Bärner Fasnacht

Pictures from Carnival in Berne!

Whitetail to the Jura

Although my skiing background is far from extensive,  I was determined to try my skills out while in Switzerland since I refused to leave a country where skiing is the national sport without at least trying it out. Every weekend the trains are filled with individuals, couples and families all making their way out to either the nearby Jura mountains or to the more well-known Alps. Since I am what you would consider a skier in training I decided that the Jura might be a more logical choice for my skill level, so my friend Katherine and I decided to take a day trip to La Dole which is part of the Jura mountain range, and sits on the border of France and Switzerland. The journey to the slopes only took us about 45 minutes, and after renting my gear for the day we were ready to go.

Now my ski experiences have mostly been at the Whitetail resort in Mercersburg Pennsylvania, which definitely is not the most advanced or expansive of resorts, but one thing I can always rely on is that I will be able to make it up the mountain safely via a chair lift. The first thing I noticed when we approached the slopes was the contraption the skiers were using to get up the mountain. It wasn't my trusty chair lift, but instead it looked like a metal ball attached to a metal pole. Katherine had gone skiing once with her host family already, so she was ready to go, but I stood on the side for a few minutes trying to figure out how exactly to use this successfully. After watching a few people gracefully hop onto the ball/pole contraption I figured that I would just have to try it and see what happened. I cautiously edged up to the front of the line and when it was my turn I grabbed a pole, placed it between my legs and leaned back. What I wasn't expecting was for the pole to jerk into place without warning and carry me up the mountain whether I was ready or not. Apparently I wasn't ready, because after about one minute of awkwardly trying to keep the metal pole in place I lost control and fell off to the side. Luckily I could see part of the downhill slope, so  I took off my skis and went on a little hike through the woods to get to the slope. I had about a 60-40 success fail rate by the end of the day, so I figure that's not too shabby for a skier trained in the mountains of Mercersburg Pennsylvania. 

UPDATES!

So in an effort to update this quickly, so that I can get back on track with this blogging thing, I am going to switch over to bullet format for this post. I am going to keep things short and sweet, and from now on I plan to become a diligent blogger......plan being the main word in that sentence.

1. A few weeks ago I went to Interlaken with four of my friends, and after a great deal of research we had our hearts set on sledging down the Alps via the world's longest known "sledge path." What our research didn't tell us was that we would have to hike up a mountain (not just any mountain, but an ALP), for 2.5 hours before we reached the beginning of a the sledge run. In addition, we couldn't rent our sledge at the top of the mountain, but would have the pleasure of dragging the sledge along behind us as we trekked up through the Alps. Once we made it to the top we were elated for approximately 5 minutes, until we started the sledging experience. In Switzerland they apparently don't have the same safety regulations as they do in the United States, because not only were we sledging down an alp on a sled without brakes or any device for steering, but we had about a 50% chance of making it down the mountain without sledging off a cliff, since there weren't any retaining bars and the path was about as wide as two sleds. After about an hour of stop and go sledging (using our feet and hands as breaks) we made it to a restaurant. It had gotten substantially colder so we decided to make a quick pit stop and make sure that we were on the right path. After some amazing hot chocolate we asked the waiter whether we were going the right way to get back to our destination in the town of Grindewald. He told us that the rest of the sledging path wasn't open due to lack of snow, so we would either have to take the bus or walk down. As cheap college students we obviously weren't going to pay the 22 swiss francs for the bus, so we decided to make our way down the mountain by foot (still dragging our sledges). Once it got dark we realized this might not be the best idea and to make a long story short we hailed down the bus, hopped on and found out that after an hour and a half of walking we had saved a whole 5 francs, so we only had to pay 17 francs for the rest of the bus ride. Definitely an exciting way to experience the Alps and gave me the opportunity to see the Swiss version of sledging.

2. Next, I got to spend four jam packed days in Paris. We stayed in a beautiful hotel, and had an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower from our rooms! I absolutely loved the city, but it was extremely difficult to see everything in such a short amount of time. I got to meet up with my friend, Hadley, who is studying abroad there. She showed me around the Latin quarter and made sure that I tried a nutella and banana crepe which would definitely become my go-to food if I was spending the semester there. Overall, Paris was an absolutely gorgeous city with more impressive building, monuments and museums than I can count.

3. After the four day stint in Paris a bunch of my friends and I flew to Barcelona for the weekend. This city was such a switch from Paris, and the pace of life was much more relaxing. It was nice to feel 60 degree weather, see the beach and have a more relaxing travel experience. Some highlights from this trip include biking along the Mediterranean Ocean, getting a second piercing on the streets of Barcelona, getting food for a picnic from the most amazing farmers market I have ever seen, and seeing Gaudi's garden on a beautiful sunny day. Barcelona was an incredible city and made me want to see more of spain.

So those are my quick updates on the past few weeks, and I plan to be much more on top of it from here on out!

La Famille

Living with another family undoubtedly has its awkward moments, and when you add in a major language barrier those moments seem almost inescapable.  During the past week, as I have settled into my schedule and gotten to know my host-family (famille adoptif) better, conversations are slowly become increasingly natural and I feel like they're slowly starting to see more of my personality. While I am nowhere close to having the ability to make jokes in French, I have started to become comfortable enough communicating in French to make the family laugh at something besides my lack of language skills. After being offered free-reign of the chocolate drawer today, my host dad seemed to find it hilarious when I said j'aime le tiroir du chocolat (I love the chocolate drawer). While definitely far from wit, at least it's something.

Earlier this week all of the students and host families got together for a traditional raclette dinner. Raclette is a Swiss speciality and is basically melted cheese over potatoes, and if you're feeling extra adventurous you can throw in some baby pearl onions and pickles. Honestly, It's a weird meal to consider a "specialty," and I really think they could benefit by sticking to fondue. Nonetheless it was so much fun to get all of the host families together, especially since all of the families seemed to know one another. My host mom's doctor, colleague, swimming buddy, and several other friends were all there, and everyone was eager to get to know one another. During dinner I was sitting across from two of my friend's host sisters who speak very good English, so I would ask them questions in French and they would answer in English which was the perfect balance. My favorite new vocab word I learned that night was le cornichon, which means pickle. It was so nice to see my host family in their natural element, and have them see a little bit of my "normal" english-speaking personality come through.

Last night I got to see even more of my family's life come out when my host dad's parents came over for dinner. They live in Geneva, so they tend to see each other at least once a week, and they are definitely a very close family. I had gotten home a little later than expected, because I had been hiking with some friends in Mount Salève (Amazing hike that I'll talk about later), so I showered really quickly and then went upstairs to say hi to the fam. The grandmother immediately started chatting with me, asking me about myself and telling me all about Switzerland. Luckily she spoke slowly enough for me to understand most of what she was saying. The rest of the night was so much easier than I had initially expected, and while there was definitely some smiling and nodding due to confusion, I was able to grasp enough of what was going on to participate in the convo every now and then. It has definitely been a fun two weeks getting to know the Girardet Fam, and I can't wait for it to become increasingly natural and for the awkward moments to slowly decrease as we get to know each other better.

Chez Moi

This is what I wake up to every morning.........pas mal 

The Value of a Swiss Franc

Living in Switzerland on a student budget definitely has its ups and downs. In a country where the cities are dominated by international organizations and banks and populated by wealthy businessmen and women, we have had to get creative to avoid shelling out 7 dollars for coffee or 12 dollars for a basic chicken sandwich. During the week we can do this pretty easily by heading to the Migros (local grocery store) and investing in a loaf of bread, some cheese, tomatoes, maybe some lunch meat, and obviously a bar of chocolate, giving us a solid meal for under 2.50 each. When the weekend comes finding activities and food on a budget can definitely be a little trickier. Luckily, one thing that comes (almost) free of cost is the scenery.

This weekend gave us our first chance to really get outside of the city and explore Switzerland. I live on a train line that heads up and into the mountains, and if you take it far enough you end up pretty close to the French border in a town called La Cure. Today, three of us decided to ride the train up to St-Cergue an area known for its scenery. Normally during this time of year if we went there we would be in the midst of cross-country skiers, but with the 50 degree weather we figured snow wouldn't be a problem. I hopped on the train outside my house, and met up with Lindsay who had bonded with a fellow foreigner (relatively easy to find in Switzerland) over ticket confusion. Once we hopped off the train we found Ali and we were on our way. We ended up using our newfound friend's knowledge of the area (He has lived in Geneva since September), and we joined him for a day of hiking. Throughout the day we discovered that he used to be a Foreign Correspondent in Sub-Saharan Africa for Times Magazine, so he definitely had some good stories to share. We spent the afternoon exploring the area, and repeatedly asking ourselves whether the scenery was real. The mountain was filled with people taking advantage of the incredible weather, and the 70 year olds trekking along beside us definitely made me embarrassed about my undeniably heavy breathing. We had a leisurely late lunch at the top, and our newfound friend provided us with Swiss chocolate, because as we are slowly learning, you can never go anywhere without a chocolate bar. Our day ended with us sprinting to the train, because heading away from the city and into the mountains had made us forget the punctuality of the Swiss. Luckily we made it to the train station just in time, and we were able to enjoy a relaxing and scenic ride down the mountain. 

With the Alps as well as Lac Léman (lake Geneva) in the distance, hiking in Switzerland is definitely an unforgettable experience. It also only put me back $5.00.......not bad for a day en Suisse! 

Le Début

After a surprisingly easy journey I arrived in the Geneva airport at around 11:00 Swiss time which is about 5:00 in the morning back in Virginia. After struggling for a good ten minutes I finally figured out how to get a luggage cart from the machine, and I was on my way. I was immediately greeted by Christian Viladent, the program's academic director, who showed me the way to the students who had already arrived. After two hours of delirious small talk we finally got on the bus and made our way to the hostel where we spent the next three nights. Over the next three days, in standard "orientation" fashion, we discussed the schedule, rules, and the semester in general in excruciating detail (e.g. It took us two hours to go over the schedule even though we had a document that basically said everything already). Despite the extended discussions concerning the logistics of the program, the first few days of my time in Switzerland have been incredible. From the Old City of Geneva (La Vieille-Ville) to my first run around Lake Geneva (Le Lac Léman) I can already tell that I am going to love living here for the semester.

We spent the three-day orientation living in a youth hostel, six to a room, so that was definitely good for super fast bonding within the group, and yesterday we moved into our individual homestays. I live in a small town called Sus-Chatel Genolier, and it is about as picturesque as you can get. I look out onto the Alps, and even though it's been foggy the past few days, I can tell that on a clear day the view will be incredible! So far, I feel like I have the perfect situation in my host family. They have been nothing but welcoming, but have also been great about giving me my space to adjust to living in Switzerland. The mom (Caroline) speaks a little bit of english, and she has been extremely helpful at making sure that her husband (Olivier) and her kids (14 year old Loris and 16  Naomi) understand what I'm trying to say and vice versa. They have hosted numerous kids in the past, so they seem to have a pretty good balance between being involved in my life here and also letting me do my own thing. Yesterday I hung around the house, got everything unpacked, and went for a run to explore more of Genolier. I found out that there really isn't much to explore, but I did see some amazing views of the mountains. Today I met up with a friend in Nyon (The town where I will be taking classes which is a 12 minute train ride from where I'm living), and we explored a massive flea market that took over the path that runs along Lake Geneva. It was basically like a huge garage sale, but with antiques that you could never hope to find at a similar type of sale in America. There were also food vendors along the way, so we got a cup of "Vin Chaud" (Hot wine), which suprisingly had a similiar taste to apple cider, but with a distinctly grape-flavored kick (go figure....). Also, the meals have been amazing so far, and normally last more than an hour. I love how everyone in the family takes their time eating, and no one seems to rush through the meal. Last night we had a traditional swiss meal called Raclette which is basically melted cheese over potatoes, a proscuitto like meat, and a variety of veggies....you can't really mess that up. Tonight we kept it simple with homemade margherita pizza (amaaazing homemade crust). So basically I'm loving life in La Suisse and I can't wait to really start everything up tomorrow with the first day of classes. Hopefully in a few weeks the smiling and nodding will have decreased, and I won't have to make my host mom translate every other thing I attempt to say in French.....

À Bientôt!