BOOM! 1 month down.

Haaallloooo (which is how they say hi here) everyone!

I can't believe I have been here a month! I mean, sometimes it seems like its been forever since I have seen my friends and family and then again it feels like just yesterday I was so sore I could barely walk.  Two tournaments in France, a bunch of fun day trips around Switzerland, and hilarious times with the roomies and team mates have made it a great month indeed.  :)

When I last wrote we had gone to our first tourney in Nancy, France and then came home and went to Lausanna for a day, which was amazing.  The next weekend we went back to France but this time we went to Terville, France.  It is about 4.5 hours away from Dudingen, which isn't bad and as always the drive is pretty.  We left on Saturday morning (Sept 20th - just so you have a timeline) and played a team from Paris that night. They were a very good team who recently played in another tournament with mostly French teams and got 2nd out of 8. We were nervous to play them, they were older and more experienced girls and were CRUSHING balls in warm ups.  Needless to say it started a little rocky in the first game but we eventually hit our stride. We ended up losing in 5, but it was a good experience as a team to again know that we can fight back while we are down and not let the opponent set the pace for the match.  Also, playing against a more aggressive style of volleyball and having to make adjustments on the fly will be beneficial in the long run for us I think.  It is still preseason of course and every week we are figuring out things we need to work on to make us better and its coming along, even if at a a slow pace.  Our first game for season is not until October 18th so this long preseason is nice to work the kinks out.  We played a team from Belgium on Sunday morning and randomly I saw a girl that I played in Spain with on my first team in Benidorm.  She was our setter and a great player. We were sitting at breakfast in the hotel when she waved to me and we were able to talk some. So crazy how even thousands of miles from the place we call home we run into each other. The world is really so small sometimes! We won that game in 3 and even though we did win, there are still things that we need to work on.  We got home that night and promptly drank some wine to get ready for our day off on Monday!!

We didn't know what we wanted to do on our day off. We wanted to go to Lucerne but its about 2 hours away and I had a doctors appointment for my shoulder (just rehab stuff nothing wrong with it) mid morning. We would not have gotten there until late so we decided to go another time so we could have more time to explore! We ended up just going to Thun which was about an hour away by train.  We had no rhyme or reason too other than it was pretty close to home and looked pretty.  

We started the day off with mimosas at home and on the train and took the ride up to Thun! We had not idea what was there to see really but just went and decided to see what trouble we could get into. 

When we got off the train we started walking and immediately crossed a bridge that had a gorgeous view.

Met a pup that loved me too :)

"Why don't we do a little day drinkinnnn"

So we heard this commotion up at the top of the street we were at so we decided to head that way to see what was up.  What we found was...interesting. There was a guy with a creepy mask on throwing candy out a window to the people below. We obviously had NO clue what was going on but a lady next to us spoke English and was trying to explain it to us. (side note: one thing I have noticed here is that everyone is so quick to talk to us or explain something if we don't understand. It's no nice to be around people that are genuinely NICE people. Not saying we are not nice in USA but I also don't feel like we go out of our way to be helpful all the time. We are so busy with our own lives we just move along without enjoying the ride sometimes...end rant.) Anyways, we found out that it was the first day of a three day festival in Thun (side note: they get SO much vacation here. I think that is why they are so happy. We should look into that in the U S of A. For reals) and that its a tradition that happens once a year. 

 Here is some history on the holiday from what I understood and have read:  A masked man called a "Fulehung" which in German means "lazy dog". It all comes from a a battle that Thun was involved with called the Battle of Murten and they caught the jester of the lord that lived there. They chased him all through the town all while he was wearing his jester outfit and mask. Now the Fulehung wears a mask with horns and bells on it and apparently has a good and bad side.  Good side: throws candy to the kids and leads the whole town on a chase through the streets and sometimes give them free tickets for the carousel.  Bad side: (as Dezzie found out from personal experience) he has a stick with balloons on it and hits people with it!!  It was such a blast and so fun to be around the town as such a fun time!  

Because he is running through the town he usually runs up to peoples apartment for a rest, where he throws the candy from the window and is usually offered a beer! We came late to the candy throwing and were waving at him, he definitely waved back to us. We could tell even through the mask. Also the fact that Dezzie got whacked with the Soilattere (which is what the stick and ballon thing is called) afterwards, we think he may have liked her ;)

He is in the window at the top left.

So busy!

The statue behind us is what the Fulehung looks like. CREEP. Also this picture pretty much sums up the roomie love we share. We are always laughing.  

Another one with him...don't worry about my awkward hand placement...

Pano of the main square. The Fulehung had just ran through the street so everyone followed him which is why is does not look as packed....

Window selfies right after the whacking.  haha

Of course we had to ride the carousel with all the other 4-12 year olds. 

Yayyyy!

After that activity we wanted to head up to the castle so we could look around. 

View from the top!

I love castles!!!! <3

So pretty!

After that we were hungry so went to a little restaurant on the water and ate some amazing pizza. Here are some more random pictures from the day!

The usual selfies

HUGE swans next to us on the water that wanted food from us. They got none.

Bier!

Train selfies

SHHHHH

Dezzie works out.

Again...we have nothing better to do so we take pics!

Our glorious dinner on the water. 

This was on our way back to the train station to head home. Over all amazing day yet again. We love being able to have no plans in the morning and have a wonderful time just being spontaneous so close to home. 

We had a great week of practice and have this weekend off! We are very excited to 1) rest our bodies and 2) see even MORE.  Our plans or the weekend are to head to Neuchatel for a wine festival. That is RIGHT up our ally so we are excited. A girl on our team has a sister that plans for their volleyball team so we will meet up with them and make some friends.  Tomorrow we are heading to Lucerne to meet up with a girl, Lauren, who I met when I was in Spain who is playing there. We had a great time celebrating Carnival together in the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. Here are some pics from that. We are BOUND to have a great time yet again.   Yes, she painted herself in all silver to looks like a statue.

 Best. Costume. Ever. 

It's Saturday morning (Sept 27th)of our weekend off so we are being lazy on the couch watching Wedding Crashers, blogging, playing candy crush, and reading.  I am so happy to just sit here with them. :)

We miss all you guys at home!! Cheers!

Until next time...BYEEEE!

PS: Shout out to my amazing boyfriend whose birthday was about a week ago! Dirty 30! Wish I could have been there to share it with you. Only 82 more days!! Miss you <3