School, School, and.... School.

So, this week, the biggest and most interesting thing that's happened is me starting school.  And that's about it.  But it's a pretty big thing, so it'll should still be an interesting post.

To start off with, I have absolutely loved this first week in the school.  The students are nice, the teachers are amazing, and the similarities and the differences make it, for the most part, more enjoyable.  Schedule wise, class begins at 7:40, and we are free to leave at different times depending on the day.  The standard time to leave is around 5:00, which would totally suck if it weren't for a few other details.  For lunch, I take a bus home and have an hour and 40 minutes to eat and then go back to school.  I usually have 20-30 minutes of free time at home before I have to get on the bus, so this is nice.  Every Wednesday, we have no school in the afternoon.  We go until lunch, at which point I go home and have the rest of the day.  Needless to say, this is amazing.  The last class on Thursday is Chemistry Lab, for which there are two groups.  Each week, one group will have Chemistry Lab, while the other is free to go home early.  The groups who have CL switch off each week, so every other week I get to go home early.  So schedule wise, things are pretty nice.  

Now on to classes.  I'll start with my different language classes.  English is by far one of my favorite classes, and before you get to rolling your eyes, it is not just because I am a native English speaker.  I absolutely love the teacher, Mr. B.  He comes from England, which to me is a plus, and he has an extremely nice personality.  I probably learn more German from English class than from any of my other classes, because each time Mr. B teaches the class what something in English means in German, I learn some more vocabulary.  Of course, there is German class, and while it is not my least favorite class, it definitely is not the most interesting.  The third language class that I have is French.  Basically, what this means is that, I am in Switzerland learning High German as well as struggling my way through Swiss German (which is completely different), and on top of all this I get to learn French.  This actually isn't as bad as it sounds.  My French teacher is great, and on top of speaking French, German, and a variety of other languages, he speaks Spanish, which I am very familiar with.  During class, while I understand about 0% of what he says, he will pause for a few seconds to explain to me, in Spanish, what he just instructed to class to do in French.  

Moving on, I have two different math classes: Geometry, and Algebra.  These two are, in a way, easy and difficult for me at the same time.  I have had both of these classes already in the United States, so most of the things that are taught I recognize and know already.  Now, if I don't recognize what's being taught, it is at this point that I am basically screwed, because I don't understand enough of the German math terms to get the slightest idea of what's being taught.  Overall, it's basically what you'd expect: a relatively non-exciting math class with the added bonus of a language barrier.

Science makes things a little bit more interesting.  Sort of.  On the positive side, there is Chemistry.  There are two huge complimentary pluses to this class, the first being that I've had it before in the USA so I recognize most of the things that are taught, and the second being that in Chemistry there are a lot of things that are very universal.  Things such as the periodic table of elements and the way you balance equations.  Chemistry is easily on the higher end of my list of favored classes.  Then there is Biology.  Now, normally I would like the class pretty well.  It's another one that I've already had at home, and I liked it pretty well there.  The problem is that I don't understand a ounce (#metricjoke) of what's going on.  You think the names and terms are crazy normally, try to understand them in a language you hardly know.  Currently we are studying single-celled organisms.  Or plant cells.  Or cell functions.  To be honest, I'm not quite sure.  But my teacher is great and is extremely understanding.  

I have a history class, which is pretty standard.  Not extremely interesting, but it isn't horrible.  We are currently studying the Spanish and Portuguese exploration of the Americas.  I have geography which is a bit more interesting.  We've done some hands on things with globes and flashlights to represent the Earth and the Sun.  Finally, I have Informatik which is basically tech-ed.  This is the class that I have looked forward to the most as somewhat of a geek, but it is scheduled for Tuesdays and this Tuesday we had Berg Tag aka Mountain Day.

So for Berg Tag, each class met individually at the train station instead of at the school.  We then took a short train ride and then a shorter bus ride to a Gondola station and rode up to the top of a mountain that neighbors Säntis.  Then, for the entire school day, we hiked through the mountains until finally ending up at the bottom near the station where we started.  I was able to take a few pictures that turned out pretty well.  I also really got to know most of my classmates while talking with them all day. 

 

I think that'll be all for this post.  I plan on keeping up with posting from now on, so no more slacking and leaving the blog for two weeks.  Please ask any question that pops into your head over the past two posts my commenting on a post, or sending an email to me at ethankiffmeyer@gmail.com.  There should be be a few pictures at the very end on some smaller things that have happened over the past few weeks.

Bis Bald,

-Kiffy

I also want to remember those who died in the terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001 and their families as this will be posted on the anniversary of the attack.  Thank you also to those who serve in the United States military for risking your life to defend our freedom.  

The Front of my school.

The courtyard in the back of my school.

On the last day of the German course, my friends and I spotted Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper and asked for some pictures.

Nikki, one of my better friends, on the train ride home last Friday.

My friend Zoe, from the Philippines on the last day.

On Berg Tag, I stole the hat of one of the girls in my class, and she said I should take a selfie with it.  So I did.

  

Street Parade, Säntis, and Lots of Bruising

So it's been almost two weeks since I posted last....  Very sorry to all those who religiously follow my posts (if there are any of you).  This does, however, mean that I have a ton of things to write about, so I'm probably going to spread it through a couple of posts which I'll post within quick succession of each other.

First off: the Zurich Street Parade.  It was pretty awesome!  I got to hang out with my Rotary friends and have a great time hanging out and listening to music throughout Zurich, which was really nice.  The street parade was less of a "parade" and more like a city wide party.  Down one of the main roads they had vehicles with huge long trailers equipped with speakers, decorations, and a load of people as well as a DJ.   These trucks would drive slowly down the street, stopping occasionally.  They were sort of like smaller, mobile stages.  Throughout Zurich, along the lake, there 6 full sized stages.  There were all sorts of DJ's playing at each one of them, but the more notable ones included Skrillex, Klingande, and my personal favorite EDM (Electronic Dance Music) artist, Robin Schulz.  I have a bunch of pictures from the event, but in order to keep this post from getting super cluttered, I'm going to put all the pictures in a separate post that you can find underneath this one.

Our street parade group.

The moving "stages".

Second: climbing Säntis.  On Sunday I went with my host father and my host sister, Elena, to the mountain Säntis.  Säntis is the mountain that I saw when I hiked into the valley on the first Thursday that I was here.  It was very sunny out, and it was a great day to climb a mountain.  About halfway up the mountain, on the first ridge, there is a small restaurant where we stopped for a snack and something to drink.  On top of Säntis there is a huge telecommunications tower, along with a building with viewing decks and a gift shop.  After climbing all the way to the top of Säntis, we climbed back down the other side of it, into the valley that we can visited my first week.

We could see the Swiss Alps in the distance from the top.

The view halfway to the top.

A restaurant that we stopped at halfway to the top

The Säntis telecommunications tower.

The view from the top.

Finally, what I think is probably one of the most interesting things that've happened over my first month here: getting my arm stuck in an elevator door.  So, our classroom is on a higher floor of this large building that houses the classes as well as a shopping center and a restaurant.  My class was getting on the elevator, and the door started to close, but there was still plenty of room on the elevator.  Now, there are sensors throughout the elevator doors that sense when there is something in between them, and when they are triggered, the doors will open.  Because of this, we wave our hands through the doors all the time in order to keep them open so that people can get on.  However, when I stuck my arm through, the sensors must not have been triggered, because the doors closed on my arm.

My first thought was something like "oh, well this is interesting, but I'm sure the doors will open because there is an obstruction in between them".  This didn't happen, and the doors continued to get tighter on my arm.  My classmates in the elevator had started to freak out, understandable, because on their end they just see most of my arm wedged between the door.  My teacher, who was behind me, realized what happened, and really started to worry.  She started trying to pull the door open after it became apparent that the doors were not going to open themselves.  The other classmates behind me started to realize what was going on, and in all the commotion the other class came out of their classroom to see what was happening.  About 15-20 seconds had past at this point, and the entire time the door was squeezing tighter on my arm.  I don't remember a whole lot from this point, other than repeatedly saying "oh crap.... oh crap.... oh crap...." and my friend inside of the elevator saying "I'm spamming the open button, but it's not doing anything, I swear!".  To shorten the next 20-30 seconds, the door got tighter, my classmates were able to pull the door open enough for me to pull my arm out to my wrist, then a few seconds later get my entire arm out.

So, my teacher took me to the building reception, where I got a lecture in german which I think was about how I shouldn't wave my hand through elevator doors (which is probably true...).  They gave me a wrap for my arm which would act like an ice pack and keep it cold, which I was able to apply to myself thanks to watching casts being applied in Guatemala (Dan Baldini, if you read this, thank you very much).  Nothing was permanently damaged or broken, just a load of bruising which the above picture does not do justice showing.  What have I learned from this?  That, while it may not be very comfortable, experiences like these are almost worth it because of the value that provide as a story.

That basically wraps up last week for interesting things, other than Friday, where almost the entire group from the language camp went out to explore Zurich for our last day of the German course.  There should be another post following this one with stories from this past week in my Swiss school.

Bis Bald,

-Kiffy

Sales Tax, Making Friends, and Conversions

I love this country!!!

To start off this post, the three weeks that I have been in this country so far, I have absolutely loved it.  There are so many reasons.  The landscape is absolutely wonderful, and just in the short time that I have been with my host family and with the things that they've shown me, I am excited to see what the next year has in store for me.  Another thing that is pretty small, but I think is amazing is the fact that in stores, THE LISTED PRICE INCLUDES THE SALES TAX (hint, hint, USA, you need to start doing this).  It is absolutely wonderful that I can look at the price tag and know that is the exact price that I am going to pay for the product, not a single Rappen (penny) more.

One thing that I have been able to do while I am here is go swimming.  Twice now, I have gone with my host brother Michael to a mountain stream/river where there are deeper pools and we can swim in the water and jump from small "cliffs" into the deeper water.  Another thing that I did just today was going with a bunch of my rotary friends into part of Zurich where there is a swimming area on a river.    There is a bridge that spans the river, and you are able to climb under the bridge and jump from it into the water, about 30-ish feet below.  I did not know we would be going today until I arrived at school, so I did not have my swim suit, but next week we plan on going again so I can bring my swim suit and swim with the rest of my friends.  While I did not swim today, I did get a bunch of pictures with my friends and some really cool slow motion videos of my friends jumping from the bridge.  Even though I was in my cloths, I decided to climb under the bridge with my phone to take the videos, which was worth the risk because the videos are a whole lot nicer.

Photos from under the bridge.

Some photos taken mid jump.

I really loved how the slow motion jumps from the bridge turned out, and I have quite a few of them, however for some reason I cannot figure out how to include them in this post.  I'll keep working on it in the next few days and post them separately when I can.

One thing about being an exchange student, at least I think, is that making friends tends to be, in a way, easier than it might be in your home country.  While it can be a little bit awkward because of the language barrier, most of the time your peers are very understanding and want to get to know you because you are different.  You are a foreigner living with them for an entire year, and I think they want to get to know you.  This is something that I have thought about because of my experience with all the exchange students who have stayed in my town along with being an exchange student myself.  

I currently have two groups of friends: I have my friends from my language class who are other Rotary exchange students, and I have my Swiss friends who I have met that go to my school.  The second group I don't know quite as well because I have not started Swiss school yet, however after this last upcoming week of German class, I will start school and get to know them a lot more.  Most of them I know from a party that my host sister, Sarina, had before she left for Canada (by the way, she left Wednesday morning on her exchange.  I'll put a picture from the morning at the end of the post).  Even though I only saw them for about 4 hours, I absolutely love them!  Some want to hang out this upcoming week and see a movie or something so we can get to know each other.  I think that I'm going to like starting school because I will go already having friends that can help me and that I am comfortable talking and hanging out with.  

The last thing I want to write about is converting measurements.  In the good ol' US-of-A, we use the Imperial system for units and measurements, instead of the metric system like every other country.  This is not so bad, until you are living abroad for a year (or if you are an international scientist, which I am not).  It can be very bothersome to have to convert things from feet to meters, from inches to centimeters, from miles to kilometers, and worst of all, from Fahrenheit to Celsius.  I imagine that in the next few months I will get used to it, but to be honest, another thing that the United States should change (along with listing the sales tax) is to use the metric system.  While it would be a very large task to completely switch, and might take some time, it would probably be worth it because then we would have the same system as everyone else, and unit conversions within the metric system are a million times easier.  You just divide by 10.  

That will be all for my weekly post, however there are a few more things that you can expect from me before the week ends.  The first are the slow-mo videos that I took today.  The second are pictures (and maybe videos) from a street parade that I am going to tomorrow (Saturday, August 28th).  I am going with almost all my friends from language class for, and I think it will be a ton of fun.  There will be musicians, dancing, and a whole lot more.  I also plan on styling up my hair, which is something I normally don't do.  Pictures from this I hope to post either the night of, or the day after the parade, so look out for those.  

A pic with my host sister Sarina the morning she left for Canada.

Today we took photos during lunch hour with our country flags.  The big group pictures I will post when I have them, but I do have the picture that I took with the other two students from the USA on the east side of Switzerland (in the entire country, there are over 30 from the United States, but there are only 3 of us on the east side).

As always, please ask questions!  Anything you want pictures of?  Something you want to know more about?  Drop a comment on the post or send me an email at ethankiffmeyer@gmail.com and I'll try and get back to you!

Bis Bald,

-Kiffy

German, Zurich, and Train Stations.

Hello everyone.

It's been a pretty interesting and fun week.  Monday marked my first day of the German language class.  Every morning I take the train from St. Gallen (in the north-east) all the way to Zurich, where the class is.  All of the exchange students in Switzerland are required to take this class before they go to school, so while school is going on right now, I will not attend for another two weeks when my language class ends.

The St. Gallen train station where I take the train every morning.

The language class is nice because my German has been getting a ton better, but to be honest it can get very boring at times.  In school we are changing classes every hour and a half, so there are different subjects and a 10 minute break every time you switch classes.  With this language course, just like school it goes until 3:00, but you are always in the same room learning the same subject.  A nice thing, however, is that we have a little over an hour for lunch.  Our classroom is in a higher floor of a building which is part of a shopping center, so at lunch we go down to the first floor where they have restaurants and food stands where we can get something to eat.  

My favorite thing that I've got in Zurich so far, it's a sandwich made out of a pretzel and salami.

Yesterday (Friday, August 21st) I went with one of my friends from the language class, an exchange student from Columbia, into Zurich to see the lake and hang out for a bit.  It's really an amazing city, with lots of cool buildings, statues, and other sights.  It was also the first time that I had been to the Zurich main station, which was really cool (when I go to Zurich for class, I arrive in an different section of the city called Oerlikon, so I never see the main city or the station).

Zurich Main Station

First thing we noticed when leaving the station was this statue.  Don't know who it is of.

On this bridge that spans the Linth River, couples will lock locks with their names on it.

The Linth River

A large square in front of this building that was next to the lake.

Lake Zurich

Very nice building in Zurich.

On the train ride home from Zurich in the afternoon, there are quite a few of the exchange students that take the same route and get off halfway to St. Gallen in the town of Wil.  One of them, however, stays on the train with me all the way to St. Gallen.  He's from Columbia as well.  He speaks a little bit of English, but not very much, which I actually love because it means I get to use my Spanish!  I'm really happy about this because I feared that I might start to loose it since nobody in Switzerland really speaks it.  

Taking some selfies with my Columbian buddy!

The countryside outside of Wil.

Finally, today I went with Marianne, Sarina, and Elena to the city of Appanzell to watch their younger cousin Janna in a bike race.  I met Janna last Thursday at the party for Janine's birthday.  From Appanzell, I was also able to see Säntis again, the place where we went hiking last week.

The view of Säntis from Appanzell (sorry, it's a bit crooked :-/)

That'll be all for this post, but I should some more interesting things that happen over the course of this next week.  Also, if something happens or I have pictures or anything that I want to post about before the end of week, I may do that.  I do apologize for all the unreliability, but Rotary makes in clear that my priority while I am here is to be immersed in the culture here and not worry so much about things back home, however I will still try and make sure to keep the blog updated!

As always, please ask questions! Anything you want pictures of? Something you want to know more about? Drop a comment on the post or send me an email at ethankiffmeyer@gmail.com and I'll try and get back to you!

Bis Bald,

-Kiffy