Winter

The first snow has fallen. It was merely a dusting, yet, for me, snow has always marked the beginning of winter. In the morning on my walk to school all is dark, however if I focus I can make out the frosted trees on the mountain top. This week I started to become cold, I am used to a harsh climate, yet there is a point where wearing toms (a type of shoe, click here for a picture) to school. I gave in and purchased a nice pair of snow boots that will keep me warm and dry the whole winter season. A long with the first snow, the winter decorations in our house went up. The windows are sparkling with snowflakes. Snowmen and other winter creatures fill the nooks and crannies. My room is decorated with santa clauses, snowmen and snowflakes on the windows. I even bought a garland to hang around my mirror. I am excited for the holidays and wish all of you in the US a happy Thanksgiving next week.

Second Family

On Tuesday I met my second host family over dinner. After school, then yoga, then yodel club, I went with my current host parents to their house at the foot of the Jura Mountains. In my next host family I have two siblings, Anna (15), and Stefan (14). My next host parents are Rolf and Andrea. My next host father is a pilot for swiss air and my next host mother does not have a job. They also have  small white dog (she reminds me of Jazzy Grammy), a black cat named Luna, guinea pigs, and rabbits. I will move there in the beginning of January.

More Photos

Movie

On Friday I hung out with some of my swiss friends, we had dinner together and than went to see mockingly part two. It was raining like crazy out side and my umbrella was turning aside out every thirty seconds or so from the wind. I had no rainbows so I was wearing sneaker, not the best choice, and a dress, also not the best choice. For dinner we went to Mc Donald's, which is better in Switzerland than the US but still not wonderful. They surprisingly have a taste Veggie burger here. I also had a Mc Flurry featuring a swiss chocolate (no dad not toblarone, but still not as good as a Blizzard). Along with the slightly better quality, the Mc Donald’s has a huge price increase. After lovin' our ‘happy meals’ we took the bus to the old part of the city and dashed through the rain to the theater. The city at night is almost surreal with a combination of streetlights, and total emptiness. There is almost never anyone there, especially in the pouring rain. 

 Before I comment on the film let me give you some differences between the Swiss and US theaters. In Switzerland one theater means one screen and one show per evening. For my Swiss reader, in my town we have one large theater with holds about 25 to 30 rooms all playing a movie at the same time. It is very, very large. In Switzerland the chairs are nicer, and the theater is more regal, yet everything is a little smaller. Here you also have to pay for the 3D glasses, or bring a pair with you. The most strange thing for me is the intermission. Half way through the film you have a 15 to 20 minute intermission to buy food, drinks, use the restroom, or whatever else you want. It seems quite logical if you think about it, yet it was very strange for me. We were also able to reserve our seats, not just a ticket, but the actual seats.

Now, back to the present. We bought popcorn and ‘Malters’ (a swiss candy, photo here) before the movie and than took our seats. The movie was in German, and I understood all of it. If I didn’t understand the dialect, I could easily get the plot from my previous knowledge of the book or, of course, the movie itself. It was put together well, yet not quite as good as the final Harry Potter. All in all it was a great night.

Family Friends

On the weekends it is normal for us to visit a friends, or for someone to come to our house and have dinner. Each of these meetings goes about the same way. First we share a ‘ápero’ which is a variety of salty snacks with soda or alcoholic beverages (for adults). After chatting for a while everyone heads to dinner. The kids go and play in this time, sometimes preforming musicals and skits later in the night. Dinner is long and followed by much conversation. After an hour or longer of talking coffees are made and dessert is served. Dessert s almost always brought by the family who is coming, and is almost always homemade. My host mother makes very good desserts, pictures included. 

New Deutschkurs

I have started my second German course. This time my class is in Bern, Switzerland and not Olten. Bern is a very large town with a population of 126,600. However Bern has many tourists, workers, students, and more filling its streets every day. It is much different than a town in the US with 126,000 people. Search google for images of Bern, you won't regret it. My course is in the high school there and is with other Rotary exchange students. I can tell you right off the bat that I am learign 20 times more in this class than I did in Olten. We have class once a week for 3 hours. in those 3 hours it is cram time. Lesson after lesson, however we do not do exercises in class. We have homework for each lesson and I come home with a folder full of papers and hours of homework after every lesson. I am very glad I decided to take this class and also change my city. 

Took my phone while I was asking a question... I have a lot of questions

Almost four months

On December 4, only 11 days away, I will have been here for 4 months. I am happy to say that with this unofficial mark I am feeling a lot different than when I first arrived. I can understand almost all high German and am slowly crossing the grammar bomb field that comes along with it. In school I take all the tests, do all of the homework and my grades are starting to improve. I have made quite a few friends from my class, to free courses, to people in my town. I love my first host family, and even though it will be hard to leave them in January, I know that my year will be full of wonderful people. I am adapting to the swiss culture in ways that I won’t even notice until I return home and suddenly need to adapt back. I have seen crumbling cites, extensive clocks, snowcapped mountains that you can’t see the top to when looking up because they are so high, hillsides of green going on for miles, and everything else. I am in love with this country and know that I will be going places and seeing more sights that will amazing me for the rest of this year, and he rest of my life. 

Frey Chocolate Factory

Today we toured the Frey Chocolate Factory. Frey is a Swiss chocolate brand that was created in the year 1887. In 1950 the brand was labeled with the large super market Migros leading to a larger and more world wide production of the chocolate. If you would like to learn more about the compony click here. Upon arrival we received headphones and went up an elevator and entered a room full of people on video screens. When arriving on a screen you would click a button on your headphones to hear the explanation of a certain part of the chocolate creation. At every station the ingredients or machinery was displayed. I tried a whole coco bean, which turned out to be very bitter. After hearing all about the creation of the chocolate we entered a room full of games and such related to the chocolate. In the middle was a conveyor belt with almost every type of chocolate Frey makes for you to sample. I tried truffles, box chocolates, white, dark, fondue fruit, and everything in between. After our stomachs were satisfied we went to a screen where we could take a quiz to figure out what type of chocolate person we were. Apparently I am a "The Stylish" type, sharing this trait with 24% of their visitors. Later we walked through a dome and did sniff tests to guess how each ingredient smelled. At one point you could put on a chocolate truffle costume and sit in a person sized chocolate box. It was the perfect photo opportunity. The room also included a photo booth where you could have your photo taken and later be printed on chocolate for purchase. The last part of the room was a glass window that showed how the chocolates were wrapped in packaging. Once we were out of the tour, we were filtered into the store and tempted by the hundreds of chocolates lining the walls. I love swiss chocolate!!