I read about this three years ago. We did some research how the whole town comes out when it is time to move the cows into the highlands of the Swiss Alps and sounded so fascinating. So for the past two years we just leased the cow, got pictures of our cow and received 2 kilos of cheese. It was more for the novelty of it like naming a star after someone or getting a certificate for a piece of land on the moon.
This year we decided to go for the whole season and will go to participate in the moving of the cattle up into the highlands. We will visit "our cow" which we will lease for the season and work on the farm.
People pay tons of money to go to Israel to go work for three weeks on a kibbutz, we thought it would be wonderful to go "work" in the Alps.
It is not exactly cheap, but honestly we are paying for the experience and for the memories. We like to do things because they are out of the ordinary and different.
For instance, you can go out to the wine country and eat bread, butter, cheese and sparkling wine at Domaine Chandon and over look this wonderful CA wine country or you can go have lunch and wine at Castello Di Verrazzano and overlook the vineyards in Tuscany.
It is all about the journey and the experience. I hope you get to experience it for yourself.
Thanks for comming back and telling me what you are up to and how this evolved. Fascinating.
I truly hope you have a wonderful time in Switzerland--it sure is lovely. When will you be travelling? Can I ask how it is that you were able to lease the cow for the past two years without doing the visit/work. It seems from the website (and the articles in Time and what not that I am finding in English also) that this is pretty much required of everyone. Were you able to work out some special deal with then somehow to allow yo uto skip out on this the past coupel of years? Also, did they ship the cheese to you? How did that work with regulations about perishable foods comming into the US and how will it work when you bring your cheese home (oh and how much will you get to bring)?
I was thinking of this thread at DS11's birthday party today. He invited 4 boys and all four came. Friday at school his friend from Russia told Rio he was able to come but had to bring his dad's boss's daughter along
Odd, but you know DS was just thrilled that this boy could come and did not care one way or the other about the girl comming so I figured why not. We are Americans, living in Germany and these were both Russian kids. So between the differences in cultural expectations and the possible language issues I was not upset, but it did seem a bit odd to invite along another person (not even a sibling) to a party out (it was at a big indoor play type place which, of course, charges per child). These two arrived alone on the bus and left alone about 45 minutes early (but after dark) to go back home on the bus as well (we were obligated to stay and "chaperone" the others, there is a 2 adult minimum rule, or else we would have taken them home).
There was also the option to spend the night. We have a boy sleeping here now who I had never met before the party today. His parents emailed last week that he would be here and that Grandma will pick him up in the morning. They did send phone numbers. They did not even get out of the car when dropping him off--so I have still never met them
I could never be comfortable leaving my 11 year old to sleep over with someone whose parents I had literally never spoken a word too! Again, just a cultural difference. He is a super sweet kid and we are totally happy with how it came out--but I WAS wondering how the DIS would respond to these situations, especially after seeing how the debate on this thread went
:
Bizarre.
Dang.....
