XVIII. Tripping through fall

   The trees are turning, leaves are falling, and it is snowing. Not joking. I have pictures (and a video) to prove it.

It is actually rather a remarkable feat for my camera, but those white specks you see are snowflakes... in October.

   This is fall in Switzerland, and it is going quite well despite my inevitable slip-ups in life. Yes, this post is about the girl who gets straight A+'s in school making mistakes.

XVII. Two roads diverged in a wood

   One of the strangest things that I often do in my life is subtract six hours from the time and imagine what I would be doing right at this moment in America. 

   9:00 - I'm sitting in Geschichte (History) trying to understand what the teacher is talking about, and I look out the window at the serene view of a grassy hill, some houses, and the sun rising. If I took a different road so to speak, it would be 3:00 am in the US, and I would be sleeping.

   12:00 - I'm eating lunch at home with my host family or just taking a temporary break from the day of school. It would be 6:00 am, and my American classmates are probably stirring in their beds and waking up to a new dawn.

   1:50 - I am speaking to my Swiss classmates in some other subject and wondering when I will ever be able to understand Swiss-German. It would be 7:50 am, and the Warwick school day is just beginning;

XVI. Copycat

   Last weekend was the latest trip that I made with my host family. We went to the Jungfrau mountain and rode about two and a half hours of trains to get to the top. It is not the tallest mountain in Switzerland, but it was tall enough that there was lots of snow up there. We got to walk through a glacier and view ice sculptures (and Scrat as you will soon see), we walked outside on the slippery, packed snow, and we warmed up inside a big building among hundreds of other (mostly Asian) tourists.
   This past week, however, I had school, but it wasn't like normal school (if you can call it normal). It was called "Sonderwoche" which basically means that it was a project week dedicated to one subject. I was not obligated to do it, but my host brother was, and I didn't want to be stuck alone at home for a week with nothing to do, so I chose to do Kantibänd. This subject, I have found, is extremely difficult to say because it is not entirely German but also not entirely English. You have to say "Kanti" like you would say "kahntee", and you pronounce "bänd" like "band". It is so confusing for me.
   Anyway, I joined as one of the singers since they didn't exactly have music for me to play my violin, and I

XV. Learning something new everyday

   I think that that saying just about describes my life right now perfectly. Everyday I learn how to say another word in German, or I learn how different Switzerland is from home, or I learn something new about American politics. Oh yes, I still know exactly what is going on with Obama and Romney. Everybody here does.
   This past week my host family and I went to a small vacation house in southern Switzerland where we did some sightseeing. Enjoy.

I finally got to see the Matterhorn!