My weekend was once again action packed as ever. Saturday morning I was dropped off in Olten (a small city in near my town...well as near to my town, which is in the middle of no where, as you can get). The reason for me being dropped off alone in a city was that my host family had a horse jumping day again and felt it was better for me to be in a city rather than with them all day watching the horses. Personally I was happy to just stay home or go on a trip somewhere with my friends but my host family felt Olten was a good option, so that is where I was on Saturday form 12 until 5.30 (it was meat to be till 4 but the horse day went longer than expected)

So after looking around the city and buying some new types of Lindt chocolate.....including chilly chocolate, Lindor chocolate bars, and much more....I found my self a phone box and with my phone card gave home in Australia a call. I ended up talking for ages....I talked to Victoria my sister for about 2 hours....it was wonderful and hardly cost me anything...so that was great. I love just chatting with my family, while I am not home sick I do miss them, and so talking to them is really nice….even when the conversations don’t always have so much substance…just talking is nice.

After Olten (and waiting on the side of the street for 1.5 hours as I was told I would be picked up at 4 and had to wait till 5.30pm for them to arrive) It was back home to quickly get ready to go to church for the memorial service of the death of my host Grandpa.

This service was sad, and after the service was so sad because we visited my host dads dad’s grave, then my host dads brother’s grave and then my host Dad and Mum's sons grave which is also my host brother and sisters brother’s grave. He sadly died in 2004 of a heart problem.

I was so sad to see the 3 generations of graves...and what was sadder was how these deaths had affected the family, as all of the Meier half of the family were there and they were all rather upset. For me this was really sad but I also was not sure what to do....I guess everyone feels the same in these situations....I felt sad for the family but was not sure how to react and what I was meant to do apart from stand there and offer my sympathies.


After the graves we had a dinner at the wife of my host father’s dead brother's house. This event was sombre but soon the spirits lifted and people started to enjoy themselves as much as possible.


On Sunday I was up nice and early as I had to go and help at My Rotary Club President with a Castle breakfast. MY host sister Eilane said she would also help at the castle as both of us were picked up at 7.20 and driven to the castle.



This castle was in Oensingen (the village next to my Old Village Niederbipp, I used to see this castle form the window every day for 6 months).

This castle is really old , and so we had to use a special lift, cable system which is on the outside of the castle to send all of the food directly I up into the castle kitchen.



Before the work started I took the opportunity to look at the view….it was awesome….i could see my old house from up there. (behind the hill)




The work suddenly started and never seemed to end. I was on coffee and food duty, so I had to make sure all the platters were full, people had drinks and had to make sure the coffee machine never ran out of coffee.

The food was all buffet, but sort of Swiss style, with cheese, and meats and a muesli yogurt thing called Birchermüesli. I shared this job with an old lady…she was really lovely and we made the job as fun as we could.


Soon the people had had enough food so I went and had a look around d the castle. It was a lovely castle…and seemed like a big old home, so it was different to the royal castles of England.



Elian and I went up to the tower …which meant climbing 1000000 stairs….after sore legs we reached the top and had an even better view of the area.





After the castle breakfast my host family and I went off to a Agriculture fair in Mumiswill ( a small village near my village) here we saw some awesome hose display, such as log pulling (this technique is still used today to take felled trees out of the forests, however today it is only used in places where cars can not go)



Horse jumping (but over jumps about 2ms high…this looked amazing…these people and horse are so brave and cleaver)


As well as horses jumping over logs,


And people in carriages.


There were also non horse displays

there were cows being milked,




Cow bells


Yodelers (the looked so swiss with the cows)


and fruit displays that looked so yummy



And also the sort of horse related event of horse shoeing….I was shocked to see the smoke rise off the poor horse foot…though I was told that it does not hurt the horse…but still it looked painful.




Then as I was talking to my host parents about how much I love the cow bells (which I do I think they are just wonderful…I love the sound they make from up on the mountains…and the look of them on the cows…cows just look better with bells) So I was saying this and my host parents said there is a cow bell maker here lets go have a look. So we went ad looked and suddenly I was being ordered a cow bell as a leaving gift….but not an ordinary cow bell….oh no one with my name embossed on it and a special hand made belt.



I am so spoilt…I had never dreamed of getting such a bell. I have even offered to pay some money towards the bell as they are expensive and I really don’t expect them to spend all of that money on me.

Oh I really am so excited I can not wait to see my personally made bell…..this is the coolest gift I have ever been given. It is something I will have for the rest of my life. And can pass down to my children etc.