“I left my heart!! I left my heart in Switzerland!!”

I sat up quickly in the plane and grasped Hannah’s hand. “Hannah! I left my heart!! I left my heart in Switzerland!!” She blinked at me tiredly, “whatever do you mean, Becky?!” “That stuffed red heart that Rahel and Daniela gave me for Valentines, I think I accidentally forgot it on the wall! Oh, my dear heart! And what will Rahel think when she sees it? She will think it didn’t mean that much to me!” It took a few moments for her to convince me that she distinctly remembered me packing it. I think I left my heart in Switzerland in more ways than one, though. We had a bittersweet journey home. We were looking forward to seeing our families again, sharing with them all we had seen and heard, yet sad that the Swiss chapter of lives had closed, at least for the moment. One thing we said over and over, though, even through our jet lag stupor: “Thomas actually didn’t say goodbye! He was right there, and then he disappeared, and then I thought maybe he was getting up early when we left…and he didn’t say goodbye!”


Ah dear. I never did write about my last week there in Switzerland. Perhaps I may at a later date, better late than never, they always say. Maybe if I ever feel healthy again, and inspired, I may yet add that last post. But for now, I am home sweet home. And sick. I cannot emphasize how grateful I am that I did not get sick for almost the whole time I was away. As I packed my bags last Friday, I held up the medicine I had brought along from home up to Hannah, and marveled, “Praise the Lord, we were not sick the entire time!” and then tossed it into my suitcase. That night on the train as we traveled to Basel for the wedding it hit me like a ton of bricks. I have never gotten sick so fast in my life! Fever, headache, sore throat, cough and congestion assailed me, and I spent most of the weekend up there in bed! I did leave for a few hours for the wedding, which really was lovely and different than our American weddings, and will be written about in that last post someday. :]


On Sunday the Lord provided for us yet again and we got a ride almost the whole way home to Guetli. In the evening we had a small celebration of the people there that we loved, and had cookies, a song and pictures to share for them, but they turned it around and blessed us! They surprised us with games that challenged our kitchen and greenhouse skills, had us butcher the Swiss German as we were to repeat a tongue twister, and then sang for us and showered us with gifts! It was too special. We ended the evening with prayer, and then came all the sad goodbyes. I don’t even want to go there right now.


The flight home was uneventful, it was only an hour from Zurich to London, and we had a 3 ½ hour layover there. As soon as we got through security, we went right to a coffee shop (hey, it was Znunie time!) and I splurged and bought a mocha, and Hannah a cappuccino. We were still wide awake and punchy then, sharing stories with each other and stuff. Oh! Something SO funny and embarrassing happened to me in Zurich after Pia left us off. It was 5am, and very quiet there, and so all the escalators were stopped. They do not move until you land on them. We came to a row of them, and I pranced down one about halfway before it began moving back uphill. I was so horrified and embarrassed, and went tearing back up to the top, where Hannah was pink, and doubled over laughing, pointing out the fact that I had hopped on the one that had a red light instead of green. Oh well, it happens to all of us, right? Then it was a 7 hour flight to Chicago, and a difficult one to sleep on! I was feeling pretty sick, and the man next to me spoke way too loudly, and then the kindly stewards and stewardesses kept coming though, waking us up for this and that. We were pretty tired by the time we landed, and I was overwhelmed with how American everyone and everything was!


Customs was fun, the lady told me it was a good thing I declared that we had apples in our rucksacks because it would have been a $300 fine if I had not! Then later a dog came and sniffed it out, and they took our dear Guetli apples away from us! (They let us keep the Zupfe!) It was too funny, I had filled out the form on the plane of all the countries I had been in, and yes, I was on farms, so I had to go to a certain area. The guys there asked me, “So, you’ve been on a farm?” “Yup!” I replied, having been through this after my return from Israel. “OK”, the guy goes, “how many pair of shoes do you have with you?” “Too many!” I declared, thinking inwardly how hard it is to know what shoes to take when you travel overseas. The two men looked at me unsure. I could tell they were imagining pairs and pairs of muddy shoes to disinfect. “Oh, don’t worry, we have them all this one suitcase!” I told him helpfully, and began to unlock it. “Um, did you actually walk in a cow pasture?” one guy asked. I thought for a minute. “No, it was a sheep pasture, but there were cows on that farm. “Did you walk in the manure?” the other man asked, and I could tell they really did not feel like cleaning shoes that day. But I was determined to be as honest as honest could be, especially after the $300 fine threat. “Really sir, the path was RIGHT INBETWEEN the pasture and the stalls. I think it is possible that there is cow manure on my shoes. And besides, I walked in another pasture in Slovakia!” The two men looked at each other and nodded, and grudgingly took our 5 or 6 pairs of shoes off to another room to disinfect. Hannah and I sat on some benches and chatted gaily while waiting for them to return. :]


We were supposed to have a 1 ½ hour layover there, but due to weather conditions the flight kept getting delayed. We had only had 3 hours of sleep in a 48 hour period by this point, and were beginning to zone out, trying to stay alert enough to know when our plane was leaving. Even after boarding, we taxied for about ½ hour! I said in drugged fashion to Hannah; “Are you enjoying your tour of O’Hare?” and heard the man in front of me slap down his newspaper and ask his wife in exasperation, “Are we driving to Minneapolis?!!” Not a moment later the captain came over the loudspeaker; “Ladies and gentlemen, it is not my intention to give you a tour of O’Hare….” We even circled above Minneapolis for a half hour, and what should have been a 1 hour simple flight dragged out into several.


As we came down the final stairway, there were each set of parents, and one sister apiece! It was all too familiar to see them again, just like we had not been away! We opened our luggage and quickly sorted out our gifts, and then suddenly, it was over, and Hannah and I had to hug each other goodbye for real for the first time in 2 ½ months! I got a little teary, I suppose it must have been my exhausted state. :] No really, I miss Hannah, I can’t just lean over and whisper something to her whenever I want like I have the past 10 weeks. I tried to talk a little to my folks during the 2 hour drive home, but I had lost most of my voice by that point. I got to my little bedroom at midnight, 6am Swiss time.


So for the last days since I have been home, I have been sleeping! I did get out of bed a couple of times, like a few of my friends hosted a small welcome home party for me at my sister’ house. That was special, and I will try and post a picture of it. It has been so good to see everyone again. I still have not shown my family any pictures yet, I have been too sick, and had no voice. It has made the jet lag worse too, much worse than when I got to de Schweiz. I hope to be feeling normal by the weekend, and would appreciate your prayers.


Well, my posts may not be as novel to you now, but remember, it’s all about the vignettes of life. Sometimes they are in Switzerland, and sometimes they are in the rolling state of Wisconsin. I hope I have many more to share with you!