brit brat visits swiss miss :)

So wow! its been a busy last week!!!

My favorite cousin chloe came to visit me!!! It was amazing!!! we didnt do a whole lot, but definetly talked A WHOLE LOT!! it was really nice to see a family member close to the holidays. She flew into basel and i met her at the airport!! it was..ahh..amazing! haha well we came back to burgdorf and she met my host rents and host sister....then me and chloe had fondue for dinner...my parents were going out for the night. so we had some delicious fondue...and then we went to B5, a local cafe/bar to have a hot chocolate with a friend from my school. ahhh!! it was fun. on sunday...we went snow shoeing!! oh so much fun!! haha then went to a classical music christmas concert in bern with my host rents. it was really cool...it was in munster which is the big church in bern. and then after the concert me and chloe went to dinner...we had some yummy italian!!! ahhh! sooo good!! then i showed her around bern a little...not much though..it was sunday...lots of things closed..and it was freezing cold!! haha monday....we slept in and then had lunch with the host rents, i showed her around burgdorf...and then we had dinner and played eile mit weile. lots of fun! then tuesday she left :( it was soooo nice to have a visit from her!! its hard to describe! it was also cool to show someone from back home into my life.

^pics from Chloe's Visit!!!

so thats about it from chloe's visit. so this week was the last week before christmas break!! so not much was happening in school!! i made chocolate chip cookies for my whole class and i also gave everyone a boerne pencil!! haha it was fun to do little gifts for them! this batch of cookies i made turned out to be the best ive made so far in switzerland. my host family really likes them too!! and even my councelor!! haha

so yesterday was pretty uneventful...i had an exchange friend over....we just watched movies..and hung out...it was rather pleasant!! haha

So today was the family dinner with Erika's family(erika is my host mom). I didnt have much time to get ready bc i wasnt really informed about what time we were leaving..so i had like ten mins to take a shower and what not...(side note: YOU MUST dry your hair before leaving the house...its wayy too cold to not dry your hair). however, i managed to get ready in that short amount of time...even with dried hair! lol oh and i was also informed that my host dad, me and my host sis kathrin were walking to my host aunt's house which is in Hasle-R-something...haha anyways...its not exactly super close to our house either. but whatever i wasnt gonna complain...the walk started out cold...but quickly got really warm..i had to walk super fast bc my host dad and kathrin both have rather long legs and i dont! haha so ya...but the walk was really pretty....it took us like an hour to get there....but it was a good walk!! so there were lots of people there that i didnt know....erika has one brother and one sister. erika's brother is named peter and has 2 kids....erika's sister is named regina and has 4 kids i think...haha so ya...it was cool to meet all the family. i really love my host family they're sooo amazing!! it was soo cute today...bc my host dad said that i was now from Burgdorf!! haha oh...man! im really gonna miss them when i change families!! so today included lots of eating...lots of christmas cookies and lots of family. we can home and then watched a cute movie..it was in bern german, high german and a little bit of english. it was really cute though!!

i probably could write about every detail of today...but that might get boring. haha

so its weird....there's a certain air of change lingering right now!! like its really weird!! but im glad!! im ready to begin a new year!! can you believe that i'll be home in just about 7 months!! CRAZY!! time sure does fly!!!

much love to everyone!!!!

Sammy Claus Day!!

here's a blurb from today...ill try to write more later...like tomorrow or something...its late!!

sooo life is good right now....

for several reasons:

stepanie is the greatest bestie alive!!!! i dont know what i would do without her support and love!!! she sent me an absolutely amazing package!! like it included so many fun and useful goodies!! it made my week great!!! im still on a natural high and i got the package yesterday!! ahhh!! she's just amazing and i love her!!!

in about a week and day....the greatest cousin in the universe is coming to visit me!!!! whoooo!!! i am so excited to see her!! we prretty much always have an awesome time no matter what!!! ahhh!! my first visitor from america..well even though she is coming from london!! haha

sammyclaus came to visit today in switzerland. today is the day of st. nikalus. and so thats when santa comes....and a santa came to our house...and i had to sing to him...so i sang jingle bells...but it wasnt very good!!! my host dad took some pics...so ill have to get them from him... we also had this traditional bread...and sausage for dinner. just plain whole link sausage....haha oh...only the swiss!!

im really loving the holiday season...not nearly the same as america..but so far its good....lots of traditional foods and goodies!!! im just hoping for a white christmas!!! ahhh!! that would be perfect!!! ahh!!

oh and its been FOUR MONTHS since i first arrived in switzerland! UNBELIEVABLE, if you ask me!! it doesnt seem like its been that long...wow...sorry this got soo long....kinda ended up being a blog...

love yall!!♥

Life is good... :)

So this past week has been a great week. I cant really describe why it has been a great week. it just has!!! its one of those things exchangers can understand but not many other people can. haha but ill fill you in on what happened this week:

Sunday 11/4/07
Went hiking in the mountains with my host parents and 2nd host mom and another vet from the practice.

Monday/Tuesday
More or less normal days at school. not much happened or at least anything exciting. Oh wait, monday had a math test! ugh!! horrible!! i have hard time in math in english so its really hard in german. haha oh an i also joined a basketball club and we had practice monday. it was really fun. we did lots of shooting drills and then played 3 v 3. differnt from american basketball but fun!! the other exchange student in my town came too. oh and my biology teacher is PREGNANT! whoo!! she is soo cute!!!! i really like her!!! tuesday we didnt have german or history so i got like 3 hours extra sleep which i needed bc i was starting to feel sick.

Wednesday
THE BEST DAYY EVER!!!! its really hard for me to describe why this day was so great but it jsut was!! haha my friend deborah came back to school finally after being sick and i was really glad for that bc she is one of the nicest girls in my class. she is also christian which is very refreshing!!! and i had some one on one talk time with her which was great!!! i also had the rotary dinner. once a month they club has a meeting with the women and the men. in switzerland, only men can be rotarians, at least in my sponsor club. anyways, the speaker was really good. and he spoke in high german so i was able to pick up on a little bit of the presentation and he also had a powerpoint. he was a doctor in the solomon islands for several years. it was amazing to see some of his work. i wish i would've talked to him more though. but he inspired me to use my skills as a doctor, (when i become one) aboard, helping less fortunate countries. some of things he did for those people were amazing!!

so that really doesnt describe the true feeling of the day but shows a little bit why it was a good day!! haha

Thursday
FREEE!!! NOO SCHOOOL!! something like a teacher work day i think!! haha i went shopping with some other exchangers in bern!! didnt buy much. just presents for two exchangers' birthdays.

Friday
ONLY P.E.!!! whooo!!! we got out early too!! whoo!! i baked cookies for the Rotary Country Fair,(Country as in francec, usa, austrailia etc.) chocolate chip cookies and texas cowboy cookies!! thanks amber!! haha

Saturday
Hang out with Camille in Montreux for her birthday!!! 17!! whoooo! migros take away and starbucks!! whooo!!! Camille is from California. and is a sweett girl!! love her!! but she is in the french part so i dont get to hang out with her as much!! :(

train rides with maggie!! whoo! love that girl!!! she comes from seattle!!!!

then evening: nelly's suprise 18th birthday party in bern!! she was sooo suprised!! it was sooo much fun!! but i thought she was gonna find out. haha lots of fun! nelly is from seattle and lives close to me here in switzerland. she is considered my best exchange friend. love her!!! maggie spent the night with me too!!

Sunday
Rotary Country Fair in Olten. Representing the USA!! whoo!! everyone wants to go to the USA, Canada or Australia. it was for the next year potential outbounds of switzerland. lots of fun!! spoke with lots of people. practiced my german!! and gave out texas cookies and chocoloate chip cookies!! haha

then hung out with breanne and jessica. i swear they're like my twins!! haha they're great. haha


sorrry if this doesnt make much sense. its late but i wanted to write and let everyone know how life is. this week has been one of the best week for me so far in switzerland. life is just grand!! met some christian people i can share my faith with which is great. and im learning to rely more on god than anything else. its great!

♥
love all and miss all!!

Short Summary of Fall Break

I was in school for two weeks and then we had fall break. It was soo nice. The swiss kids had been in school since the beginning of august so they were ready for break!!! Fall break started the 14th of September and ended the 14th of October. I am not going to go into detail of what all i did during fall break bc that would take too long!! So here is a short ist of what i did:


Hung out with Becca, Kristen and Maggie several times(they are other exchangers)

Shoppping in Bern, several times, once with natasha and then a couple of times with Deborah and Alisa, swiss friends from schoool. we also got starbucks!! hmm! yumm!!!! except its really expensive.

Two trips to Basel, once with Maggie, Kristen and the AFSers, and another time with Becca, Kristen and Mitch. I bought a really cute outfit from New Yorker in Basel. Its just a plain black babydoll style dress/jumper. I also bought a really cute shirt for only 8 franks!! whoo!!

Dying Hair/Sleepover at Kristen's house in Hochdorf, near Luzern. Girls present: Becca, Kristen, Maggie, Ana, Genesis, and me! We died Becca's and Kristen's hair, well actually technically Genesis did. haha she also cut Kristen's hair. She did a super job on both of the girls!! It was a really fun day bc it was just girls!! haha

Golden Pass trips, its a scenic train ride through the mountains. The first one i took was with Maggie, Kristen and Becca, we went from Luzern to Interlaken! absolutely gorgeous!! especailly with all the fall colors!!! nothing like texas! haha we then had a picinic in Interlaken and had a HUGE chocolate bar!! its was sooo pleasant! haha the second Golden Pass Train I took was from Spiez to Montreuz via Zweissemmen. this time it was just me and nelly! It was another GORGEOUS train ride!! the colors are soo amazing!! we then had a picinic in Montreux on the lake!. We also had gelato!! it was sooo delicious!! picinicing is like my new favorite thing to do here!! there are so many pretty towns so its really nice to see them!!

of course my trip to germany as well, but you can read about that in the previous post.

I visted my host sisters in Lausanne! It was really fun. Their apartments are really neat!! I got to see some of Lausanne. I also got to go the Knie, which is a famous circus here in switzerland. It was all in french so i definelty didnt understand what they were saying. But it was stil quite enjoyable!!! i wasnt allowed to take pictures. :( but it still was really amazing!!

I also took a trip to Ticino which was really fun. I stayed with a friend of my host dad's. She had the cutest little girls. They were trilingual and they were only 6 and 8 years old. They could speak Italian, French and German! I was soo amazed and jealous!!

Sunday, 14th of October, i went on a hike with my host family and it was absolutely amazing!! i climbed to the very top of the mountain!! It was soo amazing!! The view was absolutely breathtaking!!! I uploade some pics from the hiking trip: here is the link: http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001523&l=0f2fe&id=1517040103

So ya that was my fall break...

oh and yesterday, the 15th of oktober, after school, i went to dudingen and hung out with alice and nelly. we baked or tried to bake american chocolate chip cookies. they didnt taste anything like american chocolate chip cookies. they tasted like bread with some chunks of chocolate in them. Nelly also made sugar cookies and she had a pumpkin cookie cutter and icing!! we decorated the pumpkins!! it was really funn!!!

so here are some links to pictures:

Basel Trip #1
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001467&l=4096a&id=1517040103

Basel Trip #2
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001471&l=1d381&id=1517040103

Those are the only pics i have posted so far. I will try to get some more pics uploaded soon.

Well hope all is well in your part of the world!!

much love and god bless!!!

My Trip to Germany 9/20-9/25/2007

Okay So i was given an amazing opportunity to go with another exchange student and her host family to Munich, Germany. I was soo excited for this trip!!! The host mom planned several major historical places to see. I am sorry its taken me so long to finish this blog, but for some reaosn its hard for me to blog. But at least I am getting it up eventually. The exchange student's name is Alice and her host parents names are Sonja and Ueli. We stayed with Sonja's mom in Feldmoching which is like a suburb of Munich, i think.

Thursday September 20, 2007

So I met Alice and Sonja in Bern to take a train to the Bodensee, which is practically on the other side of switzerland. The Bodensee, which is a lake, borders Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Sonja and Ueli have an apartment there that they want to eventually live in permanently. Anyways, we arrived in the little town around 7 pm or so. It was just me alice and sonja for dinner because ueli had a guy's night with his friends. We had spaghetti and then headed to bed bc we had an early start the next morning.

Friday September 21, 2007

So we got up fairly early, like 645 am or so. We were leaving at 8. I took a shower and then went downstairs for breakfast. bread and butter as usual. haha then we loaded up our suitcases. I was actually really happy bc ueli(the host dad) had a bigger suitcase than me!!! I borrowed a suitcase from my host brother!! haha Thats a big accomplishment for me bc i usually overpack!! haha So anyways, then we headed. We had to get gas first though. It was my first time to get gas in Switzerland! haha After getting gas, we drove for like 10-15 mins and then we were all of sudden in Germany. I didnt even realize we had gone over the border. We yielded to this guy and then he waved us on and that was it. No passports or anything. i was really suprised by this!! haha but ya then we drove a little bit longer, then we got on a ferry to cross bodensee, which is just a lake. See in german is Lake, slightly confusing, huh? haha so then we drove for like several hours to HohenSchwangau and Neushwanstein. It was really funny bc we got lost several times and Sonja and Ueli were fighting but bc it was in german i couldnt really understand it but i understood they were fighting!! haha These are two amazing castles. We actually only toured one of them, Hohenshwangau bc King Ludwig actually only lived in this one. Neuschwanstein never was finished and was really just a shrine to royalty. I was a little bit disappointed i wasnt able to tour Neuschwanstein bc I had done a puzzle of the castle this past summer. but its okay i at least got to see it. Hohenschwangau was really amazing too. I wasnt allowed to take pictures inside though :( thats okay though. The tour was in german but sonja helped me a little bit, she explained a few things in english, thankfully!! then after that we went into Schwangau to have what i thought would be lunch with Sonja's dad. However it was just coffee and apple strudel. I was slightly disappointed bc i was really hungry! haha but suprisingly the apple strudel was enough to hold me over till dinner. By this time it was about 2 pm in the afternoon. We then headed to the Wieskirche. Its a GORGEOUS church in the middle of nowhere. It was built as a shrine to this statue of jesus that was said to be crying. at first they built a small chapel but there were so many people making pilgrimmages to the shrine they needed to build a bigger place for worship. it was absolutely amazing!! ill post a few pics and links to look at my pictures. after that we had to pay to use the bathroom. pretty much everywhere you have to pay or you need a code from the place of business! its pretty crazy!! we then got back in the car and drove a little bit longer to sonja's mom house. luckily she told her mom that we didnt really have lunch so she could prepare something big and warm for us. It was nice to finally get out of the car and stretch!! haha that was my first really long roadtrip in a car!! haha We arrived around 530 or so. We then had dinner. It was some sort of soup. I dont know for sure what kind it was. I never ask, i just eat. haha we also had homemade pretzels! hmmm!! they were delicious! so ya then we talked a little bit after dinner.well dinner is actually a pretty big event. it lasts pretty long! haha then we were off to bed bc it was gonna be another slightly early morning the next morning!!


Saturday September 22, 2007


We were leaving the house by 10 but Sonja's sister was going to be at the house at 915 for breakfast so we had to get up at like 8 and start taking showers. We had to shower in the basement bc the shower on the second floor didnt have hot water. The shower was literally in the basement next to the washing machine! That was kinda weird!! haha So then i dressed for the day! haha Then it was time for breakfast!! as always bread, butter and jam. But Germans also eat cheese and salami with breakfast, oh and of course pretzels!! i love them!! haha Oh and Sonja's niece was absolutely adorable!!! she was really shy at first, and it was a little difficult to play with her since she spoke bavaran german!!! there are soo many dialects of german!! haha She was even dressed up in a dirndle, the tradtional german outfit. i wish i could've taken her home with me!! haha so we rode the bus to the train station. we took the U-Bahn which is basically like a subway system. i didnt really like it. i like the swiss train system bc you get to see scenery!! but the stations were really nice. So then we arrived in the main station in Munich. We then walked to wear the Oktoberfest Parade was. There were soo many people there!! And so many people dressed in traditional clothing. it was sooo cute!! haha The parade was of all the breweries tha were at oktoberfest. and only munich based breweries can be at oktoberfest. After oktoberfest parade, we walked to the actual oktoberfest. Oktoberfest was amazing!! SOO MANY PEOPLE!!! haha It was a HUGE fair with a bunch of beer! haha There were lots of fair rides. The beer tents were really cool. The decorations were amazing!! and there were soo many people inside too!! anways..we basically walked around and looked in all the tents and looked around at all the rides. We rode the star flyer and the Ferris wheel of course. We ate this delicous sweet nuts! they were soo amazing!! i could eat those forever and not get sick of them! haha so ya that was basically oktoberfest, me and alice didnt really know what exactly to do, so we kinda walked around like chickens with our heads cut off. especially since it was just me and her. her host parents let us go off by ourselves. haha but ya oktoberfest pretty much shuts down at 1000 so we were home fairly early bc we left a litle early so the trains wouldnt be too crowded. oh and my camera died fairly early in the night too!! i even brought my charger and converter just in case, but the converter didnt fit the outlets!! i was soo mad bc my camera is like my comfort!! and the girl i was with didnt take like any pictures!! :(


Sunday September 23, 2007

This was a slightly gloomy day, not because of the weather either. We went to Dachau, which is where Sonja grew up. We went to the castle first, and from there we could see Munich and the somewhat of skyline it has. There really arent much skyscrapers in munich, actually in all of europe! haha We also had a coffee there too. But the gloomy part of the day began after the castle. Most of you probably recognize Dachau as the name of a concentration camp. There is also a whole seperate city as well apart from the concentration camp. But we went to the concentration. It was Sonja's first time to visit the camp, even though she lived there her whole life. Its really hard to desribe what i felt when i was at the camp. I saw all the buildings where prisoners were, places were prisoners were killed and tortureed. i also read a lot about the history of the camp. it was one of the first camps. it was originally built for 6,000 people but by the end of the war it held over 32,000 people. it was crazy some of the stuff that went on in the camp. i wasnt able to read everything about the camp bc it was just too much. it was in english though, so that was good!! but it was just amazing to be there to learn about history. it was rather gloomy though thinking about all that horrible stuff. so afterwards, we went to a biergarten and had picinic. it was really fun. we just sat out in the huge garden and you could bring your own food. It was very pleasant. We then went to another castle. The Duke that built this one was trying to make his own versailles in Germany. It was really pretty. So ornate!! We spent quite a bit of time in there but then we got kicked out because they were closing. But then we walked in the garden which was soo pretty! i would love to live in a castle!!! it would be soo much fun!! haha so ya that was basically sunday.

Monday September 24, 2007

Sonja and Ueli took us into Munich to some of the churches and buildings in Munich. The churches wer soooo amazing!! So detailed!! A lot of Munich isnt very old because of World War II. Everything is rebuilt, but they rebuilit it like the old times so it looks old. I am glad they did that bc i like the old look rather than the modern look. We also saw the duke residence and several other places. We also did some shopping. which was really fun. I bought another pair of sunglasses for like 8 euros and also a cute pair of black shoes!! Alice bought a wallet i think. but ya thats basicallly what we did all day. In the evening, we made another trip back to oktoberfest and took pictures with guys in lederhosen. it was amazing!! I dont have the pictures yet. My camera's battery died! it sucked!! i love taking pictures and for three days i didnt have a camera! but it was really fun taking pictures with the guys in lederhosen. I was soo exhausted at the end of the day though!!


Tuesday September 25, 2007

So we got up fairly early to head back to switzerland bc Sonja had somesort of meeting to get back for. I slept in the car bc one my ipod froze so i couldnt listen to it and the weather wasnt great so i didnt have much to look at. It was like dozing in and out of sleep though. We drove through austria! haha so now ive been to austria! haha i didnt even realize we were even in austria at first! haha well sonja dropped us off at the train station, we then headed to zurich to get home. i was ready to get home and back to familarity! Plus the suitcase i was using was broken and it was a pain to carry around with me!!

My trip to Munich was really fun! I enjoyed it very much!! I was really grateful to Sonja and Ueli for inviting me along!

So here are some links to some of the pictures from the trip:

Castles:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001435&l=38827&id=1517040103

Random Pics from the Car
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001437&l=e0550&id=1517040103

Wieskirche:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001439&l=5009c&id=1517040103

Oktoberfest:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001438&l=771ed&id=1517040103


I will try to get the rest of the pictures from Alice soon. and i will post links for them.

Sorry this blog is so long!! Its taken me a really long time to write it!! I have just been lazy about writing in here!! Sorry if the english is bad, im not doublechecking it, it might not make much sense!!!

LOVE TO ALL!! AND GOD BLESS!!

Bike Ride

Sunday September 16th, 2007

So my host parents took me on a bike ride to my host dad's cousin's house. I rode tandem with my host sister. Its a two person bike! it was so much fun! i think the only reason i survived the bike ride was bc i had help or i was doing the helping. my host sister had the control of the bike! haha Its really kinda hard to ride tandem bc if you ride in the back you cant really move the handle bars bc you dont go anywhere but you distrub the balance of the bike. The total distance of the ride was 43 km which is about 27 miles! I couldnt believe that i did that! My butt hurts a whole lot right now though! It was really cool though, bc i was able to see lots of the country side! At my host dad's cousin's house, we had brunch. It consisted of bread, yogurt, fruits, egg thing, meatbread thing. and cheese! it was actually really delicious! after brunch, we just relaxed for a little bit. i sat in the sun and fell asleep. my host parents played some game though. it was really nice in the sun. i felt like i was in texas again. haha i actually got a little red from being in the sun. But dont worry mom, i had some sunscreen on! haha after a couple of hours we headed back to burgdorf. on the way back we stopped at a castle. it was absolutely amazing!! i was really mad at myself though bc i didnt have my camera. the battery died the night before. My host dad got a picture of me on the bike though, so ill have to get it from him so i can share it with yall. anyways...the castle was sooo cool. i wanna go back there so i can take some pictures! haha but ya thats what sunday was like.

Right now im currently on fall break until the 15th of October!! whoo!! im really excited. i havent done much. I went to bern and shoppped but thats it. I bought a rain jacket from H&M, its really cute!! haha I might be going to germany with another exchange student and her family. im reallly excited! but its not for sure yet. well i think thats all for now. im gonna try to write more often that way each time i dont have to stuff a bunch of stuff into one entry! haha

i love yall and miss yall!

Luzern Adventures

Friday September 14, 2007

Last Friday i got out of schoool at like 2:00, so i decided to take a trip to Luzern. There are some other exchange students there that i get along really well with. It was actually just a girl day!! it was really nice!! haha Luzern is GORGEOUS!!! its on a lake!! its sooo prety!! ahh!! well we walked around the town for a little bit. While we were walking, we heard some people speaking english so we stopped and then maggie screamed "Does anybody speak english here???" like really loud. And a lady in the group turned around and said, yes we do. It turns out, the group is from Austrailia. There were two teenage girls, a middle aged woman and an older couple. The middle aged woman was in Hungray for rowing i think, and so the family came to watch and they decided to travel all over europe since they were spending the money anyways. We talked with them for a while and the exchangers from Luzern told them what they should see. Maggie also asked if they would send her Tim Tams, which is some kind of candy. Im not sure exactly what it is, but she loves them. haha They said they would send her some! haha So now when maggie gets them, we're gonna have a tim tam party. So we then went to a bakery and got some muffins!!! blueberry muffins!! they were amazing!!! haha Oh and while we were walking we saw this guy painting a mural and it was of this castle and i did a puzzle of that castle with anna back in the states!! we did it one night! and it was like 500 pieces! We went to see an old church, and we played on a playground for a while! it was wayyy fun!!! Then we went to the Lion Monument which is for all the Swiss Soldiers that died in the wars. There we met another english speaking couple!! They asked us to take a picture of them in english and so we all started talking to them!! They were an older couple from South Carolina and the guy was a Rotarian. He was on a sebatical of some sort, history i think but i dont remember. The girls from Luzern then told them what they should do while they're in Luzern. and we talked to them about our exchange and stuff. We also gave them advice about food. After we left the couple, we went and had kebabs for dinner! They're the BEST food ever!! its kinda hard to explain.. so here are some pics i found on the internet....

^this is the actual sandwich! AMAZING!! ^this is the way they prepare the meat

but ya after that we went to this park where there was a concert gooing on, and we just danced in the park. it was so much fun!! haha after that i had to go home. it takes like an hour to get home on the train. but i had lots of fun with the girls!! haha

if you want to see pics of the day go to:

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001391&l=b8364&id=1517040103

Saturday September 15th, 2007

More exchange students were going to meet up in Luzern again so i decided to return to Luzern for the day, well i left Burgdorf at like 230, so i got to Luzern at like 4. But we walked around the town again. We were trying to find a migros or coop that was open but everyhting was closed! haha We went to Starbucks, but i didnt buy anything. I got ice cream from somewhere else, well actually gelato! it was soo much better and cheaper!! haha I am gonna try to go the full year without Starbucks or McDonalds. I know i can go the year without McDonalds but not so sure about Starbucks. Anyways..after starbucks we went on a boat ride! My first one in switzerland!! whoo!! haha it was lots of fun! so pretty! haha we stopped in some little village, i dont remember the name of it. but we found a playground and played for a while. it was fun!! haha there was this huge dragon!! we then took a train back to Luzern. In Luzern we got kebabs for dinner again, and then went to a park to eat and hang out. It was so much fun. I left aroudn 1045 and we took a train to olten but it was a slow train so we missed our train to burgdorf in olten. and so we had to wait till 1250 for the next train! it was like an hour!! ahh! so i didnt get home tilll like 130 or so!! but ya i had lots of fun

if you want to see pics:

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001392&l=b417f&id=1517040103

SCHOOL!!! and 1 MONTH!!!

Hey Everyone!!

So i have been here for one month already!! I cant believe it!! Time has already gone by so fast, i cant even imagine what the rest of the year will be like!! WOW!! Here's a brief update of the last week:




Friday August 31
This was the last day of language camp! whooo!! We had our big test on Thursday, so all we did on friday was eat food we brought and get our test back. I got a 171 and half out of 200. I was really happy bc i think i had the third or fourth best test in the class! and there are like 8 people in my class! Well we got let out early, so we went on an adventure to Mt. Gurten which is amazing! Nathasha and I were the only ones that had been there before so it was lots of fun for the other exchanges. Plus it was a beautiful day to be up on Gurten. I have some cool pics.




i cant upload a bunch of pics so if you want to see more pics, go to:


http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001336&l=8c95e&id=1517040103

Saturday September 1
A bunch of exchange students from Luzern came to Bern. All the exchange students that went to the Bern Language camp showed the Luzerners around Bern. We walked around Bern, went to the Bear Pits and then to Mt. Gurten. It was lots of fun to show people around. I was really happpy that I actually knew where I was going for once since ive been here.

If you want to see some more pics go here:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001335&l=6d410&id=1517040103

Sunday September 2
My host dad and Dora(a family friend) took me on a walk through the hills of the emmental. It was GORGEOUS! We were gonna go to the mountains but it was too cloudy. We wouldnt have been able to see anything so we just walked through the emmental. Well to get back to the car, we were gonna take the train, but we would have to wait like an hour and the car wasnt very far away so my host dad hitch hiked to get the car and then came back with the car to pick Dora and me up. It was interesting! haha

If you want to see pics go to:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001337&l=188d6&id=1517040103

Monday September 3
The first day of Swiss school! When I woke up that morning, i had no idea which class i was in or which subjects i was taking! It was really hard for me not to know anything! haha but i managed. My counselor picked me up and took me to school. I met with the rector aka the principal. He put me in a class based on my age and intrest in the medical field. He put me in Sekunda C, and the main subject is biology and chemistry. so here is my schedule:

Monday
8:20-10 Chemistry
10:10-10:55 Physics
11:05-11:50 Math
12:00-12:45 Sport aka PE
1:00-1:45 LUNCH!
2:00-4:30 Free to Learn German

Tuesday
8:20-10:00 German
10:10-10:55 History
11:05-12:45 LUNCH
1:00-1:45 Chemistry
1:55-2:40 Chemistry
2:50-4:30 Biology
4:40-5:25 Music

Wednesday
8:20-10:00 Arts
10:10-11:50 Biology or Chemistry Lab
12:00-12:45 LUNCH
1:00-2:40 Physics
2:50-4:30 English

Thursday
8:20-9:05 Enlgish
9:15-10:55 Math
11:05-11:50 History
12:00-12:45 LUNCH
1:00-2:40 German
2:50-4:30 Geography

Friday
8:20-10:00 German in the Library
10:10-10:55 Break
11:05-11:50 Music
12:00-1:45 Sport aka PE

Thats my schedule! kind tough!! ahhh!! but i really like the people in my class though. School is set up a bit differently here. Everyone is divided into classes with a head teacher. Each class goes to the same room for each subject. Its really neat. But i just missed the class trip by a week!! They went to Tessin too!! darn!! ahh!!

well thats all for now! im really tired!! feel free to email me anytime!! ill try to take some pics of my school soon!

love yall!!

Adventure with Natasha

So Saturday 8/25 my host parents were working, so they suggested that i go on a train ride since im able to with my GA. So my host dad planned a route for me and told me to invite another exchange student. So i invited Natasha, she is from Canada and lives about 10 mins from Burgdorf. However, her host parents said that it wouldnt be a good idea to take the train on the route we were going on bc it was such a pretty day and its still tourist season so the train would be packed and hott!! they dont have ac here! well they do but its not a very common thing! anyways, her host parents suggested that we go to Gurten. Its a hill in Bern that you take a tram up to the top and then you can see all of Bern from the top. We even go to see the alps!! Which was my first time to see them!! They're AMAZING!! God has created some pretty amazing things on this earth and im glad i am able to enjoy them! There was also an aweosme playground up there too!! I wish i was little again!! haha So we walked around the hill and saw all the sides of it. There was even a cool field, which would be PERFECT for ultimate frisbee!! I need to find a frisbee and a group of people to play with! Well after we walked around we decided to head back to the train station. We decided to go to Thun, which is about a 2o min train ride. We had to stand up though bc there was soo many people on the train. We got off the train and then went to COOP and got a sandwich. But we were gonna try to find a cafe and then after a failed attempt, we decided it would be much easier to just buy a sandwich and then just sit along the river. The river was soo cool there. I want to go back to Thun. It seems like a really cool place. After we ate, we went to find a gelato place. Natasha had been to Thun before so she knew where the gelato place was. We were successful at getting gelato. I even used my german to ask for a spoon!! haha The gelato was sooo GOOODD!! haha it was italian gelato!! haha and it was only like 3 franks which is REALLY good!! but then we headed back to the train station to head back home. I had lots of fun on my adventure. I felt like i accomplished a lot!





Later Saturday night, my host sister took me to this festival going on in Burgdorf. It was fun. It reminded me of Berges Fest minus the beauty pageant and parade! I just wish I could've gone with my people my age. I went with my oldest host sister who is 25 so everyone was a lot older than me. But thats okay i still had fun and i got out of the house for a little bit.



^me and natasha on the tram!! ^the city of Bern!


^the alps!! ^THUN!!!


if you want to see some more awesome pics, go to the following url:
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001312&l=b0327&id=1517040103

hope all is well with everyone! love yall!!

Calf Birthday!!

Sunday August 26, 2007

So i finally got to sleep in a little bit today! I was really excited about that!! haha I didnt do much today. My host families neighborhood was having its Quartirie Festival which is pretty much like a Block Party. I went with my host dad, my host mom was sick. :( But the block party was really fun though. They had good food! BBQ!! but its nothing like BBQ from texas!! haha but its still tasty! They also had potatoe salad but its not the same either. haha They had these really cool toys for the kids. Me and my host sister, Kathrin, played on them!! haha We also played Fussball! it was lots of fun even though im not good!! haha But after that i went home and just relaxed at home. I had homework from my language course that i worked on as well.

Well around 5, a farmer called my host dad saying that a cow was in labor. He asked me if I wanted to go with him, and i said why not. I didnt have anything better to do. Plus i thought it would be a good chance to see the country side. So i went along on the adventure, and it was definlety an adventure. haha I have never seen a calf being born before. I saw everything. My host dad even asked me to help! So i not only saw something amazing happen, i was a part of it as well. I was really suprised i didnt pass out or anything because im not an animal medicine person!! haha My host dad says that im gonna be a coffee drinking, big animal vet by the end of the year. haha maybe a coffee drinker but probably not a vet. haha i dont have any pics of this so sorry!! haha but the country side is amazing! ill have to go again so i can get some pics!

Well thats all for now. This week is gonna be my last week of language course!! whoo!!! Ill start real school after this week! Im really excited about it because im ready to meet people my age but im nervous at the same time. The language is still hard, its getting better though.

Well ill right again soon! and maybe put up some more pics!!

Mt. Gantrisch

Yesterday, my host parents took me hiking on Mt Gantrisch which It is 2160 m or about 7086 ft. We had to drive about an hour to get there. We left early in the morning too so i was super sleepy because the night before I was out till 1200 with some other exchange students. It was absolutely amazing!! Suprisingly, it wasnt very hard either. The weather was kinda bad though. My host mom had packed us a little lunch. Once we got to the place where a local farmer sells locally made cheese and other foood, we decided to stop and take a break. However, my host dad went to get the food out of the backpack and it wasnt there. He said it was my host mom's responsibilty to put it in the backpack. So we just bought some cheese, bread and chocolate from the farmer. I didnt really like the cheese, and thats like all we ever eat!! haha Anyways, well when we got home we loooked for the packed lunch and couldnt find it in the house. My host mom looked in the backpack and it was in there the whole time! haha It was hilarious!! The mountain was absolutely amazing! I didnt get to see the alps though! :( i havent really seen them yet. The mountains i see are the Jura. and then there are hills around my town. My host dad says that this is the flat part of switzerland and i was like really?? it doesnt look like it!! haha But we didnt make it to the top bc the weather was getting worse and we needed to get down the mountain before it started raining. We took a different way down and went by a lake!! It was GORGEOUS!!! On the way home, we stopped at a restaurant and we ate bread with melted cheese on it and salad. it was actually really good. I am sore today, but its really not that bad! well i have to go. i wanted to put pictures on here but i ran out of time. so here is the url that you can view all of my pictures that i took. if i have time later ill come back and put some up but for now just go to the link!
http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001287&l=e56a2&id=1517040103

ps you can leave me a comment if you want...you dont have to have a blog account to do so!

love yall!!

I HAVE ARRIVED!!!!

hey everyone!! okay so i have been in switzerland for 13 days now!! i absolutely LOVE it here!! its sooo pretty!! the people are really nice. My host family is sooo nice!! they're really helpful!! well my host brother likes to trick me!! haha but its fun! the family has a good sense of humor too!!! i had my first official Burgdorf Rotary Club meeting the second day i got here! It was actually more social then a meeting. It was a birthday party for a Rotarian that is a Farmer. It was really fun. I had rachlet!! Its basically melted cheese served with potatoes! They eat sooo much cheese!! Other than cheese, they also eat a lot of sausage, bread, fruit, yogurt, and salad. haha but i really like the food for the most part!!



ive been to bern several times. my language crash course is there. i ride the train everyday!! its sooo cool!! public transportation here is sooo AMAZING!! like i cant believe it! and i also can ride the train all over switzerland bc i have GA!! its so nice! i can ride boats and buses too! haha the language course is helping a whole lot! im learning lots each day.

my host family took me to a play that was on a working farm. it was really interesting!! i didnt understand very much because it was in high german but i liked it! i understood what was going just based on the actions. it was about a love story. it was set back in like the 1600s or something. tomorrow they're taking me to a mountain!!! im really excited.

i think thats prettty much all i've done here. im still trying to get used to the time change. my biological clock is still set to texas time!! haha but my room is reallly cute much smalller than mine at home! haha but i like it.everything is so much smaller!! haha im really glad i dont have to drive here bc the roads are SUPER small!! i open the windows like every night!!

my host dad also gave me a bike to use. it was one of my host siblings old bike. its really nice. i get to ride my bike to school everyday!! whoooo!!

my rotary counselor is super nice!! i like him a lot!! hes been very helpful!!! actuallly everyone has been reallly helpful.

oh and today i made Zupfe (pronounce ZOOPFUH! ) haha its like braided bread. illl take some pictures when its done! its baking right now!!! my host dad said it looks really goood, especially since it was my first time to make it! haha

my host parents liked the BBQ sauce i brought them. We hate it with pork chops, so it wasn't exactly like at home, but it was still very goood. oh, and i have eaten horse too!! i know what you're thinking, how can i do that? haha its really goood actually!! my host mom says that horse is happy meat but cow isnt hahah!!

well thats all for now...i'll try to be better about writing on here. maybe like once or sometimes twice a week!

i love yall and miss everyone! but im having a BLAST!!

here are some pictures:

my house!!!


my street!!

a church

Burgdorf from the castle

Burgdorf


the castle

the emme river (it runs kinda behind my house!)

mein velo!! (my bike)


if you want to see more pictures visit the following websites:

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001258&l=72b95&id=1517040103

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001261&l=cf5c7&id=1517040103

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001279&l=9d519&id=1517040103

http://hs.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2001282&l=2aebe&id=1517040103

Start of a New Adventure

Well, if you're looking at this then you must know that I will be spending a year in Switzerland through Rotary International. Burgdorf is the town that I will be living and going to school in. I am very excited about leaving. I am leaving August 5th, which is VERY sooon!! ahhh! I'm working on getting packed. I also now have my visa taken care of which is a BIG relief.



My first host family has already been emailing me this summer. I know that the Mom and Dad are both veterinarians. The dad is a vet at the local dairy farm and the mom is a small animal vet in Burgdorf. They have 3 kids, Theres (19), Stefan (21), and Kathrin (23). Stefan lives and goes to school in Burgdorf. Kathrin and Theres go to school in Lausanne. The family seems really nice and I can't wait to meet them in person. I have attached some pictures that my family has sent me.

My Home!!


Theres and My Host Parents


My Host Brother, Stefan


Kathrin and Host Parents



The Farm where my Host Dad works!!




So my departure date is Sunday August 5th, 2007. I have to be at the airport at 8:15 am. I will fly American Airlines to Dallas and from Dallas I will fly to Zurich, Switzerland (same airline of course). I don't know the next time I'll be able to post something so this might be my the first and last entry for a while!

Please pray for me because I am nervous about going overseas!! Thanks!

Feel free to email me at amarette2007@hotmail.com

LOVE YALL and GOD BLESS!!!