Erin in Switzerland

Date/ Entry Title	Entry

4/12/2005 9:38 AM	Well Everyone i changed my familes for the last time this year......my new address is: As far as my life in general goes, I am doing very very well. I think I pretty much got this German thing down, I have tons of swiss friends, and I couldnt be any happier with my new host family(the one that took me to South Africa) and their AMAZING hause on the lake. As much as I dont like school, I cant really ever say again in my life that I am not a blessed person. This time has gone by sooooooo fast. I leave in less than 4 months its crazy and I still have sooo much to do! But I also I have sooo much to appricate also. I wish everyone the best, and i hope everyone is ready to hear me babble untill i lose my voice when I get home. Love ya all!!! -Eruhn-
2/6/2005 10:35 AM	Hello everyone, I wanted to let everyone know that I am changing families today.
1/20/2005	Well hello all! I hope everyone had a great end to 2004 and so far I also hope 2005 has been new and fresh. Well since we all know Erin is a big slacker/has no time, it has been while since I last updated. These past couple of months have been filled with not only a lot of social events but also a lot of learning experiences. My German is coming along quite nicely. I love it when people compliment me on how much I have learned, because it makes it all worthwhile. Now I notice my self thinking to my self in German or even forgetting some English words and only remembering the German ones instead. I love how independent I can be now by going wherever and being able to communicate in German and even sometimes Swiss German, which in itself is a whole, another language. As much as I do love Switzerland the language has to be the hardest thing to adapt to. I notice my progress sitting here in school the most. Now when I sit in class I can actually really understand what is going on. When I get my tests back I have grades that are actually pretty darn good. I really like that fact that all my teachers thrilled that I try so hard and they can slowly see my progress. I also like my classes a lot. In Switzerland you stay with the same people all day, so you really get to know everyone pretty well. I like how with my classmates we have inside jokes with each other and that they take the time to translate things for me from Swiss German to whole German. I am really pleased to be associated with such great people! Along with school, I also play volleyball and Ice skate. My volleyball team is so good, I feel really privileged to be apart of such an awesome group. Ice-skating is also really coming along. It’s really rewarding to be able to land some of the jumps and do some of the spins (if not more) that I used to be able to do. I hope that here soon I will even take part in some compititions. As far as my social life goes I will have to write about that monthly because so much has happened in the past 3 months. I think the last time I wrote was the end of October if I recall correctly. So I guess I will begin with November: Let’s see in November there were the United States elections in which Bush won. I just want to say one thing about this topic and that is, it is very hard to live in another country and try and defend the USA when everyone else hates your president. So I found it a little amusing when Mr. Bush won again because it was just like the USA saying "Hey we got this! Its our country why don’t you worry about you own country for a while“? Okay I’m good now. Also in the month of November my Swiss friends invited me to a SKA concert, I had a great time it was so much fun and surprisingly good music too. Now I know you are probably wondering what SKA is right? SKA is the original Reggae; it is composed of many types of instruments and involve s Reggae type dancing, it pretty much is just another name for Reggae. In November I discovered the "Nacht Taxi" or "Night Taxi" which is awesome because now I can take the night train and come home safely in the comfort of a BMW for only 2francs or aprrox. 1.50 dollars so I don’t have to disturb my host mother to come pick me up from the train station at 1 in the morning. The second to last week in November I went to the "Zwiebelmarkt" or "Onion Market". Natalie and I left the day before and stayed with my host mom’s mom in a little suburb of Bern. Then the next day we got up at 4am! We got to Bern at about 5.00am so we could see what the tradition is really like before it started to get crazy around 11ish. Then at about 9am Lea (a very good friend of mine from Idaho with AFS) and Leif (Leas friend also from AFS) met up with us and then the fun had begun. It is tradition there to buy huge bags of confetti and boppers and just go around throwing confetti on p eople and bopping them on the head. I couldn’t believe when we left around 2pm how much confetti was all over the place. Now let me tell you how clean Switzerland is, the cleaning crews worked all night after "Zwiebelmarkt" so the next morning every little speck of confetti was gone, that’s a lot of confetti to clean! Last but not least I got the opportunity to still celebrate "Turkey Day" in Switzerland. It was actually really fun. What happened was my host mom Erika knows this Lady named Erika Brook that is also in the dental business. She originally comes from England. So every year she and her other English speaking friends all get together and celebrate Thanksgiving Day. So she heard that I was living with the Dählers and she invited me to celebrate with her. That whole night was so awesome because most of the people are dental hygienists that just moved here, or work mainly with English patients. Most of the people didn’t even speak German so the whole night we spoke English. It was really cool to hear all these people’s stories on why they choose Switzerland, and the culture shocks that they experienced. A lot of them were debating whether or not to ever go home again because they loved it so much here. It was exactly the kind of stuff I needed to hear during this part of my exchange. Then came the Turkey...it was specially ordered from the USA because they don’t sell turkeys in the grocery store here! All in all my Thanksgiving was most definitely different than usual, but it was also great! I have no complaints…. On to December: I started my month off with an amazing trip to Matterhorn with the Rotex and all the other exchange students in Switzerland. The first night was kind-of like a going away party for all the people from the southern hemisphere that have to leave in January. They all gave speeches in German about their experiences here and then we all ate Rocklett. Rocklett is cooked baby potatoes with melted cheese over the top; it is served with pickles, onions and sometimes olives. So after we were all stuffed to the limit, we went back to our AMAZING hotels (gotta love Rotary). In my hotel room were Carolyn (Canada) and Nat (Canada) both really good friends of mine. The next day we went up by the Matterhorn and went snowbo arding! It was really tiring after awhile but it was soooo beautiful! I took so many pictures. Then we all pretty much slept on the long train ride home. Then the rest of the month of December until Christmas I spent way too much money. On Christmas presents and stuff, even more money sending most of them home. Now for Christmas; I went and spent Christmas Eve (which they open presents on the eve and not the day) with my real family in Shaffhausen. Then on the 25th the whole Dähler family got together and we all ate and after the kids went down stairs and watched Lord of the Rings 3 (ha-ha). On the 27th I moved in with my new host family; the Ammiseggers only for a week to get to know them. They are sooo nice and I am really looking forward to living with them, even though I will miss the Dählers very much. They had to see me at my worst and they accepted me for who I am and I am grateful for that. Oka y, so while I was at the Ammiseggers I got to meet my host mom Irene, my two twin 12-year-old brothers, and my host sister Nina she is 16 but she is only there on the weekends. One day Irene took Nina and I to Zurich to this really cool museum exhibit called “Bling Bling”. It was really cool because the exhibit was about the designing and the history of different kinds of textiles which is what Mrs. Ammisegger does. Later on that week, on the 31st, she took me, the boys and Nina snowboarding in the alps pretty close to our house. It was really cool cause usually I snowboard but that day I tried skiing for the first time and it was actually harder than I thought it was going to be. It was really nice cause Mrs. Ammisegger stayed with me for awhile and taught me how to ski th e right way. When we got home Nina and I got ready together to go out for New Years and while we got ready we talked about my exchange and her exchange last year to Colorado. It was really cool to know that I have someone that has already done what I am doing and that she is really awesome. So, For New Years I ended up having to make a decision between going to a really awesome club in Zurich with a whole bunch of exchange students or go chill with Swiss people not really knowing what we were going to do. I decided to go with the Swiss people; I am in Switzerland (said Erin to her self). So I met up with some of the boys from my drum class in Frauenfeld and then they let me know that every party we were going to go to fell through, so there I am wishing I would have chosen the club. But then the rest of my drum class came and 2 other girls and we decided to go to bigger town not far away called Winterthur. There we had a good time just chilling in a bar, and at midnight we all went outside and opened a bottle a champagne and not only did I kiss one boy I kissed 6 (on the cheek of course, he). Then Tobias, a good guy friend of mine and I went to another town called Weinfelden to a party that was so-so-la-la as the Swiss say and then I went home shortly after. One day after New Years was when I enjoyed my self the most. My Good Swiss girlfriend Selina invited me to this club “Halli Galli” I had a great time and it defiantly finished off my New Years weekend with a bang. So that’s really all for now, This Saturday I get to use my newly achieved Bird watching skills by going on an excursion with my Biology class to Bodensee. Then on Sunday I got invited to go snowboarding in canton Graubunden (south Switzerland) with a family from my Rotary club, so this should be a exciting full weekend. Until next time! I hope to hear from you all soon! liebi grüäss -Erin-
Hop Schweez!!! Sunday, October 31, 2004 9:45 AM	Grutzi, Wow soo much has happened since the last time I have updated I don't even know where to begin...... okay well i will start where I left off last time, So last time i wrote I was about to go on the Herbst Ferien (Fall holiday) Oh goodness was it great. I had 4 weeks including Project week which happened first. During project week I went to the Canton of Graubünden, which is next to Italy. I went with about 16 other various people from my school and 2 teachers. It was soo much fun, It was alot of hiking everyday through the mountains (about 6 hours) and knowing me and my lazy American ways it was difficult, but at the same time soo pretty, fun , and interesting. I learned about all the different trees and animals in the region and learned soo much German because nobody really spoke good English, and the teachers refused to speak English with me unless if I was really lost. haha which was often. Okay then the next week I traveled to go visit all my great aunts and Uncles; Gertrude and Walter who lives in Schaffhausen( by the German border but still in Switzerland), and Irmgard and Hans who lives in Eurfurt, Germany, and also her really awesome son Jurgen who lives in Frankfurt, Germany.This week was probably the perfect timing for me, The reason why,is that in Switzerland they speak Swiss German which is sooo different than (Hoch Deutsch) whole German, and when they do speak whole German it sounds different then if you were to hear a German from Germany talk. So Anyways it was good for me to go see my Aunt in Germany because I got to learn alot of Hoch Deutsch and when I came back to Switzerland my family really noticed a difference in my confidence of speaking. So besides doing some hard-core German learning in Germany, I of course got spoiled by my Aunt s and had alot of fun checking out Jurgens Smart Car (which is the smallest car ever and fits practically everywhere). So my second week of vacation was a little family down time and lots of fun. Okay, so my 3rd week of vacation included me going to Paris!!! So umm of course I had tons of fun!!! I think I saw just about every Historical Site that a tourist can see in 5 days, and not to mention the fact that our hotel was right in the middle of the city right next to Palais Du Luxemburg. I got to bond with my host-family a little bit and have tons of fun with my crazy host cousin Sarah. A funny story in Paris, on the last night we were in Paris Sarah and I bought a Swiss flag and an American flag, and we ran through the city with the Swiss flag ONLY(I wasn't to sure how good the french American relations were at the time...haha) and were yelling `Hop Schweez` which means like `Go Switzerland` and it was soo funny what the people would look like or say to us...I guess you had to be there.... And then earlier that night we were walking by the the main river in Paris named `Seine`, Sarah and I thought it would be fu nny if one of us went up to someone and asked where the river was even though we were walking right next to it. So we ended up deciding that Sarah should do it since she had the most French speaking knowledge, although limited. So she went and asked this young couple and they were like, ummmm and he pointed to the river and walked off, funniest thing ever, and that was pretty much my Paris trip Seeing great historical sites, Bonding with the host family, and goofing off with Sarah. The last week of vacation was just kinda like a catch up/sleeping week. Oh I did do one cool thing. I went to Bern very briefly with Erika, Jürg, and Simi to stay with Erika's parents so that we could go shopping for things for Simi`s apartment in Luzern, and guess where we went shopping for furniture.....IKEA!!! I was sooo exited and it was everything i hoped it to be. Then the next day we went to Luzern and helped to move Simi into her apartment for college. She has the best view ever over the whole city and the Mountains on the other side...I am definitely going to come visit often. So now I am back into the swing of things as far as school goes, I started (trying) to take tests, and I am meeting new Swiss people everyday. One cool thing with school is that I joined an like African Drum class, in which I am the only girl, hehehe so it should be fun. It was in exchange for a choir class in which I would have to like a whole song in front of the teacher by my self, so I most definitely got out of that situation. Lastweek was a Rotex weekend in Bern. Rotex are people who have already been on an exchange and they put together a program in which they organize things for the exchange students in the country at the time to do, so that you can meet everyone that just so happens to being going through the exact same thing as you. So last weekend was Bern, and it was alot of fun I always like to speak in English and it is always fun to find out what people are up to and it was also cool to see the people I went to German school in Zurich again. During the weekend we had a talent show in which I twirled the baton majorette style, and we had a scavenger hunt through Bern and we ate dessert in which I had to make a specialty from Oklahoma so I made cowboy crumb cake, and I also met alot of really cool Australians but they have already been here since last January so they leave in 2 months...tear.... cause they were really cool. So now as for as my everyday lifestyle goes I stay pretty busy. I have school everyday, The occasional orthodontist apt, Volleyball on Fridays, Ice Skating on Tuesdays and Saturdays, German tutoring with my host aunt on Thursdays, a little fun on Friday or Saturday night, Internet time on Saturdays, and Church on Sundays. Speaking of church, My best friend here named Natalie, she is another exchange student and she is from Canada she also goes to my school. We decided we needed to find a church so we found one in Weinfelden which is the town she lives in right out side of my town Frauenfeld. We love it, it is soo great, the people are soo nice and it reminds me soo much of church back home. So we are definitely going to try and make an effort to go every Sunday. Okay SO that has pretty much been my life since I last updated, it really hard to talk about the little things that happen with out accidentally writing a novel to everyone, but I hope you get the gist of everything thats been going on in my life. Like always I am learning, Soaking and appreciating every single day of my life here. Its soo cool to look back on when I came and see how much I have learned in such a short time, and some of that stuff is things that would take to long to write down in a single e-mail. Granted some days are hard, but as my dad says I have to look at the big picture....so I do hehe. On on the final note, Hello to everyone back home, I love ya, write when you would like I especially appreciate snail mail letters because I am not able to get on the Internet except for once a week. I promise I will try even harder to write back if you send a letter in the mail. Okay well much o love from the Swiss liebe grusse adieu -Erin- P.S. If you for any reason have a problem with my grammer and or spelling please keep in mind that I am in the process of learning a new language and I have limited internet time(for my own good). I hope you understand.....love Erin
Sunday, September 12, 2004 10:10 AM	Hey guys it's me again! Well I have just recently reached my 1 month stage since I have been here last Sat. and boy that just flew right by!! I still can't really believe I am here, Its crazy because I walk around by my self around my city Frauenfeld or I can go to Z\|rich all by my self, and I have so much freedom its amazing, I love it. Everything here is so old and full of history, you just look at a building expessically in Z\|rich and you are like wow I wonder what all that has gone through....lol okay now enough of my babbling... So school is going great, now that German courses are over this was my first "hard core" week of school. I like school alot because its soo different from school in Oklahoma, you have 45min classes and if you have a big break like lunch or somthing you can just leave and go to some little cafe in the town. The other day I had a big break, and I went into the town to take care of some things, like my bank account!!! grrr bank accounts are soo complicated especially when you are in Switzerland the mother land of all bank accounts but at least now I can say I have a bank account in Switzerland(lol) okay so I finally think I got it all takin care of at the bank then I went to the book store to buy a little childrens book so that I could translate it, so after I did that I went to my favorite ice cream place across the street and sat down and just relized how cool my life really was, and ate some ice cream of course, then I went b ack to school... Next week is my last week of school and then Switzerland has thing called project week, and since everyone had to sign up for what they wanted to do last year, all the exchange students got the shaft as far as what we get to pick, but that kinda makes it fun becouse I know I will have sooo many funny stories from my project. So I go to the pricipals office to figure out what project I can do and she tries to translate what they all mean, but I still didnt understand so I chose the one that said animal life on it becouse I like animals. So I take my paper home and my host familiy helped me translate it and it turns out that for project week I an going to spend 3 days in the woods observing deer..hahaha so it should be fun. Then after project week I have 2 weeks of vacation, The first week I am going to Eurfurt, Germany to visit some family, so that should be fun cause my familiy there is really cool. Then the second week I am going to Pa ris!!!! I am soo exited I have never been there before! Then the following Sunday I am going to Bern to stay with my host moms parents because, at our last Rotary meeting these Phycology people came in and told us they wanted to do a test on our brains for a research project at the medical research department in Bern. I kinda forgot every detail of why they wanted to do it but I know that we are going to be tested on our language skills 3 times while we are there and we have to get a CAT scan of our brain to see if things are changing, so I most deffenatly signed up, because that is like the coolest thing ever not only am I an exchange student in Switzerland but I get to be part of a research team for brain development. So in a couple sundays I am going to get my brain tested, it should be interesting. Okay one more story before I have to leave.....last night was the exchange student from India Birthday so almost all of the students from the German school in Z\|rich met up in Z\|rich and 7pm once more to celebrate. So it all started when one of my good Canadian friends(she goes to my same school but not in my class so thats good so we dont talk in English all the time) came over to my house so that we could leave together, and being the geniuses we both are, we missed the first 2 trains to Z\|rich becouse I have an old bus schedule and the military time threw me off and I thought it was 5 when it was really 6. So anyways, we finally get to the train staion in Frauenfeld and we get on a fast train to Winterthur and we get off there and switch trains to Z\|rich, so on the train to Z\|rich there was this man thats kept smiling at us and there was these kids in the smoking section playing this didgeridoo(i think i spelled that r ight) the instrument from Austrailia, and anyways it was sooo loud and annoying and like everyone was soo mad and wanted to them to be quite but they just keep right on playing, so that was kind of a funny experiance. So we finally get to Z\|rich at like 8 and everyone is still there waiting so we go to a restraunt that has typical Swiss food becouse that is what India wanted, But before we got there, there was an amazing jazz band just playing in the middle of this square in front of all these restraunts, so we stoped to watch and dance for a little bit. Then all of a sudden this guy with all of these Roses came up to me and asked me to take a free rose only if I would kiss his white T-shirt and then sign it. The reason was that he was a bachelor and that is one of the tradions the night before the wedding. So I did it and it was sooo funny then a couple other girls did it and we wished him luck on his wedding day and he was gone. So then we went to a nice restraunt and we all had Rosti a typical Swiss meal that is like hash browns only alot better than your typical Village Inn. So I thought I would be just a little American and eat them with k etchup, so I did and it was seriously the best "hash browns" I have ever had. So to make a long story short, some other things happened but those were the main ones, and that was the best night I have had since I have been here. Okay sorry this was soo long I hope that it was as entertaining for you to read as it was for me to write. Hello to everyone back home....Dont worry about me, I am having the time of my life and soaking it all in as I go. mucho love from the Swiss bis spdter -Erin-
Saturday, August 21, 2004 7:39 AM I am on The rotary web site in Frauenfeld!	I thought ths was really neat! I gave my presentaion to the rotary club as you all know, and they made an artical on me and Roman(he had to give one also becouse he is leaving) mucho love from the swiss -Erin
Friday, August 13, 2004 3:19 PM	Hello all!! Well as you all know I am now in the beautiful land I like to call Switzerland!!! Other than me not know the language and being a little tired, everything has been so much better than I thought. My family(Roman-17, Simone-19(havent met yet) Jurg and Erika) are sooo great, I couldnt have gotten any more blessed, they have gone above and beyond in making me feel at home. My school is going well, it is much different from the school in America and hard to understand for right now, but the girls in my class are so nice and they help me translate and they include me in there group. I have also joined the volleyball team at my school, today was our first practice. It was so great cause I am on the best team in the school and I am the youngest one. The coach is very nice and takes the time to explain some things in english for me. On monday I leave school in Frauenfeld, and take a train to Zurich for 3 weeks to go to a much needed German course. On Tuesday,I leave german school for a day and go to my first Rotary meeting where I give my first presentation(wish me luck) I also get to meet my counseller and get a "handy" (cell phone). You will be pleased to know that I am passing on a little American coulture as well. On Tuesday I made pigs in a blanket ( and for those of you who do not know what that is, it is pancakes rolled up with sausage) and my host family liked it so much they asked me to make it for them again last night, so I did. I love you all so much, please continue to send e-mails, even though I might not respond to them I most deff. appriciate them and read them often. I will try and write once a month if time allows..... mucho love-----liebe grüsse Bis Später -Erin in the Swiss

Erin Tulsa to Switzerland

Erin
Tulsa to Switzerland