It's all going so fast!

As I get nearer and nearer to my return date, things happen more and more quickly. I've been so busy in the past couple of weeks that I literally haven't had the time to post anything. Even now I should be sleeping instead of posting because I'm leaving in five hours for a weekend adventure and I haven't started sleeping yet! (Obviously, unless this is really a lucid dream. I guess I'll have to check the blog later and see if this post really exists.) But I thought that if I don't take a bit of time now to catch you (and me) up on what I've been doing, I'll never have the chance to do it before I get back to the US. Seriously, my schedule is completely full until I get back.

So here are my last two weeks, narrated with short descriptions and very few photos. On Thursday the 10th, I visited CERN with a group of exchange students. I am very interested in science in general and also the research they are doing at CERN in particular, so it has been one of my dreams to visit CERN and I knew I had to go sometime this year. I did actually go there in the fall with my first host family but we hadn't planned it so we only saw the exhibit they had up but didn't get the tour. This time I organized for us to have the tour and everything, and it was really neat. Also, I think we went into France at one point, which would be the first time I have ever been to France! I've heard of a project that KU was helping with at CERN and I think it would be awesome to connect with this when I get to KU and possibly come back to be behind the scenes.

Part of the group in the shuttle that took us to the different sites: Brazil, Australia, California, India, Nevada, Arkansas, Louisiana.

The following weekend I went to spend Saturday with my third host family. It was my third host sister's 9th birthday on Sunday and they had invited over some family members for a surprise birthday dinner. I helped make the cakes, but unfortunately I had to leave before the dinner because I had planned on going to my school's jazz band concert, since some of my friends were playing in it. So I went to the concert and some of the songs were pretty good, but the jazz band is still a work in progress. At least it lasted longer than the school orchestra, which only survived long enough to accompany the choir when they sang Vivaldi's Gloria towards the beginning of the year.

That Sunday I had free so I took the afternoon to go to some of the museums in Fribourg. I thought it would be ridiculous to live in this town all year and never visit the museums. The ones I ended up going to were the Museum of Art and History, which has a lot of art from the canton of Fribourg, and that was pretty neat. And the second one was for Jean Tinguely, who made sculptures that move and make sound and light when you press a button. Those were a lot of fun. Unfortunately it was raining and chilly, which I find a bit strange for June weather.

The statue's hand with the statue's shadow.

Then last week I asked for permission not to come to school on Tuesday and Wednesday and went on some adventures with my friend Katie. On Tuesday we went to Domodossola, a little town in Italy that our Swiss train passes can get us to without our having to pay. Apparently when the weather is nice it is a cute little town, but it was raining and there was nothing to do, so we took a panoramic train to Locarno to pass the time. The train ride was nice, but when we arrived in Locarno we realized that we would have to take the same train back to get back to our side of the country in time for Katie to take her last bus home from Sion. So we did. Then that evening in Fribourg some other exchange students were meeting to watch a World Cup game. I joined them for a while but then I had to take my last bus home.

A view from the panoramic train: somewhere in Italy.

On Wednesday Katie and I went to St. Gallen, which is all the way on the East side of the country. My main goal was to visit a really cool historical library that Carly Putnam had made me aware of. Again, it was raining, but it was a really beautiful library and I managed to sneak in a photo when the lady wasn't looking. St. Gallen was a nice town. It was too bad to only spend one day there but it takes about three hours to get there from Fribourg, which is why I hadn't gone more often before.

Sometimes there are reasons to be thankful for the rain!

Interior of the Stiftsbibliothek.

On Friday I went to Bern for Elisa's goodbye party. She was going home to Mexico the next week. The original plan was to go to the roof of the train station. (I've never been there, but it's supposed to be cool.) But of course it was still raining, so we ended up going to this building outside of town where there were some of her Swiss friends as well. At one point the people in the next lot over were shooting off fireworks. I'm not sure why. I'm guessing it had something to do with the general giddiness associated with the World Cup.

Then last Saturday I had a rehearsal for my piano recital. Grace from Australia was looking for something to do and came to Fribourg and met me after my rehearsal, and we ended up at an ice cream place, enjoying ice cream, free wi-fi, and a World Cup game. I believe Australia was playing in this game because Grace was really into it. That evening I went to Katelyn's dance recital and her first host parents, one of whom is in Rotary, took me there so I wouldn't have to take the train. She had a solo at the end, and it was amazing! I think it's pretty cool that she was able to continue with dance this year, like I was able to continue with music.

Last Sunday I went to Interlaken with Katie and Grace because Katie's host dad and a friend from school were playing in a music festival of some sort. We didn't actually stay for very long because we spent so much time trying to find Katie's friend and then after we finally did we had missed the parade. So we decided we'd rather spend our afternoon in a heated train than out in the wet, cold city of Interlaken. We ended up going all the way to Basel, then coming back down through Bern, where we all switched trains. Katie and went to Lausanne, where she switched to get to Sion, and I stayed in Lausanne because I had to wait a while for my next bus from home from Fribourg. I decided to take the metro because I never had before, so I took it towards the lake, and when I arrived there was this whole World Cup setup with a projector and giant screen, food stands, free noisemakers, and even stands for the fans to sit in. I unfortunately didn't get to stay for the game because I had to go back and take my bus, but I did get some free noisemakers!

The temporary eating hall at Interlaken.

The nest of World Cup fans I found at Ouchy.

Last Tuesday I had my last piano recital here. It was all Chopin because 2010 is Chopin's 200th birthday. It was very nice, even though there were only seven of us that played. At the end was another of those good-bye moments where I wasn't sure whether I would see those people again. It turns out I did see one of the other piano students in the bus this morning, though. On Wednesday, Katelyn, Jessica and I had to give our presentations to our host Rotary club. It was a lunch meeting, and we got to eat the gourmet restaurant food with them. I think the best meals I have eaten this year have been with Rotary. If it's up to me to pay I usually just get some bread or yogurt or apples or salami or something from the grocery store and call it a meal. I didn't prepare a speech; I just had some photos from Kansas and from this year to share and then I made up the speech as I went. This worked surprisingly well since it was in French and I was barely nervous at all.

Today was the last day of normal classes at school and I think everyone in my class has now signed my Swiss flag. It's slowly filling up (at the least the red part is) and I think it will be a nice memory to have of my friends here. After school I went to a restaurant and watched the Portugal vs. Brazil game with a couple of friends from school. After the game I went to Bern for Matthew's viola recital. Matthew is American but he has been in Switzerland for a while and played / substitutes for the Bern Symphony Orchestra. I know him because he also substituted for my orchestra for our second concert. This recital was for his Master's Thesis and it was really nice to go hear some classical music. I feel like I've been cut off from concerts this year because I no longer have the Kansas City Symphony to usher at so if I wanted to attend concerts I would have to pay for tickets, plus most of them take place too late at night for me to get back to Fribourg in time for my last bus home. There is no professional symphony orchestra in Fribourg, unfortunately. Anyway, it was a nice recital and afterwards I walked down some stairs to the Aare River, walked along the river for a bit and then crossed a small bridge and walked up a steep street to get back to the train station. The weather is finally nice and it seems to have (at least temporarily) stopped raining.

So that's all I've been up to for the past two weeks. I hope you can understand why it was impossible for me to post. And tomorrow I"m going to Oberammergau to see the famous passion play. I figured I needed to get caught up before I had that to write about as well, so there you are. Next week is even busier than the last two so wish me luck! This last month or so is going to go by in a whirlwind and before I know it I'll be back in Kansas City. It's exciting to be coming back soon but at the same time I don't want to leave. The funny thing about being an exchange student somewhere for a year is that at the beginning you don't know anyone and you have to build up a life for yourself in the new country. Then by the end of the year you have friends, you have a new language (or two), you have habits and customs that you've gotten used to, and then just when you are starting to feel completely at home, you have to go back where you came from, tear up the roots you carefully spent all year planting, and return to a world that will be mostly the same except that you will be different.

A Few Coincidental and Planned-at-the-Last-Minute Meetings

A couple of weekends ago I was so busy that I had absolutely no time to blog. But I had a lot of fun adventures that I'd like to share with you.On Friday night, I went to Fribourg with the intention of taking the train to Luzern, but I arrived an hour before the train I was planning to take because there aren't many buses from where I live. While I was looking at the train schedule, a friend of mine that plays the flute in my orchestra here came up and said she had some Americans with her that I should meet. So I met the Americans - they were all from Alabama, and they studied law and were doing an exchange in Switzerland. My orchestra friend, Delia, also studies law and is going to Alabama this summer with the same program - that's how she knew these students. At the time, there was the Fête de Pérolles in Fribourg.So I hung out with Delia and the Alabamans for an hour before going back to the station. It was funny to see them react to the high food prices because that was also my reaction at first, though I would say I have gotten used to everything being so expensive. The Fête de Pérolles happened to be where I met my next host family. Their parents were hosting one of the Alabamans, and they agreed to take him into Fribourg because the parents didn't want to go out. I started talking to them in French and mentioned that I would need a host family for about a week in July before going home and they immediately said that I could stay with them. Since I met them I've gone to visit them a couple of times and we get along really well. So that was a really nice set of coincidences for me.

La Fête de Pérolles

Speaking of coincidences, as I went back to the train station to catch my train, I ran into these lovely people (plus Elisa, not pictured) who were going to a jazz concert in Fribourg. I ended up hanging out with them instead of going to Luzern. We walked back through the Fête de Pérolles then took a hiking path along the Sarine River, past the dam, and into the old town where the concert was. Unfortunately the concert was really full and there was no room left so we went and sat by the river instead. 

Molly, Quinn and  Joelle being spies behind the umbrella.

I did still end up going to Luzern on Saturday afternoon. I visited the city with my friends Paula and Sini, who are exchange students from Germany and Finland. We spoke German the whole time, which was nice. Paula speaks quickly sometimes and I didn't always understand her but I think she has the same problem understanding my English when I talk too fast. 

Paula, Sini and I

It was Paula's first time to Luzern so she wanted to go see the sites. We walked along the wall and Sini wanted to climb up all of the towers, so we were pretty tired by the end and naturally had to go eat ice cream.

Luzern seen from one of the towers.

Sini and Paula going down the tower stairs.

The taste of summer.

Spring colors were everywhere.

It was nice weather until the very end when it began to rain. Then we took our trains home. I had to wait around in Fribourg because Katie was going to come spend the night so I was going to meet her at the station. I walked around the city and decided to take a short bike ride around the area by the stadium. 

After that, I walked back past the cathedral towards the train station. It was the Nuit des Musées (Museum Night) so there were lots of people out going to the museums and wearing funny yellow hats. As I made my way toward the station I ran into my Alabaman friends again, who were eating a fondue dinner at an outisde table. It turned out that Katie's train was going to be late, so I stayed and talked with the Alabamans and Delia plus another Swiss law student that showed up. I used to be so excited to eat fondue but now I have eaten so much of it that I can definitely wait until next winter. Then Katie eventually arrived and we hung out with the Swiss and Alabaman law students for a bit before peeling off and taking the bus back to my host family's house.

The next day, Sunday, was a Fribourg adventure with Katie. We went into town in the afternoon after sleeping in and got ice cream at that awesome ice cream place. Then we saw Date Night in the movie theater. It's the first movie I had seen since the Michael Jackson movie that I saw with Jessica and the Rotary counsellor. Interestingly, the foreign title of the movie was "Crazy Night," because I guess that makes more sense to non-English speakers. The movie was dubbed into French. It was weird to see Tina Fey's mouth moving and to hear a different voice coming out. I think dubbing is a terrible idea. Everything (books, movies, etc) is better off in its original language, whether that be English, German, French, Russian, or Chinese. You get the point. 

After the movie we headed over to Marly, a neighboring village, to see Katelyn's dance recital. I tried to take pictures but flash wasn't allowed, so this is all I've got:

After the show, we went to Katelyn's house and met her host family and ate dinner with them. Then we watched The Hangover (in English) and I really enjoyed it. Sadly, I had to miss the very end because I needed to catch my last bus home.

Papiliorama, Plus a Fribourgeois Afternoon

Yesterday I went to a Rotary event in Kerzers at the Papiliorama, one of those greenhouses filled with a butterfly garden. The event turned out to be a volunteer experience, and my counselor had forgotten to tell the president of my host club that he had suggested that we come, so everyone was a bit surprised by they said I was welcome to stay and help out. The event was for disabled and very sick children to come to this place with their families and enjoy the butterflies, food, and activities for a night. I ended up cutting out paper butterflies for the kids to color on and I ended up talking to the kids about their drawings as they sat at the table. It was really nice to be around kids because I haven't had any contact with kids at all this year. The youngest host sibling I have had so far is 15! Although that will change with my 3rd host family, which I will blog about a bit later.

So I actually got there an hour early because my Rotary counselor also hadn't specified a time, and I went and took pictures of the plants and butterflies while I was waiting for the others to arrive.

Then today we had the final debriefing meeting with the people in charge of the Rotary exchange for my host district. For once we had a Rotary event in Fribourg, so I only had to take the bus in the morning! And to make things even better, some Rivella representatives were giving out free bottles of Rivella green at the train station. Rivella is a Swiss soft drink made with 35% milk whey. It's actually pretty good. It was a bit strange the first time I tasted it but now I like it.

Paula and I in front of the train station with our Rivellas.

After the Rotary meeting, during which we talked about our year and about what could be improved with the program, we all hung out in Fribourg.

A view of the Cathédrale St.-Nicholas and the Sarine River

We ate lunch in Fribourg, visited the flea market, went down to a very small beach by the river, got ice cream from the best ice cream store in town, and played basketball. Not everybody was there for all of this. A few kids had to leave Firbourg right after the meeting, which was sad. A lot of people took their trains home before basketball so by then there were only four of us. The beach was very small and strewn with bits of broken glass as well as more sinister things, and as it was pretty much as far as one could get from an expensive beach resort, we christened it the M-Budget Beach after the cheapest generic brand that Migros carries. Of course I have nothing against M-Budget itself. The products are very nice. I chew M-Budget gum, talk on an M-Budget phone, write with M-Budget pencils, etc. It just made us laugh to imagine the entire beach somehow covered with the green M-Budget logo like the rest of the M-Budget products.

Flea Market

The flea market was nice, too. I have gotten used to everything being really expensive here so I was astounded that it was even possible to pay such low prices, even for used goods. I ended up getting a Swiss patch and a pin for my Rotary jacket, plus all three of the Philip Pullman His Dark Materials books in German for four francs each, which is about a quarter of the price that you would pay for a new book. Yay for flea markets!

A Day in Zurich

On Thursday there was no school for a Catholic holiday of some sort, so I was going to go to Interlaken with Katie, but she ended up having to go to some first communion with her host family and I ended up going to Zurich and exploring. The weather was supposed to be nice, and apparently in Fribourg it was, but in Zurich it rained all day! Luckily, I had not forgotten my umbrella.

Here we have the classic photo of the Zurich Bahnhof, so that's where I was. Sorry if this is going to disappoint you tourist types, but I have already been to Zurich and taken photos of the churches and the river and such, so if you want to see those you'll have to go elsewhere.

My first goal in Zurich was to make a pilgrimage to the flagship store of Freitag, a company that makes messenger bags and other products out of used materials. They are ecologically friendly, well-designed, very popular among the Swiss, and, unfortunately, a bit expensive. I am thinking about getting one before I leave, but I'll probably go back later when I'm sure I'll have the money. So I eventually found the place. This is what it looks like:

The umbrella you see at the top is a person up on the observation deck, which I also climbed up to. The view wasn't terribly exciting. It's in a rather industrial part of the city.

Freitag wallets - a nice burst of color on a rainy day.

After that adventure, I went back to the train station and from there walked through the old town. On one of the streets I encountered a Steinway showroom, so of course I went inside and played one of the pianos. I was the only one there besides the owner. It was really nice to get the chance to play on such a high-quality instrument after all the electric keyboards I've had to content myself with throughout the year. Not to say that I haven't played on any nice instruments at all, because I do during my lessons. There is also a grand piano at my school but it's often not available because there is something else going on in the auditorium.

Shiny, shiny, shiny!

More shiny.

Afterwards, I realized that I was hungry from all of that walking around and sat down on this (dry) bench to eat my sandwiches. I would have preferred to sit by the river, but none of those benches were covered, so I people-watched instead. The person writing on a clipboard in the middle of the bench was accosting people for Green Cross, and he came up and gave me his spiel in Zürideutsch, which I didn't understand very well. But I waited until the end of the spiel to tell him in high German that I had only understood half of what he said. He was going to repeat the spiel in high German, but then he thought to ask whether I was 18 yet (the age of majority which would legally allow you to make donations) and I replied, as I usually do if I don't want to be pressed into making a donation, that I would turn 18 next year but that I would have left Switzerland by then. Then I threw away my sandwich wrappers and continued my adventure.

A little bit of shopping and walking around later, I got back on the train to Fribourg in order to catch the last non-night-bus home. During the voyage, I sat across from an American couple from Washington State who were visiting Switzerland for a month. Apparently the husband had done an exchange when he was younger and they had both been to Switzerland several times before. It was weird to speak English.

Upon my return home, I was hungry so I looked in the refrigerator but there were no fruit yogurts left. My host family, and almost every Swiss person I know, is enamored with mocha yogurt, which I have been repulsed by ever since I tried my first one back in August. Since then I have periodically tried it again but every time I just can't eat the whole thing. Strangely enough, I went for it again and this time it wasn't terrible! Mocha yogurt will never replace, hazelnut, forest berries, or strawberry / coconut, but I didn't mind it. Perhaps my taste has changed. Or maybe I was just really hungry.

Sorry about the flash. It was starting to get dark so I didn't have much natural light to work with.

Lieder ohne Worte

I just spent a good part of my Sunday morning trying to get this to work and I finally appear to have encountered success with the Yahoo! media player. This is the piece that I played in my piano recital not too long ago. I recorded it in the "auditorium" at my school with iPod Voice Notes. So the sound quality is pretty terrible, but if you ignore the noise that happens when there is a particularly loud note, it's not too bad. After a while I also figured out that I had to lower the piano bench all the way down when recording because otherwise it squeaked whenever I moved. So, without further ado, my best attempts at recording music without the use of music-recording equipment!

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words Op.53 No. 3

Just for fun, here's an unrelated photo for you to enjoy, one of my first attempts at editing with Picnik. This was taken on the day I was in Geneva and then came back to Fribourg with three of my exchange-student buddies. It was raining, so the tour of Fribourg wasn't terribly successful. But I did get this nice picture of Jean Tinguely's Jo Siffert fountain. Translated, my caption says "Fribourg is my city, even in the rain!"

By the way, I just went back and changed the audio player from the other post where I tried embedding a piano recording. The original one had stopped working for some reason, and it had never worked in Internet Explorer, so feel free to go back and have another listen.

Château de Chillon and Montreux

Last Wednesday we had no classes in the afternoon for some reason related to the TM / MA, the big project that all non-exchange-student third-years have to do. Being an exchange student, I have always been able to enjoy the time that everyone else spent working on this project in the form of free time. So this Wednesday afternoon I met Katie at Montreux and we headed over to the Château de Chillon. I'll spare you the suspense and show you the photo. It was pretty cool because I remembered that this was one of the sites on the list of world sites from my 9th-grade geography class. And here I am, just a few hours away on the train. We decided not to go inside because it cost money. Also the weather was cooperating for the first time in a couple of weeks and had decided not to rain, so we had to enjoy the sun while it lasted.

See those two ducks in the water to the right of the castle? They decided to come join us on the beach (from which the photo was taken). Also, there was a little boy that came with his mother and his beach toys to play there too. Granted, it was a very small beach with very little sand and very many little rocks that were painful to walk on with bare feet, but imagine living near this castle as a kid and then just coming to play with your bucket and shovel next to this view!

The ducks. I was surprised that they came so close but Katie pointed out that people probably fed them, which is probably true because this is a tourist site. I'd like to take this opportunity to discourage you readers from ever feeding wildlife wherever you go, whether it's a tourist site or in the woods or wherever you might encounter them. It's a terrible idea, and far from being good for the animals, it builds up their dependence on humans and can be very unhealthy for them.

So we spent a couple of hours on this little beach enjoying the lovely weather and then Katie had to leave because she needed to get back in time to take the last bus home at 7-something. I, however, still had a couple of hours before I needed to leave, so I went back to Montreux and walked around there for a while. It's a beautiful city. I got the impression that it was very aesthetically conscious. There are flowers everywhere, and I ran into all kinds of aesthetically pleasing objects, some of which I photographed. I have developed an appreciation for murals / graffiti this year. There have been some really cool ones I've run into in different cities. Here's one that appears to bill Montreux as more than just a Swiss city: "Montreux, Europe." At least that's my interpretation. And Montreux totally deserves this distinction, as far as I'm concerned. Not that I have seen any non-Swiss European cities, except for the ones in Liechtenstein, which weren't terribly interesting and not nearly as aesthetically pleasing as Montreux.

A couple of green things I found while walking around : a beautiful garden and a surprise waterfall! There's a sidewalk that goes just over this waterfall, so I heard running water and then all of a sudden, this was underneath where I was standing. Pretty cool. 

Des choux: I wonder if they can fly? With a special shout-out to Xuan.

And the waterfall. Too bad I don't have one of those fancy cameras where you can lengthen the exposure to give the water that effect.

Things like this are why I have the city-exploring philosophy that I have come up with this year:

1. Wait for awesome weather.

2. Using your general subscription train ticket paid for by Rotary, hop on a train to go to a city you've never been to before.

3. Upon arrival, look for the sign in the train stations that points you toward the "city."

4. Take a totally random walking path, directed towards whatever catches your attention.

5. If you feel like you're getting into a boring residential area, turn around, or...

6. If you are tired, find a bus / tram stop and get on the next bus / tram. Get off if you feel yourself getting more lost or if you see something cool out of the window that you want to go check out.

7. If you can't find anything interesting, make it a point to find the city's H&M and go try on clothes until you have to catch the train back. Note: This also works if the weather turns nasty. Another great alternative to H&M is a bookstore like Payot or Stauffacher.

7. Always, always, always, remember how to find your way back to the train station.

8. Don't forget your camera.

9. This can also be fun with a friend or two. Or you can go ahead and bring all the Rotary exchange students along. Also a valid way to spend time alone.

Now you guys can see what I'm going to miss when I have to come home at the end of the year. Not to mention all of these awesome Swiss people I've met...

And as a parting image, this is why I love Montreux in the spring:

Liechtensteini Cacti