Procrastination

I usually sit down and write my blogs when I have a lot of free time and have nothing else I should be doing. Tonight  I actually should be packing but I have decided I still have time to procrastinate.The first week of March I will be switching my host families. I am moving out of the city and into a small village. The village, Uetlikon Am See, is located about 20 minutes from the city by Train. Since my school is located directly on top of a train station it will extremely easy to get to school in the morning as well. This evening I attempted to get a head start on getting all my things together. Once I started I soon realized the amount of random stuff I have accumulated. ( I did find my kindle charger! So now I can download some books in German for the long train rides!) I know I will be able to get all of my stuff to my next family however, my flight home is going to be a tad difficult.

This week I got the confirmation that my Travel Agent is searching for my flight home and I should know the exact time and date within the next 48 hours. I have known I would be going home the first week in July since the begging of my exchange but when I find out all the specific details it will make it feel completely real. I have been reflecting my time in Switzerland a lot lately which has brought me both pain and joy. So far, I have had a better exchange than I had ever thought was possible. I can honestly say I have taken all the opportunities given to me and have really changed for the better. However, when I look back I also feel pain. I have the most outstanding family and friends in Switzerland and knowing I won’t be able to see them everyday next year really is nerve wrecking. Nevertheless, I still have over four months ahead of me and I plan on living this amazing life and enjoying every minute with the people  and country I care about the most.

This week I returned from a two week break from school. I think I Spent less than half  my break actually in Zurich because of how busy I was. When I was in Zurich I went to my friend Leah’s house and we baked a Apple Pie together. I actually only peeled apples and helped with the crust because I have a tendency to mess things up. Apple Pie is a typical American dessert but of course it came out to be better in Switzerland.

Febuary is officially Fastnacht time in Switzerland!Fasnacht is one great big Carnival which takes place all over Switzerland on different dates. I went to Lucerne Fastnacht which started at 5a.m! I had to take a special train that left Zurich at 3a.m to get there on time to see the celebration. I knew people always dress up for Fastnacht but I had not idea to what extent. When I stepped off the train it honestly looked like a zoo opened all of its gates and let all the animals run free. People were dressed up as everything and anything! I saw people dressed in traditional Swiss clothing and people dressed up at airplanes. It was a huge street parade/party with hundreds of small bands and different tiny parties around each corner. My friends and I walked around the city until noon! It was freezing cold but it didn’t bother us at all because of how amazed we were. People were throwing confetti the entire time which ended up in my shoes,hair,coat pockets,backpack, EVERYWHERE!

      During my Holidays I had another Rotary Weekend. This Rotary weekend was not all the exchange students like Zermatt but split like Rigi. When the weekends split, they should be even but with Holiday plans and concerts my weekend only had about less than 50. We all met on Saturday and went ice skating in Engleberg. The weather could not have been more perfect. Since the weather was so clear all the mountains were completly visible. The walk from the ice skating rink to our house was stunning. We had to walk on a thin path of compacted snow and if you stepped just a inch off the path your whole leg would go into the snow so of course we were pushing each other off the path at every opportunity. In the evening we had two hours to hang out before dinner and we listened to music, exchanged pins, and just hung out being your normal loud exchange students.  After dinner we played a game that Swiss children play at there birthday parties.  Its difficult to explain but I will do my best. Basically there is a chocolate bar wrapped in a brown paper bag and tapped shut tightly.  One person in your group must wear a hat,gloves,glasses, and a scarf. While this person has these items on, they must attempt to open in chocolate with the knife. While this specific person is cutting, teammates are rolling dice, if they roll a 6, the person currently cutting must take off all the items and give it to the person who rolled a 6. Only after all the items are on the other person can they begging cutting open the chocolate. The group that opens the chocolate and eats it all first, wins. As you can imagine this game with 16,17,and 18 year old exchange students got pretty crazy. Sunday, the weather was not as lovely but we made the best of it. We went sledding down mount Titlus. We spent the afternoon racing down the mountain and throwing snow balls at people that were passing us to slow them down. As always after a Rotary weekend I was exhausted and wanted to sleep until next year. However, being exchange student isn’t that easy there is ALWAYS more to see and ALWAYS more to learn.

I finally made it home at around nine on Sunday evening. I immediately had to unpack my bag from Engleberg and repack for my trip the next morning to Bivio. After I was done packing, I went straight to bed and woke up at FIVE! I took the first Train from Zurich to Chur. In Chur, I got on a Post Auto bus for two hours. I decided not to take any pictures on my way to Bivio. It was something that a picture would almost ruin. The view was something that I will never forget and the people on the bus didn’t even bother to look at it because of how normal it was for them! I actually did not go skiing in Bivio.  My host aunt who is probably the sweetest person I have ever met kept me occupied my entire time in Bivio.One day we walked to the middle station of the ski slope and it took two hours to hike up and only five minutes to sled down! We also unexpectedly met a man who trains dogs to search for people after avalanches occur. On my last day, my host cousin Samuel and I went to St. Moritz. St. Moritz is one of the most expensive places in Switzerland.We walked onto of the frozen lake which was huge! There was cars actually driving onto of it. We then went to go see where the bob sled racing were held during the Olympics while they were held in Switzerland.On that same day I have to return home to Zurich so I could catch my  flight the next morning to Germany. So in one day I traveled Bivio-St. Moritz-Bivio-Chur-Zurich. On my way to Chur from Bivio I saw the most beautiful sunset over the alps that could make the  even the saddest person in the world feel complete joy.

I spent four days in Germany also! I went to go visit my friend Paulina. Paulina was an exchange student in district 6560 last year and that is how we met. I did so much in those four days to write so I’ll keep it shorter and more simple. In Switzerland, I must always wait for someone to speak to me or for me to ask a question to know what is going on because of the Swiss German. However in Switzerland when Paulina and her friends were making plans for the evening, I knew completely what was going on before someone had to explain for me. I can honestly say there is no other feeling like that. The last time I saw Paulina I spoke barely any German and now being able to communicate with her in her mother tongue was something that was so strange for the both of us. Paulina and her family were such great hosts and I am so blessed to have such a friendship.

I also did some major Toilette-tree  shopping because of how much cheaper it was in Germany compared to Switzerland. Hopefully, I bought enough to last me through the rest of my exchange year!

Post Auto Bus

Kölner Dom

2015

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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