Grüsse!
As of yesterday (11/11) I have been here 3 months!! I can't believe it, time has gone by so fast, and I am having so much fun here. My weekends always have plans, so for those of you who check this blog on Sundays, you may want to change it to Mondays because I have Monday afternoons off (of school anyway). These last two weekends had a few highlights, and as always were pretty busy. :]
Last Sunday (not yesterday, so the 4th), my host parents took me to a gorge (I seriously could not remember that word in English that day, good thing the French word is the same). As always when my host parents take me to some nature thing in Switzerland, it was GORGEOUS. (Get it? GORGEous, haha ;] ) The leaves were all changing colors and there's a river running through it.. Ya it was just really, really pretty. Even when it started raining and all I had was my UWEC sweatshirt it was still really fun and soo pretty. Waterfalls started coming off of the sides, and it was just awesome :]
Last Friday night (11/9, and who had the Katy Perry song start playing in their head, be honest ;] ) I went Irish dancing with my host mothers (1st and 3rd haha). That was SO much fun. And actually really hard! Lots of leg moving and with around 50 people there (or more) it got really hot. I was wearing a tank top and it was probably 40 degrees F outside. And after that I met up with one of my best friends here, Mackenzie, from Buffalo, New York. :] We hung out in Bern for awhile, and then I stayed at her house overnight.
Sunday (yesterday 11/11), we had a country fair for all potential exchange students from Switzerland to talk with exchange students from the country they want to go to. 60 Swiss people want to go to the USA! The person in charge told us right away that we didn't have to do anything to convince people to come the the US. haha In fact she wanted us to tell them other countries might be a better choice haha. It's really hard not to talk good about your country though, but maybe because there were so many of us and we are so outgoing maybe we scared a few of them off... Oops.. haha Swiss people are definitely a bit more reserved than Americans (South America included, Brazilians are LOUD). So that was a fun time. :]
School, is school... I have nothing really to say about it. haha I'm getting better with German everyday, including Swiss German. :] You know you are understanding the language and culture when you notice the random things they do while speaking. For example, they say "Gau?" and it's usually an exclamation. The "direct translation" is "Isn't it?" but it think it's more like our "right?". Here's an example: "Scheisse, es ist kalt!" To which another person would reply: "Gau?". (In English that's "Crap, it's cold!" "Right?") Another thing is they say "Tak!" when they take something or put something in place. And I started saying it too without realizing it.. I'm becoming Swiss! ;]
Going to another hockey game this weekend, Allez Bienne, Allez! :]
Tschüss! -Anne-Marie
