oopsilon

Also, hoi zämme.

Hey there, my friends. It's been awhile.

I'm hoping it's okay with you guys that I'm going to be an extremely irregular blogger. I remember in past years following the blogs of the other exchange students and seeing that many of them, after a month or two, either barely posted or gave up completely. "I'm just so busy!" they'd say. And I would be mildly annoyed but it was all very well and good. Now that I'm in Switzerland, I am doing exactly the same thing, because that's just how it goes. And having a life so full that you don't know what to do with it is a good problem to have.

The letter Y in German is pronounced "ipsilon," and what I've found is that many people, after making a mistake, say "oopsilon." This post is titled as such in the hopes that such a fabulous word will somewhat make up for the fact that these are quickly becoming few and far-between.

I got a wonderful care package from my family, including but not limited to the CD from my last choir concert (which I have been listening to on repeat), Swiss Miss (which is almost gone), and a pack of glorious peanut butter-to-go (which is, of course, completely gone). I also got a package from my wonderful cousins in Northfield, whose artwork and letters are now hanging on my wall.

If you're reading this, thank you so much!! I was so excited to hear from you, and I absolutely love your artwork! I look at my wall and I smile and think of you. :)

The past few weeks have been rather out of the ordinary.

September 30th - October 4th was Projektwoche at my school, which means that each class works on a project centered around their Schwerpunktfach. So for me, it meant all music, all the time, for a whole week.

That's fabulous.

My class's project was preparing and performing music on the streets in Basel, appropriately titled Strassenmusik 2013. Allow me to clarify - street performance is technically not allowed in Switzerland, because it's considered begging, which is illegal. But my teacher pulled some German strings that I didn't entirely understand, so we were singing our hearts out on entirely legally acceptable grounds. Monday through Wednesday were spent in the practice rooms, rehearsing over and over. We prepared songs as a class - everything from Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da to Knockin' on Heaven's Door to Aux Champs Elysees (a French song that I thankfully didn't actually have to memorize...I just watermeloned it the whole time.) We were also in groups of 3-4, each group having one person who plays guitar, and prepared our own songs to sing.

What was it like, performing on the streets, you ask? Super awkward. That was, at least in my group, the general consensus. It made us all uncomfortable to sing songs we'd only rehearsed for three days (for money!) and have everybody pass by and stare. However, now we all have this really cool, unique experience that most people don't. But I think it's safe to say I will not be street-performing again anytime soon.

That was our last week of school before our Herbstferien, our two-week fall break. My classmates were pretty busy, Valeria was still in school, and Seraina was at camp being a counselor for the first week, and in Budapest the second week for her school's Projektwoche. So I decided to go unterwegs.

I don't remember if I mentioned this before, but my GA is really, truly, the most tremendous gift that Rotary could have given me. It's something that's extremely expensive for Swiss citizens, and something that I was simply given. With it I have the luxury of traveling anywhere in the country, on nearly any mode of transportation, free of charge. It's really, really wonderful.

Saturday, I went to the Zug library and came home with an entire bag full of books. Sunday, I spent almost the entire day making Fahrpläne, slips of paper saying when my trains come and go, where I change, and when the last train back to Goldau is, lists of things to see, and perhaps most importantly, lists of phrases in French and Italian. Do you speak English? Do you speak German? I'm looking for a city map. Thank you so much!

Here's the schedule:
(p.s. my camera thinks it's still in Minnesota, so the times on the pictures aren't accurate and I can't figure out how to turn off that feature because I'm tech-y like that.)

Montag, 7. Oktober: Bern

I love how this is what a normal street looks like.

The inside of Einstein's apartment

This little guy was in the bear park! (They have a bear park!)

Also, this mode of transportation.

Dienstag, 8. Oktober: Lausanne

This bus stop.

This architecture.

Boats everywhere.

All over.

A carousel on the shore of Lake Geneva :)

Great story - you're going to love it. So there are ships that cruise around Lake Geneva every day, to various destinations. And I wanted to take one...because obviously. I asked one of the guys standing outside the entrance to the ship if I could go with my GA, and he said I could! And he said, "where do you want to go? Evian?" I told him it didn't matter - whichever one was coming right back to Lausanne. And he nodded and said "Evian - take number four." So I did, and it was fabulous, and the ship went to Evian, and I just stayed on it and, as promised, it went back to Lausanne. When I came home I told Anita and she said, "oh, then you were in France!" 

Evian is in France. I was, I guess you could say, at France (I didn't get off the ship) and I had no idea. Classic.

Mittwoch, 9. Oktober: Solothurn, Freiburg, Gruyère with Anita

          

The inside - it was so pretty, but all I could think about was how awesome the acoustics must be and how I wanted Chamber Choir to be there with me so we could sing the Pasture or something. OH that would be fabulous.

Beautiful Freiburg

Fall is here. Since I took this photo, the trees are all much more colored, but I love it anyway. The fact that the weather is changing reminds me that time is, in fact, passing. I can't believe it.

Medieval town of Gruyère 

 Gruyère cheese is the best cheese. In my humble opinion.

Donnerstag, 10. Oktober: RAIN DAY

My plans to travel on Thursday were cancelled because there was rain and snow happening all over Switzerland, but not to worry. This day turned out to be particularly blissful. I slept in, packed up my book, my notebook, and my iPod and spent the whole day vegging on the train. With rain outside. Picture this, people. It was beautiful. 

Freitag, 11. Oktober: - 

Samstag, 12. Oktober: Lugano

Peek-a-boo...

Sonntag, 13. Oktober: First snow(man) of 2013!

It snowed on the Rigi, so Valeria and I took the Rigibahn up to the top. 

My snowman :)

Montag, 14. Oktober: Geneva

It's amazing to know that an organization like the UN exists. The people that work there - they're giants. There are 9,500 of them in Geneva alone, working for the most important causes in the world. They are incredible. And I got to see where the magic happens - I got to see the conference room for the Human Rights Council itself!

The ceiling is made to look like an upside-down ocean floor. It looks different depending on where you are standing, which is symbolic of all the different people working there having different perspectives on the same issues. 

I was so inspired by the UN that I didn't care that the lady thought I was a university student and charged me three extra francs or that I was running on three hours of sleep (one of those things where you can't sleep because you're thinking too much, mostly about how you need sleep for the next day), or that I walked to the bus stop in the midst of an absolute downpour. So there you have it. I just love good people. :) 

Dienstag, 15. Oktober: I helped Anita with the gardening - I planted a whole bed of tulips!

Mittwoch, 16. Oktober: Zürich with two of my friends from school, Marie and Leandra

Donnerstag, 17. Oktober: Stein am Rhein

Freitag, 18. Oktober: Goms

I spent almost all of Friday on the train as well. I had an hour in Brig before taking the Matterhorn Gotthardbahn to Andermatt. It was all about the view. 

Stockalperpalast

Samstag, 19. Oktober: Military open house

For the first time in 20 years, the Swiss military had an open house of sorts at the airbase - the public was welcome to come and learn about the technology used by the military. I went to my first airshow!

Sonntag, 20. Oktober: Rotary meeting!

I hadn't seen my exchange student friends in two to three weeks, and I'd missed them! We had our second large-scale Rotary meeting on Sunday, and I got to see them all again. 

Yesterday I dove headfirst again into school, and it's life as usual!

Don't worry. I've not forgotten to make you aware of the time that has elapsed thus far - Sunday marks three months for me. A quarter of my exchange has already come and gone - it's amazing how time flies! One year and a couple of weeks ago, I was dropping off my Rotary application. Whoa. I can't believe it!

Finally, it is a very exciting time in the Morris household, because a new family member has arrived. His name is Bear and I will finish off with a picture of him because he's the cutest thing I've ever seen. 

Alles Liebe,

Hannah