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Published: September 20th 2007
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Alt Sankt Johann, Switzerland
Morgan and Lorna pose. i had to include this picture even though it was last weeks So... Morgan and i are supposed to be in Austria right now. last sunday morgan emailed Monika, the woman we were supposed to stay with near schladming, austria, and asked her whether it would be better for us to come on monday or tuesday. we had a ride to the train lined up and had scouted tickets. then on monday i was returning a coffee cup to the coffee room and Andreas Möck, a maintenance man i work with, asked if morgan and i wanted to go windsurfing in italy on lake como with him for a week so very suddenly all of our plans changed. so as a result we are still at the school at bodensee. we will leave tomorrow morning at 630am and drive with Gotti, Anja, and Andreas.
so last tuesday we were in switzerland. wednesday and thursday were maintenance work for me. wednesday i worked on the ditches and connected pipes. on thursday i painted halfway up the lecturehall wall because wademar felt there was not enough time to do the whole thing. this became a joke to many about how i do half the job but i do half the job so well. morgan
Hilti is only sold to Pros here
i had to make a right angle out of the curved doorways. i like demolition. and i kept the same schedule as we have in the past weeks. but on friday... morgan and i became part of the welcome weekend friends(WWF). this past weekend was welcome weekend for the students attending bible school at Bodenseehof. they ask alumni to come for welcome weekend to help new international students feel comfortable here. but they asked me to help also. so on friday morgan and i worked the bus stop. we had to run to the bus stop every half hour to meet students and direct them to the school carrying their luggage and trying to make them feel welcome on the way. in between bus stops i was running electric(240v not wimpy 120v) to magnetic doorstops. so i ran electric from a switch to a magnet then from the magnet through the wall to the swing control on the door. i installed the switch and the magnet. i did this for all three floors. morgan and i served the new students at all the meals and cleared tables and washed dishes and set tables. we talked to the new students and helped them with any questions or concerns. saturday was much of the same kitchen and
That's a Big Grill
I built a fire to feed students and staff. the grill is six feet in diameter. dining hall work. and morgan and i had to organize a recreation activity to offer the students. we offered a run. i convinced one german student named michael to run with us. most played soccer or went to meersburg. they offered a church service here for the student sunday morning. this was in english. we had the kitchen and dining hall work on sunday but the students took over the duties after dinner. i played soccer in the afternoon cuz noone wanted to go running. but after soccer morgan and i found 4 other people to go with us. like i said before we got ready to go to austria. on monday i took all of the cardboard to the cardboard dumpster while morgan ran errands with valentina and jillian, morgan's roommate. then i grouted tile for the new shower rooms with Gerhard, who speaks as little english as i speak german. so it was somewhat difficult to communicate. after a while he started calling me 'profi'. i didnt understand at first but then he said professional. i was surprised to hear such kind words from him. at the end of the day he asked 'black gift?' which, confusing at
New Floor
This morning this room had drab walls and had carpet with carpet trim. Jo and i prepped, painted, put in the floor and trimmed in less than a day. first, turned into him buying me coffee. it was akward at first. neither of us looked at each other knowing it would take so much effort just to understand the other. so i offered, 'kafe ist gut.' to which he agreed with, 'ja, six kafe one day'. he was able to explain with his broken english and my horrible german that he owned his own construction company and lived 500 km away and he was voluteering here against his family's wishes. we celebrated johannes' birthday at the bahnhof to end the night. on tuesday it rained. i worked on all of the bikes in the bike shop which is one of the last things the maintenance crew wants to work on. The second half of the day i took a wall off. then i took two doors and the frames apart. then i took a chisel, a hammer, and a Hilti jackhammer and carved right angles into the round corners of two doorways through over a foot of solid concrete. i like demolition work. morgan cleaned out bodenseehof vehicles for andreas. we watched a soccer match between REAL madrid and Bremen, germany with andreas that night. morgan had some good
Daniel and Lorna
Daniel the Swedish chef is wearing a shirt with the Swedish chef from the muppets, but in Germany they call the muppet, the Danish chef so the words above the picture say'butterbread' in danish. Students enjoy the food around the fire pit located out in the apple orchard. german beer and i had apfelshorle. on wednesday i kicked a breaker trying to cut rebar with a big disc cutter. waldemar had to change the breaker so that i could run the machine. then morgan and i filled a dumpster with trash and made a big pile of metal and a big pile of wood. i found a nice pair of hiking boots in a trashbag and morgan rescued a perfectly good raft. morgan sanded a room for andreas and i cut and tiled a shower room with gerhard for the rest of the day. today Johannes and i prepped, painted, put in a fake hardwood floor, and put up trim. that took up most of my day. Daniel the chef, and yes he is swedish, asked me to start a fire in the huge fire pit because he wanted to grill ribs and burgers this evening. it took 4 wheelbarrel loads of wood to get it going. tonight was music night. it was informal. anyone that wanted to play music took a turn. there was opera and pop and classical piano and celtic singing and a rap. morgan went up to say goodbye to all the students with
Morgan Plays for the Students
Morgan finger-picked a beautiful instrumental that she wrote for the students. note the different shades of white in the lecture hall. i was told to only paint half. a beautiful fingerpicking instrumental. we leave tomorrow morning for lake como italy to go camping and windsurfing with andreas and his friends so it may be more than a week before we make our way to a computer. right now morgan is watching a soccer match so i am going to find her. then we will be packing everything that we have into our packs for the early morning departure. Bodenseehof has been very good to us. the director, Heinz Spindler, just came to say goodbye and let me know that we are welcome here anytime. Joshua G
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dad
non-member comment
When in Italy
hi Josh and Morgan we miss you. hope u r doing great in ur travels. enjoying the beauty of Gods creation. i remember reading that 75% of the worlds art and sculpture is in Europe and 90% of that is in Italy. so much history of western civilization and Catholic 2000 year history- 27 of the 1st 30 popes were martyred in rome. if u go 2 St. Peters under the altar St. Peter and John Paul II r duried. visit the catecombs too. some one said there r 500 Catholic churches in Rome is that true? maybe in all of italy if u r near Assisi stop by St. Francis home who was born there in 1182. if u r near San Giovanni Rotundo visit the place where St. Pardre Pio died 1968 a stigmatist for 50 years. if u r near the house of Loretto- this was the house of Jesus Mary and Joseph in Nazereth- transported by angels 2 where it sits now. if u r near Lanciano- named after soldier who thrusted a spear in Jesus's side at the Crucifiction. also in Lanciano there is a miricle of the Eucharist. a priest, while saying Mass doubted the real presence of Jesus for 1200 years the host has been preserved abd is of heart tissue according to scientists enough 4 now. keep writing and sending pics. i pray 4 ur safety and am anxious to see u again love dad