Day 12

Hello People of the World,

Happy May Montag! Or for you english speakers Happy May Monday! Feels so good to say that again! I haven't done a May Monday on an actual Monday for almost a month now. Technically in Switzerland it's no longer Monday but in California it is, so I'm still on schedule. Speaking of schedules, my sleeping schedule has finally started to sort of get back to normal. I never had like major jet lag because I always tried really hard to stay up to beat it. I always got up really early like at 4 or 5 or 6. Yesterday I slept until 7:30 am. New record!!! Anyways enough about my sleeping life let's talk about what's been happening. Again, a lot of things have happened, and it's all hard to keep track what happened when so I'll just do an overview.

Language School:

So last Monday, I started language school. Language school is a class I go to with other exchange students to learn German before we go to actual school. The class is made of about 15 kids from all over the globe. There's kids there from the USA, Brazil, China, Thailand, Mexico, Poland, Paraguay, Dominican Republic, Czech Republic, and Denmark. It's really cool to meet all these people from all around the world. Lucky for me the language class is in Winterthur, which happens to be the city I live in, so it's pretty easy to get there. Last week, the class was from Monday to Friday. This week is only Monday to Wednesday. I go to actual school on Thursday and Friday. This is how it will be for the next four weeks. After those four weeks are up I go to actual school full time. I really like language school because it's like a gateway before I go to actual school. I know if I was placed in actual school as soon as I got here I wouldn't have understood much. Now I'm starting to understand German and able to slightly follow my host family's German conversations. Not to mention I meet awesome people. We all hung out last week after school. It was really fun and we explored the city of Winterthur.

Exploring the City:

Since I've been going to language school, I've had time after school to explore the city. Winterthur is a pretty big city; it's a lot bigger than my town back home. When you go to a big city, it is very easy to get lost. I no longer call getting lost "getting lost" now it is simply wandering while finding new destinations. My favourite time getting lost was on my second or third day to language school I believe. I was the last one to leave the house because my host parents went to work and my host siblings were at school, so I had to lock the door. My host father told me beforehand how to lock it, but me being me I still struggled locking it. In my defence, the keys and locks are different from the US. I took so long to lock it that I missed my bus to school. The buses come around every 15 minutes, and I was afraid I'd be late if I took the next one, so I decided to walk to school. The problem was I only remembered how to walk to the shops, so once I got to the shops I didn't know where to go. I kept walking, but I just kept seeing shops. I called my host dad, and he directed me over the phone to the school. Now looking back at it, I wasn't far from the school. I literally just had to turn and walk straight.

Baking Adventures:

If you know me, then you'd know I love baking, so of course, once I got more comfortable in the home I started to want to bake. Most of the classic cookies are also made here, so I wanted the first batch of cookies to be something my family had never tasted. I decided to make No Bake cookies. If you don't know No Bake cookies are cookies you don't bake, but rather make a chocolate sauce then mix it with peanut butter and oatmeal. Then you just scoop them into cookies and let them cool. My family didn't have peanut butter, cocoa powder or oatmeal, so I decided that after school I would go to the store. I knew there was peanut butter in the supermarket by my school so I figured that if it was there it'd be everywhere. Boy, was I wrong. I went to four different supermarkets that were closer to my bus stop, so I can easily go home afterwards, but none of them had peanut butter. I finally walked back to the supermarket by my school that I knew had peanut butter. Once I was there I found the peanut butter no problem, but the oatmeal and cocoa powder was another story. I started asking the workers there in German if they could speak English. Most would say yes then go blank the minute I said baking section. I tried to ask in German but my sentence only got as far as "Where is". Workers would then direct me to other workers who they believed spoke English. Their English was about as good as my German. Eventually I got so desperate I started to act out baking but that only resulted in me looking like an idiot. I gave up after, and I found the baking section on my way out. I found cocoa powder,  but no oatmeal. I just went to the register and bought what I found. When I got home, it turned out we actually did have oatmeal, so it all worked out. Moral of the story: Always know the name of what you need to buy before you go out to a foreign store.

Those cookies came out great! I think my family liked them because they went away pretty quickly. Recently, I made M&M cookies with my host brother. He is a great Sous-Chef.  Those were gone even quicker. This week my host brother is going to teach me how to make a type of Swiss cookie I can't currently remember the name of, but I know it will be fun!

The Zoo:

On Saturday, I went to the zoo in Zürich with my host parents. It was really fun! The exhibits were really nice and there were lots and lots of animals.

Baby Elephant with Mommy Elephant

My favorite animal:The Snow Leopard

Baby Rhino

Leaf or insect?

View from the top of the Madagascar exhibit

Spot the chameleon

 Dressage Competition:

On Sunday, I went with my host brother to a Dressage Competition. A Dressage Competition is a competition where horses and their riders go into a ring and perform a series of movements where they will get judged by judges for appearance and how well the series of movements are done. It was pretty cool! The horses were all so beautiful. Afterwards, we walked to the stable my host brother works at. We took out one horse called "Netti" and walked her out on a trail in the woods. It was really nice.

My host brother and Netti

The trail we walked on

View of the City

Upcoming Events:

So as I said before, this week i start actual school. I went last week to take a tour of the school. It's very big. I already have my schedule. My first class is English class, so that shouldn't be too hard. My longest day is on Tuesday which I go to school until 5:30. Thankfully I don't have to deal with that until language school is over.

Anyways so I have to get going to language school. I'll see you next Monday for another May Monday! Hope you all have a fabulous day and enjoy the rest of your week!

Until then...

Tschüss!

-May

I'm in Switzerland

Hello People of the World,

Surprise! I'm back. Yes, I know it's not Monday, but I have a feeling I will be very busy on Monday, so I won't have time to post. As you can imagine I've been very busy these past weeks. My days and hours have been off since I set foot on my plane, so I can't specifically remember what day was which so I'll just go through the important days. Let's get started!

My Birthday:

My birthday was on August 6th. For my birthday, I decided to throw a birthday/going away party since it was so close to my leaving date. I only had a couple of friends over and we had a barbecue and bonfire. It was really fun, and I was glad to spend some time with all my closest friends before I left. It was overall just a very fun night, and I wouldn't have asked for my birthday to be spent any other way.

Me ft. my cousin photobombing

A couple friends and I at my party

Me with my cake 

Me with my cake

So where I'm from it's a tradition to bite into the cake. Usually after you blow out the candles people will start to chant "muerdale" which in Spanish translates to "bite it". I believe this tradition originates from either Mexico or somewhere in South America. It may seem totally harmless to take one small bite into a cake, but in reality, whoever is behind you is going to smash your face into the cake as hard as they possibly can. Usually this tradition is more aimed for children because as you get older you really don't want to get your face smashed into a cake. After I blew out my candles people started to chant to bite it. Even though I knew I was going to get a face full of cake, I decided to be a good sport and bite it. I took precautions to save the cake for others by cutting a slice for myself to bite out of. As expected, my cousin and his friends showed no mercy and my face was smashed into a cake. There was frosting all over my face, and my great friends were sure to get the whole thing on video. Later that night, I saw videos of my face getting smashed into cake at 12 different angles on snapchat. I would upload a picture of the aftermath of my face getting smashed into a cake, but no one really needs to see that.

Flying to New York:

Last Sunday night, I flew out to New York. Before I went to the airport, I stopped by In-N-Out to have my last Californian meal, My mom, aunt and friends all came along with me. Afterwards, we were back on the road headed to the airport.  On the way, my friends and I jammed out to all of my favorite songs and looked back on some of our favorite times. Then we finally made it to the airport. I checked in and got all my luggage taken care of. I finally had to say goodbye to my friends and family once I got to security. It was pretty emotional, but I got myself together by the time I made it to my gate. Then I finally boarded and I had a red eye also known as a night flight so I just slept the whole time. When I woke up I could see the sunlight shining against the window. I still had an hour to go, so I just watched episodes of Modern Family on my computer.

My friends and I at the airport

I would upload more pictures, but some of them I just don't look good in and it's very time consuming for the pictures to upload

Orientation:

Once I landed in New York I headed out to Orientation which was an overnight thing in the Hilton hotel. It was very fun! I met a lot of people from all across the US going to Switzerland. There was also some people there going to Norway and one girl going to Chile. They were all pretty cool people. It was nice to talk to people who are going through something similar to you. We all made jokes about how many people told us to "Have a good time in Sweden!" or how many people asked if they "could fit in our suitcase". It was overall just really a cool time.

All the people from orientation going to Switzerland

Arriving in Switzerland:

I'm not going to lie, the plane ride was really long. I was very excited to meet my host family, so all I wanted to do was land in Switzerland as quick as possible. The plane was very entertaining and killed time pretty quickly. We all had mini TVs which showed variations of movies and TV shows. You could also play video games on them. The airplane food was probably the best airplane food I'd ever had. They served us dinner and breakfast. Thankfully all the AFS kids were all sat together, so at least we weren't next to random strangers. This made the plane ride pretty bearable.

Once we finally landed, we all found our way to the luggage claim. Afterwards, we all separated ways to go find our families. I found mine pretty quickly. They were holding a cute little sign with my name on it. We made our way to the train station. It was only about a 15 minute train ride from the airport to my town. I basically just stared outside the window taking in the beauty of Switzerland. Once I got home, I stayed up as long as possible trying to beat jetlag, I lasted until about 7.

First Days in Switzerland

I have been in Switzerland for about 3 days now, and I absolutely love it. My family is great. The city is beautiful. Everything is so green. My host sister has been very nice to me and has shown me around the city. I'm starting to get slightly familiar with the roads. Last night, I went to a music festival with my host sister and her friend. It was really fun. The bands were local and most of them sang in Swiss German, but the vibes were really cool. The sound was like The Arctic Monkeys meet Dexy's Midnight Runners meets The Smiths meets Lindsey Sterling meets Paramore. I really liked it.

Later tonight I'm going to dinner with my host family to go meet my second host family. We are in charge of bringing desserts. I helped my host father make a Swiss Chocolate Mousse. Not to toot my own horn but I think it went pretty well. I guess we will find out how good it is later tonight at dinner.

What's next:

So Monday I have my first language course. That's not too nerve wracking because it's just going to be a class full of exchange students from around the area learning German. This will be a good way to meet some people and to learn German. Also on Wednesday, I have a meeting with the dean of my school to talk about my schedule. 

Guess what next Thursday is?

Well at least for me it is. I think my host siblings start on Monday. I get nervous thinking of it because I'm going to be the new kid, not to mention it's going to be taught in a language I don't know too. I'm sure it won't be too bad though. On the bright side, I'm going to meet new people. It'll be interesting to say the least.

On a different note, I HAVE TRIED SWISS CHOCOLATE. Well I tried a Toblerone which is a brand of chocolate made in Switzerland. Yes, they have it in the states, but let me tell you IT IS NO WHERE NEAR AS GOOD. I also tried a Twix and a Kit Kat because I wanted to see if it tastes different. I feel like the Swiss Kit Kats and Twixes have more cookie than the American ones have. Overall, the chocolate here is very rich so you must pace yourself.

Exclusive picture of me with Swiss Chocolate

In other news, Swiss cheese is also delicious. We eat it with bread a lot for dinner.

I relate a lot to Gus Gus

As for how my German is going right now, I would say I'm a whole lot better at understanding it than speaking it. Well that's in some cases. Most cases my host family will speak in German and I'll recognize one or two basic words. My family helps me learn by stating the object in German and I will repeat it.

My most used words are:

Hallo:Hello

Ja:Yes

Nein:No

Danke:Thank You

Tschüss: Goodbye

I know it's pretty basic at the moment, but in my defense it's only my third day here. My family also speaks French sometimes, and it makes me realize that those two years of French I took really didn't teach me much.

Okay I think I'm going to wrap things up now. So I hope you all enjoy the rest of your week. If you start school soon, good luck!

Tschüss
-May

8 Days Until Switzerland

Hello People of The World,

Happy May.... wait it's not Monday.  I wish I could be slick and play off that it's Monday somewhere in the world, but sadly I live on one of the 2nd to last timezone so the latest time it is in the world is Tuesday 6:34 pm in Honolulu. I was thinking about waiting until next week to post and just make it a long post, but I have to fly to New York on Sunday and get there Monday morning to go to orientation.Then Tuesday I fly to Switzerland, and I arrive on Wednesday. It's probably going to be a very busy week next week, so I'll try to post when I can. Anyway let's move on to what's happened in the last week.

Tuesday-Thursday

To be honest I really can't completely remember exactly what I did these days. I remember dog/house sitting for my aunt a couple days.  I watched a lot of Netflix and Youtube videos. I gathered everything I was going to take to Switzerland and tried to fit it all in one suitcase. Nothing really too exciting.

Friday:

This day I went out to Monterey. For those of you that don't know, Monterey is a very pretty city on the coast of California. My mom was getting her hair done, so I took my little sister to go explore. We went to this mirror maze which was very fun. It killed time pretty well because it's very easy to get lost in there. We eventually made it out then went mini golfing. My little sister is only four so she wasn't the best at it. She would get frustrated when she didn't get a hole in one (which was like every time), so she would place the ball right in front of the hole. Then we went back to the mirror maze, The first time we went through the mirror maze my sister was very unsure of it which resulted in her clinging to me the whole time. When we came back my sister was a lot more confident. She wanted to lead the way. I could see the exit through a mirror. My sister saw the exit too and started running to it. By the time she realized it was a reflection in a mirror, it was too late. She was on the floor crying because she ran face first into a mirror. 

Exclusive footage of my sister in the mirror maze

I picked her up trying to soothe her while finding our way out. I eventually made it out, but she was still bawling. I asked her if she wanted to go to the candy store next door. The second I said candy my sister's tears all magically disappeared. She took a half an hour deciding what candy she wanted. Then another twenty minutes was added because I had to talk her out of wanting to buy a huge gummy bear for 20 dollars. We walked to my mom's salon. After my mom was done we went to run some errands and I picked up some things I needed.

Saturday:

I went to one of my friends house and spent the night there. It was just fun to catch up because unlike me me my friend was very busy over the summer playing softball all over, so I didn't get to see her much. We ate a lot of junk food, and I made cookies. Then we spent the rest of the night bonding.

Sunday:

I woke up in the morning to a call from my mother. She suggested that we go to LA. This may seem weird to many people, but my mom is very spontaneous and loves to live in the moment, so I grew used to it. I would even say I have a similar personality in that way. Anyways, we drove down to LA. We like to drive down there at night since there is a lot less traffic and the LA lights are always so pretty. I stay awake by drinking lots of caffeine and jamming out to whatever music I'm playing.

Monday:

My mom and I spent this day to explore the LA area. We got up pretty early to go to the Santa Monica Pier. It was pretty. The only thing that was we went so early that not everything was open yet. Then we went to explore the city of Santa Monica. There was this really cool British shop there.

Santa Monica Pier ft cool bridge decorated as a rainbow in honor of the recent Supreme Court ruling 

Then we went down to Downtown LA to visit the Grammy Museum. The Grammy Museum is so sick! It's honestly really underrated, and I was very surprised that it wasn't hoarded with tourists. I think it was because it was in Downtown LA and most tourists go to Hollywood. It's a shame because it gives you a really good insight on the history of music and how the Grammy's started.

A list of the songwriters in the Songwriters Hall of Fame

There was this really cool Taylor Swift exhibit. It had some of the outfits that Taylor has worn in previous years. It also had some of her songwriting notebooks,guitars she's used in the past and things from her childhood. Personally I really like both Taylor Swift and her music, so it was really nice to see the exhibit. 

Here's some pictures from the Grammy Museum along with pictures I took while in LA

Taylor Swift's dresses and costumes at Grammy Events

Taylor Swift's everyday outfit

Beyoncé's Grammy dress from 2015

Really cool 2Pac exhibit in the Grammy Museum

Beverly Hills sign ft cute random couple

The most adorable fish I've ever seen 

Today:

I would love to say I was productive, but if I did, I would be lying. The most productive thing I probably will do today is post this. I still need to clean my room because it's a total mess. I need to finish packing. Lots of "fun" things I need to do

On a positive note, MY BIRTHDAY IS ON THURSDAY!!!! If you can't tell by my excessive capitalization, I am very excited. I haven't seen too many of my friends this summer because everyone's always busy, so I'm excited to see them all at my birthday party. 

Me in 2 days

It's crazy to think that my journey to Switzerland begins on Sunday and that I will actually be in Switzerland in 8 days. It seems like just yesterday I had months to wait. People have been asking me constantly "Are you nervous?" and now I can honestly say I've had months to be nervous and think of every single possibility of what could go wrong, but I'm no longer nervous. I used those months to get every doubt in my mind out of my head. I am now fully ready to go on this adventure and see where it takes me.

I think I'm going to end on that note. I hope you all enjoy the rest of your night and have a great week. I'll post my next post when I have time. Maybe it'll be a classic May Monday. Maybe not. Who knows?

Until then....

Auf Wiedersehen (for non German speakers that means goodbye)

-May