2 Months In

If we're going to get really technical, it's been 2 months and 15 days since my arrival in lovely Switzerland. I just started school again yesterday from having 2 weeks off for fall holiday, and what an adventure that was. I did so much traveling that I could write a novel about everything I saw, but I'll just recap the most important highlights.

WEEK 1

The first week of vacation included trips to Geneva, Basel, Lugano (Italian part of Switzerland) and Porlezza, Italy. A few other exchange students and I took a 4 hour train ride from Zürich Hauptbahnhof (main train station) to, what seemed like a totally different country. It blew my mind that you can travel about 3 hours west or south and you are no longer able to speak the language (at least for me) and we were STILL in the same country. It was quite the challenge to communicate with people. The french part of Switzerland isn't exactly the biggest fan of the German language and vice-versa for the German speaking region. Luckily some of the exchange students I was with knew a little French so we were all set. We took a bus to the United Nations and actually got a guided tour (in English)! It was really interesting. The U.N has 6 main languages that are spoken/translated; English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese. It becomes really complicated with countries (which are most of them) that do not use these as their official language so translators are always a vital part of this organization.

The traveling continued onto the next day, where I went about an hour west to Basel (towards the German and French border). Basel is a beautiful old city that is known for it's harbor, which is on the Rhein river and then connects to the ocean. A bunch of us walked to one specific location which technically allows you to be in Germany, France, and Switzerland all at the same time. How epic is that?!

On Friday, an AFS (not Rotary) exchange student friend of mine and I traveled south to Lugano, which is the southern most point in the country towards Italy. Again, I was in a bit of trouble because I don't speak Italian! I feel almost at home when I'm in the German part of the country because at least there I can communicate with people! French and Italian are my next languages to conquer, that's for sure. Moving onward, we walked around, ate Chinese food (why is that hilarious?) and then took this beautiful boat tour on Lake Lugano. Even though is was a bit cloudy, seeing the coastal fishing villages was so worth it. The ship dropped us off at some of these villages, where Sam and I walked around. We ended up walking in old churches,  got lost in the "coastal-maze", and then the ship took us to ITALY!!! There we bought gelato and were having a conversation with the lady that owned the cute little shop. It was probably the FUNNIEST thing that has happened to me in Europe because she only spoke Italian, so you could only imagine the struggle with communicating. We would say one thing and she would go on a total rant and we wouldn't understand a single word... It made my day.

WEEK 2

Last Sunday I traveled to Liechtenstein (I pretty much saw the whole country because it's so small) and Feldkirch, Austria. Because Liechtenstein has no train station, we took the the train to the last station in Switzerland before the border. Then we took this lime green double-decker bus to Liechtenstein! Liechtenstein has a population of about 35,000 people and only 9 of them are unemployed. Liechtenstein is the smallest yet the richest (by measure of GDP per capita) German-speaking country in the world and the only country to lie entirely within the Alps. It is the only predominantly German-speaking country not to share a common border with Germany and the only predominantly German-speaking nation to have a monarch. We saw the prince's castle, took a nice stroll through the country, and then took another bus to Feldkirch, Austria, where we pretty much did the same thing. It's crazy that all these countries are so close to Switzerland. It's so easy to travel!

The next day, my host family took me to Europa-Park (their version of Six Flags sort of) in Germany. I had  such a blast with everyone. We went on rides in different "countries" (hence why it's called Europa-Park). The two biggest roller coasters at the park were Blue Fire and Silverstar. I didn't find them scary whatsoever though... Maybe I need something with explosions and more loops and something that goes over 100 miles per hour. Overall, I still had so much fun. :p

From Tuesday to Saturday, my host family took me on a grand tour of Switzerland. Places we traveled to included Bern (Switzerland's capital city), Lavaux, Wallis, and Ilanz. I have never seen such beautiful places in my entire life. I know I keep writing that but it's honestly true! I can't get over it! Here are some pictures from the beginning of the tour.

For the second part of our tour, we stayed at the host family's winter house in the Alps. If you were to Google Image "The Swiss Alps", I pretty much saw those mountains IN REAL LIFE. I witnessed my first Swiss snowfall at 2,500 meters above sea level. Snow was everywhere and it literally looked like Christmas! 

My host dad took this artsy picture of me. Totally have to give him credit for it.

I'm actually OK with being back in school because I get to see all my lovely Swiss friends again. Other than that, waking up so early doesn't make me the happiest person in the world but it'll get better. Thanks for reading about my life!!!

Autumn

It's officially been fall for about two weeks now and that means only one thing: FALL VACATION! It sounds a bit strange that we have 2 weeks off in the fall but I'll take it with NO problem. I still have this next week of school but it's not exactly a "typical" school week. To explain it lightly, it's a project week where the students visit museums, labs, universities, and learn about professions that they might want to study after the Gymnasium (Switzerland's "high school"). I think this week will go by rather quickly. Tomorrow I am seeing BRITNEY SPEARS in Zürich with some exchange students. I honestly cannot believe I will be seeing her LIVE...TOMORROW. Of course I am not the biggest Brit-fan but I think it'd be awesome to see such a celebrity/musician live here. It's also only 25 minutes away from me too, so why not?!

This has been one crazy weekend. Yesterday I woke up early to go to the shooting range in a neighboring village with my host dad. I've never used a real gun before so I was a tad nervous. But, it wasn't as scary as I initially thought. My host dad loaded the rifle, handed it to me, and I was ready to shoot. I did pretty well my first round because I was just shooting at a typical circle target. The second round I shot at a target in the shape of a pig so it was quite difficult. My host dad told me it's even hard for professionals to hit the pig. At least I shot it once! I felt as if I were a real Swiss person taking part in one of this country's many traditions. Later in the day, my host dad took me on a 3 hour motorcycle tour all the way to Appenzell. We were going so fast I couldn't believe it (it's a BMW, hence why we were going so fast), and the scenery around us was absolutely stunning. I honestly don't think I have ever seen such beauty in my entire life. Sorry, guys. Looks like I'll never be coming home. ;) It was also my younger host brother, Tobi's 14th birthday so, later in the night, we had a lot of family and friends to celebrate. I understood a lot of Swiss German at the dinner table which makes me proud and astounded that I'm picking up the dialect so quickly.
Today was another beautiful day with the host family. I'd like to call it a Host Family Bonding Weekend! Anyways, we took the train to Luzern, one of Switzerland's bigger tourist spots. There we took a boat tour around Vierwaldstättersee and had an amazing lunch on the ship. It was rather foggy but, other than that, we couldn't have asked for a better day to go. I'm happy I made friends who live there so I always have a reason to go back!
During the fall vacation (what I am sure of), my host family and I are doing a big tour of Switzerland. I'm so excited I get to see more of what this place has to offer. And one day we are stopping in Germany to go to Europapark, which is a huge amusement park just like 6 Flags. I'm sure vacation is going to go fast and I'll be headed right back to school.

Thanks for reading and I promise I'll try to update this more often!