Grüsse/ Salut/ Hola

Here goes nothing...
Prepare to be updated on the last 3 weeks of my Swiss life, crazy long blog style ;]
WEEK 1:
     My first week of my holidays. My class was in London, but couldn't take me due to it being to hard to get tickets and stuff like that, so I had an entire extra week off than other Swiss people. My host sister still had school, so she was gone most of the day, but we still went riding a couple times that week :]
    My host mom took me a the 3-Seenfahrt (3 lake) tour on Wednesday, it was gorgeous, but we both agreed we should have taken the train back, it was a long time to spend on a boat, and see the same scenery twice. the 3-Seen were Bielersee (the one I'm closest too), then through part of Lac de Neuchatel, then final through Murtensee to the village of Murten. We got off in Murten and climbed up the Ramparts (old castle wall surrounding part of he town). Really gorgeous view of the lake, with the old houses. (I have pictures, don't worry ;] ) The whole thing took up basically the whole day, and it rained on the way back, so that made it less enjoyable, but still a good day. 
    I'm going to be honest, the bulk of that week was spent by me being really lazy and not doing much. It was kind of nice to not doing much though, after being so busy and always going places since I've been here. Toward the end of the week, I packed for our two week trip to France and then Spain.
WEEK 2:
    This week started off with a 7 hour car ride with my host family plus a friend of my host sister, to France, Cap D'Agde to be exact if you want to look it up. (Guess it didn't really start then because that was Saturday, but it felt like that) That wasn't to bad actually, I had my iPod and my computer so it went by pretty fast. And it was GORGEOUS. We had a small apartment, on the fourth floor of a building that was literally ON the Mediterranean Sea. 2 minute walk to the beach. The view was AMAZING. (I have lots of pictures of that too). So there was lots of beach time that week. :] 
    The day after we got to Cap D'Agde (Sunday), went to a really cool castle called Carcassonne that had been restored to look like it did in all it's glory. (Well mostly) It was basically for tourists, there were lots of little shops you could buy little trinkets from, lots of little cafes and restaurants; and I heard a lot of British people haha. After the castle we went to a French town/ city and just walked around (honestly can't remember what city.... oops). There was a huge square cut out in the middle of town so that you could see the original Roman road that runs under the entire city, and you can actually walk on it yourself. You can see the ruts in the stone from the carts and wagons of the people so it's pretty cool. Monday and Tuesday were beach days! :] Wednesday we went to a cave called Grotte de Clamouse, which means something like "Cathedral Cave" or so they said. It was really cool seeing the weird things minerals can make with water given time. Some of it doesn't look real. I took some pictures, but they obviously don't do it justice because it's a dark cave... After the cave we went to an old village that had some really old building and awesome architecture. And when I say old, I mean old. The rest of the days were spent on the beach, but the night before we were supposed to leave (Fri. night), my host fams car started making funny noises. And it was past 9, and everything in France closes around 6 or 7. So that was interesting, waiting for a tow truck, getting a taxi back to our apartment, and then the next day packing and cleaning the entire apartment (so they didn't have to pay for the cleaning service), all of our stuff ended up in the hallway waiting for a call so we could get a rental car and go to Spain. Finally we got a car, but by that time the sky had started pouring buckets of water on to us, so packing all of our stuff into the car was interesting. You couldn't see out the back window, and my host sister, her friend, and I were all squished together on the bench seat in the back. So that's how our four hour drive to Spain began.
WEEK 3:
    We made it to Spain in the pouring rain. We had to run to get our stuff into our bungalow (Basically a small cabin). That week we were with my host fams church (unlike France, where it was just the five of us), so i met a lot of people. There were probably over 50 teenagers there, along with a lot of adults, and almost everyone soon knew I was the American. Basically that week was spent on the beach. I actually have tan lines! For those who know don't: I don't tan, pretty much stay white all year round. Somehow I got tan though (for me, still pale compared to everyone else...). We played lots of beach volleyball, badminton (minus the net), went in the ocean..
    On Tuesday, we went to Port Aventura, which is an amusement park. People, be proud of me! I went on almost every ride! Yes even the roller coaster called "Shambala" that was  "an expedition through the Himalayas" and literally was the biggest roller coaster I have ever seen. You went up this huuuuge incline, then down I'm pretty sure as steep as possible without dying. And the thing broke before we went on it, but I still did it! There were roller coasters that did full on upside down loops (one was called something with a dragon; looots of loops); and a ride like the power tower (for those who know valley fair) that brought you up higher than even "Shambala", then dropped you straight down as you thought you saw your life flash before your eyes. But this one was a little different, because when you get to the top, they tilt you forward a bit so they can see your even more scared face as you are forced to look at the drop you are about to do, then they take your picture mid-freak-out, and drop you. Should be proud of me though, the second time we went on it, I put my thumbs up to the camera. ;] That was a fun day...
    On Thursday I went with my host fam on  a tour of the Spanish countryside (AKA Hinterland), and it was gorgeous. I love European architecture. There are interesting differences between each country too, and I kind of just love old fashioned things. There's definitely plenty of that here. :]
    We left Spain on Saturday morning, and drove the four hours back to Cap D'Agde to get my host fams now fixed car. We stopped at McDonald's for a quick lunch (first time eating it in Europe, TAKE THAT STEREOTYPE). We had a seven hour car ride before us, and I thought I could just go on my laptop, since my iPod died just before we got to Cap D'Agde, but nooo it decided it didn't want to charge while in Spain, so I literally had seven hours of doing nothing but staring out the window, or trying to sleep (Can't really fall asleep in cars). Let's just say those seven hours seemed like a very long time.
WEEK 4:
    Sooo now I'm on week 4 of my month long holidays off school! I have my first meeting with my host club tomorrow (have to give a speech in German, yikes!), and then hanging out with some other exchange students later in the week. Then back to school next week! Though I kind of feel like it will be my first real week because the schedule was messed around so much the first, first week...
Anyway; hope you all enjoyed reading this and didn't doze off halfway through or something. ;] If you had to take breaks I understand! haha
Comment and I'll do my best to answer soon! No pictures until tomorrow, sorry, it's already almost 11 here..
Liebe grüsse,
Anne-Marie
P.S. I didn't realize there were so many options for commenting, sorry! If you want to leave a comment put it under "Anonymous" and leave you name at the end of you comment so I k