Switzerland was amazing, I actually had a blast there and had soo much fun with Linus. Linus was an exchange student from Switzerland in district 7090 last year, he lived with my family and was basically at my house everyday if you don´t remeber him. I literally had the time of my life, so much so that I hope I can return at the end of my exchange for another visit. I made so many friends there in so little time, it was unreal. I hope I will get the chance to go back in July before I head back to Canada, I’ve been working on my Dad.
I made a slideshow, I am going to try and load it onto my blog if not you can ask my dad for it. Pictures don’t load very well onto my blog so i decided a slideshow would probably be better for explanation and so on..
I saw all the attractions that are a must for Switzerland. Although Linus didn’t have much planned at the beginning, I made some friends and they were willing to take me places! It was great because Linus had school. Although I did make a few people skip school, but it was only once so that’s okay ahaha. I saw the famous Luzern bridge, Lion memorial, Alpes, Berne, Zurich, etc!
When I first arrived it literally felt like I was starting my exchange all over again, and remanded to feel that way for most of the trip. The feeling when you would be standing with a group of people, they were all speaking the other language and you were just standing there in oblivion, not understand anything. Well, that is how I felt and there was no way I could try and converse with people that didn’t know English or Spanish. It was kind of scary, but thank God I wasn’t starting my exchange again, learning 2 languages in 1 year would kill someone! But now I am back in Spain and don’t feel like the new exchange kid who is fishing all day. Fishing is a slang word the Spanish kids use when you’re spaced out and are in your own little word. And don´t forget the culture shock all over again, not really shock. But when you get excited over the silliest thing, for example the BIGGEST BANANAS ever. In Canarias we have smaller bananas, but they are sweeter, these bananas were like the size of my forearm and I couldn´t get over it. Although baby colourful hamburgers, more parking for bikes then for cars which I loved because I love riding bikes and I can´t really do that in Tenerife firstly because it either up hill or down hill, which up hill you will die, and down hill you will get killed by a car. It was like living a nice 2 week exchange. Right when I began to adjust I had to leave :(
When I first arrived it literally felt like I was starting my exchange all over again, and remanded to feel that way for most of the trip. The feeling when you would be standing with a group of people, they were all speaking the other language and you were just standing there in oblivion, not understand anything. Well, that is how I felt and there was no way I could try and converse with people that didn’t know English or Spanish. It was kind of scary, but thank God I wasn’t starting my exchange again, learning 2 languages in 1 year would kill someone! But now I am back in Spain and don’t feel like the new exchange kid who is fishing all day. Fishing is a slang word the Spanish kids use when you’re spaced out and are in your own little word. And don´t forget the culture shock all over again, not really shock. But when you get excited over the silliest thing, for example the BIGGEST BANANAS ever. In Canarias we have smaller bananas, but they are sweeter, these bananas were like the size of my forearm and I couldn´t get over it. Although baby colourful hamburgers, more parking for bikes then for cars which I loved because I love riding bikes and I can´t really do that in Tenerife firstly because it either up hill or down hill, which up hill you will die, and down hill you will get killed by a car. It was like living a nice 2 week exchange. Right when I began to adjust I had to leave :(
Swiss names, right when i thought i was getting a hang of names. I got to Switzerland and literally can’t remember any of the names because they are all so weird. Actually probably closer to English then Spanish, but i have grown accustom to Spanish names so that is the norm for me now.
Anyways, I put in a little extra effort and remembered everyone´s name. Although Swiss people are from all different parts so they vary. Some Swiss names of people I met: Linus, Silvan, Filipe, Luca, Elias, Cristopher, Hannes, Jon, Valentin, Emilio, Morris, Eleonora, Nora, Rosa, Salome, Serena, Vennilian, Jael.
Anyways, I put in a little extra effort and remembered everyone´s name. Although Swiss people are from all different parts so they vary. Some Swiss names of people I met: Linus, Silvan, Filipe, Luca, Elias, Cristopher, Hannes, Jon, Valentin, Emilio, Morris, Eleonora, Nora, Rosa, Salome, Serena, Vennilian, Jael.
Funny Story, my amazing language skills. On the first weekend, Linus , Rosa and I went to their Scout´s weekend. Sounds lame, but it was actually so much fun. It was a weekend where the Scout counsellors got a house for themselves and got to hang out for the weekend. I met so many new people, they were all so funny and nice and could all speak English fairly well. Some better than others. On the Saturday morning Linus asked his friend in Swiss German, hey what do you want to do today. I always trying to imitate them because I don’t have a cent of German language in my body just ranted out something I made up on the spot. Linus responded again in Swiss German, okay sounds good or something. Then him and his friends looked at each other and were like OH MY GOD did she just responded in Swiss German. Apparently I told Linus that I just wanted to chill out and relax for the day then go home tomorrow. Literally had no idea that’s what I said, but if I had responded to that question then that would have been my response. HOW WEIRD IS THAT! It was my story for the week, I was rather impressed.
Swiss school is like university, super nice, super clean. It was 10 times nicer then my school in Canada, and 50 times nicer then my school in Spain. Super nice desks with cool chairs, 5 gyms, a giant library with brand new fancy computers, I can’t even go on it made me so jealous. Also Linus is in a class where they have some classes that are English and some in High German. Half the class did exchanges the year before so they all can speak perfectly, and the remainder of the class is just a bunch of geniuses. Swiss German isn’t a written language it’s like a dialect that people from Germany don’t understand which is pretty cool I think. The language doesn’t even have a dictionary, so all their classes and books are in High German. So everyone already knows 2 languages. On top of that they all know English, although they will say there English is crap, there all liars. They can all understand and speak way better than I ever could in German. Most of them also know another language on top of that. Usually they know Swiss German, High German, English, and French or Spanish. So I was able to converse in Spanish with 3 people in his class that were taking Spanish. It was very good, but I was impressed that they could speak so well from only taking classes and not going there.
Swiss school is like university, super nice, super clean. It was 10 times nicer then my school in Canada, and 50 times nicer then my school in Spain. Super nice desks with cool chairs, 5 gyms, a giant library with brand new fancy computers, I can’t even go on it made me so jealous. Also Linus is in a class where they have some classes that are English and some in High German. Half the class did exchanges the year before so they all can speak perfectly, and the remainder of the class is just a bunch of geniuses. Swiss German isn’t a written language it’s like a dialect that people from Germany don’t understand which is pretty cool I think. The language doesn’t even have a dictionary, so all their classes and books are in High German. So everyone already knows 2 languages. On top of that they all know English, although they will say there English is crap, there all liars. They can all understand and speak way better than I ever could in German. Most of them also know another language on top of that. Usually they know Swiss German, High German, English, and French or Spanish. So I was able to converse in Spanish with 3 people in his class that were taking Spanish. It was very good, but I was impressed that they could speak so well from only taking classes and not going there.
Swiss Food. I had Roqlette 3 times while in Switzerland. My first time ever as my first meal on Thursday, second time at the Scout´s camp on the weekend, and the third time on the following Wednesday. It a slab on cheese that you melt under a heater and you can put different things in it. Such as; pineapple, onion, roqlette spice, asparagus, nuts, olives, basically anything you want. The cheese melts with all the items in it and you let it slide off the tray onto your plate. Its soo good! Thats the one
thing I don´t understand about the Swiss, they eat enormous amounts of chocolate and cheese and yet are ALL skinny. Like really skinny, I think I saw one fat person the entire time I was there. If you want to lose weight or remain more or less the same weight on your exchange, I suggest you go to Switzerland. Although you will gain some initial weight from all the chocolate you consume, you will eventually start losing weight.I LOVE SWITZERLAND
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