Monday, June 11, 2012

The beginning of the end...

I realize I have not written a blog post for a long time now, and I'm sorry for my procrastination. Things have just been going by so quickly, it is hard to keep my head in one place, nonetheless write a blog post. While my head was turned the other way, May flew by, and by the time I turned around again, it was already June. I still am reeling at how quickly the time has gone by. I am already in my last month of my exchange, which was something that seemed unfathomable just a few months ago.

After I returned from Berlin with my class, the Seniors at our school graduated, and threw an insane party for all the teenagers at in our Kanton (unfortunately named "LSD", for "Last School Day"). They brought speakers and silly string to school, and would dump underclassmen in ice baths or spray them with beer as they tried to walk to lunch. I unfortunately know one of the Seniors who was in charge of the beer spraying, so of course I got an extra dosage in my hair. Yuck.

During our school holidays, my friend Kelsey and I decided to trek out to the french speaking part of Switzerland to visit the famous Castle of Chillon, which some of you may recognize from the back round of this blog earlier in my exchange. The castle was stunning, and sat on Lake Geneva, which borders France and is surrounded by the gorgeous French Alps. In our trip we learned that the castle was once one of the largest prisons for witches in the Middle Ages, which I had no idea of before. Who knew Switzerland was the witch capital of Europe? A little sad, but also really interesting!

I love Switzerland!

Goofing around in the witch's prison

One of the most iconic images of Switzerland (from Google,
I take no photo credit)
And of course, with the end of May also came the end of many of my friends' exchanges. We decided to have one last meeting of all the exchange students at Enge Park, a park in Zurich where we all have so many memories of being with each other already, of lazily eating or hanging out on a Sunday afternoon. We all brought our flags to sign, and spent the warm afternoon together one last time, before we all would begin to go home.
Signing the best flag in the world!
The weather in Zug has been wonderful these last few weeks, so I have began riding my bike everywhere. I ride to school everyday, to the lake, and even to visit Elle in Risch to go swimming, which is a good 20 km away. I'm feeling very Swiss with my biker legs and sock tan line! I also have been going to the Zug Football team's games, which Elle and Sienna cheerlead for. I will say that it is probably not as exciting as when Americans play it back home, but still fun to watch. C'mon, Italian speaking Swiss playing against German speaking Swiss in American football, if that is not a cultural exchange, I do not know what is.

Visiting the Lenzburg Castle with my host family
Hanging with Swiss friends by the lake (and James, who looks
very goofy in this picture)
Swiss football! And American cheerleaders!

The saddest news of these last few weeks has been that they are the last ones for Laura, who goes back to New York this Friday. She has been like an older sister to me and a dear friend my entire exchange, and I am still in denial over the fact that I have only four more days with her. We decided to throw her an end of the year party at my house last weekend, where we swam in the lake and talked about everything we have learned this year (and also made her a surprise cake for her 19th birthday!). We also had our final Rotary meeting of the year in Lugano, where every exchange student wore their blazers and stood behind their host country's flag in a parade. There was a lot of crying and reminiscing, but also a lot of smiling for the life changing year we all got to have together. With everything seeming to come to an end, I can not help but always be smiling too. What a year we had.

Laura was surprised with her cake!
My friends being einfach crazy
Zug Girls in the Rotary Meeting--Australia and the US

American exchange students in District 1980!

The original four--together in the beginning, together until the end







4 comments:

  1. Wow, you must be so sentimental... i cannot believe you are in the final month! xoxoxoxo

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  2. Sounds like you really loved the experience and will remember it the rest of your life as I did with my time in Heidelberg, Germany back in the 50's....Papa

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  3. Thanks Papa! Heidelberg is pretty close to Switzerland, yeah?

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  4. Hi Emma!
    You look like you're having the best of times...good friend that you'll have the rest of your life, wonderful sights and lots of bike riding. Your mom and I have been having some fun with "Pirates of Penzance". Looking forward to seeing you run around the block when you get back.
    Rich and Sue

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