My Swiss Adventure: Welcome Meeting and Deutschkurs

Hello again everyone! Sorry for the short break between posts, I have been very busy with homework and other things now that the language course has started.

So first things first, on Sunday was the welcome meeting in Olten for all inbounds. Olten is two hours away from Chur so it was a long day of driving, but I was with the other exchange student living in Chur for the drive so we took the time to get to know each other. Her name is Claire and she comes from Canada as well, so it was good to have another Canadian to talk to on the way. We arrived at the meeting around 2pm (we took the scenic route to get there so the drive was a little over two hours)

Scenic drive to the welcome meeting

and were instantly welcomed by the other exchange students. As soon as I walked in the door, two oldies (exchange students that arrived in January are called oldies, I'm considered a newbie) named Ruby and Juliett came up to me and introduced themselves and hugged me. We had been talking over the internet before that so they knew to look for me. After we were all signed in, it was time to meet everyone else. There are just over 80 inbounds that just arrived in Switzerland the past few days so I didn't get the chance to meet everyone, however I met as many people as I could. All the Canadians were easy to find as we are the only ones with red blazers. Everyone else has dark colours so we stood out very much. After the initial introductions, we were all separated into groups according to the language we natively spoke, so that we could all understand what the rotarians had to say. The information was the same as I already learned in Canada a few months ago. Just boring stuff about insurance, rules, how to deal with different situations and stuff like that. After that was all done, I met a few more people then we headed home. It was so nice to finally meet everyone, and I'm sure we'll all become very close over the course of this year.

The next morning was the first day of language school, called Deutschkurs. The course I have to attend is all the way in Zurich, so that is a one hour commute every morning and afternoon for the next three weeks. However I don't mind so much as I just use the time to sleep and chat anyway. I ride the train everyday with the two other exchange students living in Chur. Claire (Canada) and Josh (Sweden). In the morning we are all too tired to talk so we just sleep on the way there. The first day of the course went by in a blur. First they had us all take a test to divide us into the classes, the advanced class and the slower class. I scored 21 out of 46 so I just made it into the advanced class.

The advanced Deutsch class

As soon as we split up, the teacher started going off in German. Most of it is difficult to understand but she talks slow enough so its not too bad. But very hard to pay attention! I am trying my best though. After class we usually walk around Zurich for a bit and see what we can find before catching the train back to Chur.

Everything is going well here and super smooth. I'm adjusting to life very well and it is all beginning to seem normal now. Alles gut in die Schweiz!