Zürich Airport and Basler Fasnacht

This last weekend was amazing. To start with, on Thursday night(not yet the weekend, but hey ;P) My host parents and I went to the Rotary dinner. It was all about Alfred Hitchcock, and it was very interesting. The man doing the presentation had asked me in the beginning if he should speak High German but I told him it was alright to speak swiss german, so he did, and I was surprised at how much I could understand. Supposedly they were serving "American Food" that night, and it wasn`t too bad. We had peanut soup though and I`ve never heard of that :P. Then we had chicken wings, baked potatoes and spare ribs, and then for dessert, in honor of Hitchcock, they served a plate with a chocolate cigar laying on top of a chocolate waffle ashtray, with chopped up chocolate and pistachios as the ashes, and then shortbread matches, and a little cup of whipped cream and Bailey`s. It was very creative, I wish I had my camera with me :(.
On Saturday, after the german course was finished, one of my friends had to drop his friend off at the airport, so a couple of us went with him. It was weird being there, because I hadn`t been there since I arrived in Switzerland, and it was a weird feeling thinking about going back and all. The host mom of Mackenzie, the other girl who came along, works at the airport, so we went and visited her. She took us to where she works, basically the control room of the whole place. Where everyone makes sure the fligths are on time and if there are any problems, etc. She deals with the crew, making sure there are enough, because the crew has a certain amount of working time, so if a plane is delayed and they go over their time, then they can just go home, and if there isn`t enough back up crew then the plane can`t leave. So she handles that. It was really neat seeing the behind the scenes of it all.
The Rotary man in charge of schools organized for the kids from the language course to go to the Fasnacht in Basel. So at midnight on Sunday/Monday, we met in Zürich and went together to Basel. We got there at about 1:30, and the parade didn`t start until 4:00, so we went to a restaurant and sat there a while, then we walked around a bit, in the rain :P. Fasnacht is the Swiss version of Carnival/Halloween. People get dressed up and there are parades and such, all over Switzerland. There`s also the popular "Fasnachtkuechli" which is fried dough with powdered sugar, mmmmm :D. The Basler Fasnacht is a famous one in Switzerland. So after walking around, the parade started, and it was a lantern parade, with big and small lanterns with pictures on them, and the people in the parade were all dressed up and playing drums and piccolos. It was so cool. There were kind of a lot of people in front of me so I couldn`t see the costumes very well, but it was still fun. After the parade ended, we went to Neuchâtel(also Neuenburg)and were there at about 7:30. We walked around, but it was really gray and rainy, so we couldn`t see the Alps from the lake, but the city is beautiful. The architecture is very French and it feels a lot different than the German part. We sat in a restaurant and had something to drink and had croissants. Afterwards a couple of us went back to Zürich, skipping the noon parade in Basel, and then finally went home. Then at 8 after being up more than 30 hours, I finally went to bed :).

Anways, it was a really fun weekend and I think this Saturday I`m going to go to the Autoshow in Geneva, I think it`s the biggest in the world, so that should be fun! So until later,

tschüss!

scary...

I just came back from the rotary weekend in Zermatt but I`m really tired so I`ll write about that later. I just wanted to write that on the train ride back, we were a town away from my stop when we slowed down and then stopped and I didn`t know what was happening until a few minutes later when they said over the loudspeaker that we had hit someone. Then a little later the conductor came on over the speaker and said we had to wait and they didn`t know when we could leave, and he sounded like he had been crying, it was sooooo sad! :( so we were there for about 50 minutes, and I guess the police came, and then finally we starting moving again. Thankfully I was with someone else, Jane also from California, otherwise it would`ve been worse. But it was really sad and kind of shocking. Thankfully we didn`t feel anything when we stopped, we didn`t come to a screeching halt, if we had that would have been scarier. Anyways, I`m skipping P.E. tomorrow morning so I can sleep in, but I still have to get up at 8:00 so tschüss for now!
aug

just a quick note

alright two things, first, there`s snow again, and a lot more than last time. I`m also not sure if it`s going to leave. And because of this wonderful snow and ice and all, I slipped twice yesterday at school :P. Hahah it actually really hurt but whatever, now I walk at a snail`s pace just to make sure I don`t embarrass myself again ;).
Second, the other day I started the language course, and afterwards a few of us went to SUBWAY(!!) for lunch. It`s the ONLY subway in switzerland :P and OMG is it expensive. I got a 6 in. sub, and it was about 9.40 CHF, so basically the same in dollars. but it was really good nonetheless.
anyways I`m in school now, and I`ll probably have to go soon, so tschüss for now and Happy Thanksgiving!! :)

catching up...

Alrighty, so I`m sorry I haven`t written for a while, I just seem to forget about it :/. But I will try to catch you up on everything that`s going on. Last week my history class went to the Rhätische Museum (I think that`s the right spelling) in Chur and learned about the Gypsies of Switzerland, however I don`t remember what they`re called. The woman was speaking swiss german the whole time so I hardly understood anything. But there were a lot of pictures and examples of the tools they use and their clothes. I guess they also speak their own language. It`s a type of swiss german I think, but it`s really hard to understand that it`s basically considered it`s own language.

Right now in school I`m trying the French and Spanish classes to see if I want to take either of them. I really like the Spanish class so I think I`m gonna stick to that one, but I`m not so sure about the French. The class is really nice, but it would be everyday and it`s an intensive course so since I`m joining about 3 months after they started I feel pretty behind. Other than that, school`s going well, I met another exchange student in my school, he`s from Finland, and I guess there`s also a guy from India or Sri Lanka but I haven`t met him yet. Neither of them are through Rotary though. This Saturday I`m starting an intensive German course(another one, in Zürich again) and at the end there`s going to be a big test and then a certificate. I think it`s a really good opportunity because Rotary is paying for it all, thankfully because it`s pretty expensive, but also the certificate can really help later on and if I would decide later to get a certificate like this, it would most likely cost a lot more. So that`s starting, it will basically be every Saturday, until March, with a few taken off here and there, and I think there`s a possibility that it`ll also be on one day during the work week. And it`ll be nice to see other exchange students more regularly again, because it`s been a while since we`ve all hung out.

On Thanksgiving, Rotary is having their advent dinner and I`ve been invited to join them. So I think that should be really nice.
Oh ya! hehe, last Thursday I did my presentation for Rotary, I felt all calm and not nervous at all, until I actually got up in front of everyone ;) I kept stumbling over words and pronouncing them wrong, and all I was doing was reading form the power point basically. But I think it was alright overall, at least it`s over with :). anyways, next weekend we`re going to Zermatt/the Matterhorn, for a Rotary weekend with all of the exchange students. I`m really looking forward to it. :)
Well, other than that, I`m changing families on Dec. 6th I think, so pretty soon. Kind of sad but kind of happy as well, I think it`ll be nice to finally have some host siblings, and to be able to speak more German. I also want to practice swiss german hehe but that`s not as important I don`t think.
Anyways, I think that`s about it for right now, I`ll try to be better about writing, I know I keep saying that but I really will :P.

ciao!

October in Switzerland

well, i have to say, autumn here is really pretty. most trees have already changed color and there are leaves all over the ground. and the weird thing is, that the last couple of days, i`ve noticed a lot of christmas stuff was already out in shops, decorations and everything, maybe it`s just me but i find that a bit early. :P anyways, don`t have too much to write, so ciao!

Thanksgiving

well, I have made quite a few canadian friends here, and one thing I`ve learned from them is that canada has a thanksgiving as well, with turkey and the works. However theirs was yesterday, but I think some will celebrate ours because then they`ll have more time to prepare. ;) Another thing I`ve learned from them is that only people from one little part of canada say "about" weird, and they find it annoying when people say, "say about!" haha anyways, I`m looking forward to thanksgiving, I think one of the americans is having canned pumpkin sent over, so that`ll be nice, because I don`t know what their canned pumpkin supply is like here, and we all know how wonderful pumpkin pie made right from a pumpkin tastes like! :P hha anyways, g2g,
ciao!

Russian Thementage

Well, I found out the other day that I can take Russian for my main subject, so I`m really excited about that :). This week from Wednesday to Friday, we had "Thementage", or theme days, which is basically where you spend the whole day with your class from your main subject, Schwerepunktfach, and do different things regarding what you`re studying. So yesterday we watched a Russian film, not much of which I understood; the teacher was translating it into German for the rest of the class, so I picked up a little from there but it`s still over my head, what`s going on ;). Today, we went to Zürich and went to a translation agency and talked to some of the people there. Then we went to the Russian consulate and the man there spoke to us for a long time. What I could understand was interesting. After being in that environment, I have no more doubts that that field is what I want to pursue. ;) After we finished the meeting we went to a Russian book store, which was nice, and then a Russian grocery store, which I really liked. I`m definitely going back there soon. :) It was pretty small, but it was unlike any store I`ve ever been to before, I mean, it just felt different in there, like I was actually in Russia :P. okay, that sounds weird, anyways, I bought this lemonade type of drink there, it tasted really strange! I also tried the famous Russian drink "Kvas" which is made from bread. It tasted kind of like molasses. I thought it was an alcoholic drink like beer, but the woman at the store said it was alcohol free, so I don`t know...but it was better than the lemon drink I had. :( Anyways, tomorrow we are cooking, I`m not sure what, so I`ll write about that afterwards. Right now, I need to sleep :). ahah
ciao!