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