Hello All

I know I have not updated my Blogg for a very long time and I promise to do so asap.

I have just come back from my holidays in Frances and England. I had the best time.

Today I attended another wedding.........I know 2 in a month it is crazy.
This wedding turned out to be the horse wedding I thought the last one was going to be.

However you will have to wait for a few days to find out what happened as tomorrow I am off to the Italian part of Switzerland with my host family for a few days.

I am so busy at the moment but I do promise to update you all on everything before I go to Scotland.


until soon.

Angela

hey everyone you may not hear from me for a little and it is not because I was abducted by "Mutant Pirate Swiss Cows with bells"....it is because I am off to a wedding tomorrow with my new host family (I have been told that the wedding will involve horses...how that works I am not sure but I am really looking forward to finding out ).

I am extremely excited about the wedding as this will be the first ever wedding I have been to, and I think it is so cool that the first wedding I get to go to is in Switzerland.

Then on Sunday I am of to Frog legs-land..that's right I am off to France for my first part of the summer holidays

I will stay in France until the 18th of July then I am zipping over to the Mother land...Yep England , to stay once again with my God Mother Elizabeth. I am there till the 26th of July.

I then am only in Switzerland for a little while as on the 4th of August I am off to Scotland to stay with family friends of my real Mum and Dad; John and Joan..

So look forward to a big update ...or 2...or 3 when I get back.

until then yodeling off

xx
Angela

Last day of the School Year

Today was the last day of this school year (A Swiss school year goes from July till July)

Today was a mix of emotions as it is the last time I will see all of the Old exchange students at my school. Next Semester (or school year...so after August) there is only Kay-Lea and I left.......well that is until all the new august inbounds come after they have done their Deutsch courses, so about 3 weeks after the new school year begins.


It is so odd to think that I may never see some of my exchange friends again. It makes me really realise how important it is to take every opportunity and do as much with people while I can........because like the other exchange students, I too will eventually have to go home.


Jenny (she is from the USA) well her real parents had come to Switzerland to visit and then go home with her and they came to the4 school to visit today. It was so nice to see her with her family. Seeing her interact with her parents was so nice, and in away made me miss my family back home.

So today was really a huge mix of emotions......as I was also so happy to be finished school for a while and to be able to put my feet up and relax for the summer. And then again at the same time I will miss going to school a bit as I love my class here so much. They are the nicest people and really while school is hard at times they make it so much fun...and I actually enjoy going to school. However the holidays are only 5 weeks and I am doing so much awesome things I don't think I will have trouble enjoying myself. And in fact I am looking forward to a bit of a break from the early mornings...and with my plans for the holidays I know they will be so wicked I will not want them to end.



Her is a photo of my fellow exchange students .I will miss them School wont be the same when they are gone.



Kay-Lea(Aus), jenny (USA) Justine (Canada) Lauraine (Dominican Republic)

(kay-lea is not going as she is from Australia so goes back then with me in January, She is an awesome Kanti Buddy....I love my fellow awesome Australian.)

horses

I have now ridden horses. It is so awesome.

How did this happen so soon. How did I suddenly end up riding horses…….well honestly I have no idea.

My host sister Eliane had her cousin over to visit me. Then they asked if Iwanted to go horse riding and naturally I said YES.

However I was expecting that they would horses ride and I would watch.
But it turned out we took our bikes down the stables and groomed the hoses and then one thing lead to another and I was suddenly all dressed up in riding gear and was lead out to the riding circle. Eliane and another friend of theirs rode the horses first around the ring.
The host parents came down in the car and it was suddenly my turn to hop on the horse.

I hopped on the horse and then found myself being lead around the ring on the back of this beautiful animal.



This was such an amazing feeling to be on the back of these creatures. It felt so strange to be up high and gliding around (ok not gliding more fumbling, and jolting around) the on the back of the horse.



Suddenly my hot dad said something to the horse and it started to trot or gallop…something to do with the horse going really fast, and me being instructed to jump up and down with my legs so my body moved up and down in the rhythm of the horse.




This was a lot easier sad the done as I am not possessed with rhythm so I was going up when I was meant to go down and down when up….so I ended up bouncing around in the air looking like a crazy person…but having a lot of fun.




It was so nice to be able to horse ride….it was such an experience. I really like my new host family they are very different my last family…but equally as good. Eliane is such a lovely sister to have, she is always so nice and friendly and really interested in me. I have not see much of Matthias as he has been out on his motor bike or on a tractor doing something…but from what I have see he too seems nice. The host parents are also lovely….they are different to my last host parents ..but once again just as welcoming and friendly.

My first weekend with my new Family

My first weekend with my new family took place on a bus trip around Switzerland and parts of Germany with my Host parents.

I didn't really know what was going on this weekend. I was told that I was going on a family trip to an island in Switzerland. However it turned to that it was just the host parents and I who were going on the trip...and in fact we were going with a bus load of people from my host parents horse club, and we were going on trip around parts of Switzerland and Germany.

Going on this trip mean that I had to get up and be ready to go at about 6 o'clock in the morning.
However for me this early start was in fact not to early and was more like a normal old school day (when I say 'normal old' I mean from when I lived at the Rutti's ,because now 6 is a sleep in as i have to get up at 5;30 for school). So I awoke got ready and off we drove in the car to the bus catching area.

The bus we caught was no normal but it was the Swiss national soccer teams bus....so this meant it was a luxury liner……… and when I say luxury I mean leather chairs and coffee machines kind of luxury.




The side of the bus was also really cool.



We drove off to our first stop...a water fall. ……..This area was so lovely. It had sweet little Swiss houses (i just had to take a photo of them as I just love Swiss houses so much).



The waterfall was also very cool. I love water falls, I think they are amazing. I just love all of the water rushing down and the roaring sound they make.


I saw the coolest poster ever.....Well I thought it was fun anyway.




We then hopped back on the bus and drove on...to were?…. I had no idea. ( i actualy had no idea about the whole trip , I just hopped on the bus when told and then hopped off when instructed).

Our next stop was at the side of a lake. It turned out we were going on a boat to an Island.


The boat ride was really nice. I love boat rides so much, they are so lovely.....I just miss the water so much. I think it is so odd not seeing the water every day. I miss it.






We then arrived at the island. The water was so clear that you could see fish swimming around……… totally fascinating, and totally awesome.







The island turned out to be and island of flowers. It took me a while to realize but the island was actually in German waters, so in Germany. (I worked this out by the fact that we started to pay for things in euros etc, and I knew we were not in France as we were still all speaking German).


This island was so gorgeous. There were flower sculptures, black statuses that looked just stunning against the blue sky, flowers as far as the eye can see…and even a giant flower made out of flowers….I thought this was so cleaver and wicked that I got a photo f me an my new host mum standing in front of it.














We then walked around the island and saw this man doing something with a tree. We came closer and it turned out he was a tree cutter man. But no normal tree cutter he was doing it wall with ropes and was climbing up about 40 meters and then cutting the tree form up there. It was amazing to watch him. He shot a rope up into the tree then attached other ropes and pullies etc until he had a strong line with witch he would hoist himself with special clips etc…. up 40 meters into the tree. Just amazing. I was watching thinking…I so want to give that ago. Not the tree cutting part…just the tree climbing extreme style part.








After the tree man we found a butterfly house filled with just gorgeous butterflies…..they really are stunning creatures. They all are so different, yet all are so beautiful and so fragile. So after the butterfly house it was time to leave the island and hop back on our bus.

We stopped the bus outside a hotel (so I realised we must be staying there the night., yet I was not sure if we were in Germany or Switzerland) We went inside and I went up to my single room. I looked around and looked at a menu thing in the room and saw the prices were in euros…..we were in Germany. For me this was so odd that we had driven through boarders of countries with out me even realising

That night we had a feat for dinner. I had so much food. I was given deer meat, sauces, salad, chips, cheese etc…..I was so full I couldn’t eat my dessert of ice-cream and fruit.

By this time I was exhausted, so I went up to bed and slept until the next morning.



The next morning we had breakfast at 8.00am. A very civilised hour if you ask me.

We had a German breakfast where meat and heaps of bread and cheese. I even fund a little mini Nutella sachet so had someone my bread.

Our first destination for the day was Appenzeller cheese factory. This was very awesome as they had a hug big cheese playground outside. I also got a photo of me on a big model painted cow.






Inside the factory was the smell of Swiss cheese….so yummy. We looked a the factory, watched video and then had lunch………….a fondue hot do (so a roll filled with fondue cheese) SO YUMMY








We then hopped back on the bus and went to our next destination………..a park with these sledge rides……..like a cross between bobsledding and go carting…..so a lot of fun.








We went up to the top of a hug hill by a chair lift. The view was just awesome. We then went down on our sledge things really fast………so much fun


We then went back up the hill but this time to the top so we could go for a bush walk back down again. On the way up on the lift I saw a field of cows with cow bells. I love the sound of cow bells it is just so Swiss. I so have to buy a cow bell so that if I ever feel home sick for Switzerland I can ring my cow bell and be home in the alps.





After our bush walk back down (with many photo opportunities as it was so pretty)





we hopped back in the bus and drove home. It was a very fun weekend. It was hard at times with the language as it was not that my German was not up to scratch it was just that with my new host parents they have a different way of communicating to the Rutti family, This host family explain things a bit different and use words I have not heard before. However it is a really go thing in way as it means my German is only going to improve.

Times they are -a - changing, well host families at least.

On Thursday I had my last dinner with the Rutti Family. Before dinner I presented the family with a huge photo collage I had made of my 5 moths living with them.



My last evening was really nice. The whole time i was there I really couldn't imagine being with any other family and it felt like i was not really going to be in another family on the weekend. I really felt at home withe Ruttis and they always made such an effort to make me feel at home. As i was sitting at the table I knew I would miss the Ruttis so much and it would be hard to change families..(and I don't just mean moving my 100 billion bags of stuff to the new house...I really have no idea how i have accumulated so much stuff. but I have)..So while I knew it would be hard in many ways to change families; to leave a familiar environment etc. I also knew that at the same time that with my new family I would have so many new possibles and new experiences.

On Friday after school was the time of family change. I was filled with so may emotions I didn't know what I felt. I was so excited and filled with so much energy..but at the same time i was scared, and also upset to be leaving the Rutti's. So will all of my emotions in town we packed all of my bags into the car. How they all fit is a miracle (I really had so much stuff....I was so shocked at how much stuff I collected in 5 months)



We then arrived at my new house, a beautiful wooden Swiss house ...just so lovely
We were then greeted by my new host parents 'The Meier's'; Ursi (the Mum, and Robi (the dad) and my host sister Eliane(my new host brother Mathias was in the shower).

We were then taken on a short drive down the road to visit my New host Dad's Factory ( a wooden hose building factory). We looked around this impressive factory and then went to visit the next important part of my host dad (and the family's) life .....the horses.

The horses are located in a Stable that the family own 2 minute form the factory (so 7 minutes from the house). The horses are so beautiful. I am so excited to have horses, they are a pet I never thought I would ever have. So having a whole stable full of them is totally awesome.


After looking a the horses we went back to the house to have a dinner with both of my families.

The dinner was so nice, it was lovely having both my females totterer talking and enjoying each others company.


While the parents continued to talk Elaine took Olivia, Benjamin and I gave us a tour of the house.The house is so beautiful and has all been built my my new host dad. It is all wooden and just stunning. We then took all of my bags and placed then in my new room.


After showing Elliane my scrap book ,that I have made of my year so far , it was time for the change over to sort of officially begin. The Ruttis said goodbye (after many a hug) and then they drove off back home.

The oddest feeling was standing looking at the Rutti's drive off and finally letting the whole situation sink in ....I am now a new family.

I then helped clear the table and then went up to bed ,this is because I had an early start the next morning(6am) as my new host parents and I were going on a bus trip with their riding club for the weekend.