Well that went fast!

As of next wednesday, my year here in switzerland is officially a third over. This however does not mean that I have switched host families, quite the opposite in fact, my host family is trying to keep me. My counsellor asked me what in the world I did, and I shrugged. I suppose it is just because I am far too sweet and wellbehaved.

I am currently in the process of picking return dates. There are really only 3 in question. The third and fourth of August. or the 23rd of July. The 23rd of July is the last date that the travel agency advises that I come back. The 3rd or 4th are of my own invention. August 1st is the National Holiday in Switzerland, when Kanton Schwyz, Uri, and uh, another that I haven't visited (I just checked on wikipedia, the third is Unterwalden) , joined together, followed in the years after by the other Kantons in order to rebell against the Hapsburgs Dynasty in 1291. Apparently this is call for a big party, and seeing the pictures in the newspaper when I first came, I think I will be going. If I leave on the 4th, that would mean that I spent 363 days in Switzerland, a nice round number I find.


Actually I found out yesterday with the help of a map in the telephone book that I have seen most of Switzerland. It is, afterall, about half the size of Pennsylvania. I only really need to go to Graubunden, Ticino, and Genf (Geneva to the rest of the world, but in german, it is Genf). I need to beg nicely to visit Germany sometime during a vacation. I am not allowed to stay in hotels or youth hostels, which makes travelling slightly harder, because I have to find someone to stay with.


Christmas shopping started here in the end of October. Imagine that. I was christmased out before Thanksgiving, a new world record. Though I did cook on Thanksgiving. chicken, which was terrible, and filling, that wasn't exactly like my grammy's. I realized that nothing sets off all the bells and whistles for my christmas spirit quite like Black Friday. Lacking a proper mall, Best Buy, and fellow rabid shoppers, I am currently devoid of any idea that Christmas is in fact approaching.


Onto other news from Switzerland. There's been a big Hubbub in the last week or two over a
story from Zurich. Apparently a 13 year old was raped by 15 boys from her school, in different locations and times. This initially caused a huge thing about media and the decline of society usw. As well as distrust in foreigners (9 of the boys were from former Ostblok countries... The rest were swiss) The newspaper articles seemed to speculate that swiss kids wouldn't do such a thing without the influence of these bad foreign kids. Then it was found out that this girl had willingly had sex with a few of them, altough no one seems to know now what really happened. It sparked a really intresting article in the magazine FACTS where they talked with 6 teenagers about violence, media, sex, etc. The general consensus seemed to be that the violence isn't a problem caused by foreigners, but instead boredom, but from all the foreigners, Albanians are the worst when it comes to violence.

That being said, despite Switzerland having the lowest opinion of American politics in the whole of Europe, I have never been treated poorly. The most direct question I have been asked is "What do you think of Bush?" and been told that we were stupid to elect him twice. I do get wide eyed looks when I claim to be a Republican. It is weird to live in a country that is more or less socialist. Or well, hanging around in the fog between socialism and capitalism.

But onto the intresting bits, the pictures.
Me, obvoiusly, in Widen Dorf (pop, 3000), taking a picture with all the pretty trees.


This is a picture of the most beautiful sunset I have seen in a while, taken from a bus. What causes beautiful sunsets? That's right! Pollution, more specifically soot, ash, and dust, most likely all in France, because I have yet to see more than a cigarette on the ground.



This is what is called a Nebelsee here. The valley below is filled with fog, but Widen is just above the fog boundry. Then you get this lovely twotierd effect. As a side note, every morning in fall is foggy. Like soup. Until about 10 am when it starts to lift on most days, then it gets foggy again as soon as it gets dark.

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Zurich Adventure on Saturday

This Saturday I unfortunately had to show up to school to go to an English class and play a concent on the parent's visiting day. Afterwards, I decided to hop on the next train that came into Wettingen SBB, which wound up at Zurich.

Here is the vending machiene on Gleis 3 at Wettingen trainstation. I took the picture because I realized for the first time that the cans are a different shape here, they are fatter. There is also some sort of Cannabis energy drink, that I have yet to see any one with (the orange one, second from the right). Also notice Rivella, a swiss soda. It is not good, I personally cannot drink it. It is like ginger ale, but not at all sweet, and flatter.

So here is the Christmasmarket in Zurich Hauptbahnhof. The tree is Ginormous and decoratted with real savonsky chrystals. I searched in vain for what I was really looking for, but it was fun.

Also in Zurich HB. The world's first 3D Screen. It's made up of a zillion little ping pong things.

I actually love this picture, a store window on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich. The dress is made of bubblewrap and the whole display has a color wheel like the aluminium Christmastrees.

Well that is about it until my life turns more intresting. Stay tuned for the "Learning to Ski Adventures" aka "How I learned to stop falling and love the Alps."