Diary of an Exchange Student

Milano per un Giorno

2011-05-10T19:39:00.001+02:00

Ciao!

In earlier posts I mentioned how all the exchange students get a GA for all the trains; well because of this fabulous little card, you can go to Milan and back really cheep. So being the adventurous exchange student, I decided to take advantage of this, and went to Milan for a day with some other exchangees. Milan. For a day. How cool is that? I just can't get over how close everything is here!

In order to make the most of our day we left at 5:30. AM. Waaaay early. When we arrived in Italy we found out that there was a one day strike going on (I'm positive that I'm a bad luck charm or something when it comes to trains and public transportation in general), but the main subway and bus lines were running so the we were told we shouldn't have any major problems. More on that in a little. So off we went to the center of the old town, in the heart of Milan. There are two great things to do in Milan: shopping and seeing the cathedral. It's amazing how much cheaper everything is in Italy, hence the great shopping. However, I was good and stuck to the other great part of Milan, seeing the cathedral, o and a third thingI forgot to mention, eating gelato. :) We had a great time walking around, and it was all around a great day. So back to the whole strike thing. Well, our train left Milan at 7:30pm so we decided to head back around 6:30, giving us plenty of time, since it had only taken 15min to get from the train station to the center of Milan. We arrive at the subway station, and it's CLOSED. Ok, "no problem" we'll just take a bus. Guess what else was shut down? Yup, only 50% of the buses were running. So at this point we're desperate and are trying to hail a cab, but of course because of the lack of public transportation there are none to be found. Finally we get a cab to the train station, but at this point we had missed our train, the last train back. Great. However, because of the strike the very last train back to Switzerland was late, and we ended up making it by one minute. But the drama wasn't over yet, because while this train would get us back into the country, it didn't go anywhere near where any of us live, and it was going to get in around 1am, so there wasn't anyway to get to where we live. Fortunately one of the other exchange students host parents was nice enough to drive to the town where we were in Switzerland and let us all sleepover. So we survived, but I'm telling you, I think trains hate me. I'm not sure how many more of these strikes I can go through haha. But o well, that's part of traveling. :)

Here are some pics from the trip:

Early, early, early

Dumo

The "we have no idea how we're getting home" face

Survivors

Highest Exporter of False Teeth and Other Things You May Not Have Known About Liechtenstein

2011-05-10T18:17:00.001+02:00

On border of Switzerland and Austria, Nestled high up in the Alps lies one of the tiniest countries in the world- Liechtenstein.

Liechtenstein is basically in Switzerland, so one day a group of us decided to go check out the highest exporter of false teeth. Yup, that's right, if you're wearing dentures, they probably came from this little country. Who would've thought? Liechtenstein is probably one of the few countries where, in a 15 minute bus ride, you're able to see the entire country. It's that small. There's actually an exchange student who lives there, and she took us around her town, er country. We hiked up to the castle, and I got my passport stamped. And then voilà, we had seen the country. :) Here are some pictures:

La Ville-Lumière

2011-05-10T18:06:00.001+02:00

Salut!

A lot has happened since my last posts, but I'm working on getting caught up to recent events. :)

The first weekend in February I went to Paris with my host family. It was amazing! I went with my host siblings for a long weekend, and I have to say I find it incredible that you can just hop a train to Paris for the weekend, but voilà that's Europe for you. So anyway, we left at 5:30 in the am on Friday and took the train (it takes about 4 hours from where I live) to the Gare de Lyon (Paris train station).

I had my doubts about whether or not Paris would be able to live up to all the hype, but it most definitely did and more. They're not kidding when they say it's the City of Lights. The first day, as I was leaving the subway and just just walking along taking in the sights, my host sister turned me around, and BAM the Camps-Élysées. Looking down to the Arc de Triomphe was one of the most magical experiences ever. Regardless of your opinion of the French, man do they know how to build a beautiful city! :)

We spent the rest of the day walking around and seeing the sights. Another incredible moment- the Effile Tower. Again, Paris lived up to the hype. What wasn't so fun was walking up the five million stairs to get there, but it was worth it in the end. We went up right before sunset so we got to see Paris by day and night, très belle!

I could easily go on forever about the incredible sights of Paris, but seeing how it's already May, and I'm just now writing about February, Im going to just give you the highlights and lots of pictures (which is way more fun to read anyway right? ;) ).

We basically went non-stop for three days straight, and were able to accomplish pretty much every major attraction in Paris.
Louvre, amazing. The building itself is a priceless work of art, not to mention the wonders inside.
Sacre Coure Basilica- gorgeous, only had to climb 322 steps to get there, at least the view was great :)
Notre Dame, Musée d'Orsay, I could go on and on, but I'm just going to put the pictures up. :)

6am Suuuurrreee we're awake :)

Where are we going again?

Champs-Élysées. Favorite.

Mona Lisa baby

When you give an exchange student a GA...

2011-04-06T22:35:00.000+02:00

Salut!

One of the many perks about being an exchange student in Switzerland (besides the beautiful mountains, heavenly chocolate, etc.), is that every student gets a GA. A "GA" is a transportation pass that allows you to travel for free on all trains, boats, and buses. Pretty cool right? So, basically I try take advantage of this pass every chance I get. One Friday I got out of school early, so Laura and I met up to go to some museums in Geneva. Now, I haven't really said much about Geneva, mostly because there's not much to say. Out of all the cities in Switzerland, it is defiantly my least favorite, which is funny because at least for me when someone said something I automatically thought of Geneva. But no, (as you'll see from the pictures), Geneva is defiantly not the highlight of Switzerland. Besides the museums, and the UN, there's really not much to see. But off we went to see the Watch museum, and after walking around trying to find it, we get to the place and it's closed. Great. So, basically we just enjoyed the o, so lovely views of Geneva. The next day we visited the St. Bernard museum in Martigny (right down the mountain from St. Bernard), where the rescue St. Bernard's are kept during the winter. It took us forever to find the place, but when we got the it was a really neat little museum to visit.

Watch museum we never got to go inside...

Oooo beautiful Geneva :)

Laura and I also visited Luzern, such a beauitful city! Here are some pics from that:

No Becky! :)

Hot Air Balloons and Helicopters-The Rest of January

2011-04-06T21:59:00.000+02:00

Salut!

Well seeing as we're already well into March, I thought it might be time for me to update a little. :) So with this post you should be caught up through January.

Rotary Fondue:
My Rotary Club here is a little different from Sooner Rotary Club. First of all there are no women in the club (which is unfortunately true for a lot of european clubs), but also once a month they hold their meeting in the evening and usually have an outing of some sort. In January we went to a little chalet/restaurant in Sorens and listened to a presentation from a naturalist/artist about his experiences in the wild. At first I was a bit confused because his presentation sounded a bit like a folk legend (it didn't help that he was showing slides of wolfs in the woods at night that he had drawn), but a little ways into it I picked up on the fact that he was talking about his experiences in the forests of Switzerland. After the presentation we had fondue (yum!), and then a tray of different types of amazing little creme brulee. There was also a former exchange student from Australia there that was visiting one of her families, so I got to talk to her about her experience her, which was neat. Hopefully after my year is up I'll have the chance to come back too. :)

Here are some pictures from the evening:

My counselor and I with our yummy Swiss fondue

Hannah from Aussieland and Megan the other exchange student from New York

Desert!

Rotary District Conference Flag Parade and the Hot Air Balloon Festival:

No, there weren't any hot air balloons at the conference, but there was a lot of… Just kidding, I'll try and keep my corny jokes to a minimum :)

The district conference was held in Lausanne at the hotel school, and about half the exchange students came to participate in it. (There are only three districts in all of Switzerland). You'll be glad to know the lovely USA was well represented, considering about 70% of the students are from there haha. We all marched in, sang a Swiss song, and then the Rotarians gave us little chocolates with the Rotary symbol on them (so Swiss). Afterwards, we eat lunch there and talked with the Rotarians. It was a lot of fun to see all the other exchange students and catch up on how everyone was doing, also the chocolate was pretty good too. :)

Here are some photos:

Kathleen was so excited… :)

USA! plus Mexico

Here we go….

Now for the part of the story for which this post is named. After the flag ceremony I, along with several other exchange students decided to go to the hot air balloon festival being held in Chateau d'Or, which is near Gstaad. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and the train to get there was a panoramic train, so we had a lovely ride through the mountains. I will definitely miss scenic train rides through the Alps, not so much taking the bus everyday, but the train rides in the mountains for sure. We get to this little festival and walk around trying to find out if it's possible to ride in a hot air balloon. Unfortunately, we weren't able to find a hot air ballon to ride in, however we did find a helicopter. At first, we were all thinking "there's no way we can take a ride, let's just go get a picture" famous last words haha. We decided that you only get the chance to take a helicopter ride through the Alps once in your life, so we went for it. It was INCREDIBLE! Definitely something I'll never forget. Here are some photos:

Changement

2011-02-16T19:43:00.000+01:00

Salut!

Ok, rewind back to the beginning of January with me for a bit.....

On January 8 I turned 18, which was pretty big for me. It really made me realize just how fast this year is going by! I can't believe Christmas and New Year's have already passed. Anyway, I ended up changing families on my Birthday, which was a little hard for me, but both my old and new families were so nice, and each had a party for me.
Friday night (the night before my birthday), I went out with Julien and some friends, and we had a lot of fun, they were so sweet, when it was 11:59 they counted down to mid-night, and all sang "Joyeux Anniversaire" (Happy Birthday) to me.
On the 8th I had a Birthday lunch of fondue (très Swiss), and Birthday cake at the Ropraz's, and they gave me this really pretty charm bracelet. Leaving was very hard for me; because I had really come to feel like I was a part of the family. They were so great to me, and helped me out so much with learning the language, and adjusting to cultural differences. I had such a great 5 months with them! However, part of the Rotary exchange experience is learning how different families live, and so off I went to my next family. But not without having to have Simon sit on my suitcases so I could try and fit everything. I have absolutely NO idea how I'm going to get all this stuff back to the US, but fortunately I don't have to think about that right now. :)

Here are some pics from my Birthday at the Ropraz's:

Because of the afformentioned packing difficulties, I didn't get to my next host family until late-afternoon, however they just live a little further up the mountain in the same village, so not to long to go.

Les Famille Gendre:

While it was quite difficult for me to leave my last family, my new family is wonderful as well. My host parents are Marc and Geneviève, and I have three siblings: Elsa (21), Bob (19), and Antoine (16), there's also a boy (Daniel, 16) from the Swiss German region that lives with us and goes to school here during the week because he and Antoine are doing an exchange so that they can learn German/French. On my first night there they had a little party for me with hamburgers (you know, me being American of course haha :) ), and cake, and they gave me a really cute Swiss t-shirt. Later Elsa took me out to meet some of her friends.

I'm so glad I'm fortunate enough to have two great families, and such nice friends that helped me have an unforgetable, fondue, chocolate-filled, très Swiss, 18th Birthday.

More posts to come... :)

Au revoir,

Becky

Fin des Vacanes

2011-02-16T18:01:00.000+01:00

Salut!

During the last week of winter vacation I took several day trips with my host family, laura and zion, and of course hung out with Simon some too. :)

Before all the snow melted, Simon and I had a couple of days to play in it. Basically we buried each other in the snow, and then started to build an igloo, which just turned into an all out snowball war. Good times :)
Here are some pictures:

Cause….

…..and effect

SO COLD

Monsieur Eskimo

My house

Trip to Martigny, and the St. Bernard museum:
One day Laura and I went to the St. Bernard museum in Martigny. We had a little trouble finding the place, but after asking about ten people someone finally gave us a map, and then we were good to go. In the winter they keep all the St. Bernards at this museum, so we got to see them, and then there was this random museum on Napal on the top floor, so we picked up some Asian culture as well. In the museum they had a lot of interesting information on the St. Bernard Pass (of course), and the history of how St. Bernard's helped stranded travelers.

Here are some pictures:

Martigny

Hmmm… Which way?

Found it!

Note the Rotary symbol in the top right corner :)

Trip to Gruyère Cheese Factory:
On the last day of vacation Francine, Simon, and I went to Bulle to visit the Gruyère Museum, unfortunately it was under construction, and wouldn't be open until next November-a little late for me. So we ended up taking a tour of the Gruyère Cheese Factory, and eating samples. Yum :)

Here are some pictures:

And then, just like that, winter vacation was fini.

Au revoir,

Becky

New Address

2011-02-16T12:03:00.000+01:00

Salut!
As you know I've changed families, and just in case you were wanting to send me some snail mail (hint, hint ;) ) here's my new address:

Becky Seewald
℅ Famille Marc Gendre
Plan des Marais 27
CH-1642 Sorens FR
Switzerland

Au revoir,

Becky

Fast Track to Heidi-Land, and ringing in the new year Swiss-style

2011-02-13T20:29:00.000+01:00

Bonjour!

Well I was going to make "update blog weekly" my New Year's resolution, but obviously that didn't work out so well. So, first of all let me update you on what I've been doing for Christmas vacation.

For Christmas Jacques and Francine gave me private ski lessons (amazing right?), and so I have now officially skied er tumbled my way down the Alps. I have a bit of a speed problem, unfortunately I'm not so great at stopping just yet…. Kinda a problem haha. But the second time I went it was much better; I still have a LOT to learn, but I've been having a great time.
Here are some pictures from my ski adventures:

La Berra

Ok for some reason I can't get this picture to rotate, sorry

Glacier Express!

December 29-30:

Laura, Zion, and I were all supposed to take the Glacier Express to St. Moritz; unfortunately Laura and Zion had some bus trouble, and missed the train so it ended up being just me on the Glacier Express and they had to take another train to catch up with me later, because there wasn't a way to catch the train once it had left. However, it was definitely one of the most beautiful train rides I've ever taken; I felt like I had entered Narnia. The pictures definitely don't do it justice, but better then my lame attempts at explaining. The neat thing about this train is that it was all windows, even the cieling, so you felt like you could just reach out and touch the mountains. Here's some info about the train, and a map of the route:

"The Glacier Express is the most famous railway in the world. It travels from Zermatt to Davos or St. Moritz in around seven hours. It is a day trip through untouched mountain landscapes, glamorous health resorts, deep gorges, delightful valleys, 91 tunnels and across 291 impressive bridges."

Here are some pictures from the train ride, to see more pics just click on the photos tab to the right:

We went sledding while we were in St. Moritz, and let me tell you that was quite the experience. We got up to almost 20mph, which doesn't sound like much unless you're the one flying down the Alps head first. :) Even though it started off a little rough, it was definitely an amazing trip!

Here are some photos:

Swiss New Year:

For New Year's Eve I went to a party with Sophie and Julien, and the Jeuness. The party was held at this cute chalet way out in the country. The theme was "guys dress like girls, and girls dress like guys," why, I have no idea, but whatever. I obviously didn't think to bring "guy cloths" with me when I packed back in August haha, so Julien let me were one of his shirts, and I ended up dressing kind of like a Swiss cowboy. But anyway, it was a lot of fun, definitely a New Year I'll never forget!

Here are some pics:

Working on the update for January! :)

Au revoir,

Becky

Photos! :)

2011-02-13T18:58:00.000+01:00

Ok, so while I mail fail epically at posting, I have been taking a million photos throughout the year, and have finally found a way to share them on my my blog. So, if you want to view my photos from this year, just click on the "Becky's Photos" tab on the right, and it will take you to all of my flickr albums. I'm working on my January-beginning of February update, so hopefully soon I'll get caught up.

Au revoir,

Becky

Bonne Année 2011!!

2010-12-31T19:34:00.000+01:00

December 31, 2010… Last blog post of the year:

Salut!

Well here we are at the end of 2010, and it has been quite a year, one I will never forget. Looking back at this year, I never would have been able to anticipate what would happen. This year probably held some of the biggest changes of my life; graduating from high school, getting my braces off (not quite so life changing haha), moving to Switzerland, learning a foreign language… yeah the list just goes on and on. But it's been a great year, and I can't wait to find out what's in store for 2011!

Next year I'll post all the photos from my trip to St. Moritz and the Glacier Express.

Au revoir,

Becky

Joyeux Noël tout le monde de La Suisse!

2010-12-31T17:26:00.006+01:00

Joyeux Noël, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Here's a little update and video about what I've been up to this December.

Right now there's a flurry of snowflakes falling outside my window, and I can't help singing "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow" over and over again. But anyway, back to December, and what Christmas season is like over here.

The first weekend in December we celebrated the "Fete de St. Nicholas." This is basically a festival where (at least in my village) one person dresses up as St. Nick (robe and all) and then a bunch of other people are "barefautares" (sp?), dressed all in black (they even painted our faces black), who are supposed to "scare" the bad children. I got to be a barefautare with the Jeuness in Sorens, and we went from house to house giving children bags of peanuts and oranges. When we got to the house, usually the parents had presents set out on the porch that St. Nicholas would them give the children, and then a barefautare would give the parents a switch, just in case the children mis-behaved. :) It was a really neat experience!

I also went to the Fete de St. Nicholas in Fribourg with Laura and her family. At this festival they carried St. Nick around the town on a chair and sang, so strange, but fun. :) The pictures do a much better job of explaining.

In Switzerland they have a lot of "Christmas Markets" in the different towns, and I got to visit a couple of different ones. They're basically a bunch of little wooden booths set up selling all sorts of different things (a lot like a craft fair). They're really fun to walk thru, and it's always fun to see all the different little Swiss things.

During second week of December I went to St. Gallen to see Vanessa and take the ACT. Yeah, I couldn't get away from that test even in Switzerland. But on the plus side I got to see Vanessa and we had a lot of fun doing things in St. Gallen. I took the ACT at this boarding school that cost around $70,000 a year, so yeah let's just say there was more Gucci there then in Milan. It was a really pretty school, and the room I took the test in overlooked the city of St. Gallen, so who knows how good I did, but it was definitely a pretty view! Afterwards, I got to eat lunch at Vanessa's school and meet her friends, and then she and I walked around St. Gallen.

On December 12, my Rotary YEO here took me and the other exchange student in my Rotary club to Geneva with his family for the Fete de l'Escalde. It was so fun! Everywhere there were people dressed in period costumes, and marching around playing the drums and fife. I also got to see the Swiss President, who was speaking at a sort of assembly type thing in a park. It's so crazy how different the security is here! In the U.S. you would never be able to just walk into a tent and here the President speak. We walked up to the top of the bell tower in the cathedral, and had a magnificent view of the city. After all that we watched the parade, and broke this cauldron made out of chocolate (apparently it's a tradition). Ah how I love Swiss traditions! :)

For Christmas my family celebrates on the 24 and the 25. On the 24 we got all dressed up, and Sophie did my hair and make-up (it's so fun to have a big sis :) ), and then went to Jacques brother's house to have supper with all of his family. We had a big multi-course meal, and on the wall was a list of the course and who was supposed to help serve it, and I felt so special when they even remembered to put me on there. :) After dinner everyone started singing Christmas carols and then Swiss songs, and then someone got the bright idea to ask me to sing. I, of course, tried my best to get out of it, but to no avail, so I had the express privilege of singing the national anthem a cappella. Yeah, easily one of the most mortifying moments of my life. However, even with my awful rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner," it was still a great night. After that we went to mid-night mass, and then off to bed!

On the 25 Sophie and I prepared Christmas lunch because Francine had had to work the night before. I love how pretty the Swiss make there food, every plate was like a little piece of artwork. A bunch of family came over, and we opened Christmas presents with everyone. Sophie, Julien, and Simon gave me a really pretty pearl drop necklace, and a really sweet card, and Jacques and Francine gave me 2 private ski lessons (SO excited to start!!). Then we ate lunch, and chatted as the snow fell outside the window. All in all a VERY Merry Swiss Christmas!! :)

Here's a video from what I've been up this December:

Click on this link to view my Christmas Movie!

Au revoir,

Becky

Lots to be Thankful for!

2010-12-16T21:48:00.000+01:00

So I had this post all written out, but somehow forgot to post it. So while you're munching on Christmas cookies, here's a little story about Swiss Thanksgiving. :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Here in Switzerland they of course don't celebrate Thanksgiving, so I decided to spread the turkey love to Europe. :)
Yesterday I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for my family, and I think they actually liked it. :) It was a bit of a challenge because no one eats turkey here, so I ended up just making turkey breasts instead of a giant gobbler, and I had to make the stuffing from scratch, but all in all it was definitely a success. My mom sent me some decorations, canned sweet potatoes for the casserole, and the surprise favorite, cranberry sauce (what can I say? They know whats good.) I was scrambling around like a mad women trying to get everything ready, but fortunately Francine helped me, and my mom was nice enough to skype with me like 20 times, while I was trying to figure out if the turkey was finished. Here are some pics from the evening:

Bonne Appetite!

Today was a little tough because of course I had to go to school, but in English class I told everyone what Thanksgiving was and for the rest of the day my class kept saying "Appy Tanksgiving Becky!" or my personal favorite "Appy Turkey Day!", they are all so sweet! :) I got to skype with everyone back home before they all chowed down, which was really great-not quite the same as being there, but it was nice to say hi to everyone. So all in all not to shabby of a day. And to keep up the tradition I'm going to list a few of the things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving.
First of all, I'm so thankful for my familys, both at home and at my Swiss home. I am so blessed to have such amazing parents that would let me go on this adventure, and that the've been there for me when things have gotten tough. Thank you so much for sending me care packages, you have no idea how much I love (and use) all the things you send me! Thank you also for taking the time to talk with me when I have problems, even when you're swamped. I'm also very thankful for the friends I've made here, both Swiss and the other exchange students, I've had so much fun going on all these different adventures with you guys! Also, I'm so thankful for my friends back home, thanks for the cards and skype dates :) I love getting to hear about what's going on over there, miss you guys lots!
And last, but most definitely not least; thank you God for giving me this opportunity to grow, learn, and have one of the most challenging and amazing years of my life!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Au revoir,

Becky

Fall Vacanes 2010-Belgium Voyage

2010-11-25T22:20:00.001+01:00

Here's a video from my trip to Belgium. I'll post the story soon, promise! :)

Fall Weekend in Bern Video

2010-11-22T22:30:00.000+01:00

Part 8: Rotary Weekend in Bern

2010-11-22T22:15:00.001+01:00

October 16-17:
The first weekend of Fall Vacanes the Swiss Rotex hosted a weekend in Bern for all the exchange students. Zion and I decided to go to Bern early and walk around for a bit, because neither of us had ever been past the train station. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard, so rather than trudge thru the downpour, we stopped to get coffee. We found this really cute little café (quick vocab lesson, "café" means coffee in French), and sat and talked until it was just drizzling outside. Then we braved the weather and walked around the outdoor market set up in the middle of the city. While we were browsing, we found these little Edelweiss hats, and so of course Zion and I had to get matching ones. :) Around noon we met up with the other exchange students at the train station, and headed out to visit a cookie factory. The best part about this factory was that there were free samples of every cookie there. So Zion and I embarked on a "no cookie left behind" feeding frenzy. The cookies were delicious, but by the end we were beginning to question wether eating our way thru six plus aisles of chocolatey goodness was such a great idea. After all that sugar, we heaved our way back to the train, and then walked for a good 30 min to this camping chalet thing that was out in the country a little outside of Bern. Once we got there, we played some games, and got to know each other. (Because there are only 11 out of the 100-something exchange students in the French speaking area, I didn't know very many of them.) Later in the evening, we did this activity where we had to act out a movie; without talking. My group choose the Wizard of OZ which in theory shouldn't been very difficult, however, only Zion and I had seen the movie. But we made it work, and after the skipping down the road, nobody had any trouble guessing the title. Everybody had brought desserts representing their home country, so we had a super tasty smorgasbord of treats (not that we needed anything after all those cookies) to end the evening. The next day, because it was still raining, rather than go hiking, we went bowling. Pretty American, but hey, it was fun. :) Then it was back to Sorens. Next post has a video from the weekend

Part 7: Marche de Automne

2010-11-22T20:36:00.000+01:00

October 15:

The Friday before Fall Vacanes the entire school, yes all 2,000 high school students, went on a hike in the mountains. Yes, I think the school administrators are a tad insane. But, it ended up being really neat, and a great way to get to know my class better. My English teacher was the chaperon for our class, and I helped her teach my class some chants, and attempted to instill a bit of American high school spirit in them. (My English teacher is Canadian, but she grew up in the US.) At the beginning of the day it was really foggy, but once we got up into the mountains, and above the fog, it was bright and sunny. The view was absolutely breathtaking! Because of all the fog below, it felt like you were flying up in the clouds. When we stopped for lunch, my class taught me this card game, that at first I was a total failure at, but after a couple games I finally understood the instructions, and surprise, surprise, it started making sense! :) On the way down the mountain my class taught me the French words to "In the Jungle" (the whem-a-wap wasn't too hard ;) ), and I taught them the English words. All in all it was an awesome day, and a great way to kick off the two weeks of fall vacation! :) Here are some pics from the hike:

My class

Marina, Lou, Claudia

Claudia and I

Lou and I

Marina and I

My crazy English teacher

Insane fog

Just in case you were wondering how to get back to the US of As

Yes, I fell in a hole lol

Headed Down

Class 1-07!!

Part 6: Swiss Thanksgiving- otherwise know as Bénichon

2010-11-21T22:58:00.002+01:00

October 10:
With Thanksgiving fast approaching, and all the little gobblers going into hiding, I thought I'd tell you a bit about my Swiss version of Thanksgiving experience. Yes, this did happen over a month ago, but I'm slow, and hey now it fits the season. :)

In Switzerland of course they don't celebrate American Thanksgiving , but they do have a holiday that is quite similar. (Mainly in the way that you do nothing but eat all day. :) ) From Mid-September to Mid-October they celebrate Bénichon, which is a holiday that signalizes the end of the harvest, and gives everyone a reason to get together and eat "tout le jour" (all day). Unlike American Thanksgiving, there isn't a set date, more each family or village decides when they will celebrate. My Swiss family had Bénichon on October 10. We all went over to my host mom's parents' house, and basically ate the farmyard (minus the horses :) ). First we had these little cakes with Moutard de Bénichon (special mustard that's very sweet, and kind of has a carmel like texture, that is made just for the Bénichon). They were amazing of course. Then we all went into the dining room to begin what everyone warned me would be the never ending meal. And it pretty much was. We had ham, sausage, lamb, potatoes- mashed and whole, green beans, beet salad (very popular here), these special candied nuts, and more. It made me think of eating at Grandma Bailey's or really any Bailey family get-together. It was all quite delicious, but my favorite part was definitely dessert. I believe I've mentioned before just how much I adore the double cream with meringue, and for dessert I think I had the best version yet. Get ready for some over the top usage of adjectives. :) The puffy little clouds of meringue were covered with thick double cream, drizzled with a thin ribbon of carmel, and then sprinkled with raspberries and blackberries. Needless to say I was in heaven. They also had a bunch of other special baked treats, that were all amazing as well. I definitely wasn't hungry for a while! To try and work all that deliciousness off; in between courses Simon and I played some soccer. So maybe that helped even out the 20 lbs I'm sure I gained that day. :)

Later that evening I went with Sophie and Julien to the little village party with the other "jeuness" (youth) from my village. We danced and had a great time; then it was back to school the next day!

And that my friends is how the Swiss celebrate Thanksgiving! :)

Laura's really amazing Switzerland movie

2010-11-13T11:16:00.000+01:00

Ok here is a video Laura made about her exchange, and it has some stuff from our sleepover, and it's really cool, and I'm just not nearly as talented as her at the whole video thing, so I thought I would post it here, if you want to check it out. :)

Part 5: American Sleepover

2010-11-13T11:13:00.001+01:00

October 9:
Today Zion, Laura, and I got together for an American style sleepover, and to tour some more of Switzerland. We all met at Laura's house, and kind of like the Luzern trip, we just took the first train going somewhere we hadn't been; and that is how we ended up bound for Brig. It was a bit further than we thought, so we spent most of our time on the train, but it was a really pretty ride. Little insider tip if you're ever traveling to Switerland- trains are probably the best way to see the country, because the best part of Switzerland is definetly it's georgeous natural beauty. Anyway, we got to Brig a little after five, and most of the town was already closed for the day. That is something I've noticed here, most normal places of business are closed by 5:00, even in the bigger cities like Zurich. It's pretty crazy. So yes, back to Brig- it's this adorable little town nestled in the Alps. We walked around for a bit, went to look for a grocery store to buy some snacks for our sleepover; and of course the only store we could find was closed, but we thought (being the Wal-Mart-ized American's that we are) that there must be something open after 5. So we saw these two guys next to the store and tried to ask them if they knew of another store we could try. Our conversation went something like this (P.S. Brig is in the German speaking part):

Laura: Do you know where a Coop is?

Guy #1: Coobe? (Making a square with his hands) a coobe? (meaning cube)

Laura: Nooo. I mean Coop. Like a grocery store.

Guy #1: (blank look)

Me: It sells food? A coop?

Guy #2: Laughing at his friend while smoking. Typical of Swiss teenagers. Lol.

Laura: You know? Like where we can buy food?

Guy #1: Ah. You want to find eat!

Laura, Zion and I in unison: Yes! You know where the store is?

Guy #1: (pointing towards the Migros right next to us) Migros!

Laura: It's closed.

Guy #1: (Blank look)

Zion: Closed, Fermer, Fermer, Closed? Not open?

Guy #1: Ah. Coop! No. No Coop. In the station (train station).

Laura, Zion and I: (Laughing) haha. Okay. Thank you.

Yup, gotta love language differences lol. So, obviously we didn't ever find a grocery store in Brig. :) But we found one back in Laura's town. When we got back to Laura's house we made popcorn (sent from the states), and had pizza, and tons of other junk food, from our collective care packages. It was really fun to just hang out and talk about all the crazy stuff that happens on exchange. Here are some pics from the evening:

Trains, Trains, and More Trains...

Yes, Zion carries a can opener around with her

Zion and I in Brig

Laura and I in Brig

Brig! P.S. this is the street with the closed, fermer, etc. Migros

Yum!

Making snacks

My first popcorn since leaving the states-soooo good!

Swiss/American Junk food :)

Part 4: Sleepover in Charmey

2010-11-13T10:33:00.001+01:00

October 2:
One of my friends from school Lisa invited me to spend the night at her house and go to youth group and church with her. She lives in Charmey, which is this really cute little ski town about 20min away from Sorens. Well, I was going to meet her Saturday afternoon in Bulle and then her mom was going to take us to her house. So I'm riding in the car with Francine, Simon, and Sophie on our way to Bulle, and all of a sudden here come all these cows with fancy headdress things made out of flowers and people in traditional costumes coming down the middle of the road, and I'm thinking "what on earth is going on?" Well, apparently every fall there is what's called the "Des Alps" where traditionally all the cows come down from the alps to the lower pastures for winter, and to mark the occasion they make a big parade out of it. It was pretty neat to see these cows, I must say. :) Here are some pics I took from the car:

Traditional dress from Gruyere Region

Crazy Cow Headdress

Well anyway after all that cow crazyness was over, Francine went to re-start the car, and nothing happened. Yup, so Sophie, Simon, me, and some random stranger who stopped to help, pushed the car to this gas station that was right there. And I'm thinking uh-ooo this is not good, I have to meet Lisa in about 15 min, and the car's not going to take me there, and I don't have a cell phone number for her; so I just started walking, hoping they would still be at the train station by the time I got there (which would probably be in about 30 min.). But, miracle of miracles, they happened to drive by the road I was walking and were able to just pick me up there, so yeah pretty amazing. :) Then we went to her house, which has a magnificent view of the mountains, and the weather was absolutely perfect, so we took a little hike around, and yeah I'll just let the pictures do the talking....

View from Lisa's front yard

Parasailor

Lisa and I

Trail we were hiking

Window box in village of Charmey

Village of Charmey

After we walked around, we went to youth group at her church. We watched a movie and had a little Bible study, and everyone was really nice, it was lots of fun. Made me miss my youth group back at Trinity, and all the crazy fun times we had. And then the next day we went to church, which I partially understood, and then back to school the next day.

Part 3: Spontaneous train rides with exchange students

2010-11-04T21:20:00.003+01:00

September 27:

Today for some reason unbeknownst to me, we didn't have school (teacher conference?), yeah I was quite broken up about it. :) Sooo of course a bunch of the exchange students from the Fribourg Canton decided to go somewhere; we weren't really sure where we wanted to go, so we just all met at the train station in Fribourg. Now, unfortunately for me they all wanted to meet at 8:00am, and since I live in a tiny village that has like six buses a day, I got to wake-up way before the sun, and leave at 6:30 in the morning with my host brother (he attends the University in Fribourg). However, on the bright-side I had plenty of time to down a couple of much needed cups of coffee before all the other exchange students arrived. :) When everyone arrived, we checked out the schedule, and the next train to depart was headed for Bern, so we hopped on, and decided to pick a destination once we got there. We ended up taking the train bound for Luzern. Once we got there we had a great time walking around, and seeing the sights. After lunch we got back on a train headed for Interlocken, and it ended up being a train that wound thru the mountains. It was probably the most beauitful train ride I've taken to date, I literally felt like I had stepped into a painting. We walked around Interlocken for a bit, and then it was back to Sorens. Here is a little slide show from the trip....

Part 2: "Football" and Expo in Lausanne

2010-11-04T20:03:00.001+01:00

September 26:
Today I went to a "football" game with my family, which of course was nothing like a Sooners game. Speaking of which: BOOMER SOONER! Just felt the need to say er type that, makes me feel closer to home. :) Anyway, I have to say I am definitely more of an American football than a soccer fan. Although, considering where I'm from, I'm pretty sure I've been indoctrinated since birth. :) But, it was lots of fun, and after, we all went for a pizza, or 5 as it turned out. Here, apparently, when you go for pizza everyone gets their own, (like normal sized, would feed a family of four) and I got the local speciality, which had Gruyere cheese, bacon, and ham. It was quite a tasty end to the day. :)

September 27:
On Sunday I went with Sophie and some friends to Lausanne. There was this huge "expo" type thing going on, and we walked around sampling the food and looking at all the crazy stuff they had for sale. It was lots of fun, a great end to a great week. :) Here are some pics:

This was made out of fruits, veggies, and flowers- made me think of the rose bowl trip :)

M*A*S*H*-esque helicopter

Grounds where the expo was

Yes I'm still alive over here :) Part 1 Becoming Sorensoise

2010-11-04T19:43:00.001+01:00

Helllllloooooo!

As the title states, yes I am in fact still alive over here, and have yet to fall off an Alp or anything like that; I just happen to fail miserably at blog updates lol. Sooo since it's been quite some time since I last updated, I'm going to just do a series of posts by event, in (hopefully) sequential order. :) I've had a really awesome, super busy month and a half (where did the time go??), and a lot has happened, so I'll just get started.....

September 25, 2010:
Well it's official, I'm now Sorensoise (and no, that's not a type of cat :) ). On Friday night I went with Julien and Sophie to the meeting of the "Jeunesse de Sorens" (Youth of Sorens). When we got there I just followed them into the room, but they were like "no you can't come in here right now, you have to wait in the other room with the other new kids," and I'm thinking "ok, sure, no idea what exactly I'm supposed to do, but whatever" :) So I'm standing there waiting, no clue what's going on (quite normal for me), and some other girls come up to me and start talking really fast in French about having to sing a song to join. Fortunately they were really nice and instead of giving me a solo (maybe they just valued there hearing ;) ), I just had to sing a duet. We practiced for a bit, and then they called us in. I was the last to enter, and when I came in my host sibs, and some other people I've met started cheering "Becky!" and clapping, and my next host brother was yelling "Bekamaze!!" So yeah that made me feel pretty special. :) After that I had to introduce myself (and of course I ended up going first) in French, but everyone was really nice and patient with my terrible French, so it was all good. Then came the song.... And while I don't think I'll be nominated for a Grammy anytime soon, it wasn't too bad, and now I know a new 80s French pop song lol. After that we had our "initiation" which consisted of trying to take a bite out of an apple that was swinging from a string while kneeling. You would be proud of me America, I represented you well, I was the only one to bite the apple lol. After, we had to eat a spoonful of "hot sauce"; HA. More like super mild picante lol. My host brother was like "yeah, I didn't think this was going to be spicy enough for you." Then I got my t-shirt, and now I'm all offical. :)

P.S. Sorry I don't have any pics..... :(

Climb Every Mountain....

2010-09-19T01:32:00.005+02:00

Salut!

Well a lot has happened since I last wrote, but I'll try and remember everything. These last two weeks have definetly been the hardest of my exchange to date, but they have also been filled with some of the neatest things I've ever gotten to do. I'm now about half way thru my second week of Swiss school and let's just say my mantra right now is "living for the weekend." But I'll get to all that in a bit....

So I'll just pick up where I left off.....

August 31:

Today was FREEZING!! It was like 50 degrees F and raining; I kept thinking I should be getting ready to eat turkey and pumpkin pie, not starting school lol. So yeah, I think I'm going through season confusion..... But from what I hear it's been insanely hot in Oklahoma, so maybe the freezing cold is better? :) Other than the weather making me want to celebrate Thanksgiving, and going to a restaurant that took 40 min to cook a "fast" Kabop (yes, I'm almost positive it's spelled with a "p" here). Yeah it was insane, the guy told us (in Franglish) that we needed to order the Kabop because they would be ready the fastest, so we did. Big mistake. 40 minutes later we still didn't have our food, and Laura and Zion (my friends from language camp) had to catch a train in about 10 min., but they still had to walk (or run as it turned out) to the train station. But we did eventually get them, and in the interim I got to take some pics.... So you can now see what a forty minute Kabop looks like. :)

Zion and I with Laura creeping in the mirror

Laura and the Kabop

September 1-3

My last days at language camp.... :( While I may not have learned that much at the camp, I did make a lot of really good friends, and we all had a great time comparing embarrassing stories about our French faux pas or crazy things we never thought we'd have to do. On my last day of language camp I decided to explore the city of Fribourg beyond the downtown area, where we'd been for the past 2 weeks. It's a really cool city; there's a river that runs thru the city that's really pretty, and an old cathedral that's amazing. Fribourg is also interesting because it's right on the edge of German speaking territory, so you hear and see both French and German everywhere you go. Historically it was the major dividing point between the Catholics and Protestants; and there were a lot of conflicts stemming from the different beliefs. So there's you Swiss history lesson.... :) And here are my pics:

Ecole Club Migros aka the place I was supposed to learn French

My class with all the other exchangees

My super tasty breakfast on one of the days, be jealous :)

We ate Chinese food one day; and no,
mom, I didn't hear any Spanish :)

I passed Lac Gruyere everyday on my bus ride to Fribourg

Just had to take a picture with my new best friend

Last Day, j'ai finis!! P.S. thanks for the sign Laura

My super tasty quiche I had for lunch. I think I was hungry that day lol....

Yeah I think our brains were a little fried after all that French,
we look a little nuts here. The gelato was great though! :)

Fribourg!

The cathedral in Fribourg

La porte. I was impressed :)

Inside

Hal-le-lujah! Hallelujah! :)

The stained glass windows throughout
the church were incredible

The streets of Fribourg (and most places in Switzerland).
Not so great on the footsies....

In the heart of the medieval part of Fribourg

They have these fountains all over the place

The city of Fribourg

September 4:

Saw a fellow Oklahoman today! Switzerland was the host for the Rotary EEMA convention, so all the exchange students in Switzerland were invited to do a parade of flags and short presentation. The convention was held in Pfaffikon which is close to Zurich; so some of the exchange students and I decided to go early and walk around Zurich before the convention. Zion and I walked around togather and stumbled upon a market set up in the middle of town with all these vendors, it was so Europe lol. While we were looking around we found this food stand and had the best Swiss sasuage hotdogs ever, so good! Than we went for a boat ride around Lac Zurich, which was amazing! I am such a fan of the boats here! :) The weather was perfect, and we had a great time chilling and eating chocolate on the boat. After that we all took the train to Pfaffikon and got ready for the convention. The Swiss Rotary had decided that the inbounds should sing a traditional Swiss song; but of course since Switzerland has 4 official languages everyone had to learn the German song, and than all the French kids (all 10 of us) had to sing the French song by ourselves. Epic fail. Haha, after the first try, they decided it might be best if we just sing the chorus, and have the German kids join in. :) In our defense it the song was like this opera yodeling song, that was insanely difficult to sing, plus it was in archaic French, so the fact that we could sort of hum it was kind of a miracle. So after the great fun of trying to get 100 teenagers to stand and sing songs in a foreign language together (I'm pretty sure the people in charge have less hair now) we all ate dinner and then paraded down the street to the hotel where the convention was being held. Because there were so many of us, they literally had to stop traffic for like 10 minutes so we could all get there. It was pretty hilorious, because here are all these kids from all over the world in their Rotary blazers, waving flags, and all the US kids (we were in the back) were chanting U-S-A the whole time. The passers by just kind of stopped and stared. It was pretty funny. :) Then as I was marching into the banquet hall, there's Jaci Williams! So after the conference (the song wasn't a total failure), I went back in and got to talk with Jaci for a few minutes before I had to catch my train back home. She gave me one of my first hugs since I had arrived (people don't really hug at all here, they just kiss you an insane amount of times :) ), and I told her to tell all my Okies hello for me! :)

The amazing Swiss hotdog and the market in Zurich

Zion and I on the boat. The wind made me think of home haha

From the boat ride...

Zurich!

USA, plus a Canadian :)

Stars and Strips baby

Okies in Switzerland! :)

September 5:

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures for today.... So I'll just have to use 1,000 words. jk :) Today we went to this really cool horse race in one of the villages nearby; but since I thought that we were going to go eat lunch (gotta love never understanding anything lol) I didn't bring my camera. Every year they have this big horse race/festival with lots of traditional Swiss events. They had people playing the big Alp Horns and St. Bernard's with carts, and horse and buggy-ish (I'm not sure of the correct name) races. It was really neat to see. While I was there, I learned that American sarcasm doesn't really translate well into French lol. I was walking around and Julien asked me if I wanted to help with the food stand he and a bunch of the other kids from my village were working at (why they were all working there is still a mystery to me lol), and I said sure. So here I am flipping burgers, and one of the guys asks me if I like flipping burgers. Well, I answered (in French) that yes, I adore flipping burgers. I was just teasing, but I think he thought I was serious, because then he asked me if I cook burgers all the time, and do I work at McDonald's lol. I was like "no, I was just kidding, I really don't cook burgers very much at all." Ahhh language differences :) But I am now an expert Swiss burger cooker, and I have learned that until I am much, much better at French I will quit trying to make jokes in a foreign language (or I may end up with a job at the local Mc Donald's ;) )

September 6:

Ahhhh a day I will not soon forget- My first day of Swiss school. Ooo where to begin.... Usually I have to take the bus to school at 7:40 (yeah it's just peachy), but for my first day Julien took me, which was great because I was so lost as to where to go, what to do, etc. So, we went in to meet with the guy at the school who's in charge of all the exchange students (there are 14 at my school, but only 4 including me are with Rotary) in the "1st year" of school, which was pretty disappointing, because the kids in my class are like 15, but they have all been pretty nice to me. Flash cards are definitely my best friend when it comes to making friends. The girls in my class have all been quizzing me on my vocab, and they are all really nice about making sure I kind of understand what's going on lol. Ah yes, which brings me to what class is like... O my, well that first day was not so great in the understanding department. I kind of understood Geography, mainly because I've had it before, same with chemistry, biology and a little of the history. The math was literally a foreign language, and not just because it was in French. I would have thought that math would be the one thing I understood a little, but no haha. They use all these Greek letters and weird symbols instead of numbers, and I was just completely lost. English class was great, duh, since language courses here are taught entirely in that language. Most of my teachers are really nice, or at least indifferent to me, which is great. However, I have one, I've nick-named him Mr. Cranky Pants, who is awful. He yells at everyone, including me, and speaks super fast, and mumbles, so I don't ever understand anything he says. And of course I have his class first thing on Monday, which makes that day even better lol. But really for the most part school is really, really, really hard, as far as the French goes; but I do know it's helping my French a ton, and I am beginning to make some friends. :)

College Du Sud

September 7-9:

I took this right after a rainstorm outside my window,
look closely at the clouds. It made my day better :)

Pretty much just more of what I just described... I also found out that gym class here is no joke. On Thursday's I have gym for 3 hours, and that alone is pretty hard core, but wait until you here what those three hours consist of... Ok for starters, I have to bring a bike, yes bring a bike with me to school. I take the bus. And the bus I take is so packed with school kids and people going to work that everyone is literally pressed up against the glass. When I found out I had to figure out how to bring a bike to school, I just about cried. So I asked one of the other exchange students who lives in Bulle (where my school is) if I could borrow a bike from here family, and they have been nice enough to let me use one of their bikes. Now we don't just go biking around the town, oooo no. We go mountain biking; something I'm pretty sure would never be allowed in the US because the lawsuits that would ensue would shut down all the schools lol. So I'm not such a fan of biking, I mean I enjoy a nice ride, but downhill trails in the Swiss woods are not something I usually test out for fun. But yes, I survived, I even made it thru the game we played where everyone had to try and knock each other off their bikes. (No, I'm not kidding, just imagine 15 and 16 year old boys who have just been given permission to ride around and crash into each other lol)

September 10:

Today after school I got to go visit Vanessa! Since my lab group didn't meet today I was able to leave at 11:45 which was great, because it takes about 3.5 hours by train to get to St. Gallen where Vanessa lives. When I finally made it to St. Gallen (and yes, I did manage to take all the correct trains :) ), Vanessa showed me around her town. St. Gallen is probably one of my most favorite cities in Switzerland (I know I keep saying that about everyone I visit lol); it is a pretty big town about 100,000 people, and it is so beauitful. It has a great mixture of the old world charm of Europe along with more modern areas as well. Vanessa showed me her school and all these other places in St. Gallen that I had seen pictures of when she lived with us, so that was really cool. It was almost surreal to think that I was actually seeing up-close all these places that she showed us. After we toured St. Gallen, we took the train to her village, Rorschach, which is about 20 min outside of St. Gallen. She lives right by the lake, and it is absolutely beautiful. I think I'm pretty much convinced that there isn't a part of Switzerland that isn't calendar worthy. We walked around by the lake (it was sunset and there were swans everywhere :) ), and then went to her house. Her mom made a really tasty German dinner, since they are really Germans, so I could experience some more culture.

Vanessa's supper cool school

Random classroom in Vanessa's school.
(It's similar to what some of my classroom's look like)

St. Gallen is famous for these windows,
they have them all over the place

The cathedral in St. Gallen

Swiss trashcan-you had to be there :)

Awesome fountain in St. Gallen

Random red rubber car and fountains and couches in the
middle of the city. Don't ask me why lol

At the Lake by Vanessa's house, note the swans :)

September 11:

Today I visited three, yes three countries in one day!! At dinner the night before when they told me we were going to Germany and Austria I just about bounced out of my seat lol. So, yeah, I was a wee bit excited about the whole thing. We drove to Lindau, Germany by way of Austria. Lindau is this picturesque resort island right in in the middle of where Switzerland, Austria, and Germany meet. It is so beautiful, I'll have to just let the pictures do the talking. After walking around and taking lots of pictures (I've taken over 500 since I got to Switzerland, I think I'm about People magazine worthy lol), we drove up into the mountains in Austria and I had apple strudel on the terrace of a restaurant that overlooked the lake. Probably one of the best days of my exchange. :) The weather was perfect, the sun was shining, and I had fresh Austrian apple strudel in front of me; if that's not bliss I'm not sure what is. :) After that, we went back to St. Gallen, had dinner, and then Vanessa and I went out to meet her friends. It was really cool for me to finally meet all of her friends that I'd heard all these stories about when Vanessa lived with us. They were all super nice, and I was even able to understand like four sentences of the German lol. Das es gut! :)

Country number 1, Austria!

The German side of Vanessa's Lake
(my new name for it, since I can't
remember it's official name lol)

Host Sistahs

Lindau, Germany

More Lindau

Stopping to smell the really cool weird German flowers :)

Ahh I'm in love with the little village streets in Europe,
they just make me happy lol

Ok there is nothing special about this sign other than,
I thought it was just really awesome, so I took a picture
in keeping with my "no landmark left un captured" mantra

The super vibrant gardens in Lindau

Hotel along the Lake in Lindau

All the ornamentation on this building is hand painted,
and it was built in the 1200s, pretty crazy if ya ask me :)

Bavarian Blue; yes I will name a paint color after that some day

Vanessa and her mom at the restaurant in Austria

Austrian Apple Strudel!!

With Vanessa's Parents

In the tunnel that lasted for at least 5 min,
we'll never know for sure because I forgot to stop my watch lol

Out with Vanessa's friends

September 12:

Today Vanessa's mom took us thru the Apenzel part of Switzerland, which basically looks like the cover of Heidi, or heaven, whichever you prefer. :) Then we went to this zoo that had all native animals of Switzerland in it, which was really neat to walk around. And after we were finished there, Vanessa and I walked to the Cathedral in St. Gallen, because I really wanted to be able to see the inside. (Mass was going on when I was in St. Gallen on Friday.) We also ended up being able to see the library, which has to be one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever been in. Both the library and the cathedral are considered to be some of the best preserved examples of Baroque architecture in western Europe; in other words, they make your jaw drop the second you push open the super ornately carved doors. You'll just have to look at the pictures. After all that amazing sight-seeing it was time for me to head back.... It was really nice to see Vanessa and her family; thank you so much for inviting me!

Why hello there postcard

The mountains, the cows, the green, it was just so Swiss :)

Vanessa's bud

Inside the cathedral in St. Gallen

You can't really see it in this photo,
but one of the guys feet is actually 3D

The Library

We had to wear these funky little slippers over our shoes inside the Library

Most of the books were hand written by monks from the 800s on

September 13-17:

School, school, and more school; which brings me to why I picked such a corny cliche for my status... :) Ok first off I'm in Switzerland, which is basically like living in the opening scene of "Sound of Music," but more than that, these past two weeks I feel like I have really begun my climb. Don't barf yet, I'll try and keep my cheesy expressions to a minimum... For me, I think one of my hardest challenges is not learning to be independent, but to be dependent. I'm not really that great at asking for help in my own language, and trying to ask in one I barely know is quite a challenge for me, but starting school forced me to begin to learn how. I probably should have picked that up when I was about 2, but I never have been really great about doing things the easy way lol. So, while I'm definitely not a pro at it, I am learning, which I believe is what I'm supposed to be doing here anyways :). On Wednesday I made cherry cobbler for my family, which was interesting. I thought that it wouldn't be too difficult because most of the ingredients are pretty universal, flour, sugar etc. But again, hello culture differences. What I thought was cherry pie filling, turned out to just be canned cherries.... So I tried to make this syrup to supplement the lack of fillingish stuff and, yeah that didn't turn out so well, haha. But yeah, all in all, it wasn't the prettiest one ever, but it still tasted pretty good, and my family is really sweet and they all said it was great. On Friday, I actually understood math class. I even raised my hand to answer a question (probably not the best idea, because the teacher probably now thinks I understand all of it, but o well....), I was pretty excited lol. And to top it off, I didn't kill anyone in my first chem lab in French or in bio lab. Fortunately we all have to wear lab coats, googles, and gloves, so I think my class should be safe from me no matter what we're doing later on, which could be anything, knowing these Swiss schools. ;) But yeah, school's getting a little better every time, so that's good; maybe by Christmas I'll understand more than art and English class. :)

September 18:

Today I went with Sophie and a bunch of other kids from Sorens on this town-wide scavenger hunt all over Sorens and the surrounding villages. It was pretty awesome; definetly not something I would get to do in Norman. :) Apparently it's an annual event put on by whoever wins the year before, and everyone in the town participates. You get maps and have to find all these stations and do all these different crazy things. One of them was getting dressed up in random costume pieces and lip-syncing to some old German pop song, which they recorded, and than played in front of the whole town at the dinner afterward. So I have been captured for posterity dancing and jumping around in a big green hat reminiscent of the Mad Hatter. If that's not leaving a legacy, I don't know what is. lol, yeah I'm pretty sure they think I'm nuts. Most of the time I had no idea what the challenge we were doing was, but I had a great time laughing and trying to figure out what the heck we were doing. :)

My lovely group

Yet another reason for them to think I'm nuts :)

Over the river and thru the woods... :)

I'm a sucker for babbling brooks

Sophie and I

One of the scavenger hunt activities with Bob my next host brother.
And no, I still have no clue why he picked me up lol.
I fell like this photo kind of sums up my life:
backwards-upside-down and totally clueless to why, but smiling lol

And there ya have it, the last couple weeks of my life in Switzerland. Thanks for sticking with me to the end of this mammoth post lol, I'm really going to try and work on that whole posting a regular basis idea. :)

Au revoir,

Becky

Communication

2010-08-30T00:39:00.001+02:00

Salut!

I need to get better about updating my blog... :)
Anyway here's what I've been up to:
This past week I have really been working on my French, and communication skills in general. The biggest challenge I've faced on my exchange definitely stems from not being able to communicate effectively; whether it's because I can't speak their language (which is most of the time :) ) or I just don't completely understand the culture- I've really begun to realize what a huge role the use of language plays in everyday life! At the same time it's also amazing to me how much you can communicate without words; a lot of the time even if I use the completely wrong word I'm still able to communicate (enough) to get by. So anyway that's my deep thinking for the week... Now onto what I've been up to :)

Saturday, August 21:
I went with Julien and some other kids from Sorens to the open air movie in Charmey. Probably one of the coolest things I have ever done! :) We took the ski lift up to the top of the mountain and watched the sunset; it was unreal how beautiful it was. Then, after the sunset, we watched Invictus (in French of course), and I think it was a pretty good movie; I didn't catch much of the dialog lol but it seemed pretty good. :) It was pretty amazing just sitting up there on the mountain looking at the stars and watching a movie; tres suisse!

Allison and I on the ski lift

We watched the movie from the top of the mountain

Sunset :)

Julien and I

Movie Time!

Sunday, August 22:
I went to the Welcome Meeting in Olten, Switzerland for all the inbound exchange students. It was a lot of fun, I got to meet all the other Frenchies; there's only 10 of us, all the other 100 are in the German speaking area. 9 (including me) are American and there's one guy from Sweden. I also got to see Vanessa, the girl we hosted from Switzerland in 08-09! After the meeting, Vanessa and I took the train to Zurich and walked around for a bit. I am in love with that city! Well I guess I could say that about just about everywhere I've been, but still.... It is so clean and just, well European. :) I felt like I was in the big kid version of Disney World. After we finished walking around, I took the train and bus back home, and didn't get lost at all; I was pretty proud of myself, considering my history with Switzerland's public transportation system. :)

Zurich!

We walked around for about 15 min looking for that building with the green steeple

Found it! It's a library, in case you were wondering :)

Vanessa's future University

Just like Disney, only better

Sistas!

River thru the middle of the City

La Gare (Train Station)

Famous weird statue in la gare

Monday, August 23:
Today I started language school. Language school has been an interesting experience; there are four of us (including me) that aren't very good at French and six that are pretty good, but we are all kind of in the same class. We are in different parts of the book, but we are all in the same room, and the teacher doesn't speak English. So I have been learning how to learn haha, but at the same time, even though it's been tough trying to understand what's going on, I do feel that I've definitely improved at least a little bit. Not that I could have gotten much worse. :) So anyway, hopefully, this next week is better.... I did make some good friends at the school, and it's been a lot of fun getting to hang out with people you can have a conversation with. We all walk around after school and try to speak French, which is pretty funny considering most of us can only talk about the weather and the scenery; but it works. :) The school is in Fribourg, so I have to catch the bus at 7:30 am, which I consider a crime against humanity, but c'est la vie..... I'll have to take that bus for school anyway, so I suppose it's good I'm getting used to it. :) Monday evening I went to my fist Rotary event with the club in Bulle. It was a party and tour of a cheese cave up in the mountains in Charmey. I had double cream and meringue for desert again which made me pretty happy! After we went on the tour of the cheese cave, I had to introduce myself, in French, to the club which was interesting; but I think it went ok, they were all very nice, and at least pretended that they understood what I was saying. :) So, after all of that, I definitely did not have a problem going to bed!

Sunrise from my room.... Pretty, but I kind of wish I hadn't been awake to take this :)

Fribourg

Cheese Cave

Too cute not to take a picture!

My new best friend that totally understands my French :)

A little kid playing the accordion at the party-only in Switzerland!

The chalet where we ate dinner

Tuesday, August 24:

More language school!

Wednesday August 25:

Language school, and then I went to the movies with Julien and some other kids from Sorens. We saw "The Expendibles", and I have decided that action movies are definitely my best friend, because you can always figure out the plot whether you understand the ten words in the movie or not. :) The movie theater in Bulle is way smaller than those in the US; it had about four rows lol, but it was a lot of fun.

Thursday, August 25:

Language School! Woo-hoo!

Friday, August 26:

Guess what? Mooooore Language school! After school I went to lunch with some girls in my class, and when we went to order the lady thought I was German (why I don't know) I was like "Nein sprenkenzie duetch"(no I can't even come close to knowing how to spell in German lol) haha it made ordering interesting; she of course didn't speak English either, but we did get to pratice our French skills. What little we have. :) When I got back home I went with Sophie and some other people from Sorens for dinner, which was a lot of fun.

With Laura (who's from Kansas) at the restaurant

Chillin in Fribourg

Bjorn from Sweden at the Bus Station in Fribourg

Saturday, August 27:

I went to Chexbres to visit Laura (exchange student from Kansas). She lives right on Lake Geneve, it is so beautiful (big surprise) in that part of Switzerland! I took the train there, and after I got there we went to Lausanne. Amazing city! We walked around the old town, and saw several really beautiful cathedrals. We also walked along the lake at sunset, which was pretty awesome. We had pizza, and that made me think of home. :) While we were walking around we stumbled upon some techno music festival, that just happened to be going on right there in the middle of the city. So of course we stopped and watched a bit. Then later that evening when we were walking along the lake, there was a different Irish pop festival going on, where we saw people singing in French while wearing kilts- so I'm not really sure where they were from, seeing as how they were representing like three countries lol. It was just so random! Afterwards we went back to her house and talked till 2am. Probably the most I've talked since I left the US lol.

View from Laura's Window

At the Train Station in Chexbres

Just had to take a picture :)

Cathedral where when we got to the door it just opened, and then we entered and someone is playing phantom of the opera-esque music..... creepy.....

Amazing Organ

Lausanne

This door we had to open for ourselves.....

Cathedral from the 1100s

Lausanne

Yay for CHF (at least that's what were guessing that big "C" is)

There were swans everywhere!

Pizza! Laura was pretty excited :)

But then so was I :)

At the techno festival

Swiss pastries, yum!

Random Irish/Scottish/Swiss/French concert

Sunset on the Lake

Only in Switzerland do they give you chocolate with your hot chocolate :)

Sunday, August 29:

Today Laura and I took the boat from Lausanne to Montreux. The weather was absolutely perfect! Our original plan was to go to Geneva, but because it was Sunday the boat schedule was a little strange so we ended up heading to Montreux. When we got there we took the bus to the Chateau de Chillon. I'll just let the pictures do the talking; suffice it to say, it was amazing! After we got some bread, cheese and chocolate (of course!) and picnicked on the boat on the way back to Lausanne. We had a lot of fun, and got to see some really neat stuff; definitely a successful weekend!

On the Boat

Vineyards

Boat like the one we were on; That's the French side of the lake

Sailor we met on the boat

Chateau de Chillon

Why hello!

weird bathtub in the castle

All the stairs were super steep, I'm really surprised I didn't tumble down them lol

View from the tower

In one of the towers

Where's my knight in shining armor?

Picnic on the boat!

On the train back to Chexbres

Picture from the train

So that's pretty much what I've been up to this past week! Tomorrow I have more language school, so hopefully my French will really start to improve, but I'm not holding my breath. :) I've been told that even the worst students eventually get the language down, so we'll see. Either way, I'll have definitely learned some new communication skills!

Au revoir!

Becky

It's a Learning Experience

2010-08-21T13:57:00.002+02:00

Salut!
This last week has been filled with lots of new learning experiences, (I suppose I knew that was coming) some I learned the hard way, and some I figured out without too many giggles from the people around me. :)

Ok, so here's a rundown of my week of learning (I'm sure this is just the beginning lol):

Sunday Aug. 15:
We went to visit one of Jacques's friends in the mountains. I think the Swiss are a little like the postal service, in that come rain or shine we hike. It was raining, but that did not deter us from hiking in the mountains to his friend's house. When we arrived I had another very Swiss experience, eating with the cows. The way these old mountain chalets are built, where the cows are shares a wall with the kitchen, and when they opened the top part of the door, out popped Bessie's head. I wish I had pictures, but because of the rain I didn't bring my camera.

When we got back home, I had real Swiss fondue, very tasty! I learned that there is a correct and incorrect way to swirl your fork in the cheese pot. :) After attempting what I thought was a polite dip, my host mom showed me the Swiss way to do it; take your little fork thing and run it around the inside of the pot, then lift and twirl over the pot, finish by dipping in pepper. I am happy to report that after several failed attempts, I am now an expert Swiss fonduer. :) Something I found interesting.... Did you know they dip pickles in the cheese too? Just bread and pickles? It's actually really good!

Monday:
Nothing too exciting; just hanging around the house....

Tuesday:
I went to the castle in Bulle! Jacques's brother is the Perfect (sp?) or Governor of the Gruyere region, and this castle is where the government offices are; so I got to go on a private tour of the castle and the old jail. Until a couple of months ago, part of the castle was used as a jail, they have since relocated the jail, but up in the towers the cells from long, long ago are still there. Here are some pictures:

The Castle of Bulle

Much tastier version made of super amazing Swiss chocolate

Jacques's brother Maurice with the flag of Gruyere

Lovely prison toilet. Might need some clorox, just a thought :)

The first of many good reasons not to get caught.....

Don't think the fire extinguisher was there in the 1500s

Let me out!!

Where bad little boys and girls go....

The writing on the wall...

View from the top

Sorry you can't really see my face, but it's there I promise ;)

Town square er oval of Bulle

After we visited the castle, Julien took us bowling. Learning experience #2, my bowling has apparently gotten worse than my French. And here I thought nothing was worse than that... But I had lots of fun hitting one pin at a time (that takes more talent than hitting them all right? ;) ), and I even got one strike; unfortunately it wasn't enough to make up for the straight zeros I had been making. Julien couldn't understand why I was so bad; over here people think that bowling is a national sport in America. (which maybe for some it is...) But I told him (as evidenced by my fabulous skills) that for most people, bowling is just something we do for fun every now and then, and that no, my dad is not in a league. :) Julien ended up winning, and I got an amazing score (for golf), and came in last. However, on the last game, I managed to edge out Sebastien (Simon's friend) and take third; and yes, I was quite proud of myself. Here are some pics:

Julien and Sebastien

The best bowler ever to rock the Swiss lanes

Julien showing us how it's done

Wednesday:

Nothing much....

Thursday:

Super active day! Thursday morning I decided to go for a run; so I threw my hair back in a ponytail and put on my shoes, no makeup and went to tell my host mom what I was doing. (first I looked up how to ask if it was ok in French lol) I asked her, she said ok, and I was about to head out, when she told me to get my passport. I was wondering why I would need a passport (I wasn't planning on going that far), but I just said "oui" and went and got it. Than she told me to go get in the car, and by then I was completely confused. Turns out we were going to register me with the town; so I of course looked gross, and here I am in front of these government people looking like a deranged jogger. Learning experience #3, if someone tells you to get your passport and you have no plans of leaving the country, slap some make-up on your face and throw some other clothes on. But it all worked out, they're going to let me stay even if I look a little frankenstein-ish in the morning. :)

After my run I played tennis with Julien and Simon. Thankfully I am a much better tennis player than bowler (but I guess thats not to hard lol). We played for 2 hours, in what I thought was awesome weather. Julien and Simon thought it was really hot; it was all of 74 degrees. No, I don't miss the summer temperatures in Oklahoma. :)

After tennis, we went swimming. By this time I was thinking, man I am not going to be able to move in the morning.... While we were swimming, Simon helped my learn some more French vocabulary, and I practiced what little phrases I know on him.

Then I went to dinner with Sophie and some of her friends. The restaurant was so picturesque; it had a water wheel and was nestled up in the mountains. Very Heidi. I had Swiss fondue, and further practiced my newly learned skills. Learning experience # 4, it is considered rude to say Salut to someone you don't know. The owner of the restaurant come out and said "salut" and "bon nuit" to everyone at our table, and I, following what the people before me had said, and responded with "salut" (hello in French), apparently that really offended the lady, because she was asking Sophie who I was, and why I had said that.But now I know that if you don't know the person you must greet them with "bonjour" or "bon nuit", not salut. French is such a formal language..... Anyway after all that I had no problem falling asleep!

Friday:

Friday was probably the biggest learning experience I've had to date. I needed to get my cell phone set up, but no one was able to take me into Bulle, so I thought "no problem" I'll just take the bus. Julien showed me the website where I could get the schedule; I knew where the best stop was, and so I left feeling pretty confident that I knew what I was doing. And that leads us to learning experience #5, just because you're at a bus stop, that doesn't necessarily mean that the bus will stop there. I got to the bus stop about five minutes early (shocking, I know) just to make sure I wouldn't miss it. So I'm waiting, and I notice two old ladies standing at the end of my street (I was a little ways down at the bus stop) talking, and I just assumed that they lived there and were just visiting. Well you know what they say about "assumptions".... Here comes what looks like a big van with the transportation logo on it; it stops picks up the ladies, and drives right by me. Apparently when the bus is coming down the mountain it doesn't stop at the bus stop, it stops at the end of the street. I was thinking great, by the time the next bus comes it will be too late to go to the phone store. So feeling really incompetent, I trudged back to my house. Julien ended up driving me into Bulle, and dropped me off where the bus would've stopped to show me when I would get off in Bulle. I went to the cell phone store, got my plan, (which was a miracle in itself, considering no one there spoke English), but the phone I had wouldn't work with the card, so I would have to wait till I got back to Sorens to be able to use the cell phone. The bus back to Sorens wasn't coming for about 2 hours, so I explored the lovely town of Bulle. It was getting close to time for the bus to come, and not wanting to miss it (again) I got there early (so I thought). As I was walking back to the stop I realized I had the time mixed up, and that I had missed the bus by about 2 min. By this time I wanted my car so bad you have no idea, so I looked, and the next bus wasn't coming for another hour, so I walked around Bulle some more. (I now know that town really well) I got back to the bus station 20 min early, I was not going to miss three buses in one day, and waited. And waited. And waited. Finally when it was 15 min past when the bus should've been there, I left to go find a pay phone to call Julien, and let them know why I wasn't back yet. I found the train station, called Julien, and went to find out when the next bus to Sorens would be coming. 40 min. later I finally was able to board a bus back to Sorens, I don't think anyone has ever been more excited to see a 471 bus that I was at that moment, I just about cried lol. Made it back home, turns out I was reading the schedule wrong (keep in mind it's in French of course), the highlighted part, is not when the bus is coming, but when it will arrive at the destination. Which would explain why I kept missing buses, even though I was early. But after all that I believe I now understand how to use the Swiss transportation system (at least the buses).

So that was my week! Today I'm going to church with the family, tomorrow I'm going to the welcome meeting for all the inbound exchange students, and Monday I start language school.

A bientôt,

Becky

Made it to Switzerland :)

2010-08-13T15:02:00.002+02:00

Hello!!
Well after 11ish hours of travel, I have arrived in Suisse, and it is even more beautiful than the pictures (of course ;) )!
My family is wonderful; they have all been really nice and welcoming. My host dad speaks English and Julian my host brother speaks English- but no one else in the family does, so I've been using the thumbs up sign and smiling a lot haha. Most of the time I don't really know what's happening, but it's still been lots of fun. I also have a host sister Sophie who is 23, and a host brother Simmon who is 11. Sophie and Julian have been gone all week to Spain, so it's just been Simmon, me and my host parents, Jacques and Francine. Simmon has been helping me with my French a lot; whenever we go swimming I'll point to things and he'll tell me how to say them in French. (He gets quite a kick out of my horrid pronunciation)

Ok since I've been here for almost a week (its hard to believe), here's a quick rundown of what I've been up to:

Ready to go!

Friday:
Goodbye Oklahoma!!
Left for Dullas at 11:48 am:

Melanie helping me get my bags down to 50 lbs each

Bye Grandma and Grandpa; I will miss you lots!!

Goodbye Dad, Mom, and Rachel; I will miss you tons!!

All the exchange students from America headed to Switzerland met up in Dullas

Saturday:
Arrived in Zurich at 8:05 am and met my host family for the first time. We drove around Zurich, and then headed to Sorens. I meet Julian and Sophie when we got to the house, and later that evening they took me to hang out with their friends in the village. Super busy day!

Simmon, Francine, Me, and Jacques at the airport

My new room

View from my window :D

My new backyard

Sunday:
My host family took me to the town of Gruyeres, and we toured the castle there. I also tried double creme with meringue and raspberries, absolutely AMAZING!! :) The town is really picturesque (although what part of Switzerland isn't?), it is frozen in the middle ages, so there's a lot of history there. I felt like I had been whisked away into Cinderella..... And guess what? Turns out they do have ice tea in Switzerland! It's not exactly like our sweet tea, but it's still pretty tasty.

Monday:

My host dad took Simmon and I with him to his hunting chalet outside of Charmey, which is about 30 min away.

Hunting Chalet. (Simmon's Grandpa)

In the 1800s this is where they would make cheese

Tuesday:

My host family and I went to the Ballenburg. Its this incredible "museum" that has actual houses from the 1500s- early 1900s from all over Switzerland set up historically over 60 acres. It was kind of like a Swiss Williamsburg. It's located outside of Interlocken.

I'm really glad my bed is bigger than this one :)

Wednesday:

On wednesday we went to a friend of the Ropraz's chalet in the mountains. When they told me we were going to a friend's house i the mountains I didn't know that meant we would be hiking up a mountain for 30 mins to get there lol. But the view was definitely worth all that cardio. For lunch we had "mountain macaroni" which is homeade over a fire. Than they put it into a big bowl in the middle of the table and you eat it with these hand carved spoons. It was very Swiss!

At the Chalet

The Chalet

Makin the Macaroni

Bon Apetie!

Edelweiss

View from the top

Thursday:

I got my bank account set up, and got my transportation pass. Nothing to exciting....

Today:

Hanging with Simmon.... :)

Au revior!

Becky

Contact Info

2010-08-05T08:05:00.000+02:00

Bonjour!
Here's my contact info: (just in case you miss my smiling face jk ;) )
email: beckyseewald@gmail.com
SKYPE: becky.seewald (best way to call, it's free :) )
Facebook: Becky Seewald
if you would like my address just email me! I'm going to miss you all lots, so you better keep in touch! :)

Au revoir,

~Becky

ok yes I know I use waaaay to many smiley faces :)

Good-bye Party

2010-08-03T18:24:00.000+02:00

Here are some pics from my goodbye party on Friday. I'm really glad I got to see you guys before I leave; thanks for comming! I can't believe I'm leaving in three days- saying good-bye really makes you realize just how close you are!

Where I'm going....

2010-07-28T19:52:00.000+02:00

Here is a map of Switzerland; Bulle is north of Lausanne and south of Fribourg. Bulle has a population of about 12,000 and is located at the foot of the Pre Alps; it is part of the French speaking region.

I will actually be living in Sorens (pop. 900), which is right outside of Bulle. Bulle is where I will be going to school, and where my host rotary club is.

This is where I'll be living:

I'll try and post more pics soon! :)

Nine Days Left....

2010-07-28T18:49:00.000+02:00

Hello!
My name is Becky and I am 17 years old. In nine days I will leave Oklahoma behind and travel to Switzerland as a Rotary Exchange Student. I am very excited and scared (but mostly excited :) ) to have this chance to experience a new country, a new culture, and a new continent! I will be flying to Zurich and from there I will travel to my new home, Bulle, Switzerland. I am going to use this blog as a way for my friends and family to keep up with what I'm doing and where I'm going. But for now I need to get packing... :)

Au revoir!

~Becky