Gut Eingelebt.

I hear the word "einleben" a lot in the form of a question here, in Germany it was mentioned a lot in my goodbyes. I got the idea of the word but didn't bother to look up the meaning till today. It means "settling in". Makes sense.
At this point I am feeling pretty settled in in my new home here. I already love Switzerland as country more than I expected to. It's hard to explain why. But I think it has something to do with the smallness of it, people are more locally oriented it seems. I can't really put my finger on specific reasons. But according to a study by Britain's University of Leicester, Swiss are the second most happiest people in the world. Only in Denmark are they happier. Newsweek also reported on a study that Switzerland is the greenest country out of 149 studied. (http://www.newsweek.com/id/98010) Happy and environmentally friendly. I guess in Switzerland you CAN have you cake and eat it too!
I guess I should say what I've been up to the past few weeks. I've been in Lupsingen most of the time. Me and the vacuume cleaner are becoming good friends. The kitchen, living room, and dining room have white floors so it needs a lot of vacuuming. But it's all good because I think that what keeps me from being allergic to the cat Tiger. Tiger is a very unusual cat. Not only am I not allergic, but he's friendly. While normally I'm a cat hater, I make exceptions for the nice one (which are very rare.)
I love the kids. They keep me pretty busy, as well as entertained, and sometimes very worn out. Sarah is the best at doing so. Last Tuesday she wanted to go for a walk with me and she took her bike. It started off nice until we got to an apartment building. She stops and says her friend lives there. Well I don't know for sure that her friend doesn't so I let her ring the one bell. Maybe she knows...Then she rings another one. Ok she doesn't. Luckily nobody answers. Then we get to more apartments. Unfortunately the door actually opens and she goes in and onto the elevator. Then I finally get her out of that building and she already into the next, still talking about how she wants to visit her friend, who I found out later doesn't even live in our town. In this building she rings a couple door bells and someone even comes out very confused. Once she out of there, she hops onto her bike. I say we're going home now! But she's on her bike and she goes to the community offices, where I had registered the day before. She starts talking to them about this friend and I have no clue what else. They have even less of a clue. By then I wasn't going to take anymore, so I took her bike and headed home. Then she's wailing and sits on the sidewalk continuing to do so. Then she recovers and walks with me. By the time we reach the house she's perfectly fine and talking to me about what she did in school and I am completely worn out. It's defiantly a new learning experience working with Sarah. Often by the end of the day I have had enough of her. Then the next day, I'm so happy to see her again. It's interesting.
I've been able to see some things in the area already here. I've gone to Basel the last two Sundays and the weather has been nice. I like the city a lot, although I haven't done all that much-a lot of walking around though. Last Sunday I went with Rebecca and Debbie to a movie, since Debbie had a gift card. I don't think I'll be seeing too many movies here...it costs 18 francs(about 17 $$) and next time you go to starbucks don't complain about the price, here a tall normal coffee is over 4 usd. I guess my shock will soon subside. I'll adjust, like I have to so much at this point. Funny how that works, how one's mentality can be so easily changed, there's reason why it's called a shock, it's very temporary. I just hope it is when I go back to the US, which I don't want to talk about, I still have time here, I'm not going to rush it. I will not talk about it anymore till the the very end of my intermenno term. I don't even know why I mentioned it now. But no more.