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Rotary District 6110 Youth Exchange |
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Kate
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Nickname | Kate |
| Age | 16 | |
| Foreign Languages | Spanish, Latin, French | |
| Interests | Volleyball, Swimming, Ultimate Frisbee, Church, playing piano | |
| Host District | 1990 | |
| Departure | 8/08/02 | |
| Birthday | March 24 | |
Students: To add a message to your travelogue, email the entry to vicki; she will put all entries online.
Note: Most Recent Entries Appear At the Top
| Date | Travelogue Entry |
| Friday, April
18, 2003 5:40 PM Swiss Update Easter
|
Happy Easter!
I am on the two-week long vacation. Last week I took a bike tour
around the Lake of Lugano with my friend Charlotte, from school, and
her mom. We had a lot of fun and saw many interesting places. Lago
di Lugano is in the Italian part of Switzerland, down in the South.
In all, we were in Italy four times. The hot chocolate in Italy is
the best I´ve ever tasted anywhere in the world! One day we went to
a place cause Swiss Miniatur. It is full of models of all the big
sights in Switzerland and typical houses and buildings from all the
different regions. It was quite interesting, so interesting in fact
that I filmed about an hours worth of tape with my video camera...
We only had bad weather one day and it was so cold that it started
snowing! Overall it was a wonderful trip.
Last Wednesday I went with my host family to Europa Park, a big
theme park in Europe. There´s only one BIG roller coaster, but it
was really great (compare to the Mamba at Worlds of Fun). It is a
really neat amusement park because it is divided into sections from
most of the countries in Europe. There is a stage and rides in each
one and the shops and buildings all look typical of that country.
Today Livia, my host dad and I dyed Easter eggs. Here, most people
dye their eggs by cooking them in water with onion peels in it. They
either put little flowers and/or grass on the egg and wrap them old
pantyhose, or put rubber bands around them so they are left with
nice designs. They all end up the same reddish brown color. However,
you can buy the brightly colored ones in the store...I thought that
was kinda funny.
Well, I need to go to bed. Tomorrow I have to finish packing because I will be changing families soon. blah....packing isn´t much fun.
Happy Easter to all!
Kate
|
| Friday, March 07, 2003 3:27 PM |
I just got home from a great week of snowboarding with my class! It
was just the people from my class at school and we had so much fun!
The weather was great and we even got about 20 cm of new snow last
night. Now I´m pretty wiped out and sore though... However I did
learn how to do a nose turn and a 180! I can hardly believe I´ve
already been here for 7 months! It has gone by so fast!
|
| Thursday, February 13, 2003 3:20 PM |
Hello again, I remembered some things I forgot to say...
Two weeks ago we had a project week at school. For my class it was
called "Work Week" and we each had to go work at a company for a
week. It was supposed to give a view of the real work world. It was
also a good reminder to stay in school, they weren't jobs I'd want
to do my whole life, but for a week it was fun! The options were
Bern Mobil (the tram and bus company), AMAG (a car repair shop),
Coop and Migros (both everything stores, like Wal-Mart), Wander (a
company that makes and packs things--like hot chocolate mix), the
city greenhouse (where all the plants for the office buildings are
grown) and the Post Office. I chose the Post Office.
I got to work with six other classmates at the big, central post
office in the capital of Switzerland! The first day we got a tour
and information about the post office. About 85% of the workers
there are Swiss! That's incredibly high for a job that doesn't
require much edge-u-ma-cation. :) It's a huge building too. When we
were on our tour I got so lost. We would be a few stories up,
looking out over the Bernese skyline, then suddenly we'd be deep
underground. Then we were in the cafeteria they have there, and all
of a sudden we popped up right in the middle of the train
station! If you ever find yourself in the train station in Bern, now
you know that everything above you and below you is the post
office... We each got little name tags and electronic door passes
for the week. You had to pass it by a scanner before going through
most doors. Then the light would blink green and you could go
through. This gave us complete, free access to almost every room in
the entire post office empire! The Swiss are very trusting.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I worked in the sorting section. We had to
work from 7:30 to 4:00. Those letters were each sorted a million
times it seemed! We would bind them in these plastic straps and send
them down the conveyor belt, and 30 minutes later I would be cutting
those same straps off and putting them in a big crate. From the
crate they went to the sorting machine. Then they were sorted,
imagine that! When one cubby of sorted letters was full, I would
push a button and a little receipt would come out of a machine. Then
I'd stack them all nicely and send them down the line. At the end of
the line they were packed into those little plastic straps and
sent down (well actually up) another conveyor belt. Some letters had
to be hand sorted. That was a lot of fun and now I know the names of
all the tiny little towns arond Bern. We would sort them and when
one was full we got to scan a bar code with a laser, then take the
receipt, stack them nicely, and send them along. It was lots of fun
for me but having to do that everyday...that might get a little old.
Sometimes I would work with this lady that only spoke French. That
was interesting...I usually just smiled and said yes. ;) She was a
very friendly lady.
On Thursday I only had to work from 8:00-3:15. That was the
inbetween-stage, I don't know what they call it officially. I got to
ride a train up front where they drive it! I also got to wear an
orange vest that lets me walk across the train tracks, but
I never needed to do that. It also let me ride the employee-only
elevators there. I felt special! :) I worked with an very nice
Swiss-Italian. He said I could go to his wedding if I'm around (he's
almost engaged).
Friday meant being there at 6:30 so I spent the night at my old host
family's house so I would have to take a train into town so early. I
worked with a man and we did some more sorting. But this time it was
sorting by family. Then we loaded everything into big post sacks.
After a short coffee (hot chocolate for me) break and some cake that
someone had brought, we went out into town and delivered letters. I
helped this man with his post-route. I think it's a little easier
here because a lot of people live in apartments or multihousing
houses so the post boxes are all together. Sometimes I had to put
this magazing in every single box. One time I couldn't find the box
and went up to the door to look for it. Then the man who lived there
came and stood in the sun room and just looked at me. Then I
realized the box was back by the gate and I had walked right past
it! Oops! It was nice weather and the ground was covered with snow.
It was pretty cold though and we couldn't wear gloves because you
can't handle letters very well with gloves on. My feet got cold and
wet after a while too. I was done at 1:00 that day, but then I had
to be back at 1:45. Everyone who worked there from my class talked
with the three people who were in charge of us that week and one of
our teachers. We discussed what we liked and didn't like, what was
done well, what could be done better, etc.
One last quick thing. Back in mid-January we had another Rotex
Weekend for all of the exchange students. First we gave a
presentation in Bern at the Rotary District Conference. It was
called "Dancing Around the World." There was the Venezuelan
Flamenco, clogging from the Carolinas, a Thai friendship dance and a
group of crazy Americans and Canadians who did an Aerobic
dance/workout. It was hilarious (I didn't dance). Walter Wieser, the
head of the Swiss Rotary Youth Exchange, asked me to give a short
thank you speach. My friends from the French speaking part of
Switzerland are always complaining about how they never understand
anything at these Rotary things because it's all in German. So I
decided to try it in French. I wrote out my speech then asked my
French teacher to translate it for me. I decided to start with the
French, so I could end strong with German. I was so nervous, and
they could tell. But afterward my French-speaking friends said they
could understand it. When I got to the German part it was like
coming up for a breath of fresh air after being underwater for a
long time; I was so relieved. My friends said my confidence
increased 300% after the switch to German.
Then we headed out to Vaduz, Liechtenstein! We dd the exact same
program there except someone else gave the thank you speech (I gave
it when we were in West Schweiz and an exchange student from the
East half gave it when we were at the East Schweiz conference). Then
we spent the night at this big house in Liechtenstein. We played
lots of ping-pong, including around-the-world-ping-pong, which is
the best way to play. ;) We also had a kareoke machine... that was
interesting. I sang "Come What May"... then I stayed away from the
mic... I stayed up till about 5:15 playing ping pong. Well by that
time we were so out of it and slow that you could barely call it
playing...
In the morning, after breakfast, we were divided into two groups. We
went to the Ski Museum there. It was interesting, they had skis and
shoes from ancient times up until today. Seeing the development of
the ski was really neat. We were also given a short walking tour of
the town. We saw the castle where the royal family lives, but you're
only allowed to go there with an invitation. We went inside the
cathedral and saw the royal vineyards too. Liechtenstein is separate
from Switzerland but they use the Swiss Frank and Swiss postage
stamps too. I learned some very important things about that country.
They have a total of 60 policemen and one of their major industry
productions is false teeth! The produce a lot of other stuff too of
course.
Love from Liechtenstein!
Happy Valentines Day!
Kate
|
| Wednesday, February 12, 2003 10:29 AM |
Halo zämä!
I changed families back at the beginning of January. Now I live in a
little town about a 15 min. train ride from Bern. I also have to
walk about 15 min. to the train station every morning (and right now
it's cold). I ride a train to school everyday, exciting! Actually
it's not literally exciting anymore, now it's just normal. :)
I really like my new family. They have four kids, but one is in
Colorado this year. I have a little sister again! Her name is Livia
and she's 11. We like playing games together. I love having a little
sister, even though she doesn't even come close to replacing
Hilary... I have a 16 year old sister named Fiona too, but she is
only here on the weekends. During the week she lives in Laussane
where she helps a family (babysitting, cooking, cleaning etc.) and
goes to school and learns French. Jonas, 19, was an exchange student
in Mexico last year. Then there's Marco, the 18 year from Mexico. He
was an exchange student in Brazil last year. While he was gone Jonas
stayed at his house, and now he's here in Switzerland. I also have a
dog named Arco, he can do some simple tricks, and a cat called
Hemula.
Way back in January we had a joint service with the Ethiopian
congregation at my church. It was really interesting. The Ethiopian
pastor preached. It was very alive with a of loud AMEN at the end of
every other sentence. They read some verses and sang some songs in
Ambaric too. After the service they prepared a big, traditional
Ethiopian meal for us all. It was delicious. We had these
tortilla-like things that we piled meat and different sauces onto.
Then we rolled it up and ate it, somehow. It was messy and we didn't
use silverware.
Love,Last week we had "Sport Holidays." It is a week off school specifically designed so people can go skiing. I went to Grindelwald with my host family. It's a little, big-tourist town in the heart of Switzerland. It is right by the Jungfrau Mountain, the highest mountain in Europe. I went snowboarding all week! It was awesome! I don't think I'll ever ski again. ;) We had so much snow. Over three feet! Boarding in deep snow is like surfing (I think, though I wouldn't know from experience...). I had a lot of fun, even though I fell a lot. A few times I pretended to be a penguin...hehe. We made an igloo too! It was big enough to hold about 7 people (maybe more). Then we took icicles and put the flashlight behind them and it looked really neat. Sometimes we'd go to the disco and dance till the wee hours... it was fun, even though that's not really my thing. That's all I can think of for now. I hope you all have a happy Valentine's day. Everyone stay safe, with the world turning upside down Kate |
| Sunday, December 29, 2002
3:55 PM Swiss Update10!
|
Hallo von der Schweiz!
A long overdue update has finally arrived! The Christmas season
was wonderful and decorated! I got a video camera for Christmas
and have begun filming some of my adventures and fun
times so you all can not only see but hear as well, when
I get home! I went with my host family to their chalet in
Adelboden, a little town in the Alps. We we skiing for a few days!
On Dec. 24th we went to a little town near Langethal (lol, another
town, I guess that doesn't help you much) to my host uncle's
house. Their Christmas tree had real candles on it, like just
about every Christmas tree here. My host Grandmother read
limericks she had written to everyone (including me!) Here's mine:
"Die Kate kommt aus dem Lande fern
Sie freut sich an der schoenen Stadt Bern
Lernt Deutsch in der Schul
Faehrt Velo ganz cool
Hat Schokolade fressen gern"
"Kate comes from the far away land
She has fun in the beautiful city Bern
Learns German in school
Rides her bike real cool (lol)
Likes to gobble chocolate!" hehehe
For dinner we had "Fondue Chinois" In the fondue bowl in some soup
and you take bits of meat and stick it in. A few minutes later you
take it out and it's nicely cooked, then you dip in some homemade
sauce. It was delicious and we just ate and ate and ate. On the
25th we went back to Adelboden and celebrated again that evening.
We went to the Catholic Christmas mass (because the reformed
-Protestant- service was that morning and we had missed it) and it
was different from what I'm used to but very interesting. I got
homesick at the end of the service because we sang Silent Night "Stille
Nacht" and that's my favorite part of Christmas at home, when we
sing that in church and everyone has a candle. Then we went home
(back to the chalet I mean) and opened presents. I got a cashmere
sweater and scarf. They are so soft! I also got a beret
and a calendar and some other small things. Then we ate another
wonderful dinner. It was just the for of us and a friend of
Ursula's whom she invited to come with us so she wouldn't have to
spend Christmas alone.
On Thursday, Friday and Saturday I had snowboard lessons in the
morning! Now I can sufficiently go down a mountain on a snowboard
(mostly on my feet even)! I was in a group of four people but two
of them didn't come back for the last day. My teacher Roman was
really great! I learned quickly. I boarded in the morning and
skied in the afternoon on the first two days. After my class on
the last day Ludi came with me (he was on skis) and I got to
practice boarding some more. Then all day today I got to
snowboard! It was sooooo much fun, but jetzt bin ich total caput!
(I'm zonked) ;) I really am pretty sore though. I change host
families next Saturday, not looking forward to packing.... blahh.
All is well, in my mind Christmas is the half-way point.
Everything has gone by so fast already and I know it's just going
to go faster and faster! I think Christmas pulled out the last of
any homesickness that was left in me. It should all be downhill
from here... That doesn't mean I don't still miss you all, it's
just a different kind of miss... ;) I love you all!
Love,
Kate
|
| Tuesday, November 26, 2002 5:49 AM Swiss Update9! -P.S. note
|
I read an article in the newspaper today about the Zibelemärit. This wasn't just a little community festival. Thousands of people came from all over Switzerland and many neighboring lands, plus the usual foreign tourists. There were 655 market stands, many of which were sold out or almost sold out by the afternoon. There were 64136 kg (about 70 tons I think) of onions! That's 10 tons more than last year. Just thought that was interesting! |
| Monday, November 25, 2002
2:09 PM Swiss update 9
|
I had no school today because it's Zibelemärit! In High German
it's called the Zwiebeln Markt and in English that translates
to the "Onion Market." It is my new favorite holiday! I woke
up at 5:15 AM. My host dad and I went into the city at 5:45
and it was packed with people! The whole place was
packed with people the whole day, so many, in fact, that the
trams can't even go through the town. They just went back and
forth on both sides of the city and if you needed to get to
the other side you had to swim through the crowd on foot.
The weather was wonderful! It wasn't very cold and it was dry.
Around noon it got a little cooler and started drizzling, but
it was still great! Ludi (my host dad) says the best weather
is when it's the first snow, just a light, dry snow. Rain is
the worst because all of the confetti gets matted down on the
ground.
Ah, the confetti! I could have wandered back and forth
throwing confetti all day! You could get a bag for one frank
and I went through at least ten! Sometimes I felt
like a fairy sprinkling fairy dust on everyone! :) I tried to
always get the white confetti from a certain stand because it
floated through the air better and looked like snow! The whole
ground was covered with confetti, it reminded me of that fake,
theatre stage-snow, only this was very colorful! There were
also lots of people (mainly kids, but some adults too) with
little plastic hammers that squeak when you bop them. They'd
go around bopping people on the head, and I have absolutely no
idea where that tradition comes from. Sometimes you throw
confetti on someone and they chuck a lot in your face, or they
bop you on the head. It's so cute seeing the little kids
trying to reach way up high to bop people (I had to bend down
a little once or twice so they could get me). Some people bop
really hard and the squeak makes you feel deaf for a few
seconds with that ringing in your ears. One guy took this big
swing then just lightly bopped me. I threw just a little
confetti on this one guy and in less than a second I was being
bombarded. It was like a pack a wolves! They through loads of
confetti all over me and whomped me their little hammers. I
was forced to laugh and retreat saying, "Okay, okay, sorry!"
and my friend Nipi and I ran off.
It's good advice to keep your mouth closed too, because people
love throwing confetti in your mouth! I had a problem with
this because I couldn't stop smiling and laughing. I don't
smile with my mouth closed, so I was frequently spitting out
confetti. I also had difficulties with the slight breeze every
once in a while. I'd throw up a big handfull and it would all
come back and get me in the face. That's just good for more
laughs though! Nipi and I walked around for about two hours
just throwing confetti! Some of the old ladies were sour and
would scowl at the cofetti throwers, but that's just part of
the deal of coming to this festival, there's really no
avoiding it. I loved it when the old people (usually men, but
there were quite a few sweet old ladies too) would be walking
around with a hard-set face. Then I'd smile real big and let
confetti rain down on them and they would turn, some would
even stop, and smile or wink; and occasionally I got a thank
you! I also got a few compliments on how nice I looked
decorated in confetti! ;) It was a nice (early) morning full
of spreading happiness in the form or smiles and confetti and
getting paid with more smiles, more confetti and a milllion
hammer bops. I also had to be careful not to throw confetti on
people that had a drink.
Ludi bought me two "onion neclaces" -they're long strands of
colored plastic-wrap stuff with little candies wrapped up and
they look kind of like onions. He and I ate a piece of onion
cake and it was really good. I also had a hot chocolate! I
bought a pin for my blazer that says "Zibelemärit Bern." I
also bought a hacky sack so I can get better and take
you-know-who-you-are when I get back! Hahaha, I call my hack
"the Melon" because it's green with some white, vertical
stripes and it looks kinda like a melon.
Here's the story of Zibelemärit. A long time ago, Bern was
built of wood mainly, so it was subject to frequent fires. One
time they had a particularly bad one that burned a big part of
the city. Many of the farmers from Fribourg went to help them
put it out (and probably rebuild too). In thanks, the Bernese
set aside the last Monday of November for all the farmers to
set up their stands in Bern for free, so they could sell all
of their vegetables. Onions were they're main crop so that's
what they had the most of and that's where the name comes
from. They still let the farmers come sell their products (not
only veggies though) for free, without having to pay for
street space for their stands. I had never seen so many onions
in my life! There was everything from some simple sticks with
lots of onions tied on and onion wreaths to little figures and
dolls made out of onions, some of which were quite cute.
Onions onions everywhere!
Let's see, I went home after a while because I had promised to
walk Max, our dog. So I did that. During the afternoon I spent
a while sitting in Starbucks writing a letter and watching all
of the people. Then I went through the city again. I thought
it was crowded before but it was even more crowded
then because all of the schools were over by then. My school
was one of the few that got the day free!
This evening Ursula, Ludi and I went to a restaurant and I ate
my first fondue! It was very good, but very heavy. I filled up
very quickly, but it was so good! Now I'm going to bed! Nighty
night!
Love,
The happy, hammer-bopped, confettied-out, pixie-dust-throwing,
Kate!
:)
|
| Swiss Update8! Tuesday, November 19, 2002 3:18 PM
|
Here's a quick update since it's been a while:
Tuesday, November 19, 2002 3:18 PM
School is going great! Every Monday I would have 3 hours of lunch
but I spend the first hour in Choir and the second in "BG" (Bibel
Gruppe -Bible Group). So I just have one hour. I really
like the BG and I've made some good friends there. It also lets me
meet people other than the ones who are in my class. On Saturday
night I spent the night as my friend Patricia's house! That was my
first time to be invited over to a Swiss friend's house! We had
fun playing games, making popcorn, eating "Raclettes" for dinner
(melted cheese) and watching movies. On Thursday, Nov. 14, I went
with my friend Helen, who's in my "parallel class" (we have PE
together) to see Harry Potter! We had hamburgers for dinner then
went to the first showing in English (there had been one earlier
that was in German). The theatre was full and it was great! It's a
really funny movie and since I didn't have to read subtitles I
would laugh before almost everyone else...that was fun. ;) I took
a Math test today, if I actually got my answers right then I did
pretty well! It was the test I felt best about of the one's we've
taken in Math so far. I think I understand what we're doing but I
guess I'll find out for sure in a fw days when we get the test
back. I got a Physics test back last week... I did horribly (I got
all of the formulas all mixed up). The teacher was lineant though
and I think he just gave me some points for trying. I don't really
care about the grade though, I'm just trying to do as much as I
can. Today was Pray Day so the BG met this evening at my church.
We sang songs and prayed alone then prayed in small groups. Then
Toby, the brother of one of the guys, came. He graduated last year
and he's a real character. He had a big, furry lion costume and
the rest of the evening was completely full of laughs! That's all
for now, sorry this email is lacking in order, it's just a bunch
of different events thrown into one paragraph. I'm sure you don't
really mind though. ;)
Love,
Kate
|
| Tuesday, October 29, 2002 11:40 AM Swiss Update 7
|
Hallo!
I have finally found some time to let you all in on what´s been
going on this past week. Last Tuesday was my friend Kaitlyn (from
Alaska)´s birthday. We went to see "The Guru" for free, thanks to my
Götti (Rotex "godfather") Michael who got us free tickets. On
Thursday I went over to my second host families house and got to see
the house and get to know them. I will live there from January until
mid-April. They are a very nice family and I´m glad to know that
when I leave the wonderful family I´m in now I will still be in good
hands! They are a game-playing family, just like mine!! Yippee!
First they showed me around the house and we ate these delicious
apple pastries made with apples from the trees in their yard! We
played this game that was a race to see who could build railroads to
connect their 5 cities the fastest (It looked a lot like Settlers of
Catan). I lost. :) My next host mom works part time at a "game
library," a place where people can rent board games and such for a
month. Then we watched "Sabrina, the teenage witch" in German.
Dinner was lots of pasta and salad; yummy! Later we watched the news
for a little bit for the latest on the sniper, then we played
another game. It was kind of like hot potato. You have to say a word
within the category then pass the bomb and hope it doesn´t "explode"
when you have it. I won this game, but I think that´s just because I
was so slow that by the time I passed it the time was almost up. ;)
It was helpful with German vocabulary though, and quick thinking.
They live in Jegensdorf, a little town north of Bern. So when I live
there I´m going to have to get up super-early to get to school on
time. : / That´s just another part of the deal though, so I´m sure
I´ll be fine.
Friday evening I went to Youth group, with my English church. We had
really hot chili (Coretta, the hostess, accidently put in a little
too much chili powder) but I found it delicious! Then we watched a
video/sermon on the second chapter in the letter to the Phillipians
and has a discussion with ice cream afterwards. Following youth
group I went out to Muri to go to Kaitlyn´s birthday party. I met
three AFS exchange students, one from Iceland, one from Brazil and
one from Norway. It was fun but it got a little boring after a
while. They had music playing but no one was dancing. They were all
sitting around and talking. There were snacks too. A lot of people
drank and smoked cigarrettes or pot. I had a Fanta. :) I got home
about 1:00 and had to pack for the Rotex weekend.
I woke up early on Saturday morning to finish packing and be at the
train station by 9:15. I was the last of the people in the Bern/Fribourg
area to get there and when I did they all asked me where we were
supposed to be going. So I went and asked, it was quite complicated
actually. Our destination was Gstaad, but we had to change trains in
Spiez, Thun and some other little town. The closer we got the more
we met up more Rotary exchange students. We finally got to Gstaad
and I had lugged my huge backpack (I called it the monster) off the
train when I realized I had left my lunch on the train (I
seem to have a problem with leaving things on trains...). So I ran
back on the train and grabbed my lunch and went to get out of the
train but I could get the door open in time and it pulled out of the
station. So I was stuck and had to call a friend to tell them I´d be
back in a little while. I got off at the next stop, Saanen. A very
nice lady helped me figure out when the next train would come. After
that I still had 15 minutes so I decided to take advantage of my
situation and look around the town some. I was quite surprised to
find an international school there, in such a little town! I walked
past lots of little shops, most of which were closed because it was
lunch time. Then I went into a bakery and bought a little citron
(lemon) tart. They were having a sale on Berliners (my favorite) so
I just had to get one. Well actually I had to get
3, because the sale was 2 for the price of 3. These were good
Berliners too, sometimes the cheaper ones don´t have much of a
filling. Then I went back to the train station and ran into the
Rotex president on the train so I sat and talked with him till we
got there. Everyone clapped when I got off... and said things like,
"Glad you made it Kate!" :)
We stayed in a house with lots of rooms and lots of beds that people
can rent. We had a three hour German lesson, divided into groups.
Then we ate dinner of Alpiner Macroni -noodles with some potatos and
onions and applesauce too if you wanted it. It was delicious! Then
we had a talent show. I sang a satirical patriotic Canadian song
with all the Canadians (shh don´t tell). ;) One girl did aerobics
with everyone, one girl knitted... and we all got to do/learn some
Latino dancing! The rest of the evening we were free to do whatever.
We danced, I played some Hearts, ate cookies, played Muscial Chairs
at 2:00 AM, played a little frisbee in a cow pasture (my shoes
weren´t very clean after that). Eventually we went to sleep and we
gained an hour!
On Sunday we had breakfast and cleaned up then went back to Gstaad
(the house we were at was actually in Gsteid, a little town right
outside of Gstaad). The program was to go swimming in the indoor
pool there. At first only a few people wanted to go. Then they
talked just about everyone into going. I was originally going to go
swimming since that was what they planned and suddenly no one wanted
to. But when everyone went and I saw that there were only three
people whoe weren´t going I decided to stay with them and explore
Gstaad a little. Roxanna, Kaleigh, Steph, Lotte, Michael and Lotte´s
Götti and I went to a little bakery. I just had to get more
Berliners (three of course), you know how that goes. I hadn´t had
one in about a month and now I´ve had about 3-4 in one weekend!!!
Then Steph and I went to watch CURLING!!! Real live curling!!! It
was so fun! I personally find curling to be one of the funniest
sports to watch. After that the weekend was over and some of us went
out for a drink and snack
|
| Thursday, October 17, 2002
8:38 AM Swiss Update6!
|
Hello everyone! I got back safely from France late last Saturday night. It was beautiful (execpt for the last two days when it rained)!! We stayed in a house that a friend of my host family rents to people. It had a freezing cold pool so we could swim whenever we wanted to but it was a little too cold, so we didn't that often. The Mediterranean Sea was about a 10 minute walk from the house. We also spent long hours on several different beaches in the area. I have seen so much now! Before we got to Les Issambres (where we stayed the 2 weeks) we spent the night in Avignon. I got to see the Pont du St. Brenets, more commonly le Pont d'Avignon (you know the song...sur le pont d'avignon...) and the Palais du Papes. That was the 2nd Pope's palace...at one point in time there were actually TWO Popes at the same time... We also stopped in Orange, France and went to an ancient Roman theater that looks similar to the Colosseum. We also went to the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct that is also in wonderful condition. The bread in Switzerland is great (much better than American bread) but the French bread is stupendous! I LOVE bread! In France there are pastry shops all over the place so I've tried a lot of different sweets now. I especially like this little lemon tarts and the "Tarte Tropezaine" -a specialty of St. Tropez, and the "croque monsieur -a sandwhich with ham and cheese usually and cheese melted on top of the bread too. We also had lots of fish! On the way home we stopped in Italy and I had REAL Italian pasta! I got so excited that it was really Italian. :) It was delicious! Some days we would just stay at the house and have a "lazy day" or go to the beach. Sometimes we would go on a side trip to nearby towns (ein Ausflug). We took a boat ride that went past the three big caps south of San Raphael. So we got to really see the coast. We also went to Roquebrunne.
There wasn't much happening there but we saw a sign that said
"Chocolate Museum" so we decided to check it out. The man that owned
this little chocolate shop has been collecting tin boxes from all over
the world, but mainly from Europe. He is going to start a museum soon
but it's not ready yet. He was very nice though and let us go into a
back room where they were covering nougats in chocolate! There was
milk chocolate and orange chocolate (the orange was really good). THEN
he let us dip our fingers in the big bowl and taste it!!!! That's
something you could never do in the US or Switzerland for cleanliness
purposes, but it was SOOOO yummy! :) |
| Wednesday,
September 25, 2002 10:17 AM Swiss Update5!
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Sep. 25, 2002 It's starting to get cold here. Starting? It IS cold here, and it's only Fall.... it's only SEPTEMBER!!! I knew I was going to freeze here! Actually I like the cold weather, I'm just not sure if I'll still be liking it a few months from now. There's already several inches of snow in the Bernese Oberland (the mountains around Bern), but Bern just has rain, rain, rain. I've pulled out the sweaters and coats. Hmmm I need to get some gloves. Vacation is so nice, no school! I get to sleep in! Yesterday I went to Fribourg, the biggest town between Bern and Geneva, and surprised some friends there. I was talking to my friend Stephanie and she said that she, Kaleigh, and Jeff (all Canadian exchange students) always eat at the same place every day. So I decided I'd drop by and say hey! I spent the entire afternoon and evening there. We rode random trams around town for a while. It's so nice having a free transportation pass (called a GA -General Abonament I think). Then we went up to the top of the tower of the big cathedral, the Münster (the big cathedral in each of these towns seem to be called "the Münster") there. It was really neat, unfortunately it was raining though so we couldn't see all that far. It rained all day. We ate dinner at a pizzeria then went and saw "About a Boy" in English with French and German subtitles. I was such a mess yesterday with the language. Fribourg is mostly French speaking, and it was incredibly difficult for me to switch from German to French. That's a good sign though, cause I'm starting to think in German, not about everything, but my German has improved a lot! Now Swiss German is another story. Est is sehr schwierig! I know the greetings and the numbers! I swear Switzerland has twice as many ways to greet people as all the other countries in the world added together! Sometimes I wonder if I could walk up to someone and just make a bunch of hawking throaty sounds and stick some vowels in and they would understand something. Today I went to my first Rotary Club meeting. I had met most of them when we toured the Bundeshaus in my first week here, but this was a real meeting. We had some kind of meat and french fries, pasta salad, and some yummy jello-like dessert. Lol, so really I'm not sure what we had. ;) I stood up and made a short presentation. I just said the basics (in German); who I am, from where, living where, my school, and that I was so happy to be here and grateful that they're hosting me. Then I presented my Rotary club's banner and my district's banner. They gave me their club banner in return! After my short little talk, another man stood up and said something for about 3 minutes and that was the whole program. I was quite surprised! The rest of the time everyone just talked amongst themselves at their tables. I talked with a man who's the director of something like the Business School at the University of Bern. Rotary is quite different from in the U.S. It made me miss my sponsoring club (Southside Tulsa, yay!) :) Even though I only went to two meetings they were always great and had such a fun atmosphere! I'm sure this club is a lot of fun for old men who like wine and cigars, but they weren't as lively and jovial as the Tulsans! I have volleyball this evening, and tomorrow too. Tomorrow I have to pack. Then early Friday morning I'm going with my host family to Southern France!!!! YAY!!! I'm so excited! I'll be gone for 2 weeks, so you won't be hearing from me. I'll be in the warm, Mediterranean sun, on the beach, in the French Riviera, relaxing! *sigh* Don't worry I'll take lots of pictures! Auf Wiedersehen! Kate |
| Sunday,
September 22, 2002 8:07 AM Swiss Update 4!
|
Sep. 21, 2002 I finally got to sleep in today! Oh it was wonderful! Then my friend Stephanie, from Canada, came over. We walked around town and rode a tram to its terminus and back again. Then we had dinner of potatoes and cheese and some ham and salad. Then She and Sibylle and some of Sibylle's friends and I went to a hockey game. It was SC-Bern v. Kloten Flyers a team from the canton Zurich. Bern's colors are yellow, black and red. It was really interesting to watch the crowd (more interesting than the game actually). ;) The stadium was twice as tall on one side, and that was where the general seating was. Most of the fan were wearing jerseys, and they ALL looked different! People also had funny hats and scarves and jackets full of patches and pins. We went into the gift shop and they were selling EVERYTHING with the Bern team's logo. There were shirts, hats, shot glasses, beer trays, pocket knives, key chains, pens, pins, teddy bears...etc... The crowd also had all these yells and chants! I swear the other team's fans yelled "Let's go Kloten, let's go!" once. I also kept hearing the Bernese yelling Brazilian Ole ole ole ...? There was also this one thing they would do; a rhythm of claps then something very similar to the "heil Hitler" sign. I didn't understand what was going on in the game at all. I'd watched a hockey match or two before and understood vaguely what was going on but this was crazy! Then she and I went to Pizza Hut and grabbed an evening snack. I've spent the last 15 hours battling lice that I picked up from somewhere, perhaps the Rotary Weekend last weekend. It's been quite unpleasant but my host mom is very helpful and I'm so thankful that she's here for me! Now we're going to Burgdorf to see a little castle there and Urlsula's brother, my host uncle. Auf wiedersehen! Love, Kate |
| Monday,
September 16, 2002 7:11 AM
|
Hello everyone! Sorry it's been so long! I'm back in my regular school now, Kirchenfeld Gymnasium. It's a lot of fun, my class is really nice. This is our last week before Fall break. We have three weeks off! yay! School is hard for me to understand. I thought I had learned a lot at my special language school, and I did but it was more conversational German. So I'm still pretty lost when it comes to German in specific subjects...like Chemistry. :) It's getting better though. I think I may be starting to think a little in German! My family called last night and I had some problems switching to English, and even more switching to Spanish to talk to Ilonka! Two Saturdays ago I went with some other exchange students to Basel for the day. In the morning I left my purse on the train and lost and found is closed on the weekends! I filed a report that told all the stations in Switzerland that it was missing. Luckily I got it back last Sat. morning! EVERYTHING was still inside, so I'm really lucky! I went for a week without my bank card, cellphone, wallet, GA (free transportation pass), sunglasses, chapstick, pictures, money, keys, etc... They gave me another house key to use till I got mine back, and last Thursday I left it on my bed and locked myself out of the house... No one was home so I just wandered around the neighborhood, went to a store and bought a snack, then went out to watch the end of my volleyball practice (that I couldn't go to because I couldn't get any of my stuff out of my house). So I'm hoping I can make all my mistakes in the first few months so I'll be home-free the rest of my time here! ;) Last weekend was the first Rotex weekend. The Rotexes (former exchange students) here have made themselves into a little organization that organizes events for all the inbound, outbound and rotexes. We had a welcome meeting in Biel with just the inbounds and our hostparents and/or counselors. Walter Wieser, the Swiss Exchange Coordinator gave the presentation. Then the "oldies" (exchange students from Australia/ New Zealand) and the Rotexes welcomed the "newies" exchange students like me who got here in August. Then we rode a train to Travers and stayed at a big scout cabin or something. We had dinner and lots of dessert and exchanged pins and cards. The whole evening and night we hung out and did whatever. It was lots of fun but we were all super tired the next day because we didn't get much sleep... :) I have go to "sports" now, my lunch break is almost over! Love, Kate |
| 9/1/02 | Hello everyone! Sorry it's been a while. So much has happened that I'm going to have to write it in increments. It's a good thing I've been writing in my journal/diary every day so I can go back and see exactly what I did each day. 8-19-02 This was the first day of my German Crass Course. I thought it was going to be like a real school but it's really just a thing for me and the 8 other exchange students near here and it's in the teacher's house. There are two girls from Mexico, Roxana and Mireya; a guy from Brazil, Olicio "Junior"; four people from Canada, Kaleigh, Stephanie, Jeff and Viginie "Nipi"; and a girl from northern Wisconsin, Brenna. They are all lots of fun, we always laugh a lot! I'm the only one who actually lives in the city Bern. Nipi lives in a suburb of Bern and the others live in little towns all over the canton. We all ride the train to Bolligen, a little town near Bern. It's convenient for me since I'm close, it's only a 15 minute ride, after a 5 minute tram ride and a 2-block walk. Some of the others have to get up really early and have about a long train ride before they even get to Bern. The class starts at 8:30 and we have two 30 minute breaks. It ends
at |
| Sunday,
August 25, 2002 1:21 PM
Click on photo for enlargement
|
I'm still having a wonderful time, with only minor and
very short feelings of homesickness. I have been at my German crash
course for a week and it's a lot of fun. I've also been getting to
know the land around Bern too! Here is a picture of me standing outside the Bundeshaus (compare to the Capitol builiding) and sitting in the President's chair. -Kate |
| Sunday, August 18, 2002 3:29 PM | Hello everyone! *Note:Sorry if the format is weird...* It has been one LONG week! I started school last Monday. My school is about a 5 minute walk away (2 minutes on bike unless I'm running late then it's about 45 seconds...) :) I love school....of course I can't understand anything though. :) I don't know if the work is harder or anything yet, we didn't really do that much work the first week. Almost all of the teachers are very nice and patient (especially with me and the language gap).
Music is great! The teacher is very friendly and happy and that
makes Math is the only other class I understand. I couldn't exactly tell
you what we're doing in there, all I know is that I can do what they
do as soon as Ifigure out what exactly that is, what I mean is, they
aren't very far ahead of me, if at all. We have a completely different schedule every day. School starts at So that's basically what my week looks like. At lunch I either go home to at, eat in the Mensa (school cafeteria), or go into town (downtown) and eat with friends there (usually they eat at McDonald's but I like to get something from the bakery). I ride my bike just about everywhere unless I ride the tram. I love public transportation! I wish we had a better system in the U.S. On Friday my class got to miss all of our afternoon classes to go on a class picnic on the Gurten, the city's little local mountain. It was a lot of fun, we made a fire and ate lunch. Then I spent the whole afternoon playing frisbee (just catch, not ultimate). THAT was great! The weather has been wonderful the past week! It's very warm, in
the 80's and low 90's and it just feels wonderful! I hope it holds out
for when Yesterday I went to the host grandparents' house with Ludi and Ursula (Sibylle stayed in town). They live in Murten, a town about 20 minutes away in the "Lake Region." There are three big lakes and this town is in between the three of them. It was so beautiful! They're having this thing called the "Expo" in Switzerland for the next few weeks, I'm still not exactly sure what it is but it's in that region. There were vineyards all over the hills there too. I took a quick swim in my grandparents pool and then we had a delicious apple pie! I also ate a fresh apple right off the tree and a fig too Today Ludi, Ursula and I went to Interlaken ("between lakes"),
another little town near here, about 30 minutes away. This one was to
the Southeast (Murten was to the West) and was in between two lakes.
The first lake looked freezing cold and it had a lot of glacier melt
in it. There was a regatta on the second one so there were boats
EVERYWHERE! Ludi went to play golf and Ursula and I walked around town
and looked in all the shops. I got a charm for my charm bracelet and
we bought lots of chocolate...yummm :) Then we sat down and I had
strawberry "sniffe"...I think. Whatever it was it was delicious! We
sat out on the patio and could see the "Berner Cup" equestrian event
that was going on across the street. The Alps were all around us and
they are SO beautiful! The sky was full of hang gliders too! I really
want to do that...I wonder if I'm allowed to. On the way home we stopped on the far side of the second lake to
visit Ludi's brother, so they're my host aunt and uncle and cousin. It
was a lot of fun! He showed me a canada style chair he had made
himself out of wood when it was still green and alive. We had cheese,
tomatoes and these yummy meat slices. We also talked alot! This weekend was the Thurnplatz Fest, a small festival that happens once a year here in Bern and is held in a little square a few blocks away from here. I went both nights with Sibylle. The first night We met some ofher friends in front of our house and they wanted to see something in her attic so this guy Siril (or Syril or Ciril or something...) :) and I rode our bikes over there and sat and talked while we waited for them. That night they had a big screen set up and watched the movie "Hair" as soon as it got dark. There was a tent set up with food, basically you just hung out and talked though. We went into the woods behind the festival for a while. Her friends are nice and they're very nice to me but sometimes it gets a little boring since I can't really understand what they're talking about The second night (last night) I met up with a girl Sibylle had
introduced to
This morning I went to church alone, to St. Ursula's. It is an
English speaking Anglican church. It was really neat and the people
were very friendly. I met a girl named Jessica who's a year younger
than me. She showed me around and was very nice. I also got to check
out a book from the That's all I can think of for now. :) I still love you all! Good luck to all my college-going friends, God bless! |
| Sent:
Saturday, August 10, 2002 23:09 Subject: Here in Switzerland! |
Hey everyone!!! I'm here...in Bern, Switzerland! The flight was good but very long, I think about now hours from Dallas. My family is great! My host parents are Ludi and Ursula and I have a host siter, Sibylle who turned 15 last month. I also have a host brother, Dominique, who's 16 but he's in Houston all year. And of course you can't forget Max, the dog!
Today, after waking up at 2:00 PM (jet lag--they say it'll take about
week to get over) I ate breakfast of cereal and bread. It drizzled and
rained all day. Sibylle and I took Max for a long walk in der Wald
(the forest) near here. We went down and saw the Aare, the river that
runs through Bern. This evening I sat down with Ursula and Ludi and we went over all the forms and question thingies we were supposed to about upcoming events and getting all the rules etc Then Sibylle and a friend came back by the house (they had been at
her boyfriend's hosue for a while). Then three of us went over to
their friend Benedict's house with a bunch of other friends. I played
a card game called Ligretto (a lot like Pounce, or Nerts only a little
different). We also just hung out eating chocolate (yummm) and
listening to music really loud you could hear it from the street. I
met several people who will be at my So that's what's happening here in Bern! I'm hoping to be able to
send out personal emails soon but for now it's a lot mroe convenient
to send out a general one to everyone. |
| 8/8/02 | Kate is officially en route to Switzerland. She just called from Dallas and said, "Mom, I've had lunch, found my gate and now I'm just sitting here beaming because this is all so great!" |
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Standing outside the Bundeshaus |
Sitting in the President's chair |
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Host Father's Birthday Dinner |
 Kate in front of the Matterhorn with Kaleigh and Nipi |
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CHOCOLATE!!!!! |
Kate at a plaza in Interlaken |
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Kate on skis at Adelboden before learning the thrills of snowboarding |
 Kate in Zermatt with Jeff (the Canadian) |
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Kate & Bettina |
Kate's host-grandmother has just read the Christmas Limerick |
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