Friday! Week 10!

Happy Halloween!

Sadly, most people don't celebrate Halloween here in Switzerland. I think that is massively depressing.

I decided to have a little fun and do my eye makeup in zebra-print and wear a zebra-print shirt, just because.

When I came home there was a gorgeous sunset, so of course I took a picture of that...

I hope everyone has an awesome Halloween!

Pizza snail

Today we had a double lunch because "studium stunde" (study hall/class discussion period) got canceled! And apparently on Thursdays there is a market in the little square where we eat sometimes, so we went there. There was a little stand with bread and such, and I got a "pizza schnack" (pizza snail) which is like pizza in a cinnamon roll shape. And a roll with chocolate bits in it. Yummmm!

Today in p.e. We played basketball, which was super fun once again, because no one here can play. So I'm really good in comparison, which would never happen at home.

But one of my friends was astounded that I'd never had these things called Giotto. So she gave me a whole package of them. :) They're little creme-filled, crushed-hazelnut-covered things. Delicious.

We also had school late. Which means I got home at 6 ish. Meh.

Tomorrow's Friday! Yippee! And Halloween! (I'll be talking about Halloween in tomorrow's post-I'm doing something)

I love Wednesdays

And I know why^^^ because I only have a half day of school!

Today we also got to go to school an hour later-which was awesome. Although I did wake up too early on accident. But have no fear. I fell right back asleep. 

After school I had my german class like I do every Wednesday. It was okay. 

Then I came home, did homework, studied, played piano, and now I'm going to bed. :)

Tonight was also "Eltern-Abend", which means parent's night. So my grandma went and listened to my teachers talk about their subjects and what we are learning. Apparently I got a special mention from my English teacher. Lol. 

The Piano Problem

So I really thought it was Wednesday all day today. I have no clue why... Oh well...

Today I went to school like usual, then came home and made dinner and did homework and played piano for an hour. But I realized that I have no new piano music and it's hard to find free stuff on the internet that's the right skill level and fun to play... So if anyone wants to gift me piano books or music or that sort of stuff for my birthday (13 days!!!) I would love it...:) Music in general is just pretty awesome. Especially Owl City and Taylor Swift.

Also, it's almost my dad's birthday! I made him a card today and hopefully it won't arrive too late. <3 

Happy Fall!

Today I went to school and got two tests back, a Physics and a History test. History I only passed:/, but Physics I got a better grade!:) yay for knowing stuff!

Then I bought an iTunes card so I could buy the new Taylor Swift album, not realizing that to use Swiss francs in the iTunes Store I have to change the country so I can't pay with dollars. So that was annoying. Oh well...

Then I did homework and played piano. So exciting. I'm so happy fall is finally here though! Happy fall!:)

Doing stuff

Today I got up early/ier and wrote a German essay, memorized Spanish vocab, and read a chunk of a german book. Then I ate lunch and went on a "walk" with Lara. Quotation marks because we didn't do much walking, we took pictures. I have a new obsession with taking pictures. I want to steal mom's fancy camera when I get home. :)

I came home and helped my grandma transfer and organize pictures from her camera... Then I ate dinner and Skyped with Rose and Kiley. Not really excited to get up at 6 am tomorrow. At all. 

Mystery fruit

Today I slept in super late and ate lunch, where my grandmother told me that she'd bought this fruit thing because it was on sale. I didn't understand the word so I didn't know what it was until she showed me, and then I was still confused. It was a pomegranate crossed with an apple?!

It tasted sweeter than a normal pomegranate. It was weird. 

I also Skyped with my family after dinner. Thank you so much, Skype, for this amazingly quality service you provide.

Then I went over to Dominic and Lara's because my aunt and uncle went out for dinner and a movie so we had the house to ourselves. We ate ice cream, looked at old baby albums, and danced around. It was fun:)

Friday! Week 9!

Today we had one period of Spanish that got cancelled. It was nice:)

There was a hot air balloon really close to the bus station and I tried to take a picture of of it because it was yellow with a black smiley face drawn on it which was really cute. 

I had 5 minutes at home after school before I had to leave again...  to a party at one of the kids in my class's house. It was fun and I'm super tired cause I got home late. Have you ever had roasted bananas and chocolate? It's really good. :)

(You slice open the banana and put chocolate inside, then wrap the banana in tin foil and put it in ashes and then when the chocolate melts you take it out.)

Swiss cheese awards

Today I didn't get home until 6:30. Ew.

But I saw a wacky advertisement that made me smile and a cat that wouldn't let me pet it. 

Basically a good day. 

Cheerios are just donut seeds

^^^that's your philosophical thought for the day. You're welcome. (Side note: I haven't seen any Cheerios available here. What is wrong, Switzerland?)

Today was another average day, as school will be for the next 9 weeks (until Christmas break). Yayyy.

However, I had my language help class thing after school again today, and I made a new friend. Yippee!

Fun fact

Today was basically just an average school day... Not very special. 

Fun fact: Cotton in German is "Baumwolle", which literally translated means "tree-wool". Interesting, huh?

Back to school

Today Geography was cancelled, so I got to go to school an hour later, which was awesome, because yesterday I couldn't sleep until late and the night before that I was on the plane, so I was very tired.

I went out for lunch with a bunch of other girls in my class, which was fun...

And we had a substitute from Peru in Spanish, and she gave a presentation and gave us candy made from corn. It was purple and really weird and yummy.

Update: I went and fixed the New York posts because the pictures weren't publishing with those posts. So go check them out if you haven't already and if you have go look at the pretty picturessss!

New York day 5 and back to Switzerland

So I am beyond confused how long it has been since the last blog post and if this constitutes as one day or two or what i have no clue.

Anyway, the last day in New York was just as awesome as the rest. The only thing was that my dad was sick, so he missed out on seeing stuff. Anyways, the last day Lara and I did a little bit of shopping. Yay girly stuff... And then Gage and mom and I walked around and visited Grand Central Station and the city library.

That evening aunt Claudia and uncle Ralph and Dominic and Lara and I went to the airport and got on the plane back to Switzerland. The flight was through the night, which was nice, but also not nice, because I only slept about 4 hours. However, there was an adorable little boy in the seat next to me who looked like a younger version of Gage and who fell asleep on my arm during the flight. He was adorable.

We arrived around 10 am Swiss time, ate lunch, then I went home and unpacked and cleaned up. Lara and I went for a walk later in the day before dinner and hung out in a park.

At the moment it is pretty late but I can't sleep so I decided to blog. My dad and mom and Gage should arrive right around this time, so goodnight!

New York day 4

Today we went to Ellen's Stardust Diner for breakfast. The diner is special because all of the waiters and waitresses can sing and dance to lots of songs, and you can request songs to be sung. It was super cool. It was probably my favorite part of the trip so far, tied only with the dinner that we had later that night.

After breakfast we went to the Museum of Natural History. It was crazy huge, and really interesting. 

Then we went to Central Park and rode bikes all the way around it. That was really fun, and I found it funny that it was basically a little island of carefully controlled "nature" in the midst of all the pollution and skyscrapers and noise.

For dinner we met up with Oma and Opa (grandma and grandpa) in a restaurant called The View, which is a two-story rotating restaurant. It was the coolest thing, tied for my favorite part of this trip with Ellen's Stardust Diner. Basically there was a skyscraper that was a hotel and this restaurant bought the top two floors and somehow made it so the outer ring, where the tables and such are, rotates. It was really neat. The lighting wasn't very good because of atmosphere and all that, but I tried to take pictures of all the weird fancy food they served us.

There was also a chocolate fountain. It was awesome. 

Sadly, aunt Claudia and uncle Ralph and Dominic and Lara and I leave tomorrow night so we get home in time to go back to school.

New York day 3!

Today we got up and went to the 9/11 memorial museum. It was super foggy on the way there. 

The museum was pretty depressing but also very interesting.

We went to lunch, then walked the highline trail, which is a walkway above the ground and through some buildings by the river. It was gorgeous!

Then we went to meet Oma and Opa (grandma and grandpa) for dinner. They were on a cruise for the past few days on a ship called the Queen Mary from London to New York. 

New York day 2

Today we went to breakfast, then got on a bus tour thing around Manhattan. 

We then went over the Brooklyn bridge to Brooklyn, walked back across the bridge, and visited the 9/11 memorial. 

Then we went on a ferry over to Staten Island and passed by the Statue of Liberty. This is my favorite picture from today.

We visited the U.N. building and drove past Radio City, which was cool. There was a traffic jam at one point during the day because there was an accident in front of us.

We went to dinner:

And then to the top of Rockefeller center:

New York!

Our flight was 9 hours, direct from Zurich to New York. It was actually really nice, because I happened to get two seats to myself and they gave us food, which doesn't always happen. 

We arrived, then spent a good two hours on a bus into New York City proper. We got off at Times Square, and our hotel is only two blocks away, so we have the coolest view.

Then we dropped off our stuff in the hotel and went searching for some food. We got dinner and then went back to the hotel, where we met up with my mom and dad and Gage, because they came in on a flight two hours later.

Then they went to get something to eat, and aunt Claudia and uncle Ralph and Dominic and Lara went to bed, because we have a six hour time difference, so we basically experienced a really long day. I was awake for 22 hours. *blinks tiredly*

Gage wanted to go to the M&M store, so I went with them and we wandered around through the store and got some M&M's. Yay!

Packing

Today I packed and cleaned up the house. So very very exciting. But we leave tomorrow morning for New York ahhhh I'm so excited!!!

I'm sleeping over at Lara's so we can get an early start tomorrow. Woop we watched a german movie and it was cool. It was called "Fak yu Goethe". Which means f you Goethe in very bad Swiss-german. Which, in my opinion, has nothing to do with the topic of the movie, but it was fun. 

Sundayyy

Today I basically just hung out with Lara and did some packing for New York and started cleaning my room. Lara and I also went exploring in a park.

Only one more day until New York! :)

Fajitas

Today I cleaned my room, hung out with Lara, and went to a party. We made fajitas. We know how to party. $wag. Just kidding. It was fun. We listened to music and watched movies and such. Yippee for friendship!

Also, Dominic came home from Greece tonight, where he spent a week with his class. We get to go camping in Montana, here they go to a different country. 

Friday! Week 8!

Today I went exploring in the "Alt Stadt", the old part of Zurich with aunt Claudia. It was pretty fun. Did you know the first mention of the city of Zurich is on the gravestone of a one year, 5 month and 5 day old boy in the year 200 A.D.? I didn't.

Lara and I just watched movies until 3 am again. Yay!

Seilpark again

Today Lara and I went and got gipfeli (croissant-type things) from the bakery for breakfast, and then hopped in the car with aunt Claudia and uncle Ralph. We drove an hour or so to a seilpark (the same one I went to with my german class this past summer!) where we met up with my uncles brother, which is technically also my uncle, I guess. Idk. That's weird.

Anyways, we met up with him and his three kids and went climbing and ziplining around in the trees. It was super fun. Apparently I cannot keep myself from shaking when I get up high, though. It's really weird. I'm not scared of heights at all, but i start shaking like crazy. At least I learned something new today.

After that, we ate ice cream at a little restaurant thing and drove back home. On the way home the sun was so gorgeous; I took a zillion pictures.

Apparently I'm bad at unicycling

Today I went over to Lara's for breakfast, then went back home and watched YouTube videos for a while, then went back over to Lara's. She decided I need to learn how to ride a unicycle. Did you know that thing is a lot harder to ride than it looks? But it's also really cool, so...

After that we had dinner and then Lara came over to Oma and Opa's and we watched movies until 3 am. Yay!

Such exciting vacation stuff

Today I cleaned up my room and helped my grandparents finish up their packing... They leave tomorrow morning super early. (Actually this morning-oops)

Super excited for New York! I can't wait:)

Beginning of vacation Monday!

Today Lara and I got up around 8 and went on the train back to Zurich. This was the view from the train for most of the ride...

We arrived after lunch and then messed around distressing jeans for a few hours after. It was fun:)

Rainy Sunday

Today we got up late and went to the United Nations office. (the one here is the second-largest in the world!)

We went to visit the Jet d'Eau de Genève (Geneva water fountain) and it was raining like crazy. The fountain is a huge tourist attraction normally, but since it was so rainy we were the only people there. Woop woop.

We found another weird car...

And apparently I was feeling particularly fabulous when we were inside some old building with columns.

The sky in the evening was super pretty, it was literally purple. #nofilter

For dinner we had a traditional Swiss food called raclette. It's basically raclette cheese heated up and then poured over potatoes, and you can add bread, pickles, meat, or basically anything you want to it. It's really yummy.

Saturday explorations in Genève/Geneva

Today we got up late, ate breakfast, and then went to a flea market a block away from where we are staying.

I got a ring for one of my friends, and some stuff to make a necklace for someone's Christmas present. There were also a bunch of old cameras that were super awesome, but Lara texted her dad and he said he already had one, so we can take some pictures with it sometime:)

We went shopping on the main street in Genève, and then took a water taxi thing to the other side of the lake, where we went to a cute little cafe. 

After that, we wandered back to the apartment. We found an old car decorated all cool on the way...

We then went home, ate delicious pizza, watched a movie called "The Bling Ring" (with Emma Watson!) and went to bed.

Also, to clear up any confusion, Genève is the same thing as Geneva, just spelled differently. Just so you know. 

Friday! Week 7!

Today we didn't have choir, so a bunch of the girls and I went to subway for lunch. Guess how much a 15 cm (the smaller size instead of 30 cm) sandwich cost me? 9.90 CHF (franks). Ridiculous. I know where I'm not going for lunch again... But afterwards we all got ice cream, so that was fun. 

After school I went home to change and grab my stuff, and then I went back into Zurich with Lara to get on a train for three hours to Genève. Genève is a city in the west of Switzerland (the French-speaking part) where Lara's godmother (Sandra) lives. On the way there we played a half-hour-long game of uno with two 20-something military guys who spoke only a bit of german. It was really fun:)

When we arrived in Genève Sandra was waiting for us, and then we went a few tram stations away from the main station to her apartment. She has the coolest city apartment (aka it's tiny and adorable) on the top fifth floor of the building (No elevator = super fit). The whole place (and by "place" I mean four little rooms) is completely hipster and eclectic with furniture from all over Asia and Europe and orange walls. It has a teeny balcony with an adorable view. I am completely in love with it. *cue crazy fangirling*

I got permission to take some pictures, but it's already dark here (11:45 pm) so I'll post some tomorrow in better light.

Lara's godmother (what does that make her to me? Is there even a term for someone's cousin's godmother? I don't think so...) is super nice and fun. We talked and drank tea until 11:30 at night and she is totally cool with whatever we want to do the next few days. I'm super excited to see the city and get to know Sandra better! And no school for two weeks!

Long day:)

Today I had school until 5:15. It was super fun because our history teacher is doing a big project week with another class, so we had two hours to eat lunch, which was cool. I also did my English presentation, and it went awesome! I talked for the whole period, and everyone wanted more details about what I think are the weirdest things. A big deal was the fact that I put a picture of me in a tree stand at age 12 with a gun, although I said I never shot anything. The whole class thought that was the bomb diggity. 

An interesting question someone asked me was if it was weird to listen to music and understand the words. Here everyone listens to exactly the same stuff as we do in the U.S. (with a few Swiss or German artists mixed in) and they usually don't understand the words in English songs, so to them it's strange you actually comprehend what the artists are saying. 

Tomorrow after school Lara and I are going to the west part of Switzerland for the weekend! (Lara's godmother lives there and invited us!) I'm really excited! :) 

Woo for almost another week of school being over! Time flies when you're having fun... 

Thanks, Grammy... :)

So today after school I went shopping with Aunt Claudia and Lara for winter boots. I was so confused, because when I put a size 37 (the sizes are different here-I think 37 is about a women's size 6 in the U.S.? I'm not sure) on my right foot it fit perfectly, and when I put a size 38 on my left foot it fit perfectly. But the other way around was too big and too small. I usually wear sneakers, and I like them a little too big so I have lots of toe room-I don't know why-which is why I didn't discover this problem earlier... Solution: Buy a size 39 and put insoles into them. Now they fit! Yay! Apparently my Grandma Susan has this same issue with shoe sizes... It seems I have inherited more than a big head and a stubborn nature from you, Grammy!

Tomorrow I get to do my English presentation, I'm super excited!! I put the finishing touches on my presentation tonight and hopefully it'll be fun and interesting tomorrow!