It has now been about three weeks since I last post and I am feeling the pressure. I knew my procrastination has gotten bad when my own sister, who I haven't seen in a month and half, decided to ignore my emails until I had written a blog. I apologize for letting my lazy nature get the better of me. However, I do have so much to blog about! Since I last blogged about my trip to Basel, I will now inform you of every major thing that has happened since then.
As some of you may know, I will have three families over the course of my stay in Switzerland. Recently, I went to a dinner where I actually got to meet them all! It was wonderful! We went to a cozy little Italian resturant in Hergiswil, which is where my third host family lives. I enjoyed the opportunity to meet everyone that I would eventually live with, in person. It brought home the fact that, for a year I will be a member of each one of these peoples' families and that I have been invited to share their lives with them, even if it is only for a short time. I must say that this had a huge impact on me, because it made me realize that this time that I have here in Switzerland should not and can not be taken for granted.
I also went to the Welcome meeting in Osten where I got to meet many of the seventy-four rotary exchange students living here. They also went over the many rules of an exchange, which includes the four D's. While the meeting itself was a good refresher on the rules and benefits of an exchange with rotary, and also the opportunity to meet the rotary exchange officials, it was even better to go out for dinner with my host family later. It seems that italian is popular here (we are close to Italy after all) because that night we went to another italian resturant for dinner. I order a pizza, thinking I would get a nice slice for dinner, but instead they brought out a huge family sized pizza. I was obviously more hungry than I thought because I finished almost the whole thing. It was nicely decorated though. I do appreciate food that both tastes and looks, good.
Halfway through my Deutschkurs, I had to go to school for the opening ceremony. I was at first just excited and a little bit nervous to go, because I was told I would have to write and give an address to my class. My little bit of nervousness went to full out panic when I realized that my address wouldn't be just to my class but to my whole school. To make matters worse, it was in the church. My class sat in the balcony. That meant that when I was called up to give my address, I had to get up, go down the stairs and then walk up the aisle, past all those staring eyes. That was one of the few times I felt like the foreign specimen that I am. Luckily, I didn't do it alone and the other exchange student Camila, from Mexico, went up with me.
Two weeks later, after a rigourous test and a nerve-wracking presentation, my Deutschkurs was finished. I have to say that doing the german language course was defintely time and money well spent. I learned more about the german language in one month, than I had over the past year. I also met nine great new people. I learned about thongs from Australia, the meaning of upside down Canadian flags, the strange coffee drinking habits of certain Latin Americans, the way Brazilians write multiple K's to show laughter, and many other interesing things. But since my Deutschkurs is over, it is time to go to school, where I will learn many more lessons.
Last Monday, I had both my first rotary meeting and my first day of school. I have to say that both went off pretty much without a hitch. At my rotary meeting, I was required to give a presentation regarding my life in Alaska. At first I thought that I would do horrible, but after giving my presentation twice and practicing it for an hour before, it ended up turning out just fine. The rotarians were attentive, interested, and I was able to put myself at ease long enough to not stumble through my presentation. I have found that I enjoy talking about Alaska and dispelling some of the popular myths. When someone asked me if I see polar bears I calmly told them yes, then almost as an afterthought, I clarified by adding... in the zoo. I also enjoyed telling people about my family, which as some of you may know is quite large. Despite our size, and sometimes I think because of it, my family is an interesting, interdependent, and close-knit group, who all love each other very much, and I enjoy being able to make a little more real to the people here, the people who are important to me back in Alaska.
School was fabulous and after I was introduced to all of my teachers, I settled right into getting to know my classmates and my school. I am proud to say that I now know all the names of everyone in my class, although on the first day, I thought it would take me forever. The second day of school, we went on a hike, which lasted the whole day. As much pain as I was in afterwards, it was so worth it to be able to go. I got another glimpse of the people that I now call my Kollegi, being able to get to know them better. I also got to enjoy the beauty of Switzerland and the alpine landscape. It was amazing and even a little bit comforting in its similarity to Alaska. For once since I got here, I felt like I was home. But after that nice little reassuring taste of home, I am ready to jump right back into the newness and the differences of living here.
Tschüss und bis bald,
Eliya Grace
