Goodbye St-Michel!

Economy Class

on the roof of St-Michel

Field Day

with my class, and my Biology and geography teachers

Swiss Kubb!!!

VALETE

Go team!

The theme for Valete this year was "Obelix et Asterix" from a popular french comic book (this is the film I saw with my host family: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlhihCd6qtw) so each class dressed up as if Obelix and Asterix were coming to visit some place. My class chose the world cup, but there were also hippies, nuns/monks, English tourists (school girls), druids, Romans, Indians, prisoners, pink, the 80's, flower shop, farmers, Swiss, Scottish, and American themes. All morning we played games throughout the school against other classes. It was so cool to go around and see all the different costumes!

Spraying on the gray!

Concert

At 6:00 the school grounds turned into a national border. There were more security guards than students at the beginning, and every potential entry was blocked off or fenced. The security check at the entry was as strict as for plane flights with individual bag searches and pat downs. You had to buy tickets for drinks from a line that went up to the bared windows of the school from which students checked identity cards before selling the tickets. Apparently the Valete party has a bit of a reputation... I settled down with my friends in a grassy park under trees with a picnic blanket from which we could watch the concert and the people gathered in front of the stage. They started with live Celtic music, and there were dancers out in front of the stage that taught the crowd Celtic dances! It was so fun!!! Whether dancing in a circle, changing partners every step, or waltzing comically with Julie, I could not have spent a better evening! When I was to tired to continue, I stretched out on the picnic blanket and watched the swallows of Fribourg to a blushing backdrop of evening sky.

I stayed until about nightfall when I had to catch my train home. On the way to the station the streets were filled with vendors and the park by the theater was packed with people. That is actually where most of the school was the night of Valete, and my host sister along with a lot of my friends stayed there until the early hours of the morning. You can see the photo that appeared in the newspaper of the trash that was left in the park. Let's just say that Valete has a reputation...

Goodbye Picnic

I got together with some friends on Friday afternoon since school was out, and we had a picnic in the botanical gardens of Fribourg! It was so much fun, and I really felt like my place was there with them. Sometimes I wish I could stay forever! We talked and laughed, and taught the others the Celtic dances we had done the night before. When I had to go, they accompanied me to the train station, and even ran after the train, still waving goodbye as it departed.

On a side note for Julie...

Packing

How to pack away a year of my life...?

This is how I spent the whole weekend.