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; students are walking to their lockers and making a ruckus through all the hallways.
6:00 - I am listening to the conversation around the dinner table after a simple meal of bread and cheese. It would be 12:00 in the US, and everybody is eating lunch and trying to gather enough energy for the second half of the school day.
9:30 - I am beginning to slow down for the night and getting ready for bed (because I have to get up really early). It would be 3:30. If I was at home, I would be just arriving home, eating a snack, and beginning to do homework.
I can imagine my life across the pond so well, but I am living an alternative one. To quote Robert Frost,
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"Two
roads diverged in a wood, and I—
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I took
the one less traveled by,
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And
that has made all the difference."
This past week kind of brought me back to reality since I had to return to school. It was really weird because 3 weeks off is a long time, and I worried that I might have even forgotten some of the names of my classmates (I didn't).
My last trip on vacation was to Zurich last Saturday with two other foreign-exchange students also from America. It was tons of fun going shopping on Bahnhofstrasse (that translates into the "train station street"), seeing really expensive sports cars (for example, a Ferrari and 3 Lamborghini's), and pretending to be snobby American girls to get to walk through Chanel. We didn't really learn much German that day because we spoke English with each other. The others didn't learn as much German as I did before they came.
Anyway, pics!
The Limmat River that flows through Zurich
Haley, me, and Hannah. I asked a Swiss woman to take a photo of us (in German!).
We ate lunch on a little overlook by the river.
 
The first nice car that we very casually and subtly walked by (while someone else took a photo).
This was my first time eating Maronis, which are basically roasted chestnuts. I don't even know how to describe the taste, but they were warm.
 
A church in Zurich (with a clock).
An important-looking building.
Bahnhofstrasse
The biggest Teddy bear I had ever seen.
That black car that looks like a blur is most likely a Lamborghini.
That red car as well. It was so fast that I could only get the back. :(
We went into a shoe store and tried on the craziest shoes that we could find.
 
The Zurich Bahnhof.
Now that I'm getting settled in in this new country and my new school, I have made the observation that Swiss teenagers are a lot more mellow and maybe not quite as crazy as American teens. I don't know if it's because everyone is a little older in the Kanti or if it's just the people I meet or just the teens in this area, but I know that the cafeteria is a whole lot cleaner, quieter, and not nearly as chaotic as the one I am accustomed to at home. Now, this is just a generalization, so your feathers don't have to get all ruffled, but that is just what I have noticed.
Food... I think I might have mentioned that we eat lots of chocolate here, but I just want to say it again.
We eat lots of chocolate here.
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