I have been avoiding writing a blog post for almost five weeks now. This month I reached the half way point in my exchange. This coming week I will have officially been living in Switzerland for six months. Everyone told me the second half of an exchange goes faster, and I can now that this is true. It seems just like yesterday I was counting down to the New Year and now its already February! Here is an update on the last month of my amazing life.
Christmas Eve is day that most people in Switzerland celebrate. Christmas Eve morning Veronica came into my room to wake me up at the crack of 11:30. For all that know me personally that was a big danger for Veronica as I am not the most pleasant person when people wake me up. Nevertheless I woke up and got ready for the day. Once Veronica and I were dressed and ready we went to the grocery store and picked up food for my host mom to start cooking dinner. We made the five-minute walk to the church at five o’clock. Unlike Christmas mass in Carmel, there were plenty of places to sit and no one had to stand. The Mass was only an hour long including a little skit performed by the children in our church. The mass ended with the entire church singing Silent Night in German, which was of course beautiful. After church we went home and lit the candles on our Christmas tree that Veronica and I had decorated a few days earlier. The candles looked so much more beautiful than the electric ones we put on our Christmas tree at home. Once all the candles were lit we all sat down together and ate dinner. My host dad finished cooking while we were in the church. I honestly have no idea the name of what we ate, all that I know was that it was delicious and Italian. Of course we also ate Christmas cookies! After dinner my host mom played the guitar and I attempted to sing the songs. We sang in English, French, and German. We then proceeded to open presents, which is very typical in Switzerland. Throughout the night when the candles would burn out we would replace them with new ones and once again light them up. Christmas day was a day of rest. We ate breakfast all together and after Veronica I watched three or four Christmas movies until my host grandma came over for Lasagna in the evening. We continued to light the candles on the tree every time we ate throughout this two-day period, which was lovely. In Switzerland the day after Christmas, is also a day of rest for a majority of Switzerland including Zürich.
On the 28th of December, Veronica and I went to visit my extended host family in the mountains where they have a house. The house is so beautiful and has an amazing view of the mountains. We went for a walk in the evening and went to a pond that was completely frozen and walked on the ice. On the pond , someone had shoveled a circle so people were able to ice skate. This barely happens in Indiana except for the ice storm a view years ago. However, it reminded me of Dad and how growing up the lakes would always freeze over in Michigan. The following the day, while everyone went skiing, I stayed in and wrote papers for my online class. Although it wasn’t too exciting the view was amazing and I couldn’t complain because I was writing my papers in the Alps.
I spent New Years Eve with both Exchange Student friends and a friend from my class. We started by the sea and counted down to the New Year. The street which usually has cars and trams, was filled with people. I almost couldn’t move. Even with the large crowd the Fireworks were amazing and so beautiful on the water. After the fireworks were finished, the trams were still unable to pass on the street so we walk about 15 minutes back to the Train Station to catch a train. We then went to a club where we all had a blast just dancing and celebrating the New Year in such a beautiful country.
I am currently in the process of taking a second german course. The german course is either on a Wednesday afternoon or a Saturday morning. When the German Course falls on a Wednesday I leave school early and only miss German Class. I take the train to Orelikon which is about 10-15 minutes from my school. On Saturdays it starts at nine in the morning, and for those that know me. This is torture. I can not complain because I live the closest to where we have german course of all my friends. Some of my friends that live in different cantons have to wake up on Saturdays at five! I only have one more class left and it really has helped a lot. We always have homework to keep me busy when I have free hours at school. I am currrently preparing myself to take a proficiency exam in March.
This weekend was my host grandmothers 80th birthday! We spent the entire weekend celebrating which was extremely exhausting. On Friday, friends of my grandmother from Slovenia flew into Zürich, two of which slept by us so Veronica is currently staying in my room with me. We had a big dinner all together with my cousins as well. We had Raclette, which is a typical swiss dish. This time we were cooking different meats on top, the oil from the meat kept spraying and hitting our skin which was actually really funny because one of us would randomly scream and everyone would laugh but within the next minute someone that had laughed would also get sprayed with hot oil. On Saturday, we all took a train to St. Gallen and had a tour of the famous library. The library could have easily passed for Hogwarts. It was so beautiful and unfortunately photos were not allowed. Some of the books were over 1,000 years old, and mostly written by hand. After the Library we took a really old fashioned train from St. Gallen to Appenzell. The train had wooden seats and It almost felt weird to have my Iphone in my hand. When we arrived there was three people playing the Swiss Alp Horn. I really enjoy the sound of the Alp Horn even though most people do not find it very special. When they were done playing they let me try and play, which did not end too well! After,we went inside and had dinner all together. Right before we had dessert we went back outside into the cold to set off lanterns. It was incredible. I have always seen people around Carmel set of lanterns but I never got the chance to do it myself! While we set them off they were playing the Swiss Alp Horns in the behind us and it was such a wonderful moment even though I almost caught my lantern on fire before I could let it go. Today, we had a simple lunch all together which was really amusing. After spending an entire weekend with Slovenians, I have realized how much they love to sing. The entire weekend whenever there was a free moment someone grabbed a guitar and they would all start singing together in unison.
I finally forced myself to finish my online class! It actually was not as hard as I had expected it to be. I submitted all eight of my essays in and received at 93% ! All I have left now is to take my final. Since I do not live in the states I had to find someone to proctor my exam for me, which took two weeks and many phone calls. I am taking my final exam on Thursday after school and am extremely nervous.
I have “Sport Holidays” starting on Friday. Sport Holiday is a two week break from school where almost all Swiss people go to the mountains to Ski or Snowboard. I am spending the first week in Zürich probably hanging out with people from my class or just at home relaxing and the second week in the mountains with my cousins which I am really excited about!
This past Friday my school had a Snow day where the entire school was required to go to Flumserberg and either make snowboarding,skiing, or Sledding. Of course I chose sledding. The weather wasn’t ideal but no matter what the weather is, Switzerland will always be beautiful. I was the only one in my class actually excited for the Snow Day but my class went along with it and went sledding with me. Sledding in Switzerland is intense. Usually my friends and I go to North View Church and sled down the hill and just run back up. In Switzerland you actually go up on a ski lift and sled down the entire mountain. I have never had so much fun and been so terrified at the same time. I actually got my friends to race me down to the bottom!



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