Frohe Weihnachten mit Familie Biedermann!

Christmas this year was different this year but also the same in many ways. 

We had no snow this Christmas in Northwest Switzerland. It was about 7 degrees Celsius (about 45 degrees Fahrenheit.  Traditionally, Christmas in Switzerland is celebrated the night of the 24th. On that night the family from my host fathers side came over. We ate, sang, and opened presents. The next day, my host family gave our presents to each other before the family on my moms side came over. I gave my family Mizzou T-shirts and Cardinal Hats... they loved it! :) 

Then my moms family came over. My moms brothers both have little kids so it was fun to watch them get excited and open presents. 

Santa doesn't bring the Christmas presents in Switzerland. Instead Christkindli (what I've come to understand is a little baby angel/ baby jesus) bring the Christmas tree and decorates it. So I got to play Christkindli with my Host sister Annina. We put the tree with the presents in my host brother Yannick's room because it is so big and we could hide the tree from the little kids until it was time to open presents. (Yannick is in the United States right now on Exchange.) We all ate dinner then the little kids went upstairs to play. While they were up there, Annina and I went downstairs to light the candles on the tree (yes! Swiss christmas trees have real candles!!) Then we rang the bell that the Christkindli rings when he is finished, we then ran out the "back door", up the stairs outside, then back in the "front door" right after the little kids ran down the stairs to see what the Christkindli had brought. Then we walked casually down after them. It was a really fun celebration. The little kids played and sang Christmas songs. One of the kids had a guitar and the other 2 had little flute recorders that they played. It was so cute! It was truly a fun Christmas! 

GYM BALL!

Last Saturday, I went over to Madison's house and we got ready together for the Gym Ball. The Gym Ball is the big (and only) dance they have at my school. Anyone can go, you just have to buy a ticket. It was in a rented out ballroom/club in Basel. We shared a date. Our friend Petter from Norway (also and exchange student). When we got to the dance we showed the first guy at the door our tickets. Then when we got in, we had to show another guy our ID. Depending on our age, he gave us a wristband. Red if you're under 16. Yellow if your 16 or 17. And Green if you are 18 and above. This was so the bartenders knew if they could sell you alcohol. Yes, there was a bar at my school dance! It's just one of the cultural differences that I've been noticing between the United States and Europe. Alcohol is not as big of a deal over here and the people know how to be responsible. There was no one out of hand or acting crazy because of too much alcohol. And there were a lot of people there.
I had a really great time dancing with my friends. The music was a little different (more techno than I'm use to). But overall it was a fun night. We left the dance around 3:15 in the morning. I split paying for a taxi with my friends (otherwise it would have been a long walk to the train station). I caught the last train for that time of the morning, but I did not have a bus when I got back to my town.  Fortunately, it is only a 15 minute walk home from the train station. I made it home at 4:20.

                                                        Petter and me.

Aarau

Today I had a trip with my Biology class to a museum in Aarau (Aarau is the capitol of Aargau, which is the canton that Rheinfelden is in (However, I am no long in this canton)). The museum was great. I learned about where certain food comes from and the pros and cons with the worlds food system today. After the museum tour, I decided to stay behind in Aarau and look around the city. Now, I am no expert photographer and I don't have a fancy camera, but I ended up taking a bunch of pictures of things that I found inetresting. So here is the city of Aarau from my point of view. (Sorry, some of the photos are sideways.)

New Home!

Today I left Rheinfelden for a new host family in Füllensdorf.

I was sad to leave but I get another great addition to what I call my family!

I came home to a great welcome sign, flowers, and chocolate! What more could anyone want!

A cute snake made out of my bath towel.

Advents calenders!

I also went to see an opera tonight with my music class. It was called Tosca and it was in Italian and on a bored above the stage they had German subtitles. And boy was I confused! It actually wasn't that bad. I could read most of the German and it's not difficult to see what is going on. I just missed out on the smaller details. It was my first Opera and I thought it was very good. They were excellent singers, but my goodness was it long! 3 hours! It was a great experience but I think I will stick to normal musicals.