New Family, New Language

So. I totally haven't forgotten about you guys. My blog hiatus had nothing to do with my laziness, or business, or tiredness, or anything like that. It's just that it's harder for me to use the internet now. I have to carry my laptop (with its power cord because it's a old and doesn't hold its battery charge very well) into the office and plug an ethernet cable in. Since this office is actually the office my host dad runs his business out of, I can't always go in there. I thought about trying to write a post from school, but it takes me way longer there because I have to look for all the punctuation marks on the European keyboard.

Anyways, from the title you can probably tell I've changed host families. I think my situation is a bit unique, because I went from a German-speaking family to a French-speaking family. Most exchange students stay in the same language the whole time. But, as weird as it was for the first couple of days to be speaking a different language at home, it's really a lot easier than it was at the other host family. This is because I never could completely understand Swiss German and I had to pay really close attention all the time if I wanted to understand much. Also, it took me several months before I could understand anything more than the general topic of conversation. So now that there is no dialect to deal with, I can understand everything that my family members say to each other. It's pretty neat.

Another thing: as of March 10, I have been here for 7 months. Out of 11. It sure sounds like a lot, but it went by really fast! At this point I am split between not wanting to leave and being really excited about going home. There are definitely some things I'm looking forward to when I get back: seeing my family and friends, of course, but also driving again after a year spent away from the wheel, lower prices for everything, starting college. But I bet there are some things about America that I totally forgot about. And then when I get back I'll notice them, and I probably won't like some of them. Right now the only example I can think of is the food. But it's also going to be weird to speak English all the time. I really think my English has gotten worse. Not that you would notice by reading my blog, because I usually proofread. But when I'm talking to other English speakers over here, sometimes I stop suddenly, with the word for something in German or French in my mouth, but I can't think of the word in English. Or some host family member will ask me how you say something in English and I'll have to look it up because I can't think of the word off the top of my head. I'll definitely be looking for European exchange students when I get back so I can keep using the languages I've learned here.

And it looks like Rotary's 3-host-family thing is going to be more like a 2-host-family thing because I stayed with the first host family for 6 months. I guess that makes half a year split between two languages, with the rest of the year completely in French. I find this a bit strange, as I was officially placed in the German-speaking part of the country and was meant to learn German this year. I have learned German, but right now my school is in French and my host family speaks French. Weird.

Something really awesome that happened recently was the Rotex winter weekend in Engelberg, where we finally got to meet the newbies! The majority of them came from Australia, with a few from South Africa, New Zealand, and South America. The reason they come in January is that their school year goes starts in January instead of August. I really liked meeting them. Hearing their stories about their first impressions of the country and the language and what they had done made me feel like I've been here a long time. And since they are here now, that makes me one of the oldies. I still can't believe I'm leaving in four months.

On a celebratory note, today is Pi Day! Happy Pi Day to all of you! I must say, I think it is one of my top two favorite under-celebrated holidays, along with International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19. Make that three under-celebrated holidays if you want to include Mole Day (October 23). Mole Day is not under-celebrated among high-school chemistry students, but I think it's safe to say that it's under-celebrated among the majority of the population. Also in Europe because our dates are switched around here. So here a number like 6.022 x 10^23 would turn into a day like February 6 (06/02). And the reason Mole Day does not take place on June 2 in America is because that is not part of the school year there (although my school year this year lasts until July 2). This is obviously catered towards the high-school chemistry set. No pun intended. Man, I'd better stop now before it gets any worse and just let some pictures do the talking.

I took this one the time that I got on the wrong bus and had to walk from Le Mouret to Ependes, where I live. It took me about 45 minutes, and it was cold and hailing. But I got some good pictures out of it! Maybe I'll attempt the walk again when the weather's nicer.

The cookies I made for the Rotex weekend. I made the same cookies at my first host family's house and somehow they turned out really differently the second time. Not as flat. Although the second time I used chocolate flakes instead of chocolate chips, which was interesting and not at all bad.

The Jean Tinguely fountain in Fribourg. I had to get to town an hour before my train left for Engelberg because it was a Saturday bus schedule, so instead of leaving by myself an hour early I hung out in the park in Fribourg for an hour and took the train with everyone else.

A slide going down the hill! Whenever I have my own house I'll probably have one of these installed in my back yard. Or maybe I can rig up a slide coming out of the house....

Fribourg's old town seen from the stairs behind the park. I refrained from going too far down the stairs because I knew I would have to go back up.

We went ice skating! It was great fun except for the part where I forgot to wear long socks and ended up with red marks on my ankles.

The Aussies brought their flags! Yay! That was such a fun group of kids to meet.

In hindsight, this post is really long. I probably should have forgotten the captions and really just let the pictures take care of themselves. Whoops.