The Great Cat Escape!

These little "cat escapes" can be seen on the sides of apartment buildings through out Switzerland. I think it's a brilliant idea! If you happen to live in an apartment that's on the second, third, fourth.....etc. floor, just open up your window and out goes the cat!

"In our view"!

"In our view"!

The top picture is the view we see as we step out the front door of our apartment. Trace and I often begin our long walks each evening down this road pictured here. As we walk we pass by many agriculture farms....it reminds a lot of home (in Saxonburg, PA). In the distance you can see the Alps.

The second picture is the view that we see from our living room window. We did zoom the camera lens in, to get a really beautiful pictures of the Alps. We are reminded daily by this view of Gods Mighty and Powerful Hand of creation in the beauty of these mountains!

~~~~~~~ Thought for the Day ~~~~~~~

Let our prayers....ascend morning and evening.

Let our days begin and end with God.

William Ellery Channing

School Days....

We are are beggining our sixth week of French language studies at Inlingua (pictured above) this week! We have been very encouraged that we are hearing more and more French that is being spoken each day. We are finding that as we are traveling on the train or if we are just out and about walking through town, to really listen to what words / phrases we are able to hear people speaking around us. It's great practice for us. We have also found that we are reading billboards and signs (traffic, buisness, etc.) all the time, to figure out; what is this ad all about? Each morning when we travel on the train, usually someone has left a newspaper behind....so, naturally we pick it up to read as best we can (of the vocabulary and present indicative verbs we have learned) about the daily news in the local area, the weather and also the world news.

Prochain Arret Neuchatel!

Prochain Arret Neuchatel!
(Next Stop Neuchatel)

Our mornings begin each day with a short up hill walk for about 5 minutes to the train station where we catch our train (pictured here) for our 20 minute ride to Neuchatel.

Here's a funny thought......the second week as Trace and I were riding the train twice a day (to and from school) I had asked Trace: "when you get on the train each day, do you feel like you need to buckle up your seat belt (as if you were driving or riding in a car)"? I thought for sure he was going to burst out laughing , but instead, he agreed and confirmed with me he has thought and felt the same thing! There of course are no seat belts on the trains! It's the strangest thing really, what we get use to!

~ Our apartment in Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane ~

We are living on the second floor in the house on the left. The first floor to our apartment is where our landlord has a small buisness he owns. The house to the right of our apartment is where our landlord and his wife live.

The picture on the right is our living room/office/dinning area. In this picture you can see just a little bit of a blue window curtain (left side of picture). This is the window that we have a wonderful view of the Alps! With the view of the Alps we see daily we are reminded of Gods Power and Majesty! This apartment is just perfect for all of our needs, it's just the right size and has a beautiful view from every window.

January 15, 2008!

We have safely arrived at Geneva International Airport! We praise the Lord for safe travels. Once we arrived we had 5 days before our French language classes began. With in those 5 days we had much to do. The first couple of days were filled with getting to know where the necessary and esstential things in life were located.


We were met at the Geneva International Airport by our French Language Coordinator. She then traveled by train with us from Geneva to the city of Neuchatel (we traveled by train for about an hour) where we were greeted by our landlord. He then drove us from the city of Neuchatel to our apartment in the little village of Les Geneveys-sur-Coffrane.

January 14, 2008

The big day has finally arrived! Here we are about to load all of our belongings into the car to head for the airport. Our travels from Pittsburgh PA to our new home in Switzerland for our French languages studies could not have gone better! If you are wondering how we were feeling at this very moment, it was one filled with much gratefulness and excitment to begin this part of our journey God is leading us on. So, come along with us on this journey that we are traveling.

We thank you so very much for standing along side us through your many faithful prayers and support, we could not do this with out your help!

Thanks for watching.

Trace and Karen