Onions and Snow

Onions and Snow are not two things that one usually associates together.....however they are both major elements that without them the two events to whitch they both independently belong would not have worked.

So what do Onions have to do with anything???? Well they happen to be the reason for a major Onion festival in Bern.

And when there is a major festival in Switzerland you are sure to find my self and Kay-Lea there joining in in the festivities.

So that’s what we did. We bought some lollies string things, Some collocate covered fruit, and a bag of confetti and off we went creating havoc.............









we met up with Rachel also a fellow Aussie for a few minutes and when she had to go we continued on with throwing confetti at all the people we saw and having confetti not just thrown back at us but also shot at us with confetti guns.


we also got really into the Onion spirit and instead of saying cheese when taking a photo we said onion....

So Say Onion




ONION (well kay-Lea and I found it funny)




After a good few hours of looking at onions (I have never seen people being so creative with onions before)





and being covered in confetti we had to head home as that evening I had to do my Rotary Presentation to my club.



That evening I was so nervous for my presentation as I had put so much work into it that I didn’t want to stuff it up by saying this all wrong in German. I mean I was so sure that by the time I got to do my presentation my German would be fluent.....however it is not as fluent as I would have liked it to be.
I mean yes I can speak and get the message across and I do understand what people say to me and I guess that is all that one needs to do however I really just hopped that by now I would be able to speak with out stuffing my sentence structure and so on up.

However after doing my presentation even thought it was not a smoothly spoken as I would have liked I felt rather proud of myself for getting up there and just giving it a go and doing the best that I could. So YAY....aaha.


It was also a nice evening as all of my host families had come to watch as this meeting was a special evening meeting where wife’s and so on can come.

All of my host siblings that could make it also came (so Eliane, Matthias and Luca)
and that was really nice of the as they really did all have other things planned to do such as Luca was invited to go swimming with one of his friends....



So enough about my presentation.....on to the Snow part of everything.


So Last weekend was our Matterhorn weekend with rotary. So this meant that over 100exchangestudents all form rotary all went up to Zermatt to go skiing, snowboarding or walking.

We were all reserved a carriage on the train ...well we were actually reserved 2 carriages however for some reason we all just squashed into one carriage.....so let’s just say it was rather a tight squeezes.


After having lunch, a brown paper bag filed with a sandwich, some fruit and a croissant we all mucked around dancing, taking photos etc until it was time to catch our small train up to Zermatt.








this train was so sweet and the view was breathtaking......I spent probably more time out of this train than actually in it....well my head did anyway.










we then arrived at Zermatt





and were given our rooms.....the girls were split up into 2 groups; the people who were walking, and the rest of us.....and so the walkers ended up with a 5 star hotel and the rest of us were all in a youth hostel........but hey it is only a room for a night, so it was no problem that I was in a youth hostel...and in fact I think it was more fun as we were able to have 8 in a room and not just 2.

After hiring our skis, looking around a museum it was time for dinner.

So it was up to some hotel to eat fondue.....

After fondue it was free time until 12pm. S it was off to the Bar for us and a good time was had until 12p, when it was back of to the youth hostel where we all chatted until the early hours of the morning.


The next day was the best day of the weekend.

Well all got into our gear....and were all looking highly attractive in our puffy ski clothes and goggles...



it was then time to receive our ski pass (so kindly donated by Rotary) and to hit the slopes.


I went up with Elle and Kay-Lea.....and once at the top I was totally gob smacked by the view................unbelievable....WOW.









I then spent the rest of the day skiing......I ended up losing Kay-lea and Elle and ended up skinning until lunch with Gemma.





After lunch I was with a new crowd, Jimmy, Travis, Rusty and Rose..



With these professional skiers I tried to learn to turn a bit better as I am sort of a point your skis down the mountain and go kind of kid....I turn a bit but more in huge big turns and do not zig zag all the way down the mountain.......

so lets just say after they all got worried that I would kill myself with my approach I tried theirs and I actually fell over more with their way than mine(as I didn’t fall with my at all)

So I have finally come to the conclusion that I will stick to being an individual and ski my way.....however I will take it slow and try to turn just a bit more so I don’t give anyone heart attacks.


After and in-between skiing Kay-lea and I took photos of the Matterhorn....yes we were at the Toblerone mountain (the mountain that is feature on the Toblerone packet....it looks just so amazing sitting there in real life.....WOW it really was out of this world.











the weekend was then over and it was then back on to the train etc for us......after running through the streets in my socks as I had to return my ski gear ...and finally getting back to the hostel changing my shoes etc...We caught the train home after such a wonderful weekend.