4 Weeks

Wow, the last week just flew by. Suddenly I am starting my second month of exchange, which is pretty crazy. I think that this month will be hard, but hopefully easier than the last now that I can at least understand the language a little bit.

Last weekend I had AFS orientation, and it was an okay experience. I brought my camera but I didn't take any pictures (I'm sorry!) but my friends did so when they put them online and give me the link I will post it here. For the camp all of the Fribourg exchange students met in the station in Fribourg and we took the train together to Neuchâtel. There we met up with the exchange students from around the French part of Switzerland and we all took a train together to Travers, this village in a valley with some really huge hills. We walked for like 20 minutes to this chalet thing where the orientation was.

The orientation itself was pretty useless as far as learning AFS rules, but it was a nice chance to just meet people, hang out with friends, and talk about our experiences so far. I think we talked for maybe half an hour in total about rules, even though we had a whole weekend. There were 32 students and maybe 5 counselors and we all took turns cooking meals and cleaning up.. and that's about it. We really didn't do much. I showed some people my high school yearbook and they were so impressed, it was funny. They said that American school looked really interesting (lots of sports, clubs, activities, dances, etc.) and just like in the movies, and I was even asked if I was a cheerleader... huh?

After returning from the AFS weekend I started my final week of language school. It was the same until yesterday (Friday.) In the morning we had classes and then in the afternoon we took a bus to Bulle (a smaller city in the canton.) In Bulle we took a train to Broc, a small village that smells like chocolate.. because there is a chocolate factory there! Yes, indeed we took a tour of the Nestlé factory where they make Callier chocolates- a Nestlé brand only available in Switzerland. We got to try a bunch of free chocolate and see a bit of the facilities, it was pretty cool. I was wondering how they can possibly afford to let us eat all that free chocolate until I walked into the last part of the tour (a quote from the website: 'Appetites whetted, visitors can then visit a specially designed shop which sells the entire range of Cailler of Switzerland chocolates.' That is truly brilliant.)

This weekend is the last before I start school in Romont. Right now I am mostly feeling anxious about that, but a little excited too. I will write about how it goes later. My host parents are going to a wedding today and won't be back until really late so I am just going to hang out and relax and also walk the dog. But right now I have to start replying to the 5 flagged messages in my inbox...