Rigi Weekend

Hi again,
        So these past two weeks have been so jam-packed, I have so much to tell you. Last week, for the most part, I only had school. That in and of itself was both enjoyable and intense. However I did have two events that I enjoyed immensely.
        On Wednesday evening I went to a candlelight dinner with my host club up on the Stanserhorn, which is the highest peak in the area. Early in the evening I got some incredible pictures of the surrounding countryside as we traveled up the gondola to the resturant where we ate. The gondola itself was very special because it was an open-air gondola with an observation deck. It is the first of its kind in the world.

         The evening was great. I listened to the history of the place in german (very interesting to try to understand). Then we headed up to the resturant for food. The meal itself had three courses and I got to put to use the table ettiquette my host sister taught me and correctly used all eight of the utensils that I had set before me. The first dish was the salad, which was very delicious. Then we had our main dish, shich was a type of pork smothered in gravy. My favorite dish was dessert, a type of pastry. It was all wonderful and the rotarians were, again, wonderful. My table companions had were excellent conversationalists and made sure to try to include me in the conversation, sometimes even speaking english when I had trouble.
        That weekend I had a big get-together with many of the other exchange students living in my district. The rotex had arranged a weekend of hiking and archery, as a way for us to experience part of swiss culture. To be honest, I have to say I enjoyed the archery the best because it reminded me of home a little bit, since my sister and I often practice archery in the summer in our yard. That practice helped me place second in the archery competition. 

 The hiking was amazing too because I got some beautiful pictures.

 I also made some new friends from all over the world.

 Earlier that day I got to go to the visitor center for the Victorinox swiss knife company. I saw some really cool knives there and got to watch a video of how the knives were made. That night I stayed up till almost three talking to another exchange student from texas. By the next day, I was exhausted and went to bed early that sunday. I had a great week and looked forward to my hiking week with my class that began the next day.
  
                                                                                                                                   Tschüss and bis bald,
                                                                                                                                                        Grace