The Past Week...

For all of you who have been wondering, the past week of language camp has been a bit difficult seeing as she almost always talks in German and we do not always understand her. My host family has also been trying to speak more German at home, which is a good thing, if frustrating at times. My host brother Thierry won't speak English with me, even though I know he knows English. You start to feel a bit stupid when everyone has to speak English for you and you think you should know how to say something in German. Unfortunately, few of us really know anything more than simple greetings. Yeah, learning which noun takes der or die or das is important, but not very helpful in conversation. On occasion, we actually understand something, usually when we are not tired, and then we don't know how to respond in German. This is going to take some work.......

On Thursday, I went with my host sister Kim around Bern and we saw a lot of it. I finally saw the bears. I've also realized that if you head in any direction you will arrive at one of two things; der Bahnhof (the train station) or the Aure (the river in Bern). From there, you can get anywhere in Bern. Bryanne and Helena (the other Brazilian exchange student) joined us later on it was fun.

On Friday, everyone from my language camp stayed in Bern for lunch, with the exception of two people. The boys decided to take off, so us ladies got ice cream and found the make up section of a store unintentionally. That would have been fun, if I actually cared about make up and painting my nails. After that, I slept over Bryanne's house. Christina, Stefan, Brigitta, and Kurt all had a party to go to, so they made these arrangements. It was a lot of fun. We made our own pizza at about 10 pm. Bryanne taught herself a song on the piano so I got to hear some good music. I was telling her about my latest story and she gave me some good ideas.

The next morning we got up at 11 and went to Murten, which is this cute little town by a lake. It was really nice there and we saw a giant chessboard. I liked it a lot. When I got home I actually went in the pool. It was a good day.

My Welcome Orientation was Sunday. There were way too many people there. Lots of exchange students which was nice, but it was very crowded. We got into groups and went over the rules and presented our rule to everyone there. Mine did a skit on sexual harassment.

Today was my first Rotary meeting. I think it went well. I had to introduce myself in German. At the end I was invited to a classical music concert in Luzern by a Rotarian on Wednesday, so that should be fun. It's formal and it's the premier of this piece. Then I came home and studied German before going to Bryanne's house (again) for a party. I met a Rebound student named Yuri. He was in California last year. It was interesting.

Sorry, no pictures this time. I have some but I really need to go to bed so they will be put up at another time. If you have any comments or questions or something, please, please write it below. It's hard to tell how many people are reading this blog if no one leaves any comments.

Tah Tah For Now (TTFN)

Language Camp (School) and the Days Before

Hm, let's start with what I did on Friday. I went into Bern with Bryanne and Elena with my new GA, which allows me free train, tram, bus, and ferry transportation throughout Switzerland. I also set up a bank account at the post office as the same rules do not apply to them. In Bern we saw a famous clock and went up the tower at the Münster called the Turm. The Münster is a really old church. It has very detailed carvings and is very nice as far as churches go. The tower staircase was also really tiny. How it was built is pretty interesting. It was first a very little church, then they expanded it several times to make it what it is today, minus the tower. When they first tried to build the tower, they didn't have enough money. The view was amazing.

After Bern we went to the opening of Elena's mother Brigitta's new studio. Her paintings and ceramic works were beautiful. I particularly like a porcelain set painted black with blue flowers. I should have taken a picture of it. Brigitta made me this shirt:

Close up of the Edelweiss design

After that Christina's parents came over. They were very nice. Kim and her boyfriend came too. Stefan also gave me a very nice compliment that day. He said I was adapting very well and quickly. I think that's a good thing. My only disappointment: No one laughed at my vampire smiley face tee-shirt! Now I'm afraid to wear the Richard shirt... If you've never seen these shirts, don't worry about it.

Saturday, I went to Brigitta, Elena, and Bryanne's house while Christina, Stefan, and Thierry took Cyrill to the airport to say good bye. I gave Cyrill a set of cards with a picture of New York on the back. I would have taught him Briscola if I had thought to bring a deck. Bryanne and I played the piano together and talked while Elena packed. Then we went into Bern again to get Bryanne a phone. Brigitta and Elena took me to a soap shop and we got free popcorn there. We met up with Bryanne and Elena's father at Starbucks of all places. When we got back to the house, some of Elena's friends came over. Bryanne and I went downstairs to her room so it wouldn't be akward and worked on friendship bracelets. I wondered if this was a good idea, but when we went up for dinner and her best friends and boy friend arrived, it was tiring to listen to all that Swiss German. It was sad when they were leaving and were saying good bye to Elena. She left for Canada on Sunday. On a different note, I found a German National Geographics magazine with an article on "Ardie" in it which I borrowed. Translating it is my latest project, and the three sentences I did on Saturday are looking pretty good. It seems that direct translations are nearly impossible.

After sleepig over Bryanne's, Christina picked us up and we went to an Italian restaurant for lunch. The food was very good. After lunch, we went to the cinema to see Inception. It was great, especially the end. I really liked it. Bryanne left a little while afterwards and Christina's neighbor Margrit, an interesting older woman, came over. She lived in the States for several years. I also received a package from my parents. Thank you so much for the birthday present, even if it was a few days late! ^.^

Today was my first day of Language School! It was three and a half hours of just German. Our teacher speaks very little English. Hooray. Actually it wasn't too bad. Most of the class is about the same level as me, although it looked like the two Canadians of our group and another girl had no idea what the teacher was talking about, and Bryanne could actually talk to the teacher. The rest of us had a basic understanding of the lesson and her instructions, which came directly out of a textbook. The first time I was asked how old I am, I said 7. The German word for seven is sieben and for 17 is siebenzen. I left out the -zen (10). But we all made some mistakes today so it was good.

It's rained so much these last few days that Stettlen now has a lake. It's a muddy brown color.

Before the rain

After the rain

And last, but not least, pictures of the Münster and Bern from the Münster, donated by Bryanne because I forgot my camera that day. There are also last minute group pictures of my host family and I that will eventually be put up here.

Bryanne and I

Elena and I

Tschüs!