XXX. Bern and Basel

   Obviously I don't normally travel this much within one week, but this was an exception where I got a chance to go to both Bern and Basel.
   I went to Bern with AFS (the organization that I traveled with) last Tuesday, and I met a bunch of other exchange students and got a tour of the Bundeshaus, or the capitol building.

This is a view of Bern, and here I am standing (on the right) with a fellow American friend.

Switzerland is known for its clocks.

This is a big casino in Bern. This group of people in the foreground also consists mostly of other exchange students.

This is the Minster of Bern, and we got to climb the tower.

This is one of the views from the tower, and it was just beautiful.

  

We were pretty high up, as you can tell.

Notice the shadow of the tower...

The sky was clear enough so that we could actually see the Alps!

The steps that took us up (and down) the tower were so narrow and reminded me of something for a typical princess-in-a-tower movie.

We were even allowed to enter the bell chamber where all the church bells were assembled. A handful of us braved it at exactly 3:00, when one of the bells began to ring, and it was very loud.

This is the Bundeshaus, where all the politics take place.

That is the Swiss National Bank, which is located right next to the Bundeshaus. Switzerland is also known for its banks, of course.

On Friday I went to Basel with a couple friends from my class at school. This is the Rathaus, or townhall, of Basel.

This is a typical street that we shopped along.

A fountain.

I had a really fun time with these girls. :)

Swarovski is a very famous diamond brand in Switzerland. We didn't actually go inside unfortunately.

   Even though I didn't really get much "tourist" sight-seeing done, I can still check off a couple more Swiss cities off my list of places to go. I still need to go to the French- and Italian-speaking parts, but thankfully I still have another 5 months for that.

   Tomorrow I am going skiing with my host family for the first time in my life, and I am a little nervous, a little scared, but overall I am really excited, and I can't believe that I finally have the chance to try out this cool sport. I've been preparing myself by watching skiing tutorials on Youtube, and I really hope that it's not too hard to catch on.

   Anyway, I'm not going to have any internet for a week, but I hope to have more exciting (and probably embarrassing) stories when I return. :)