Matterhorn Weekend

This past weekend I was able to meet up with all of the other exchange students again. It was the first time that ALL of the 120+ exchange students from Switzerland were all in the same place. We all took a train -it was reserved for us- down to Zermatt. Zermatt is a touristy town and home to one of Switzerland most popular mountains, the Matterhorn. Here are some links so you can learn about the town: photos of Matterhorn click here, more information about Zermatt, click here. We arrived around noon on Saturday and our crowd walked from the translation to our hostel. Later in the day we had a scavenger hunt around the town, than we trekked back to the hotel to learn about Euro Tour. Once we were all hungry we headed to a restaurant for a fondue dinner. After eating as much cheese and bread as possible as well as meeting many new people, we headed through the city once more. This time we walked through the town at dark. Electronic cars roamed the streets (real cars are not allowed in the city because it is too clean) pushing over everyone, the tourists, skiers, and everyone else in the way. We reached our destination at a small hotel. Our group of 120+ crammed into the small bar in the basement of the hotel and had a disco party. There were many types of dancers... The latinos (who were actually really good at dancing), the american guys (who thought they were good, but looked ridiculous), the american girls (who either danced with the latinos or danced in a small group in the back because... well lets just hope you don't ever have to see us try to dance), and lastly the Australians (who were crazy). By the end of the night it was 12:30 and, having to wake up at 6, we went to sleep. In the morning we had breakfast at the hotel -which thankfully included free coffee to balance out our lack of sleep- before putting our winter clothes on. I put on two pairs of pants, my nice new snow shoes, a shirt, a sweater, a jacket, a hat, gloves, socks, and my Oregon flag. I was prepared to not be cold. Today, we were going to the top of the little Matterhorn. Temperatures there were around -10 degrees C (14 degrees F) with 20 km per hour winds (12 mph). It was very, very cold. The elevation of little matterhorn is about 13,000 feet (around 3,900 meters). We took the chair lifts for about 15-20 minutes to arrive at the top, and boy was it cold. All of the exchange students huddled together, especially the ones from South America. At the top we went to an ice palace inside of the glacier. It included an ice slide. My friends and I tried going down on our stomaches, head first. It didn't work out very well. Once we were finished we headed back down to Zermatt, ate lunch, and had a little shopping time. Than it was a long train ride home. All the exchange students traded pins and now my jacket is full on the front and the back. It was an amazing weekend thanks to Rotary, and my host mom for keeping me warm with many winter clothes.