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!