Jane’s Swiss Exchange

I think it’s been a little over a week since I’ve posted something. It’s pretty much been the same thing for the last week. German course then I go home. Today though we had a full day but our teacher arranged for us to go to the Einstein Museum in bern. So those first 2.5 hours were terrible. Boring. We took a bus to the Bahnhof (train station) then we went to a market open in from of the Bundeshaus (parliament building of Switzerland). Lots of people bought food there. I spent last night making a salad in a jar (okay as of right now I am using a German keyboard and it is a bit different. I can not find the apostrophe button for the life of me so this is going to sound hella formal). Anyways, the salad was tomatoes, cucumber and couscous and it was not hard making it, but I made the lemon sauce (obviously lemon) and that was hard because the recipe was in German. And it was like..."Add a little portion of garlic," WHAT THE HELL IS A LITTLE BIT! Moving on...it was fun making...

Yesterday I had my German class in the afternoon from 13:30 (halb zwei in German) till 17:00 (funf Uhr in German) and I had to go to the Canadian Embassy to register that I was here. So I was able to sleep in till 8:30 (another 2 hours of sleep!! I felt great all day!) and then caught the train at 9:43 which wasn't that busy thank god! Edna (my host sister who is actually the same age as me) got up and came into the library as I was getting all my books and documents ready to go and she didn't look impressed; to be fair though I was dropping everything, and running around everywhere to get things that I forgot. She kinda just sat there and was trying not to laugh. If it was the other way around I would be laughing too. So the first thing I tried to do when I got to Bern (capital of Switzerland and where my German course is and also where the Embassy is) was actually go to the embassy because I didn't know how long it would take, and it's the government so.... I think I...

I know I haven't posted in a while but things have been very busy on my end. So this past weekend I went to... Fiesche. I think that's it...it's somewhere in the Alpes, for a Rotary meeting with all the other exchange students in Switzerland. There were over 60 of us in this "Sports Resort." I met up with my friend Kaylee from Canada who is from my district in Canada (I knew her before I left for Switzerland) and my other two friends from my language course Sophie (USA) and Rachel (London, Ontario) and our other friend Kat (USA) and Otilia who is from Romania. I look a train in with Sophie and it was so pretty! When we got to the train station before this photo we found a whole group of other exchange students so we tagged a long with them. I'm pretty sure they were a main group from Zurich. We got off at the wrong station and had to walk a bit to get to the "resort" which was fine. We were the only ones we knew there so we talked to some other ...

So...my last two post titles have been songs that I've really liked that day or it just seemed to fit in a moment. The last post was abut nothing bad. On to today. Well, I went to my first German course which was okay. Our teacher at first seemed a little rude but it was nothing to worry about. I think I may have also met up with the some sort of director with the exchange this morning. She has British teeth. I got up at six thirty in the morning and then got rad to go to the train station at 7:20, we just caught the bus to Bern. So this day was kinda a review for me but I just don't know how to say anything. We learned some new words that I think is important to know. I'm almost done the homework that she gave us to do. I also met the other exchange students in our area which was good. I became friends with a girl from South Carolina (I think that's the state she's from). We where there from 8:30 -12:00 and I took a bus that I just caught to Bern. On the app somet...

Today is Monday, and it's the first day of school here in Switzerland. So I don't think I've actually mentioned school before so this is going to be about how different it is compared to school in Canada. So the main thing that I can think of right now is that in Canada we have the same four classes for five months. Here I have eleven classes, French, Physics, German, Art, Math, Biology,  English, Gym, Chemistry, English and History. Now, everyday is different from the next. So every Monday I'll have French and Physics. Tuesday I'll have German, Art, Math and Biology. They stay like this for the whole year. I rather like this style because I hate having the same four classes everyday and it gets boring. I understand why they do it both ways though. Another thing that is only special to me though is that I don't have to take any tests or exams -- thank god. I don't know what's going to happen in replacement but...YAY! So the first day of school was fine. ...

Today is Sunday the 11. I've been here six days. And... that's about it. It's actually 5:16 PM here and I've been up for about 2 and a half hours. Yesterday I think I mentioned the party of my host family's brother, well it was fun but again I couldn't speak any German so I couldn't really talk to anyone a lot ( I also had no idea what to talk about). Everyone seemed to be having a good time though which is great. I got a text from one of my counselors named Katja (Cat-ja), and she wanted to meet up to go to the Buskers again which I was really happy about. She texted at around 2 PM and wanted to meet at 5 which worked out to be good. I left the party at 2:25 and walked to the train station to go to Romanshorn (a stop in St. Gallen) and then took a 2.5 hour train ride into Bern. I really enjoyed the long train ride and it would have been even better if I had something to do with me. The train was delayed 8 minutes which is huge in Switzerland. I don't k...

WRITTEN AUGUST 8. THE POST AFTER THIS ONE IS THE ONE FOR AUGUST 10. No I did not forget to put a title in, it's just that nothing happened today so it doesn't deserve a title. We went to the market this morning to get some vegetables. I got some Oranges which I love. They taste great. You know how Oranges are sometimes a  hit or a miss, you could either get a bad one that is hard and just tastes like frost or you can get a good one and it tastes like frost? Well these ones taste amazing. If you ever get a chance to go to Italy or Spain I recommend you try the Oranges -- you will not be disappointed. Anyways, the only really exciting thing that happened today was that my two counselors came over and talked with me for a bit. It was nice to meet them. One of them has invited me to go to the a street festival of art tomorrow in Bern. I was supposed to go tonight and meet up with Joanna (my host sister) and her friend but I don't really want to go. I don't have any energy...

I‘m gonna make this one quick I think. Yesterday my host sister took me to the French part of Switzerland with her friends, and we were six altogether. We went to Estavayer-le-Lac which is so pretty. It’s this huge lake at the bottom of some hills (they’re bigger than a typical hill though). The whole time I was there I was just reading my book, which I loved! We settled down under a willow tree and they went swimming (I wasn’t feeling so well so I didn’t go with them). I also still don’t know how to speak German but they spoke a bit of English to me. It was so nice! We were right by the lake and just laying there with a book (fantastic book I should mention), was so great! We spent the whole day there then took a few trains to Bern where I met up with my host parents. There is this music festival that is happening, I think today is the last day, but it’s called Buskers and I highly recommend you google it (Buskers Bern). They have visual art performances and, sculptures and musicians ...

So... from the title I'm pretty sure you can  guess how I'm feeling. There are so many hills and if they're not long then they're steep; if they are not steep then they are long. This morning Roman (my host father) had to take me to the town office (or whatever they call it here, I forget), and had to "declare" that I am living with them and in Burgdorf. I also found out that you have to pay a tax when you own a dog and you also have to "declare" it. The tax is to pay for, I guess, doggy garbage bins (I hope you know what I mean). It's very official there too, I had to show my passport and a document that said I will be living with the family (thank you mom for getting that Going Abroad document). Anyways I think I get an "invitation" to go to a different town and get thumb printed and get to sign some more document -- always fun. When we got home (oh and it was raining this morning), we stopped by a cheese place, can't remember wh...

Okay...so I'm actually awake now and am less tired. (1:31 PM in Switzerland. 7:31 AM Canada). When I was going to bed last night I realized I forgot to mention some things. So I found out that in Switzerland you can drink from any water fountain. At first I thought they meant a water fountain like the kinds you get from school. No... they mean actual water fountains that you through pennies in. In Switzerland they don't add anything to the water so everywhere is safe to drink the water. It might take me a while to get used to this. Another thing they told, well my host family (while giving me a tour of their house which I'll get to in  minute) asked me how open I was. Again, I wasn't quite sure what they meant but they said well, it's true what people think about the Europeans and nudity. That is one thing I don't think I'll try and adapt to. They just wanted to ask because their shower doesn't have a door but it has a curtain (you can't see through...

So right now it is 7:05 PM in Switzerland and I am so tired. Getting through security was easy and once I was through I met up with the other girl going to Switzerland, Kaylee, and we grabbed something to eat and walked around the airport for about 2 minutes then feeling red we sat down in the lounge. The plane was alright. She sat beside me and I had the window seat. I can’t remember what I did during the first 2 hours of the plane but I know I had dinner (not so good, but it’s airplane food so what can you expect) but I didn’t watch a movie. We had somewhere around four and a half hours left of the flight and that is when I started to go to sleep because I knew I would have to stay up most of the next day. I slept for 3 hours maybe but at 30 minutes intervals. The last bit of the flight was okay. There was an hour and a half left and I couldn’t sleep anymore. The seats where very uncomfortable to be sitting in for 7 and a half hours. And since I was in the window seat I couldn’t get ...