From Canada to Switzerland!: Put on your wings and fly back with me in time

I am extremely lucky to be on exchange in Switzerland where Rotary and ROTEX (former exchange students from Switzerland) do so much to help us enjoy our year as exchange students! Every couple of months ROTEX organizes weekend for us to get to together and enjoy each other's company. But because there are so many of us (almost 120 exchange students in all of Switzerland), there are too many of us to house all together, so we have been split up in two groups: East Switzerland and West Switzerland. Each group has its own weekend - we do the same things, there's just two different groups on two separate weekends. I live in West Switzerland, so we had our Winter Weekend from March 3rd - March 4th in Engelberg!

Engelberg is a cute little town in the middle of the Swiss Alps in canton Obwalden. Most of us met in Luzern and then travelled Engelberg on the train together! Let's just say that whenever you put a large group of exchange students together, things get crazzzzyyyy. It was also the first time that the oldies (the August to August kids - aka me) had a chance to meet the newbies (the January to January kids), so there were a lot of introductions to be had! It was also great meeting all of the newbies and being able to show them the country that we have grown to know and love!

We first arrived in Engelberg around 2pm and then we had to walk from the Bahnhof to the Scout House that we were staying in. Thankfully we were able to pick our roommates! There is a group of us that have become really close over the past few months and we have nicknamed ourselves "the sisters" - totally awkward...why am I admitting that? - so we all roomed together. The funny thing about us is that we are all from Canada - from PEI to as far west as you can drive and everywhere in between - and then we have our lovely "sister" Adriana from Ecuador who sports her Canadian Olympic mittens with pride! Omg, I am so awkward.

So after we got our rooms sorted out, we headed up to the ski resort by gondola. The gondolas were really cool because they each had a flag from all over the world on the outside and everyone had so much pride when their country's flag passed us! It was really high up and I had already felt a head cold coming on, so the change in pressure messed up my ears and I couldn't hear very well for the better part of the weekend, but it was fun anyway!

At 1800m above sea level with my bestest friends!

My newbie Rose from Tasmania!
(By my newbie, I mean that she lives in my city and goes to my school)

Isn't she cuuuuttteee?!

We were supposed to go sledding down the mountain but because of the warm weather we had been having, the sled runs were closed due to risk of avalanche (there was actually an avalanche the next day - thankfully no one was hurt), so we went tubing down a baby hill instead! It was so much fun and there were so many people, it was crazy. We even ended up making an exchange student tube train but we never made it to the bottom still intact as a group.

Valentin, Cody and Carly on their sleds

The Tube Train

We also hung out on the balcony of the restaurant for a while and enjoyed the view of the mountains!

Just hanging out...

Us being friends!

After we went tubing, we headed back to the Scout House and hung out before dinner. I still couldn't hear very well, so it was difficult to focus on what was going on, but I still managed to enjoy myself! We had the classic Spaghetti for dinner and then for dessert, we enjoyed items from all over the world baked by the very own us! As Canadians we felt it was only right to serve pancakes and maple syrup...so typical! The Australians even proceeded to chug the maple syrup...it's not that foreign is it?! Most of stayed up until almost 4am talking, playing cards and communicating with ghosts through a Ouija board - I was too chicken and fled the scene pretty fast!

PANCAKES

Just hanging out!

Luckily my hearing came back on Sunday and after breakfast, we headed out into the waist deep snow for a good old game of Capture the Flag - let's just say when you can barely stand up with out sinking into the snow, it makes for an interesting game! We gave up on the game pretty quickly and started a snow ball fight and finished off the morning by playing on the jungle gym!

Carly and Hayley
...and me playing peek-a-boo

The sisters (and Cody)

CANADA

The snow doesn't look to deep here, but believe me it was!

Ooooppps, I fell...
and crushed Steph!

I love these girls!

Playgrounds are not only for little kids!

The sisters minus Adriana
Steph, myself, Carly, Danielle, Morgan, Hayley

We needed a break...

Cuties.

So after our adventures in the snow, we headed over to the skating rink for the afternoon! It was really fun, but there was a lot of pressure on the Canadians because everyone thinks we were born on skates! A few kids had never been skating before, so we taught a few of them the basics and by the end of the afternoon, they were pros! It was such a blast!

Ice Taxi?

Carly, Danielle and I

Carly, Jenna and I

All of the Westies on the Ice!

Rose and I

Someone's learning how to skate!

Team Canada teaching Megan how to skate

Someone's grumpy...

After a wonderful afternoon of skating, it was time to head back to the house to grab our things and then head home! But this is what happens when you travel in a group as big as ours on a Sunday afternoon from a tourist town...

YOU GET STUCK IN THE LUGGAGE COMPARTMENT

Needless to say, it was a great weekend!

When I got back to Niederbipp, there were birthday celebrations for my host brother already underway. His girlfriend and her family came over for a fondue dinner(my face!)...and then I started to get sick as dog. My hearing started going again and I developed a nasty cough and fever!