Thursday, August 12, 2010

My Birthday, the 4th Adventure

Thank you to all of you who wished me a happy birthday yesterday. I had a good day. There were a few problems, the first of which being that I can't get a Swiss bank account as an American Citizen. From what I've seen, the preferred method of payment in Switzerland is by a credit card that isn't really a credit card. It links directly to your bank account and you can use it at something like an ATM to get cash. So perhaps it is more like a debit card. Anyway, since Americans can't have a bank account, Christina is looking into other possibilities in giving me my stipend.
Other than that, nothing has really happened these last few days. I took the train into Bern with Cyrill, I am now registered as living here, I met Kim Annabel, her friend Sybil (though I think I spelt it wrong), the Brazilian exchange student Bryanne, Elena who will be leaving for Canada I believe on Sunday, Alice who is looking into the exchange program, my third host mother Yolanda, and my actual counselor Marion. Christina is the official club exchange counselor, but she can't host me and be my counselor, so I have Marion. It was a very interesting birthday. Elena is definitely ready to go (she wanted to just speak English with Bryanne and I, but Cyrill kept distracting her with Swiss German), more than Cyrill is I think. We'll see when they get there.
My language camp starts on Monday. Yay! I am curious to meet the other exchange students and, of course, learn High German. Christina thinks I will pick up on High German fast and will also learn a fair a amount of Swiss German. I told her I'll do my best!
And now what you've all been waiting for... PICTURES!!!!

Kim and Sibyl playing ping-pong while Cyrill is on the phone (Sibyl is the one in her bathing suit)


Yummy Bread sticks


Yummy little sandwiches


My Yummy Birthday Cake


Me blowing out candles (They have this cool lighter that looks like a really large candle)


Again, Stefan took more pictures, which I am sure you will all see at some point or another. And before I forget, I actually got presents: a Swiss travel guide (in English), a handmade tank top (which I like a lot), some popular bear-shaped cookies (I guess that's the best description for them), and money for the BOOK STORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! \^.^/

Tschüs!

8 comments:

  1. Love the pics of course Vale! How kind of them to give you presents! What kind of bread is that on the sandwiches? It looks so puffy! <3 you!

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  2. Sounds like you're having fun Val! Take a picture of the shirt! Sam and I miss you lots <3

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  3. Lol. I will. ^.^ I miss you guys too.

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  4. Hey Val! Great stories already! I guess you're loving it. Keep taking those pictures, try to put some of your family there. Enjoy!

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  5. Belated Happy Birthday, Valentina- I'm glad your host family remembered. How nice. You will be quite the gourmand when you return. What kind of cake was that? I'll guess hazelnuss torte.

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  6. Love the posts, but what happened? Your birthday was like a month ago and you haven't posted anything new! I'm going through Vale withdrawal!

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  7. It was 4 days ago. You should be able to live that long without a post. There will probably be another one tomorrow since that's when the language camp starts.

    As to the kind of cake, it was chocolate. However it is actually not a cake. A cake in Switzerland is long and skinny. I can't spell the correct name of my "cake" so for simplicities sake we will call it a chocolate cake made from melted Swiss dark chocolate.

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