Happy Two Months, Switzerland!

  I've have been sitting here, with my netbook, attempting to write about my two months anniversary with Switzerland, but the problem is I can't seem to figure out what I should write about. Most things here are becoming less sparkling, less extraordinary, more normal. I have a daily routine for school, and while I don't remember where most of my classes are or the names of my teachers I can understand a lot more of what is going on in class.

  My German has greatly improved to the point where I can actually have a full conversation with someone. The problem is that in Switzerland, everyone speaks in dialect which changes slightly as you travel around the country. Swiss German is difficult to understand, but even more difficult to speak. 'Urner Deustch', the Swiss German spoken where I live, is harsh and difficult to understand. I have a decent understanding of High German, but have not even begun to attempt to learn Swiss German. At this point, I  should be focusing on 'Real German', but I plan to work on Swiss German in maybe February.

  School itself has gotten a lot better. It is not quite as boring as usual and now that I can speak more German, I can talk to more people. The easiest classes are probably math, English, and French. My art classes are fairly easy as well because there is not normally a lot German. Sports and swimming are also easy, but really fun because I get to let off steam. My most difficult, and there fore most boring classes are history and German, in those classes I tend to doodle and work on French.

  Looking back, two months ago I would have never imagined what my exchange would really be like. I would never have thought of all the adventures I would have. Of course I imagined school, my host family, and Switzerland itself, but I really had no idea what it would be like. When you go on exchange you can't plan anything because you never know what is going to happen next, you just have to live. 

And off to Mt. Blanc we go!

   At breakfast this morning I decided to calculate the hours I have spent on trains this week. It added up to approximately 24 total hours of trains and buses. I was in Zurich twice, once in Basel, and the longeset quantity of train time was the trip to Chamonix, France.

   Bright and early Monday morning I awoke to shower and finish packing for a two day trip to Chamonix Mt. Blanc, France. We started the journey first to Luzern, then another train to Lausanne, then to Martingy, from there a special bus to Chamonix. It was an exhausting journey, but I absolutely love traveling on trains. You can see so much of the country and there is absolutely no traffic. I brought books and did a lot of sleeping.

   The last leg of the journey was spent on a bus through the French Alps, which was extremely long and high up, but incredibly beautiful. The mountains, some of which were covered in snow, are breathtaking. When we finally arrived in Chamonix I was completely exhausted, but we were only there  for one night, meaning there was no time to be tired.

  The first thing we set out to do after arriving, was to find the 'Tourist Information'. Martha, my host mom does not speak a lot of French so it was up to me to help find us a hotel. Im fluent in French, five years of a French elementary school gave me that, but when I tried to speak French to the woman behind the counter, what came out of my mouth was a jumble of French and German. It took me a moment before I was able to ask her what we needed.

   After we found a hotel, we settled in and set off to wander the town. Chamonix it self an absolutely beautiful quaint mountain village. What makes it so special is the spectacular mountain range in the back drop. The view of Mt. Blanc, the highest peak in Europe, is absolutely breathtaking. We spent the afternoon wandering through the shops and enjoying the sights. 

   For dinner, we ate at a the hotel's restaurant where we were staying the night. Both of us ordered the  special three course meal. I had smoked salmon, then potato dish with bacon, and finished with a spectacular creme brulee. It was an absolutely fantastic meal, but I ate way to much so food that I needed to walk around the village at night. 

  The next morning we woke up early, because who would sleep when your on vacation, to ride the gondola to 'Aiguille du Midi'. At 12,602 ft, it is the highest point you can reach without any climbing. The only peak that is higher, is of course Mt. Blanc the highest peak in Europe. To reach the top, you have to take two gondola's up the mountain. The first takes you half way to 'Plan de L'Aiguille' , and the second (which is the longest un-supported gondola in Europe) takes you to the top. 

  We rode the gondola at about 9:00 am, so there were still a lot of clouds in the sky, but never the less it was the absolutely most beautiful view I have ever seen. The mountains, all of which are completely covered in snow every month of the year are breathtaking. From the top, you can see all the way to Switzerland in one direction and to Italy in the other. 

  As usual, I did not pack particularly well for this trip. I didn't really think about needing my winter coat or anything, but I should have realized that we were going to be 12,000+ ft in the sky and it would be very cold. As the sun started to come out, the clouds started to disapear and you could really see the mountains and the tiny village of Chamonix down at the bottom. 

  When we got off the mountain we set off to the hotel to pack our thing had head back home. We wanted to leave early enough so we could stop in Martingy, Switzerland for a dog museum, but when we got to the train station there was not going to be a train for 3 hours, very French. They are striking, until the election on Monday meaning they are not having the frequent train service we would have liked.

  Because we had to wait a while for our train, we decided to stay in Chamonix for lunch and then start the long journey home. When we finished lunch, we headed out to the train station to take a bus to Martingy, Switzerland and then home.

Monday- In Zurich, with two exchange students from Canada (Emily and Kim),
one from Argentina (Alejo!), and me!

Tuesday- More exchange students.. (from left to right, Mark-USA, Carly-Canada, Me, Ana-Mexico, Jada-USA, and Andrea-USA) We are in Basel, on the bridge of
three countries, at one time! Switzerland, France, and Germany.

Wednesday- In Chamonix, France!

Thursday- Oh look it's Mt. Blanc! 

  

Those wonderful moments of being a crazy exchange student

Yesterday we planned to go to Lugano, in Tessin (the only Italian Canton in Switzerland) with a big group of exchange students. As it turned out, it was just me and Carly and Ana (who live in Bern), none the less it was a very eventful day! Once we arrived in Lugano, after a 3 hour train ride... we set out to find Italian pizza for lunch.
   
We wandered around for a half an hour trying to find an appropriate restaurant, not too expensive and preferably not too fancy. None of us speak any Italian, and in Tissin very few people speak German. We found a reasonable place for lunch, and spent a long time deciding on which pizza to get and confusing our waiter when we asked to split one, three ways. The pizza was fantastic, and perfectly Italian.    We ordered 'Porcusito Pizza e Funghi', basically ham and mushrooms on pizza with mozzarella and the most amazing tomato sauce. The best part was that each of us had our pizza a particular way, Ana- who didn't like the ham, Me- who does not eat mushrooms, and Carly -who loves both. The pizza was absolutely delicious. Our waiter, who spoke no German and very little English was very confused at why we were in Lugano. After our fabulous lunch we just started walking, no idea where we were going or what were going to find. We didn't plan anything, we just walked and stopped to take pictures. Lugano is an absolutely beautiful city, it looked similar to Luzern- Lugano is also on a lake- but reminded me of being in Italy. I frequently forgot we were still in Switzerland, everyone was speaking Italian and it didn't seem like we could still possibly be in Switzerland. In true Italian fashion, we had to stop for some gelato, which was absolutely amazing by the way. It was extremely hot for October, probably because we were so close to Italy...but in Switzerland there is fresh clean drinking water everywhere. And its free.

Carly, Me, and Ana in Lugano

After gelato, we decided we could take a train to another city 30 minutes away- Belinzona. We all have train-bus-boat passes so we just hopped on a train to Belinzona. Once we arrived, we walked around for a little bit, when we happen to stumble upon a tunnel, which led to two elevators. We of course rode the elevators up, and voila! A Castle! We had just happend to stumble upon an old Italian castle, on a hill... It was a wonderful surprise! We just started walking around the grounds, enjoying the beautiful view of Tessin. We also happened to find a tunnel, under-neath a double sided wall. There was enough light to see, but we kept looking for dungeons... we didn't find any. 

Ana, Me, and Carly; Sitting on part of the walled castle.  

When we left the castle, we decided we should buy some food, at 'coop' to eat on the train home. Once we left the castle, we about 25 minutes to find food and head up the hill to the train station, the problem is we might have gotten a little distracted in 'coop', and got stuck in a long line. When we got through the line, after purchasing: bread, turkey, cheese, cookies, and bananas, we had all of five minutes to catch our train. We sprinted up the hill and barely caught our train! The three of us were completely exhausted to the point where literally everything was funny. I felt really bad for the people in the same compartment as us. We were hysterically laughing at everything and being really abnoxious, but we didn't care. We played 'Crazy Eights' on the train ride and practiced German phrases. We talked about what we have seen, the people we have met, and the journey we took to get here. I am really jealous that Ana flew into London, and because she had to change airports her father hired a driver who stopped along the way so she could take pictures. A year ago yesterday, I was sitting in an interview to be an exchange student, and yesterday I was sitting on a train in Switzerland, speeding through mountains, heading home.

I had the most amazingly wonderful day, definitely one of my best memories so far. Something that I will remember for a long time because of the randomness of the adventures we had. We never planned anything, other than what time we would meet. I never expected that any of this would have happened, because when you go on exchange anything is possible and you can't plan the unpredictable. I don't think I have ever laughed this hard since being here, with people who I met for the first time that morning. It felt like we had known each other forever, Ana and Carly have been friends for two months and both of them met me today. Exchange gives you something to talk about, something that no one else will ever understand. We already have inside jokes from silly It so strange to think that I have friends all over the world, and from every corner of the earth. I can't imagine not being here because this has become my life, the new normal.

Mountain Climbing Tuesday

Oh look! Some snow, I slid down the hill on the snow! 

 On Tuesday we went hiking, with a Rotarian and one of my host mom's friends. I had to wake up at 7:15 am, which was not my ideal time to get out of bed during vacation. None the less I got out of bed and we headed out to Gottard Pass where we would begin the hike. Thankfully, I was able to sleep for the 1 hour drive to the trail head. Once we arrived we set out on the hike to the top of 'Glubin' mountain. It was absolutely perfect day; blue skies and sunshine. We started out with a trail, but after a while we were walking over rocks and following the signs. We were high enough up, that there was a little bit of snow!    


<= For Sean, these are abandoned Swiss military bases. There were all sorts of look out spot all over the mountain while we were hiking! The bases are no longer used by the Swiss military, but are all locked up.        

The beautiful view from the top of the mountain. You can see the continental divide, between Switzerland, Austria, and Italy. You look straight and can see Tissin, the Italian part of Switzerland. And behind that is Italy. On my left was Austria. It was a perfect view of the Alps. You could even see the snow from the glaciers, at 9000'.

<= Me from the top of the mountain! Absolutely exhausted from all the hiking, and we still had to get down the mountain! 

It was a lovely day, but when we finally got to the car I almost automatically fell asleep. I was completely exhausted. It was a lovely hike, but I was so tired; a combination of the elevation, German, and the long hike. Apparently this is the last time for hiking till Spring, it will start getting cold and snow will cover the mountains soon! 

Observations

While Switzerland does not have the same sense of culture short as other places in the world, there are still subtle differences I have noticed: (in no particular order, just what popped into my head first)
-Lunch is the main meal of the day; salad, something hot- can be meat, pasta, rice, potatoes, etc, followed with chocolate and coffee.
-We eat so much bread, Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner always bread.
-Swiss people are always punctual.
-It is common to not leave the town you were born in when you grow up, many families live in the same town for generations.
-It is a big deal to move 2 hours away from your family.
-Everything is expensive. Everything.
-Bikes are the main mode of transportation, it is a luxury to have a GA (the train/bus/boat pass every Rotary exchange student in Switzerland receives-for free)
-Home work is never checked or given a score as a part of your grade. Test and projects are what count.
-Very few people stay at home for lunch, because we have an hour and a half most people go home.
-When you see a friend, you greet each  other with 3 cheek kisses- but sometimes it is only one. Don't ask me the rules on that one.
-Swiss people always have time to talk to a friend or someone they know, no matter how little time they have to talk,
-Cows are no big deal, and waking up to cow bells is nothing special- but to me is the most beautiful wake up call.
-The sun rises early and sets very early, we have mountains on every side.
-Swiss German is the mother language, High German is not what people like to speak.
-We have coffee makers in school!!!
-You buy your books, supplies, and lab coats.
-Tractors drive at full speed through the town.
-Cars will always stop for pedestrians.
-A lot of people own ski-homes in the mountains.
-Helmet are never worn on a bike, only on a motorcycle- its a law.
-Television is rarely watched.
-Everyone is well dressed at school.
-Pajama's are only worn in bed, you always come to breakfast dressed and showered.
-Nouns are capitalized.
-Water is always sparkling.
-The milk sometimes has a strange after taste of grass.
-Eating left-overs for dinner is rare, usually only enough is made for each meal.
-Breakfast consists of; bread, butter, jam, coffee, and juice.
-Lunch; is a the main meal of the day; salad, some kind of meat, starch (rice, pasta, potatoes, etc) and sometimes vegetables. Always finished with coffee and chocolate.
-Dinner; more bread, cheese, butter, cold meats, and tea.
-Bread is always fresh, usually we buy it every other day.
-There are no screen, to keep bugs out. Always fresh mountain air.

For now, that is all I can think of for the moment. I plan to add another list at some point in the future.