Last blog post...

Hey everyone!

Well, this is strange. Today I'm going to write my last blog post from Switzerland. And probably my last blog post in general, at least on this blog, at this time in my life (since I will go back to normal Minnesotan life, and I'm not going to chronicle that.)

So much has gone on in the past week, it's been kind of crazy.

Last Sunday I went to Zürich in the evening. By the time I got to my host aunt's house (around 21h30, after taking the train, a tram, a bus, and walking 10 minutes) I was rather soaked since it had been raining hard the whole time. I went to bed pretty soon after getting there.

Monday morning I woke up and went into the main part of the city to meet Sakshi at the train station around 11h30. It took us a while to find each other because the station is so huge, but eventually we did. Since she had a bag of clothes that we didn't want to lug around we went back to my host aunt's house to drop it off. Then when we were done we went back to the Banhofstrasse, which is the street where all of the big shops are. In India it is apparently really important to bring back gifts for everyone you know when you leave the country, and Sakshi still had to buy some for a couple of friends. They wanted bikinis from H&M because, as Sakshi told me, bikinis are hard to find in India. We spent the afternoon walking around and shopping for her friends, visiting the Grossmünster cathedral and St. Peter's church, and going to the grocery store to buy lunch for the next day, before going back in time to eat supper with my host aunt and uncle at their house.

Tuesday it was raining off and on the whole day. In the morning we decided to sleep in, I think we got up around 10h30 or 11h00. After showering we ate the lunches we had bought the day before. Then we took the bus and multiple trams to the Kunsthaus art museum, where we spent the afternoon. We saw a special exhibit by Katharina Fritsch with a lot of modern sculptures and screenprints, and then visited the permanent collection. When we were done there it wasn't late enough to eat dinner, so we went to the train station to buy my ticket to come home the next day and walked around the Banhofstrasse looking for some place that sold sunglasses cases, which I needed. Afterward we took the tram in the direction of my host aunt's house, but stopped on the way to eat at an Italian restaurant. Then when we were done we went home.

Wednesday we left Zürich in the morning, taking the train around 10h30 so that Sakshi would get to Fribourg in time to catch her bus at noon. When I got home it was around 13h00, and for the rest of the afternoon I just hung out.

Thursday morning I got up early to go to Fribourg at 9h00. I looked around for a Swiss flag to put on my wall in the US. Then at 10h00 I met up with Alicia and Claudine at the train station. We went in the car to Morat, which is way at the northern part of the canton. There we went to this place called Papiliorama (that means "butterflyrama" in English.. but yeah, it works better in French.) There were three large domed greenhouses which we went in- one with nocturnal animals (it was cool, but hard to see them in the dark), one with tropical butterflies, and one with other tropical animals. Also my favorite part was the Swiss butterfly gardens, which was a large area with native plants and butterflies enclosed under a net. It was pretty cool. Around 13h00 we left, and we hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we stopped at a shopping center on the way home to eat at a Migros restaurant. After that, Alicia and Claudine drove me home and we had to say goodbye ("au revoir", not "adieu", because I plan on coming back!) It is not easy saying goodbye to all of the incredible people I've met here.

That night at 21h00 I went over to my friend Bérénice's house. We had planned to sleep in a tent when I came over, but it was pretty cold and windy out. We decided to layer on the blankets and clothing and try it anyway (luckily they had two very nice down sleeping bags.) After setting up the inside of the tent and bringing all our things out, we settled down to sleep. Around two in the morning I woke up because I had to go to the bathroom, and Bérénice woke up also because we heard horses making noise nearby. I went to the bathroom while Bérénice went to check out the noise- turns out it was her horses who had gotten out of their enclosure so she had to put them in the stables. After this we went back to bed (it was chilly outside but surprisingly comfortable in the tent.)

Friday we slept in until around 9h30, I think. After we woke up we went inside to eat a nice breakfast of bread, nutella, and coffee. I took a shower, we watched a part of a movie with Bérénice's little brothers, and then I helped Bérénice make lunch. After eating we went outside to pick cherries, which are especially good this year. Since it was too far to reach, Bérénice went to get her horse and picked cherries sitting on her back. It was pretty efficient. Later we watched a movie, and then her boyfriend drove me home (they were on the way to eat supper at a friend's house.) Another au revoir.. that sort of sucked.

Saturday I slept in and bummed around the house in the morning and early afternoon. Around 16h30 I went for a super difficult bike ride with my host dad and brother in which we rode for forty minutes to my host uncle's house (who wasn't there when we arrived.. but we went into the pastures and ate cherries off the trees anyway) and then around an hour and a half back (there were more hills for the return.) It is really pretty biking here, but super difficult. What the Swiss consider "foothills" are pretty extreme. I was exhausted when we got back and in the evening my legs hurt so much I could barely walk! It is pretty cool though that we actually biked on one of the roads that the Tour de France will be passing on next weekend.. On July 19th it is passing through Romont, where I just spent a year of school. Well anyway, after we got home we ate dinner around 19h00. At 20h00 I called my parents to talk for a bit, then called back half an hour later to talk to Emily who happened to be at the house for ten minutes. I can't wait to see them all!

Sunday was another day of intense fitness. Around 11h45 we took the car to a walking area and forest in the Gruyère. We followed a walking path called Le Sentier des Pauvres (trail of the poor) which leads past a monastery. The trail was made around 1300 with the construction of the monastery as a path to haul the stones needed to build it. After the construction was finished the trail remained, and once per week a monk would lead the poor from a chapel at the beginning of the trail to the monastery where they would be fed. Or at least, that's how the story goes! We first walked for about 30 minutes and then found a picnic area where we ate the lunch we had brought with. After this break we walked for maybe an hour or an hour and a half more, passing the monastery. We got eventually (After walking mostly uphill) to la buvette (a little cafe with a terrace) which is at the bottom of the winter ski station. It was open, since it was the weekend, for people hiking through. We stopped to use the toilets and drink some coffee. When we were done we started heading back to where the car was, but somewhere on the way we lost the trail (which at this point wasn't too clearly marked.) We ended up walking though some fields and then down a road, and after maybe another hour we got to the car. We headed home, stopping on the way at a cafe to get some ice cream.

When we got home I showered and got ready to go out again. I took the bus at 17h00 to Romont to meet up with my friends Margaux, Célia, and Marjorie. We took the train to Fribourg, where we went to see the movie Ice Age 3 in the theatre. It was pretty funny. Afterward we took the train back. At the station I had to say goodbye to Margaux and Marjorie, and that was really sad. Célia took the same bus as me but I had to say goodbye to her when I got off.

Today I got up around 10h00. Tonight I am going to a party organized by my friend Marianna where there will be some of my exchange friends (as well as her Swiss friends that I don't know.) We are sleeping over there.

Tomorrow I'll come home in the morning or afternoon after saying goodbye to my exchange friends, including Sakshi. That's not going to be easy. During the day I'll finish packing my suitcases, cleaning my room, and getting everything ready to go.

Wednesday I'm leaving around one in the afternoon. I have to take the 18h00 train from Fribourg to Zürich (the only direct ones leave from Fribourg, not Romont) but Béatrice is the only one who can drive me since Bernard won't be there the afternoon. She is going to visit her parents in the nursing home that afternoon, which is close to Fribourg, so I am going with and then afterward she will drop me off at the train station with my bags. At 19h30 I have to meet an AFS volunteer at the station in Zürich, who will bring us by van to the hotel where we are spending the night next to the airport.

The day after, my flight leaves at 9h50. I get to Minneapolis in the evening after a long day of flights and layovers. I am so excited to come home! Sad to leave Switzerland too of course, but mostly I'm feeling good about the change.

Before I go, I'd like to say THANK YOU for keeping up with my blog throughout this year, and being interested in all of the things I've been doing. It has been an amazing year for me and I've learned so many things. Hopefully you've been able to learn some of them too through my blog.