Soixante

Hello everyone!

I have been really really busy for the last couple days, and that's why I didn't have the type to write a blog update until now.

But, from the beginning..

Last Monday (June 1st) I had school off. There was an AFS thing organized where we went to Gruyère, ate a fondue, and visited a cheese factory (the one I had already seen.) Basically it was nothing new, but it was a good chance to hang out with some exchange friends from the region and to meet some new ones.

Tuesday was my birthday, which I passed super well. I woke up pretty early to go to my friend Bérénice's house, getting there around 08h30. The first thing we did was go get her two horses from where they were grazing in their field and put them in their stalls. Swiss farms are really cool because the barn and the house are attached.. (see here and here, they generally look like this around here, and there are tons of farms like these.) Bérénice's house was built in 1750, and when her parents moved there they updated it but tried to keep everything as original as possible. It's weird to think that their house was built before the US was even a country. Anyway, after we went to get the horses we went inside, went on the computer for a bit, and then watched a movie. It was called "Bienvenue en Suisse" (Welcome to Switzerland) and it was a comedy about some French woman and a Swiss guy that lives in France who come to get the Swiss guy's great-grandmother's inheritance when she dies. It was pretty stupid but funny too.

After we watched the movie we ate lunch, which Bérénice made, with her two little brothers (9 and 10) who came home from school. She and her sister (19) had made me a birthday cake the night before and so we ate that with ice cream. In the afternoon we went horse riding for a bit. I don't really like horse riding much unless the horse is super nice, but it was okay because hers was. After I had finished we put her horse back, then went to get the neighbor's horse which has just recently been broken, and I watched Bérénice ride.. she is super comfortable with horses and knows exactly what to do, and so it was cool to watch. She even rides without a saddle and somehow is able to hop up on an unsaddled horse all alone! After riding we hung out some more.. she showed me her two cats and like six rabbits. Then before supper her mom drove me home.

The next three days were normal days of school, and we really didn't do much that I remember. Thursday we had gym class, and we played ultimate frisbee and unihockey. Friday I had a chemistry lab where we did multiple experiments with alcohol.. in one of them we had to use it to extract the chlorophyll from some leaves and then separate the extraction using paper chromatography.

Friday night I skyped with my mom and got my bags packed for the next morning when I had to go to AFS camp.

Saturday I got up really early to go to the camp. I wasn't really motivated to go, but it turned out to be so much fun in the end. There was a different group of AFS counselors this time, and unlike the last time where they set a bedtime and made us do stupid activities we didn't want to do, they were really nice towards us didn't treat us like little kids. Also, I think this time the group of students seemed closer and I had such a fun time talking to everyone. I took the bus and then the train to Fribourg, where I met up with a bunch of my exchange friends (Sakshi, Fernando from Paraguay, Aleksi from Finland, Marianna from Latvia, Sergio from Venezeula, Sara from Bolivia, Carlo from Mexico.) We went to Bern where we changed trains, and then took one to Bienne, which is north of here. From there we met up with all the other exchange students from French-speaking Switzerland who arrived here last summer (about 20 in all who are still here.) We all took a bus together at 10h20 to this random bus stop in the Jura mountains where some AFS counselors met us. Together we had to walk for fifteen minutes uphill to a chalet that AFS had rented.

The first day of camp they explained to us the few rules of the camp (no alcohol we brought, no smoking inside) and then we ate lunch. We played some typical "bonding" games for a bit. Afterward we split into small groups of about six, each with one counselor, and took an hour our two to discuss our feelings and reflections about the year. My group had a lot to say and we had a really insightful conversation. When this was done we ate a snack of bread, chocolate, and tea, and then split into different groups to make up a sketch about our AFS year. They also gave us the assignment of writing a letter to our host family throughout the weekend, which they will send a month or two after we've left. After this we ate supper. In the evening we had free time, then acted out our sketches. When this was done we got to party for the rest of the night, and the AFS people put out food and sangria (warning us to be responsible, of course.) Someone had brought a laptop and so they put music on. Amanda, a girl from Wisconsin, and I, taught some others how to play spoons, and then afterward we all danced a bit and just talked. It was really fun, but around midnight I went to bed because I was so tired. Others came up after me but the rowdiest partied until around four, and didn't seem to mind coming into our room, turning all the lights on, and annoying us.. needless to say we didn't sleep so well but it was all good fun.

Sunday morning I woke up around 06h30 and couldn't fall back to sleep even though breakfast was two hours later, so I got up. I washed my hair in the bathroom sink and then did my math homework. After we ate breakfast we split into the original groups again, and spent a good two hours talking about another subject: coming home. It was so good to discuss all of our feelings and fears about this with others who are going through the same thing, and I really think it made me feel a bit more prepared. It's going to be hard adjusting back, and I have a lot of mixed feelings about all of it, but I am ready to try it out. When we were done with the group discussion we ate lunch, then had some free time in the afternoon, and then had to do the cleaning of the chalet.

Around 15h00 it was time to go.. we spent a good while outside the chalet doing an awesome farewell. We had to all get into a line holding hands, then this chain of standing people was rolled into a spiral. The person in the very middle had to get out of the spiral by walking out, and on the way saying goodbye (that is, doing three cheek kisses) to everyone that came after them. Then the next person after them did this too, etc. etc. so that everyone got to say goodbye to everyone else and no one missed doing kisses with anyone. Our cheeks were a little sore afterward.. We had to wait at the bus stop for maybe 45 minutes, and then when the bus came we took that to Bienne. I took the train back to Fribourg with a few of the others, and then from there I took the train to Romont alone. There Nicolas came to get me with the car. When I got home it was 19h30.. We ate dinner, I unpacked my bags, and then, absolutely exhausted, went to bed.

Monday (June 8th) was a boring day of school, and besides the fact that I was more tired that usual, it was pretty average. Our math teacher told us she had received an email that we will have one less week of school than we thought.. before telling us today that she went to double check and the date she thought was the last day of school was actually just the last day teachers can put grades into the system! Apparently she is going to give us chocolate to make up for it. Also Andréanne did a presentation about James Watt and la machine à vapeur.

Today was a very horrid day in the beginning and then was really cool for the afternoon. The first four hours we had French, chemistry, math, and also biology (seriously, Tuesdays are always terrible) in which we had a much dreaded test (but it's the last one! Ever!) In the afternoon we had gym and it passed so fast. We continued the volleyball/unihockey/soccer tournament that we had started two weeks ago.. I was the goalie for soccer and it was hard but fun. After gym class we got to skip IT and economy because we got to go see a play instead. Four of my friends in my grade (including Margaux) were in the first two pieces, where there were only five actors total and which lasted about an hour. The second part was this piece that paralleled the story of Little Red Riding Hood with the Holocaust.. that was acted by seven kids from the younger grades, and it was really weird but cool nonetheless. It was so much fun seeing my friends act, and they did a really good job.

So yeah, this is basically everything that's gone on in my life since last I wrote! Until next time..