Fribourg in January

Early morning sunrise at Prez-vers-Siviriez.

Cozy in the St-Michel french library.

 Taking a walk around Fribourg.

 Sunset on the Fribourg Cathedral before choir practice.

 

Trimming of the ancient school trees during class.

Fribourg's ice hokey team HC Fribourg-Gottéron mascot dragon playing air guitar at the mall.

Chemistry demonstration at the University of Fribourg with my class.

Morat Festival des Lumières

All over the city there were luminous art expositions. In order of appearance: pixel demonstration, snails on the lake, fire breathing dragon, radioactive mushroom-umbrellas, and lanterns. But of course, there were many many more that I did not take pictures of, and many more that I did not even see! There was something new around every corner, and there were too many corners in all the city to be explored in one evening! 

(above) Roasting myself the unofficial, national sausage of Switzerland: cervelas. They are cut in a cross at each end of the sausage and roasted on a stick so that the ends bend open like flower petals.  They are very delicious! If you are Swiss and were once a child, you have tried them! 

There were so many awesome projections! The last picture is of the main event, a short animated film that played with the building on which it was projected. It is a school, so the story was lead by the mascot/school master during which we were taken through a series of adorable lessons ranging from math to PE to the traditional legends about where babies come from. There was a history of the clock tower projected on the clock tower, a film about a boy and an alien abducted radish on the entirety of a house (accompanied by some tasteful electronica), a family of weird and endearing witches on a roof, and moving laser animals on the city gates!

My favorite part was drawing on a paper lantern and sending it out into the lake. It was magnificent and meaningful. I accidentally did my drawing upside-down, but I decided that that way my message would go up to heaven. Thank you Monika and Tabea for sharing such a wonderful evening with me!

Sledding

When I got back from the ski camp it had finally snowed! We have hardly had snow since Thanksgiving, so I was ecstatic! Tabea invited over a friend of ours from the youth group, and Elise joined us to go sledding on the hills next to our house. We had two bobsleds with steering wheels and breaks, a traditional wooden luge, a saucer, and a tiny sled of Elise's that we just used to build our jumps. It was really fun!


They took some videos of my unfortunate sledding skills, but I haven't gotten them yet, so stay tuned for more to come...
OK, no videos! But I did get an unexpected post card;

Afterwards we cut up fruit and made chocolate fondue. It was so delicious, perfect for a snowy day, and incredibly Swiss!
We melted the chocolate in a sauce pan and then poured it into a special bowl that went on top of a special candle holder. The candle in the bottom kept the fondue at just the right temperature.
If a piece of fruit fell off someone's fondue fork, they had to take a sort of dare. Tabea ended up having to sing a love song to Max...TWICE!

On a side note, I cut my hair! Literally, I cut it myself, and I think it turned out pretty well! That was not a fondue blunder dare by the way, and I am thankful to be rid of my blond. Long live the pixie cut!

YFU Ski Camp

Friday the 8th, I said goodbye to Mai. She has been a good friend of mine at school almost since I arrived in Switzerland. She came to talk to me one day when I was eating alone because she thought I might be an exchange student. Mai is too. She comes from Thailand, lives (lived) in Fribourg, and goes (went) to school at St-Michel with me. Unfortunately, Friday was her last day, so Mai, Julie, and I went out for hot chocolate. Our inside joke is the hand gesture that she is doing in the photo to the left. It means "I am handsome", and she got a group of unsuspecting boys to do it in a picture with her as we were walking to the station. I already miss her, and it makes me sad to think that I will also be leaving the life I made here behind me.
Sending love!

I finally taught my host mother how to make snowflakes like I make them, and she did this lovely window decoration the night before I left for camp. Yea! Special moments!

The train ride to Meiringen is two and a half hours from Romont. When I got to Fribourg, I was added to the chaos that was 15 French-speaking exchange students with luggage and skis. We were piled in hallways, dodging falling skis, executing heroic efforts to move mountains of luggage to let a family with a baby stroller get by, knocking over unsuspecting Swiss as our stampede changed trains in two minutes, and yet did not loose a single ski boot!

We stayed at Simon's Herberge in Meiringen, maybe a ten minute walk from the gondola to the ski slopes. The gluten-free bread was delicious! Every evening we would walk to the Migros to buy lunch for the next day, and after that the student-organized dance party would start in the dinning room.

When I first got on my skis I really did not remember much, but I quickly got back to parallel skiing and moved up into a more advanced group the second day. On the third day, I mastered my first red run, and by the end I was so comfortable on my skis that I even started doing jumps! Four consecutive days of skiing was really tiring (and I hurt all over), but I also had a wonderful time, and was sad to leave the slopes for the last time on Thursday.

 

Sweden, Turkey, USA, Thailand

My host sister Tabea and I have identical ski boots. I labeled mine, but when I went to get my boots from the attic and saw a pair, one having a label, I assumed the other did too. Turns out our boots got mixed up, and I put on my ski boots the first morning only to find that I had brought two right feet! It all turned out OK because I was able to rent a pair in Meiringen, but it still cost 50CHF and a lot of trouble. On the last night, the YFU volunteers gave me another right ski boot that they all signed as an award for my mistake. My face was so red! The next morning I took the boot around the breakfast tables and had everyone at the camp sign it. Even Simon himself! Now I have a lovely (and potentially difficult to bring home) souvenir of the Ski Camp!

I bought myself a Swiss watch!

Videos: See descriptions below each video...

One of the volunteers is actually a ski instructor, but when we went to the pool, he ended up using his skills to give a swimming warm-up class. On the last night the other volunteers made him a bag to wear that made him an official swim instructor, and had him re-create the class he gave at the pool. It was hysterical!

Hello from the ski lift!

Adele is popular with exchange students! We even started using a new greeting "Hello...it's me..."

At the end of every orientation camp, we move around a circle to give everyone a hug. Encase anyone was not aware, hugs are the most essential items to find when you are on exchange!

The train ride home was beautiful! In one part it felt like springtime because there was so much sun, green hills, and even a crystal blue lake. The skis in the seat next to me and the snowy mountains above were all that reminisced of January.