Frohe Weihnachten, buon Natale, feliz navidad, and merry Christmas to all! I hope everyone had amazing holidays surrounded by friends, family, and loved ones. I certainly did.
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| Christbaum!! |
The last week of school was pretty normal. My classmates had lots of exams to write so I got many free periods, which I definitely enjoyed. The last day of school was easy. It was just a double period of sports, then a 40 minute politics lesson, where we just watched a movie. After that my class attended an hour long Christmas assembly. There was singing of Christmas songs (in many different languages), as well as some short scenes from Christmas films (which were all in English), and some other little Christmas things. After that I hung out in the city with my friends for awhile before heading home. On both Christmas eve and Christmas eve eve, I went skiing for a few hours.
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| Sunset from my window |
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| Ski views |
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| Top of Laax |
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| Early start |
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| Watching the sun rise as I skied was amazing |
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| Really want to try this soon!!! |
Christmas itself was quite a bit different than how it's done in Canada. For starters, the whole Santa Claus thing is done on December 6th instead of the 25th. Also, what is normally done on Christmas morning in Canada, is done in the evening of the 24th. From my host family, I got a pair of slippers, made by my host-mom, as well as some chocolates and candy, a t-shirt, and from my host-brother a portable cheese cooker. My host family is awesome!! Also for them I got some mittens from Canada, as well as some maple syrup and a few other little things. The next day, we went to my first host-family's house (the host moms are sisters) for christmas day celebrations. From my first family, I got a beautiful swiss-army knife with my name engraved into it. Definitely something I will keep forever.
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| Decorating the tree |
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| Hostfam :) |
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| My knife |
After christmas, I did a lot more skiing and attended one of the games of the Spengler Cup with my host-brothers and past host-mom. Team Canada was not playing that game, but I still had a good time cheering for Davos.
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| Stadium in Davos |
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| Host brothers |
On December 31st, I headed to Bern for a new years party with a bunch of other exchange students. I spent the day touring around the city with some friends before we headed to the party. It turned out to be super fun and it was awesome to ring in the new year with so many new friends from around the world! The next day, Claire and I did a little more sightseeing in Bern before heading home. All in all, a good few days.
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| Sunrise on the way to Bern |
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This one is for my sister, the train had a full
Starbucks on board!!!!! |
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| Strassebahn in Bern |
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| Swiss parlement building |
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| Overlooking Bern |
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Probably wasn't supposed to climb on this,
but it still made for a good picture |
But the fun didn't end there. On January 2nd, I went skiing again with Claire and our friend from Rotex named Yannik. I told them about my plans to head to Luzern the next day to see some more of my exchange friends, including my friend Cam (My Flugzeug buddy) from Canada. It just so happened that Yannik was heading through Luzern the next day anyway, and he offered to drive me so I could save 30.- on a train ticket (for those of y'all who don't know, travel in Switzerland is EXPENSIVE). I met up with Cam around noon and we headed into the city. We saw all the main tourist attractions in the city and just chatted and had a good time. I had a bit of a scare for a few minutes when I left my iPhone on a park bench and walked to the other side of the city before realizing it, however, because it's Switzerland, when we ran back to the bench there was an old couple waiting there to give it back to me, so it all turned out ok. Later in the day we met some more exchange friends and spent the evening touring around Luzern and the city of Zug. That night I slept at Cam's place and headed home in the morning. But before I left, we stopped for pizza quickly in the Luzern Bahnhof before I caught my train, and it was honestly some of the best I've ever had.
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| Luzernian swan |
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| Auf die Kappelbrücke |
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| Pano of Luzern |
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| Löwendenkmal |
The next day, for the last day of holidays, I just had a day to relax to recover from so much time spent on trains in the last few days. I headed into Chur and hung out with my buddy Gian-Luca for a few hours, then headed home to go to bed early.
All in all, I had an awesome winter holiday. It was amazing to see how Christmas is celebrated in different parts of the world, I had a great time getting some more milage on my skis, and it was fantastic to see some new cities in this beautiful country that I, with pleasure, call my second home.
That's all for this post, tschüss mitenand!
P.S. my new years resolution: posting more on this blog!! :)
Auch, eine speziele danke zu meine wunderbar gastfamilien für alle du hast auf dieser Ferien für mich gemacht. Ich werde immer dankbar sein! Schönes neues Jahr! :)
