Weather

Today was a pretty average day:)

I had to run for the train and I slipped in by like 2 inches. Yippee!

Today I was noticing how everyone was complaining about the cold. I didn't think it was that bad... So I liked at the weather here and the weather in Kalispell and laughed. This is right now, 10:30pm for me and 2:30pm in Kalispell. (Fahrenheit)

Public transport *gasp*

Today was pretty uneventful, but still fun:)

However, usually when I come back from school I take a tram two stops then a train about 5 or 6 stops. However today when I got to the train station the sign that usually says when the next train is arriving said that the train wasn't operating between the station I was at and 3 others. In order to understand what a catastrophe this is, you must first understand that the Swiss public transportation is literally one of the best in the world, and they are very very proud of the clean, safe, and most importantly, very very very punctual public transport system (as they should be). So this is a big big deal and there was quite a bit of grumbling, despite the fact that there was the biggest bus I have ever seen (like literally four buses stapled together) to take us all the three stations to where the train was operating again. So that was weird. Usually the trains, teams, and buses are perfectly punctual, down to the second. It was entertaining. 

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:)

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!

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. :)

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!

Language class day 6

Yesterday we went back to the school and had classes in the morning, then went to a cheese dairy in the afternoon. It was a super cute little dairy, and we got to look in through the glass doors and watch the cheese makers wrestle the giant wheels of cheese. 

The cheese that is made there is excusively Emmentaler cheese, which has to age for a while. This is one of many rooms that look exactly the same.

There was a gift shop, and I thought it was super cool that they had both my name and my mom's spelled correctly on these adorable mugs.

On the way to the Kaserei (cheese making place) we discovered a train car that had a little playground for children. We definitely classify as children, so we went on the slide. We both almost got stuck... This is my friend Laura from Spain...

Language class

So apparently my German language class started today, although I thought it started next week, not the day after we got back from Rome! 

I got up early and took the train to Zurich, where I met with my group, then took the tram to the "Clubschule Migros", where we got sorted (Harry potter reference) into a beginner and an intermediate group. Yay for me I'm in the intermediate group:)

We then had a short lesson and took the train to Bern, where we met with a group learning French and went on a scavenger hunt for fountains. My group got done early so we wandered around and found a giant chess set:

We then took the train back to Zurich, then I came back to Adliswil on the train. My friend fell asleep: