A German Mishap #3

So this is an oldie, but a goodie.

One of the things that us exchange students do, is we always bring gifts for our host families. Its always a great way to bond with the family you will be living with for the next 4 months.

So they day I gave my gifts was a little interesting: My german was not very good, so I tried forming a sentance that involed I(Ich) Have(Habe) Gifts(??????). I didnt want to have to go upstairs and look it up so I just said Ich habe Gifts and smiled, but then I received some weird looks. They laughed and said thank you and we spent the rest of the evening looking through one of the books I gave them. A couple days later I was looking through my dictionary when I stumbled across the word "gift" in the german section. Thats when I realized why I had recieved soem weird looks.

Gift in german means Poison.

Everyone loves the exchange student who brought poison for their hostfamilies.

Swissness.

T.S Eliot once wrote that "Home is where one starts from". Although T.S Eliot is an inspirational writer to whom I look up to I'm sorry to say T.S but I have to disagree with that one. I believe that once someone's leaves home that is when their lives start making more sense. Before coming to switzerland I had only been away from home for two weeks. I have now been here for 6 weeks. Its amazing. It really gives meaning to the time flies when your having fun. I think our lives get stuck in routine and I am glad I decided to shake things up.

(Even if shaking things up meant a new family, a new language, new friends, and a new country)

One a lighter note, I have lots to tell you. I apologize that its been so long but I did warn you. Im bad at this. So from where we last left off, Thanksgiving was just around the corner and now everyones next favourite special day is around the corner again. Halloween or in german "Tag vor Allerheiligen", which makes absolutely no sense why the have a translation because again like good old thanksgiving, All Hallows Eve is another Holiday I can scratch off the calendar.

So an update on October. Well as you know I just finished Herbstferien which is a two week holiday in the middle in October, why you ask? Just because they can. It was so great to not have to get up at 6:50 everyday, let me remind you that I have never done that before and when I return to Canada never plan on doing that again. When your up and its still pitch black outside and you think you woke up in the middle of night and are just dreaming or something. Its not. Your probably late for school. Trust me. But what did I do on these two weeks of freedom. Well the question is what didn't I do. You can check some of the photos to see some of the swiss tourist traps I went too.

So yeah, I had a great holiday and even though I wasn't jet setting all over Europe I thought seeing the amazing country that I will be living in was some what of a priority, and who knows where I will end up for my next holiday. Two weeks in December.

So to address the birthday reference in the title, Last Thursday we had a surprise party for another exchange student so that was fun, and on Friday I went to another birthday for a girl in my class which is great because I love spending time with my swiss classmates and it made me feel more like I was back home.

So until next time, I hope you enjoyed a little look of what I've been up to across the pond. Im happy, life's good, and I think people can understand me(somewhat) when I talk German.

Tschüs (Thats bye in German.....weird eh)

Songs from Switzerland: The Dog Days Are Over - Florence + The Machine

A German Mishap #2

So a lot of locals usually ask me how I like Switzerland. And if you didn't know already Switzerland in German is die Schweiz.

So being me, I always try to show off by using my knowledge(or lack of) to answer in German.

So I say ahh ja, Schweiz ist sehr gut!
ahh yes, Switzerland is really good!

Turns out I've been pronauncing the "z" wrong and instead making it sound like an "s". Which makes the word Schweiss.


Yeah I know, its hard. So this german mishap is that: instead of me saying Switzerland is really good. (I've must have said this about 35 times already).
I have been saying ahh yes, Sweat is good.

Everyone loves an Exchange student who loves being Sweaty.

It's a good thing I love Mountains

The Three Amigos from Winterthur

Adelia,Adrienne,Lucas

Mornings and the Mourning of Turkey.

Here I am. Two months in.

You know that moment in the morning right before you open your eyes? Well sometimes when I wake up I forget that I'm 3268.05 miles away from the Island. Well, I get nostaglic for about 2.5 seconds because then I realize its seven and I need to leave the house in twenty minutes.

It doesn't matter if I am miles or minutes away from Newland Cres. I will never ever be a morning person.

I feel bad for leaving things out, but let's get serious I can't remember everything. Well the most important thing that has happen is been that I've started Swiss School. As we speak I am typing this in the Library on one of the brand new Macs. Weird eh? So school is about as different as Colonel Gray High as possible. The name is my school is Kantonscuhle Rychenberg. Its about a 15 minute bike drive from my house, but the distance increases with both families. The first class starts at 7:45 and the last class is at 5:30 ( .....I know). But luckly their school system is a little different. First of all: there's no subsitute teachers so if, they can't come, that class is canceled. Also sometimes I have huge breaks or finish early because I dont have to take all the classes my class is taking such as: Latin, Italian, Astromney,and German Journalism.So on somedays I finish at 11:00am. But on Thursday or Hölletag(Hellday) which I like to call it, I finish at 5:30. Thats almost two days of Canadian High-school. The best thing is that every two months they have two weeks holiday, Mine start is next week, and I'm so excited to sleep in. Other exciting things that have happened recently is I painted my bike. I think one of the reasons why is that I don't have any projects to do. At home I always have something of that nature to do, and here not as much, so I look for things to spray paint. Also I joined a Concert band. They're a new band,but all the players are motivated and they have been invited to the New York City International Music Festival, which is pretty crazy. They have invited me to go with them in April but I don't know if I will be allowed to, or my school may have a holiday then too. They provided me with a brand new french horn which is great. Last weekend we had our first Rotary weekend with the exchange students in the East of Switzerland, it was a relaxing weekend and it was in Bern so it was great to see some of that city. My german is improving a slowly rate then I assumed but I just need to start practicing more. It's hard to believe that I wont be celebrating Thanksgiving this year, it came so fast I think thats one think I'll miss the most. I know it sounds so stupid. But eating Turkey always reminds me of family and time spend with them during Holidays, it makes me a little nervous about my feelings when the Peanut-butter balls and Quality Streets come out in December back home, but I guess I'll have to cross that food bridge when I come to it. Did you know Canada celebrates thanksgiving because someone found Baffin Island? I always thought it was about the pilgrim/aboriginal picnic.

Eat lot's of turkey and think about me while doing it.

Happy Thanksgiving From Switzerland.

Songs From Switzerland : Parachute - Ingrid Michealson

A German Mishap

Okay, So German is a pretty tricky language. And my struggles unfortunately can humorous sometimes..

So I tried saying "goodnight" the other night.

So I said "gute-nackt"

Little did I know the "goodnight" is actually "gute- nacht"

One letter difference..To my surprise,

Nackt is naked.

Everyone loves the exchange student who wishes them a good time when they're naked.