My Rotary Adventure

The FINAL post!

2011-08-04T12:54:00.006-04:00

July 18th, 2011 was one of the most emotional days of my life. It started out so hard but ended so amazing. Two weeks prior to this date, it sounded like the only word that came out my mouth was 'goodbye.' As difficult as it was to go, I was so relieved to stop saying goodbye. Finally, that elephant wasn't in the room anymore - there was no more enjoying the moment but remembering in a couple days I won't be here anymore.

I couldn't have been more excited as I landed in Toronto Airport. I knew my three best friends, my grandparents, my uncle and my dad were on the other side of the arrivals door and I had goosebumps the whole time. It was a rainy day when I left Switzerland so I wore jeans, long sleeve shirt, big sweater and my Rotary Blazer. Not only was it a little cool in Switzerland, I had no more room for those clothes in my suitcases. As I arrived in Canada I realized how warm it was, it was 38 degrees Celsius!! I waited in a very long line to go through customs to enter into Canada. It took about an hour to get through this long but slowly constantly moving line. I was sweating buckets!! Since the line was constantly moving and I had two big and heavy carry-on's, it made it quite difficult to attempt to take off some layers so I wasn't so hot. Luckily the family in front of me saw my struggle, and helped me carry my bags and layers as I started taking off the Blazer and the big sweater. I finally got through customs and was thinking I was so close to the arrivals door, think again. I had to wait for my suitcases, then wait in another big line!! So there I was with 2 giant carry-on's, two giant suitcases, and sweaters and blazers hanging off me in every direction.. it was nearly impossible!! I finally saw the glass sliding doors that was keeping me from some of the most important people in my life and the people I have dearly missed. I was finally there, the doors opened, and I was in the same room once again with these amazing people. I scanned the crowd quickly while focusing on all that I had to carry. I pass the crowds and find my family there and my three best friends with a big sign that says WELCOME BACK KATIE on a big cardboard Canadian Flag. I dropped my suitcases and couldn't feel my legs, my three friends started screaming on the tops of their lungs and I stood there and embraced them as they ran to me. I was in shock and it was the most exciting moment ever. I stood there crying my eyes out, once again in the arms of my three best friends. It was great to be back home.

The one question I always get asked is "how was your year?"
Honestly, it is great when people ask and are interested to know how it was. But also, it is so hard to answer. How can I possibly sum up a whole year into a simple sentence as to how it was? If I could answer it the way I wanted to when they asked, I would jump up and down, run on the spot, run in circles, throw my arms in the air like a maniac and scream WOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Instead, I give a huge Katie smile and say "My year was simply amazing."

I can't sum up my year, even if I had days to give an answer. In my heart, I will know all the things I've done, the things I've seen, the good times, the hard times, the moments of complete happiness and the moments of trying. I will always know the things I learned and I will always remember the people I met and I will bring those special people and moments with me in my heart, everywhere I go. When I close my eyes and think of Switzerland, I will always get an instant smile on my face.

Deciding to go on this one year exchange was the best decision of my life and nothing will change that. Even if I have to repeat a year in high school because I didn't get enough credits, doesn't compare for a second to the year I had. I won't complain about having to repeat a year because in the long run, I experienced a year that will be very competitive to one of the best years of my life.

I have learned so much over the past year, and I didn't start realizing it until I arrived back home. It has just been over 2 weeks but I am noticing how extreme this year has impacted my life.

I find myself a lot more independent, mature, adaptable and spontaneous. Before I left, I was nervous whenever I was in big cities even when I was with friends. Whenever I'd go to Toronto I'd always be extremely alert and never let my guard down, I understand that's okay to do, but to a certain point. On exchange I spent many days in bigger cities and learned it's best to simply be alert and aware, just not scared. Now I feel comfortable to walk around during the day alone in a bigger city, which is a big step for me. Also, I react a lot differently in situations than I ever have. I am a lot more calm and take it all the way it is and go from there. I have met a lot of different people and families throughout this year. Living with three host families for at least 3 months each, makes your learn a lot about the various personality types this world has to offer. I learned how to deal with many, many different people. Harder things don't seem to phase me as much as they used to, I don't react as much and don't really give it the time of day. I've learned to go with the flow and always look on the sunny side, because everywhere you go and everything you do, you can look at the shady side or the sunny side, and life's a lot better on the sunny side.

Many people are sad after their exchange year claiming that it's all over. For me, it's the exact opposite. Of course I miss Switzerland, and I will continue to have a few hard days here and there missing the people I met and the busy lifestyle I had. However, this year was not the end. This year was that spark to my fire that shows me life can be so exciting if you set yourself up for that. So, when opportunity comes knocking at your door: answer! embrace it! You may just surprise yourself at what you can do, how much you can handle, and how amazing life is.

I would like to say a HUGE thank you to absolutely everyone that supported me along the way. Throughout the year there were a few times of trying that really got me down, and it was so amazing to see all the support that I had in Switzerland and in Canada as I faced the rainy days. To my Rotary Club of Bracebridge - Muskoka Lakes here in Canada and my Rotary club of Augst-Raurica in Switzerland, two amazing clubs with amazing people, that supported me along the way and made sure everything ran smoothly, I am so fortunate to be sponsored and hosted by these two amazing clubs. To my Rotary Counselor Peter Bieri and Rotary Officer Hanspeter Brandt, who made sure everything went well throughout the year and made sure I was always safe and smiling. To my three host families: the Leunenberger's, the Geiger's and the Casanova's, I have learned so much from each family, each family was very different than the next and I can't even begin to give enough thanks to you for hosting me in your houses. And to the friends I met in Switzerland and the friends I have here in Canada, all were huge supporters in my life and made huge differences. Also, a huge thank you to my family here in Canada for always being there to listen to anyhting I had to say and to allow me to share everything about my year with them and attentively listened the whole time. Thank you everybody, you are all amazing and changed my life.

This may be the end of my exchange year, but this is just beginning. I am 18 years old, my name is Katie O'Hearn and I'm going to accomplish big things.

BARCELONA :D

2011-07-10T16:30:00.001-04:00

I spent July 4th to July 8th in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. I knew it was going to be fun, I knew I was going to love it like all the vacations I have been on, but I didn't know just how much I was right - let me tell you, it was AMAZING.

I was a little nervous about this vacation, because I heard quite often how dangerous it was and how careful I have to be. Of course coming from such a small town, I got quite nervous. When I was there, I realized how much Rome taught me, you don't have to be scared just aware. If you're aware, you make smart choices and in most cases don't have any problems. I was really scared in Rome and literally hugged every bag I had on me, and I eventually got more comfortable and realized that was the wrong thing to do. Just stay calm and be smart. Once I arrived, that fear that I had went away and I just made smart decisions like keep my purse in front of me, etc... I had absolutely no problems!!

Monika and Martin Rohner were kind enough to allow me to come on their trip, along with Ana. The Rohner family is Ana's host family, and they are amazing people.

On Monday, we arrived in the evening. Four years ago, I had an exchange student at my house named Cami Bocca. I see her as my sister and one of my best friends. She lived with me for two months, then sadly had to go back to Spain. Two years later, she came back to Canada and lived with me again for the summer. Throughout these last four years, we always stayed in such good contact mostly by phone. I miss her a lot because we don't see each other very often, and I never had the chance to go to Spain. She's from Madrid which is pretty far from Barcelona, but I told her a few months ago of my upcoming trip. She got really excited about it, which I didn't understand because I didn't think it was going to be possible that she would fly to Barcelona. She asked when I arrived and which flight, and I wasn't 100 % sure she was going to Barcelona but nonetheless I was so hopeful and excited to see her. I also have really close connections with her mom, but I never have had the chance to meet her. We talk on the phone whenever I call Cami or when we are talking on Skype, I have always wanted to meet her just never had the chance.

When I walked out of the arrival doors, I searched everywhere to try to find Cami. Not only was Cami standing there with flowers and balloons in her hand, so was her mom!!!! Her mom also flew to Barcelona to surprise me there, I was close to tears of excitement because I didn't expect that in a million years, it didn't even cross my mind! I went screaming to them and leaped in their arms, it was a really special moment.

Once we arrived, we all went out for dinner together. My life now and the people that are a huge part of it this year, got a chance to meet the people are are a huge part of my life in Canada. They all got along very well, Ana is from Mexico so she was able to speak fluently with Cami and her mom, and from what I know, they really connected. Also, the parents got into a good conversation while us three girls chatted, I was so happy with how well everybody got along. After dinner, Cami Ana and I went out to the discos, while the parents went walking in the city together.

It was amazing to see Cami again, and to be with two girls that mean so much to me at the same time. I love the Spanish discos, they are so fun and it was also right near the beach. There was a row of different bars, clubs and discos and we went partying there.

Tuesday we got up early and Monika, Martin, Ana and I went on a bus tour of the beautiful city. It's a bus tour that you can get on and off at different stops, and a new bus comes like every five minutes. So we were able to see many, many things and also go touring a lot. The famous architecture Gaudi is huge in Barcelona, with so many famous buildings, houses, markets and gardens. He is an idol there, a genius and it was so great to see some of his work and just wonder how does someone think of that. He puts "thinking outside the box" to shame. He thinks way out of the box, and everything he did was so beautiful. We stopped at the famous garden, and got to see the beautiful things he designed.

During the tour we also stopped at the FC Barcelona stadium, a museum of artwork to fight against AIDS and also the Olympic stadium when Barcelona hosted it in 1992.

Then once again Cami, Ana and I went out to the disco at night. Cami has many friends in Barcelona, so we met up with a group of people and went to a disco that was right on the beach. It was not only beautiful, but also hilarious. The group of people were so friendly and it was so great to meet them.

On Wednesday it was my final breakfast with Cami's mom, she had to fly back to get back to work. I was so happy to meet her, she is such an incredible person; so friendly, open and happy.

Throughout the day we did more touring and walking around to see many places, and went on a Gondola that went over a part of Barcelona so you could see the beautiful old buildings and also the beautiful, blue Mediterranean Sea.

Sadly on Wednesday night, Cami and I had to say our goodbyes. It was so amazing to see her and I know I'll see her again, knowing our pattern I'll probably see her in about two years. I would love to come to Spain again, and go stay with Cami in Madrid.

Thursday was another day for sightseeing and of course shopping! We went to the huge and famous St Josep Market, which had a building also designed by Gaudi. I have never seen so many fruits, vegetables, candies, animals and seafood in my life. It was amazing, and the fruit was SO great. We also went to another house created by Gaudi, and got to tour his thinking once again.

In the afternoon Ana and I went to the beach, and got to spend a few hours soaking up some sun and listening to the waves crash against the sand. There are people selling things on the beach, everywhere and all the time. You learn to just tune it out, except one thing kept catching my attention. Asian ladies were everywhere selling back massages, five Euros for ten minutes. To me, that sounded pretty great. So of course, I got one and it was possibly the best back massage I've ever had. It was so relaxing and felt so great, with the sun beating on me and the sounds of the ocean beside me. Beautiful.

At night Monika, Martin, Ana and I went for dinner and ate Tapas!! So great and SO much food!! Our table was too small for all the food, but we sure cleaned the plates. I felt like an advertisement for the restaurant, so many people would walk by, see our table, stop, think, look, think, think then walk in and eat dinner there as well.

Friday was sadly our last day and luckily we had a full day since our plane was at night. Ana and I slept in for once, which was so nice to catch up on some sleep!! Monika and Martin gave us the option, if you want to wake up and go have breakfast with us you can do that or you can sleep in .. if you're there at 9 then we can go for breakfast together, if not then we'll assume you decided to sleep in. Our plan was to get up and go have breakfast, alarm set and all. The time came, and we both decided in about 1 second that we wanted to sleep in. It was so nice to sleep in!! Afterwards, Ana and I did some touring then spent the rest of the day at the beach. Luckily I always had a thick layer of sunscreen on me all week, and didn't get burnt. I have ver sensitive skin, so I usually get very bad burns. The sun is really strong in Spain and so I made sure to be super-extra careful. When we spent the afternoon at the beach, you could see the tiny spots that I missed with sunscreen. All over I was tanner, except some spots were very bright red because I missed that one spot, welcome to the skin of Katie!!

Our time came to say goodbye, but this is for sure: Spain, it was not goodbye, it was see you another time.

Klassenlager F1C !

2011-07-03T18:33:00.000-04:00

This past week was once again, a very memorable week of my exchange. I know I say that a lot, maybe because it's always memorable and amazing weeks. This one, was once again another really special week.

At the end of the year, each class has a trip for a week. Depending on which grade they are in, is how far they go. The first class stays in Switzerland, the last grade goes on trips like to Barcelona.

I am in the first class so we went to a little house in the mountains, near a famous city called Interlaken.

At the beginning we had very hot weather, which was about 33 degrees Celsius. The nights were pretty hot and sticky, but nonetheless hilarious. Our little house consisted of 2 bathrooms and rooms made for 8 - 10 people. On each side are matrices on the floor, where everyone slept together.

Near the end of the week it cooled down quite a bit, which made our night consisted of a big snuggle group to keep us all warm on the cold mountain nights.

The week, was so busy and so great. Since we were a class of 22 girls with 2 female teachers, it mainly consisted of things like back massages, manicures, facials, hand massages, etc. Since the two teachers are athletes, we did a lot of sports if you chose to join them. Of course I did, since I absolutely love sports and I had a great time with the other sport lover in the class, Alex.

We also spent a day hiking, of course, we are in Switzerland after all! We went to a waterfall, and walked and of course talked, talked and talked.

The HUGE different between this trip and a Canadian trip, was that alcohol was allowed! The two rules, were that it had to stay in moderation and after dinner. You were allowed to go buy alcohol or bring your own, it was so funny to see people drinking together socially and not having a single worry, because it's allowed!! In Canada, they will search your bag to make sure you have nothing, here you are allowed it. It's so different, and so exciting!!

Such an amazing week and an extremely hard goodbye on Friday. I stood at the train station, waiting by the train that was going to take me back to my home here in Switzerland. As the clock ticked away, the time came when it was time for me to say goodbye to my class. The people I saw 5 days a week for almost 9 hours a day for the last year, and it was my last time seeing them. I have such good relationships with these girls that I met, I have learnt so much from them and I hope they learned a lot from me. I spent so much time with these people over the last year and they were all a big part of my exchange. So we stood in a group, hugging with tears in every eye, with the big hug and the final goodbye. It was extremely painful, and I will miss this amazing class a lot and I wish them good luck throughout their next years in FMS Muttenz.

I'll miss you ladies.

Goodbye.

Last day of school..

2011-06-24T13:17:00.000-04:00

Today I had my final day of school, and I didn't know it would feel this strange.

I admit, school wasn't my favorite thing of my exchange. In fact it was a little difficult, but what I realized was that I just found it difficult sitting in class all day as an exchange student which doesn't get any grades throughout the year so isn't taken very seriously when it comes to work, test or anything for that matter. However, there was much more to school than just sitting in class. It's the people that I met, the lunches I had and the people I ate with, the breaks between classes and the friends that I spent all of that with.

At the beginning of the year, it was a little awkward with the HUGE language barrier between every person in the class and I, but somehow we managed to make it work and we even had SO many laughs over it. Looking back 11 months ago, I would sit there and act everything out trying to simply get the right word out that I wanted to get across what I was trying to say. My life was a game of a charades.

Now, I speak German with them constantly, rarely saying a single word in English unless it's them imitating how funny they think some words that I say are, when they hear me speaking with the other exchange student in the class in English. They always say to me "holy moly!!!" They just love that phrase and how hard or weird it is to say from their German speaking tongue.

Throughout the day, there can be up to 9 hours of classes. Every 45 minutes we get a break of either 5, 10 or 15 minutes depending on the schedule. Throughout each break I went over to my group of friends that I became very close with throughout the year. They are such an amazing group of women and I have had so many tears of laughter over things that have happened or conversations we get into.

Next week we have our final end of the year trip, we are going to the mountains for a week and all staying in a little house together up the mountain. 1 little house, 2 bathrooms, 24 women .. this is going to be interesting!! Nonetheless I am really excited for it and excited to be with everyone together for a week.

So as I walked out of my school today, I got a pretty sad feeling inside me knowing I won't be with this same class next year. the school system is really different here, the class doesn't switch around every period, it stays the same people, every subject and they stay together for their full four years at that school. I will miss this class a lot, I have had so many moments and memories that I will never forget with them, and this class will be forever in my heart.

Love you F1C .

Frauenlauf, Bern!! :D

2011-06-21T10:42:00.000-04:00

Sunday June 19th, I ran 10 km race called Frauenlauf (race for women) completely covered in Canadian flags and it was one heck of an experience!

I went with a friend of mine, an exchange student here in Switzerland also from Canada. On the train to Bern at 7 in the morning we got our race gear ready, ready as in full of Canadian flags and then we decorated ourselves with Canadian tattoos. We weren't expecting many people to say much because we assumed there were a tonne of people from other countries as well.. I was very wrong!

The whole entire 10km, I had a lot of people that either a) ran beside me for an amount of the race telling me that they've been there before and that they absolutely love Canada or b) people at the sidelines watching the race, seeing us then all of a sudden jumping up and down yelling GO CANADA GO !! CANADIAN GIRLS!! WOO HOO !! GO CANADA GO!! It was such an adrenaline rush, it felt great. I feel proud to come from Canada, always have and always will.. but at this moment it gave me that warm fuzzy feeling in my heart for my country.

There were a lot of special moments throughout the race, that stood out even more than people cheering very loudly for us. At one point there were a group of about five guys the same age as me, on the other side of the barrier where people stood to watch the race. They saw my Canadian flags and started running right beside me for a few minutes screaming at the top of their lungs GO CANADA GO !! GO CANADA GO!! It was startling but I couldn't help but have the biggest smile on my face!! Also, a number of people ran beside me for parts of the race like people from Alaska and Afghanistan! One girl from Afghanistan ran with me for the last half kilometer of the race, it was really interesting to talk to her and hear about her life over there.

Who would have thought that one 10KM race would be so meaningful and bring so many people together? I enjoyed this special rainy, sunny, rainy, sunny day in Switzerland's capital city, Bern.

The purple t-shirts we got after the race!!

Sigriswil!!

2011-06-15T14:49:00.000-04:00

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!!

LENK !!

2011-06-06T08:13:00.000-04:00

I'd like to start off, that these past 5 days may have been the best 5 days of my exchange.

On Wednesday June 1st, my host family, Ana, host brother's friend and I hopped into the minivan and the smart car to head on our way to their cottage in the Swiss Alps in a little village called Lenk. I have heard a lot about it and really looked forward to going, but I didn't quiet know what to expect. We arrived after sunset with lots of clouds and fog in the sky, not so sure what was surrounding us that stood up to 2800 m high. We unpacked, settled in and then decided to play a game of Spoons! If you lose Spoons 5 time then everyone has to write down a dare and the person that lost gets to pick one out of a hat. There she was, my host mom doing the Macarena in front of us, I was in tears of laughter.

I woke up on Thursday to a sunny morning and breakfast ready on the table, we all ate breakfast and planned what we were going to do for the day. Denise and Silvano (my host parents) planned to go for a hike, and so we packed up the backpacks with food and drinks and headed off on our first hike.

As we prepared to go out the fog started to clear, and I looked out from the back balcony and couldn't believe my eyes. You could see so many mountains! Simply standing from the house, you could see the Swiss Alps. How incredible is that?! So then we started our hike, which went parallel to a beautiful and long waterfall.

It was in some parts a steep climb, but nonetheless very rewarding. One of the best parts of the hike was when we crossed a bridge which had a waterfall right beside it, nothing in the world would feel better at that moment than having the mist from the waterfall splash over you.

As we continued to hike, passing waterfall after waterfall, hiking up this mountain through the woods, I realized how incredible this place is!! Switzerland has a ton of hiking paths around that goes up and down mountains and through places you thought no one could have ever been! Not only do they have amazing hiking trails, they also have signs that will say just how much time it takes to hike through the different paths.

We reached our destination point, a huge waterfall on the mountain, with other mountains surrounding us and rolling fields that look like a fairytale.

We stopped there and had a picnic, enjoying the well deserved food and drinks. Afterwards, we all did our own thing around the falls. We all played around the falls or relaxed on a relaxing rock in the falls. If you know the expression 'I couldn't believe my eyes...' I really couldn't believe them. I felt like I was standing in a postcard!!

Ana and I hiked up the side of the big waterfall and found a comfy and relaxing place to sit. We sat there overlooking the incredible views and talking.. Since I had braids that looked like Heidy, I was sitting in Switzerland surrounded by the Swiss Alps, I felt quiet Swiss.. So naturally, I decided to yodel. I can officially cross yodeling in the Swiss Alps off my bucket list. I thought no one could hear me other than Ana because I was beside a really noisy waterfall, but once we climbed down my host dad, Silvano asked me about the yodeling - woops!! The good thing is that I can act like my goofy self around my host family because they are hilarious and we all have a great time together.

So once we finished celebrating the hike up and enjoying all these views, we decided to start our hike back down. This whole hike took the majority of the day, so we went back home and had dinner. After dinner we played the classic card game, spoons and once again if you lose Spoons 5 time then everyone has to write down a dare and the person that lost gets to pick one out of a hat. Ana was on the balcony screaming the numbers 1-20 in Spanish, the neighbors must have thought there was a crazy Mexican around!

I had such a deep sleep that night, I was so tired from the many hours of hiking!

The next day we got up and once again had breakfast, packed the bags and went off for another full day of hiking. Deciding on a new path, new mountain to hike up, we went on our way up this steep path for the next few hours. Once again we passed sights that I really couldn't believe. Half way up we unpacked the bags and had lunch. This time it wasn't sandwiches, it was the traditional real deal Swiss meal. We took out a bunch of Wurst (Swiss sausages) and cut them with our Swiss knives into different animals or shapes and cooked them over the fire.

They were delicious!! Along with Swiss chocolate and Rivella, a drink you can just find here in Switzerland which is so delicious. After eating lunch and sitting there for a while, we continued our hike up the mountain. By the time we were at the top, I was extremely tired but it felt SO good!! We had drinks at the restaurant at the top and Denise, my host mom, saw the funniest brand name for a beer.. Can you figure out our humor behind this ad? Look at the name of it!!

So we enjoyed drinks at the top and then took a Gondola down the mountain, because I am not so good at going down a mountain because of my knees. Going up is not so much a problem, but going down is pretty painful.

Then we went back home, had dinner and then Luca, my host brother, his friend, Ana and I went to a Lounge in the town. We sat there for a few hours on comfy couches just chatting away. We eventually went home and once again I was exhausted and had such a great sleep.

Saturday was sadly our last full day left on our vacation in the Alps. Ana headed back Saturday morning but my host family and I stayed until Sunday. So we went for another long hike and passed many more waterfalls. We made it to the top and felt that same feeling of accomplishment that you always feel after a long hike up a steep mountain. It feels SO great!!

After the hike we got home, showered up then headed to a restaurant in the mountains. It was so typical Swiss, It was a log homed restaurant with red and white checkered curtains with mountains and rolling hills as the view once you looked out the window. Being the cheese lover I am, I didn't care that I just ate Rocklette (grilled, melted cheese that you can eat alone or with things like potatoes) the night before... I ordered this Swiss meal that is bread with melted (amazing) cheese melted over it with an egg on it to top it all off. SO incredible !! I just LOVE the food here!!

Then we headed back to the cottage and watched Wall-e together.

Sadly, the time came where we had to leave Lenk. Sunday morning we packed our things up and hopped back into the minivan and smart car. On our way back we stopped in a Cheese Factory!! I have never been in one before, so it was a really exciting thing for me. There are these massive pots of milk and bacteria that ferment to make cheese, and then afterwards there were HUGE rolls of cheese!! It weighs between 80-100 kg and costs up to $2000 each!!

It was such an incredible five days, I had so much fun with my host family. It's sad that is over but there are still many more adventures for me in these final 6 weeks left of my exchange !!

Here are some more pictures of the views we saw during our hikes:

7 weeks left !

2011-05-30T04:14:00.002-04:00

I can't believe how fast time has gone by.. feels like it was about a month ago when I started this adventure and now I have about a month and a half left until it all ends..

I have been keeping really busy lately and continue to just love this exchange, love these people and love my life. I have such an incredible host family right now, so it's a great way to end this year off. They are an active family so we go on many different excursions, which is really exciting. They treat me so incredibly well and I am really fortunate for that. I couldn't have asked for a better way to end this year.

Each weekend is filled with different things to do and there is never a dull moment. A few weeks ago there was a 5km race I was signed up for in Bern, the capital city of Switzerland. I had an unfortunate accident with my bicycle and was unable to compete. I had an extremely stiff neck so my doctor put me into a neck brace, and I had bruises and road rash all over. Fortunately my host mom is a nurse and took great care of me, and I am all healed up. I stood at the side lines and cheered on my host parents and my host brother as they competed in the 16km run!! It was sad to not be able to compete but I am really lucky that I wasn't hurt even more after the bike accident! So, my host dad signed me up for another race in about 3 weeks that's 10km and I am very excited for that!!

This past weekend I spent Friday with a good friend of mine, Chris and he taught me how to make home made Sushi! It was so great !! The type of sushi we made was not that difficult, but he had to help me to fold it because that was a little more challenging. It was delicious!

Yesterday I spent the whole day at a Confirmation celebration. Neighbors of ours that are good family friends, had their daughter get confirmed and we all went to the church, then went out for lunch after then went back to their house for coffee and dessert. It was so cool to be in such an old church. It's special for me to go to events like that and see what it's like in different countries. The confirmation was really different than what I was used to, and also the weddings I have been to during the first few months of my exchange. Things are quite different here!

This coming weekend we have a special holiday here in Switzerland so I get a 4-day-weekend.. woo hoo !!! Wednesday night I head to Lenk which is a village in the Swiss Alps, my host family owns a vacation house there. I am going with my host family, my host brothers friend and my best friend here from Mexico, Ana. I am really excited for that, there is nothing like staying in a cottage in the Swiss Alps for 5 days.

School is coming to an end soon, which I secretly am looking forward to. School hasn't exactly been a highlight of my exchange year, it has been pretty challenging so I do look forward to that coming to an end. I just have around 3 and a half weeks of school left!! Then my class and I are off to a house in the Alps for a week together with fun activities planned as our end of the year trip, which is exciting.

As I start rounding the final corner of my exchange year, it is getting pretty emotional. I am just taking it a day at a time and enjoying every last second that I can! People ask me quite often if I am looking forward to going home, and honestly it's half and half. It's going to be really, really difficult to leave my friends and family here, and the life that I live. I like the way things work in this country, the transportation is awesome, the food is incredible and I have really good relationships here. I like being an hour away from the Swiss Alps and living on the border of both France and Germany.. It is a really fun life to live, and I enjoy it a lot. Also, at the same time of course I miss my friends and family back at home and being in my own home.. So I am excited for home as well. Although it's emotional and challenging, I wouldn't want to feel any other way: If I wanted to go home really bad it would have meant I didn't have that great of a year, and if I didn't want to go home at all then it would be really hard to accept leaving in 7 weeks. But, that's not the way it is.. I am at a half and half point and that's the way, in my mind, it should be. I had an amazing year, and I just have to keep remembering I am so lucky to have experienced this incredible journey, and keep continuing my journey once I get home. It won't be easy, it's not easy, but this exchange has given me all the tools to deal with challenges like this, and I know I can do it.

Canada, see you in 7 weeks!!

Happy Mother's Day Mommy!

2011-05-08T14:02:00.002-04:00

Happy mother's day to my mom and all the other great moms out there..

Today I am really missing you and the things we'd do together on this special day, but I'll see you again soon !!
Love you momma !

London, England !! :D

2011-04-30T08:11:00.001-04:00

My host family (Denise, Silvano, Luca and Elia) and I left the house around 6 15 am on Tuesday morning to embark on our three day adventure in London England, what an incredible host family I have and what an incredible city that was!!

Once we arrived by airplane in London we took the Tube (=British English for the Subway) to our hotel and dropped all our things off ready to begin this incredible adventure. We started off by going to a Wax Museum, it was so strange!! It really felt like I was in a room with celebrities, they all looked so incredible real. It was freaky because people would take pictures with them and so as the posed for the picture I wouldn't really know in some cases who was real and who wasn't, since I didn't know all the wax people in there. So I'd walk by someone I thought was wax since the museum was so crowded, and they'd start moving!! I'm convinced some people must have gone into shock there. It's unbelievable how real they looked.

Then we started walking to the Westminster Abbey!! On route there, we saw the famous Big Ben, the clock tower! We then arrived to the famous church and waited in line to go into it. Tuesday was the last day it would be open to public, so we were very fortunate with timing.. It was closed Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to get ready for the Royal Wedding !! We went in, the church is absolutely gorgeous. To think, this is where it all happens and this is where the Royal wedding will be. The aisle you saw Kate and William walk down, I also walked down that three days prior to them. I hope everyone got a chance to see at least the high lights of that wedding, that was gorgeous. It was such a special church to be in, this is where it all happens. I loved it in there.. there were also news reporters everywhere and my host mom and I got interviewed about what we though Kate should be called since the Queen makes that decision!

In the evening we went to a theater and watched a play that I'm sure all of you know as it was also in Toronto, we saw We Will Rock You!! Since I'm in love with the British accent, I loved sitting there and listening to the accent all evening since all the actors and actresses were British! It was also a really great play.

The next day we took a bus tour that lasted the whole day, 8 am until 7 pm! We drove out to the famous Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath. Salisbury had a really famous church there with lots and lots of history to learn about, we even saw the Magna Carta!! It is an old document issued in the year 1215 and Salisbury Cathedral has one of the 4 copies left, and the one in the best condition. We also stopped for lunch and of course had the typical fish and chips .. so great!

In the city of Bath, we went to a Roman museum where they used to have their public baths. The whole complex was still in such great shape, oh how times have changed. They used to have one building where everyone took their baths their, in a giant pool... Now we have a bathroom, walk in turn on the shower and you can take one for as long as you want the water just keeps on coming. So weird to see the huge difference from then and now, and to grasp that people actually lived like that.

The Stonehenge was one of the major highlights of the trip to London. It just blows my mind, they have such little information about it.. Stonehenge was ancient to the Romans! It's incredible! How the heck did they get all those stones there, lifted up with huge other stones on top? It's just fascinating!!

Once the tour finished, we arrived back in London and went to The Tower Bridge, London Bridge and ate dinner out on the docks at a really cool restaurant.

The next and final day in London, was shopping day. I love the city, it's such an interesting cool place. The people are so friendly, even in such a big city like London. The majority of them are in good moods, friendly and extremely polite. It was a great atmosphere in that city, I would love to go back there one day. After the big day of shopping, we flew back home, the day before the Royal Wedding. I'm relieved we went home on Thursday because it would have been SO chaotic to be there for the wedding, and you'd have to camp out there to actually see something and be in the front row. The people were so excited everywhere for it, there were The Union Jack flags everywhere with Kate and Prince Williams face in the middle, almost every shop and restaurant had a note of congratulations on their window, that flag or something to do with the wedding!!

I had such an incredible three days, my host family here is absolutely amazing, I love being with them so the whole trip was just perfect. The sad time came to fly back to my home in Switzerland from London, but London, I will see you again!!

World hockey finals, gold medal game!!

2011-04-30T05:56:00.000-04:00

They don't air hockey to much over here in the land of the Swiss so I didn't really realize that in Zurich which is about an hour away from me, was the World Women Hockey Championship tournament!! My brother told me that "Canada and the USA are in the finals tomorrow night and it's in Zurich!" So of course I suited up, asked a friend to come along, and there I found myself at the gold medal game !!

If you didn't get a chance to see it on TV, let me tell you, that was an exciting game!! It was back and forth the whole three periods, and ended in a 2-2 tie which meant that we were about to enter an exciting round of overtime. Before the overtime period started, the ladies went off the ice for 15 minutes just like ever break between periods. The man that was interviewing the players and officials for the Jumbotron and the TV was looking around the audience for a Canadian fan to interview. Sometimes during his interviews with game officials, they spoke German so I randomly got the urge to look at him as he looked at me and yell "I SPEAK GERMAN!!" However, he just wanted a Canadian fan that spoke English. But I caught his eye, because he called me to the front and there I was on TV and on the big jumbotron at that game, being interviewed.

Unfortunately, the USA scored in overtime and won 3-2. Although it was a sad ending, I had such an amazing time there! Ana and I went and sat with a big group of Canadian fans when we arrived and met a bunch of fun people and enjoyed the game with as we cheered our hearts out for Canada.

Feeding Monkeys in France!

2011-04-19T12:34:00.000-04:00

Today I went with my host mom, Denise and my host brother, Luca to Alsace, France! We went to "Monkey Mountain" which is a fenced in park/forest containing 240 monkeys!! You can hold your hand out and they'll take the pop corn out of your hand and eat it! They are absolutely adorable.

Afterwards we went to a castle in France, also in Alsace. It was made in the 1400's and went through many battles.

The weather was perfect, the monkeys were happy and hungry and it was an incredible day.

FC Basel game!

2011-04-19T12:15:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, I went to my first professional soccer game.. A few months ago I bought the whole entire jersey for the Basel soccer team. (Basel is basically the city I live in for this year)

I have heard so much about the games and finally went to my first one.. I was dressed exactly like a soccer player. One of the police officers pretended to guard me as if I was an actual player!! I had such a great time, Basel was playing a team from Zurich which are huge rivalries so of course there was riot police everywhere, really tight security, and many hooligans. It was so exciting!

The final score was 2-2.

Rome and Venice, Italy!!

2011-04-10T11:00:00.000-04:00

Note: please at least once in your life time come over to Switzerland and Italy.. These countries are beautiful.

From March 28th - April 2nd, I went on a trip through Italy with Rotary as our end of the year trip. Weird right? I've already finished the end of the year trip, this exchange is just flying by.. Anyway it was just the most incredible trip!! Six days that were just PACKED with things to do, with 52 exchange students here in Switzerland and 2 incredible Rotex (former exchange students that are now leaders for excursions like this) along with 2 Rotarians that dedicated 6 days to take us on our trip. All of them were incredible!

March 28th - Met with the other Basel exchange students at 5:15 a.m at the Basel train station to embark on our journey to Rome! We finally arrived around 3:00 pm. First impression of Rome: big, big city! There were people everywhere making their way around my goodness there were a lot of tourists!! We walked to our hotel after arriving at the Rome train station, and I was in a room with 4 other really fun girls so I was really happy about that: Ana, Celine, Sophie and Megan. After settling down and throwing our stuff in the room, we all had free time to look around and familiarize ourselves with where we were located in Rome. So a bunch of us walked around with two very important destinations: an ice cream shop and Colosseum. We luckily found both with no problems, and I will tell you a very well known fact, ITALIAN ICE CREAM IS AMAZING. You have to try it. We sat around on the outside of the Colosseum just talking and soaking up all that we were seeing. Then it was time to head back to the hotel, have our dinner and hang out with our friends until curfew.

March 29th - Woke up and went to, drum roll please... the Vatican!! We had a tour in the morning with our guide. We went through some incredible places there! We started off going through the Sistine Chapel, covered in beautiful paintings all over the walls, painted by Michael Angelo. Then we went into the Pope Cemetery, in a basement with a bunch of above ground caskets with pictures of them and a short biography on a plaque explaining their life or what they did. It was incredible being in a room with such known and loved people, such heroes to some people, it was very special. Then we went to the St Peter's Basilica, which was just incredible. It's the largest church in the world, and the decorations inside are just unbelievable. Absolutely gorgeous!! Of course afterwards we went to St Peter's Square, and saw the place that we have all seen on TV when it's just covered with people everywhere. It was so special for me, because I remember watching Pope John Paul the Seconds funeral on TV and seeing that exact place, and I couldn't believe that I was actually standing there. Then we went into St Peter's dome.. We walked up 550 steps to get to the top and once we stepped out onto the platform at the top I couldn't believe my eyes. First of all, it was the most perfect day.. The sun was shining, it was all blue skies everywhere, and the temperatures were just perfect. We step out and I couldn't believe my eyes, it was an amazing lookout to see the beautiful city of Rome! The beautiful buildings everywhere, not grey or silver, everything was orange. It was just like the movies, and it was just perfect. Then a bunch of us went for lunch, and you guessed it.. that Italian Pizza!! Woooo, it is SO great. The afternoon was free time so we walked around, getting more of a taste for this beautiful city.

March 30th- Ancient Rome day!! Once again our tour guide gave us a tour for the whole morning around ancient Rome. We started off by going into the Colosseum. That's where the Gladiators and animals used to fight for entertainment, massive numbers of people and animals were killed in that place we stood in. It's so hard to imagine that and compare how much has changed since the Roman times.. Can you imagine animals and humans fighting each other to death in a theater today?? Try to get insurance for that!
Afterwards we walked through preserved parts where the ancient cities used to stand, with the buildings still there and monuments everywhere. Once again we had free time during the afternoon so we took advantage of every second and tried to see as much as possible since it was our last full day in Rome. We started off by going to a very well known Ice cream place and if you said "surprise me!" they had a lot of fun with it and just gave you so much of different flavors. While we were in there, there was a random huge hail storm!! It was such a beautiful day then all of a sudden we are hovering under the sun umbrellas as that ice cream shop waiting for the hail to finish, along with the loud bangs of thunder, it was really fun! Once that finished we went to the famous "Fountana de Trevvi" a.k.a Trevvi Fountain, where all your wishes come true. 5 of us stood there with our backs facing the fountain, coin in our hand, eyes closed and chucked it into the fountain hoping that what we wished for would come true. Afterwards we went to the famous Spanish Stairways, and sat there in the beautiful sun enjoying our moments in Rome. After dinner a bunch of us went back to the Colosseum and sat down while this beautiful place was all lit up and talked, it was an incerdible moment.

March 31st - It was time to head onto our next journey, so we woke up and then back to the train station we went. We were on our way to the unbelievably beautiful city, Venice. Once I arrived I split off with Celine, a friend of mine that's also from Canada. Our goal was to simply get lost in Venice. It's not a big city so you don't have to be nervous about getting lost, it was such a good idea of hers. We just wondered up and down random tiny alley ways, and over a million random bridges. Venice is full of water canals, so the main mode of transportation is by boat!! So together we roamed around going in and out of tiny shops, over bridges, through alleys, and every once in a while we would just sit down alongside the canal, feet over the edge and just enjoy the fact that there we sat in Venice. Everything is built on the water, the basements of houses were in the water, everything is was so cool!

April 1st- Started off with a tour around the beautiful city in Venice, from a woman that has lived in or around Venice her whole life. So she took us around all the quiet back roads and alleys in Venice and also the well known famous places like St Marco's Square. In the afternoon we had free time so of course we had to go on those famous Gondola boats, that are long and skinny where the man stands up at the back singing and paddling. Hands down one of the most amazing moments in my life.. In this skinny boat with 5 of my friends going up and down the narrow water streets, in Venice. Afterwards we took a fairy boat to an island that's still considered Venice but it took about 20 minutes to get there, when we were there we went to a beach!! A beautiful beach on the Mediterranean Sea. The weather was perfect it was all just perfect. I absolutely love Venice and will definitely go back there again one day! In the evening a bunch of Canadians got together and went to the local fountain that was huge and colorful, and sat there, talked and soaked in all that we just did, enjoying our last night in Italy.

April 2nd- Boarded the train and headed on our long journey back to Basel, Switzerland

. It was sad to leave but I was also excited to be back with my host family again.. I just switched and they are absolutely incredible. I will blog about them soon !! I am having the time of my life with them, I already feel like I have lived with them my whole life, they make me feel completely at home. Plus, the weather here in Switzerland is INCREDIBLE. Right now I sit outside writing this blog, shorts and a tshirt and still boiling! Everything is so perfect right now. I LOVE EXCHANGE !!

MUNICH, GERMANY!!

2011-03-24T15:48:00.000-04:00

Last Thursday Ana and I embarked on a trip that I previously mentioned, to Munich Germany!! I was so lucky that my Rotary Counselor organized this whole trip for the two of us, including finding a Rotary family to stay with for four days. It takes about six hours by trains to get there, so of course Ana and I had a fun day with great chats on the train ride there, I love that... sitting on the train with good friends and just talking away while enjoying all the gorgeous views you pass.

Once we arrived, Ana and I met the Heene family.. the family we were staying with. They are incredible!! They were all so friendly and welcoming.. Unfortunately I was really sick the whole time I was in Munich with either bad cold or a touch of bronchitis, so the host mom ended up feeling like an actual mom to me because she took such great care of me.

Our second day in Munich, Wolmuth (the host mother), Ana and I went to Dacchau Concentration Camp. We did a tour through Dacchau and it was extremely unsettling. It was so harsh and cruel, that it was impossible for me to wrap my head around. However, about 3/4ths through the tour there was a moment that hit me and showed me how real it really was.. There are pictures of the soldiers and doctors running tests on the people in that camp. They ran medical tests like air pressure tests, and there were pictures of the people dying and in extreme amounts of pain, it was disgusting. How can someone be so cruel? I will never forget that horrible feelings that I got there...

Afterwards we went out to a movie, The King's Speech. Okay, okay .. I can't say if it was good or not. I can tell you, I head it's very good!! Since I was so sick and on medications, anytime I sat down I would immediately fall asleep without even noticing. My head would tilt back, eyes would close and I was out like a light.. so unfortunately I missed the entire movie!! Also missed all the scenery in most car rides.. oops..

On the third day in Munich, my host father Andreas, host sister Karoline, Wolmuth, Ana and I went to a palace. A king once lived in this palace, it was a beautiful place. However, the inside of the place just scared me! It was COVERED in gold EVERYTHING, it was just too much! It was really interesting to be in there for a day though and tour through the house and see how it was set up in the olden days.

Throughout those 3 days it basically rained the whole time which made it nice there was also indoor activities to do.. However, on Sunday the day Ana and I had to leave it was a beautiful day!! Warm and sunny, it was perfect! Luckily our train didn't leave until 1:30 pm so we had the whole morning to go explore the city of Munich together. Wolmuth, Karoline, Ana and I walked around and explored the gorgeous, old city. It's incredible!! The buildings are gorgeous, so interestingly built. The people are friendly and the atmosphere is so calm and welcoming, everyone was sitting on the street outside of the cafes enjoying a nice Espresso in the sun. At 12:00 we heard the famous Glockenspiel play!! It was the best day there, I LOVED IT!! It's such an amazing city!!

Fasnacht !!

2011-03-20T18:26:00.001-04:00

Ever since I arrived here in Switzerland, people have been telling me of the famous 3 days in Basel called "Fasnacht." aka, Carnival.

It's basically a big party in the streets for 3 days starting Monday morning at 4 a.m. and continued until the early hours of Thursday morning. However, in Liestal which is a neighboring town to Basel the traditional "kick-off" happened which I was really fortunate to have a good place to watch it from. Normally people stand on the tiny, narrow street while watching this parade of fire in Liestal but Rotary had a place in an apartment so I could enjoy it without the burning heat from the torches and huge wagons of fire. It was incredible !!!

After the fire evening in Liestal, I pushed my way through an extremely massive crowd of people and made my way to the train station. To go sleep? No way. I went to a concert with a group of Swiss friends that I have become really close with, these people here are awesome!! Since "Morgen Strike" happens in Basel at 4 a.m, lots of people stay up the whole night until that magical time! So I went to a concert and once it was time for Morgen Strike we left and found a good place to sit and enjoy it together.

Then it was time to go sleep, rest up and then enjoy the next few days normally. Fasnacht is basically instrumental bands everywhere playing their own songs in a parade, in which they choose their own way so there is just basically beautiful music everywhere for a full 3 days. Everyone participating in the bands or cliques, wear a costume with a mask. On Monday and Wednesday the masks and costumes match but Tuesday is more for fun and for the kids, so it's not so serious on Tuesday. There are also parade wagons full of other stuff, like the famous "Waggi's." These are the Fasnacht bullies and go around throwing and stuffing you with confetti, then kindly giving you candy or a rose afterwards.

The atmosphere during these 3 days is unexplainable, the people are so happy and the streets are completely full with people, candy, and LOTS of confetti. Here are some pictures to explain it !!

On Tuesday, I was invited by a member of Rotary to walk with him, his family and the band they are apart of. Out of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Tuesday is the day for kids and also costumes the don't have to match. I walked at the front of the band with a few others to help clear the path of people watching it, here is me in the costume they lent me, I'm on the left!

I encourage everyone to go to Switzerland for the traditional Fasnacht that happens once a year, the feeling and exciting you get is indescribable.

Mom came to Switzerland!

2011-03-11T03:32:00.001-05:00

On March 3rd, after an hour flight delay and many emotional moments during the waiting period in the airport, my mom finally walked through the Arrival Gate in the Zurich Airport. It has been seven months since I have last seen her so it was an emotional greeting since I have really missed her. Tomorrow she heads back home to Canada, it won't be long until I see her again since the months fly by and my exchange sadly ends in four months.

While she was here we went on many adventures in my attempt to show her Switzerland in 9 days. Here are the photos to show what we did:

Mom came to my school and met my best friend Ana. Ana and I showed my mom the entire school and had a lot of nice chats so Ana and my mom could get to know each other.

My mom and I went to Basel (the big city that I am close to) and went to the Marktplatz (Market place). We bought some Swiss cheese, Swiss bread and took it to the river and ate it in the beautiful sunshine.

Mom and I went flying in the Swiss Alps!! It was one of the most incredible things I have ever done in my life. I absolutely loved it and enjoyed this once in a lifetime opportunity, to the fullest.

This is a view from the plane as we flew through the Swiss Alps.

My mom and I took a 4 hour train ride trip to Southern Switzerland. We went to 2 cities, Bellinzona and Locarno. These two cities are on the border of Italy, so we got to experience what it is like in Italy. We had amazing pizza.

Mom and I in the Italian part of Switzerland.

At night we went to Zurich, the largest city in Switzerland. We walked around, shopped and went out for some really good dinner. The food here is incredible.

We went to France!!! After a nice lunch with Rotary, my Rotary counsellor Peter, took my mom and I to France to see another culture.

In France, we went to a big Supermarket. France is famous for their fish so here is a picture of my mom and I standing with the Fish lady in front of the stand.

We went to a hotel in Interlaken for 3 days. Interlaken is a little town in the Swiss Alps. From our balcony we had an amazing view of many mountains. This is me standing on our balcony.

We took a train ride to the top of the Alps. We were very fortunate with amazing weather and had an amazing day together as we drank coffee in the mountains.

View of the mountains!

It was an amazing time with my mom, and tomorrow she goes back home. It was really nice to spend a week with her and be with her again!!

going to Munich! 3 more days mommy!

2011-02-28T13:04:00.001-05:00

Sorry I have been soooooooooooooo busy lately and no time to update anyone about what's going on!!
A couple weekends ago, my Rotary Counselor took me to some really cool places. It was a lot of fun to spend the day with him, and him and I get along really well with a lot of similar interests which gives us a lot to talk about. We started out by going to a museum about old music machines, before the record player. It was really interesting to learn about how they listened to music, and I got to hear the famous orchestra automatic music machine that was in the sister-Titanic ship called the Britanic. They used that when they did long cruises, but took it out because they had to use that ship during war. That ship got sunk during war and they were happy to have taken it out since it is worth millions today and a huge part in history. I was able to hear it play!! It was really cool.

Afterwards, Peter and I crossed the bridge in his village that crosses into Germany!! I stood with one foot in Germany and one foot in Switzerland, it was a really special moment for me. We went to a church in Germany and inside this church was a small room with candles, flowers, pews and a place the priest can stand. We went in there and I asked him what it was for.. He began to explain that this was the place the families went to during the war to pray for their friend or family member currently fighting.There was a huge board of names, birth date, date of death and where they died or in which battle. There were hundreds of name and they all came from that little city on the border. I started to ask questions and we had a really good conversation, and I explained to him that I have always wanted to go to a Concentration Camp but will have to come back to Europe one day to do so, since it is too far from Switzerland to do it this year. He told me that there was one in Munich, called Dachau. He told me the partner club to my Rotary club is Munich and he can see what he can do to get me there. It's amazing what someone will do for someone else, just out of the common good and I really thank him for everything he has done for me and helped me with.

Last night I received a phone call saying he found a Rotary family in Munich that will host me and my best friend, Ana from Mexico. So in 2 weeks, Ana and I will be travelling to Munich for 4 days. One day for Dachau, and the other days to travel the beautiful city. It will be a very eye opening experience and will definitely teach me a lot. I am very excited to go.

Here are some pictures of that day with Peter:

standing on the border! :)

Germany

The church in Germany

Germany

I am so excited for Ana and I to go to Munich, it'll be so amazing! There are a tonne of trips planned to other countries but I will talk to them once they come!

MY MOM COMES IN 3 DAYS!!
It has been nearly 7 months without her, which is hard to imagine if you knew how close we are. I am so excited to show her my life here, so on 10 45 am on Thursday, I will be reconnected with my mom once again after being apart for 7 months. I am so incredibly excited to see her and we have so much planned so she is going to see a LOT of Switzerland in just 9 days!!

Welcome mommy and have a safe flight .. I'll be eagerly waiting for you at the arrivals gate!!

Weekend in the Alps!

2011-02-14T11:50:00.003-05:00

At Christmas time, I attended a Rotary dinner and met an incredible family.. The Sollberger's. We sat at the same table and they invited me to their apartment in the Alps, and that was this past weekend!

Their apartment is in Sorenberg, Switzerland. It is a gorgeous place!! It had a balcony that you could walk onto and view rows upon rows of mountains, along with all the skiers and snowboarders that were going down the mountains.

Saturday was a relaxing day which was wonderful. We went out for ice cream and I got to see the beautiful village. Then we went back to the apartment and I sat on the balcony, in the sun, overlooking the Swiss Alps.. Here is the view from the balcony:

Here's the view from my bedroom window:

Once the sun went down, the Sollberger's invited me to a ski & snowboard freestyle competition, it was so cool! These people are absolutely incredible at being in control while flying through the air attached to skis or a snowboard, it was magnificent. Unfortunately, I couldn't get a good picture because it was night time and they were going too fast but it was really cool !! Afterwards we went to a Pizzeria, mmmmm. And we all sat there chatting the night away.

The next day, I was apart of a really cool family tradition. Every Sunday that they are in their apartment for the weekend, the father (Simeon) and the two kids (Florence and Fabreece) go to the local store and pick out the bread they want to have for breakfast while the mom (Sandra) prepares everything back at home. So I went down to the store and picked out a few croissants and other neat Swiss bread.. PS the bread here is fabulous. My hips think so too!

Afterwards we got all warmly dressed for the mountains, oh who am I kidding.. the weather was fabulous and you barely needed a winter jacket!! It was spring temperatures, probably around 10 degrees Celsius. Unfortunately Sandra wasn't feeling well, but Simeon, Fabreece, Florence and I went skiing! I'm not very good at it, and they were all very patient and so supportive, encouraging and all made very good teachers!! Since I was on a mountain, some parts of the hill were really steep! At one point, I was going down a not-so-steep hill then I looked beside me and there was a hill attached to mine, it was so steep and I laughed as I went past it. Simeon stopped and said, okay lets try this one! At first I chuckled and thought he was kidding, but he wasn't.. I could have said no but I wanted the challenge and I did it !! I followed him and I was so proud of myself, I went down that really steep hill twice and it felt really good. They are all so incredible.

Then sadly it was time to go back to the apartment, pack up and head home. I had such an incredible time with this family, they are amazing!! They are so down-to-earth and happy and so welcoming, I felt like I was at home within the first 30 minutes of being there... I had an INCREDIBLE weekend!!

Sunny Switzerland!!

2011-02-08T07:06:00.002-05:00

WOW we are having incredible weather over here in Switzerland.. I know my previous post makes it look like we have a lot of snow, but where I live we haven't had any for quite a while!! Some other parts in Switzerland has snow because the altitude is higher.. but here in Basel the weather is incredible!!

Yesterday I had half a day of school, so afterwards Ana and I decided we should do something since it was the most warm and beautiful February 7th I have ever seen. There is a river in Basel that we often go to during the day or sometimes at night, and it's one of the most relaxing places I have ever been to. There is a sitting place on the side of the Rhine, that looks like this:

Yesterday it was around 13 degrees Celsius, so Ana and I went to the sitting place and sat there for over three hours. At first we talked and ate lunch, then we started to quiet down and really enjoy the moment. I sat there looking at a typical, beautiful Swiss view (in a t-shirt might I add.) We were surrounded by people laughing and talking, swans floating down the rivers current, birds chirping and flying around, trams crossing the bridges and the beautiful row of Swiss houses across the narrow river with the church bells ringing ever half an hour. This exchange is a dream come true.

I would also like to add that today, I have officially been in Switzerland for SIX MONTHS!! Time is flying, I can't believe I'm more than half way done my exchange. I hope time slows down a little bit because I'm loving it here so much.

Rotary Winter Weekend, Switzerland!

2011-02-07T16:32:00.001-05:00

This time last year, I was at a camp with Rotary finding out which country I was going to for the year, that day feels just like yesterday. It was one of those days that I'll always remember and look at, knowing that's the moment it all changed.

This year, I had the Winter Weekend in Engleberg, Switzerland. We met Saturday afternoon and walked to the group hostel/rented house place and I knew at that moment this was going to be an amazing weekend. There were a few different rooms, with a giant bunk bed in each. It was like sleeping on a giant bed with my best friends here in Switzerland.

It started off with us going ice skating, and was really neat to see the differences between students. Most of the Canadians had previously played hockey and we taught our friends that aren't used to skating. I taught my friend from Brazil how to skate.

Afterwards we went back to our house and had some time to relax, talk and catch up with the other exchange students that we don't see very often. Then the Rotex (previous exchange students that run these weekends) organized a game outside... Beside our house we had a big field, and Rotex came up with a pretty funny game. One person was it, and the others had to run from on side to the other without getting tackled, that made it quite an interesting time! If you got tackled you had to join in the center and tackle other people. It looked pretty funny since we are all in our big snow suits attempting to run as fast as we can. It got a little dark out so people started to head back into the house, but I stayed outside along with my closest friends here. We lied down in the snowy field and looked at the stars.. There I sat with people that are changing my life, surrounded by the Swiss Alps that made a prickly black outline in the moonlight shadow, talking and laughing together in Switzerland. I just lied there, soaking all of this in. It was an incredible moment, that I will never forget.

Then we had dinner and played a few other games all together until we decided to go downstairs and all lay in my bed telling ghost stories in the pitch black with nothing but some moon light shining in the window, it was incredible. I love these people!!

The next day, Rotary took us sledding. It's not tobogganing down a hill then running back up, it's real tobogganing. You take a ski lift/gondel to the top of the mountain and go down a long path, similar to a ski hill. It looked really funny, almost like a video game called Mario Kart racing. During some paths, you could look beside you and see the most incredible views. The Swiss Alps are magnificent and it was so cool to toboggan along and see the amazing views. Unfortunately I went over a bump and hit my face off the toboggan and hurt my nose but I'm so thankful I didn't break it !!

I had such an incredible weekend, with extremely special people. This place is incredible.

The things I love about Switzerland..

2011-02-02T12:12:00.006-05:00

I realized I have mainly written about all the things I have been doing and not so much about the actual country itself.

In these last few weeks I have really been realizing how much I am in love with this country. It is truly an incredible place, and the way everything works is astonishing. I don't know if it's because it's a small country, but boy do they really have everything figured out here!

The number one thing which astonishes me here, is the transportation. I could look at a map of Switzerland and randomly put my finger down and probably be able to get to that point with either a bus, train, tram, boat or chair lift. All the transportation plans are incredible! You can get anywhere without a long wait between each mode of transportation when you have to take multiple ones to get somewhere. There's a website you can go to and type where you'd like to go and it gives you the whole plan along with exactly what plat form you have to go to and so on.. Also something amazing is how punctual this country is!! When I go to school every morning, I take a bus to the train station then a train to school. The bus comes every hour at :09 and :39. When it says it's there at that time, it's literally there on that exact minute. It's so reliable and when you make plans with someone to meet at the train station for example, you say I will be there at 8:12, and that's the exact minute you will arrive!! Okay I'll stop blabbing on about it, but here are some pictures of what it looks like here:

Another thing I love about this country, is the variety of places you can visit. In a matter of 6 hours, you can drive to any place in Switzerland. Since Switzerland is central Europe, it has all the surrounding countries flowing over the boarders to give you a good taste of what that country is like, without even entering it.

For example, I went to Tessin which is in the south of Switzerland. Tessin is a kanton (county/state) on the border of Italy, and when I went there it felt like I was in Italy. Everything was just like it would be if I was in Italy: restaurants, houses, buildings, markets, traditions, the landscape, Italian language and most of the people were Italian. Now if you look at Switzerland on a map, it is surrounded by countries with the same scene at the kantons on the boarder.

Switzerland is the pink country that is surrounded by Italy, France, Germany and Austria. So that is why Switzerland has so many differences and four different languages: Romansh, Italian, French and German.

To me, those are the coolest things about this country. Now I'm going to just give some random point form points about other things that I absolutely love:

- the food is incredible... I eat a lot of bread, cheese and chocolate. Although you won't recognize me when I get home, I'm loving the meals here!

-I haven't seen a single homeless person on the streets here. They have a special set up for people that are struggling so that they can still live on their own and have enough money for the necessities, I don't know exactly how they do it but it works and sounds incredible.

-They don't have stray animals.. They have tonnes of cats outside but they're all house cats that go out during the day and wonder. The cats are all friendly, beautiful and have their own home.

-They have a great school system, you can find an apprenticeship for almost every job out there. It seems like they get through school pretty fast depending on what it is, get the experience they need, then find a job.. it's a good system!

- The people are so punctual! when they say they're going to be there at this time, they are there.

-It's a very clean country!

-Every window I look out of is usually a breathtaking view

-The views make me speechless.. cough cough, swiss alps!!

-The best thinking I do here is when I am in the mountains and it's one of the most incredible feelings I have ever felt.

Now here are some random differences compared to Canada, that I have noticed in the last 6 months:

-the toilets have different handles

-the door knobs are a lot different

-the keys are different

-tv shows usually start at quarter after

-almost everything is closed on Sunday

-almost all stores are usually closed by 7 pm

-they don't have 1 cent coins, everything is on the 0 or the 5 .. $0.95

- it is a very expensive country!

-the windows open differently, they swing out instead of pushing up

-people use their knife a LOT more when eating

-they use many round-abouts instead of intersections.. intersections are extremely different

-all kids take public transportation to get to school

-they're allowed to have nudity in things like newspapers and magazines

-they use graph paper as their paper, not lined paper in school.

Honestly, I encourage everyone to travel to Switzerland in their lifetime. It will take your breath away, guaranteed.

I LOVE SWITZERLAND!

Flag Parade

2011-01-30T15:48:00.000-05:00

Yesterday the exchange students met in Lausanne for another flag parade! Rotary had a conference and so during it all the exchange students in their blazer walked to the front of the big conference room behind their flag, wearing their Rotary blazer.

I have come to a point where I realize I officially am in love with this country. I love Switzerland!! I also love Canada! I see both these countries as my home..

Here are some photos!

January 20th, 2011

2011-01-23T18:43:00.005-05:00

January 20th, 2011 is the date that I will always remember and know as one of the toughest days of my exchange.

On Thursday night I received the unfortunate Skype call from my sister announcing the passing of my nanny (grandma), Jeanne O'Hearn. My nanny was an absolutely incredible woman, that definitely left her legacy in this world and in my heart.

Firstly, I want to thank everyone for the e-mails and messages. I have received many supportive messages, and all of you have been a huge help, thank you.

A friend of mine that has helped me through so much here recently, reminded me to remember the good times. So, that's what I did and I had quite a few stories to tell! One of my most favorite memories of my nanny, is when we were walking together and she was holding my hand. She told me my hands were cold, and I told her they always were.. she looked at me and said "Cold hands, warm heart."

As hard as times are right now, I know to just remember the good memories that I had with my nanny and the million games of crib we played together and the million laughs and moments that we shared.

I will never forget the way she would sit in her wheel chair and just look at me while holding my hand, or when we would go to her house for Christmas and the whole family would open all our presents in the basement, or sitting out by the pool at her house in Toronto on those hot summer days. Another memory that I will always have was when I drove to Peterborough the day before I left to Switzerland. I went down there alone, to go see my nanny. It was a beautiful, sunny day and I took my nanny outside. I parked her wheel chair on the front lawn of Fairhaven Nursing home and I sat in front of her in the beautiful green grass. I picked some flowers and gave them to her, we sat there together on this beautiful afternoon in the sunshine, surrounded by gardens, enjoying every moment. I will really miss her. However, she is with my grandpa now and she is joining her family that she hasn't seen for a while. She is onto her new adventure. And one day, I will be reunited with my nanny again, and we will have a rematch of crib.

I will have my family in my prayers on Thursday, January 27th as they attend my nanny's funeral. I'm sorry that I can't be there.

I miss you nanny. I love you nanny. Rest in peace.

My nanny's obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/thestar/obituary.aspx?n=jeanne-theresa-ohearn&pid=147978221&fhid=10828

O'HEARN, Jeanne Theresa (nee Wakley), R.N. - At Fairhaven, Peterborough on Thursday, January 20, 2011 in her 81st year. Beloved wife of the late James Thomas O'Hearn. Loving mother and will be sadly missed by Ann and her husband George Gillespie of Peterborough, Tom O'Hearn of Newmarket, Jay and his wife Lita of Tillsonburg and Sean and his wife Wendy of Whitby. Grandmother of Laura (Phil) Kimball, Jamie, Brent and Scott Gillespie; Ryan, Megan and Katie O'Hearn; Amy, Alex and Sarah O'Hearn; Shannon and Erin O'Hearn. Great-grandmother of Elliot Kimball. Sister of the late Richard Wakley, Doug Wakley, Marie Boyle and Jack Wakley. Jeanne was employed for over 25 years at Scarborough General Hospital as a Registered Nurse. Friends will be received at the COMSTOCK FUNERAL HOME & CREMATION CENTRE, 356 Rubidge Street, Peterborough on Thursday, January 27, 2011 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Funeral Mass to follow at 1:30 p.m. at the CATHEDRAL OF ST. PETER-IN-CHAINS, 411 Reid Street, Peterborough. Interment Little Lake Cemetery. The family invites everyone to return to the Heritage Room at the Comstock Funeral Home for a reception in memory of Jeanne. If desired, donations may be made in Jeanne's memory to the Fairhaven Foundation or Alzheimer Society. The family would like to send a heartfelt thank you to all the staff on the West View 4 of Fairhaven for the wonderful care they provided. Online condolences may be made at www.comstockfuneralhome.com

18??

2011-01-16T17:10:00.002-05:00

"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.

New family !!!!!

2011-01-08T18:33:00.002-05:00

Today, I changed families from the Leuenberger's to the Geiger's.

I had an amazing 5 months in Buus, it was honestly an incredible time and I learned more than I thought I would this entire exchange. The people in Buus are magnificent and I had the time of my life. Every Wednesday I went to the Sport Hall which I have explained in previous posts, and it was hard to see it come to an end. However, I wasn't leaving Switzerland just changing families so I will continue to see everyone!

Last night, was the final night with my host family and we celebrated it by having a Swiss Evening "Schweizer Abend" I chose my favorite Swiss meal - ROCKLETTE!!, and my host grandparents came over and my host family was there. The table was decorated with Swiss napkins, cows, Swiss candles, etc. And to top it all off, we were listening to good ol' Swiss yodeling!! Great family, great times, great final night.

This is what my host brother drew on the white board.. :)

The final evening!

So I packed my life into 2 suitcases, again.. and went onto a new adventure!

I didn't know much about my family, so to be honest it was pretty nerve wracking as Gabi and I pulled into the drive way of my new house. However, I had no reason to be nervous.. they seem like an incredible family. My host parents names are Andre and Elke, and my host siblings are Simon (8), Tim (13) and Sarah (15). Sarah has Down Syndrome, and I was nervous since I haven't been around that too much throughout my life. I had no idea what to expect but once I arrived, I knew she was going to change my life forever. To be honest, one of my weak areas is patience. I have never been patient, which is strange because I grew up having a brother that's the most patient person I have ever met. I always idolized how calm and patient he is at any given circumstance, and I was never able to do it like him. It will take some time to get used to, but she truly is one of life's major joys. She's beautiful. Sarah helped me unpack my clothes and put them away, then she showed me everything around the house. These children are absolutely wonderful, and for the first time in my life: I'm the oldest sibling! This family is going to be amazing at teaching me the virtue of patience, and I just know I'm going to learn so much from here.

The tradition in Lupsingen after Christmas, is that everyone drags their Christmas tree through the village and they all meet at one area beside the forest. They burn their trees together and drink wine.

Afterwards, my host father, his friend and I went for a walk through the forest. I was so pleased to find out they have so many running trails all around!! I love running and haven't done much of it so I'm very excited to start that again.

Here are some pictures of my new village, Lupsingen:

I have an amazing feeling about this family, and I really look forward to all the new experiences, life lessons and adventures that it will bring.

Today is my official anniversary for .. FIVE MONTHS IN SWITZERLAND!!! Wow, time is flying.. I am almost half way and it's scary to realize that. The change to this family seemed so far away, and I am already past it. It's crazy!!!!

The other day I was in Basel, and saw this sign in front of a juggler.. just wanted to share it with everyone.

Have a nice weekend!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T19:18:00.001-05:00

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
What an incredible previous week, I LOVE THIS LIFE.

For starters, I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!! It seems like the theme of my Christmas Presents was "Switzerland!"

Take a look :)

It was so nice of my family and Rotary to be so generous to me this Christmas, so thank you to everyone...

I have soooooo much Swiss stuff now, it's incredible! I love wearing it around, and I will proudly wear it in Canada, remembering this incredible year.

On the 23rd, I had one of the most memorable Christmas dinners in my life... A very special dinner that helped me get through the hard times of the holiday season. I admit, Christmas time is amazing but it's also tough, as I'm sure you can understand. On the 23rd, my closest exchange student friends got together and we had our Spaghetti Christmas dinner. I laughed so hard until I cried, many times. These people are amazing, I love being with them. It's such good energy, everyone is positive and simply wants to have fun. Laughter and smiles are constantly upon everyones faces when we're together, they are my family.

The 24th, 25th and 26th was filled with host-family moments and it was incredible. Sometimes it was difficult because people were involved in their own conversations which was in the dialect Swiss German, and since I only understand High German it was a little hard to be apart of the conversations. However, I realized something that was pretty special. For a few moments it was tough, then I took a deep breath and realized something: I may not understand what they're saying, I may not be involved in the great talks that happen during Christmas, but when I look around the room at the many people sitting together at the tables, I saw Christmas and that's what mattered. I could hear the laughter and see the smiles -- Thank you Christmas.

On the 27th I went to the house in the Alps, unbelievably incredible. I've been there before but just for the weekend, this time it was for 4 days. 2 days of sledding in the Alps, 2 days of skiing.. I have officially been skiing in the Swiss Alps. WOO!! I loved it, it was very hard but I had an amazing time. Ana's host parents are amazing ski teachers, one day Ana's host mom Monika skied with us, and the next day Ana's host dad Martin skied with us. They were both a HUGE help and it was really nice of them to dedicate their time to instruct us, I had a LOT of fun. Every night we played board games, it was honestly a dream come true. First of all, I LOVE board games and my favorite landscapes are mountains, and I had both of those at the same time. It was the perfect 4 days, I wish the time didn't go by so fast. I love that place and it is my dream to own a place like that in the Alps one day, that would be unbelievable.

New Years was amazing, I met a lot of really cool people and I had a hilarious night. Ana's host brother had a little party at his house and everyone had to bring 3 gifts: something funny, something they don't want anymore and something nice. There was one of those gift games with a dice, it was so funny. Definitely a New Year's I'll always remember!! I had such a blast.

I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays and made lots of long lasting memories!

Rotary!! :)

2010-12-21T18:16:00.001-05:00

Remember when I said the previous post was my last one before Christmas? Okay I may have just lied.

I have some time to spare and I had an incredible night with my Rotary Club so I thought that I'd share my night with you! Tonight was Rotary's Christmas dinner, and the Rotary is really different than my Rotary club in Canada. I can share all the differences with people when I come back to Canada!

This evening was the traditional Rotary Christmas Dinner. They combined two clubs, the Muttenz Rotary club and my Rotary Club: Augst-Raurica. It started off with a Christmas service in the church, with another beautiful choir and a beautiful mass. The church was GORGEOUS, so old and antique looking. Here is a picture of it from the outside:

After that we went to the local meeting room and had a big dinner which began with the choir singing wonderful songs. One of my favorite Swiss songs here is Alparosa, and they sang that so I recorded it. Listen to this video to hear their AMAZING voices...

I walked around and introduced myself to different people since Swiss Rotary club doesn't have too much involvement with their exchange students attending meetings and whatnot (my club is changing that next year with the next exchange student!! :) ) , so I didn't know too many people. It was nice chatting and getting to know such interesting people, I really enjoyed it. The food was amazing!! For starters we had pumpkin soup which has become my favorite soup, then pasta, meat and vegetables for dinner and an assortment of different desserts. Here is a picture of the dessert I received!

It was a really great evening, I was involved in conversations throughout the whole night and the best part is that I didn't speak a word of English! That's the best feeling ever. Woooooo !!

Here are some more pictures to give you an idea of what dinner with a Rotary club in Switzerland looks like!!

NOW ! I'm going to say my last Christmas wishes - MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE ! Stay safe and laugh lots.

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-21T05:42:00.001-05:00

I had a really good weekend, there were relaxing moments, hilarious moments, and moments when I danced so hard I thought my feet were going to fall off.

On Friday, Ana and I stayed at her house and just watched One Tree Hill (TV series) all night long, it was relaxing and I loved it!! It was nice to have a night in, relax lay down and just turn on the TV. Honestly, I don`t think I have watched a full episode of TV yet. Other than One Tree Hill which is on DVD, but I never have time and so in the last four months I have barely watched anything, which is the way it should be, so I`m very happy. (PS- I`m writing this at school on a German keyboard which is very difficult, so some symbols may not be correct because I can`t possibly find some symbols)

Saturday was the traditional Gymball Muttenz, basically like a Semi-Formal in Canada. You are allowed to bring as many guests as you want, so there must have been over 1 500 people there. It was amazing !! Everyone was so nicely dressed and so fancy, I loved it. I unfortunately didn`t take any pictures but I am in a few so once they are loaded onto Facebook, I`ll add them in here.

Sunday was also a great day because I went to my Rotary Counsellor`s house! We had a great supper and for Christmas, he bought me a beautiful Swiss watch !! I got to pick it out and of course I picked the one with a red band, with some swiss cross emblems on the band, with a big white cross on the main part of the watch where you read the time. It was SO nice of him !! I absolutely love it and will wear it all the time, and when I`m in Canada and want to know the time, I`ll think of Switzerland. It was an amazing gift! Peter, his wife Christine, his son and I all ate an amazing spaghetti dinner together. The last time I was there, was during the first week of my exchange I believe. It showed me how much I have learned since the last time I was there, because I remember that visit. It showed me how much my German has improved, how many different life lessons I`ve learned and all the challenges I have faced. It was the neatest feeling. Afterwards, I went with them to a choir show in the local church. It was amazing!! The choirs are everywhere here, as Christmas is just around the corner ( 4 days away !! ) so the choirs are the big traditions here in Switzerland and I love the shows they put on.
This is a picture they took and sent to my mom..

I really apologize for my lack of photos I have taken lately, however I do have a few! As I walked to the Church on Sunday with Peter and Christine, there was an unbelievable sunset.

Also, a friend from Orillia - Teresa Mayo, sent me mits in the mail !! I am so happy to proudly wear my Canadian mittens around Switzerland now..

Also, as I waited in line for the dance on Saturday, here`s one of the only pictures I took that night, so sad about that!! In Basel, there are many sections around the city that have Winter carnivals or fests. Here`s a photo of a tiny part to the big winter and Christmas display in Basel.

So this Christmas is going to be a very busy one, and I`ll be sure to update you on all the different adventures I went on!! However, that won`t be until the New Year since I am so lucky to be going to the Alps for about 5 days in a house there. I`m going with Ana and her family, The Rohner`s. I always have an amazing time with them, so I`m REALLY excited.

So MERRY CHRISTMAS to all and a happy, happy New Year!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone has a safe holiday, filled with laughter, family and good food!!

Christmas in Switzerland!!

2010-12-08T17:53:00.004-05:00

First of all I just want to say ..
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I'm so happy and I love Switzerland so much. I've already been here FOUR months!! The time is going way too fast, and it really needs to slow down now.. thanks mother time!!

I'd like to add that this blog is NOT for children that believe in certain things.
Okay, the Christmas in Switzerland is SO different than in Canada!! A fat jolly man in a red suit is unheard of here. No man creeps down the chimney on Christmas Eve, you don't have to make a plate of cookies for Santa and put out some carrots for Rudolph.

December 6th is a very special day in Switzerland and here's how the tradition goes.. Each village or town is a little different than the next since it's based on size and what's possible to do to keep the similar tradition going. In my village we have a Sport Hall that I have mentioned in previous posts, since I am apart of it. The men club have people aged 18 and up, I believe. They dress up two men, a Santa Claus (which is not our Santa, it's a man with a long red robe, kind of like a monk robe) and his partner Schmotsli. The parents signed up prior to this night, and the two people go door to door, to the houses that have kids. They bring the traditional Christmas Swiss food with them: oranges, chocolate and peanuts. That food is wrapped in a baggy and each kid is given one if they are good. When the mother or father sign up Samiclaus and Schmotsli to come to their house, they write down the places their child needs to improve in!! Samiclaus has a book and he reads out to the kids what he didn't like in the past year, and what they need to do differently. The kid agrees and get their treat.

This is what they look like:

Samiclaus and Schmotsli come from the Black Forest in Germany, and when they're finished talking to the boys and girls of Buus then they have to go back. It's a really cool tradition!!
It was quite funny because they are friends of ours, and since all the kids were 12 and older (family came over, about 15 people had dinner at my house) they knew that they weren't real. So Samiclaus and Schmotsli sat down, took off their robes and had a beer, I had a good laugh as I watched that.

Of course on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and the day after there are constant full family dinners, just like in Canada. However, on Christmas Eve everyone goes to the church at 11:00 pm I believe, and watch a service in the local church. That is going to be beautiful. Then on the 24th or 25th, it changes every year and depends on the family, you open the presents then. Everywhere you go Christmas is a time for family to come together, but here it seems really focussed on the fact that you are together as a family and that is what is important to everyone. I haven't heard many whispers about gifts, it's about getting dinners ready for the family. I'm very excited for Christmas here.

The table beautifully set on December 6th :)

Tonight there was Christmas carolers outside my house, at the fountain in the centre of my village. It was absolutely gorgeous. They decorate so many random trees here, it is stunning on Christmas. The centre fountain has a giant decorated Christmas tree standing up in it. I took some pictures of the Choir singing, it may be hard to see the tree in the fountain but I hope you can!

Here's a video I took of it !!

I hope everyone is enjoying their cold transition into Winter! xo.

PS!!! I met my 3rd host family. I ate dinner with them at their house and it made me SO happy. They seem like an incredible family, and I felt really comfortable there already! It keeps me so excited for the future, since it's going to be really hard to leave the family I'm staying with now. It showed me that it's going to be really hard, but just take it one step at a time and it'll be okay because you're going to another amazing one.

Cirque Du Soleil!

2010-12-03T06:03:00.000-05:00

HOLY.

What a super show they put on, I've never been to one that incredible. For anyone that doesn't know the Cirque du Soleil, it's a big circus production made in Quebec. It was quite funny to watch a Canadian show, in Switzerland! Unfortunately I couldn't take any photos but I found the trailer for it online, so this will give you an idea of what I saw:

http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/en/shows/saltimbanco/default.aspx

On the right side of that website, you'll see a video that gives you a preview of the show.

I went with my Rotary Host Officer, Hanspeter and his wife Ruth. The same two people that took me to see the Swiss Indoors!! They're incredible people, we always have a lot of fun together and it's VERY nice of them to keep inviting me to places like that.

I can't believe how people bodies can twist and bend like I saw last night, and how strong these people are! It blew my mind to watch someone climb up a pole using only their arms, feet horizontal in the air, and made it seem like it was the easiest thing ever, it was shocking. Also, we watched their bodies fly in the air but somehow they were in complete control while doing so.

I couldn't stop saying 'Woahhhhhhh..' the whole entire show! I wouldn't even realize my jaw was almost touching the floor. I was actually so thirsty afterwards because my jaw was literally dropped.

It was unbelievable, I suggest to everyone to see a show put on by the Cirque du Soleil group, please put that on your bucket list, it was one of the most amazing shows I have ever seen.

Okay so I'm going to share a pretty embarrassing story with you, after much debate in my head if I should...

In my school here in Switzerland there are a few different cafeterias since there are a few schools on one campus. I was in the cafeteria called "Klein Mensa" which luckily "Klein" means small, however there were so many people in there than normal. The tables were all filled, just my luck.

I was playing Ping Pong with a friend from my class, which is towards the side of the cafeteria. The ball got hit out of the game and went rolling towards the centre of the Cafeteria where all the tables surround. I happily went running over with a little hop in my run since I was in a really good mood.. Little did I know, there was a wet spot on the floor. As I ran toward the ball, centre of the Cafeteria might I add, I completely wiped out.

It was faaantastic.

Matterhorn Weekend!

2010-12-01T16:16:00.002-05:00

Another weekend I'll definitely never forget..

This past weekend I went to Zermatt with a bunch of exchange students!! I thought 5 exchange students together was wild, try 113! We started out with a major scavenger hunt, split into groups of 5 or so and had different tasks we had to complete. We has to find 10 dialect words for that area, get a fried egg, get a picture of a bride and a groom, and the big finale was to trade the item they gave us with whatever we could find. The team with the best item won a huge Toblerone bar.. Unfortunately, that wasn't my group! We traded a spatula for a piece of delicious pie!! However, one group traded a spatula for 2 people so of course, they took the prize.

Then we toured a bit and had the best dinner ever - FONDUE !! I thought I was going to have a heart attack during that dinner, I ate SO much cheese.

Afterwards we went clubbing with the Rotarians that took us, that was priceless. We went to our first club from 8 - 10pm and we all danced really hard for those 2 hours.. When we finished we went club hopping to another one and stayed there for a few more hours! The Rotarians we were with, got up on the center platform and danced the night away with all of us, they were so much fun.

Since we were outside all day and didn't have time to go back before we went out to the clubs, I went in sweat pants, big rubber boots and a sweater.. Perfect clubbing outfit! Not... However, I enjoyed being warm that day! So it was definitely worth it, and I danced away in my hiking clothes ! Woo!

On Sunday we went to the mountain Matterhorn! I was so excited.. We can't go on that mountain, but there's a mountain beside it that's a little smaller with chair lifts and we went on that.. It was 3000 meters high, so nonetheless it was FREEZING at the top with really strong winds. Some of the exchange students decided to stop half way, since it was just too cold for them because they come from Brazil, but the people that did go up had quite a shock. We went to the look out area and all of us had a massive group huddle to try to stay warm..

The Matterhorn is the most famous mountain in Switzerland, it's the mountain you see on the Toblerone package. The Matterhorn is a dream for the extreme climbers to climb, and 1 of 10 climbers sadly die on their way up. In the town we stayed in, there were many cemeteries filled with people that tried to climb the mountains surrounding it. It was quite sad to see.. here are some tombstones:

We went to a Matterhorn museum and read different stories of peoples attempted journeys up the Matterhorn, it's quite scary.

The Matterhorn is beautiful, it was incredible to see it in person.. I will never look at the Toblerone Chocolate wrapper, or the Toblerone chocolate bar the same way again.. Every time I look at it, I'm going to remember this past weekend .. SO much fun. I love exchange students, so full of life and outgoing.. It's amazing to be surrounded by people like that.

Almost knocked out cold? Thanks Swiss houses!

2010-11-25T18:11:00.003-05:00

Switzerland rains SO much!! It has consistently rained for the last 3 weeks, and I am always outside walking around so you always have to have an umbrella with you. Unfortunately mine broke today, so it'll be a little interesting for the next few days until I buy a new one.. I like rain, but when it rains here it gets really cold. However, the huge positive to it raining here, means it is snowing in the mountains!! It's really neat here since the altitudes are so different from village to village. My village sits higher than most in this area, so we are getting the snow while the other villages below us get the rain. I go to the Alps a lot, so when it rains I know that it is snowing up there, which is so exciting since I LOVE snow. The mountains are so beautiful, especially when they're covered with white snow, so the rain is a positive here. Although I have to walk in the downpours, I know come Saturday and Sunday when I stand on the top of the Alps, the rainy days are all worth it.

OKAY, I need to tell you about the Swiss house structures! The houses here are all absolutely stunning, I'm in love with the houses. I live in a 3 story apartment, each family has their own floor and my house is on the top floor. It took my head a few rough weeks to get used to the structure, since it's like a triangle roof so all the walls slant down with some weird corners in some rooms. I thought I was finally used to the structure of it, until last week when I almost knocked myself out cold! I just finished taking a shower and was drying my hair, and flung my hair forward. Once I flung my hair back, flying into a standing position, I smacked my head off the slanted wall. For five seconds I was convinced I had a concussion, but then a bit later I knew I was fine and couldn't stop laughing at myself. Almost 4 months living in this house, and it still manages to beat me up.
I can't really explain it, so I took pictures to help you understand what I mean...

The first two pictures are pictures of my bathroom here, that's the corner wall thing I was talking about.. it was pretty painful!

The Kitchen, hasn't beaten me up quite as bad as the bathroom.

My bedroom, luckily I'm not the person that spiratically jumps on my bed with joy, so this wall hasn't been too bad.

PS!! I'm going to the most famous mountain in Switzerland this weekend, The Matterhorn !! I'm going with all Rotary exchange students in Switzerland, I'm SO excited!! The Matterhorn is the mountain shown on the package of Toblerone Chocolate Bars.. mmmmm :)

I hope everyone has a beautiful weekend! And thanks for supporting me by reading my blog, it means a lot to me. It feels nice to be able to share my adventures with other people.

Adam Lambert Concert

2010-11-24T11:04:00.003-05:00

I haven't been to many concerts, but this may stay on the top concert list for a long time...

Last night I went to Zurich with my host sister and two of her friends from work, Melanie and Thomas. I was very excited but didn't really know what to expect since I only knew Adam Lambert's biggest hits, which are those typical party songs. I thought it was going to be all dancing and jumping, but it had some really emotional moments too.

I don't know if many of you know Adam Lambert, he came second on American Idol and became an idol for many, since he came out to the world and announced he was gay. The concert had many gay men, and to be honest it was the greatest vibe. You could feel how much of an inspiration he was, people stood there tall with their head held high, proud of who they are. Look how far this world has come! There were many emotional moments when Adam sat there talking to the audience, and you could feel the positive, emotional energy throughout the room. He told the audience that they're going to be okay, they're not alone and to not be afraid it's going to work out in the "Aftermath" which was the name of one of his songs he played. You could see tears in many peoples eyes and I just sat there knowing, every person in this room has their own story. Here's the link to the song "Aftermath," that was a very moving song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo01ebRKbzc

After the concert, I got interviewed by the local radio! I basically said on the radio, what I said in the previous paragraph.

Adam has an amazing voice which was beautiful to stand there and flow with the music while being crushed by hundreds of people all standing together, some with tears in their eyes. There were also very fun party music moments too which was hilarious! Everyone had their hands up in the air, bouncing together and the room was filled with smiles. He is an excellent performer!

That concert has officially made me thirst to go to more concerts, so cheers to a new beginning for me.

PS! The first snow fall in my village was last night / today! It gets me so excited for Christmas, I always love the first snow fall. Here is a picture of my beautiful snowy village, from the back porch of my house:

Beautiful Mountains & MET CANADIANS !!

2010-11-21T15:59:00.003-05:00

Just had one of the best days yet in Switzerland...

Today I went to the mountains in Lucerne, it was incredible. We took a train to the top of the mountain which was about 1 800 meters above sea level. I went with seven other exchange students and couldn't believe my eyes. We went above all the fog and clouds, and it was a beautiful sunny day. The best part of all was the HUGE snow ball fight we had.. a snowball fight on the alps was like nothing I've ever experienced. I tried not to get too distracted by the beautiful views, because whenever I did, I got pegged in the head. It was difficult to try to stop looking for half an hour! The group of exchange students I went with today, are incredible people. They came from Canada, Mexico and Argentina. One of my favorite things is to sit, relax and just enjoy the world in front of you. We did a lot of that, sitting there talking whether we were drinking hot chocolate, sitting in the snow, sitting on the top of the mountain- it was perfect.

When I was on the ship back to Lucerne, we were heading toward the exit and as I walked through the restaurant part I looked down and saw a Canadian luggage tag on a backpack. I immediately got excited and asked "Are you from Canada?!?" They said yes and it turns out they're from BARRIE !! Barrie is a city that takes 40 minutes to drive to by car, from my house .. I was in shock. They are two women a few years older than I am and they are staying in France for two months with Georgian College, and decided to come to Lucerne for the weekend. After a really enjoyable conversation, I gave them my Rotary card and told them I could show them around Basel if they want to check it out! This is SUCH a small world!! It was incredible, it just so happens we were on the exact same boat, same time, and I just happened to take the route I did and saw her back pack, I love the connections you make while you're on exchange, it's mind boggling.

Free Hugs Lucerne

2010-11-20T13:53:00.001-05:00

Before I begin, please watch this video so you get a good idea of what I'm about to talk about..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vr3x_RRJdd4

Free Hugs is a campaign across the world, the brightens peoples day and puts smiles on their faces. I know some of you may think this is dangerous, to walk around carrying a sign that says "FREE HUGS" and get hugs from strangers, but we were with at least 20 exchange students, so there were a lot of people there in case something happened.

The feeling you got as you you watched a stranger walk in front of you with no smile, read your sign, suddenly have a big smile and open their arms for a big hug, there was no feeling better than that. Some people came up to me and said:
"This is an amazing idea.. The world needs this."
"This place could use a lot more hugs."
"You kids are amazing!!"

One person told Ana "please give me a strong hug, I need a really strong hug."

Peoples faces were filled with smiles around us, laughter was everywhere, it was the greatest feeling. Lots of people would come up to us and ask for a picture with us, or video record us and the peoples reactions.

There was no better feeling I've ever felt, than what I felt today, putting smiles on many peoples faces. Lots of people even stopped to ask us about where we're from, and the big question was why are we doing this? All of us usually had the same answer "put smiles on peoples faces.."
After that answer, they'd usually give us the biggest hug or talk to us more about other stuff.

It was an unbelievable day, met some great people and it really showed me how good it feels to give hugs to strangers. All the hugs were as if we have known them our whole life, it was an incredible feeling.

Lucerne / TURNERABEND / representing Canada :)

2010-11-15T17:26:00.001-05:00

Lucerne
On November 5th, my friend from Mexico, Ana, had her cousin that's staying in Belgium for a one year exchange, came to Switzerland!! Ana and I showed her around Basel and I realized how much has changed!! It was only three months ago that I arrived here and had the same facial expression as her, as I walked around Basel. In 3 months I have learned so much and become used to the way it is here, so it was nice to see the excitement in her eyes as she saw how beautiful Basel is! It was a good eye opener to show me how truly lucky I am to be here. On November 6th, I went to Lucerne with Ana, her host mom Monika, and Ana's cousin Sophia. We started the day off by going to a glass blowing factory / museum. We learned the history of glass which is actually fascinating, I thought it was something so simple but it goes back thousands of years and has been used for SO many different purposes throughout the years. I never really thought about it before, so it was so cool to see the history of it and different things you can do with glass. They had different places set up to show you the different mysteries of glass - making noise with the wine glasses, making water vibrate through sound going through glass, seeing better with different forms of glass, it was really neat !! We also walked through a glass maze, it was scary at times because I kept walking into the glass everywhere, it was hilarious!

Then Monika took us to the Pilatus Mountains. It was INCREDIBLE !! We took the steepest train in the world to the top of the Pilatus Mountain, 2100 meters above sea level. On one side we were completely surrounded by snowy mountains that were breathtaking, and on the other side when we looked down we could see the beautiful city Lucerne..

Turnerabend
This past weekend was an amazing weekend. For the past two months or so, the sport hall (There's a sport hall in my village that I attend and have met so many amazing people through!!) that I attend every Wednesday has been preparing for the famous 'Buus Turnerabend.' The theme this year was "Das Supertalent" and each club that goes to the Sport Hall creates a dance, just like you'd see on America's got talent. The club that I'm apart of is called Dominrigue Buus, which has women ages 17 - 30. We split our dance into 3 parts: ballet, stomp(Creating a cool rhythm using street stuff like garbage cans, basketballs, plastic bags etc) and aerobic. Each person did either stomp or ballet, then we all did aerobic together. So much work was put into the show put on Friday and Saturday night.. All the clubs worked very hard on their piece, and everyone worked very hard to make the place look amazing with decorations. It looked fabulous!! Afterwards there was a big party on both nights, most people stayed until the wee hours in the morning both nights, I met a lot of people and talked with people that I haven't had a chance to talk to before. I get a video in the Spring of our show, so I can upload pictures and videos then I hope!

The event is really important to raise money to go towards new things for the Sport Hall to keep it going which is why everyone works so hard to make sure it's perfect. So both Friday and Saturday night we served dinner, sold cakes, sold drinks at a bar, and put on a great show, it was the perfect weekend!!

Representing Canada :)

After that Turnerabend weekend, I was clearly exhausted but being an exchange student you learn to just forget about how tired you are and continue to take every possible opportunity. I received an email inviting me to attend a Rotary event, that they selected 4 of the 30 Canadians to attend to represent their country to future exchange students. It was a country fair I guess you could say! There was a big room with tables set up, with exchange students that are all representing their own country. Future exchange students walked around and we tried our best to explain everything about our country.. It was hard to explain Canada since it's massive and each place is so different from the next !! So, we all stuck to explaining where we came from since we were from parts all across Canada, which made it easier for them to understand. We tried our best to answer their questions, some were pretty tough but I enjoyed them! One was "Why should I choose Canada and not the USA?" It was a great question, and brave of them to ask .. so I tried my hardest to answer it honestly and fairly - Canada rocks !! Just kidding, I went into a little more depth :) It was very difficult though because USA is also a sweet place !

I really enjoyed remembering how exciting that stage of the exchange was! I didn't get to pick my country, but I still remember the anticipation of what country I was going to get.. It was scary but SO exciting!!

Swiss Indoors

2010-11-05T18:01:00.002-04:00

All I heard about once I arrived here in Switzerland, is Roger Federer! Embarrassingly, I didn't know who he was.. I quickly found out and tried to join into the conversations of how much everyone loves him! He is a tennis player from Switzerland, currently the 2nd best in the world but held the 1st best player in the world title for the longest time ever.

Last week the Officer of my exchange, Hanspeter, asked if I would like to go with him and his family to the Swiss Indoors!! It's the third largest tennis tournament in the world, with all the best players competing. They bought me a ticket and I watched Roger Federer take on Janko Tipserevic from Serbia. I proudly wore my Swiss t-shirt and clapped calmly as they do in tennis matches, cheering for the Swiss icon.

Roger Federer won the match and moved onto the 1/4 final round which he played today, and won that also! Lets go Roger!!!! :D

The hurdles of homesickness are:

3 days, 3 weeks & 3 months.. This third month has been a tricky one but once I'm through it than I'm in the clear and I'm almost there! I thought that I'd be on my own to deal with things, but you realize that it's never like that... You always have someone to talk to, and you should do that. As an exchange student, you get surrounded by supporters from your homeland and your host country and I thank each one of them. Everyone has that person that they go to about everything, and so I want to thank my best friend, Lily Gamble, for being there every step of the way..

Europa Park in Germany!!

2010-10-31T04:02:00.001-04:00

It was my first time in Germany ever, so it was very very exciting..

We started off on the famous German Autobahn, with no speed limit. It was so different for me to see cars doing around 180 - 200 km/h and that's allowed!! We were doing 140 km/h and other cars were flying past us like I have never seen before! It was incredible, and apparently a non-speed limit highway is really safe.

Then we arrived in Europa Park! It's similar to Canada's Wonderland, same type of Roller Coasters. However, Europa Park is divided into different sections using all the different countries in Europe for each section. For example, here's Russia:

And here's Iceland ...

I learned a lot about the different countries in Europe because each section showed what it was like to live there.I went with another exchange student, Ana, her host brother Ramo, his girlfriend Michelle and her younger brother. We were lucky since the weather stayed cloudy all day, it didn't rain at all.

There were so many people there celebrating Halloween, and it was neat to think about where all these people possibly come from. There was a group of people that wore big Portugal flags on their backs, chanting Portugal songs and many people had small flags on their clothing which was usually telling people where they were from. You could hear every language there as you walked through the crowds of people and everyone was totally different than the next. It was amazing to see all the people from different parts of the world, I really enjoyed it. Some may have hated the waits in the lines, but I enjoyed it a lot, I loved to see all the different people and the way they are.

Once again, the roller coasters were fantastic and I had SO much fun.. Here are some pictures..

As we left, a sign was over our heads and it read :

"Time goes by, but the memory remains."

A weekend in the alps !!!

2010-10-25T17:35:00.001-04:00

There's nothing like waking up to mountains at your window..

Ana is another exchange student in my village from Mexico, and we spend EVERY second with each other !! So her host family is like a family to me here and they invited me to go to their cottage in the alps this past weekend. I knew it was going to be beautiful but I had no idea what it'd be like, and it was jaw dropping.

We arrived Friday night and unpacked all our stuff, I couldn't see the views since it was dark when we arrived which made it even better to wake up to in the morning. It felt like Christmas morning when I woke up! We woke up to mountains in EVERY window we looked out of. We ate breakfast while viewing mountains, with the sounds of a big river in our back yard and a beautiful old church very close to the apartment. Life can't get any better than this, I'm convinced of that. View from kitchen window:

At 10:00 a.m we left to go on a trek through the mountains and did about 5 hours of walking... We started out my taking a chair lift to the middle spot! woo!! Then walked along through paths along the mountains. Ana's host family has two dogs, a golden retriever and a black lab and it was so amazing to be with dogs again since I miss mine SO much! Here are some photos of our walk:

It was the most beautiful walk I have ever taken.

Once we got home we all snuggled into the couches in the living room and talked to Ana's host parents about the trips they have been on, they have been to the coolest places!! Different countries in Africa and such, I loved hearing about their trips. It opened my eyes to all the possibilities this world has to offer. We looked through National Geographic magazines and I kept dreaming of touring to these places I kept hearing of. As a kid I always wanted to tour to Ireland, that was my ideal dream and don't get me wrong - I will go there one day. However, I have so many travel dreams now, I have a list of the top 5 places I want to go to now:

1) Alaska

2) Egypt

3) South Africa

4) Australia

5)Brazil

Meeting people from these parts of the world and talking to people that have traveled to those countries, makes me really eager to go there. I've always dreamed of becoming a teacher and I think that's probably what I'll end up doing, which is great because it leaves lots of options open for me: I can teach in those countries! I can find jobs there through teaching, and if not, if I stay in Canada and hopefully find a job (there are no teaching positions!), then I have summers off and I can travel then. I am a girl with many huge dreams now.. Sorry I got sidetracked..

On Sunday we sadly had to pack up and head home, and on our way home we went to an indoor water park for a few hours. The slides were so fun and it was my first indoor water park that I've been to!! It was so great, I loved every second of it.

I know I keep saying this was the best weekend yet, but it just continues to get better and better, I didn't think that was possible!!

I LOVE SWITZERLAND SO MUCH.

"One's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. "

2010-10-17T08:07:00.001-04:00

Last weekend I went to a place in Kanton Bern, a village called Interlaken. We arrived and took a special train that took us 2000 meters up a mountain and my jaw was stuck open the whole ride. I couldn't believe everything that I was seeing, as I got higher the houses got smaller, the mountains became closer, the snow became more visible, my views of the world rapidly changing. Every time I see sights like this, I get more and more impressed with how magnificent this world truly is.

I went with my host family, host family's friends, their parents from Germany, my host grandma and my friend Ana. The train ride up the mountain took about 30 minutes and this is one of the sights we saw on our way up:

When I got to the top, I was surrounded by beautiful mountains - snowy ones and non snowy (lots of trees and rocks) mountains. This is what it was like when I first arrived at the top, at the train station:

So after we arrived we split into different groups, I was with Ana and my host mother Gabi. We decided to walk to the highest point of the mountain we were on, which was quite a trek!! I couldn't stop taking pictures of everything I was seeing around me and of course I brought my Canadian flag with me in hopes to get cool photo with it:

Once we finished walking up to the top we sat and enjoyed it for a little while and did some more walking around. The best moments are the ones when you can stop walking, sit down, enjoy the view and just think. I saw sights that I'm going to remember my whole life. The pictures in my mind are what I'm always going to look back at whenever I'm having a rough go with anything, it was absolutely gorgeous.

So then Gabi left to go have some coffee with everyone else while Ana and I continued to walk around, sit and enjoy the day. We thought we found the perfect spot to sit, and we were really enjoying it. I looked over at Ana and saw that she was absolutely COVERED in red ants, that ruined the moment for a second! It was a big panic but I managed to get them all off and we moved to a concrete slab and sat there, viewing the mountains surrounding us and having really good talks.

There was a little candy shop near us and we just had to do it - we ate a Toblerone (Swiss chocolate) and sat there in shock as it was too beautiful to believe.

Each time I see these different sights, my thoughts of so many things continue to change. The way I see the world, the way I see other people, the way I see myself, everything is constantly changing and it's a wonderful thing.

Here are some more pictures from my amazing day in the mountains:

tassin !

2010-10-05T18:04:00.001-04:00

Well once again I am making the most of my school holidays by doing more traveling!

Last Thursday I went to Tassin with a few other exchange students:

and I have never been so in love with a place in my life !! It was really odd for me because I instantly felt at home although it was a brand new place, brand new culture, brand new language, everything was new. Tassin is in the south of Switzerland, the Italian part. Once I arrived I instantly fell in love, maybe it was the palm trees or the very friendly people, or the huge market with Italian buildings surrounding me, or the fabulous pizza!! Whatever it was, I LOVED it !!!

Ana and I went for a boat ride on the lake and it was gorgeous. It was a tiny paddle boat and we just went out and floated in the middle of the lake with my eyes not being able to focus again because everything was too beautiful.

It's a really beautiful place and I suggest to everyone to add Locarno, Tassin, Switzerland onto your Bucket List, you won't regret it.

This weekend I had a Rotary Fall weekend with a bunch of other exchange students, we started out by going to a cookie factory - unbelievable. We tried all the samples then left, I felt a little bad but hey I loved the cookies!! Then we stayed at a place that usually boy scouts stay at, it was really relaxed and you just did your own thing. We played cards and sat and had nice chats with other exchange students. The next day we went to a big mountain/hill thing and overlooked all the mountains in Bern.. it was beautiful. I'm so lucky to be seeing the sights I see, having the talks I have, meeting the people I meet, I love exchange.

Lucerne & Geneva

2010-09-28T17:59:00.001-04:00

I am now on 2 weeks of school holidays and I am certainly making the most of it!! Rotary gave each exchange student a GA, which is a card that lets us travel all around Switzerland for a year by boat, tram, train and bus. I can't believe how lucky I am to have it, it has made my exchange SO good.. We can go anywhere in Switzerland for free!! So we have been using it every opportunity we get...

On Sunday we had a Rotary meeting in Lucerne for all the exchange students in my district - 1980. It was to discuss how our first 2 months were going. It went from 10am - 2 30pm and the exchange students that I'm close with - the ones from my German course all went out together afterwards to tour the beautiful city.. Little did I know it was going to end up being one of my best days here in Switzerland so far. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen in my life.. It was Sunday so all the stores were closed and so we just walked around the main streets. As we were walking around, Tarsila, Sophie and I got a little lost and as Sophie was trying to figure out where everyone was, Tarsila and I spotted an incredible view that we have never seen before - snowy mountains !!

It was our first time seeing them and nonetheless, everyone on the street could tell we were pretty excited! It was an unbelievable sight and just as I thought it couldn't get any better... it did. Some friends had to go home so it was just five of us : Kaden, Alex, Tarsila, Ana and I and we decided to go onto a boat through Lake Lucerne. It started going and as we went around the bend, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was HUGE snowy mountains everywhere !!!! All around us there were green mountains, rocky mountains and snowy mountains together.

Finally, I didn't have to strain my eyes and barely be able to see them - they were SO close!!! It was all so close to us and it was the greatest feeling. Everything was so relaxed... it was all quiet, peaceful and you just sat there enjoying the unimaginable views as you boated along the coast full of mountains with people that you have become so close with in the last 2 months. I feel like I have known the exchange students my entire life, we all get along perfectly and are all going through the same stuff and all just want to have fun!! We sat on the deck of the boat and played cards and had good chats as we drifted through the beautiful Swiss alps, it was such an incredible night.

Geneva
The day after Lucerne went to Geneva, so it was very tiring since we had to get up at 5 00 am and catch the bus at 6 am, hoping to sleep on our 4 hour train ride but I couldn't ! That's okay since my philosophy is that I can sleep when I go back to Canada!! I probably could sleep if I tried since it was semi dark and all the other exchange students were asleep...

.. but I couldn't stop staring out the window and looking at the beautiful sights. I sat there listening to my ipod to softs songs such as: fear - one republic and lots of other one republic and lots of coldplay, sitting there thinking and looking at all the most beautiful sights imaginable. It was one of those moments were you just take a deep breathe and realize how lucky you are to be doing what you're doing.

We finally arrived in Geneva and it is also another beautiful city with a beautiful lake and a giant water fountain that reached 150 meters in the air.

It was the French part of Switzerland so once again I was back to square one, not understanding much again - even though I did French in school, I barely remember anything. The people there were not fans of speaking any other language than French to help us out a little, and they weren't as friendly as I hoped but that's okay you just have to go with the flow and get used to it. It had some very significant buildings in Geneva and it was exciting to explore them for a day. Geneva is the main spot for the United Nations Organization (the UNO) and it's very famous for that so we got to see the outside of that building which was really neat, I don't know too much about it so I wish we were able to get a tour but we got there just as it closed, but we have lots of time to go back and figure it all out !!

What I do know though, is that 47 countries are apart of it and I believe they have meetings to help solve global issues such as global warming.
We also went to the Red Cross museum, they are the people that come together when tragedy strikes and helps out any way that they can... it's an amazing organization. They have other museums but the main one is the one in Geneva because the founder of Red Cross was born there, so they have lots of artifacts and stories from the places they helped out at. It was eye opening to see the photos and hear the stories.

It was a very interesting few days with lots of interesting events that occurred, over all it was amazing to go to all the places and see Switzerland.. each place is so different than the next.

On Thursday I am going to Locarno, in the Italian part of Switzerland which I can't wait for. There are beaches and palm trees everywhere, I am so excited for it !!!!

Here's a map to make it a little easier to understand the places I am talking about.

purple arrow : BASEL - where I live
blue arrow : LUCERNE
red arrow: GENEVA
black arrow: LOCARNO

day dream believer

2010-09-24T13:57:00.001-04:00

I remember as a little girl my sister and I had this game that we always played, we would spin the globe and stop it with one finger and say "That's where I'm going to live when I'm older..."

I wonder if I ever landed on Switzerland.. At the time I was convinced that I was actually going to live there when I got older, but as I became older reality set in that it's not always like that. Most people don't pack up their stuff and live somewhere else for a year, but it seems like that game has turned into reality for me and also my sister since she is possibly living in China for a year next year. Once you do something like this you definitely get the travel bug and I'm sure she will too. I just want to travel everywhere!! I showed my classmates the book of Muskoka and they were amazed, it was a great feeling. As they sat there looking at the pictures with the 'ooo's and aw's' I was thinking, and I realized that that's just a very little piece of the world and the sights that I see on a daily basis here in Switzerland is another very little piece to this world. There is SO much to see and so little time, I know that when I'm done this exchange I'm going to thirst for more traveling.
So who knows? Maybe the places I landed on are the places I'm actually going to be living in for a while - maybe it's destiny !

I have learnt so much about the world in the past 2 months than I have my whole life (sorry teachers.. )

I realize that when I live it instead of reading about it, I learn a thousand times better as I'm sure most people do. Exchange students are here from countries that I have heard of but have no idea where it is and know nothing about it, I end up learning so much about the country and my views of the world have been changing immensely. On a daily basis I am talking with people that have been through unbelievable things and seen unbelievable sights - from people that had their school on lock down because they were in a school a block away from the horrific Virginia Tech Shooting to people that live in the most dangerous city in the world and their daily life there, it's unbelievable to hear their stories. It really opens my eyes and it's incredible to hear since I'm from such a small town that never has incidents like that. At the same time, I hear about all the beautiful places in the world and I can't wait until I can go visit them one day.

Who would have imagined that Megan and my game would become my life? Certainly not me, but hey - cheers to my little girl dreams when I was 6 and making them reality when I was 17.

Now I have 2 weeks of holidays! WOOOO!!

unbelievable excursion

2010-09-15T11:56:00.002-04:00

Coming to Europe I knew I would go to some pretty unbelievable history sites since this place is FILLED with history, but I didn't know it would be this interesting. You always hear about history in school and it never was the most fascinating subject since you just read about it in a text book, but seeing what everyone is reading about was amazing. I went to Augusta Raurica which is near to my town here in Switzerland and Julius Caeser walked the streets of this town and decided to make this a Roman city since it was directly in the middle of London England and Rome, Italy.

A Rotarian that is the chief of preservation for the Roman findings kindly donated two hours of his time to show me a few of the major findings including the theater that is 1 800 years old !!!!!!!!!!!! along with artifacts that have been dug up. They have dug up "excavated" so so so many things and he said that that's only 20% of what's underground, there is still 80 % of the Roman city under all the dirt that has been covered over the past years. They don't want to dig up anymore because it costs millions and millions of dollars to do that, and millions more to preserve it. They have a special underground camera so they know what's down there, they're just leaving it alone though. The theater was really neat, it's where they used to put on all the plays. We didn't get to go to the Amplitheater where the gladiators fought because we ran out of time but I have a year here so I'm definitely going back soon to see more of it. It'll be a nice spot to go by myself, sit in the 1800 year old theater or amplitheater and just relax. It's very very beautiful and I'm so happy that Donald took me to there, now I know where it is and the history of it so it'll be an incredible place to spend some free time at.

here's more information about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_Raurica

http://www.augustaraurica.ch/1/index.htm

top 10 reasons you know you're an exchange student

2010-09-13T14:58:00.000-04:00

I have seen these one a few blogs, thought I'd put it on mine too!

1. You're better than your teacher in your foreign language class.

2. You do something wrong, people look at you weird, and your excuse is: 'Well, that's how we do it in my country,' even if it isn't.

3. Your dreams are bilingual.

4.You have gone in to greet someone with a handshake and found yourself being pulled into an awkward hug/double kiss on the cheek.

5.You spend a lot of time smiling, nodding, and pretending you understand what's going on.

6. It becomes a habit to introduce yourself by saying: 'I am from (country) and my name is (name).'

7. You've tried so many different foods only because you can't understand the person asking you what you want. You just nod your head, and pray that it tastes half-decent.

8.You sometimes walk around school during breaks to act like you're doing something because you don't see anyone you recognize and don't want to stand there awkward.

9. You've said something like 'oh yes' or 'no thanks' only to have everyone laugh because your answer made no sense compared to the question.

10. You actually got a high-five when you understood what someone said to you

I have set a new goal ...

2010-09-12T16:21:00.000-04:00

I got really inspired today and officially set another goal to add to my goal list, except this one is a little different than the rest- it has nothing to do with my exchange. It's just me and how far I can push myself to the limits, drum roll please, I'm going to run a marathon.

I'm not going to join the next marathon I see, I have a set plan for it. I'm going to train really hard this year and within a year of my arrival in Canada, I will do a half marathon. Then, the following year I will do a full marathon. If my training goes really well and I can do it sooner, then I will. The goals I set are the maximum time limits for my races, I have to complete it by then. If I can complete them sooner, then great. This isn't a 'flee of the moment' type thing, I don't set goals like this then the next day I say "naah, I'm not feeling it anymore." The last fitness goal that was this big that I set was to complete a triathlon, and I did that so now I'm going to set an even bigger goal.

A marathon is 42 km, to put it in perspective that is 42 000 meters which is 105 laps of a normal running track that is 400 meters long.

I went to the Basel marathon today to cheer on my host father from my last family, unfortunately I didn't get a chance to see him finish because we had difficulties finding parking. However, I saw a LOT of other people finish and it was the best feeling to watch. Some people were exhausted to a point where their legs were giving out but they had the biggest smile on their faces that I have ever seen. Some people had their hands in the air in celebration, some were holding the hands of their loved ones that they did it with, some were carrying their children that must have been near the finish and picked up as they were running to the end, some were crying, some were laughing, some were blind and did it with another person that held a rope so that they stayed on track, and as I watched all this I had tears in my eyes as I saw the immense excitement of each person as they crossed the finish line. I want to be that person that crosses the line, the one that can tell themselves "I just completed a marathon," I want that feeling of being so proud of yourself because you worked so hard toward that one goal. I want that, and I will get that.

So here we go, training has officially started! :)

I am ONE MONTH into my exchange!

2010-09-08T17:31:00.002-04:00

I have never witnessed time moving so fast, it feels like I arrived here about a week ago. I am amazed at how far everything has come in one month, I am finally in the swing of things around here!! Tonight I realized how much of the language I have already learned- if you put me in a school situation with tests and stuff, I feel like I know nothing because I am never good with tests and our final exam is tomorrow. However, put me into the real life situation then I feel confident in how much I have learnt over the last month. Tonight, I spoke mostly all high German with my family and I understood mostly everything they said. I keep having to say, "Noch einmal bitte" (one more time please) and they go slower and then I can understand it ! When I look back, one and a half months ago I didn't know ANY German at all, and now I can understand a lot of it. It's such a good feeling NOW, but let me tell you - it was a frustrating journey before I got to this point. I just went with the flow, but some days were tough when it was a rainy day, I didn't know what anyone ever said, and people were getting frustrated with my lack of German skills. I felt guilty and hopeless with the language but I just kept laughing at myself for it, I would always look so crazy trying to get my point across with what I'm trying to say. So you learn to just take it as it is and realize that it's only going to get easier, just takes lots of hard work and time. Now, everyday I keep learning more and more and I'm ecstatic with the way it's all going.

After one month I have already changed so much, I can't imagine what 11 more will do.. The way I see situations, the way I see different people, the way I look at the world, it has all changed drastically this month and it's all just going to keep changing !

Things that I haven't done in a month: ( If you know me well, this will be pretty shocking)
- Haven't eaten a bowel of cereal !!
- Haven't gone swimming
-Haven't eaten a bowl of Mac n' Cheese
- Haven't had a steak
- Haven't had any barbecued food

However,
- I have met SO many people
-I am in the process of learning a new language
-I have seen unbelievable sights
-I am busier than I ever have been
-I have felt more emotions this month than I have ever felt before
- I have made friends that I will stay in touch with forever, some in which I am very close with
- I not only have one mom and dad, I have two of each.
- I have faced many fears
- I can use the bus, train and tram all by myself
- I am a lot more independent already.

If there was a way I could put the immense feelings of excitement into a jam jar and seal it up, I would. I would let everyone open it up and feel the excitement that I have felt. I would try to explain it, but I really can't.

All in all, I realize life's way too short to sit at home and do nothing. Do something !! Get up, live life and go out and explore the world. You don't need to hop on a plane, simply explore your backyard or plan a road trip. It's so thrilling to be out by yourself in the world, trying to find your way. I LOVE it and this is by far the best choice I have ever made in my life. I can't even begin to explain it, but if I tried it'd sound like this

ngdjgjhghshgoshoghrjhgrhgor.

a day in the life of a Swiss driver

2010-09-07T19:04:00.000-04:00

The presentation went really well! I realize that everyone is different when they have to public speak and you just have to find what works for you, I found what works for me. I don't write down what I'm going to say, I don't have cue cards, I just talk. I had a power point presentation and I practiced in front of my host family and in front of my real family and every time I present it's different because I just do freestyle but it always works out. It's better for me because I can converse more with the audience and I am not looking down reading a paper, I look like I have memorized what I'm talking about, and overall it just feels better.

On my way to the rotary lunch, my host mom and I were rushing to get there since we were low on gas so we were going to be a little late. We turned the corner and I heard my host mom go "Ohhhh neinnnnn" so I look up and started laughing so hard. There were a hoard of cows crossing the street!! The farmer was 'controlling' it but it was very slow and there were many stragglers that were not following the rest of the crew. One decided to stop and just stare at us for like 10 minutes..

Overall, it took about 20 minutes of waiting there for these cows to cross the street. It was not very good timing, but I thought it was the funniest thing!

I have officially met all my host parents that I will have here in Switzerland, and I couldn't be more happy about it. Each one of them is SO nice and welcoming, and I can't wait until I stay with each family. They're all so different from each other and I sat and ate lunch with them today, it makes me so excited for this upcoming year.

Tomorrow, I have to present to my German class another presentation about my life in Canada, except this time it is in GERMAN! I cheated a little- since I already had a power point presentation I just deleted the slides that I didn't need and added a few more and just translated all the English to German. It made this big project a LOT easier!!

Here we go again!!

live the life you have imagined

2010-09-06T18:03:00.001-04:00

Tomorrow I present to my Rotary Club about Canada- I talk for about 15 minutes. I am a little nervous but it's part of the experience so I am really excited to meet the club that is sponsoring me. I prepared a power point presentation and touched on many different topics: the size of Canada (Switzerland fits into Canada 214 times!!!) , seasons, funny stereotypes, parliament, my family, my friends and my life in Canada. Not too many people know a lot about Canada so it will be nice to teach them about it! I get to meet both parents of my next two host families, they'll be watching my presentation and we will all be having lunch together. For some reason, I am more nervous for that than presenting in front of a bunch of Rotarians. I just hope I make a good impression and that they become excited for me to live in their house, I hope that it all goes well!!

When I first came here, I was actually worried about the little things like not having a cell phone and not being able to text my friends with what I'm up to or to constantly talk to them. Now, I realize how ridiculous that was and I realize that I spent so much of my life texting and on my cell phone and I actually feel embarrassed about it. I wonder how many moments I missed while I was looking down at my phone, how many conversations didn't happen because I was distracted by my cellphone? It's really sad to think about, and I can guarantee it will not be like that when I go back to Canada. I have a cell here but it's for plans and emergencies, which I realize is all it should be for. I probably look at my phone twice a day, once to turn on the alarm for the next morning, and one to turn it off the next day. It feels so much better that way- I realize that I am always living in the moment now. It got to a point where I would check my phone constantly for texts to see if someone messaged me, but now cellphones are never on my mind and to be honest, it's a huge relief. I'm enjoying life a lot more and I'm so happy to realize that I don't need to be thinking about anything but what I'm doing that moment. I don't need to go telling people what I'm doing, I can just do it for myself and enjoy it. Since I have been here, I have really learned to live in the moment - whether it be because I feel homesick or because I'm seeing a gorgeous view. Sometimes it gets a little difficult so you learn to not think about anything else except for what you're doing at that moment, and it has made me enjoy every moment even more. I have learned to just focus on the now and not the past or the future, it's a great feeling.

I am living the life I have imagined and dreamed of living.

I will let you know how the rotary presentation goes- knowing me I'll trip over some cord and do a face plant during my presentation.

Day 25!

2010-09-02T17:39:00.001-04:00

let's just say..

I am in love with Switzerland and it's definitely going to be a HUGE challenge to take on for anyone to drag me out of the country when my exchange ends...

Today the German class went on a field trip, we toured around Basel. It started with a cute potluck picnic at a park, we ate lots of food then the guys played soccer and the girls had some good chats and adventures. Then we went to a beautiful art museum, a very famous one - Kunst Museum. I saw paintings done by my two favorite artists, Van Gogh and Picasso. It is so neat to look at the signature on their pieces of art and realize "Picasso painted this, he signed that right there." It's the weirdest feeling, one of the most famous people in the world did that. After the art museum we went to a massive church called The Münster. It is beautiful! I didn't tour around it too much, the view at the back was a little distracting. It overlooked the Rhine River and kleinBasel.

We took a fairy across to kleinBasel and toured there for a bit. Everything is SO beautiful..

I have two tips for new exchange students that helps me deal with the tougher days of exchange:

Make time to think.. You are always out and about doing things like hanging out with friends, trying new food, at school, touring new things, travelling the country and other countries surrounding it, etc. (which is fantastic!!) Even though all of that is AMAZING, you still need time to think. You need time to figuratively 'take a step back' and regroup. I know I am unbelievably lucky to have received this opportunity, but it still has its tough days whether it be hearing unfortunate news from home, missing home or anything along those lines. So take time to think about anything & everything. You will be learning so much about yourself and the world while you're on this exchange.

Write it all down!! Not only will it help you remember every moment of exchange, it helps you gather your thoughts and reflect on the day that you had. Take a journal with you and try to write about every / every other day you spend here. It will be really good to look back on so you don't forget anything.

If anyone that reads this is thinking about applying for an exchange- DO IT!!

I Love Fridays

2010-08-27T19:16:00.010-04:00

German update: I'm learning so much!! The German language course is going really well and all of the exchange students get along SO well!! I LOVE them, we have some pretty exciting things planned and we've done some pretty exciting things together. We're all in this together and all dealing with the same stuff, so it's an amazing group of friends to be around since everyone's so supportive and everyone just wants to have fun! My German is coming along pretty smoothly. I have been here for almost three weeks now (it's going by very fast) and I can understand a lot of what people say when they speak German. The difficulty here is that most people speak Swiss German like all your friends and family and so on. Swiss German is a lot different than German, from the impression I got it's a really fancy German with different words and a much different dialect. Swiss German can understand German, but not the other way around. Since we are all learning High German and not Swiss German, I don't understand anything!! Also, people appear to speak really fast but I think it always seems like that when you don't know the language. It's coming along very nicely though, when people speak high German I can understand most of it. Swiss German is only a spoken language, not a written one so in schools they aren't allowed to speak it, everything has to be in High German - luckily!! So together, all the Rotary students are learning German and it has some pretty funny moments, I love my class.Okay.. I love Fridays!!

Right now it's about 1 30 am and I just got home from the lovely city of Basel... I had such an amazing night. Four of us exchange students went to a movie at the Orange Cinema downtown Basel. It's not a regular cinema, it's outside and there are a bunch of chairs set up on the cobblestone area with a HUGE screen set up. It was the most beautiful spot- there were typical Swiss apartments all around, with a VERY old church right behind us with a grandfather clock on the top of it that kept ringing and we sat and watched "Down By Law." It's a really old movie, in black and white. I sat there and realized that I was in central Europe, sitting in Basel, Switzerland watching a movie outside with this beautiful purple sky from the city lights and the typical beautiful Swiss scenery all around us. We sat in the front row in comfortable lounge chairs and the front row wasn't that close to the screen so it was the perfect spot to enjoy the moment.

About half way through the movie it started to rain and most people would be upset with that, but i LOVED it.. and it seemed like everyone else did too! There were complimentary rain ponchos that everyone put on with the words "Don't Worry" labelled on the back of them. All cuddled into the poncho, everyone sat and enjoyed this beautiful Friday night. I wouldn't change it for anything, here are a few pictures to help explain what I'm talking about.
That's the big screen behind me, along with the Swiss buildings that surrounded the left and right side of us.

Tomorrow (I guess that it's this morning!! ) I have to wake up at 8am and I am going to a a wine festival all day, then off to a teenage hangout type place called Hakuna Mattata. Life is so exciting here, so much to do and see.

loving it here...