MOO.

About the cows- There's a reason that Switzerland is know for its cheese. So. Many. Cows. It all started when I was walking back to my house from the train after being away for the first week of April. You could hear something that sounded like what I thought was a parade of people banging on pots and pans (first I thought, what a ridiculous thing to imagine, but then I remembered where I live...). Upon rounding the corner, I came face to face with about 15 cows. Just eating, in the field, RIGHT in front of my house. Each cow, even the adorable babies (petites vaches, as they've come to be known), wears a big bell around their neck (yes, cowbells ACTUALLY exist, contrary to what I thought) and plays lawn-mower from dawn until dusk. Every day more and more of the fields in my village became populated with cows. Brown cows, black cows, white cows, spotted cows, (anorexic cows), you name it, I've seen them all. Furthermore, I learned that cows can run...FAST. Thank god for the electric fences because there have been some instances where without them, I would have actually feared for my life. It's funny, cows are pretty friendly animals (save for the occasional charging). They come right up close to you and if you try to take a picture, it's almost like they're posing (see picture). Anyway, this was only the beginning.

The next weekend was the Bussy-Chardonney "combat des reignes," or the cow festival, as we Americans called it. What we though was just going to be a bunch of cows and food actually turned out to be a soft-core bull fighting tournament. Welcome to rural Switzerland. There was a big ring in the middle of the field, and cows with numbers painted on them were led into the ring in groups of 6 or so and pitted against each other. They wouldn't charge, exactly. Rather, they would just butt heads and push, back and forth, until one just decided they were tired and would give up. Some of the cows wanted nothing to do with the nonsense and would give up, but some would cross the line and get violent. They were cheered on but removed from the ring shortly thereafter. Oh, and the winner? They received a brand new shiny...cowbell. Aside from the bull fighting, there was food, waffles (oui), and booths selling everything from jewelry to sweaters (most of which looked like it didn't come from Switzerland at all...). I'm still unsure of my thoughts on this whole experience.

Today on our lunchtime outing (slash hike through the wilderness, more to come...), we learned that on average, the cows eat about enough grass to cover a (European) football field and drink 45-50 liters of water per day to produce anywhere between 2,000 and 8,000 liters of milk per year, enough for 200 kg of cheese. The Swiss really do love their cheese.