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| Date: September 2000 Place: Zermatt, Switzerland My next adventure begins with my faculty family, 13 wonderful International teenagers who were suddenly calling me "mom", and my faculty husband, Al, "dad". It is a stricking yet comforting reality to find myself in. First to tell you a little about my children. I have five daughters, Jian Jia Fan from China, who calls me "mommy" with sweetiest little voice. She is senior. Evguenia (Jane) Lozovskaia from Russia. Jane is a beauty and I think that we have really connected. She has shared with me quite abit about her past life in Moscow and I can't help but listen with the kind of complete interest that I know every kid deserves. Melati (Mel) Pellaud is another daughter. She too is strickingly beautiful, I think that she could be a face model, and what a sweet wonderful girl. Mel is from Switzerland and is also a senior. I also have a daughter named Barbara. Barabara is from Switzerland, and her native language is Swiss German. That came in extremely useful during our travels. And again just a fabulously kind young woman. My last but not least daughter is Allison from the U.S.. I know that she told me where in the U.S. that she was from but I will have to get back to you on that. |
| . Now there are my boys, and as usual, Kim loves her boys. First we will start with my Turkish sons, Murat Basyazicioglu, Melih Irmak, Cem Ozcam, and Saruhan. Unfortunately, Saruhan had to leave us for the semester due to illness but hopefully he will be back next semester. Next there are my Russian boys, the Bondiaev brothers, Ivan and Alexander, they are little troublemakers but a mothers heart is so forgiving. Also from Russia is Serguei Izmalkine, a senior and Kaspars Indriksons from Latvia. |
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| Now the trip begins. I was up on Wednesday night completing grades and having dorm duty until 1:30 am and then got up at 5:45 am to pack and be out by 7:30. We gathered all of the kids at the train station just up the hill from school and were on our way. My husband, Al had all of the tickets and money so I didn't have to deal with those issues thankfully. This was the first time I had taken the cog train from my village so even from the beginning it was exciting for me. The view coming down the mountain was blocked by rain cloudy and a heavy fog that covered the mountain but as soon as we were in the valley the skies cleared and there was nothing but blue. We switched trains in Aigle, the village just at the base of our mountain, and was on another train to Martiney. And at Martiney we rode yet another train that took us south west toward Zermatt. The train ride to Zermatt was also on a cog and the views were breathtaking. There was a recent rock slide in 1991 where a huge face of a mountain collasped and covered the old train tracks and the river that begins the Rhone. It was so overwhelming to see huge pieces of rocks lieing there as though they had fallen yesterday. I don't believe anyone was killed when the slide happened and they obviously have rerouted the train tracks and the river has found another way down as well. But the image of that area with not soon be forgotten. We arrived in Zermatt around noon |
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| Zermatt is the typical Swiss Ski Villagae. Unlike my village, Zermatt lies in a valley so the streets are pretty flat. There are no cars (with the exception of little electric taxis that are the 1/2 the width of a regular car). The village lies at the base of this amazing protrusion of the earth called the Matterhorn and it is as amazing as you can imagine. I believe that its is so overwhelming not only because it is so high and spectacular but also because the surrrounding mountian ranges are a good 1000 meters lower so it really stands out. When we arrived at the hostile the boys had one room, the girls had another, and us adults shared another room. At first I wasn't too sure about this marriage thing, it was moving pretty fast (just kidding). Actually it was completely fine. The bathrooms were just down the hall and Al was a complete gentleman, and luckily already a good friend so the only issue with sharing a room was the snoring factor. ( I'll get back to that) The rest of the first afternoon started with a bit of free time for lunch and then we met up at the cemetary in town. The cemetary was for anyone who had died that had climbed the Matternhorn. It was very interesting. Many of the stones were marked as to whether they had died while climbing or not. You couldn't help be impressed with the stories on the stones. These people were living and dying doing exactly what they wanted. As one stone stated " I Chose to Climb" - death at 37 on the north face of the Matterhorn. From the cemetary we went to Alpine Museum which was again devoted to the history of climbing the Matterhorn. Some stories really stayed with me. One gentleman climbed the mountain 233 times. That is alot !!! And the oldest guide, was Irich who was still guiding people up the mountain at the age of 90. Now that's impressive. After the muesem we let they kids have more free time for dinner and an evening of hanging out in town until curfew at the hostile at 11. At that point I did a little browsing in the shops, it is a ski village after all. But all that I purchased was a poster and some chocolate. I saw tons of things that I would love to pick up as gifts but it was so expensive and I knew that I had to carry everything I bought, and I was just backpacking it for the weekend. After shopping I met up with my hubby. We first sat at this little cafe and had a glass of red wine. The cafe had an outdoors porch with a perfect view of the Matterhorn so we sat, chatted and stared at this amazing piece of creation. |