Jungfrau

This weekend was amazing! We traveled to the alps on Saturday morning and to a train up to Jungfrau, the highest train station in Europe. We arrived 3,600 and so meters up (apx 10,800 feet) and went outside to the most amazing view I have ever seen. This makes Oregon mountains look like babies, the Rockies look like teenagers, and the Andes look like distant cousins. We went on a 30 minute hike (mostly uphill) to a restaurant where we ate lunch. I ended up hiking in a tank top because even though it was freezing outside the sun shone like cray and hiking with almost no oxygen is very hard. The cafe was adorable and I had a plate of cheese for lunch. You can see the picture bellow if you don't trust me. On the way back we attempted to sled down the hill on plastic bags, this resulted in wet clothes, many summer salts, and even more smiles. When we arrived back at our destination we toured the museum, walked around the ice palace (a tunnel carved into the glacier with surprisingly cool layers between summer and winter where you could s e the dirt between the ice, dad look at the picture bellow)  and lastly went to the huge chocolate store. Afterwards we took the train back down. When we arrived at the car we rode to our hotel. The hotels here are either  backpacking stops, or luxury hotels. There is no middle ground holiday in or even sketchy super 8. We had a delicious dinner, played some fuse ball and went to bed. The next morning we walked around town and over to the indoor swimming pool. I climbed (for the first time in 2 months) for a while, until my fingers were sore and my toed were as squished as a two year olds favorite stuffed animal, and then joined everyone else in the pool. We had a picnic outside, got some chocolate at the tasteless chocolate store in Switzerland, than headed out. On the way home we stopped at a cave and went on another hike. The cave was amazing and had an river inside of it. It was very cool to walk through. After this amazing weekend I am both extremely grateful for my host family, and extremely exhausted from so much fun! I will let the photos say what I could not put into words.

My lunch

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Rotex weekend

Last weekend was my first Rotex weekend. I took a three hour train ride to the opposite side of Switzerland to meet up with the other exchange students. We arrived and took a small hike up a hill to our hostel. I shared a room with two of my buddies from my German class in Olten and two strangers. Our bedroom had five people and four beds so me and my two friends got to swish the two twins together and share a almost queen sized bed with three people. The first afternoon we took a bus to a town about 15 minutes a way where we were told to take off our shoes and start hiking. They took us to this strange path with different sized painful rocks that we walked over barefoot. Afterwards we continued hiking uphill for what seemed like ages until finally the towns were so small the got mashed together and looked like a river. Here we were met with a mud pit that we walked through freezing cold and knee deep, many of the exchange students had mud fights and one or two had mud blankets by the end. Later we made our way back to the hostel. In the evening we had dinner, and I played some South American card game that was very complicated and hard to explain. In the evening we were put into teams and played different competitive games. In the first one person from our group had to go into someone's room and put on as many clothes as they could in two minutes, this resulted in a lot of lost clothing, thankfully no one found my bag particularly full of clothes so I did not lose any. The second game was a air guitar challenge... With no music. It was hysterical to watch. The third a limbo contest in which a very tall and average built guy from our group surprisingly won. I am pretty sure he is double jointed in his legs. Lastly our whole group had to put together out idea of Switzerland in a picture. I did downward dog and was a mountain, two people were skis with a skier on top. Some people were snow blowers, and the rest were cows. From there I was salsa dancing very poorly with the Latinos who where trying to teach me how to move my hips, sadly for me I have neither hips or any butt fat, thankfully I know who I am inviting to be my prom date because no American guy will ever live up to my dancing expectations. I danced until 12 and then it was lights out. Aka go onto the balcony in sleeping bags and look at the stars and talk for two hours. The next morning we woke up at 7 and we're all very tired. We had a photo challenge before leaving that day where we had to go around the town and take photos of different things or people. The towns people got frustrated after a while. On the way home we were all very tired but stopped in the Zurich train station to shop anyways, I didn't buy anything. It was a fun weekend but I was a little too exhausted by the end.

Bars

There are four kinds of bars: food bars, workout bars, bars in oceans, and drinking bars. In this post I will write about all of these types of bars. First, food bars, in Switzerland the most common granola bar is called "Farmers'. They can be both hard and soft and are quite good, my favorite type is apple. Second, workout bars, I don't have much to say about this subject other than I miss the climbing gym and its various types of workout bars (pull-up bars, hang boards, that's about it). Thirdly, ocean bars, going to Corsica in one week and I'll see ocean bars there! Lastly, and what this post was really suppose to be about, bar bars. A little over a week ago one of my friends from yoga invited me to hang out with her and her friends on a Friday night. Of course I was psyched and accepted at once, well after making sure it was okay with my host parents and checking my plans. That night I met her (Lisa) at the train station and we walked around town. All of the stores were closed and some sort of kids race was going on throughout the city. Later on we met up with her friend and her friends exchange student friend. It turns out that the four of us were all current or former exchange students!  We went into the city to a bar and got a booth. This was all very new for me considering that a) I have never had friends that could legally drink and b) I have never been in a bar when only of age people are allowed in. We sat in the corner and ordered drinks, don't worry mine was non-alcohol due to rotary rules! I had the most amazing time just sitting and talking and drinking. I am officially in love with the concept of bars.

School! And other stuff... Really long post (includes shout outs)

I have only been back for a week but it feels like forever I have some good friends in class, even though it is hard on the other students to keep me and Torin up to date on the classes. I try my best to understand as much as I can and appreciate all of the help, but can tell some students are getting a little annoyed with us. In the evening my sports are keeping me busy, I have also made quite a few Swiss friends through my sports. Huge thanks to everyone who told me to and helped me get involved(shoutout to my host and real parents)! The few homework assignments we get take me hours, reading 3 pages from the biology book takes the other students 10 minutes, but it takes me 3 hours to read and translate, because of this I am working like crazy and not getting enough sleep. 

Cool art

Don't worry I'm still smiling

On Monday, or Tuesday, I honestly can't remember, I had a two hour biology test. All of the questions were filled with long scientific German words and I guessed on every answer. I have a new found appreciation for tests in a language you can understand because even if you don't know the answer, at least you know the question! With all of this I want to make sure you know that I will be able to make it to Autum vacation at least, then I will recharge my system and slowly drown myself in 11 weeks of school (no breaks) and a lot of caffeine. Also I finally took pictures of the coop and Migros for you guys!

Yesterday I went to another of my host brothers fussball games, surprisingly against an all girl team. It was really impressive. Of course the boys win 12-1 but I was still motivated by the pure feminine determination. Yea girl power! (Britta I hope you appreciate this!)

Today we watched a live political debate in the autotorium of our school. It was between the different political parties trying to recruited voter. In Switzerland ther are not two parties like here, but about eight, there is also more than one position. I'm not sure how it all works but it seems to give more choices than our white and black American parties. In the U.S. You go inn way or the other, not a combonation.

For lunch today I went to Oma's house (remembering the time correctly). It is strange for me to have relatives so close because my lovely grandparents live 5 hours away in Austoria, Oregon (shout out to Grandpa and Grandma Pat), Grammy is a long ways away in New Jersey (shout out to Grammy), or some where else also far away (shout out to everyone else). Oma cooked soup for lunch, then brought out baked vegetables, than risotto, than a salad, said I hadn't eatten enough, than brought out a slice of pie. I bet you can guess who is my favorite person today (shoutout to Oma even though she can't read this because she doesn't speak English). I am going to really like have close relatives.

A little part of Astoria Oregon in Switzerland

Yummy pie Oma made

Lastly here is my awesome blazer covered in pins including my favorite Presitdent, well not yet president, Bernie Sanders. You should all really check him out.

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