Hallo Alle,
Alright so I'm really sorry about not posting more often than once every 3 weeks but I've been really really busy since I last posted (I know that's not really an excuse but still). I actually do want to keep up with this though even if it's just for myself so I remember all the things I've done while I'm here.
(btw this blog is about 3 times as long as my other ones, so be warned I guess. Also I'm going to start referring to people by name now because it's too complicated not to)
Anyways so I was still in Sprachkurs the last time I posted (God that was a long time ago😅). I don't really remember what I did that Wednesday and Thursday, but I remember that after we finished on Friday, we all went to this pizza place by Nicole's place to celebrate the end of Sprachkurs. After, we went to Nicole's to eat (I think we might have caught her host dad by surprise a little but what can you do🤷🏻♂️). I had to leave a bit early to renew my Abo (this card thing that lets me use the public transportation in Bern for free) but I met up with them again after so no worries. Looking back on it, I kinda miss Sprachkurs since I was always with other exchange students and we had a lot of free time since it was only ever for 3-5 hours a day but oh well, life moves on I guess.
On Saturday I met up with Mish, my oldie, at Bern Bahnhof in the morning. It took us a solid half an hour to find each other but it all worked out in the end😂. After we met up, a few of the other oldies (Dom, Georgia and Olivia) mentioned that they were in Basel, so we took the train to meet up with them there. We spent most of the day walking around the city which is much different than Bern but just as pretty in my opinion. Since I've gotten here I've realized that that's kind of the case with all the cities here, you can tell that they're all slightly different (the people, the architecture, the price, the dialect of Swiss-German they speak, etc) but they're all very Swiss in their own ways if that makes sense. Anyways, eventually we all had to go home and Georgia and I went back on the same train, but I got off in Bern to go home. Going new places in Switzerland has been one my favourite parts of being on exchange so far, so that day was actually a lot of fun.
The next day I didn't have too much going on so I went to Rosengarten and called Danica, my best friend from Canada, for a while which was good. There honestly isn't a lot that makes me miss Canada, but calling home is always kinda rough😕 After we were done talking, I went to Gurten (this mountain in Bern) and then I checked out a festival that was going on at Eigerplatz. There were lots of musicians and buskers and that kind of thing which was really cool and there was this one bassist who could slap like I've never seen before in my life😂. I always respect people who play bass really well because I also play bass, but definitely not as well as that guy.
The next day was my first day of school in Switzerland and I was pretty nervous when I got there but it actually went well I think. I met with the principal really quickly and then went to my first class, which was German. I understood way less than I thought I would going into it, but it went alright. My next class was French and it went much better, since I could just speak French the whole time instead of German😂 this was back when I could actually speak French sort of decently though, now I legitimately can't very well at all since I'm soooo out of practice. Anyways, next I had English which was pretty solid, but I still couldn't really do much since they started a month before I actually got there but that's alright, it was nice to understand what was going on anyways aha. After English I had lunch with my class which was pretty good actually. I really lucked out with my class, they're all so nice and friendly and it makes life a lot easier. I honestly think that they might be nicer to exchange students than we are in Canada😂 After lunch we had math and bio and those were alright but they were in German so I didn't really know what was going on, since the language is so specific for those courses. Funnily enough, my focus in school is Math/Science and I haven't taken science in Canada since the first semester of grade 10, but we'll see how it goes I guess.
The rest of that week was mostly just me going to school and coming home, since school takes up so much more of people's lives here than it does in Canada. When I'm in school, I leave my house at 7:20am and I don't get home again until about 6-6:30pm (that has a lot to do with the distance, since I live in Bern but I go to school in Burgdorf, but still). I've been meeting up with a lot of AFS exchange students since school started because they all hang out in the place called Welle 7 and I go there a lot too, so I've met a lot of people through there as well.
That Friday I ran in a competition kind of thing in Bern at 5:30am. In Canada I never did races or anything and I kinda just ran for fun every once in a while after I took fitness in Grade 10, but when I got here I started actually doing it consistently and I then I ran in my first semi-legit event thing here. It was really cool because the course was set up in the Altstadt where there are normally a lot of people and cars, so it was kinda surreal running through the streets with no one else around. I actually did way better than I thought I was going to which was good and they gave us free breakfast so all in all a pretty good time imo😂
That weekend was our last Rotary weekend which was honestly so much fun. Only half of the Rotary inbounds where at this one because it was only for the west half of Switzerland, but it was still amazing anyways. That morning I got to the Bahnhof to get on the train to Adelboden and I got there on time but I was late getting to the weekend anyways and the story behind it was actually kinda funny. So our train was slightly late leaving and Mish, myself and about 15 other inbounds were in a car that was reserved for another group that wasn't Rotary. So Mish steps out of the train for like a minute and goes to get back into the train, but the doors wouldn't open and the train left. The thing was, all of her stuff was in the train still including her ticket to go to where we were going which meant she was stuck in Bern with no money or anything😂 She called us right after the train left and we all kinda laughed at her about it but she still needed her stuff to get to the weekend, so I got off at the next stop and went back to Bern to bring it to her. We had to wait about another half hour for the next train that was going to where we were trying to go, but Mish, Valeria, Thomas and myself had to figure out where we were going by ourselves since Rotex wasn't there to help us😂 Whatever though it all worked out, we just happened to be 2 hours late to the weekend (we weren't even the latest though funnily enough).
Anyways, once we got there finally we found our rooms and unpacked our stuff. I got there late, so I had a room to myself which I thought was gonna be kind of boring but it was actually nice. After we all got settled in and all that we went downstairs for a while and then we left for a hike kind of thing. We actually got to take a cable car up to this lake in the mountains, where we stayed for a while and then walked back down to where we needed to go to go back. It was pretty cloudy out but the way the lake looked against the mountains and stuff was really amazing. A lot of people went swimming too even though it was actually snowing like an hour earlier which was pretty crazy but admirable I guess..? Idk, I wouldn't have done it in a million years😂. We walked down after having been there for about an hour or so and from there we took a bus back to the hostel that we were staying at. We then ate dinner and dessert and then Rotex gave us free time until about 1-2am. We were up at 7:30 the next day and we spent the whole day hiking to this massive waterfall in the mountains. It took us about 2 hours to get there but it was definitely worth it since the view was so incredible. After a while we started to walk to a bus station so we could all eventually go back to where we're staying here. Lucky for me, I live in Bern and Adelboden is actually in the canton of Bern so the ride back wasn't that long for me. I always really like Rotary weekends because it's always fun to see the other inbounds that I don't really get to see very often.
About half the classes last week in school were cancelled for some reason (something about Swiss prom or something..? I'm not sure), so I was actually in Bern most of the time instead of Burgdorf. On Tuesday I went to Biel to see Francisco after school which was cool since we used to hang out like every day in Sprachkurs but now since school started we don't hang out as much. Anyways, we saw the church, the lake, the Altstadt and a few other things in Biel before I had to go home for a dinner party with my host family.
On Thursday I went to a small town in Romandie (the part of Switzerland that speaks French) called Payerne with my school for a field trip. It was pretty cool, the school there honestly looked like it was from the future and the people were really nice, but switching between French and German kinda messed me up which wasn't so good😂. It was really cool seeing a new town that was kinda small for a change though, since every time I travel it's always to towns that are pretty big.
The next day, school ended early again (3rd time that week) so I went back to Bern and met up with Analucia. We actually go to the same school funnily enough but we don't actually see each other very often since we're in different grades and all that. We went to Bärengraben which is one of the most touristy things that you can go to in Bern but I hadn't gone to until then. There weren't actually as many bears there as I thought there was going to be, but it was still cool anyways. After we left, we met up with Shannon in Welle 7 and we talked there for a while until we needed to go home.
Analucia and I met up again the next day since we were both going to Zurich for the day. I got on in Bern and then we met up on the train in Burgdorf to get to Zurich HB. We were actually just going to Zurich that day for completely unrelated reasons but my plans fell through so I ended up walking around with her and someone else for a while until I had to leave to go to St. Gallen. It was Mish's birthday the day before so I went to SG for her birthday party, but I got there a bit early to help set up. We brought all the stuff to a park/campsite kind of thing (i'm not too sure what to call it aha) and once everyone got there we started a fire and played music. I had to leave pretty early since I needed to be home for 12, but it was worth the trip anyways.
On Sunday I left Bern with my host family to go to Kreuzlingen/Konstanz for a few days (I have 3 weeks of fall break right now btw, I'm not just leaving in the middle of school aha). On the way up we stopped a few times to see more of Switzerland, like the waterfalls in Schaffhausen and a few small towns that we very old but had a lot of cool architecture and culture. Once we got to Kreuzlingen, we dropped off our stuff and went to Konstanz for dinner. Konstanz is a really cool city actually and a lot of Germans go there for holidays when they can and Swiss people go there to shop and stuff because 1. everything in Germany is about a third as expensive as in Switzerland and 2. Swiss people don't have to pay taxes when they go. Anyways we ate at this Indian restaurant which was really good, then we walked around Konstanz for a while before going back to Kreuzlingen to go to bed. The next day I went shopping with my host mom in Konstanz again, but I didn't actually end up buying anything (I did find a music store that sold really nice basses though which was cool). We walked around for a while and got coffee and Käsewurst at a restaurant before we headed back to Kreuzlingen for a while. After Thomi (my host dad) finished working, we went back to Konstanz for dinner at this restaurant/brewery. In the middle of the restaurant there was two massive brewers which they actually used to make the beer they served. Only in Germany I guess😂
The next morning we packed our things and left Kreuzlingen to go to a small town outside of Chur called Lenz, where my host family has a holiday apartment kind of thing. They always go there during fall break, Christmas and ski week every year, which I would too to be honest because it's so beautiful there. There are lots of places to ski and hike in the mountains so I'd say its a pretty decent tourist spot for Swiss people. Anyways, we got there and hiked to the next town over, Lenzerheide, to buy groceries and meet up with Shannon, who was staying with us for a few days. We took the bus back to Lenz and unpacked our things, but that was basically it for the rest of the day. The next day we went on a hike in the mountains for basically the whole day. Luckily we got to take a cable car up, but we hiked a little bit higher than that after we got up (that was really kinda sketchy though and we probably shouldn't have but oh well). We ate lunch at the top and then walked all the way back down to where we parked that morning. At the end of that day we had hiked 17km in about 8 hours, so I was completely exhausted by the time we got back to the apartment.
The next day, we went on another hike to see a hanging bridge. The hike was much much shorter this time and we finished it in 2 hours, but after the day before 2 hours was enough aha. We went home for lunch really quickly and then to this pool that overlooked the mountains in Lenzerheide with one of my host mom's friends. We stayed there for around an hour or so and then we went to Chur for dinner. We met up with my host mom's friend again for their daughter's birthday at a legit Italian pizza place and it was a bit different than the pizza in Canada but it was still really good. After that, we went back to Lenz for the night.
We left the next morning after walking Pina (my host fam's dog) and Shannon and I went to Luzern for the rest of the day while my host mom went back to Bern. Luzern is a really beautiful city but there were so many other tourists so I guess we came at a bad time😂. Everything there was really amazing, from the river running through the middle to the Altstadt to even the Bahnhof aha. I think Luzern is the first city I've been to that I like better than Bern, but I couldn't actually stay for very long since I needed to be home pretty early.
Yesterday was a pretty normal day, I started writing the beginning of this blog and then I went into Bern with Abby and Lena. It was almost strange being back since I had been away for like a week and I didn't realize that I kinda missed being away. It's gonna be strange when I have to leave Switzerland for real, but luckily that's still 9 months away :)
So that's been everything for the last 3 weeks or so, sorry for the delay😅. My video for September isn't going to be out for a while, since later today I'm leaving for Emmental (the part of Switzerland that makes Swiss cheese) until Wednesday and then I'm leaving for Italy on Friday so I'm not going to have a lot of free time between now and the end of Herbstferien, but I'll try to get it out as soon as I can.
Bis bald,
-Dan
Sunday 1 October 2017
Tuesday 5 September 2017
Aug 15-Sept 5
Hey everyone,
So I've already been terrible at keeping up with writing this so that's fun. All the other exchange students warned that that was going to happen and I thought "Nope I'm actually going to stay on top of this" but look where we are now aha. Anyways, I've been really busy since I last posted and it honestly doesn't feel at all like I've been here for almost a month already. Everyone always said that exchange goes by really really quickly when you're in it, but I had no idea what they meant until I actually got here. Huh, maybe I should actually start listening to other people😂
So I'm going to try to write about most of what happened in the last 3 weeks but there's definitely going to be some holes so sorry about that. The Tuesday after my last post, I drove my bike into the tram tracks (trams are a bit like street cars in Canada) and fell over which apparently is a really common tourist mistake so I guess I shouldn't feel that bad..? I kinda felt like a moron after but oh well, what can you do😂 Anyways after that I went to Sprachekurse (like german class) and just toughed it out 'til I got home basically. I take the bus a lot now aha.
The next few days after that are kind of a blur, but I know that I was in Sprachekurse and that I was probably exploring Bern with the other people in my language course. On Saturday that week a bunch of the "oldies" (inbounds that got here in January) came to Bern and they showed us around a bit which was nice. We went to this park called Rosengarten which has a really cool view of Bern which is where we spent most of the day and after that we ended up in a cafe in the old part of Bern. All the oldies are actually super cool and it's always fun hanging out with them, but most of them live pretty far away so it's hard to actually hang out with them since trains here are really expensive :/
The next day I went to Creux du Van, which is a mountain in in the Jura region, close to the border of Switzerland and France. It's not as tall as the Alps, but still I've never seen anything like the view from the top of those mountains. It was kind of strange seeing all the towns in the valleys between the mountains because the planes were all at different levels if that makes sense. Also, all the people spoke French there which was nice because I actually knew what was going on most of the time😂 My French has actually gotten a lot worse since I got here though which isn't good. It's like the better I get at German the worse I get at French, but I'm hoping that'll change when I'm back in French Immersion at real school (one week away btw).
The next interesting thing I did (other than going to Sprachekurse and messing around in Bern with the other inbounds) was swimming in the Aare. The Aare is a river in Switzerland that runs through basically the entire western half of the country and moves really quickly. Apparently a lot of tourists die in it every year actually because the current is so quick, so we had to be careful. The water in it is really, really blue, it looks kinda like a movie to be honest. We got in and basically just floated down the river for about a kilometer before we got out, it was really cool.
The Saturday of that week there was a Pride Parade in Bern, so I went to that with a few other inbounds from all over Switzerland. Funnily enough, there wasn't actually a parade even though all the signs said there would be but all the booths and stuff were alright and it was an excuse to see some of the other inbounds so I really don't mind aha. I had to leave early so I could work at a party my host parents were throwing and I didn't end up getting home until like 1:30am that night. I got to practice speaking German with new people so that was good, but I'm still not the best and actually articulating myself the way I want to is still really hard. I'm not too worried about that though, I'm getting better which is all that matters I guess.
The rest of last week is kinda hazy, but I haven't forgotten about this weekend yet so I guess that's next😂 On Saturday I went to Zurich to meet up with a few other inbounds for a while. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and meeting some of the people I haven't met yet, but it was kinda cold and we didn't really have anywhere to go that was inside. It wasn't that bad compared to Canada though so I can't really complain😂 On Sunday I went with my host parents and another inbound to Thun, another city about 45 minutes away from Bern. Thun is really interesting because it has a massive lake but is also really close to the mountains so the view is amazing. After we explored the actual town for a bit, we went hiking to a restaurantnt that overlooked the Thun/Interlaken area, which was also incredible. We had to leave soon after that but we still got to stay up there for an hour or so which was a lot of fun.
Today my language course took a field trip to this mountain just outside of Bern call Gurten. I've actually been there before already and I may or may not have written about it (can't remember) but it was still just as cool the second time. From the top, you can see all of Bern, the Jura mountains, the Alps and the French border. The parks up there are amazing as well, the grass is really green and there's free barbeques and stuff everywhere so it's good for going if there isn't anything to do or if you want to do something without making plans I guess.
Anyways that's been it for the last like 3 weeks or so. I'll be better at updating to this more often because this was kind of a bad overview of everything and there's a lot of things I likely left out but oh well, c'est la vie I guess. I should have a video of my first month here coming out pretty soon, I'm hoping within a week but it depends on how much time I have in between now and then.
Anyways until next time,
-Dan
P.S. My oldie is pretty cool(she definitely did not tell me to say that though no way)
So I've already been terrible at keeping up with writing this so that's fun. All the other exchange students warned that that was going to happen and I thought "Nope I'm actually going to stay on top of this" but look where we are now aha. Anyways, I've been really busy since I last posted and it honestly doesn't feel at all like I've been here for almost a month already. Everyone always said that exchange goes by really really quickly when you're in it, but I had no idea what they meant until I actually got here. Huh, maybe I should actually start listening to other people😂
So I'm going to try to write about most of what happened in the last 3 weeks but there's definitely going to be some holes so sorry about that. The Tuesday after my last post, I drove my bike into the tram tracks (trams are a bit like street cars in Canada) and fell over which apparently is a really common tourist mistake so I guess I shouldn't feel that bad..? I kinda felt like a moron after but oh well, what can you do😂 Anyways after that I went to Sprachekurse (like german class) and just toughed it out 'til I got home basically. I take the bus a lot now aha.
The next few days after that are kind of a blur, but I know that I was in Sprachekurse and that I was probably exploring Bern with the other people in my language course. On Saturday that week a bunch of the "oldies" (inbounds that got here in January) came to Bern and they showed us around a bit which was nice. We went to this park called Rosengarten which has a really cool view of Bern which is where we spent most of the day and after that we ended up in a cafe in the old part of Bern. All the oldies are actually super cool and it's always fun hanging out with them, but most of them live pretty far away so it's hard to actually hang out with them since trains here are really expensive :/
The next day I went to Creux du Van, which is a mountain in in the Jura region, close to the border of Switzerland and France. It's not as tall as the Alps, but still I've never seen anything like the view from the top of those mountains. It was kind of strange seeing all the towns in the valleys between the mountains because the planes were all at different levels if that makes sense. Also, all the people spoke French there which was nice because I actually knew what was going on most of the time😂 My French has actually gotten a lot worse since I got here though which isn't good. It's like the better I get at German the worse I get at French, but I'm hoping that'll change when I'm back in French Immersion at real school (one week away btw).
The next interesting thing I did (other than going to Sprachekurse and messing around in Bern with the other inbounds) was swimming in the Aare. The Aare is a river in Switzerland that runs through basically the entire western half of the country and moves really quickly. Apparently a lot of tourists die in it every year actually because the current is so quick, so we had to be careful. The water in it is really, really blue, it looks kinda like a movie to be honest. We got in and basically just floated down the river for about a kilometer before we got out, it was really cool.
The Saturday of that week there was a Pride Parade in Bern, so I went to that with a few other inbounds from all over Switzerland. Funnily enough, there wasn't actually a parade even though all the signs said there would be but all the booths and stuff were alright and it was an excuse to see some of the other inbounds so I really don't mind aha. I had to leave early so I could work at a party my host parents were throwing and I didn't end up getting home until like 1:30am that night. I got to practice speaking German with new people so that was good, but I'm still not the best and actually articulating myself the way I want to is still really hard. I'm not too worried about that though, I'm getting better which is all that matters I guess.
The rest of last week is kinda hazy, but I haven't forgotten about this weekend yet so I guess that's next😂 On Saturday I went to Zurich to meet up with a few other inbounds for a while. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone again and meeting some of the people I haven't met yet, but it was kinda cold and we didn't really have anywhere to go that was inside. It wasn't that bad compared to Canada though so I can't really complain😂 On Sunday I went with my host parents and another inbound to Thun, another city about 45 minutes away from Bern. Thun is really interesting because it has a massive lake but is also really close to the mountains so the view is amazing. After we explored the actual town for a bit, we went hiking to a restaurantnt that overlooked the Thun/Interlaken area, which was also incredible. We had to leave soon after that but we still got to stay up there for an hour or so which was a lot of fun.
Today my language course took a field trip to this mountain just outside of Bern call Gurten. I've actually been there before already and I may or may not have written about it (can't remember) but it was still just as cool the second time. From the top, you can see all of Bern, the Jura mountains, the Alps and the French border. The parks up there are amazing as well, the grass is really green and there's free barbeques and stuff everywhere so it's good for going if there isn't anything to do or if you want to do something without making plans I guess.
Anyways that's been it for the last like 3 weeks or so. I'll be better at updating to this more often because this was kind of a bad overview of everything and there's a lot of things I likely left out but oh well, c'est la vie I guess. I should have a video of my first month here coming out pretty soon, I'm hoping within a week but it depends on how much time I have in between now and then.
Anyways until next time,
-Dan
P.S. My oldie is pretty cool
Monday 14 August 2017
Aug 9-14
Hoi Alle
It feels strange that I've only been here for 5 days, I've done so much that it feels like I've been here for much longer. It's going really well so far though, so I'm definitely not complaining.
The flight over was pretty uneventful, but kinda surreal at the same time. Exchange was always something that felt so far away for me, so it was weird realizing that I was actually on my way here. I didn't sleep at all on the plane, so I was really really tired when I got here. I arrived at 8am Swiss time but we didn't actually get out of the airport until 11 or so because I 1) got lost, 2) couldn't contact my host mom because my phone wouldn't work and 3) ended up hanging out with another inbound in a coffee shop for like 30 minutes. She brought me my first Swiss chocolate so I'm definitely in her debt I guess😂 When we finally ended up leaving, we went to look at an apartment in Kreuzlingen and then went to Konstanz, Germany for lunch. I had actual German schnitzel there which was pretty awesome actually. We were going to look around the city before going to Bern, but I was so exhausted that we ended up just going straight home (and I slept for the whole way back aha). After we got home, I basically just unpacked, ate and went to bed, I didn't have it in me to do anything else.
I woke up at 1pm on Friday, meaning I slept for 16 hours straight after I got here😂 I kinda felt like I wasted a day, but we were so busy in the afternoon/night that I don't really feel bad about it now. After I woke up, we left the house to buy things that I didn't/forgot to bring from Canada and to get my Swiss phone set up. We also explored the part of Bern where I live and it's a really beautiful city. It kinda reminds me of Vieux-Lyon if it was cleaner and there were Swiss flags all over the place (for the FI people reading this). After that, we went home for dinner quickly and then out the the Bern Buskerfest, which is a massive festival they put on every year. They basically shut down old Bern and invite a whole bunch of performers from all over Europe to perform in the streets, it was really cool! We had to come back pretty early however because I needed to wake up early the next morning to go to Fiesch for my first Rotary weekend :)
Fiesch is in a region of Switzerland called Wallis, which is very close to the Italian border and has what seems like a million mountains. The train ride there was honestly amazing, I've never seen anything like the landscapes they have here. There are so many hills, mountains, trees and lakes, it's unreal. We switched trains in a town called Brig and then arrived at the camp we were staying at. They welcomed us with two alphorn players playing traditional Swiss music in an arena with a view of all the mountains that sit behind the facility, which was also amazing. After our arrival, we brought our things to our rooms and went to meetings and such about what we're supposed to do on exchange. These lasted for about 2 hours, then we had free time, then dinner. After this, we all traded pins, talked about our home countries and basically just got to know each other better, which was really cool. There are some who I've been talking to for months now, so it was nice to actually talk to them in person, if that makes sense.
We woke up at 7 the next morning (after going to bed at 2:30. yay.) for breakfast and more talks with the Rotarians. We had free time after this, a presentation, and then we went home :( It was kind of sad leaving everyone, but we'll all meet again soon I hope.
When I arrived in Bern, I took the wrong bus home and got lost aha. To be honest, I'm considering it a win if I get lost less than twice a day at this point😂 I eventually found my way back to the house and I just hung out with my host family for the rest of the night (they're really nice by the way, couldn't have asked for better people to have as my first host fam). I ended up calling a few people back home for the first time since I got here, which was kind of rough but it was nice talking to them again. I went to bed way later than I planned but oh well, it was worth it.
The German course stared at 8:45 this morning and actually went really well. By the end I could understand basically everything she was saying, so it'll be good to see where I am in a month when it's finished. Speaking German outside the course is still hard though, I'm not sure if it's the pressure or something but I have a really rough time with it. Oh well, I'll get better as I go I guess.
After the German course, I met up with a few other inbounds and we had lunch in old Bern. Most of them had to go back to school not long after we met up, but I hung out with another inbound for a while after they left. Eventually I tried to go home but I got lost on the way to my bike, and then I got lost again on the way home🙃 I've just accepted that getting lost is part of exchange, I'm not even mad about it anymore.
Anyways, that's been it for the last few days. This honestly has been one of the first times I've actually had time to do anything since I've basically always been on the go, but I don't mind at all. I already love this country so much, I can't wait to see what the next 11 months have in store.
Bis bald,
-Dan
It feels strange that I've only been here for 5 days, I've done so much that it feels like I've been here for much longer. It's going really well so far though, so I'm definitely not complaining.
The flight over was pretty uneventful, but kinda surreal at the same time. Exchange was always something that felt so far away for me, so it was weird realizing that I was actually on my way here. I didn't sleep at all on the plane, so I was really really tired when I got here. I arrived at 8am Swiss time but we didn't actually get out of the airport until 11 or so because I 1) got lost, 2) couldn't contact my host mom because my phone wouldn't work and 3) ended up hanging out with another inbound in a coffee shop for like 30 minutes. She brought me my first Swiss chocolate so I'm definitely in her debt I guess😂 When we finally ended up leaving, we went to look at an apartment in Kreuzlingen and then went to Konstanz, Germany for lunch. I had actual German schnitzel there which was pretty awesome actually. We were going to look around the city before going to Bern, but I was so exhausted that we ended up just going straight home (and I slept for the whole way back aha). After we got home, I basically just unpacked, ate and went to bed, I didn't have it in me to do anything else.
I woke up at 1pm on Friday, meaning I slept for 16 hours straight after I got here😂 I kinda felt like I wasted a day, but we were so busy in the afternoon/night that I don't really feel bad about it now. After I woke up, we left the house to buy things that I didn't/forgot to bring from Canada and to get my Swiss phone set up. We also explored the part of Bern where I live and it's a really beautiful city. It kinda reminds me of Vieux-Lyon if it was cleaner and there were Swiss flags all over the place (for the FI people reading this). After that, we went home for dinner quickly and then out the the Bern Buskerfest, which is a massive festival they put on every year. They basically shut down old Bern and invite a whole bunch of performers from all over Europe to perform in the streets, it was really cool! We had to come back pretty early however because I needed to wake up early the next morning to go to Fiesch for my first Rotary weekend :)
Fiesch is in a region of Switzerland called Wallis, which is very close to the Italian border and has what seems like a million mountains. The train ride there was honestly amazing, I've never seen anything like the landscapes they have here. There are so many hills, mountains, trees and lakes, it's unreal. We switched trains in a town called Brig and then arrived at the camp we were staying at. They welcomed us with two alphorn players playing traditional Swiss music in an arena with a view of all the mountains that sit behind the facility, which was also amazing. After our arrival, we brought our things to our rooms and went to meetings and such about what we're supposed to do on exchange. These lasted for about 2 hours, then we had free time, then dinner. After this, we all traded pins, talked about our home countries and basically just got to know each other better, which was really cool. There are some who I've been talking to for months now, so it was nice to actually talk to them in person, if that makes sense.
We woke up at 7 the next morning (after going to bed at 2:30. yay.) for breakfast and more talks with the Rotarians. We had free time after this, a presentation, and then we went home :( It was kind of sad leaving everyone, but we'll all meet again soon I hope.
When I arrived in Bern, I took the wrong bus home and got lost aha. To be honest, I'm considering it a win if I get lost less than twice a day at this point😂 I eventually found my way back to the house and I just hung out with my host family for the rest of the night (they're really nice by the way, couldn't have asked for better people to have as my first host fam). I ended up calling a few people back home for the first time since I got here, which was kind of rough but it was nice talking to them again. I went to bed way later than I planned but oh well, it was worth it.
The German course stared at 8:45 this morning and actually went really well. By the end I could understand basically everything she was saying, so it'll be good to see where I am in a month when it's finished. Speaking German outside the course is still hard though, I'm not sure if it's the pressure or something but I have a really rough time with it. Oh well, I'll get better as I go I guess.
After the German course, I met up with a few other inbounds and we had lunch in old Bern. Most of them had to go back to school not long after we met up, but I hung out with another inbound for a while after they left. Eventually I tried to go home but I got lost on the way to my bike, and then I got lost again on the way home🙃 I've just accepted that getting lost is part of exchange, I'm not even mad about it anymore.
Anyways, that's been it for the last few days. This honestly has been one of the first times I've actually had time to do anything since I've basically always been on the go, but I don't mind at all. I already love this country so much, I can't wait to see what the next 11 months have in store.
Bis bald,
-Dan
Friday 23 June 2017
Intro
Hey Everyone!
So this entry is basically going to be just a quick intro to how I'll be documenting what's going on on my exchange. As of right now, I don't have any idea when I'll be uploading new posts and stuff, but my goal is once or twice a week, (maybe more, maybe less). I'll basically be writing about my experiences on the exchange and some advice for people thinking of applying to do the same thing. There won't be a lot of photos and stuff on this blog, but I made an instagram account for my trip that you guys can follow if you're interested (the username is DanEtheringtonRYE) that'll be mostly photos and short journals. I might be editing together YouTube videos or something like that of the stuff I do once a month or every other month, but we'll have to see.
Anyways, thanks for reading and hopefully you enjoyed! Any and all feedback is appreciated.
'Til next time,
-Dan
So this entry is basically going to be just a quick intro to how I'll be documenting what's going on on my exchange. As of right now, I don't have any idea when I'll be uploading new posts and stuff, but my goal is once or twice a week, (maybe more, maybe less). I'll basically be writing about my experiences on the exchange and some advice for people thinking of applying to do the same thing. There won't be a lot of photos and stuff on this blog, but I made an instagram account for my trip that you guys can follow if you're interested (the username is DanEtheringtonRYE) that'll be mostly photos and short journals. I might be editing together YouTube videos or something like that of the stuff I do once a month or every other month, but we'll have to see.
Anyways, thanks for reading and hopefully you enjoyed! Any and all feedback is appreciated.
'Til next time,
-Dan
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