Stephanie in Switzerland: Foggy Foggy Days

Despite the fact that the sun has not shone at all in the past week, it has been more or less a good one. My Kanton here is famous for the everlasting fog in autumn while the others are experiencing an Indian summer in the sunshine. I have been wearing lots of track pants and sweaters, which is seriously frowned upon in such a fashionable country, but I am fully okay with it. This week was a bit of a mix between totally wonderful and seriously difficult, but, as always, I got through. I am still here (and happy!) to tell my Swiss tales. The adventures of my week:

Dudelsackspieler - Bagpipe Player

Drehorgelmusik

Apperantly Jimmy Hendrix

My Girls

As you all know, I love my friends with a passion. They are not “the girls” I hang out with; they are “my girls”. On Monday I was lucky enough to Skype with Nat back home and have some much needed catch-up time. It was the most satisfying feeling in the world to know that even though I have seriously changed and grown in only three months, it was like no time had gone by. We talked about funny stories, mistakes, lessons, experiences, and what great food we have eaten lately. I love my girls. Speaking of my friends, I have also had the best time ever with my friends here in Switzerland. Hayley from Alberta came over on the weekend for a sleepover. I met her at the bus stop and after sprinting into a hug, she immediately presented me with a Tupperware container. She had cooked her family a thanksgiving dinner, and thought I’d be in need of a little home-style turkey, gravy, and mashed potatoes. It may seem funny, but it was such a sweet and kind gesture to be thought of, and to be able to experience a taste of a much loved holiday I missed out on. We stayed up well into the night, laughing, eating too much chocolate, and devouring the maple candies we know we are supposed to be giving away as gifts. When life is overwhelming- have a pyjama party with a good friend and good food. Everything seems lighter. Another cool thing I did with my friends here was on last Thursday. We had the afternoon free and just hopped on a train with no specific destination in mind. We ended up at a delicious chocolate specialty café (someone`s host parents owned it, therefore free goods). Then, we went and saw a castle. How cool is that? Hmm, today let’s see a castle. Who knows what we’ll see this week?! With the girls from my class, I went skating after school last week. I was one of two women on the entire full rink wearing “men’s skates” (as they call them- hockey/normal skates as I consider them). I was extremely glad that I had improved my skating skills last year because wearing my Canadian mittens; I realized I had a bit of a stereotype to live up to. It felt so good to be back on ice and the girls and I spent the whole time laughing, talking, and enjoying the beautiful full-mooned night. I occasionally would plow through a group of figure skaters, standing on one leg with the closest to ballerina arms I could manage. It didn’t look all that grateful, but it’s important to at least pretend to fit in sometimes- or to make people laugh at you. I have gotten very good at that.

Lenzburg Castle

TGIF- Thank God It’s Friday

Last Friday started out like any other, I was beyond exhausted, but otherwise in an exceptional mood. I tend to like Fridays, TGIF of course, but things started to go a little downhill. I went to my first class and was happily reading my children’s stories in the back. My good friend suggested I try the exercise they were doing, because it wasn’t very difficult. Or so she thought. It was an exercise to write about our favourite person/friend/family member and explain the characteristics of that person. I wrote “Meine Schwester” (my sister) at the top of the page, and then without warning- broke down. A mix of exhaustion and a moment of overwhelming homesickness left me tearing in the back of the class. To make matters worse, the class then began to read from the book. The teacher, who always like to joke around with me, asked if I’d like to read aloud for the class (he was joking- it is very hard text). He hadn’t seen me before, but then he and the rest of the class were staring at me as tears were pouring down my face. Nothing makes me more uncomfortable than feeling stupid and embarrassed. I just couldn’t keep it together. Finally, I composed myself, and he asked again to the class if anyone wanted to read aloud (I thought). I just started to read, trying desperately to prove I wasn’t a baby, but he stopped me after a few sentences. “Stephie,” he said lightly, “I am very sorry, but I didn’t ask for people to read yet.” Thank god no one laughed, or mocked or giggled. It was hard enough as it were. Any one of those things I would have been able to handle on its own, but all together I was feeling broken and just went home. When I got there, I read with the kids next door, talked to my mom on Skype, and got a very special e-mail. My best friend from school sent me a message that said, “I am so proud of you. I think it’s really cool you tried to read. There is no way any of us in class would be brave enough to do that.” That, was enough to turn my day around.

Rotary

I attended my second rotary meeting last week, in order to meet our new governor general. He is the third youngest governor general in the world, at fifty-five years old. It was amazing how much more interesting an hour and a half meeting is when you understand a good portion of going on. I no longer had to watch the other people to find out when it was appropriate to smile, laugh, or look concerned. I just knew what was happening. I introduced myself to everyone again (most of them had forgotten who I was and were confused to see a young girl in the midst of fifty old men). I gave my little speech (hi, I’m Stephanie, I am your exchange student, I come from Canada) to one man and then waited a solid ten seconds before I realized he hadn’t heard a word I’d said. Turns out he was the one who wanted to talk to me the most and I spent the rest of the evening yelling across the table until he’d heard me correctly. The time flew by and it was incredible to be part of the conversations instead of sitting in and listing to what sounded like gibberish in August.

Seriously Soccer

When I was having the trouble with my soccer licence, I ended up telling my German teacher about it in a class. She was appalled, and immediately took charge of the situation. She contacted her friend, who within three days had found me another team in Baden and took me there personally to make sure it was clear I would get a licence. In between this process I received the licence for my first team Obbersiggenthal (where I played my first game), but I decided to check out this second team anyways. I am so glad I did. The coach was so excited to see me. He said he understands my situation is special and will be helping me whenever possible. He has started trying to find me warm-up uniforms to borrow, gave me a team list, talked to me about practice schedules, and told me exactly what I have to do to get a new licence. We trained harder than I have yet in Switzerland and it just felt so good. We practice Tuesdays and Fridays. Tuesdays are outside, and Fridays are inside. It is now Monday, and I am still sore from the intensity of the workout on Friday. I love it. The girls were incredible, always helping me, always speaking in High German, and always making sure I was happy. They asked if I would come out with them next week after practice and it turns out one girl and I live in the same town. She has a ski house in the mountains and said she`d love to have me in the winter. It was just such a cool atmosphere and for once I didn`t feel like I was just totally and completely lost. Sometimes things just fit, it just feels right.

Recording

On Sunday I spent the whole afternoon with my dad in his school playing around with some recording. He spent hours and hours of his time, and it was so cool to have such high-tech equipment. I have tried to attach a few songs- I hope it worked! Country roads was one of the first songs I learned from Daria and Falling Slowly is what I always used to sing with Livi back home <3

Meine Schwester

One of the hardest things about leaving my family now is the fact that I will be leaving my host-sister Daria. I the last few weeks we have had a lot of fun together shopping, talking flea marketing, exploring, photo shooting, and laughing. I really feel like I have gotten to know her and it will just be weird to be in a family without her now. On Sunday we went to Basel (yet another new Kanton for me!) and spent our day in an enormous Christmas market. We ate roasted chestnuts and checked out all of the hippie stands. I ended up buying a warm headband for winter. My hair is so long now (I can’t afford a haircut for Swiss prices) and I no longer fits comfortably under my hat. I think my headband is pretty, but I was just told by the chef in the cafeteria I resemble Jimmy Hendrix. Great. Not the look I was going for. Daria and I also spent the good portion of an evening last week being totally ridiculous and conducting a photo-shoot in the basement. We were both up way to late, but we were practically peeing ourselves looking at the hilarious outcome of our shots. Thanks for sharing your family with me Daria, and for being just an awesome Host-Sister <3 Here are some pictures from our week: