Philosophical discussions

Today we had two hours for lunch, and I went with six other girls from my class to the mall near the school. We literally talked the entire two hours about whether or not God is real, our purpose on Earth, etc. I love finding people my age that want to talk about random (boring to most people) stuff like religion, politics, or current events. I have friends in Montana that are into that type of stuff, but 98% of high schoolers in America aren't. And that's sad. Because younger people usually have a totally different way of looking at the world and interpreting it, and it's really cool. Ah well. Just another one of those things I am really really really going to miss about Switzerland... The younger generation's interest in actual ideas instead of One Direction.

My grandfather suddenly had a really bad backache yesterday, and barely was able to get into bed. My grandma called the doctor and the doctor gave him pain meds but they didn't do anything. They tried stronger meds that evening, and they still didn't work. So an ambulance came to pick him up and take him to the hospital this morning. Turns out he somehow broke two ribs! He has to stay for a few days until they figure out the most effective pain meds. I'm relieved that the pain wasn't something worse. Hopefully he gets better soon!

 

Omg noodles

Today was a slightly more exciting day because study hall was canceled, so 5 of the girls in my class and I went out to eat in Zurich at a noodle place called Tsching, I believe. It was delicioussssss. 

Yay the week is almost over! Happy almost Friday!

Long lunch!

Today I had three hours for lunch because history and study hall got canceled. Yippee! So I went into Zürich with a bunch of other girls in my class to this adorable little underground Italian take-away place. It was so so so good:)

Then when I got home (why is it already dark at 5pm?!) I was greeted by an adorable little package sitting on my desk with the return address of  a certain Kayli. She sent me a late birthday present!! Yay! I got even more skittles:) It made my week. Thank you Kayliiiiii.

Then tonight at about 7pm I decide it would be a good idea to update my phone, because iOS 8.1.1 is available and my phone keeps sending me notifications. I figure it can't take more than a few hours, right? Well apparently I was not right. Right now it says 5 hours remaining. So... I guess I'll go to bed and cross my fingers that when I get up it'll be done? *crosses fingers*  oh wait, now it says 4 hours... I'm so confused. Is this a good sign?

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!

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!

The school trip and the plague

Tuesday-

Today we met at the train station at 7 am, which meant I got to get up at 5:45. Then we were on a train until 10:30. We arrived in some little town and rode the gondola thingy up to the top of the mountain where there was a little restaurant. Then we spent 6 hours hiking 14 miles. It was fun, except my feet feel like one big blister. And there was a ton of fog the entire day, so we couldn't see more than 50 feet in front of us, which was a shame because we were on the border to Italy and Switzerland, and if the skies are clear, you can see super far into both countries. But at least it didn't rain, and it was pleasantly chilly. 

We got to a big building right next to anther gondola, then played card games and watched soccer until we went to bed. Then we just sat and talked and listened to music until about midnight. It was an exhausting and awesome day. 

Wednesday-

We got up at 8 to eat breakfast, and then we just sat around listening to music and talking again until we had to leave.

We went down the mountain in an adorable little gondola thing again, and then took the train to a city called Lugano and spent the day just messing around there.

We then hopped on the train and went home. I got home around 8 and didn't feel so good... I went to sleep around 9 and had to get up for school the next day and that's when I realized: I had the plague. (A.K.A. I have a useless cold.)

So that's what I've been enjoying the past two days at school. Everyone gets to enjoy the lovely sniffling, coughing Isabelle. Joy. *cue confetti shower*

But on the bright side, I had "Dönner" for lunch on Thursday. It's this type of meat... That's really yummy... Almost like bacon. With fries. It's hard to explain. Anyways, that was delicious. And apparently all my classmates think it is horrifying that I've never experienced different Swiss specialties, so we have a mini lunch menu thing planned for the next couple of weeks, so that I try new stuff every few days. I'm excited!

Random Thursday

Today was unexciting except that we had to run 4 kilometers in p.e. and I went to lunch with a girl in my class and we talked about teachers and people who do drugs...

Tomorrow's Friday!! Yay! And next week is a field trip with my class-I'm already excited. 

There was a solar flare yesterday/today and apparently if there are clear skies Friday through Sunday you might be able to see some northern lights! So go take a midnight stroll! I just moved my entire desk so I could lean out my window but there are too many clouds this evening to see anything...

Did you know that you can leave comments on these blog posts? Now you do. All you need is a google account (gmail, youtube, etc.) and then you can write things or questions on the posts... :) Just FYI. 

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!