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... 

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. 

Language class day 5

Today we had class in the morning and a short cooking class in the afternoon. In the language part of the class we had to write two short paragraphs about ourselves and about our hometown. The tricky part was doing it in German... I think my teacher liked mine though, so that's good.

In the cooking class we made a traditional Swiss dish that I don't remember the name of... It was made with potatoes, noodles, ham, carmelized onions, and apples with carmelized sugar. It sounded horrible, but it was surprisingly good.

After class, my three friends and I decided to go to a design museum right next to where the school is. It was called the Museum für Gestaltung. It had a video about the particle accelerator in Germany (i think) and my friends and I got all excited because that's close enough to possibly visit, which would be super cool.

Then after dinner, I went over to my cousin's house, and I met three cats along the way. It was adorable.

Language class day 3

Today I got up early again and went to Zurich for my language class. We sat in class for 4 long hours, then we were freed.

One of my friends wanted Mcdonalds, but we couldn't figure out how on earth to get there. We tried for about 10 minutes to plan out a route using the trams, then we gave up and just decided to hop on a tram and go wherever it would take us. We ended up passing a Mcdonalds anyways, so that worked out perfectly. We also stopped at Starbucks because why not.

Then we were bored, so we wandered over to what is called the "Landesmuseum", which is a museum about Swiss history. 

There was a bobsled that you were allowed to climb into, so my friend and I decided to...

There was some pretty cool stuff there:

So that was my day! :)

Language class day 2

So yesterday we went to the market a few tram stops away and had to ask the vendors how much certain things cost... My group had the most accurate answers, so we got chocolate!!

It was delicious:)

Then we went back to the school and had a lesson, had a lunch break where I had Wehe (I think that's how it's spelled.. I don't know), which is a pie-like thing, it comes in all different flavors with fruits or berries on it, or just with Rahm, which is cream in German. That's what I had:) Also, it is socially acceptable to have it for lunch or dinner, which is a bit unusual for foods.

At the train station there were a bunch of people in orange sunhats giving away mini cans of Fanta (soda). It was really cool, because at home in such a small city we don't ever get people advertising in such ways.

We then went on the train to the Uetliberg (a mountain). There we walked up a very short incline and arrived at a tall viewing platform-type thing, which we promptly climbed up. 

There were 178 steps, I counted... There was a fabulous view from up there, and we all took pictures and oohed and aahed.

It was gorgeous.

We finished the day by wandering around old Zurich, then going to a public swimming place on the lake of Zurich. It was super fun!

But the very best part of my day was skyping with one of my best friends. I love and miss you, Kk!!!