Fun Weekends

Bonjour tout le monde 

(I went to Geneva recently and picked up some French)

So at the end of my last post I said I'd try to post a few more times before the end of the year. Here's me keeping that promise!

So recently I've had some cool adventures. First of all, shortly after getting back from Gstaad I went to Bad Ragaz with some friends of mine and explored the Taminaschlucht. The Taminaschlucht is a huge gorge which has a lot of hot springs flowing out of it, which heat the thermal baths in Bad Ragaz. We walked the whole way up to the entrance then went in. The gorge was so narrow at the top that at some points that vegetation was actually able to grow across it and form a sort of roof which made it pretty dark. Thankfully the whole path was lit. We also got pretty wet as we walked through because of the amount of waterfalls flowing right down onto the path. When we reached the end we were deep inside a cave, but it was actually super hot down there because of the amount of hot water flowing through the walls. At some points water had to be held back by glass windows because it would burn you if you were to touch it. Definitely a cool experience, and so weird to think that I've lived 20 minutes away from there my entire exchange but never even heard of it until friends suggested it. 

Walking to the entrance 

Beginning of the Schlucht

Super hot water

Hot water 'sweating' through the rocks

Long tunnel in the caves (the walls were so warm)

Looking up

The week following that was just more normal school. I understand pretty much everything at school now and try to follow along in most of the lessons as far as the work goes. Also with my class I speak only German now without problems (sometimes there are grammar errors but nothing so major where they won't understand me). It's kind of weird now though to think I have only three more weeks in that school. I really have enjoyed my time spent at BKS. 

The next weekend was my 18th birthday weekend. On Friday night I went out into Chur to celebrate with some friends from school. It turned out to be a really fun night. Later in the evening my friends Cassie and Cam arrived in Chur. When they got here we all headed back to my place to sleep. The next morning a few more people arrived and we all headed up together to the Caumasee (Lake Cauma) in Flims. The water was so clear, blue, and warm that we spent most of our time swimming, which was beautiful considering we were surrounded by mountains that still had snow-caps. After that we all headed back down to Chur and grabbed some Döner before some of them had to leave. That night we ended up going out again and it was also a great night. Sunday I just relaxed with friends in Landquart and Chur for the day until they left in the evening. All in all, a great weekend. 

Having fun with Swiss
friends Friday night

Caumasee (yes this is what it really looks like)

Chris

Cass

Cam

Claire

Two seconds after the last photo...

Caumasee with Laax ski resort in the background

The next weekend (last weekend) I finally managed to get to Geneva! Before this weekend it was only one of two major Swiss cities I hadn't yet seen on my exchange. The other is Basel where I will be going with my host parents in two weeks from now. So anyway, Friday evening after school I headed out to Freiburg with Cam and Talya. We planned to stay there for the night then head to Geneva the next day. When we got there we cooked some pasta at midnight (as all the cool exchange students do) then headed off to bed. The next day we woke up around 10 and left the house around 11. We got to Geneva around 2 and began to tour around. First we walked around the bay to the Jet d'Eau, which is that famous fountain in Geneva with water shooting up around 200 feet in the air. After that we walked around some more and simply enjoyed the sights of Geneva, including the UN building and some parts of the old city. 

On our way to Freibourg

Lausanne

Jet d'Eau

Geneva swans

UN Building

All the flags

That evening we made the great journey literally across the country all the way back to Zug for the last bit of our friend Chris' birthday party. It turned out to be an amazing night which even involved some 4am swimming in Lake Zug. The next day a few of us hung out in Zürich for awhile before I headed home in the evening. 

Overlooking Zug

Zoe

After the weekend was simply more normal school. Nothing super exciting happened this week so I guess I'll finish up the post here. Tomorrow I leave for Tessin for our final Rotary weekend. I am super excited but also a little sad because I know this will be the last time I see some of these people for a long time. I'll try to get in one more post before Eurotour so keep checking back for that in the coming weeks. Until then lovely Leute, tschüss!!