Sunday, August 12, 2007

78 Students


Today was a quite nice day for me.

Mwahah.. I sound like a German now... er, anyways.

Today was the Welcome Meeting for all of us inbounds in Switzerland... something that couldn`t be done in the USA... it would be hard to get all the students together from all 50 states in one hotel just for a couple hours with such ease.

This morning, I actually had a wake up time... I had to be out of the house by 8:00. And when the Swiss say 8:00... they mean 7:55.

On Sundays, we get a special bread (topf?)... and you can only buy it on Saturdays to eat on Sunday. Only on Sunday. Get it?

It is soooo gut!

Anyways, after breakfast, Ruedi drove me and Anita to Griswil (or something like that). Anita was dropped off at the train station and then we went into the village to pick up Jorge. On the ride, we had some pretty interesting music. Lots of polka, accordians, and even Frenchy Brown. Yes... they have accordian music on the radio. There are only three radio stations.

We had to go to Oltern which is around a 55 minute drive... it`s between Zurich und Luzerne.


We got there around 15 minutes early... but it was fine. I found some people I had seen in the airport. They also had lanyards and nametags made out for us. Pretty soon, we were all trading pins... that`s what we do, trade pins. I`ll show you my blazer later. We also trade business cards. Mom, can you go to Kenmore and get me more pins? I`m almost out.


There are 78 or so of us... 48 of which are girls. And we are from all over including the USA, Canada, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Sweden, Germany, and some other places I forget. The person from Germany goes to the French speaking part of Switzerland since German would be simple. There are also many exchangers from Australia and South Africa, but they come in January and leave in January, so we got to meet some... and they are epic (humorous).


We had lots of lectures.


We drank mineral water.


We ate lunch outside.


We did some workshops.


We went home with my headmaster, Jorge`s host father. Patrick. He biked all the way there! That`s, well, just think about how far we get by going 86 mph in around 55 minutse.. and he biked it. His wife met us there.


We drove home and then Patrick, Jorge, and the mother (I`m horrible at names) came up to our garden and we drank water, Rivella, and ate chocolate and talked.


Apparently I am well prepared in German from the book and learn schnell (fast)... I`m not to sure, but if they say so, why not?


After that, my brother is my hero. He has ninja stars made of tape and a little sheath on his pants and everything. And he`s made a tape helmet. And bow and arrow. And everything.. very creative.


And then we had dinner.. AHH, I love Swiss meals! We started wtih honey dew melon and then played around a bit. Then we had mashed potatoes.. .and I loved them. I think there was clove or something in them. And there was a special gravey with spices. I dunno. But it was reallllly good. And we had some sort of sausage that was amazing with green beans.


We played some more.


Then Philipp went outside and I looked out and the neighbor kids told me to come down, so I did. And we scootered a lot. It`s great hanging out with them because I can learn German fro them and they don`t mind if I mess up and just laugh along with me. And I really enjoy it. And then it rained. So the smell was amazing. It was fresh Swiss air + rain smell + smoke from bbq... and I just felt like I was in a book it was so amazing. I can make German sentences now and am doing ok, I guess. Language school should help a lot.


After that, me and Anita went biking around, and it was a bit dark, but oh well. We went to the new school and it is fine. It even has beach volleyball complete with a court outside with golden sand.... it`s really neat. And then we went to the soccer fields (they have 3 or something like that..) and then down to the water and back home.


On the bikes are these lights that are run by the bike tires spinning. There`s like a gear that spins as it is in contact with the wheel and it powers the lights.. hehe, I love it and I think I got a bit too excited when I saw it :P


Well, off to bed for me. I`ve got clean hair and nothing really planned for tomarrow.


Tchuss,


Maggie

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That ois so funny aqbout the pins...I so told you! lol!

Love you lots!


btw...did you get my letter yet?

Anonymous said...

Yes! I have used those bikes with the lights you have to power by pedalling!
Quite annoying when you have to slow down in the dark and can't see anything. But still amusing!
- Anje (from CS)

jesse said...

What kids of pins do you trade? Just... anything? Or are there specific types or whatever?

~ Jesse