Hipster baby bottle

I got to sleep in today! Yay! I got up super late, then did some homework and cleaning my room and such, then since it was sunny Lara and I walked to the lake of Zurich and went swimming.

There was almost no one on the beach because it was a bit chilly. It was gorgeous, though. 

There was a playground, and Lara and I decided to mess around on it...

(I don't know why it's so blurry... It's clearer on my phone..?)

There was also a pretty wall with a mosaic on it that we thought was artsy enough to take a picture with. 

The baby bottle is still there on top of the parking meter, but it looked kind of plain so I decorated it. Now it's a hipster baby bottle.

Friday! Week 2!

Yay for Friday! Today I got to sleep in, which means there are way fewer people on the trams and trains (which is much more pleasant).

I had double periods of classes all day... Music, Spanish, Choir, and Math. In choir we are practicing to accompany the theater class for some play involving the David and Goliath fight scene from the Bible. It's a super long song, and super epic. (!!!)

This is the main entry to the school, kind of the general hanging out/eating lunch/studying place. It's kind of really bright and open and pretty. Just cause. 

On the way home I again had to go pass by where the baby bottle was and lo and behold it was still there. Yay!

I also got to Skype with my family today. That was awesome. :)

The rediscovering of the baby bottle

Today was Thursday, which means school until 5:45, which means I don't get home until 6:15. Which means I starve. At least I don't have to get up early on Thursdays...

Something random I was thinking about in class was how even the paper they use to write here is different. Graph paper is what they use-for everything. I don't know of a place that you can buy lined paper here like we use in the U.S. It's the little things that you wouldn't even expect to be different that are so fascinating about being somewhere else. 

Also, while I was walking home from the train station, I happened to pass by where the baby bottle was (two days ago) and I looked up and there it was! Someone put it on top of a parking meter, maybe so someone could find it again. So apparently yesterday I just failed at actually finding the bottle. There was this guy riding a bicycle down the street that looked at me all weird because I was laughing while taking a picture of a parking meter. Yay!

The day of the freaking big spider

On Wednesdays we only have a half day of school, so I got home at 1, which left me the whole afternoon to do nothing, which was awesome. 

The weather today was gorgeous, and the sky was so pretty, I just had to take a picture...

I checked to see if the baby bottle from yesterday night was still sitting on the sidewalk, but it wasn't. I found a pretty little flower instead. 

At around 9 pm i walked into the room where the computer and the tv is. I didn't feel like turning on the light cause I just had to unplug something real quick. I turned around and started walking back out when I stepped on something, and it moved. I skipped off of it and turned on the light and there was a VERY LARGE spider just chilling right in the middle of the floor. I shuddered and then vacuumed it up. Ew.

Also, yesterday was my favorite little brother's birthday!!! Happy 12th Birthday, you little booger! 

Abandoned baby bottle

I got to get up late(r) today and I only had a few classes! Yay! I also got to leave school an hour early because I didn't see the point in staying for English class. Thankfully, neither did my teacher and she let me leave.

I found a wonderfully relevant comic that perfectly describes my most common everyday #firstworldproblem :

My grandparents went to a dinner where they discussed the cruise they are going to take, so I got to go to Dominic and Lara's house for dinner, which was fun. On the way home, almost literally right outside the apartment buildings, was a random baby bottle, just sitting on the side of the sidewalk. I don't know why, but I thought it was hilarious. 

It looks so lonely...

I wonder if it'll still be there tomorrow?

I can speak Spanish?

This weekend I basically just did homework and talked to friends. I did make some gorgeous little avatars for my family because I was bored... Voila.

Also one of me because yay

There was also a gorgeous sunset on Sunday evening, I couldn't reach my phone quickly enough to take a good picture so here's an ok picture. 

Today was another interesting day at school... In Spanish we had to memorize a paragraph and then present it to the class as a way of getting familiar with the pronunciation and such of he language. I did my thing and (mostly) memorized it, and a girl came up to me after class and was like "omg have you had Spanish before ur really good at speaking like super fast omg like wow" and I was confused because I've never taken Spanish....? So anyways, that was fun.

After school today I had voice lessons and as I was walking up to the music building a little (12/13 years old?) student decided to pass me all swaggy-like walking that weird way some guys do when their pants don't fit right I don't know... And I almost literally laughed out loud at him because he had the saggy pants, the weird suspenders as a fashion statement, a hat on backwards with Mickey hands rolling a joint, and the earbuds blasting rock music. So I decided to be a weirdo and take a picture. It was hilarious. (I'm not a stalker, I promise).

I had a little bit of time before my train came after my voice lesson so I got to read some German and eat cookies!!! (The cookie is a mini version of something called a "Spitzbueb" which means something along the lines of boy-with-attitude literally translated)

Also, I have found this app called Duolingo and it basically reviews/teaches you another language in 5-20 minutes a day (you pick your "goal"). It's really cool, and I've been using it for a few days.

I survived a week!

Yay! 1 week down, only about 35 more to go... 

Of course now that school starts the weather is gorgeous. Weather logic. 

I also found this app where you can make mini avatars and they're adorable. 

Sorry for the short post, but it's 2:30 am and I'm going to sleep! Good night!

Day 4!

Thursdays consist of a bunch of double periods of classes which makes the day a strange length. Today I had double English (I practiced German), geography, history, biology, double French, and double p.e.

During p.e. I noticed something. We were practicing volleyball, and a lot of the girls didn't know how to play at all. A lot of the students were uncoordinated and not very athletic. At home, if you're not good at a sport, no one likes you in p.e. because everyone has to wait for you. There is so much emphasis put on sports at home, and here it's just not a big deal. I find it refreshing to not have to freak out when you mess up and send the volleyball flying across the gym.

I feel like Switzerland is a happier place than the U.S. and I wonder how one could measure that scientifically to find out. Huh. But what I've noticed is if you pass someone walking, you say hello or good morning etc, whereas back home that's just awkward and weird. Here it's a courteous thing to do, and quite frankly, it makes everyone happier. Strangers aren't as much of a reason to freak out and be awkward so much as a reason to be polite and make room to sit down or something like that. 

I feel like here people also value the effort and/or money the city or someone put into something more and they expend more effort to make sure they don't mess it up. There is graffiti and all that just like anywhere else, but even the graffitiers don't go after the pretty sculptures and so on in public places. Just abandoned buildings and the like. 

Also, the trains, trams, and buses are unbelievably clean. You are allowed to eat and drink on all of them, and yet they are always tidy. Yay for random things I noticed today... 

Day 3! (And random observances)

I had another fantastic day, and these are some things I was thinking about throughout the day:

Here, every day between every class, everyone has between 10-15 minutes to take a break, eat something, and then go to the next class. What this creates is students who are a lot more willing to sit another 30 seconds for the teacher to finish expressing their idea, then walk up and say thank you and then meander slowly to the next class. 

The lovely school system we have in the U.S. (at least at Flathead) allows exactly 4 minutes between classes. This is not enough time to go to your locker, not enough time to go to the bathroom (which the teachers tell you to do between classes), not enough time to eat something, and not enough time to sit and listen to a teacher finish talking. 

I feel like at home this creates a lot of disrespect for the teacher, because as soon as that bell rings, the teacher has zero control. Here the students appreciate and respect the teachers and will gladly wait while the teacher speaks. Also, as a side note, the bells here. They are a relatively quiet, very pleasant chime. At home, the bell is a loud obnoxious noise that has made people jump from shock before.

Just some things I was thinking about during school today... I could make a list a mile long of all the little things that Switzerland deserves an A+ for and that the U.S. fails at. Come on America. Get your head in the game. 

Day 2!

I have a weekly schedule, so the times I get up are different every day, and yesterday was thankfully a day when I get up later. My sleep schedule is still set on summer. Tomorrow morning is not going to be pleasant.  

We have basically jumped right into school, homework and all. The first English class was today, and that is the only class I have been bored in so far (I'm going to practice German in the future during English class). 

After school I bumped into some of my cousins friends and we went out for ice cream cause it was so nice and sunny. It's amazing how it's possible to recognize people a couple years after you've last seen them...

Also, Taylor Swift announced yesterday that her new album, "1989", is coming out September 27, which is exciting for me because I like her music. 

First day of school!

Well I survived my first day! (Yay!) 

I had to get up at 6:15 am to catch the train at 7:15 with my cousin and her friends. We got to the school around 7:30, when I promptly got completely confused and had to go to the office to ask where my first class was... So that was fun. 

Something that I noticed right away was that not a single soul talked or whispered or giggled when the teacher was talking (at least at the beginning of the day), and that the teacher was strict. Well, not exactly "strict", but he meant business. 

I technically had German first, but we introduced ourselves and figured out who say where and what was expected of us and so on. Then we went to Geography, which sounds super interesting. It's not really just naming countries from what I can tell, it's more learning about different countries and things like that but we'll see. Then we went to French. That was a wild ride. I understood about two words because I have 1 year of French whereas the rest of my classmates have 4 and the teacher talked a million miles per hour (or at least seemed to). After class I talked to her and she said she'd give me a different book so I can still learn stuff this year-yay! Then we had Physics. I feel like Physics is going to be one of my favorite classes, just because already on the first day we watched a really fascinating short video on comets. Plus the teacher seemed really easygoing. Then we had a lunch break-an entire hour. It was so nice to be able to walk down to the supermarket, buy food, and sit and eat and talk instead of just eating and running to the next class. After lunch, we had Spanish, which I think will also be awesome, because everyone is starting with zero Spanish experience, so I fit right in.  The teacher was very humorous. Lastly, we had "Geschichte" (which literally translated means "stories", so I was confused what it even was) which is History. It was ok. 

After school I had voice lessons. Of course I forgot the name of the teacher once I walked into the music building so I couldn't find her room for a while. Then I finally figured out where I was supposed to be. She said hello to me and then had me sing bent over, with my mouth nearly closed, and not breathing in before singing for the entire half hour.

After that, I wandered down to the tram station and hopped on a tram going back home. Or so I thought. See, to get back home the quickest and most logical way, I would take a tram and then a train. However, I took the tram on the other side of the street, meaning it went in the opposite direction. I was blissfully unaware until about 3 stops later when my stop wasn't showing up on the board. Thankfully, all roads/trams/buses lead to the Hauptbahnhof (main train station in Zurich), so I just took a slightly more roundabout way home. 

Altogether, I think it was a pretty fantastic first day, and I'm super excited for the rest of the year!

End of summer

School starts tomorrow! (Eep!) and I'm going to miss this weirdly rainy summer. I went to the pool:

Went on some trips:

Decorated a tshirt with my cousin:

Skyped friends for a long time:

Made a bag from an old sheet and decorated it:

Enjoyed some beautiful sunsets:

And made a ladybug friend. It decided to fly into my room and onto my laptop to help me with my math. Best math buddy ever. 

Summertime nothingness!

So last week and this week I basically did nothing, which included decorating my room,

Going to the Alpamare (an epic water park) with my cousin,

(And being amazed that they have Hershey's chocolate right next to the amazing Toblerone chocolate)

going shopping:

The first of August is basically Switzerland's birthday, and this year Switz was 723 years old! We celebrated by eating some bread I don't remember the name of (oops):

Going into Zurich, walking around listening to traditional music, and eating "chäse spatzli" (literally translated-cheese + a type of bird native to Europe) which are little mini dumplings with cheese and onions and parsley. It was pretty delicious:

That evening, we went to Dominic and Lara's house and ate yummy food, watched-and lit off-fireworks, and pretty much just used the day as an excuse to stay up until 2 am doing silly things. 

I got a little bored late one night and did some magic:

I am currently at my cousins house, where I stayed for three days because my aunt and uncle are on a mini vacation and decided to temporarily abandon their children.

During the three days I was here we made mini pizzas-twice:

Made a tiny fire and roasted marshmallows at 2 am (from which I now have mosquito bites on my eyelid and in the middle of my forehead):

Made a chocolate fondue at 3 in the morning with a friend (with silly consequences if you dropped your food in the chocolate)

And generally played a lot of super exciting video games:

It's 5 am now on the last day/night I'll be here... I think it's about time to go to sleep. Goodnight!