Mid-November

Hello again!

So the past few weeks have been pretty fun, however I never really had much time to write it all down in my blog... But today is a nice, lazy, snowy, Sunday so I figured I could get a post in today.

Just under a week after my last ski trip, I went skiing for the second time this season. This time with Josh and Claire. We went to Laax because all three of us have passes for that mountain so it didn't cost us anything. After a fifteen minute hot, crowded, gondola ride, we were rewarded with something else: another twenty minute hot, crowded, gondola ride! For anyone that doesn't realise how big these mountains are, they're big... When we got to the top of the second station, we thought it was finally over, but we were wrong. We had to climb into another gondola for another twenty minute ride. This one was not so bad though because there was just a bunch of small gondolas so the three of us got one to ourselves, and we got to sit, which was nice. When we FINALLY got to the ski area, it turned out to be a pretty amazing day. We got around ten runs in, which was more than enough because of how big the area was. We stayed right until closing, and it turned out to be a pretty amazing day.

Third gondola ride to the ski area

Life is good

The next day I went for a long hike with my host parents in the mountains, it was a really beautiful hike and I was able to get some awesome pictures:

The next week in school was mostly normal, except for Wednesday afternoon. Wednesday afternoon was the first day of of the second German course in Zürich. This is the course that will allow me to work harder on my German grammar and vocabulary, and will eventually allow me to take my exam and get a certificate saying that I am fluent in German. The first day was just easy. We took a quick test to separate us into our classes then just played some games to get organised and speak some German. After that a few of us just hung out in Zürich for a bit and had some fun.

Fun in Zürich

Last weekend was the country fair in Olten. The country fair is basically an opportunity for the future outbound exchange students to learn a bit about each of the countries they can choose from. Representing Canada was me, my friend Nikki from Manitoba, and three Swiss girls who came to Canada on exchange last year. All together we did a pretty good job representing Canada and had a great time while doing it.

Yesterday I had another course day in Zürich. I woke up super early and caught the train into the city. The course wasn't super interesting, just three hours of practicing German grammar. After the course, I grabbed some lunch with friends before we headed into the Cinema to see Mockingjay Part Two. It was so amazing and I'm super glad I got to see it with so many of my exchange friends! After the movie we walked around the city for a bit and went into a christmas market in the main area. It was super pretty and got me very excited for Christmas in Switzerland!! After that I had dinner then headed home. Also, this morning I woke up to several centimetres of snow on the ground which was amazing!!

My favourite Philippino 

Grossmünster

The snow this morning

As far as school goes, it has recently been pretty normal. I'm pretty used to the system and schedule now so theres never really any major surprises anymore, and I don't usually end up on the exact opposite side of the school too often anymore, which is nice. For me as an exchange student, school is more about making friends and socialising with them, and trying to learn the language, than trying to get good marks. So in some of my classes I have started to work on some German work instead of do the class work, which is fine by all my teachers. And between classes, I always make sure to walk with some friends and talk to them as we walk. However, recently I had a small milestone in Physics that I am pretty proud of. A few days ago, I was sitting in class copying what was written on the board when the teacher put a question up on the projector. I gave it a quick glance and realised that I knew some of the words. I gave it a read from top to bottom and it turns out I understood the whole thing completely! Like I had no idea how to solve the question because physics but I understood the translation which was a pretty big deal!!

So thats all for this update. I'll hopefully be posting again next week because this coming weekend is the big Rotary weekend in Zermatt (also known as the place where the Matterhorn is) which I am very excited for. Tschüss!

Skiing!

Hello everyone! Just a quick update today.

So as the title says, I went skiing this past Sunday!! But I'll get back to that in a second. This past weekend was very awesome. On Friday after school I headed up to the village of Laax to hang out with my friend Josh at his host parents' house. His host parents were away for the evening and he was looking after his host siblings, so he asked if I'd like to join him. Before dinner we chatted for a bit and watched a few episodes of The Walking Dead, which I have now gotten him addicted to. After that we made some spaghetti for dinner and chatted with the kids. They were full of energy so naturally that kept things interesting. About an hour later we cleaned up the kitchen then headed out to the sauna. That was my first experience with a sauna in Switzerland and I loved it. We spent the next few hours going back and forth from the sauna (don't worry Mom we were drinking lots of water) to the cold shower which made me feel so relaxed and amazing. After we were done I had to catch the bus back to Chur. When I got there I ended up running into some friends from school who were headed into the city for the evening. I stuck with them for a bit and then ended up running into even more people from school. Apparently some popular bar was closing that night so pretty much my entire school was there, but it was a fun evening because I got the opportunity to hang out with so many people and have a good time. 

The next morning I went with my host brother and my host mom up to the village of Flims so that I could get my season pass for Flims-Laax ski resort.

Base of Laax

Laax Trail Map

 After we picked that up we did a little bit of shopping in the village of Laax and I ended up buying some good boots for the winter. Then we headed back to Flims so that I could get my hair cut and pick up the skis I'd be using for Sunday. Before heading home we drove up to Sagogn to meet my host mom's sister and her husband for lunch. They will be my next host family so it was good to chat with them again. 

We got back home around four o'clock and chatted for awhile before my host brother and I drove down to the train station to pick up my friend Brendan (Austrailia) who would be staying overnight and then joining us to go skiing the next day. He lives all the way up in Basel so it was a lot easier for him to come the day before and stay overnight so we could leave early in the morning. That night we had dinner with my host parents then headed into Chur so he could see the city for the first time. There we met up with Claire and just walked around for a bit and played a few rounds of pool at a Cafe. We headed home fairly early so that we could wake up the next day for skiing. 

Sunday morning I woke up at 6:30 and got ready to go. Brendan and I met up with my friend Lara at the train station and Claire joined us a few minutes later on the train. The ride took a little under an hour which was not so bad. When we got there we walked to the mountain and bought our tickets for the day. We went skiing in Davos at Davos Klosters moutain. At the base of the mountain there was no snow whatsoever. So to get to the snow we had to take a two trams that would bring us up to an altitude of 2284 meters above sea level, where we could then start skiing. We quickly put our gear on and headed out for the first run. It felt amazing to be back on skis!! What was even more amazing was that it was only November 1st... After the first few runs I was comfortable again on skis and started getting a bit more adventurous. I went off the trail a few times and even did some jumps and tricks with Claire. There was only one run open and one chairlift which may not seem like much, but this is Switzerland so that single run was about the size of all the runs at Lakeridge (local ski hill where I work at in Canada) combined. Also the chairlift was a high-speed chair with bubble shields which was so cool. It was around 1 degree when we started skiing in the morning but by the time we had to leave, it was 17 degrees which is by far the warmest I've ever skied in. Despite the temperature, the snow actually managed to hold out quite nicely and was still ski-able by late afternoon. In the end, we had an awesome day on the slopes and I left feeling exhausted with burning thighs, but I was so happy because I was back to doing what I loved most.  

View from the top

Claire!

Mit meine Leibling Claire!

Chairlift with Brendan

The lift passes over a lake which I thought was so cool

Panorama of the mountains

Restaurant at the top

Tram to get to the top

Trail map of the resort. Only a small part was open

View from a little under halfway up

Thats all for this post. Hope you enjoyed reading it. I have lots of cool adventures coming up soon so make sure to stay tuned for more updates. Tschüss!