Actually going to Korsika/ More hiking

As I said in my last post my host family and I did go to Korsika for one week. It was an 8 hour drive with a 3 hour ferry and then another 3 hour drive. Which sucks when you're in the back of a van and are well over 6 feet tall.

(stretching our legs before the ferry)

(Andi and I listening to each others music)

I went with my host parents, two host sisters, my host cousin and my oldie (Rotary January Inbound) Zeni. We stayed in Porto Vechio and got a nice house with a long walk to the beach.

I learned a lot of German because I was forced to speak with the same people on the beach all day for 7 days. Korsika is beautiful and well out of the way. I was positive that I was probably the only Canadian on the Island because its so hard to get to. Since it was a french Island I got to practice my french and had many people asking where I was from because of my accent. On the beach I either read, swam, walked or played volleyball with the girls.

(or got roped into photo shoots)

It was really awesome and I feel that I really started to connect with Andi my host dad and my two host sisters. We went on a boat ride as well in Bonifacio and explored the town.

Its a beautiful city as you can see and with awesome people that made it better.

(ps me and Andi are planning a time share there)

More hiking:

The day after we got back, Sunday, we had to get up at 6 (we got back the night before at 12) and got to Appenzeller land. Which is 40 minutes away and is some of the best hiking around. We took the gondola up,

then we ate breakfast in a restaurant that spun (just like the cn tower) and then hiked down.  

The restaurant was so cool because over 2 hours we saw everything twice. The hike down was awesome too, rolling hills and windy roads and it took us 2 hours.

I'm also now 2 months in and they've been the best of my life. Keep up to date with my adventures in Switzerland.

Korsika/ Fall holidays

This past week I haven't done much. Since all schools are on break for three weeks around this time a lot of people go on vacations. My first of three weeks has been hanging around with my host siblings and hanging out with my oldie (the january inbound from Rotary who has been here longer) Zeni. Zeni is from south africa and is really cool and nice and good friends with my host family. I think its really funny since I'm one of the youngest on exchange but one of the biggest and Zeni is the oldest on exchange and one of the smallest.

This next week I'm going on a trip with my host family through Italy to an Island of France called Korsika. We're leaving today at 5 with Doris, Andi, two of my host sisters Tina and Franzi, my host cousin Daria or as me and Andi call her Durfi (Dumby), and Zeni. Its supposed to be a beautiful week and we're all just going to be beach bums and then come back. Its pretty exciting other than the fact that we have nothing planned and its supposed to rain some of the days. After I have one more week of holiday and then its back to school until Christmas.

Andi and I often go for bike tours of about 20km around Amriswil which normally takes us through forests and a couple towns. Last week we went to find out where my next host family lives (Erlen) which is two more stops away from school on the train. We spent an hour looking around and asked about 4 different people and groups of people where they lived. After being told wrong places 3 times we finally got it right after asking some kids that were biking around their neighbourhood. It looks like a nice house but I didn't have my phone so I don't have pictures. We then got lost on the way back and had to bike across a couple fields to get to the next road. During all this time Andi is quizzing me on what this or that means. I always have fun on our bike rides and I'm thinking of filming one on my GoPro.

Ill upload videos of travelling and the house and everything on my youtube channel next week and make another post. As always stay tuned to my adventures in Switzerland.

Rigi

This weekend was the best Ive ever had.
All east of switzerland rotary exchange students got together at this beautiful wonderful place

The view you see is Rigi. The mountain is at the start of the Alps and is a wonderful view of the north of Switzerland and the alps. 

As you can see the views were breathtaking. It was really awesome because we got to see it not only once but twice. We got woken up at 5 am and started our hike up the mountain. About half way up it started raining. And then it got harder. And harder. By the time we got to the top we were soaked, tired and pretty fed up with a lot of things. But the main thing is that we couldn't see anything. No view. But then we waited 20 minutes and it cleared.

It was awesome and we took pictures and then headed back down. 2 and a half hours up. One and a half down. We then hung out in the house we had rented for the weekend for a couple hours and played "football".

All in all it was an amazing weekend in Brunnen and on the Rigi. I met 30 new people from different countries all over the world. All of whom I really liked. Rotary is awesome and Switzerland is beautiful.

Keep up with me on more of my adventures in Switzerland.

School.

Hi everyone. Im sorry that I missed my posting last Weekend. Saturday I had a Rotary Meeting that was compulsory, it was 5 hours long and it was just to make sure our first month had been good and that we were okay with schools. They then gave us the sex talk (terribly awkward when being explained in a second language.) When I got home we went out to a fancy Restaurant to celebrate my host dads componay that had just bought a property he had always wanted. The Food was amazing and we talked about a lot of different things. When coffee came around I gladly accepted. We got home and I hit the sack right away so thats why there wasnt a post on here.

Sunday was just a lazy day and I went around town with Franzi. I read and watched a movie. But I never ended up getting around to it.

But I should start with my first day of School! So far its been awesome. The 17 Kids in my class are all my Age and ready to talk in whichever language I want to. (Some days when your tired and just got out of a French class and are listening to swiss german and thinking in english your brain just gives up.) Monday is my hardest day which sucks but all my other days arent too bad. Monday starts early at 7:50 in geography after a boring 45 Minute period I go to Biology which I can actually somewhat understand. After another period I have math which I Zone out everything. Then Music which is good and then physics which is just confusing. Then lunch, finally... I then go to history a double of art which is nice and then german intensive... a double period...

Theyre really weird here about rules. My third day I got up during class to fill up my waterbottle and my teacher flipped out because I didnt ask. But I was using the sink IN the room so I dont really understand why he was mad. Also you cant eat or drink in class, unless its water, but they make you throw it out. My School is very new and very state of the art. Everything is spotless and clean. Everything works and theres no Graffiti. None.

Over all as an Exchange Student you dont do as much as you think you will. You have to find the People to do stuff with otherwise youre on your own. Im going to start a Swiss bucket list and try and get everything on it. Email/Facebook/ twitter me any ideas you might have for my year here. Also add in questions of everyday life and I`ll answer them in a Video.

Keep on following for more adventures in Switzerland!

PS I Need canadian Dessert ideas that I can bring to a Rotary Weekend. Let me know because I cant think of any.

Almost 4 weeks

I'm officially out of language school now. It was the same relief of getting out of normal school. It felt like hell when you were in it but now that I'm out I'm realizing I will miss all my friends. Not saying I got along perfectly with everyone because not everyone sees eye to eye but I'll miss the different views on life. One main thing that I'm kicking myself for wasn't for not learning German as well as I could of cuz I'm scraping by now. The thing I'm kicking myself for is forgetting most of the exchange students would speak spanish. I should of brushed up a little or something. Its not even that I feel that I'm missing out it'd just be nice to know what they're talking about. Ive made a smaller group of friends inside the whole group of exchange students. The group is Elise who gave me my nickname "Canada" and who makes fun of my "accent" from New York ("the state not the city")  Emily from New Mexico and Rachael from Indiana. They're hilarious and we always kill ourselves laughing around each other. I'm really grateful for them otherwise I wouldn't be having nearly as much fun as I've had. We've hung out a couple times after school and are planning to see each other more often during our normal school year. Elise has a vlog that she should finish up today so I'll put a link to her video somewhere on this page. I went through a really rough week because of homesickness so I think I'm good now, Im finally completely comfortable with my host house and family. I'm planning to Skype my family once they wake up because its 9 at home right now. It'll be nice to see my sisters and my parents. Even though I already skyped my parents once. I realize that I haven't been posting as much as I should be but in truth I haven't been thinking of it, Ill do my best to post at least once a week. I might just use saturdays because thats easiest.

So, this week:
The gang and I hung out Tuesday at my host house. We did Rachaels and Elise's Ice bucket challenge. Which we filmed with my Gopro (no its not a bra)

(Rachael and I)

We then all went swimming and just hung out and talked about exchange and told stories from back home. And of course we all died laughing.

Me and Elise being ratchet

Then on Wednesday we went shopping which wasn't actually that bad. We checked out this cool company called Freitag which makes bags out of recycled semi truck covers and then looked at all these stores underneath a bridge which was really cool. AND I SAW THIS AWESOME BAG IN A STORE AND IT WAS MADE OUT OF RECYCLED SAILS AND THERE WAS A CANADIAN MAPLE LEAF ON IT IN RED STITCHING AND I WANTED IT SOOO BAD. Im still sad I couldn't buy it because it was 138 CHF (cough mom and dad cough cough). The Freitag building was made out of shipping containers and you could climb to the top soooo:

(Me, Racheal, Elise, and Emily)

Thursday we didn't hangout but apparently I'm still a tourist because I got stuck on a train that was heading back to Zurich and had to explain in German to the Conductor (this one was nice) that I had been listening to music so I hadn't heard the signal for last stop and was locked on the train. He was kind enough to bring the train out of the yard and let me off. But it was really scary and I didn't like it.

Me stuck on said train.

Friday we decided to hangout but had no plan whatsoever for the night. We first went to Rachaels which was a beautiful apartment which Im in love with. We ate pizza and hangout and then we went to Elises which is an hour away so I don't know why we went :P We missed the bus so we walked 30 minutes with Rachael flipping out about bunnies we saw and the food here and boys here. Then we watched princess diaries will Skyping Rachaels friend which was fun. We then all went back to Zurich to split up. So first went to the bus stop and sat there for like 30 minutes and just told stories and goofed around. We finally caught the bus and then got to Zurich. I got home at 12 and didn't sleep till three and then today my host family is at a family reunion so Im being babysat.

Stay updated on my adventures in Switzerland.

Practices

After going to 2 kayaking practices and one volleyball practice I've noticed one thing. I am somehow very, very out of shape. The two boys my age in kayaking are normally about 100m in front of me at all times. The volleyball team is a year older and has some amazing players. I've learned to hate the conductors on the trains because of yesterday. My foot was on my knee and since I'm a tall guy that meant that that foot was slightly resting on the chair across from me. A conductor walks up, does a blurb in german while I show him my Gaa (pronounced gay-a). He says another blurb in German standing there looking at me. I tell him I'm an exchange student in English and he responds "That doesn't stop me from charging you" I have no idea what he's talking about, like no clue. At all. So I ask him did I do something wrong. He answers you can't have your feet on the seats. By now I've moved my foot but it was slightly resting on the seat, it had been a dry day and my feet were clean. He tells me I have to pay 25 Swiss Franks in cash. Im still sitting there looking at him wondering what this guy is on. He says he has the power to arrest me so of course I pay up. I ask him where its stated that we aren't aloud to have shoes on the seats and he just said "Everyone knows this" I really had to bite my tongue and not say "Even foreign exchange students". He then starts walking away from me with my Gaa in hand and I had to chase him down the train to get it back. He gives it back with the whole "Oh excuse me I didn't even notice, so sorry" but I kinda got the feeling he thought I was playing stupid and was trying to get back at me. When I got home I looked up the SBB website and couldn't find any rules anywhere. All in all bad experience with a huge jerk. Follow for more (and hopefully better) adventures in Switzerland.

Kayaking

As today is my second week officially I thought I better post something for everyone to see. So far language school has been great. I'm able to hold a conversation with people and improvise words to ask questions. The more I've been talking to the other exchange students the more I've connected with pretty much everyone. The south americans have been slowly sharpening my espagnol and I can now almost follow their conversations. The americans are all very cool, they bring new perspectives of the same culture to me and its very cool. My favourite times these past weeks have been when someone is explaining something from home and nobody has ever heard of that thing. Such as moose for me (actually a really funny story involving a south American who was convinced I was playing a trick on him.). Last saturday I found out that this "Kanoe club" that they have in Romanschorn is actually sprint kayaking. I flipped out and was so excited. My first practice is tonight and Swiss champs are in 3 weeks. Im not sure if they're all amazing or if something was lost in translation because a 13 year old told me he did 1000m in 4:17 (for those who don't kayak he beats my best time ever by 11 seconds). Im mostly hoping I heard wrong because that would be really embarrassing for me.

For a while there was an un explained phenomon with the exchange students from North america. We almost all complained of breaking out pretty bad. It when on all last week until last friday I realized I had been eating way more oil, olive oil, in the cooking and salads. I let everyone know and we all came to the conclusion we have to eat a little bit less. Some fine detective work if I dare say so :)

Anyways stay tuned to hear of my volleyball and kayaking practices, trips and more in my adventures in Switzerland.