Here are some pictures! It takes awhile to upload pictures here, so i dont know how often i will be doing it. You can definitely count on a good mountain picture though. The mountains havent been too clear because of the weather.
On Thursday night we had a "Swiss Night." We were introduced to all of the great things in switzerland...mmm yummy fondue: cheese and chocolate. (i think i stood at those tables about 10 minutes each.. Today, groups of us went to the city of Lausanne for the day. Our first speaker is coming on Monday and our lecture phase will begin. She is speaking on the cross. I'm loving it here!

"Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him." Psalm 37:7
I can't even explain what has been happening here. I am just so content, so amazed by this place and the passion people have for God. This morning was such an emotional, amazing morning. Our speaker was talking about prayer and all of these crazy stories. He picked certain people out of the crowd and just started to speak to them. It was like God was telling him exactly what these people needed to hear. It made me cry just to watch the faces of the people he picked out in our group. I just had this overwhelming feeling of joy and Christ. It has only been 3 days, and i cant believe that i have 6 more months of this intense, stretching, growing experience. How big is my God? I know that i have to become so much less. I just know that God is going to exceed all the expectations i have. I'm taking each day at a time.

i am here! it is so beautiful...and im pretty sure i could live here for the rest of my life. there is just something about looking out of my bedroom window and seeing the beautiful mountains in the distance. I am glad that i made it here! i was supposed to have a 1 1/2 hour lay over in New Werk. My plane ended up arriving at the A gate at 6:02 pm and the flight to Switzerland was DEPARTING at 6:10 at the C gate...which is a much longer distance than i imagined it would be. thankfully, after sprinting for 30 seconds i found a nice man on one of those go carts and he drove me to my gate. my plane had already boarded but i made it just in time!
So, now I am here staying at a chalet...it is huge! i have to climb 7 flights of stairs to get to my room. i counted them today...i will probably develop some massive leg muscles by the end. ps. this keyboard is completely screwed up....for instance..the y button has a z and the z has a y but it still comes out the same and there are A LOT of commands that i dont know how to do. so i will try to avoid using sentences that need them.
anyway, our group of 31 makes up 10 different nations! i have never been surrounded by so much diversity in my life...we have people from new zealand, mexico, germany, canada, america, the netherlands, indonesia, australia, korea..and im forgetting one. The ages range from 17 to 29. its so great. There are other schools going on here too right now so there are probably about 100 people at this base. All of our base meetings have a Korean translator because there is a Korean school going on here right now too. So far its mainly been introductions, but we had amazing worship this morning. For some reason i woke up at 5;15 am and could not go back to bed. you would think after staying up for 32 hours straight i would have no problem sleeping...but for some reason i did. it was kind of nice though because no one else was awake and i just went up to the attic where there is a prayer room... it was raining otherwise i would have been outside. This verse stood out to me "And this is my prayer; that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ." My hope in this time is that i will fall more in love with God and discover more of who i am in Him and also develop a selfless love for others.
So, that is the update right now. hopefully, i can put some pictures up soon. thank you all so much for your prayers and support.

well. i officially leave today. don't really know whats going on...seriously. I'm definitely excited...definitely hasnt fully processed yet. Don't really know when it will. I'm just ready. Its happening, and I can't stop it from finally becoming a reality. I dont really think im going to be sleeping tonight.......

So, I found out that the final count of my group is 31 students! Just last month it was 21. a lot of people just signed up in a little amount of time. crazy. but hey, timing i guess doesnt always matter if you are supposed to be somewhere. Its just encouraging to look back at the process of all of this and see how it came together so perfectly. I can't wait to hear other peoples stories....
Well, I have 5 days before I leave. almost 4. It still hasn't exactly hit me yet. I feel like I have just been busy trying to get everything together that I havent really stopped to think about it all. I'm really excited...maybe a little nervous too :) I'm just ready to get going and finally be there. I just hope that I will make the most of each day and the experiences I have there. I have always been so quick to jump into the next step and think about what I am going to do next that I do not always focus on the chapter of my life that I am in right now. I know that these next 6 months will never come again. I dont want to be worrying about where I am going to go to school next or what I am going to do when I come back in March. I just want to focus on the present and allow God to use me and shape me. This is a verse that encouraged me today:
"Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long." Psalm 25:4-5. That is my prayer.