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.