La Désalpe, or I Eat Raclette and Look at Cows

First off, let me apologize for the fact that this post is out of chronological order. I found pictures from it on my computer and remembered that I wanted to share them with you. I go to school in the city, and I go shopping in the city, and I go to orchestra rehearsals in the city, but I live in the country. My house is surrounded by rolling hills, on top of which are lots of trees, cows, and red-roofed houses. How picturesque. And to celebrate the cows (and the families who raise them), there is an event every year called the désalpe, which roughly means "coming down from the alpine pastures." The families that raise cows walk with their herds down to a town where there is a parade. This happens in multiple towns, but the one I went to is Plaffeien, about a fifteen-minute walk from where I live.

As you can see, it's pretty crowded. Animals and people are everywhere! There are stands selling food, shops selling traditional crafts, and a makeshift stage where musicians are playing and people are dancing in Swiss costumes. The families are announced as they arrive. The people and animals are all decorated. And it's not just cows: I also saw several goats.

And now I've gone all high-tech on you, and have included a video! Somewhere in the middle a group of men and boys walks by wearing the traditional Swiss cowboy outfit. Lots of the women also wore those blue shirts, as did some of the guys in my class when we had a class party. I hope you enjoy the video because it took forever to upload.

Fall Break: Week Two

I bet some of you are jealous that I had two weeks of fall break. I understand. I'm even kind of jealous. I mean, I never got a fall break in high school and as I understand it, I will never have this long of a fall break ever again. But let me qualify this with the fact that we almost always have a normal week of school here. There are no late starts, no early releases, no teacher workdays, no pep assemblies. There are field trips, though: once we went to see a play at the theater, and once there was a class day where all the classes did something different. But otherwise the schedule is very regular compared to what it was like in high school.

So, week two. Those of you who read about week one know that I spent it cavorting about Switzerland with my host family. During week two I spent more time exploring alone, which I quite enjoy. On Monday I slept late and spent the rest of the day hanging around the house, and then at dinner my host parents told me I should go somewhere since I have a GA. It sounded like a good idea, so the next day I went to Bern with Jessica, and we wandered around a bit. Bern's symbol is the bear, and there are a couple of bears that live there in a built habitat, but unfortunately when we went to find the bears, they were hiding out in their invisible-to-the-public area. I found these feet walking around in Bern.

The next day I went to my second Rotary meeting with my host club. This time it was at a restaurant for lunch. I like Rotary meetings because everyone is so nice there and there is usually good food. The speaker was a Swiss woman now living in Germany who did an exchange at Harvard University while she was a university student. She talked about the differences between American and Swiss university life, which I found pretty interesting. The main idea was that the campus is a central part of the American university experience, and even people that live off-campus still spend a lot of their free time on campus, but in Switzerland, university just consists of the classes, and many live at home. The way people spend their free time has nothing to do with their school, in general.

After the meeting I hopped on a train and went to Lausanne. I spent quite a while wandering around the suburbs and then got on a bus and went to the downtown area, where I found all of the shops. It was really crowded there, but it was a nice area. I hope to go back again when I have more time. One of the Rotary members had invited Jessica and I to go see the new movie about Michael Jackson that evening, so I came back to Fribourg in time for that. The movie was in English with German subtitles. It was all right. I've never been a huge fan of Michael Jackson; in fact, I found him pretty creepy. But the music was good. If you like the man or the music, you would probably enjoy the film.

The next day I went with my host mom and sister, plus a family friend and two guys that may or may not have been host cousins, to Zürich to see the Körperwelten exhibit. It's the one with the human bodies that have the skin removed so the organs can be seen. I found it fascinating. The descriptions were all in German and French, so it was an opportunity to learn some new words. After lunch I had to go back to Fribourg so I would have some time to rest before orchestra.

On Friday I once again hopped on the train for a day-long Geneva adventure. One of my favorite parts about the train ride to Geneva is that right before Lausanne there is a stunningly beautiful view through the windows. In the background is a lake, and on the land surrounding it, which is pleasantly hilly, are vineyards. And the best time to see it is just as the sun is setting. I love to watch the rows of grapevines as the train zooms past. So, I went to Geneva. And it was Halloween. Apparently they used to celebrate Halloween here around ten years ago, with costumes and decorations and candy, but they decided to give it up because they found it disgustingly commercialized. Well, maybe it is, but that never stopped me from enjoying it.

I forgot to look up beforehand what the touristy things are to do in Geneva, which I don't regret. Instead I got on a tram and rode it until I saw some cool shops outside the window and I got out there. It was a crowded place. I looked around in the shops for a while, and then I happened to look up at the sky and saw what appeared to be a stream of water falling from the sky between two buildings. I was naturally curious and went to find out what it was. What I had discovered was the jet d'eau, which is supposedly a sort of water monument. The water is pumped 140 meters high out of the lake. It's pretty impressive:

There's a walkway that goes out into the lake and past the jet d'eau, and for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to go to the end of this walkway. What I didn't realize is that the wind was strong enough to blow a lot of water onto the walkway. But I kept going even though it felt like a watered-down version of the Maid of the Mist boat ride at Niagara Falls (in case any of you are familiar with that). I would say "no pun intended," but it definitely was. And this is what I looked like once I had gone past the jet. Refreshed, rejuvenated, and very, very wet.

Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly warm outside. I seem to be adjusting to the colder weather, though. Also, I was wearing a wool jacket, which is supposedly warm when wet. But I was still a bit chilled. To warm myself up, I visited one of the top signs of American cultural imperialism in Europe: Starbucks. My hot chocolate cost about as much as three regular Shawnee Mission East lunches. Let's just say it was a special occasion. It was Halloween, after all.