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