The Next Half Of My Year

So I'm in the mood to blog right now, so here's a layout of what the rest of my year is going to look like.
Just a couple of days ago we welcomed out Newbies to Switzerland so this month I'm probably going to be showing my Newbies around Bern and teaching hem how to use the trams and trains.
In February a lot is going on. I have a Blockwoche coming up where I will be traveling to the Emmental Region of Switzi and learning all about Swiss culture for an entire week. After that i have Sportsferien, which I will be spending up in Flims with my first host family. The Berner Fasnacht is near the end of the month and I'm so excited for it! I definitely want to go to more than just one so I'm looking at going to the Basel Fasnacht as well, because it's the most famous one here in Switzi. Also we have another Rotex/Rotary weekend in Engelberg - this will be the first one with the Newbies! I am also going to a Milky Chance concert with a couple of other exchange students and I'm really looking forward to it!
***In March I am hoping to be able to go to Spain to visit Zephyr (my best friend who is also on exchange this year in Spain) for about 5 days.
In April spring vacation starts and I will be spending it in Germany with my first host family at a family reunion! That is for the first week of April and then I come back and go straight to my 3 week Eurotour! This is the first year in quite a while that Swiss Rotary has allowed us to do the Eurotour and all of the exchangers are super excited for it. I will be traveling all around Europe; from Paris --> Amsterdam --> Brussels --> Berlin --> Budapest --> Prague --> Bratislava --> Vienna --> Postojna --> Venice --> Rome --> The Vatican City --> Milan. After I come back from my Eurotour I will be switching host families and going to live in Stettlen.
In May is mainly just school and traveling around some more. Swimming in the Aare and hanging out with friends on the weekend. I will also check out the BEA Horse Exhibition, which is just like a Fair with livestock and an amusement park and little booths to shop at. Basically May is going to be a really relaxed month for me.
June will be my last month here, and it is also the last month of school. I also plan to spend the weekends chilling in Bern or exploring more of Switzerland. I'm planning on getting together a bunch of Swiss friends and exchange students to float down the Aare with me, sort of as a going away thing.
And that's about it for the rest of my exchange! Of course more things will come up and I'll be doing a lot more, but for now that's what's planned!

***This is very tentative and I'm still in the process of getting Rotary approval. Fingers crossed though!

Weihnachten Ferien in Davos/Five Month Update

So over Christmas (Weihnachten) break I spent the whole two weeks up in the village of Davos with my host family. It was so amazing! At first we had barely any snow because it has been a pretty mild winter (for Switzerland at least. I'm freezing!), but on my birthday I woke up to a complete winter wonderland, which was one of the best birthday presents ever. The first couple of days were spent chilling out at the apartment and sitting on the balcony enjoying the beauty of the Swiss Alps and also exploring the town. While we were there, the Spengler Cup Davos was happening, and I was able to go see one of the hockey games with my host dad and brother. We saw the local Davos team play the Croatian team and it was super fun and the perfect atmosphere to see my first live hockey game in. Christmas time was really fun, my host grandparents and my host uncle's family were with us in Davos so we all had a nice Christmas dinner together. My host dad made some beef stroganoff, which was super delicious. We then opened presents (because here in Switzerland they open presents on the night of the 24th). Overall, I had a really nice Christmas and I love my host family. My birthday was a couple days after and for that we went sledding in Bergün! It was so much fun, and I definitely want to go back there sometime! New Year's Eve was spent with my host family eating ice cream and watching fireworks and drinking sparkling apple cider. Very quaint, but it was nice. We left the next day to come back to Bern. I have been here long enough that I consider Bern as much of my home that while in Davos I began to feel a bit host sick (homesick, but for your host city) for Bern. If I got host sick from just being away for two weeks, I don't want to imagine what leaving is going to feel like. Right now, that sense of helplessness to not be able to stop time is creeping up on me, with me being here for five months already. My oldies have left and on Sunday all my newbies arrive. Being an oldie is both a joy and a sadness. It's a joy because you get to meet a whole new set of amazing people and create even more lifelong friendships.You get to be a sort of older sister or brother to these new exchangers. You know what they are going though when they first get here because you were them once, only a short while ago. It's also a sadness, but there is a joy to this sadness. It marks the halfway point of your exchange and you realize just how fast time has flown by, and you just want to make time stop. You want to live in this moment forever and keep on experiencing the many wonders of your fairly-new home. But setting a time limit for your life in a year makes you appreciate it more and take every opportunity to do or learn something new. I am so excited for what these next 6 months are going to bring me. I get to go on a Eurotour with some of my best friends in the entire world (literally) and visit amazing places and LIVE in EUROPE. Few people get to experience what I am experiencing, so I am extremely grateful to everyone who has made this possible for me. Here's to making the best out of everything.

And now for some pictures!

This was taken at the Zürich Airport when I said goodbye to my Oldie