Valle Verzasca

Bonjourno! Bonjourno! Bonjourno! I gotta learn how to spell that word. Any Italian speakers out there want to help me out? Well today was quite the day. The orientation program led us north through Ticino into Valle Verzasca. If you ever visit Switzerland, go to Valle Verzasca! You have to see these pictures: http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k208/keep7925/Valle%20Verzasca/















Those are just a few of the amazing landscape shots. Please do look at the rest--they're incredible.
I was walking across the bridge back from the crazy waterfall and I prayed to myself, "can I ever possibly reflect your beauty even half as much as all this does?" And then God brought to mind the words of C.S. Lewis (or maybe Chesterton) about how if we saw one another in our full glory we could not bear it. And he spoke, "but you do. and you are of greater glory than all of this beauty in creation." And that's a wild thought. Maybe we just appreciate beauty like this so much more because it is rare. Just as a diamond has more glory than crystal or somthing like that because it's rarer. We see people all the time, and they have become so commonplace that we completely miss the fact that we are staring at the greatest thing every made. I'll refrain from going into the philosophical implications.
And then I did my part to partake in this beautiful landscape:




















The right is the view from above, and the left is me jumping. It was higher than it seems to look in the pictures. Oh well. The water was absolutely freezing, as I'm sure you have some idea from looking. I assure you it was colder than you think. But well worth it. The next challenge:


Do you all know what that is??? I know it's a bad picture, we were in the bus and weren't stopping for it. I'll give you a hint--that's in Interlaken. Any takers? Let me know if you got it right. But that's the dam from James Bond--GoldenEye that he bungee jumps off of! Sam, you went bungee jumping when you studying abroad, can I do it? If the funds and manhood are sufficient enough then it might happen. I did hear though that it's the farthest bungee drop in the world (the picture does not justice--it just keeps decending and getting more and more narrow). Go big or go home right? Oh man. I don't know. It might be crazy expensive and then I can hide behind that. That would be so cool though to be able to say that you've jumped off of that! I'd totally have to outstretch my arms like he does, that is if I could raise the as they are shaking violently. Honestly I don't think it will happen unfortunately, but it's fun to dream.


Ah, I almost forgot. I also picked up a few postcards today. Since I know that you all wrote down my address from the last post and are preparing your packages and letters, I figured I'd do something myself. However I don't have any addresses with me. So if you give them to me (comment or email), you might get a post card. Quickest responses get earliest rewards. And I assure you these post cards are pretty tight. And I guess I'll write on them a little some too.

Thus concludes another long yet "scratching the surface" post. I'll try to continue to learn how to focus and intensify. Or am I doing alright? Feedback? Suggestions?