'm an addict when it comes to sugar and I know it.  I've stayed away from sugar before, but I did eat other types of sweeteners.  Even not having the sugar helped.  I've done six weeks of eating only fruits, veggies, beans, whole grains and raw nuts.  I felt similar then as now.

From the start of the year, I've been logging food and exercise over at My Fitness Pal.  I'm not really a huge believer in calorie counting.  I feel that a better system is to eat whole foods until satiated, but I haven't been doing a great job of doing that lately, so I talked Anthony, my mom and my Aunt Caren all into making a community for ourselves on My Fitness Pal.  It's making me more aware of what I'm eating.  I usually make somewhat better choices because it's so hard to get myself to log the foods that I wish I hadn't eaten.  It has gotten me to move more, when I might otherwise sit on the couch, as well, to even out the calorie balance.

Anyway, I tell you this because I've continued to log through these days of 10 foods and, I have to say, I'm getting more nutrition from my food than I was prior to starting the challenge.  I'm getting 100% of both calcium and iron, which I usually supplement.  I always do well on the others that My Fitness Pal tracks - which would be Vitamin A and C. 

Here I am at the end of day 4.  Right now I feel full, but a little headachy, which, I have to be honest, I've been experiencing these last two days off and on.  I'm attributing it to detoxing.  I'm holding firm.  I will be glad when I'm done.

Latest from Switzerland

When last we talked, Davan it was Sunday in Switzerland and Davan had been sledding and making waffles.  The stream of pictures slowed down with the start of the school week and with Davan getting sick.  Bummer for her.  She had to go home early from school on Monday because she just felt so bad.  It was stomach stuff plus a killer headache.  If it was jet lag, a relapse of the previous week or some combination, we don't really know, but a good night's sleep set her mostly right for Tuesday and school again.

Lena's mom, Karin, took her in a little late to meet Lena after Lena's orthodontist appointment and sent us this picture.

By the evening, Davan was well enough to be doing this sort of thing, as well.

We got a nice long email Tuesday evening in which Davan, as Anthony put it, sounded all grown up.  She'd had a good day and was getting a handle on the whole immersion language thing - challenging!  She'd found her own way to the public library in town rather than attending the last class Lena had yesterday.  She was very pleased. 

Today, the word is that Davan went to Basel with Lena's older sister, Julia, for the day rather than go to school.  I haven't heard about it from Davan yet, but I did get these pictures.

Here they are, setting out from home:

And, in Basel:

The two girls did some geocatching.  Egads, what an adventure that girl is having.  Go Davan!

Sledding in Switzerland

It snowed a bit overnight at Lena's house, so the girls woke up to snow.  They, of course, went out to play.  The third girl in the pictures is Lena's little sister, Sophie.

This is Davan's corner in Lena's room.  Cool, no?

They also made waffles today.

Gee, it doesn't look like she's having fun at all.  ;-)

More Pictures

Lena has a blog she started when she came to Portland for her exchange.  After going home, she stopped posting, but she's started again to share Davan's visit.  If you'd like to see more about what they're doing and from Lena's point of view, go check out Lena's blog!

Davan is There!

Davan's travels went of without a hitch.  She didn't even have a seat mate, so her flight was really comfortable.  She said she couldn't get the sound to work for the movies, so she just wrote, looked out the window and read a lot.  She said she wouldn't have been much more comfortable at home, having a quite day.

When she got to Amsterdam, passport control was exceptionally easy with no line at all.  She didn't have to worry about her bag, as it was checked through.  She had time to look around the airport, which was really exciting for her.

As soon as she got into Basil, Karin, Lena's mom, sent me this:

Aw.  I'm so glad to see the girls together again.

Davan sent me a little email shortly there after, saying she was tired, but happy and excited.

They went out sightseeing already and Karin sent me these:

 

It seems that Davan has borrowed a jacket.  It looks good on you, Davan.  Thanks to whomever it was who lent it.

These pictures made me really nostalgic for last year.  I loved having these two girls with their enthusiasm and playfulness around so much.

Thanks Karin for having Davan to stay and for sending me pictures!