Soixante-et-un

Last Wednesday was a fairly uneventful day at school. Afterward I took the train to Fribourg and met Claudine at the train station at 17h00. She drove me to their apartment where Alicia was also. They gave me an awesome birthday of a t-shirt and an Astérix and Obélix comic book (another popular series in French-speaking countries which I haven't read yet.) I did some homework, and then around 19h00 we went to a Mongolian restaurant. I can't wait until I am back home and can eat Asian foods whenever I want, but for now it was a treat (I think I've only eaten Asian food of any sort once here before that, and it was really gross.) After eating they drove me home and I got there at ten.

Thursday I had school off, and my host parents also didn't have work. Together with Béatrice, Andréanne, and Bernard, I went to the zoo in Zürich. We left at 8h00 and I fell asleep in the car. A little more than halfway there we stopped at a rest stop.. they are really nice in Switzerland. However you have to pay twenty centimes for the toilet (this is good though, usually at the train station it is one or two francs.) We sat down to drink a coffee before continuing on our way. It took us three hours to get to the zoo, but that is counting our rest break, crossing the traffic in the center of Zürich, and finding our way there. We stayed at the zoo until around 15h00 or 16h00 I think, eating lunch at noon at the cafeteria. The zoo was cool, and I really liked it because I hadn't been to one for a long while before that. Also at the zoo they have a GIGANTIC greenhouse (11'000 square meters) and the inside has animals and plants from the Masoala rainforest in Madagascar. That was pretty cool.

After we left the zoo, we took the car to the lakefront of Zürich. On the way we picked up Béatrice's sister Rosemarie who was getting off of work at SwissLife (the insurance company where she works.) We parked and then got out to walk, and Rosemarie showed us around. We went to the Fraumünster to see the stained glass windows there made by Marc Chagall. We also drank a coffee at a nice cafe on the river right across from the Grossmünster cathedral. Afterward we walked around the sort of hip neighborhood there, where there are a lot of shops and young people. We stopped to eat dinner at a restaurant where we sat on a terrace over a little square, and it was really nice. After dinner we walked down the Banhofstrasse to look at all the really expensive stores. Since Béatrice, Bernard, and Andréanne still had to drive two hours to go home, we went back to the car and said goodbye. I stayed with Rosemarie but we didn't go to her house right away, instead we did a driving tour of Zürich. We drove south down the western side of the lake through the various villages (now suburbs) that have now become part of greater Zürich. At Horgen we crossed the lake on the ferry and drove back north on the eastern side. After this I was really tired so we went home to their house in Leimbach, one of the neighborhoods of Zürich. They have a really nice townhouse with lots of extra space since all of their kids have moved out, and they said that since it is really not a problem (there is an extra bedroom and bathroom in the basement) I can come back to stay if I like. I went to bed around 22h00 because I was completely exhausted after my long day!

Friday morning I woke up around 7h30. Rosemarie and her husband had already gone to work. I showered, ate breakfast, and got all of my things together. I then took the bus and the tram into the city. In the morning I did some shopping, buying a t-shirt, a tank top, and a pair of jeans. For lunch I ate a sandwich. Then in the afternoon I went to the Museum für Gestaltung (museum of design.) I stayed there to look at the collection for about an hour (it wasn't very big.) I liked a lot of the items they had on display but the whole thing had a sort of pretentious atmosphere (okay, I was really tired too, so maybe I just wasn't up for it.) After the museum I went to a cafe near the train station and drank a coffee while filling out some postcards I had bought in the morning. At 17h00, after navigating around the giant web underground the Zürich train station (it is crazy, there is a fitness center and a grocery store down there), I took the train home. I had to change in Berne and then take the bus from Romont as usual. When I got home it was 19h00, and I didn't really do much for the rest of the night.

Yesterday I woke up at 8h30. At 10h15 we left the house to go to my host brother's gymnastics competition in Romont. It was also a competition for dance so on one side of the gym they did dance and on one side gymnastics while the others prepared, and there was always something to watch. In the morning was the dance and anneaux (rings.. however it's a type only done in Switzerland- click here to see a youtube video of my host brother's group's routine.) Then for lunch we ate sausages with bread from the vendor outside, and drank a coffee. In the afternoon we saw the floor routine and the parallel bars, and Andréanne and I went home before the vault, and got there around 15h00. At 16h00 I left and went on a bike ride until dinnertime at 18h30, and then in the evening I just relaxed.

This morning I slept in until 11h00. We ate lunch on the balcony off of the kitchen. Since then I've been doing my homework because tomorrow I have my Antonio Vivaldi presentation.. and otherwise just enjoying my Sunday afternoon.