18??

"When you turn 18, you are considered an adult"

Well that's a scary line!! It's hard to imagine that I'm looked at as an adult now, it feels nice. I remember when I was little, 18-year-olds seemed like they were SO old.. Let me tell you, this is a birthday I'm always going to remember. Not because I turned 18, but because I turned 18 in Switzerland!!!

For my birthday, I did a few different things.. Most importantly, I celebrated it with people that mean a lot to me which made my birthday perfect.

My dad sent me Roses :)

My host family and Rotary Officer went out for dinner... I ate Ostrich meat! 

Went to Basel with a bunch of exchange students, aka my family in Switzerland. 

Also, on the same day as my birthday there is a big Basel tradition. In March, there is a very special celebration called Fasnacht.. which lasts about four days. The people dress up like Halloween in Canada, except to the extreme. The costumes are incredible, I have seen pictures. Then there are a bunch of marching bands that walk through the streets, in Basel. It doesn't stop for those entire four days! To give you an example of what it looks like, here is a video of the Fasnacht last year in Basel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S03z-1YzHdM

So it's a huge deal, I have heard about it many times throughout the last 5 months.. This event that took place on January 13th was the traditional Pre-Fasnacht called Vogel Gryff Festival. It got the people prepared for the upcoming celebration in March. It consists of 3 symbolic characters: the lion, bird and Tree man. They all dance from 8a.m until 11p.m with a marching band following them. They walked into different restaurants and danced in the streets. I went with my German Course, and prior to going we watched a documentary on it to understand it a bit more and realize how special it was. Sometimes when the kids would pick on the Tree man, he would hit them with the Christmas tree that he carries on his shoulder the entire day, and dances with it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-3QwnqNNM0

That's a video of this special day a few years ago, if you speed to 1 and a half minutes into the video, you can see some of the dances.

So I was a little nervous of getting hit with the tree, and any person I shared this with just laughed at me and said that wasn't going to happen. So as I was busy taking pictures, I was looking around and taking a picture of the crowd. The Tree man was about to walk past me but I was a little distracted... I turned around and got hit in the face with the tree!! Here's a picture from my viewpoint as it happened. I got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Some other pictures of the day..

I am so excited for the actual Fasnacht! I love this city, I love the scenery, I love the traditions, I love the food and I love this country. And I am sad to announce that I'm already half way through my exchange, that's astonishing how fast time is going. Time needs to slow down, because I am having the time of my life!! 

I love Switzerland so much.