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