Europa Park in Germany!!

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 !!!

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. "

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 !

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

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

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

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