Some of you (aka probably all of you) have seen these pictures, but I finally found a way to link my pictures to my blog! Google - it's like killing three birds with one stone: email, blog, photos. Technology today. So cool!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Zurich City
Some of you (aka probably all of you) have seen these pictures, but I finally found a way to link my pictures to my blog! Google - it's like killing three birds with one stone: email, blog, photos. Technology today. So cool!
Friday, September 24, 2010
The One Month Update
So I've been living in Switzerland for one month so I thought I'd give you an update on how things have been so far.
I love it. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I have had a very eventful week and I can't wait to tell you all about it.
Tuesday was a bad day. I was sitting in class and it was a bad German day. German is like cancer - there are good days and there are bad days. And I know that it's horrible to compare German to a horrible deadly disease, but let's be real, the language sounds like lung cancer. So, hoping that you're still reading after my terribly medically incorrect statemnt, I will now get on with my story. I was sitting in class, hating my life and thinking about walking out of the classroom and swearing my alliance with English forever, and part of my front tooth fell out of my mouth. Yep, talk about toothpaste in my sink, try tooth in hand. So much worse. So now I'm sitting there, looking like Al Neumann from MAD Magazine thinking to myself, "Great! What do I do now?" So clearly after that point there was no learning German 'cause all I could think about was how I could get my tooth fixed. After class, I immediately rushed home via the S4 train strait to Adliswil to call my travel insurance company. Once connected, I explained the situation and they forward me to the person in Switzerland who would handel my case. Luckily they said that it is covered under my insurance and they would make a dental appointment for me and then reimburse me for my expenses. Two days later was my dental appointment (I know what you're thinking - uber quick!). My dental experience in Zurich deserves it's own paragraph.
Now, for you United Nations blog followers, let me describe briefly what the dental experience is like in some offices in the USA. It's pretty much the closest thing you can legally get to a human torture chamber. The place I went to in LA was dirty, had flickering fluorescent lights, and the rooms were so small that the dental hygenist practically had to be lowered from the ceiling to fit in the room. The machines are loud, you fear for your life, and you hope that you don't have cavities not because you want healthy teeth, but so you can leave as fast as possible.
My Dental Experience in Switzerland: All I had was the name of a dentist and an address to a giant building in the heart of Zurich. Fantastic. So I go to the building and I was told that the dental office was on the third floor, so I walk to the third floor hoping there would be a sign or any indication that I was in the right place, but alas, nothing. I go to the first door I see to ask if they know where the dentist is (and by ask I mean I would walk in the office and say the name of the doctor with a question mark at the end since a gerbil can speak better German than I can). When I walk in the door, I think, "Wow, this is a nice spa!" The reception was all white, dimly lit, white flowers, modern furniture, waterfall, the works. So I ask the receptionist (also dressed in all white down to her shoes) in a whisper where this dentist might be. Yep. The "spa" was a dental office. I give her my name and she walks me to another room - yes, a second waiting room with a fireplace, more flowers, more modern furniture - and she hands me a piece of paper to fill out and asks me if I'd like somthing to drink. I say no, and proceed to sit down and fill out the paperwork. I think facebook asked me more question than the dental form. Name, address, telephone number - that's it. So I finish filling out the paperwork and the receptionist walks me to the dental room. The room was huge. All that was in it was a short wall of cabinetry and the dental chair. And the dental chair looked like a modern piece of art. It was all white lacquer with soft curves and fluid movement. I sit in the chair and moments later the dentist walks in (also dressed in white from head to toe). Thankfully he was fluent in English so I told him my problem and he was like, "Ok! I'll fix it for you!" Fifteen minutes later I had the best set of teeth in the world. I'm serious. I think he made my teeth look straighter than before my tooth chipped! I couldn't believe it! Then, like most dentists, he explained the importance of brushing the teeth, blah blah blah - EXCEPT he actually taught me so much more than I have ever learned in a US dental office. In 30 minutes I had a fixed tooth and a new perspective on dental care. Then I go back out to the reception room, pay the bill (only $201 USD), and on my way to the exit the receptionist opened the door for me! Seriously, I have never had a more pleasant experience going to a doctor of any kind. It was incredible!
Well, that was kind of a novel about a simple dental experience and I actually have much more I could report about, but I'll just give you the overview and fill in the details at a later time:
YAY: My cousin and I bought tickets to the Denver Broncos vs. San Francisco 49ers at Wembly Stadium in London on October 31. I couldn't be more excited. Seriously, SO EXCITED.
BOO: My cell phone got locked, I couldn't unlock it, it erased everything, and now I'm communicationally challenged until further notice. It's a giant bummer.
YAY: I start my Au Pair job in one week. I start my employment off by going on a vacation with the family to Germany and then maybe to Austria or Italy, whichever the family decides. Baller!
YAY, BOO, and then YAY again: It's been a pleasantly sunny week, but alas, I look out my window to a terrenchal downpour. Good thing I bought cute boots yesterday (don't worry, Dad, they were 1/3 the price of normal boots 'cause I went to an outlet store).
YAY: I read the book of Hosea (in the Bible) on the train yesterday morning and highly suggest that you read it. Chapter 2 is absolutely moving.
Ok, I'm done. You can now go about your busy life doing more important things than reading my blog! Until next time!
I love it. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I have had a very eventful week and I can't wait to tell you all about it.
Tuesday was a bad day. I was sitting in class and it was a bad German day. German is like cancer - there are good days and there are bad days. And I know that it's horrible to compare German to a horrible deadly disease, but let's be real, the language sounds like lung cancer. So, hoping that you're still reading after my terribly medically incorrect statemnt, I will now get on with my story. I was sitting in class, hating my life and thinking about walking out of the classroom and swearing my alliance with English forever, and part of my front tooth fell out of my mouth. Yep, talk about toothpaste in my sink, try tooth in hand. So much worse. So now I'm sitting there, looking like Al Neumann from MAD Magazine thinking to myself, "Great! What do I do now?" So clearly after that point there was no learning German 'cause all I could think about was how I could get my tooth fixed. After class, I immediately rushed home via the S4 train strait to Adliswil to call my travel insurance company. Once connected, I explained the situation and they forward me to the person in Switzerland who would handel my case. Luckily they said that it is covered under my insurance and they would make a dental appointment for me and then reimburse me for my expenses. Two days later was my dental appointment (I know what you're thinking - uber quick!). My dental experience in Zurich deserves it's own paragraph.
Now, for you United Nations blog followers, let me describe briefly what the dental experience is like in some offices in the USA. It's pretty much the closest thing you can legally get to a human torture chamber. The place I went to in LA was dirty, had flickering fluorescent lights, and the rooms were so small that the dental hygenist practically had to be lowered from the ceiling to fit in the room. The machines are loud, you fear for your life, and you hope that you don't have cavities not because you want healthy teeth, but so you can leave as fast as possible.
My Dental Experience in Switzerland: All I had was the name of a dentist and an address to a giant building in the heart of Zurich. Fantastic. So I go to the building and I was told that the dental office was on the third floor, so I walk to the third floor hoping there would be a sign or any indication that I was in the right place, but alas, nothing. I go to the first door I see to ask if they know where the dentist is (and by ask I mean I would walk in the office and say the name of the doctor with a question mark at the end since a gerbil can speak better German than I can). When I walk in the door, I think, "Wow, this is a nice spa!" The reception was all white, dimly lit, white flowers, modern furniture, waterfall, the works. So I ask the receptionist (also dressed in all white down to her shoes) in a whisper where this dentist might be. Yep. The "spa" was a dental office. I give her my name and she walks me to another room - yes, a second waiting room with a fireplace, more flowers, more modern furniture - and she hands me a piece of paper to fill out and asks me if I'd like somthing to drink. I say no, and proceed to sit down and fill out the paperwork. I think facebook asked me more question than the dental form. Name, address, telephone number - that's it. So I finish filling out the paperwork and the receptionist walks me to the dental room. The room was huge. All that was in it was a short wall of cabinetry and the dental chair. And the dental chair looked like a modern piece of art. It was all white lacquer with soft curves and fluid movement. I sit in the chair and moments later the dentist walks in (also dressed in white from head to toe). Thankfully he was fluent in English so I told him my problem and he was like, "Ok! I'll fix it for you!" Fifteen minutes later I had the best set of teeth in the world. I'm serious. I think he made my teeth look straighter than before my tooth chipped! I couldn't believe it! Then, like most dentists, he explained the importance of brushing the teeth, blah blah blah - EXCEPT he actually taught me so much more than I have ever learned in a US dental office. In 30 minutes I had a fixed tooth and a new perspective on dental care. Then I go back out to the reception room, pay the bill (only $201 USD), and on my way to the exit the receptionist opened the door for me! Seriously, I have never had a more pleasant experience going to a doctor of any kind. It was incredible!
Well, that was kind of a novel about a simple dental experience and I actually have much more I could report about, but I'll just give you the overview and fill in the details at a later time:
YAY: My cousin and I bought tickets to the Denver Broncos vs. San Francisco 49ers at Wembly Stadium in London on October 31. I couldn't be more excited. Seriously, SO EXCITED.
BOO: My cell phone got locked, I couldn't unlock it, it erased everything, and now I'm communicationally challenged until further notice. It's a giant bummer.
YAY: I start my Au Pair job in one week. I start my employment off by going on a vacation with the family to Germany and then maybe to Austria or Italy, whichever the family decides. Baller!
YAY, BOO, and then YAY again: It's been a pleasantly sunny week, but alas, I look out my window to a terrenchal downpour. Good thing I bought cute boots yesterday (don't worry, Dad, they were 1/3 the price of normal boots 'cause I went to an outlet store).
YAY: I read the book of Hosea (in the Bible) on the train yesterday morning and highly suggest that you read it. Chapter 2 is absolutely moving.
Ok, I'm done. You can now go about your busy life doing more important things than reading my blog! Until next time!
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Genau
The word "genau" really has nothing to do with the topic of this blog post, but it's a word that I hear so often that it's probably the only German I really know. It means "exactly" or "right."
Now to the real blog post:
Today I had my first experience grocery shopping alone. My aunt and uncle are out of town for the week so I'm staying in their house alone...which also means I have to feed myself.
You'd think that food mostly looks the same in foreign countries so you have a general idea of what you are buying. Unfortunately, from what I do know about Swiss food / condiments, things don't always come in packages you would expect. For example, mayonaise and mustard come in tubes like toothpaste and milk comes in a cardboard box.
For some products, though, they are pretty typical in all countries - such as bread. I bought what I know is sandwich bread but since I don't know the German word for "whole wheet" I think I just settled for plain white bread. There were pictures of fruit on the other bread bags and I didn't want to get home and realize that I bought apricot bread for my turkey sandwich by mistake. I decided not to take the risk.
The other thing I bought was pasta sauce. I mean, I hope it's pasta sauce. It was next to the seafood dips (I am guessing since there were pictures of crabs on the jar) but the jar I bought had a picture of Basil and it was around the corner from the pasta packages, so I'm crossing my fingers that what I bought is pasta sauce and not seafood dip...with basil (that would be weird).
The last thing I bought was sandwich meat. Now here is where things get a little dicey. There are a million kinds of meats in the meat section of the grocery store. And I know they sell horse. So I picked out a package of meat that said Don Pollo (in hopes that maybe it was chicken or some sort of bird). The package also says "pouletbrust gerauchert" which I'm hoping is German for "super delicious turkey breast." If you know what it means and think I have made a terrible mistake, please let me know asap - I plan on eating it in about two hours. Horses are pets, not food.
So after about 30 minutes I was so frustrated that it took me so long to buy bread, sandwich meat and pasta sauce that I just left the store. If I need something else from the store I will just have to do without or cross my fingers that my aunt already has it.
Where is Nynette when you need her?
Now to the real blog post:
Today I had my first experience grocery shopping alone. My aunt and uncle are out of town for the week so I'm staying in their house alone...which also means I have to feed myself.
You'd think that food mostly looks the same in foreign countries so you have a general idea of what you are buying. Unfortunately, from what I do know about Swiss food / condiments, things don't always come in packages you would expect. For example, mayonaise and mustard come in tubes like toothpaste and milk comes in a cardboard box.
For some products, though, they are pretty typical in all countries - such as bread. I bought what I know is sandwich bread but since I don't know the German word for "whole wheet" I think I just settled for plain white bread. There were pictures of fruit on the other bread bags and I didn't want to get home and realize that I bought apricot bread for my turkey sandwich by mistake. I decided not to take the risk.
The other thing I bought was pasta sauce. I mean, I hope it's pasta sauce. It was next to the seafood dips (I am guessing since there were pictures of crabs on the jar) but the jar I bought had a picture of Basil and it was around the corner from the pasta packages, so I'm crossing my fingers that what I bought is pasta sauce and not seafood dip...with basil (that would be weird).
The last thing I bought was sandwich meat. Now here is where things get a little dicey. There are a million kinds of meats in the meat section of the grocery store. And I know they sell horse. So I picked out a package of meat that said Don Pollo (in hopes that maybe it was chicken or some sort of bird). The package also says "pouletbrust gerauchert" which I'm hoping is German for "super delicious turkey breast." If you know what it means and think I have made a terrible mistake, please let me know asap - I plan on eating it in about two hours. Horses are pets, not food.
So after about 30 minutes I was so frustrated that it took me so long to buy bread, sandwich meat and pasta sauce that I just left the store. If I need something else from the store I will just have to do without or cross my fingers that my aunt already has it.
Where is Nynette when you need her?
Friday, September 10, 2010
Toothpaste in My Sink
So you know how there are some things in this world that you think are perfect...until, inevitably, you find out that they aren't?
It's like you meet a guy and instantly you think he is good looking. You start hanging out with him and find out that you have a lot of things in common, he agrees with you on most important topics, and he's going places in life that you wish you could go too. Your family loves him, your friends think he's a really nice guy, he takes really good care of you and so you decide to get married. The relationship is virtually flawless. Then one day you wake up to find that he left a giant glob of toothpaste in the sink and he didn't clean up after himself. Then this terrifying thought process enters your mind: "Oh no. I've married a man that doesn't clean up after himself. I wonder what other bad habits he has that I don't know about. Have I just made a terrible mistake?!" This overwhelming feeling overcomes you as you begin to notice all of the little things you once thought were cute and are now very annoying and you realize that there is no turning back.
Yesterday, Switzerland left a giant glob of toothpaste in my sink.
Switzerland was awesome. It was the country that could do no wrong. I mean, how could it?! It's neutral after all, it hasn't even been to war since 1515, the chocolate and cheese is delicious, and the landscape is gorgeous. What's there not to like?
Well, for starters, the German language structure is completely illogical. For this difficult of a language it should at least sound more attractive. French and Italian are allowed to be difficult because you sound so smart and dignified once you are able to speak the language. With German, this is not the case. I have to jump through hoops so I can communicate like a garbage disposal.
In German, each noun has a gender. While I understand that this is common is several languages, it is particularly frustrating in German because there is no rhyme or reason why a certain noun has a particular gender. For example, "der Mann" means "the man" and is a masculine form (yes, logical), but "das Madchen" means "the girl" and is in the neutral form. Why?! In addition, the gender of the noun changes many other aspects of how a sentence is conjugated and therefore, in order to speak German correctly, one has to additionally learn the gender of each noun. And this is not all. The plurals are all different too, so you have to learn those as well. Each noun's plural can end in "-s", "-en", "-er", "-e", or many other options. Oh yeah, and the plural? It changes the gender of the noun. But there's more...the ending of adjectives also change according to the gender of the noun. But only if it comes before the noun. And the sentence structure changes the position of the adjective. And verbs come at the end of the sentence. Sometimes. Unless you are asking a question. But there are also exceptions. And the best part? Swiss people don't even speak German. They speak Swiss-German. Which isn't a written language. But I have to learn German to learn Swiss-German.
So, the moral of the paragraph is that I have to jump through hoops...that are on fire...backwards...to learn a language I won't use once I learn the language that I need to learn...all so I can sound like Hitler.
My second glob of toothpaste needs a preface:
Yesterday, my cousin asked me if I wanted to go see a movie. I thought this was a fantastic idea because the movies here are played in English with German and French subtitles. I thought, "oh good, I can sit in a dark room and pretend I'm in America for two and a half hours!" We decided to go see the movie Salt. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this movie, you should know that it is a highly suspenseful action thriller.
So we go to the cinema, buy the tickets, and go to Theater 9. The thing was the size of a two person garage and the screen was the size of two overhead projectors. Already I'm thinking, "Oh dear", but not to sound picky I decide to hope for the best and cross my fingers that my movie experience won't be hindered by the lack of screen surface. Once the movie starts I'm able to ignore the German and French subtitles at the bottom of the screen, turn my thoughts away from the garage experience, and enjoy the movie. All until about an hour into the movie and the movie stopped, the lights came on, and there was an INTERMISSION! There was a 10 minute intermission in the middle of a highly suspenseful action thriller! I couldn't believe it! It's like...stopping in the middle of a movie for an intermission!!!
I decided to buy gummybears to make the most out of my situation.
So now I know that my beloved Switzerland is not a perfect country. While annoying and somewhat infuriating, a glob of toothpaste in the sink isn't a deal breaker and I will not divorce my country over such petty annoyances. But my committment is definitely being tested....
It's like you meet a guy and instantly you think he is good looking. You start hanging out with him and find out that you have a lot of things in common, he agrees with you on most important topics, and he's going places in life that you wish you could go too. Your family loves him, your friends think he's a really nice guy, he takes really good care of you and so you decide to get married. The relationship is virtually flawless. Then one day you wake up to find that he left a giant glob of toothpaste in the sink and he didn't clean up after himself. Then this terrifying thought process enters your mind: "Oh no. I've married a man that doesn't clean up after himself. I wonder what other bad habits he has that I don't know about. Have I just made a terrible mistake?!" This overwhelming feeling overcomes you as you begin to notice all of the little things you once thought were cute and are now very annoying and you realize that there is no turning back.
Yesterday, Switzerland left a giant glob of toothpaste in my sink.
Switzerland was awesome. It was the country that could do no wrong. I mean, how could it?! It's neutral after all, it hasn't even been to war since 1515, the chocolate and cheese is delicious, and the landscape is gorgeous. What's there not to like?
Well, for starters, the German language structure is completely illogical. For this difficult of a language it should at least sound more attractive. French and Italian are allowed to be difficult because you sound so smart and dignified once you are able to speak the language. With German, this is not the case. I have to jump through hoops so I can communicate like a garbage disposal.
In German, each noun has a gender. While I understand that this is common is several languages, it is particularly frustrating in German because there is no rhyme or reason why a certain noun has a particular gender. For example, "der Mann" means "the man" and is a masculine form (yes, logical), but "das Madchen" means "the girl" and is in the neutral form. Why?! In addition, the gender of the noun changes many other aspects of how a sentence is conjugated and therefore, in order to speak German correctly, one has to additionally learn the gender of each noun. And this is not all. The plurals are all different too, so you have to learn those as well. Each noun's plural can end in "-s", "-en", "-er", "-e", or many other options. Oh yeah, and the plural? It changes the gender of the noun. But there's more...the ending of adjectives also change according to the gender of the noun. But only if it comes before the noun. And the sentence structure changes the position of the adjective. And verbs come at the end of the sentence. Sometimes. Unless you are asking a question. But there are also exceptions. And the best part? Swiss people don't even speak German. They speak Swiss-German. Which isn't a written language. But I have to learn German to learn Swiss-German.
So, the moral of the paragraph is that I have to jump through hoops...that are on fire...backwards...to learn a language I won't use once I learn the language that I need to learn...all so I can sound like Hitler.
My second glob of toothpaste needs a preface:
Yesterday, my cousin asked me if I wanted to go see a movie. I thought this was a fantastic idea because the movies here are played in English with German and French subtitles. I thought, "oh good, I can sit in a dark room and pretend I'm in America for two and a half hours!" We decided to go see the movie Salt. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this movie, you should know that it is a highly suspenseful action thriller.
So we go to the cinema, buy the tickets, and go to Theater 9. The thing was the size of a two person garage and the screen was the size of two overhead projectors. Already I'm thinking, "Oh dear", but not to sound picky I decide to hope for the best and cross my fingers that my movie experience won't be hindered by the lack of screen surface. Once the movie starts I'm able to ignore the German and French subtitles at the bottom of the screen, turn my thoughts away from the garage experience, and enjoy the movie. All until about an hour into the movie and the movie stopped, the lights came on, and there was an INTERMISSION! There was a 10 minute intermission in the middle of a highly suspenseful action thriller! I couldn't believe it! It's like...stopping in the middle of a movie for an intermission!!!
I decided to buy gummybears to make the most out of my situation.
So now I know that my beloved Switzerland is not a perfect country. While annoying and somewhat infuriating, a glob of toothpaste in the sink isn't a deal breaker and I will not divorce my country over such petty annoyances. But my committment is definitely being tested....
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The United Nations
I'm proud to say that I have made new friends! We are all from different counries, so we speak English to each other (great for me!) and I like to think of us as the United Nations. However, since I don't have their permission to write about them in my blog, I'm going to leave their names out and instead call them by their country of origin. In order to eliminate any assumption of favoritism, I shall briefly describe them in alphabetical order:
India: (Male) India is nicknamed "The Funny Man." He doesn't try to be funny, but the things he says are hilarious. Like the other day when we were having dinner at Italy's apartment, he accidentally poked himself in the eye...only when he explained what happened he had a little English mishap and told everyone that he "put his finger in his a**." A** = Eye when India is tired. India moved here because he has a Swiss girlfriend. He also doesn't really know how to swim and sings Indian music all the time. It's like having a little Bollywood radio around all the time. He also doesn't eat pork (see Italy).
Italy: (Male) Italy is the laid-back skater guy who is Mr. Anything-goes. He is very adventurous, will try anything twice, and isn't scared to jump of a 10 meter bridge into freezing cold water over and over. He is very hospitable, likes to throw dinner parties, and won't let me help with the dishes. Did I mention he used to be a rockstar in Italy? Italy moved here because he has a Swiss girlfriend too. Italy also is very sarcastic and likes to make a lot of jokes - like telling India that there is pork in everything, except in the Limmat River.
Norway: (Male) Norway is fairly quiet at times, ALWAYS puncutal, and has cought the eye of our German teacher. She even asked him if he wanted private lessons...oh lala! He's super smart considering he moved to Zurich to get a masters in Physics. He also likes an adventure and accompanies Italy in jumping off the bridge at the Limmatplatz. Unfortunately, since Norway is studdying at the university, he is no longer in our German class, thus we are always late going back to class after break. Also, he swears he doesn't dance - but I am convinced Michael Jackson will change his mind. He is also very talented at playing the guitar!
Serbia: (Female) Serbia is a little fashionista. She always wears the cutest clothes and I love her shoes. The best part is that we're the same shoe size, so she can tell me which stores sell the cheap 36 size shoes! They're hard to find here! Serbia swears that she doesn't speak English very well, but she is a lot better than she thinks.
Spain: (Female) Spain moved here because she has a Swiss boyfriend. She is very tall and is used to walking everywhere since the public transportation is twice as expensive in Spain as in Switzerland. Since she has very long legs and is used to walking long distances, everything to Spain is "just ten minutes" away. There was one time were we all took a 30 minute "ten minute walk." Now we just multiply what she says by three.
So that's the main crew that usually hangs out together. It's pretty fun learning about each other's cultures and trying to speak German to each other. It's nice that they all know English fairly well, but sometimes we have to play taboo or cherades to try to figure out what each other are saying. Hopefully we'll be able to speak German to each other soon!
I also hope they don't get mad at my descriptions!
India: (Male) India is nicknamed "The Funny Man." He doesn't try to be funny, but the things he says are hilarious. Like the other day when we were having dinner at Italy's apartment, he accidentally poked himself in the eye...only when he explained what happened he had a little English mishap and told everyone that he "put his finger in his a**." A** = Eye when India is tired. India moved here because he has a Swiss girlfriend. He also doesn't really know how to swim and sings Indian music all the time. It's like having a little Bollywood radio around all the time. He also doesn't eat pork (see Italy).
Italy: (Male) Italy is the laid-back skater guy who is Mr. Anything-goes. He is very adventurous, will try anything twice, and isn't scared to jump of a 10 meter bridge into freezing cold water over and over. He is very hospitable, likes to throw dinner parties, and won't let me help with the dishes. Did I mention he used to be a rockstar in Italy? Italy moved here because he has a Swiss girlfriend too. Italy also is very sarcastic and likes to make a lot of jokes - like telling India that there is pork in everything, except in the Limmat River.
Norway: (Male) Norway is fairly quiet at times, ALWAYS puncutal, and has cought the eye of our German teacher. She even asked him if he wanted private lessons...oh lala! He's super smart considering he moved to Zurich to get a masters in Physics. He also likes an adventure and accompanies Italy in jumping off the bridge at the Limmatplatz. Unfortunately, since Norway is studdying at the university, he is no longer in our German class, thus we are always late going back to class after break. Also, he swears he doesn't dance - but I am convinced Michael Jackson will change his mind. He is also very talented at playing the guitar!
Serbia: (Female) Serbia is a little fashionista. She always wears the cutest clothes and I love her shoes. The best part is that we're the same shoe size, so she can tell me which stores sell the cheap 36 size shoes! They're hard to find here! Serbia swears that she doesn't speak English very well, but she is a lot better than she thinks.
Spain: (Female) Spain moved here because she has a Swiss boyfriend. She is very tall and is used to walking everywhere since the public transportation is twice as expensive in Spain as in Switzerland. Since she has very long legs and is used to walking long distances, everything to Spain is "just ten minutes" away. There was one time were we all took a 30 minute "ten minute walk." Now we just multiply what she says by three.
So that's the main crew that usually hangs out together. It's pretty fun learning about each other's cultures and trying to speak German to each other. It's nice that they all know English fairly well, but sometimes we have to play taboo or cherades to try to figure out what each other are saying. Hopefully we'll be able to speak German to each other soon!
I also hope they don't get mad at my descriptions!
True Life: We're not in Kansas Anymore...
...and thank God! Kansas is boring. No offense, Kansas.
So I'm sure some of you are wondering what a day in the life of a Swiss is like. So, to answer that: I have no clue. What I can tell you is what an average day looks like for me.
7:00am - Alarm goes off and I get ready for German school.
7:50am - My cousin drives me to the train station.
8:15 - S12 train to Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station).
8:32 - I take the bus 31 to school. Surprisingly, Zurich has planned the trains and bus routes so well that by the time I walk from my train stop to the bus stop, I wait about 30 seconds before my bus arrives.
9:00 - German class starts. We learn vocabuary, grammar, and pronunciation (which is really important because there is only a very slight difference between calling myself a "whore" and telling someone that I heard what they said. So far, I can only call myself a whore).
11:50 - German class ends and I make a mad dash to the computer lab before it fills up. There, I speak into a microphone like an idiot for an hour trying to perfect my Deutsch spreche.
1:00 - Finished with school. At this time I usually go have lunch with the friends that I made in class. Then after lunch we either go to the Limmatplatz and lay in the sun or walk around Zurich and look in stores. At some point I head back to the train station.
6:30pm - Eat dinner. Dinner here is usually something small, like bread, cheese, a little lunch meat, and yogurt (since Lunch is the biggest meal of the day). After dinner I usually watch some American news on the computer (via The Daily Show and the Colbert Report since all major TV networks are blocked from European internet streaming)
10:00pm - I usually go to bed.
So as you clearly can't tell at all from my daily description, my life here is awesome.
So I took a little pause in writing and now I've run out of witty things to say and so that will have to do until next time!
So I'm sure some of you are wondering what a day in the life of a Swiss is like. So, to answer that: I have no clue. What I can tell you is what an average day looks like for me.
7:00am - Alarm goes off and I get ready for German school.
7:50am - My cousin drives me to the train station.
8:15 - S12 train to Hauptbahnhof (Zurich main station).
8:32 - I take the bus 31 to school. Surprisingly, Zurich has planned the trains and bus routes so well that by the time I walk from my train stop to the bus stop, I wait about 30 seconds before my bus arrives.
9:00 - German class starts. We learn vocabuary, grammar, and pronunciation (which is really important because there is only a very slight difference between calling myself a "whore" and telling someone that I heard what they said. So far, I can only call myself a whore).
11:50 - German class ends and I make a mad dash to the computer lab before it fills up. There, I speak into a microphone like an idiot for an hour trying to perfect my Deutsch spreche.
1:00 - Finished with school. At this time I usually go have lunch with the friends that I made in class. Then after lunch we either go to the Limmatplatz and lay in the sun or walk around Zurich and look in stores. At some point I head back to the train station.
6:30pm - Eat dinner. Dinner here is usually something small, like bread, cheese, a little lunch meat, and yogurt (since Lunch is the biggest meal of the day). After dinner I usually watch some American news on the computer (via The Daily Show and the Colbert Report since all major TV networks are blocked from European internet streaming)
10:00pm - I usually go to bed.
So as you clearly can't tell at all from my daily description, my life here is awesome.
So I took a little pause in writing and now I've run out of witty things to say and so that will have to do until next time!
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