A Week in Italy

Ciao di nuovo tutto

(I'm kidding that was all google translate... I don't speak Italian)

So anyway this past week I spent in Italy! My host parents were away for this past week so they made arrangements for me to be hosted by the family of another member of the rotary club for the week. It just so happened that they had a house in Italy and wanted me to spend the week with them there.  So Friday night I packed my bag and headed out the next morning. I got on the 9:13 bus headed from Chur to Bellinzona in the Italian part of Switzerland where they would be picking me up. The bus ride was two hours. I attempted to get some sleep at first, however that was very hard to do as the route between Chur and Bellinzona is one of the prettiest drives I've ever been on.

Once I got off the bus in Bellinzona I was greeted by Bigna, the woman who's family I would be staying with for the next week, and her two kids named Nicolo and Gianna. They seemed very quiet at first but once we got to the car that changed very quickly... We drove for about 10 minutes before we had to stop at Coop for groceries for the week. In the store, Bigna did most of the shopping while the kids talked to me (in German) the whole time. They asked me all about myself, and Canada, as well as teaching me the names of some of the things in the store. After shopping we got back in the car and drove to Italy. Their house was right on Lago Maggiore with a beautiful view of the lake and the Swiss/Italian Alps.

View from the house

Once we arrived the kids took me around the house to show me everything before we ate lunch. After lunch we went marroni (similar to chestnuts) picking which was pretty fun. After that we went back inside and played some games until dinner. That night we watched a movie in German which I understood very little of and then headed off to bed. The next day was a bit of a lazy day. Bigna had to clean the house as she was having guests over that evening so the kids and I played some games and went outside for a bit. The guests arrived in the evening, however, because all of the guests were Italian, they spoke almost no German, so to communicate with them I could only use English. Even the kids were able to speak a little bit of Italian so I was the only one who knew what was going on literally 0% of the time (unless they were saying "Ciao" or "Pizza"). The next day we planned to go out on their boat for the day, however because of the weather we were not able to go that day, so instead we just had another relaxing day at home, which was completely fine by me. On Tuesday, we drove about 15 minutes from the house to a very nice hiking spot. It started off in an old Italian village. From there we hiked up to another village which had a beautiful old church that was amazing too see. From there we hiked along some trails through forests and stuff, coming across small villages every once in awhile. All in all, a very beautiful hike:

The next day, we did another hike. This time however we drove a little bit farther and ended up hiking back in Switzerland. That hike was hard... In total, we climbed 700 meters straight up, which would've been challenging on it's own, however we accidentally took the difficult route where we had to deal with steep up-slopes and rocks and roots. Not a fun experience at first. But once we got to the top, not only was the view amazing, but we had to cross a very long cable bridge suspended high over a valley. The bridge wasn't too bad at first however once I got out to the middle, the wind picked up and it felt very shaky. Also the drop was about 200 meters straight into a rocky river, so I was a little bit scared. But we all made it across with no casualties.

By the time we got back to the house, I was very tired. Needless to say, I slept like a rock that night.

On Thursday, we drove for quite a long time before arriving at the top of one of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen. We only stayed up there for a bit though because the wind was crazy strong. Instead we went below it and got some nice pictures from there. After that we had some lunch at a small restaurant nearby then headed home.

Climbing rocks with Nicolo and Gianna

Friday was another lazy day for the most part. However in the afternoon a friend of Bigna's came over and roasted the marronis we picked on Saturday over a fire. They didn't taste bad, however I'm in no rush to have them again.

Roasting the marronis

That night we watched another German movie and packed up some things to prepare for leaving the next day.

Saturday morning was just cleaning and packing before we left. I said goodbye to the kids before heading back to Chur with Bigna. We just chatted the whole way and she gave me some ideas on places to go in the area on day trips, so I'll definitely be making some of those really soon. All in all, it was a great week in Italy!

When I got home I just relaxed and unpacked and Skyped with some friends back home just to catch up. It's weird to hear about what's going on back home as I am so out of the loop with pretty much everything now. The next evening I skyped with my family which was also very nice, despite the bad connection, it was good to just chat. The next day I returned to school. First thing I noticed when I got back was my understanding of German had significantly improved over the break, and now I can follow what is happening in most lessons. I still find chemistry and physics difficult, however I don't think that has so much to do with the language barrier. Other than the actual classes, it was good to see my friends again and get back into a routine.

So that's all for this post. Hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to post again soon as I have lots of exciting things happening in the next month. Until then, Tschüss!

Savognin

Hallo wieder von der Schweiz!

So like I said in my last post, this past week was theme week in my school. Theme week is basically a week where students can choose a subject they wish to focus on for a week and go have some fun with it. I chose Geography because I'm not completely horrible at it and can somewhat understand what's going on in that class.

So anyway, on Monday we were in school all day. It was just basically a big long geography lesson which was a little interesting at first but as it went on I found it increasingly hard to pay attention to as I only had a limited understanding. However the next day was where things got interesting. The entire geography class would be taking a two day trip to Savognin. What made it more interesting for me was that I had no idea what we would be doing there, we received a schedule but I wasn't able to understand it all so most of the time I just went with what everyone else was doing and it seemed to work out. On Tuesday morning we all met up at the Chur Bahnhof (train station) and took the train to some remote stop where we then boarded a bus to Savognin. The whole journey took about an hour and a half. Most of which I slept for.

Bus ride to Savognin

 When we got there we got assigned our rooms and had some time to get settled in. I was rooming with my friend Ennio and our friends Simon, Jan and Mauro were in the room next door. After we were all settled in we headed down to a lake near the hotel and just relaxed there for a little while. Ate lunch, played some football (soccer), and just had a good time. After that we all headed up to the top of the mountain near the lake.

 It was about a 15 minute chairlift ride followed by a 10 minute gondola ride to get to the top. Well not actually the top... To get to the peak would be about another 10 minute chairlift ride but that's only open for skiers in the winter so we didn't get to go. But that was fine by me because I only had a sweater and the peak was covered in snow. Anyway once we were off the gondola, we walked along a trail for about two hours which gave me a great opportunity for some pictures:

Panorama of the mountains

Selfie with Ennio, Simon, Mauro, and Jan

We then stopped at a tiny restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had some pasta for dinner which was delicious!

By the time dinner was done it was dark out. We still had about two hours left until we were back to Savognin so it was very interesting to hike in the dark. Until it started to rain. Then it just turned miserable and all we wanted to do was get back to the room where there was actual warmth. The next day we woke up early for breakfast then headed out into the village to ask the locals some questions about life in Savognin. Seeing as my group handled the questions in Swiss-German, I had no idea what was going on, so once again I just kind of rolled with it. After that we had lunch then headed back up the mountain with tricycle type things that we were going to go down the mountain on.

Heading up again

When we got to the top we had a brief geography lesson then proceeded to ride down. We reached speeds of up to 50 km/h and I can honestly say it was one of the scariest, yet most amazing experiences of my life, and I will not forget it anytime soon (unfortunately I don't have any pictures of it). When we got to the bottom we had a little bit of free time before heading to a nearby hotel called "Cube" for a tour.

That's the hotel in the bottom right

The hotel was a 5 star hotel which was all sports themed. It was super modern, colourful, and all-round fun to be in. Also the tour was all in High-German and I was proud to say I understood almost every word the tour guide said, so naturally I left that hotel feeling pretty good about myself. After that we had dinner then free time until bed. The next day we woke up super early, cleaned out the rooms, ate breakfast, then left for our final hike. We walked up some huge mountain with little breaks for lessons along the way.

I tried to pay attention, however that is not easy to do when surrounded by stunning mountains, so I slacked a little bit in the lesson department. After the hike we boarded our bus back to the remote train station then got on the train back to Chur. All in all, a good few days.

I am now officially on fall break for the next two weeks so hopefully I'll have some more stuff to write about real soon. I'm just taking it all day by day and seeing what happens as I go along, because everyday is a new adventure, especially when you live in Switzerland. Tschüss!!

P.S. my day to day life is still super. My host parents are very nice and very easy going. My German is steadily improving with each new day, and I am proud to say I haven't been homesick. There are some days where I miss some people or some things from home, but I know those will all be waiting for me in nine months. For now I will just keep enjoying this beautiful country I now call my second home.