My weekend

On Saturday I went camera shopping in Bern. I met up with my host sister after her oral french exam and we went camera hunting together. After walking around we finally found a good quality affordable camera. I am so happy to have a camera again as being an exchange student a camera becomes an extension of your hand...and now that extension is back in action...so be ready as heaps of photos are coming your way.

On Sunday I went to Luzern with my host family.



We went for a walk around the lake of Luzern and arrived at this awesome transport museum. This sounds really dull but this place was more like a mini car,train and plane theme park than a museum. First we went on a trip back to the 1800's to when the rail way tunnels were being built. We all hoped on a train and were driven to a underground world with sound lights and puppets. This was really fun and it was interesting to learn the stories of the Swiss tunneling experiences.






Next we went to the plane room. This was so much fun. The planes all hung from the ceiling and you could walk around under them.





My favourite thing was to go in this pilot training pod. I asked my host family to come with me however they declined the experience..so instead I went in it with some Swiss man who was also standing in line.

What you did was you went in the pod and it simulated the flight of a plane...and you steered it. Being a speed and spinning junky i made the plane spin and roll and flip so many times the poor man in the pod with me started to look green. However he seem not to mind so much as when it was his turn to steer he seemed to make us spin just as much as I had....good fun.





when I left the pod, struggling to walk straight , we zig-zaged our way to the space section....here I went on the space shuttle spinning machine to get you used to space sickness.....again I made myself spin so fast that when i got up I nearly fell on my host mum.

We then Had lunch, after lunch we went to the Imax theater that was in the adjacent building. here we saw a wonderful film about different cultures and native tribes . The screen was so huge, about as big as 4 tennis courts. It was so great. You really felt like you were making woven baskets with the old ladies, or you were about to go bear hunting with the men. Just wonderful!

When we left we put our ticket stickers onto the car outside.....and no we didn't stick it on to any car....we stuck it onto he ticket car....this car was covered in so many tickets I decided it deserved a photo.

Spring and Snow

Spring has arrived and with it the snow. I love the snow and over the last few days I have felt like a child in a Candy shop. The snow is so exciting and I have been making the most of it as it is said not to last long.

So far I have walked to school (well to the train) every day in the snow. It usually takes me 5minutes to walk to the train ...however with the snow I have allowed myself 20minutes so I can fully enjoy this winter experience on my way to school.

Snow makes school much more eventful as you have to dodge snow balls on your way to class and in your lunch time you can go and build a snowman.....well actually most of the Swiss kids don't find snow very exciting ...so I built my snowman with the other excited exchange students.

I have also jumped in every huge snow drift i have seen , had snow fights,made a snow angel, and banged trees so snow falls down on me and the other people around me.

My favourite thing to do is to eat the snow from the sky. It is so much fun as the snow get all over your face. Looking up at the sky with snow falling down is amazing as it makes you feel like you are flying, with the world zooming past.

My Village is so beautiful in the snow.



My favourite house is the one across the road from me, as they have a bridge and a lake in their garden and because it is so cold the lake has frozen and it looks like a page form a story book.



My house also looks wonderful in the snow, the garden is so filled with snow...I love it.

Yodel-ay-eh-ho

Well I have now officially been to see yodeling....or "Jodeling" as they spell it in German.

It was really beautiful to listen to and sounded like a cross between gargling water and a church choir...........I know that it does not sound appealing but trust me it was.

I went with my host parents and my host brother Benjamin. The Yodeling was held in a small town about 10 minutes away from my town and was a true local event. I am sure I was the only tourist. The fact that it was meant for the locals meant that this "Jodeling" was the real thing...it was "Jodeling" in its true form and not altered for the tourists.

The yodelers were dressed in traditional costumes (leaderhose, the funny shorts and braces, and Swiss dresses). It was just wonderful to see and was made even more authentic looking as the stage background had been painted to look like the Swiss Alps.

SO there you go I have now experienced Yodeling in Switzerland

Taste Sensation

Last night my host family and I were invited by a elderly couple to an Italian restaurant for dinner. The elderly man is a family friends of my hots family and also happens to be in my Rotary Club.

The Elderly man's name was Frederic, and he gave myself and my host brother and sister a pin for our Rotary blazers (my host brother and sister are going to go on Rotary exchange in August). My pin is from Frederic's wife, Lotti's, club. The club she is in for ex sports people, I think she was a good gymnast when she was Young. I we were also all given a free "luck" betel ornament, it was so nice of them.

At the table I sat opposite my host sister Olivia and we had a wonderful girly chat abut everything...and guess what...it was almost all in German (there were a few words of English used when i didn't know the word in German). It was lovely to talk to Olivia as she is normally very busy studying for her exams that we rarely just sit down and talk.


For dinner I decided that I was going to broaden my taste bud horizons ...so I ordered thin sliced ham and cheese for starters. when the starter arrived i realized that the word that I had not understood when reading the menu must have meat "raw" as the meat that was in front of me had not seen an oven in it life.
However deciding I was going to be brave i ate it all.........and i must say.........it was well very interesting, but i don't think I will order it again.

For my main meal I had pasta filled with cheese, covered in a mushroom and truffle sauce. This was really nice. The truffle flavour was very potent so alot of water was consumed while eating this meal....hoverer this I probably would order again as the taste was really interesting and rather enjoyable.

For dessert I had a chocolate covered ice cream ball filled with Caramel....this was so yummy and I was just able to finish it as by the last few spoon fulls it started getting really rich.


So after a wonderful taste sensation we finished dinner. We then come home at about midnight...and all went to sleep.

Yes I know it is a long time since i last updated this blogg and I am sorry. The internet died at my house so I was not able to do any email related things...and that meant that today when I opened my inbox I had 10 unread emails....so let’s just say this afternoon I have been emailing like crazy.

So what have I been up to. Well on Friday’s I have a huge free gap in the middle of my school day. This is because I don’t got o French or latten classes (learning one language is enough for me at the moment). So I have 4 hours free in the middle of the day (this is including lunch time). So what did I do in this huge gap apart form learning a bit of German. Well myself
and some other exchange students at my school, from AFS, decided to go out for lunch. So we went to find a pizza place called “he green corner.” This pizza place is meant to be the best in town and is really famous amongst the Swiss.
So we walked up and down the street in search of this famous pizza place…..but could not find it. So instead went in to some tiny little pizza parlour, that we found just sitting there invitingly on the side of the street

I was not too hungry so decided to just have a margarita Pizza. We sat and talked and waited for the pizza to arrive. When it did you should have seen my face..............I was so shocked …..


I have ever seen such a big pizza in my life.

Image the biggest plate you have ever seen. Now put a thin proper Italian pizza on top, that hangs out over the edge of the plate, and then you will have a smaller version of the pizza that I had. Really it was huge

I just looked at it thinking "how will I ever eat this". However after about an hour the pizza was gone and I was well and truly full and satisfied.



On Saturday I went with my host family to the Emmentaler cheese factory. This was just wonderful. I saw at fist had how they make this famous cheese. It was so interesting how they processed it and added all of the cultures into the cheese to create the famous Emmentaler cheese holes. After having a look around the big factory we went out side to an old house that is next to the factory. In this house is an old man who makes the Emmentaler Cheese the old fashioned way….what he does is he melts the cheese over a fire in a big pot and then collects the cheese from inside the pot with mesh. He the puts the cheese in a mould and presses out all the water with a huge rock. The cheese is then left to mature for 3 moths. So I have decided I will have to go back in three months to taste the cheese he has made.

It was so interesting. I did take lots of photos to show you all; however just like the internet here in Switzerland my camera has also died. It has decided to have the display screen flash hundreds of pixelated colours at me and reject all of my memory cards.


On Sunday we went to the French part of Switzerland to the regions around Geneva.
It was such a beautiful day and the sun on the Alps was just beautiful as it was reflected of the big lake that was in the middle of the city. We went for a walk around the lake and went and visited a huge big castel that was about 5oo years old. It was the first castel I have ever been in and it was so old and amazing. It was not a decorative castel, it was more a medieval military castel.

The whole thing was built on the side of the lake and was all made out of huge big stones. It was like the castel in lord of the rings, all big old and well castel like. It was really interesting to look through; it was made better by the fact that I had a pamphlet guide in English and could understand what everything was. The castel was built as a war castel, was later taken over by a rich man who wanted to live there. He added to the castel a chapel and a few guest rooms. Then when he died it was once again take over by the military and converted back into a prison and a military base. IT was so interesting. After looking through the castel I went and bought postcards so that I could have photos of the castel (as my camera was broken).

We then just walked around the French part of Switzerland. It is so different to the German part, a lot more fashionable and stylish. The buildings are more French and the people are all dressed up in their “Dior” and “Gucci”…just to go for a walk. The people in the French part also roller -blade everywhere. I have never seen so many old and young people roller –blade in my life, whole families out for their daily roller blade.
It really was such a wonderful day in the sun.
Once again I had such a great and different weekend.

Happy Birthday Benjamin and Olivia

Today was Olivia and Benjamins (my host brother and sister's) 18th Birthday.
To Celebrate last night we went out to a really nice restaurant for dinner.
The restaurant is run buy 2 gay guys, so lets just say the restaurant was really trendy and modern. The food was also so good. Now for those of you who love horses you better skip this part as it may make you a bit upset........for yes you guessed it I had pferd...(or horse in English) for dinner. It sounds horrid eating a horse but I figured if we eat kangaroo why can't the Swiss eat horse. Now for any of you who have not eaten horse....it actually is really good. It is like a really tender good cut of beef, but better. So if you have the chance to eat horse I recomend you should try it....as odd and strange as it sounds it is good.

We sat at the restaurant and just talked like a normal family, it was so nice. We spoke a mixture of German...and a little bit for Englishes (just when we were deep in a conversation and I didn't know the words in German). It really was such a wonderful evening.

The only odd thing for me about this restaurant however was that there was cat....yes a live cat (the Swiss don't eat cat as well) walking around the restaurant. The cat would weave through the table legs , and your own legs for that matter in search for food scraps or a pat. It really was strange.


Today to celebrate their Birthday Olivia and Benjamin had their friends over for a breakfast brunch Today. So yesterday in the day we had a big bake day. I made ANZAC biscuits,......and they turned out really well. They were the good old chewy kind that are really yummy, the type that once you have one you have to have more........I was so proud of myself for cooking them

Sadly however I was not able to go to the brunch today as I was invited to Zurich by a Swiss girl from my school to see a theater school's open day.

I was not really sure what I was going to see until I got there a I actually had not fully understood what she had said . All I understood was Zurich, theater,we meet this Sunday 10:30 at he train station. DO you want to come.

It really was a very interesting day and I really enjoyed myself. The theater was really rather different to anything I had ever seen. The classes were all putting on different acts all over the school. We walked around the school and went into different rooms to watch small performances. My favourite was one on mime. It was very funny and It was one I could completely understand just as much as the next person. My next favourite was a acrobatic act, this was because I just love to watch the tricks people can do. The other acts were things such as small plays, dances, modern controversial theater and interpretive movements and dance.

I was so happy to be invited to go some where by a class mate, apparently it is a very rare thing as Swiss children usually are nice to exchange students but never ask them to go anywhere, so the exchange students normally end up asking them to do things instead....so I was really lucky to be put in such a nice class full of such nice and welcoming people.


So once aging I have had a very interesting, enjoyable and totally wonderful weekend and am now off to school tomorrow to start my 3rd week of Swiss school.