I have fully adjusted to the Swiss keyboard

The last week went really incredibly fast for me, because I was so busy. I feel like only one day passed between being here one week and being here two weeks.

On Monday and Tuesday I went to language school and it was just like always. All of the students agree that it is very boring, but at least we're learning. I do like being around the other exchange students, they are very friendly people, and it's nice to know that they are all in the same boat as me. We've been working on various subjects in school, but for me the hardest are the verb conjugations and tenses. I just drink coffee before class and take good notes and hope that I am where I should be with the language. The trains have been more crowded lately because on Monday school started for everyone in Switzerland. There are teenagers everywhere in Fribourg because they come from all around to go to the high schools.

On Wednesday I took a 'tour' of Fribourg with Marianna (from Latvia) and Sakshi (from India.) It wasn't really a tour though, because we only walked around a little part of the city. We visited the church, the University's library, and the Museum of Art and History (I think it was called), as well as Sakshi and Marianna's collège. We had been told that the library had English books but the only ones we found were anthropology studies so we may go back another day and ask a librarian. The Collège St Michael is amazing, though I can't believe it's a public school because it looks a bit like Hogwarts:





I still don't know what collège I am going to but I guess I will find out within the next few weeks.

Thursday and Friday I went to language school again, and I wish I could remember what happened but all of the hours of school are one big blur in retrospect..

This morning I made chocolate chip cookies, and they aren't horrible but they aren't exactly great either. I had to use a lot of substitutions, for instance I chopped up chocolate instead of using chips, used poudre à lever (baking powder) instead of baking soda (though I did the conversion), dry brown sugar instead of moist, a vanilla pod instead of vanilla extract.. you get the idea. I think the biggest problem is that they need more salt- I didn't realize that the butter here is unsalted.. whoops. Luckily I made only a half batch as I was doubting that they would turn out. I looked for brown sugar as we think of it in the store but they just don't have it, they only have the dry kind. Also there are no chocolate chips here, just chocolate 'pieces' that are ridiculously overpriced.

However I did discover that a person can buy a store brand 100g chocolate bar for 45 cents here, and it is amazing quality..

My host parents went somewhere this afternoon and evening so I am home alone. I think they felt a little guilty about it, or maybe wondered why I wasn't going out as it's Saturday night, but honestly I am grateful for the quiet. Life here is so tiring, and there's really not much time between going to school, commuting, meals (which almost always last an hour or two) and sleeping a solid 10 hours every night to just hang out at home. I won't be seeing them until tomorrow evening because tomorrow I am going to an AFS welcome brunch in Fribourg but they already had an engagement to attend and won't get back until later.


Alrighty, now for some questions I've been asked in emails that I will answer for everyone:
-Who is Laura?
Laura is my host aunt, technically, but she's only 18. She lives in the apartment upstairs.

-When do you start regular school?
I have two weeks of language school and then should be starting regular school immediately after that.

-What's the time difference?
It's seven hours later here than in the central time zone.

And now I must go walk Lucky before it starts to rain again (it's been very rainy this week.)