days < 110 -- comparing

advice for future exchangers #16:

you only really recognize your own culture

when you've been dropped headfirst into a different one.

So with the recent holidays and so, I'm realizing just how American and Chinese American and culturally different I am. They aren't bad culture differences... it's just that I never really thought of myself as being distinctly AMERICAN. I don't know if that makes sense or not.

Oh well.

• Zermatt was amazing! I went with a bunch (read: basically all) of the other exchange students from Switzerland, both newbies (August inbounds) and oldies (January inbounds). And it was wonderful. And the other Swiss Rotary exchange students here are basically some of the awesomest people in the entire world.
• Aaaand we saw the Matterhorn. Which was lovely.
• And Advent began! My family has Advent calendars and gifts every Sunday for me and my little sister and decorations and stars and everything. So our house is beautiful now. :)))
• I went to Zurich with one of my friends and we explored the Christmas markets. Of which there are many. And they are all very pretty. Actually, Switzerland Christmases in general are just very pretty.
• Basel has a Christmas market too. I went there as well. Because I like Christmas markets.
• And I gave a presentation to my class about my life at home. My class teacher was especially interested in homeschooling and asked me a LOT of questions about how it worked, what it was like, if I had tests, what American high school was normally like, etc. So that was interesting... :P
• Bern Bundeshaus lights!!!! I posted a video link to them in my november/october lovely links, if you'd like to see them... they are gorgeous. My goodness.

there was more that happened, i'm sure, but I am too tired to write it down. 

guete nacht!

days > 90 -- living

advice for future exchange students #15:

if you make it to the third month, congratulations.

you are exchanging.

I have this theory that life for exchange students gets more dramatic at the third month mark. While I haven't had that much drama as of yet (which makes me rather worried, because I feel like something should be coming), I've observed enough of my friends to conclude that around three months in, something changes.

I talked with some of my Austauschschuler friends about this, and what we came up with was that after three months, you are no longer a guest. You are on exchange-- you have lived in the same house for almost 100 days, you (should) be able to speak the language to communicate, and you are no longer new to school or classes or your village. 

And so you are transitioning.

You are transitioning into living your new life.

things that have happened in the past 10 days:

• first skype with my family!!! For those of you who didn't know, there is something called the 90-day-rule that my district set up for the outbounds. It basically states that we cannot skype or call home (with the exception of a short call home to tell them that we've arrived) for the first 90 days of our exchange. But... my 90 days are over, and so I skyped home! :) :) :) words do not express how excited I was.
• I finally got to meet up with one of my friends from Zurich, Sarah. We skyped several times before I left (she is from Kentucky and I am from Oregon) but since she's in a different area and district I haven't gotten to see her very often. It was good to see her and talk and compare lives :)
• I got an account at the Rheinfelden library. This means that I can check out German books whenever I want for free. Since the library was a huge part of my life at home, it's nice to have an account here.
• met with my counsellor at Gymnasium Muttenz. We spoke completely in German, which was actually pretty cool for me... while I've had conversations with my host family and my colleagues at school, it's a different experience to explain yourself and ask "business" questions in German.
• On Wednesday, my whole class had something called a Berufstag (at least, I think that's what it's called). All of the first-year FMS students were required to take a huge long test to see what their strengths and weaknesses and job preferences would be. Then on one day, all of us go and visit places and hear presentations based on what those job preferences are. Each of the different jobs require you to go to a specific type of school where they train you for the specific job you pick. So for example, I went to a pedagogy presentation (which was really boring), an architecture presentation (which was interesting) and a presentation about journalism/translation/communications (which was really awesome.)
• I've also decided to go to university here.
• Just kidding. 
• Except really... there are some very good schools in Switzerland, so we'll see how my German goes and then maybe college in other countries would be a possibility!

the end.

hannah

september's lovely links

these photos of Zurich in black and white, part of the Zurich Film Festival this year, are stunning... but more than that, I love them because I've been there. I recognize that statue and this church and that bridge and even that carousel (yes. I did go to Zurich and ride a little-kids-carousel. don't judge. :) )

also, seeing as I've just visited Liechtenstein, I found this comic really funny.

top ten places for chocolate: notice that Switzerland is first on the list. I actually have a friend who went to the Cailler factory last week... so. jealous...

31 Signs You're a Third Culture Kid, from Buzzfeed. I'd actually never heard of the term TCK, but apparently it's becoming a thing now?

apparently we have a winner for world's most traveled man. wow.

Jeff Goins has written one of the best articles on reasons to travel young that I've ever found. It doesn't just apply to traveling, though--it is, in the end, an all-encompassing "shape up, youngster" type of article. In a very good way.
(and here's a short response to it that recently showed up on Huffington Post.)

put this on the list of "cool-things-to-learn-later": The Pig Latins of 11 Other Languages.

wait! another really good article!! And it's about life lessons! must put in lovely links...

Finally, I find this article hilariously and ridiculously funny. It doesn't actually have that much to do with Switzerland, or with exchange, but it was in Paris and it's the experience of an expat and I love it so whatever, here it is.

days > 50 -- exploring

advice for future exchange students #11:

enjoy the fact that you're in another country. 

and go discover new things!

the rest of the world is not that hard to access.

the GA (General Abonnement, which means that you basically get all transportation free) is the best thing anyone could ever ask for. It is more precious than gold. :P

Lately I've gotten the chance to just explore, on my own or with friends, and I am loving it. Switzerland is very safe, very scenic, and very easy to explore by train and bus... which means that basically it's heaven for exchange students. I love that I can just get up and be on the other side of the country in 3 hours.

things that have happened in the past 10 (ish) days:

• Appenzell: a place where all the houses look like gingerbread houses because they are ridiculously adorable. Also where people make cheese. I counted 5 times as many cows as people on the tram ride there.
• St. Gallen: a place where the buildings are really tall and the churches are beautiful. I discovered the most lovely church in St Gallen... actually, scratch that, all the churches are lovely here. But especially in St. Gallen.
• Zurich: a place where everyone is rich.
• Also, we went to the Basel flea market! the flea markets in Portland are really small and not that great, but the Basel flea market was fun to explore :) I bought a pair of leather shoes that look new for 10 francs, and normally the same shoes run 200 francs or more... 
• I went to the cinema (again) and watched a movie in German with my host mom and one of her friends. It was fun, and this time I actually understood most of what was happening. It's funny, to think of how much better my language skills are now than they were before.
• School's out, schöni ferie zäme :)

days > 40 -- attempting

advice for future exchange students #10:
when your school friends speak a dialect, try to learn it. just try.
you've got nothing to lose besides your pride
and really, if you're on exchange chances are you'll become immune to embarassment sometime.

so with school and everything I basically forgot that I have a blog.
whoops.

Something that I've learned here: just try things. Try them. Especially since I'm an exchange student and I'm no good at most things, I can step outside my comfort zone and attempt lots of things because I already look stupid am foreign, and thus it doesn't matter. I've attempted volleyball, tabletennis, and handsprings, with somewhat varying levels of failure... I've talked to a dozen people a day in very bad Swiss German... I've tried various different foods and multiple juice/mineralwater/soda-ish drinks... and so far I haven't died.
It's a good lesson for me. Sometimes pride doesn't get you anywhere. And sometimes nothing is better than attempting a new thing, even if you look like a complete idiot. ;)

things that have happened in the past 10ish days:

• I successfully asked for directions in German, received them in German, and was able to follow them. It basically made my entire week.
• went to Zurich! It was nice. and expensive. and pretty. and expensive. and we walked a lot. plus, did I mention that it's expensive?
• School is good. The second day of my arrival, I had a Physics test in German. So... that was interesting...
• I also took a math test in German last week. I've never been so excited about a A-/B+ (the grades are a bit different here, but I think that's the American equivalent) in my entire life. 
• Rotary weekends in Switzerland = awesome. I think all the most amazing people in other countries somehow picked Switzerland as their destination? Which means that I get to meet all of them :) hooray!
• I seem to have come back with a slight Aussie (edit: after a little bit of thought, I've concluded it's actually New Zealander) accent that I can't get rid of. This makes things interesting.
• The Swiss Rotex find it really funny when I speak Swiss German. So do my schoolmates. I'm not exactly sure if this is a good or a bad thing.
• I have conquered the chocolate chip cookie. After finding that Switzerland does not in fact have vanilla extract, brown sugar, or chocolate chips, I substituted multiple things, did conversions, weighed everything in my host family's kitchen, and finally ended up with fairly good cookies.
• popped over to Germany to buy an ice cream. That wasn't really necessary, I just enjoy saying that I popped over to Germany. It makes me feel like a world traveler :)

bis nachste mal,

hannah

arrival

"The plane swooped over jagged snow-covered mountains and landed without crashing in Zurich, Switzerland. A foreign country."

--Bloomability, Sharon Creech*

*this book is good. I recommend it.

in fact i recommend it so much that i named my blog after it.

you'll be seeing many quotes from it in the future, trust me. ;)