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
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