Dear family and friends,
Throughout the years, many exchange students have come up with an assortment of little sayings meant to capture what the exchange year actually means to the exchangie. One of my favorites says that our exchange is not a year in our life but a life in a year. It is something that so many exchange students across the globe can relate to. Last weekend, rotex Switzerland arranged a winter weekend for all of the exchange students in east Switzerland. This gave me an opportunity to actually meet some of the new exchange students that had just arrived from far-flung places such as Australia, South Africa, or Argentina. To be able to interact with them was really interesting because it reminded me so much of my first few months and I actually found myself feeling just slightly protective of them, which is ridiculous because some of them are older than me and others speak better German than I do.
This interaction drove home for me how far I have come from my first few months both in language and in integration. In fact, a couple days ago, on two separate occasions, someone came up to me to ask for my directions and I was not only able to understand them but also tell them where to go. I love english but sometimes chafe at having to use my own language. When I write, often times I make silly mistakes such as writing my nouns with capital letters and certain sounds I write the german way instead of the way I would in english. Yesterday, I was talking to my friend and instead of saying I was hunger, I said that I had hunger. Just a bunch of little things that demonstrate how much I have changed.
The weekend itself was a blast. The first day we all met up in Luzern and from there travelled south to Engelberg, about an hour away. Before we dropped our stuff off at the youth hostel, we went to a near-by skating rink to go ice-skating. Even though I was happy to finally go skating, I was still really nervous because I hadn't been ice skating since I was thirteen or fourteen. As a result, when I first got on the ice, I had a difficult time maintaining my balance and I fell once. After twenty minutes or so though, I was skating just as easily as if I hadn't ever stopped skating. Now that is what I call muscle memory. I ended up really enjoying myself and was disappointed when we left.
After skating, we all headed to the hostel to settle in, choosing both rooms and beds. Once everyone was finished we all congregated upstairs to find out what was happening next. The option was given of either going into town to check out the sites or staying at the hostel and playing outside in the fresh snow. Naturally, I decided to stay. After changing into snow clothes, we went outside and attempted to build snowmen, but the snow was too light and not wet enough to roll. Instead, one of the rotex guys started a huge snowball fight, which was one of the best snowball fights I have ever participated in. While the snow was too light on top, underneath it was wet enough to pack into suitable projectiles. When making snowballs wasn't fun enough anymore, we switched to full-out snow-wrestling. I can't count how many times I was tackled and had snow shoved into my face (it is a favorite swiss tactic). Nonetheless, I gave just as good as I got and by the end of it we were all absolutely soaked. I found snow in places I didn't even know I could and that is saying a lot coming from an Alaskan girl with two older brothers. After going inside, I went downstairs to brush (literally) the chunks of snow out of my hair and by the time I was done it looked like I had just stepped out of the shower.
Once I was warm and relatively dry, I went upstairs to eat and hang out with the other exchange students. One of the rotex guys brought his speakers and both the latinos and the english speakers took turns playing their individual music. Around 9 o'clock, us english speakers had taken complete control of the music and proceeded to have a huge sing-along, just generally having a blast, while the latinos retreated downstairs. Thirty minutes later they came back and once more took possession of the speakers, after which we all had a party rotary style, with music, dancing, and even strobe lights. Around 11 o'clock a lot of people retired to their individual rooms to either talk or sleep. A group of us watched Django on one of the girls' laptop and when that was over we stayed up and talked until about three in the morning. What we talked about, I don't even remember anymore, what was special was the feeling of friendship and closeness that made that moment so great. Some more people went to bed around four while some of us watched Easy A, which is one of my favorite movies.We talked until to the sky lightened outside the window and we heard the rest of the house stir around us. At this point we all decided to head to our individual rooms to get ready for the day ahead of us.
We had a traditional swiss breakfast around 8 o'clock that consisted of bread, cheese, jam, and Nutella that left everyone very satisfied and content. Afterwards we all made sandwiches and then broke up into teams to tackle the cleaning of the house. Once everything was back in order and everyone had gathered their stuff together the rotex led us through town to the place where we would go sledding. I was initially reluctant to go sledding but once I was out on the sled, I had an absolute blast. The very last run, the four people I was sledding with all decide to do a race and I joined in just for fun without really expecting to win. However it was actually this attitude that helped me win, because while everyone else was busy trying to sabotage each other, I had smooth sledding the whole way down and as a result, reached the finish line a full minute ahead of the others. After about three hours of sledding, we went back to the hostel to pick up our stuff and head to the train station. I got off of the train way earlier than anyone else and hated having to say good-bye to all of my friends, both new and old. Nevertheless, I had a blast over the weekend and look forward to the next time I get to see everyone. Next week though, I have a completely different experience to look forward to. I will be staying with my third host family for a week while my current host parents are gone. I am sure that it will be just as amazing of an experience and can't wait!
Lots of love,
Grace
