Christmas and the New Year.

So this is a little late, and I do apologize, but this post will be about, of course, Christmas. So what did I do?

Well, I started it off with a xmas party with my friends at Kiff. It was pretty cool, the vibe was nice. There were a lot of people though, but I didn’t mind all too much.

The next day, the 24th, my hostfamily and I drove to Wallis, where my hostfamily has relatives, and where we would be celebrating Christmas. As soon as we got there, we greeted everyone, and put our presents under the tree. Once everyone was there, there were a LOT of presents. Emphasis on a LOT. Then we began eating. And we ate. We ate all kinds of foods, and large amounts too. Eating, drinking, talking, being merry and stuff, was exactly what we did.

At midnight, we began the opening of the presents. In the States, we usually wait till morning, but here it’s done at night. I got a pretty good loot this year, ranging from chocolate, to knives (Swiss Army type, of course), to sweaters, to CDs. It was a good Christmas.

On Christmas day, we ate again. Except this time, about 4 times more. We began at 3pm, and we finished at 12am. It was quite the meal.

The day after, I went with Gabriel (host cousin) to Anzére or something like that, to go snowboarding. I hadn’t been boarding too long, and so I did pretty terribly. But by the end of day, I wasn’t on my ass as often, which was good. I gained some good battle scars from that day.

The day after, me and Gab went to Fribourg to go sledding. The problem was, I forgot my GA (magic train card) at home, so he had to buy the tickets for me. I was able to get the money back later when I had my GA. So we went there, and met up with his girlfriend, and her friends, and finally drove to the place and began sledding.

Now back in the States, sledding involves hills. Here, it involves mountains. It was very very exhilarating. We only had time to go down the mountain twice, but it was still very much worth it.

Later that night, we all ate fondue at Gab’s girlfriend’s best friend’s house. And after that, we went out to celebrate because it was Gab’s girlfriend’s birthday. At 2ish, we got tired, went back to Gab’s girlfriend’s apartment, where I stayed the night, and then in the morning, I headed home to Windisch.

Then that week was quiet, and cozy.

Then came New Years. I spent it with my classmates, at my friends Orla’s house. He threw a party, and it was fun. What else is there to say?

So that’s been the last few weeks for me. There won’t be too much to say until I switch host families, which will be in approximately a month. It’s gonna be a change, and I’ll have to adapt, but it should go well. I sure will miss my current family.

Speaking of my current family, my hostmum came into my room a little while ago and presented me with a brand new wool sweater they had bought for me today. Under no occasion! That was very nice and wonderful of them. I <3 my hostfamilie, and I’m gonna miss them like crazy.

how plans change.

19 Dez. 2011

whats new?

First exciting matter of business: WIZ KHALIFA!
I went to the concert with Jason, and it was pretty cool. It was extremely crowded, and the club was also not that big, but the music was great and the vibe was too. I definitely had fun! 

So Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated here, so of course, there was absolutely NO mention of it at all. Due to my very awesome YEO and Counselor, who invited me to a movie, they made the night better than it would have been. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant, then watched “Der Verdingbub.” It’s a Swiss Film with a historical background about the “orphans” of Switzerland in the 30’s and 40’s. It was a really sad movie, but nevertheless good.

That following weekend, there was a Rotary weekend in Zermatt, so all of us (111!) went to Zermatt to see the Matterhorn and the other natural beauties of canton Wallis. We arrived there Saturday at 1ish, did some village adventuring, and ended our night quietly. The next morning, we headed out to see the actual mountain. We were inside a glacier tunnel, on top of the “Klein Matterhorn,” which was at 3,883m, or 12,736ft! We rode several gondolas to get all the way to the top, but it was definitely worth it. We had lunch up there, and then we headed back to get our things, and then we went home. It was a really nice weekend, being able to be with all the exchange buddies and whatnot.

Yesterday was my hostdad’s birthday, so their family came up from Sion, which is also in Wallis, but in the French speaking part. Me and Osi got him a bottle of wine, and I made him a card, with a drawing of him on it. Not too bad, if I may say. And now, it’s a Sunday, and the looming prospect of school is just over the horizon.

I’m really lazy

And by that I mean way to lazy to write into this blog atleast once a  month. But as the Swiss say it, “scheisse passiert.”

So now my life has settled into a smooth rhythm. School consumes most of my day, but it’s nice not too bad because all I do in school is read Harry Potter. In German of course! I’m currently on the 3rd book :)

My German is also improving slowly, and I’m starting to use proper cases and articles now, so that’s a huge step up. Swiss German is still difficult, but now I don’t have to ask what’s going on too much in Sport class (which is taught in Swiss German). Understanding my extremely fast talking classmates is still hard in Swiss German, but that’s not too big of a problem:)

So what’s new with me? Well..

Second Host Family. 

I’ve met my second host family and I know approximately when I will be going to them (January/February). They’re really nice, and I’m grateful to have them, although I know that when I live there, I’m going to really miss my first family.

HAIRCUT.

Yeah, I cut my hair off after 2 years of long hair. You can go lurk on my Facebook if you wanna see it!

Halloween.

It was SO exciting because….oh wait it wasn’t. Halloween is pretty widely celebrated in the States, but here, not at all. We had no trick-or-treaters, nor did anyone dress up, or anything of that sort. It’s not as important here as it is in the States.

So, other than that, there’s not too much going on. School’s good, family’s good, life’s good, I’m good, and that’s all there is to it! 

where did I leave off?

“And so, I just got back from Lausanne, now tomorrow, I’m hanging out with a friend of mine from class, Vanessa, and then later that night I have a birthday party to attend and then a concert at a club.”

Well, so I did hang out with Vanessa, we went to Starbucks and then ended up window shopping in Aarau. Girls…what are you gonna do? haha!

Later that night, my Aussie friend Megan had her 18th birthday party, so me and a few exchange buddies went to that party. Most of the people in her class were there, so we had to speak German the whole time. It was really fun, but stupidly, I left my iPod there by mistake. Naturally, I remembered at 3am at the Zürich Hauptbahnhof (main station), and I called Megan. Turns out she found it, and she’s holding it for me until she gets back from vacation. I’ll go pick it up then. But because of all the fun I had, I lost track of time and it was already too late to go to Baden for the concert, so I just went home.

Strasbourg

I went to Strasbourg a few days later with my host family. We drove there, it was only 3 hours. It’s a city that was originally German about 300-400 years ago, but then it became a part of France. So there, many people speak French AND German. It’s a beautiful city. It looks like an island because rivers are surrounding it. There was a HUGE cathedral with the most gothic architecture. Words can’t express it’s beauty. We spent the whole day in the city, walking around, and at one point, being lost although we had a map! But it was a great (and tiring) day!

Brötlä

Brötlä = Grillieren = Barbeque! Some of my class and I (and Jason), went to the Aare to do some grilling. We got some wursts and bread and just made a fire out by the river and then cooked them. It was a really nice day to be able to just chill with some of my school friends.

And that is about everything important that I’ve done (that I can recall)! I’ll try updating this thing a little more from now on:)