Anyone want to guess what the title is? Hint: It's Swiss German, and there's probably a lot of them in the Spring time. ;] I love that word, it fits the thing so well. haha
Wow so much has happened in the last month.. I have officially hit over 1,600 photos taken, but in my defense it has been over 7 months!
I ended up going to four different Fasnachts. :] My first was in Luzern (2/11), where everyone dresses up in crazy costumes, with lots of marching bands in parades (and TONS of Confetti). The masks are often three times larger than normal heads, so they have a hole for the instrument to be played. And all the costumes are hand-made!! People really go all out. I went with a exchange student who lives in Luzern, and her host parents had literally 100 costumes that we were allowed to wear to the festival. I had blue pirate pants on, a greenish-bluish waistcoat, a rainbow-sequined fanny pack, and my blue sequined fedora hat. I was quite a mix match of things haha.
My second was in my "home-town" of Biel (2/14), where I went with my host club to a dinner/ Fasnachtfest. It was all inside, and some of the heads on the costumes were to big to fit through the doors! A lot of the costumes lit up too, so they would sometimes turn all the lights off as they played. It was pretty funny being the youngest one there, but all of the adults pelted confetti at each other like they were teenagers. :]
Then in the capital of Switzerland, Bern (2/15), which was again all outside, and I was with a bunch of other exchange students (a lot live in/ near to Bern). The last was in Basel (2/18). Basel was really special, because I took a train at 2 in the morning to get to Basel by 3, and then you go into the heart of the city. Right at 4 am, every light in the city turns off, and all of the "cliques" (bands, consisting of only piccolo/ flutes and drums) are all lit up. Sometimes all you could see were floating lights. SO pretty, but I was so tired the rest of the day/ week! Didn't help that I hadn't gotten much sleep the bulk of the weekend. Bern Fasnacht was Friday, then we had a Winter Weekend (2/16-17) with a bunch of other Exchange students in Engelberg where we went ice skating, played in the snow, and went sledding. This is not your normal sledding we think of though, this is basically a luge run down a mountain! So much fun, but most definitely a bit dangerous on the really steep parts. Needless to say, being with a bunch of teenagers, we didn't get to much sleep. Then Basel Fasnacht was Sunday night/ Monday morning. I was really tired for a few days afterwards!
A woman from my Rotary club took me to Luzern on 2/24 to show me around, it was nice to actually have a "formal" tour, instead of the random wandering you do with other exchangers. She took me to Zurich as well on 3/9, and today I'm going to watch a dance competition with her here in Biel.
On 3/2, I went with the daughter of my host parents (she doesn't live here anymore, but I guess she's still my host sister?), to Grindelwald. It was with a church group again, but all young adults, I was the youngest. We had cheese fondue on a fire (a upright standing log with slots cut into it for fire, and nails on the top for a stove-top. Not really sure how they did it, but it worked really well.), and went sledding. Again, not your average, every-day sledding! Grindelwald was WAY steeper than Engelberg. There was a "fast" run and a "slow" run, we all agreed the fast run was much more fun, but it really was down a mountain! Plus it was at night... at least we all had ski helmets on! There was even an accident (not from our group) and a girl got flown out with a helicopter! So kinda dangerous...it was so worth the soreness and bruises though! haha At he end we sledded down the ski hill! It had no lights on it unlike the sled run, so those who didn't have head lamps had to follow someone who did. Only in Switzerland. :]
Next weekend 22-24 (skipping school on Friday, ;] ) I'm going with my Rotary club (which is mostly old guys... haha) to Adelboden-Lenk for a ski weekend. Over Easter my host parents are bringing me with to Tessin (East, southern, Italian part of Switzerland), and I change host families one more time! And right after I change families, I am going to Italy! My trip includes Rome and Venice (Rom und Venedig auf Deutsch) and it is the 3rd week of April (14-20) , second week of my spring break. So I have a lot to look forward to this next month as well. :]
So hope you all have a wonderful month! And maybe if someone can guess the title right, they will get a prize. ;]
Tschüss!
-Anne-Marie
