Soixante-quatre

Alright, let's see..

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I had school. And it was ridiculously boring. We didn't do ANYTHING.. seriously on Monday, six out of the seven hours we watched movies. Same thing Wednesday. It was pointless.

Wednesday night we had our souper de classe (class supper) at this cabin in the forest that is not that far from my school. We got there around 20h30 and ate roasted sausages and meat around maybe 21h30. After that we just hung out. There was dancing and music in the cabin, a huge campfire outside, and lots and lots of beer.. some people got pretty drunk (it's still sort of weird for me, but less so) but not everyone, and there are people that didn't drink at all. Around two in the morning Andréanne, Florianne, Daniel (these are kids in my class), and I tried to go get some sleep. Luckily Florianne had brought a tent, though it was pretty uncomfortable sleeping on the ground (I hadn't brought a sleeping bag, which was probably stupid.) We ended up talking for maybe an hour, then we tried to sleep some. I think I slept maybe an hour.

So, then it was Thursday morning. A little before five in the morning I got up. There were still people up who had partied the whole night, most of them sitting around the campfire. Others had gone and tried to get some sleep. At five we had to start cleaning up the cabin and picnic area, which took us maybe an hour.

Then we started to put our costumes on. It is the school tradition for the 4th year students, who finish school earlier than everyone else, to go to school the morning after their last day in costumes and bother the students and teachers. Also we had to go one last time to class so that our class teacher could give us our grade report. So the disguise this year was doctors and injured people.. most people dressed up as doctors but I opted to be a burn victim by wrapping my entire face in gauze with a cap and sunglasses (the effect was pretty cool.) When we were all ready we walked to school. You have to remember that no one had gotten more than two hours of sleep so it was pretty crazy.

It took us around an hour to walk to school, but luckily it was mostly a descent. We passed a lot of people who looked at us really strangely on the way. When we got to school there was no one there yet, so we started getting ready, because the tradition is to run around and squirt water on people. The guy in the cafeteria gave us a bunch of free croissants, which was really nice since no one had eaten much, and whoever organized the souper de classe hadn't thought to buy breakfast. We had maybe forty minutes between the time the first professors and students arrived and school started in which we ran around and tried to be obnoxious as possible. At my school, only the teachers are allowed to enter the building before 8h00, so the students had nowhere to go to hide from us. When they finally all went inside, my grade all went in as a group and ran around the halls shouting and banging on doors (really, when I think about it, I can't believe this is even allowed.. Swiss school is so strict!) Then finally we went to class to get our grades. Twenty minutes later we left school, and I had to say goodbye to nearly all my school friends- I'm only planning on seeing two of them before I leave.

We took the bus home and got here around 9h00 or 10h00, I don't remember anymore. I closed the shutters and curtains and went immediately to sleep until 15h00. Then I woke up to eat some lunch, and I skyped with my friend Mikayla. Afterward I didn't do much, and went to bed around 21h00 that night.

Friday I woke up early at 6h30. I showered and made a picnic lunch for myself because I was going on a trip to the Moléson (it's a mountain nearby.) There is a group of around forty orphans from Poland who are visiting the area for ten days, and some of the adults in my village volunteered to help out with their outings. If I understood correctly, some rich Polish guy who lives in my village and made his fortune in Switzerland sponsored the vacation because the orphans come from his hometown. Anyway, my neighbor is one of the volunteers, and she told my host mom (who in turn told me) that if I wanted to go on any of the trips with them I was welcome to. So I decided to go on Friday.

In the morning we went to the cheese factory that I have already been to twice. So that was kind of boring! But around lunchtime we took the funicular from Moléson-sur-Gruyères at 1111m altitude (it's a village that you can drive to) up to the intermediary station at 1520m, where there is a restaurant and picnic area. After there is a télépherique that does up to the summit but we didn't take it, but it was cloudy up there anyway. We ate lunch at the picnic area, and then once we had finished we walked along one of the paths for maybe half an hour. Afterward we took the funicular back down.. the volunteers and I would have liked to walk back down but the kids were too tired (a few of them were maybe only seven, the others were mostly between seven and thirteen.) When we got back to the village, the kids went on these motorless go-karts, where the ski lift took them to the top of the course and then they had to come back down (it's hard to explain, click here to look at the Moléson website about it.) When they were done everyone was tired so they headed back to the chalet where they were staying. Two of the volunteers who are from my village drove me home and I got there around 17h00. The rest of the evening I didn't really do much.

Yesterday I went in the morning to Romont to get my haircut. However since I didn't make an appointment I had to wait two hours, so I walked around the town and sat in the church for a while. After that I found a nice shady patch of grass, and luckily I had brought a book with. For lunch I came home, and in the afternoon I went through a lot of my belongings to see what I could get rid of. I also started packing the box of things that I will send in the mail.

Today I am going with my host family to Begnins, which is on Lac Léman. We are doing to eat lunch there because apparently they have really good perch filets or something. It sounds good. After that we are going to the Lac de Joux which is north of there to take a walk around the lake. After we get home I have to leave at 18h00 because I am going to Zürich! It's going to be a busy next few days.