I've been busy in the past couple of weeks. The new year came, along with the start of my sixth month on exchange. I have switched to my second host family, and traveled a lot. I wish you all the best in 2016. Enjoy these stories of short adventures I have had!
Starwars:
On the 26th of December I went to see Star Wars (in German). I have to say, they managed to create an interesting and new plot while still incorporating the old story and characters. If you get some spare time try and watch it, may the force be with you.
I have gone iceskating twice now over this winter break. One time I went with my first host family, and the other with a friend from school. I usually go iceskating once per year, so I am always a little rusty. I am happy to say that I did not fall, even though I wobbled quite a bit. The ice skating rink is about an hour away (walking, train ride, and bus ride combined) located in Zuchwil. In the middle is a 'Ice Bar' which serves hot coco and warm waffles. My favorite part was watching the children hockey players. There were two and three year olds that could skate better than me and shoot a puck at the same time!
Aquabasilia:
On my last day with my first host family I went to Aquabasilia (near Basel). Aquabasilia is a small water park. It has about 7 slides, some big pools and a outdoor rapid section. We went there in the morning and spent two hours trying all the different slides and such. I didn't go on any of the strait-down plunge slides, but I did try all the other ones. My favorite was the tube slide, it is always my favorite. By the end of two hours we had explored every corner of the small water world, and shared quite a few laughs along the way.
Changing Families:
I changed families before the new year. It was hard leaving my first family, however I know that all three of my host families will be amazing and I am so thankful for that. In my new family I have two siblings (15 and 14). My host father is a pilot for swiss air, and my host mother used to work at a home for stray animals, but now keeps the house running. They have a dog, a cat, 7 guinea pigs, 2 rabbits, and a lot of birds. All of the pets, except for the dog and (sometimes) cat, live outside. They are all very nice (pets and family) and I am excited to have some new adventures with them.
Bern:
On my second day in my new family we decided to explore Bern. I have my German class there once a week, but have never actually seen the city. We explored the old city. I learned a lot about Bern along the way. One of the special things about the city is that it has covered walkways, this means you can go shopping in any weather. We saw the parliament house. This is where two branches of Switzerland's government works. The building is very old and beautiful. Next we went to a Protestant church. It had a gothic-style architecture, differing extremely from the many catholic churches that are strewn around Switzerland. We walked up all 344 stairs to get to the top of the tower and were rewarded with a view of the whole city. after walking down all 344 stairs we continued our tour through the city. One of the architectural things that caught me off guard were the cellars. Most stores in Bern have pantries underneath the street that can only be entered through doors. It is hard to describe but it is very similar to the entrance of a storm cellar (see picture bellow). Sometimes they even have cafes or other stores inside of them. As lunch time arrived we wondered into a renovated metro station. The old metro station is now a restaurant. It has a very industrial look filled with old metal, wood, and many, many clocks. We all had the same thing for lunch, hash style (traditional swiss) potatoes with a fried egg on top. It tasted amazing! We then toured a bear zoo on the river. Most of the bears were not out, it was a cold winter day so I don't blame them, however one was. It was cool to see it there. On the way back to the train station we stopped to take pictures with a very large, old clock. I am not going to try to explain how it works because I still don't even know. My host sister also bought a new ear ring. We finished the very long day with coffees and a train ride home.
Flying:
As I mentioned earlier my host father is a pilot. On new years eve we went flying in a small four person plane. It was very new for me because I have only ever been in big jet planes. We toured around Switzerland looking at different lakes, cities, and more. It was quite foggy so we were not able to see everything, yet still saw quite a bit. We even flew over Bern and got to see all of the sights from the day before from above. It was strange seeing the church tower from above because the day before it had been so large, and now I could cover it from my vision with nearly my thumb. We landed in a French city (new castle is the english translation of the cities name) and went to a restaurant to pass time. We had decided to be the last plane to fly into Gretchen's airport in 2015. After drinking a rival, we flew back home, the last plane to land in our airport until the next year came!
New Years:
On new year's eve we went to friends of my family. We all enjoyed dinner, than the kids played board games and shared riddles, while the adults talked. Before we knew it it was midnight. We watched 'a dinner for one' and talked more. I finally got to bed at 2:45 and slept until 11:30 the next day! it was a new record for me.
Heidi:
On New Year's day I went to see the Swiss renovation of the movie Heidi with both my new and old host families. It is a story about a little girl who is sent to live with her grandfather in the Alps, however he doesn't want her. It was a good film, and nice to see my younger siblings again.
Crafts:
My new host sister and host mother are very crafty. I have already learned how to knit and am almost halfway done with a red scarf. I also started some sewing crafts the other day. I made a small pillow with the classic Switzerland plus on it. It took me a while to make, but about 5 hours later it was finished. I also made a cute satchel to store writing supplies in.
