Sept 6-30

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