The adventure continues...

Friday was another fun and confusing day here in Switzerland. My youngest host sister, Celine, is involved with a theatre company in our village. She has been practicing almost every night for the past few months for a big theatre production and Friday was the opening night. When I got home from Basel in the early evening I had 15 minutes to get ready before we had to leave. My host parent's friends came over and we all walked to Neuendorf (the next village) - you can actually walk to the next village here...so crazy. My host sisters Natalie and Marielle & her boyfriend Pascal met us at the theatre and we dinner in the theatre's restaurant. After dinner we headed up into the barn where the play was. A barn, yes, but a very nice barn. We had to walk up some stairs to where our seats were and in front of the seats was the stage. It was small - only seating about 140 people - but it was very theatre-esq, complete with stage lights, special effects and an incredible set. The play started at 8, and that is when things got interesting. The play was all in dialect, so I wasn't even able to pick out the German words that I do know. Swiss German is very hard, but I paid attention and laughed when the audience laughed and clapped when they clapped. It was really fun to see my host sister acting though because she is definitely in her element. She was the youngest one in the production, but she was very good. At intermission I asked my host mom what was going on because I had no idea. There were ladies laughing at a table and then the next scene was men sword fighting... It turns out the play is based on a real historical story/myth and the writer wrote his own story around it.


Kuoni was a man hundreds of years ago who lived in a castle not far from our village. He was a bad man and when he was killed he was buried in the walls of the castle and cemented in...awkward, I am aware. People today sometimes say that they can hear Kuoni's ghost when at the castle. 

So the play was about a young lady Lara and her affair with Kuoni's ghost. It was the night before Lara's wedding (which explains the lady's laughing at a table - her bridal shower) and the sword fighting was set back in time and was how Kuoni was killed. The entire play was set in the 1800s, so the characters wore traditional old fashioned outfits with bonnets and all. There were some loud sound effects and fireworks, so of course I jumped because, well, I'm me, and my host family was getting a riot out of it. It was a really cool play, and I am glad I saw it - I just wish I could have actually understood...

After the play, my family and I went to the bar which was attached to the theatre, and we socialized with the cast and other people that went to the show. I obviously didn't drink, but it was still fun to be there with my family and talk with everyone in my very broken German. My host sister, Natalie, and I had a heart to heart (in English...) and it everything she said reassured me that I am liked by host family and that everything was a-okay! I love my host family and definitely won the lottery, but you never truly know how they feel about you until they tell you. I had the biggest grin on my face for the rest of the night after our talk and I felt the most relieved I have felt in a long time. The bartender used to live in the US twenty years ago, so he was asking me all of these questions and it was really cool to share my life with complete strangers who were so interested in it! We got home from the bar around 1:30 and I went straight to bed because I had a busy, busy weekend ahead of me.

I had to wake up at 8am on Saturday so that I could get ready for my first Rotex weekend! Rotex is an organization run by former Swiss exchange students. They plan weekends every so often for all of the current exchange students in Switzerland, but because there are over 100 of us, they have to split us up into East and West groups. One group will have a weekend one week and then two weeks later the other group will do the same thing. For our first weekend, they took us to a high ropes park in Bern. We had to take a theory test and pass a practical test before even being allowed on the parcours - some serious, serious stuff. I always knew I was afraid of heights, I just didn't know how afraid I was until yesterday... But once you are 12 meters up in the trees, you really have no choice but to finish the course. There were 7 different courses and each course had different elements. The first one my partner (Rocio, from Peru) and I went on mainly consisted of suspension bridges...perfect. I tried not to look down, but you kind of have to so you can see where to step. I'm sure my face was hilarious, but I was so proud of myself for doing it and not giving up. My favourite part of the course was the zip lines, so even though I vowed several times that I wasn't going to go again, we found a course that had zip lines as its main element. How many people can say they went zip lining in the trees of Switzerland? Not many. Except that I can now. It was such a fun day, but I am definitely feeling it today, haha.

After our adventures in Bern, all 60 of us headed to Langenthal for the the night. We all boarded a bus and I'm not sure the other passengers knew what to think... We almost missed our train, but thankfully we all made to Langethal in one piece. We stayed in a scout house for the night, girls on the top floor and boys on the middle floor. We had Alps macaroni for dinner (macaroni and cheese with potatoes and onions) and we all sat around and talked for a long time. It was really fun to meet everyone and talk to the Rotex members. After dinner dessert was served which consisted of different desserts from all over the world. We all had to bring a typical dessert from our home country, so there was a variety of different delicious foods. I brought maple sugar candies and so did a few of the other Canadians, but the more the merry, eh?! That's another thing... everyone makes fun of "eh" and "sorry" because the Canadians use them so much. After dessert we talked for a couple of hours and then headed up to bed. It was SO hot upstairs that we were sweating in our sleep. At 4 in the morning, I opted for the floor instead of my bed because it was much colder.

This morning we woke up, all extremely tired and groggy, ate breakfast, made sandwiches for lunch and ventured into downtown Langenthal for the afternoon. It is Sunday, so everything was closed, but it was still cool to see everything - all of the old buildings and cobblestone streets. We headed back to our respective houses around 3pm. It was a great weekend, but I am exhausted and will definitely sleep like a baby tonight. :)

I also had a conference call with my (real) family this evening. My dad is currently in China for work and is 12 hours ahead of Ancaster and 6 hours ahead of me, so there are only a few times when calling works for everyone!

I have to do a presentation in German tomorrow about my life and family in Canada. This should be interesting...if I survive, I'll let you know how it goes...

Another thing about my life right now is that my host family has stopped speaking with me in English. It is definitely difficult at times, but I am also learning a lot. I try my hardest to speak with them in German, but when I can't because I don't know the words, I will say it in English and my host mom will tell me how to say it in German. They only speak High German (Germany German) at dinner so that I can attempt to follow along. I can tell that they appreciate that I am trying to speak their language and that feeling alone makes me want to try harder and harder.

A lot of my friends back home are moving into residence this weekend and it is weird knowing that I am not doing it with them. That said, I wouldn't trade the life I have now to go through it with them. I will have that opportunity later, but for now, I have the most amazing experience ahead of me and I am living in a dream (or at least that's how it feels).

Much love from Harkingen,

Madi

I saw this Sun Flower while in Langenthal today and I thought it was the most amazing thing ever.
Definitely put a smile on my face, did it out one on yours?

Just an old train at the station and I thought it was pretty cool looking!

Here is the link to the rope park we were at, check it out: https://www.ropetech.ch/