Sigriswil!!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend another weekend in this Swiss Alps! This time, I went to a little village called Sigriswil, with my Rotary Counsellor Peter and his wife Christine.

After school last Friday, Christine and I drove to Sigriswil to meet Peter there. Once I arrived, I was in shock at how beautiful the whole place was. It was a log house over looking a lake and a bunch of mountains, really close to us. They showed me my room and I instantly ran onto the balcony in my room, took a huge breath and looked around realizing how lucky I was. From my balcony, I had an extremely beautiful view. This is a picture from my balcony!

After settling in and having nice discussions, it was time to go to bed. Usually I am not looking forward to going to sleep, but this time I was so excited! Instead of jumping right into bed, I got snuggled into my pajamas, brushed my teeth, grabbed my diary, turned off all the lights then sat out on the balcony and just wrote away. Then afterwards, I sat there and just enjoyed the moment.. The moon shining over the mountains and the reflections bounced off the water, and the loud crickets filling the silence in the background. I literally had to talk to myself to convince myself to go inside because I needed to sleep.. Here is a picture at night!

On Saturday we woke up and relaxed for a bit then Peter and I went fishing!! Before I get started, let me clear some things up.. It's a place with a man made lake with a lot of fish in it, like a fish farm where people can go and catch their own fish for food! As a kid, I have gone fishing before at my cottage. But I more mean, standing at the end of the dock with my bright pink fishing rod and never catching a thing. So I was excited to have a better story to tell when people asked if I have ever been fishing before! So I put my rod in the water and I caught 6 fish! Little did I know, they don't just die on their own. You have to hit them on the top of the head with a wooden stick, that shocked and disturbed me.. So of course after catching the fish and reeling it in, I plugged my ears and ran for my dear life so I didn't have to hear or see that! Peter took care of business!

 Afterwards we decided to go for a boat ride on the lake (Thunersee). A really cool thing about Switzerland as I have mentioned many times, is the transportation here. They even have big boats on the lakes to help with transportation and of course for tourists as well. Boats that look just like the Muskoka's Winona, if you are from the Muskoka region! We went to the city of Thun, explored for a bit then came back home by boat.

Once I got back, Peter and I went shopping in Sigriswil. When he asked if I wanted to go shopping for food, I automatically pictured driving to the local Coop (that's the grocery store here like Megros or Zehrs) and picking up what we need then heading back home. Not in Sigriswil do you do that!! We went to the local cheese shop that looks the same as a bakery, bought the cheese that we needed, went to the local butcher and got the meat that we wanted then went to the local bakery and got the bread that we needed! It's so special to go shopping like that and know that it's completely normal to all the locals! It's special there are still towns in this world like that, with everything completely local and so fresh.

After that, we went back to the cottage and I made Fondue!! I LOVE SWISS FONDUE!!

On Sunday my Rotary officer Hanspeter came with his wife Ruth for the day. We got up early, had breakfast then headed on our way. The plan for the day, hiking up a mountain of course! On our way up, we stopped at a little house in the mountains, Peter knew them and we went in and sat and had a coffee with them, it was a little private cheese factory!
So we continued our hike, and Peter had a cave in mind that he wanted to go to but I didn't quite understand what he meant but of course I just kept walking! We arrive at literally a cave in the mountain! He explained to us how it was used in the second world war as Switzerland prepared in case Hitler sent the troops over to attack them. It was a pitch black cave and we all had our own little flashlight, the cave still has broken telephone wires going all through it, in use during the Second World War since the soldiers lived in there. It was so eerie but so interesting!

So then we went left the cave and went on, climbing up this mountain. I really do love hiking through the Swiss Alps, and Switzerland makes it so easy to do so with so many wandering paths. Sometimes it gets a little scary because the hiking path can be pretty extreme!! Consisting of ropes to hold onto so you don't fall off the ledge !!

After a full day of hiking, we got home around 4 pm, and Peter and I noticed there's still a long time of sunlight left and some wind. Something that I have missed a lot that I do a lot at home, is sailing. In Canada my family has a bought and we spend many weekends on it throughout the summer sailing around Georgian Bay. Peter has a 12-foot Lazer and allowed me to go onto the lake and take it for a sail! So we set the boat up, I got the wet suit on (because it's Swiss Alp water so it's really cold!) and then went out for a few hours. It was so beautiful, the lake was so blue and it felt so good to be out sailing again!

On Monday we played a bunch of games like Rummi and Scrabble, we went over and I practiced my Rotary Presentation, and we had a nice tea party with the neighbors. Afterwards, it was my time to catch the train and be headed on my way back home since I had school the next day. I had such an incredible weekend in beautiful Sigriswil, and a lot of beautiful time in the evening underneath the moonlight in the Alps to start preparing myself to leave this beautiful country to go back to my beautiful country.


BIG NEWS!
Yesterday I had my final Rotary presentation about my year here in Switzerland !! It was about 15 minutes long, consisted of me talking for about 10 minutes and then a 5 minute slideshow. I was really nervous since I spoke only German!! Other than that, I did the best that I could to sum up my WHOLE AMAZING year into just 15 minutes.. it was challenging emotionally to know it's my final presentation, but it went well and I got great feedback! Man, I can't believe this is coming to an end!!