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!

random..

ok, i just wanted to write this down really quickly.. i was at a kiosk the other day buying money for my phone, and the last name of the guy behind the counter was Hossmann! haha i was like, wow! :P ive never met anyone else with the same last name, even if it is spelled different. :) just thought id share that. i have so much to write but its late, so... :P later..
ciao!

Grammy`s chile sauce

last night for dinner I made baked potatoes with grammy`s chile sauce, and i also made a salad. I felt so at home :P well, I know that was really short, but we have to leave soon for lunch, so, til later....
oh, we`re going to luzern tomorrow, i cant wait! :)

sigh...

only one more week left of language school. im kind of sad, because i like seeing the other students everyday.... and two mondays from now, i will start real school :/ but this monday our class is going to luzern which should be very fun... im going to try to take lots of pictures.
today they brought the cows down from the mountains, which is a big thing that they do before winter time. the cows were decorated with flowers and had huge cow bells on. it was interesting :P
anyways, tonight Im going to make Grammy`s chile sauce, with potatoes, hope it turns out alright, I havent made it that much before. :)
welp, dont really have much else to say so, bis bald...

mmm...

alrighty, so the link in the bern entry didnt show up for some reason, so if you want to see a picture of the statue, its pretty easy to find on google. :P but thats pretty obvious so i dont know why im writing this, but anyways....

Bad Ragaz Cave....

Today we went to bad ragaz(bahd rahgahts) and we walked up to the caves where there are hot springs. they were discovered in the 8th century, and have been used for health purposes since about the 16th century i believe. it was hot and humid on the way up, but when we got in the canyon it dropped probably at least 20 degrees. and then when we were in the caves it was really hot again. it was so beautiful and interesting, i took some pictures but it was really dark so theyre not as good as i wanted them to be. after the walk we went for a coffee at one of the restaurants(the coffee`s so good here! :>) bad ragaz is also a very nice town, its famous for golf.

well, as for other things, I seem to be understanding german better, and a little swiss german. I still have two weeks left with the german course, Ill be sad when its over, because i like seeing the other exchange students everyday, even though rotary doesnt really encourage that :P I found out the other day that i only live about 30 minutes from italy! so i really want to go soon. and i only live 15 minutes from liechtenstein, and probably to same from austria. so i cant wait until i can travel more outside of CH. :) (oh, i found out that CH stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, the latin name for switzerland, i had been wondering :P) anyways, time to help with dinner. I hope i won`t wait so long until writing again, who knows :)

Bern

alrighty, so I know I havent written for a really long time, I just dont really have time. But I do now, so Ill right about my adventures yesterday :).
Well, for starters, I met two other girls in Zürich and then we took the train together to Bern, and we were to meet other people there. However, when we got to the station(huge and confusing!!) we didnt see them, so we called them bunches of times to get directions and spent almost an hour walking around the outside of the station looking for them..... but we finally met up. :P we walked around and stood at this clock, waiting for it to be 1 because supposedly it was supposed to do something amazing. so there was a big group of people waiting and when it turned 1 all that happened was part of it turned. we were standing next to an american couple and the guy was like "is that it? what the hell? Im so embarrassed.." it was kind of funny, because people had their cameras all ready, it was a nice clock it just didnt do anything. but after that we headed to the bear pit, its a pit with a real bear in it, i got so depressed. the bear was just moping about walking in circles, it looked really sad. :(
However, bern is a really beautiful city, and the river is very blue and clear. we all went up to the top of one of the churches, and it had an amazing view of the river and city. outside of the church there were a lot of old restored cars. they were so neat! :) i guess that kind of thing is popular here. oh, so theres this statue kind of in the center of bern, and its a man eating a baby, and holding more babies! i have no idea the story behind it, but i have to find out. its just a little creepy :P. heres a link to a picture:
the train back from bern to zürich was packed. people were sitting on the steps, and the aisles were filled with people, the three of us had to stand/sit on the floor. i didnt know it got like that. Karen thought it was probably because of the madonna concert in zürich. most likely. madonna`s really big here :P
overall, it was really fun, i really want to go back to bern and discover more of it.
Ill write about today on another post, this one is too long :P

Biking adventure...

So, on tuesday Karen and I set out on a bike ride to Bad Ragaz. shortly after heading out, however, I had to stop suddenly and I ended up flying over the handle bars, :P well, actually it wasnt funny at the time, i landed on my chin(I might post pics later..) but after waiting a little bit i decided that we should continue on our ride, so we rode around along the rhein, it was very nice, and as we got to the end of the path, Werner had set up a little picnic for us, it was so cute! :)
Today Karen and I went to Zürich, but Ill write about that later, im too tired right now, :P
the language course starts monday! :)
tschuess!

Swiss Bank Account

Today Karen(my host mom), Adrian(district YEO), and I went into Chur and set up my bank account. it was fun getting a famous swiss bank account :P. afterwards Karen and I walked around the old town of Chur, which has been around for about 700 years! the buildings were really beautiful with old paintings on them. i have found, that i dont know as much german as i thought i did, lol. but ive been surprised that i can pick up a lot of words in swiss german, which i didnt really expect to happen right away. im looking forward to the camp though, and meeting the other students, im hoping to be comfortable enough with german before school starts. ;P we,ll see though...
i dont seem to be effected much by jet lag, except last night it took me hours to fall asleep. :( but i havent been very tired in the day so, thats been nice. :) sorry thats probably not very interesting, i guess ive run out of things to say ;) anways!
bis bald!

Finally in Switzerland! :)

Hey everyone!
well, first i have to say that this computer is hiding the apostrophe key from me so forgive the absense of it. ;)
well, the plane ride was really long, and about 90% of the passengers were dutch, in fact, the stewardess first spoke to me in dutch.
as we were flying into zürich, i could tell from the sky that everything was very clean, i know this sounds really corny, but the villages were almost sparkling. ;P and the freeways are just surrounded by greenery and its amazing! there is graffiti here though, lol, :)
my first family lives in Malans, and my other two families live in Chur, so Ill be living here until december. it is a beautiful town, and very small and quaint. the house is right next to one of the vineyards. i guess its really common for people to have private vineyards. and some of them are pretty small, maybe about 1/2 an acre.
ive been on the computer for a while checking my email, and all, and i should probably be going back upstairs, so sorry about the short entry! there should be more exciting stuff happening soon, this is only my first full day here at the house.
so, ill write more when i have more free time and more to say :)