To everyone who still reads my blog:

I honestly don't expect that there are any of you out there (except for my parents because they have no choice because they are my parents...). But in the case that there are still a few of you out there, I just want to apologize for my lack of posts recently!

I know I said I would catch you up to date, but this has been my life lately:

I've been preoccupied studying for my German Diploma Exam! It's been a lot of handwork, but here's to hoping that all goes well tomorrow!

I actually promise this time, to update everyone very, very soon! 


But until then, thanks for sticking around and having interest in my experiences despite the lack of information I have given you lately!

Liebe Grüße aus der Schweiz und bis bald,
Madi <3

Pizza, Singing and the Aare

Friday February 3rd was the last day of school before we had a two week break for the "Sport Holidays" - only in Switzerland would they have a two week holiday so everyone can go skiing and not miss school...I fall in love with this country more and more each day.

Anyway, my class only had a half day of school - I'm still not completely sure why - and we used it to our advantage. The entire class headed to a local Pizza Parlour for lunch and I have honestly never seen a pizza so big in my entire life. It was so big that it didn't fit on the plate...

True story...

I was in shock after receiving it, because no one told me how big the pizzas were when we ordered them. but it was so yummmmmmyyy. 

My "Umm, what?" face

 But I managed to finish it like a champ...and not eat for the next 3 days...

ALLLL DOOONNNNEEE

After eating, we gave 2 kids from our class cards because they were leaving our class after the holidays - don't ask...the Swiss school system is really confusing.

We then headed into the city together!

(Backstory: My class is headed to Ireland for a week in September,
so they are doing a few fundraisers to help cover some of the costs of the trip.)

We performed a mini concert in the city centre (we are the Music Class after all), and left a hat out in front of us for donations.

My class <3

It had to have been - 30C outside because after only a few minutes we couldn't feel our fingers or toes anymore - so we decided to chase the sun and move locations! 

Sun chasers!

We ended up raising over 200 CHF in such a short amount of time! The money will be distributed throughout the class to help reduce the cost of the trip for each person. After we finished singing, most of us were freezing, so we headed to a local café to drink some tea to warm up!

It was such a beautiful (and colllllldddd) day with my class! I love my class and it was great to spend time with them outside of the classroom before we headed our separate ways for our 2 week Sport holiday! 

ICH LEBE NOCH...ICH VERSPRECHE ES!

So I hope no one has been holding their breath since my last post, because let's be honest...I'm a blogging fail - welcome to the life of an exchange student.

SO much has happened since I last blogged, that it's almost embarrassing to admit. And because of that, I'm going to break down the last 7 or so weeks into a few different posts so I don't bore you to death. I'll start with my brother's arrival and go from there...

I know I promised to update my blog as soon as I picked up my brother from the airport, but I failed again...wipe that surprised look off your face, we both know you're not kidding anyone. I'm not sure I've ever updated my blog when I said I would. In this day and age, it's not cool to do things on time anymore, or at least that's my excuse...

Anyways, after only a few hours of sleep, I woke up on February 2nd and anxiously headed to the airport. My train was running late and my brother's plane early, so I was really nervous that he would clear customs and I wouldn't even be there yet. But after running through the airport, I arrived at the terminal, and luckily he hadn't come through quite yet. The more I thought about seeing someone from home, the more overcome I was with emotion. I was so excited to see a familiar face and to have no choice but to speak English that my eyes started to water, but I never did let myself cry. When Jacob and his friend Eric finally came through customs, I couldn't help my smile and wave as I ran up to hug him.

After grabbing a bite to eat in the airport and sorting out their train tickets, Jake, Eric, their 10000000 pound bags and I headed on the train from the Zürich airport to St.Gallen. It was so funny to see them on the train because they were taking pictures of things (houses, trees, highways, railway tracks) - that to me, have all become a part of my everyday life and second nature. Thinking back to how excited they were about the smallest things just really goes to show how settled I am into my "new home".

The 2 of them "mesmerized" by the scenery on the way to St.Gallen

When we arrived in St. Gallen, there was lots of snow to greet us! The sidewalks were covered in snow and it continued to snow throughout the day. We had to walk around the city with their huge suitcases and backpacks for a little bit while we tried to find the University's Housing Office to pick up the key to their apartment. When we found the office, they didn't have Jacob's set of keys for some reason, but we were able to get into the house with Eric's keys - thank goodness. 

Walking to the house!

Jake and Eric

Proud new owners!

After dropping off their luggage at the house, we walked up Mount Everest to the University to get things sorted out with Jake and his key...unfortunately for us (me), the Housing office was closed for the lunch hour. We decided to head into the city to get thing sorted out with Residency cards and cell phones while we had time. Jake started speaking English in every store we went into and more often than not, he got looked at like he had several heads - so I turned into a translator for the better part of the day! :)

After buying some lunch, we headed back to the University and managed to get everything sorted out with Jake's keys. We then headed back to the house and shortly after, I headed back to Niederbipp and let them catch up on some much needed sleep! 

You'd think that having my brother here in the same country - and not too far away either - would be awesome...and it is! But to be honest, I've only seen him one other time since he arrived because he is always off on some other worldly (European) adventure - I'm not going to lie, I am very jealous. 

Anyways, that's all for this post! My goal for the next few days is to catch everyone up on my life over the past month and a half, so check back for more posts soon! 

Liebe Grüße aus der Schweiz,

Madi <3