Berlin

It's break! Again! Woohoo! I went to Berlin with my Exchange officers family and Babi. It was awesome! The weather wasn't that great. It rained the first day and was windy every other day. But that didn't stop my fun. It's crazy to see how different it was from the United States, and from Switzerland. I love Switzerland but sometimes it's just a little to perfect. It's hard to explain and I don't think anyone would understand unless they lived here for awhile. Berlin has a completely different atmosphere. It's a huge city.  A little more chaotic. In Switzerland,  I feel no sense of chaos or craziness and I miss it a little bit. As crazy as that sounds. 

Berlin was filled with so much history. I got to see the wall, the Jewish museum, check point charlie, and the East Side Gallery (which was my favorite) I hope to go back there someday. 

This hurts to talk about....

....but here is the most embarrassing thing ever. Tonight I was going to  the goodbye party of a friend in Aarau. Long story short there was some bad communication and the party is actually tomorrow.  No big deal. We'll try again tomorrow. So from Aarau I took a train to Olten and at Olten I had to wait for my train to Füllinsdorf. I went to the platform and my train wasn't there yet. I waited and eventually it came. It was an S3 train, which means that it is slower and doesn't have a bunch of small wagons, but rather all the seats are in one long section. This train had 2 of those long sections. I was waiting at the end and the section that pulled up by me said "Bitte nicht einsteigen" (Please do not enter). The train wasn't leaving for another 15 minutes and this has happend to me before. They just wanted to clean the train before anyone got on. This was obvious to me. The man who was cleaning the train got in on the part I was standing by and I waited outside while he cleaned the train. People started getting in on the other section of the train, but I thought I would be good and follow the Swiss rules and wait. I waited till the man got to the other end of the section and then I saw a man get on the train at that end, so I went ahead and got on the train at the end I was at. I took my seat and waited. Well, I guess the cleaning man was able to tell the other man to get off, but he didn't see me get on this part of the train. All of a sudden all the lights on the train went off. This was very strange. I thought maybe I should just go to the other part of the train. I got up and pressed the button to get off,  but it didn't work. I pressed it fast, but it still wouldn't open. And then, the train started to move!! And it was not time for the train to leave yet!!!!! I was completely alone on a dark train that was obviously heading to some train depot for the night!!!!! I just kept pressing the door button really fast over and over again! Then I looked up and saw an SOS button. So I started to press that button really fast!

A mans voice came out of the speaker.
SOS- "Hallo" (hello)

Me- (schnell) "Hallo! Ich bin auf ein zug und es ist die falsche zug, und es ist dark, und niemand ist heir, und ich habe nicht gewusst die zug wurden trenne, und es ist dunkel, und niemand ist heir!" ((fast) Hello! I am on a train and it is the wrong train and it's dark, and no one is here, and I didn't know that the train were going to seperate, and it's dark, and no one is here!)

SOS- Wo hat die Zug gefahren? (Where did the train come from?)

Me- Von Olten! Niemand ist heir. Es ist dunkel! Ich bin in die falsche Teil! (From Olten. No one is here. It's dark! I'm in the wrong part!)

SOS- Welches Teil sind sie? (Which part are you in?)

Me- Ah! Jetzt es ist stoppen! (Ah! Now it has stopped)

(The train stopped after a few minutes in some random place on the tracks)

SOS- Welches Teil sind sie? (Which part are you in?)

Me- Ich weiss nicht! Ich weiss nicht welches teil! Die falsche Teil! (I don't know! I don't know which part! The wrong part!)

SOS- Welches Gleis hat die Zug gefahren? (Which gleis did the train come from?)

Me- 11

SOS- Geben mir Ihre Handynummer. (Give me your cell phone number)

So I give him my phone number and then he is gone. I look out the other window and see the train I am suppose to be on drive away... I keep pacing, I end up walking through the whole train. Trying to open the doors at the end to see if there is some sort of conductor here. It feels like forever and I haven't gotten a phone call from the SOS man. I think about pressing the button again but I realize it would just send me to another person and my guy is probably calling people in Olten to come find me. So I keep waiting and Imagining some angry Swiss person coming to get the stupid person who got on the wrong train. At least I can play the foreigner card.
Then all of a sudden the lights come back on and I hear a voice.

Train man- "Hallo?" (Hello?)

Me- "Hallo...." (Hello....) (in my embarrassed/shame voice)

I walk over to where he is with my embarrassed/shame face.

Train man- Something in Swiss German I don't understand.

Me- Hoch Deutsch bitte. (High German please)

Train man- Ja. Sie sprechen Hoch Deutsch. (Yes, you speak High German)

Me- Joo... (Yes...)

Train man- Woher gehen Sie? (Where are you going?)

Me- Frenkendorf

Train man- Ja, das ist die falsche Zug. (Yeah, this is the wrong train)

Me- Ja.... (yeah...)

He steps out of the train and I follow him. He opens a door to some stairs that lead up to a bridge over the railtracks.

Me- Dankeschön (Thank you)

Train man- Ja kein problem. (Yeah, no problem)

Me- Ich bin so doof. (I am so stupid)

Train man- Nein, das ist nicht die erste mal. (This is not the first time)

We get to the top of the stairs and I can see the train station up ahead. We are over the rail tracks, and despite the situation it is actually really cool. He point me in the direction I need to go to get on to the street and then to the train station. I thank him again and then walk back to try again.
Then I get the fun task of telling my host family the story when I get home. So lesson learned now.... I hope.

I'm still alive!!

So it's been awhile. I've had no desire to blog lately, but here I am. I will be returning home on July 21st and I am not too happy about the idea. I love being in Switzerland so much! I've already started thinking about the things that  will not like when I return to the United States.

1. I will have to pay a tax on things that I buy. What an awful idea that I can't count out exactly how much I need to pay while I'm waiting in line. I have to wait and see what the cashier says. What if I didn't estimate correctly?! I forgot how to do that. Something about so many cents for a dollar. Verrückt!

2. Where am I suppose to get fresh bread! I'm just not going to be able to buy a Gipfeli whenever I want it.

That's all I really got so far, but I am not looking forward to finding out the other things I won't like anymore.

In other news, I've been having a great time. Tomorrow is my last day of school before the Fasnachts ferien! Woohoo! I'm going to try to ski again.
A couple of weeks ago we had another Rotex event. I got to meet up with the New exchange students. We went Ice skating and played in the snow on the first day. Then the next day we went skiing, but my shoes were still all wet from playing in the snow. But then my Newbie, Vinny from Australia, told me to put plastic bags over my feet. What a great idea! My feet stayed dry the whole day! (See Vinny, I told you I would mention this in my blog).

                                           Me, Vinny, and Madison.

                                                  Train Rides!!!

                                                     Coincidence????

                                                                   'Murica!

                                                       Tubing!!

                                           I got some snow in my face.

Ferien!!

After Christmas I went with my host family to Flims. We stayed in a house that the grandfather of my host mom built. It's a cute little wooden house. It looks like a typical Swiss mountain home.
 During this vacation I learned how to ski! The first day was so hard! I fell down so many times! My host father was there the whole time to help me though. On the back of my ski pants there was a tag that said "No guts, No glory" so that became the motto for the day. When we got back to the house I fell asleep on the couch and slept for 2 hours. Skiing is exhausting! The second day was better. I only fell down half as much. Annina (my host sister) and Tashina (my host brothers girlfriend) came with us to snow board. Annina was learning to snow board, so we were able to practice together on the beginners piste.
The rest of the vacation was spent hiking, shopping, and I even went sledding!

                                                             Skiing!

                                              One of the many times I fell down.

                                Just like Missourians, Swiss people love their cows! With Annina and Jonas

                                                         Flims!

                                                        On a hike!

                                                  Reading Jonas's book.

                                       My family's cute mountain house!

 I thought it was so funny that they had a place to put your snowboards and skis outside the grocery store. Very practical in a mountain town.

This was on the sale rack at a store in the town! If you can't see it's a jacket (an ugly one) that did cost 998.00 franks (more than $1000) but now its half price!!

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.)