Appenzell & Technorama

Elle, Emma, Laura and myself in Appenzell

On Friday I met up with Elle, Laura and Emma for the day. We all met up in Zurich and then headed to the canton of Appenzell for the day. It was about a 3 hour journey from the time I left my house to the time we arrived in Appenzell, but we had a lot to catch up on, so it didn't seem that long. We didn't really have a game plan for the day, but we knew we wanted to adventure the city and part of the canton as it is so small.  We walked around for a little bit in search of food and we noticed how different the buildings looked compared to where we each live. I think that one of the most interesting things about Switzerland, that no matter where you go in the country, each canton has it's own culture and building structure and often it's own unique dialect of Swiss German. It is weird to think that in a country so small, it is so diverse and every place is individually unique! For example, only in the canton of Appenzell do the farmers wear a "spoon earring" in their left ear - cool, eh? 

The "unique" buildings in Appenzell as well
 as the Swiss and Appenzell-land Canton Flag

One of the main streets 

A beautiful building!

Appenzell is most well-known for its cheese and cheese products. Because of this, we couldn't leave without trying some! We walked into every single cheese shop we could find, and all of them smelled the same. Each one had a "cheese stench" which is when you have too many cheeses in one, unventilated area! Nonetheless, the cheese tasted better than it smelled which is definitely a plus! 

We also decided to put of tourist pants on and adventured into every tourist and souvenir shop in the city. I was on a hunt for badges or pins for my blazer. Don't judge me - although you probably will anyways - but my blazer has honestly become my most prized possession. I would normally be ashamed to admit that but when it has a Swarovski crystal bejewelled Canadian Flag on the flag on the back (thanks Mom), weighs close to 6 pounds, has pins from all over the world and is a "beautiful" red colour, I can only be proud to wear it and I have learned to embrace how nerdy I look wearing it. I LOVE IT.

My most prized possession...

Bejewelled Canadian Flag...

The beginning of the badge border!

I did end up finding 2 badges for my blazer and a few postcards to add to my photo album - incase I haven't mentioned this before, I'm making a photo album of postcards from every place I've visited here. Between my hot red blazer and my photo album of post cards, I'm fully embracing my exchange student life. 

On Saturday Elle and I met up again with a few other exchange students and we ventured to Winterthur. The Swiss Science Center "Technorama" is in Winterthur and my host parents and host sister have been raving about it for ages, so we decided to check it out. We got there around noon and thought we had plenty of time to go through it before it closed at 5pm - were we ever wrong. It was extremely fascinating and there was SO much to do that we lost track of time and had to rush the 3rd floor to make sure we finished on time. We visited the gift shop in search of pins, badges and postcards, but unfortunately walked out with nothing.

Switzerland is horrible. I can't even have fun in a Science Museum! 

After our adventures in Winterthur, I met up with Emily, Mark, Georgia and Alejo in Zurich for a little while before we travelled to Affoltern am Albis for a birthday party.

On Sunday I was so exhausted from the week, that I slept most of the day. The time that I wasn't sleeping, I was watching movies or lounging around. I began to sew the millions of badges I have collected onto my blazer as well. I can only do a few a day because it hurts my fingers after a while. 

I had an early bedtime on Sunday because after nearly a month off, the 5:30AM wake-up calls began again...

Over the break from school, I did a lot of travelling and sight seeing, but I also missed my class. Not class as in having school, but class as in my Swiss friends. As much as I love exchange students, I love the feeling of being challenged when I am with my Swiss friends because I have no choice but to speak German. 

When school started on Monday morning, it still looked like night outside and all I wanted was my bed! It didn't start to get light out until half way through the 2nd hour and I realized then and there how long, dark and cold this winter is going to be...

I had a lot of complements about how much better my German is getting and although I often don't believe it, I have realized that I sometimes will add a German word in the middle of an English sentence, or I'll write an English sentence with German grammar or I'll capitalize nouns in English because they do that in German. That must mean something right?! 

I think I am coming down with a cold because I am always tired. My throat hurts a little bit and all I ever think about is my bed! The last two days I have only had school until noon and when I get home I head straight under the covers and have a 3 hour nap. I am not the only one though, as many of my other exchange student friends are also tired all of the time. I think it has something to do with how hard we have to pay attention to everything and how hard we must work to understand and communicate with everyone. Its either that or an exchange year = narcolepsy!

I had a math test at school today, and my teacher wanted me to write it as an exercise. I tried explaining to her that I don't even understand this stuff in English, let alone German, but I told her I would try anyways. When she handed me the test, I took on look at it, shrugged, turned the paper over and drew her a picture comparison between Canada and Switzerland - complete with flags and the Canadian national anthem (or what I could remember of it...ooooppps!). I was able to answer one question but spent the majority of the hour perfecting my masterpiece. I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes... Cross your fingers and wish me luck?! Haha. I am a horrible exchange student - but at least I tried right?!

There's a short little update for you from Switzerland! It's almost past my bedtime here as I have another 5:30AM morning again tomorrow! Thanks for reading, and I'll try to update more often than I have been! 

So much love from the other side of the world, 

Madi <3