My schedule  

McDonald's in Switzerland. I just thought it was funny.

"  "

My class.

We went out for Thai food :)

My favorite thing in the world besides my daddy and blueberries: thai chicken on sticks with peanut sause

So now I've got some time to write.


I am in my third week of school. And it's better.. I guess. It was never particularly bad.. but just not overly.. fun..


CATCH UP: There is no French in the picture anymore, I am officially an exchange student. Even so, I am a special case, because I might do the G1 year (the year I'm currently doing) again next year as a MATURA-bound, normal, Fluent German and Swiss German Speaking (with enough French as well) student. This is not for certain though, because only very special circumstances allow students to redo their G1 year, this includes being very sick and missing months of school. The school system here are very strict (much like the rest of Switzerland,) and are technically run by the government. I know the public schools in America are as well, but they have rules that every single school MUST follow. But the principals of Musegg are trying to worm around it, and make my case significant enough to meet the requirements. To summarize that: I am at this point just an exchange student.


So, what have I been up to? I'll start with last week:
Last Monday I said goodbye to my parents, which was surprisingly not hard (before you think I'm heartless, continue to Tuesday-Bio.) The next day I woke up as normal, showered, ate, yadda yadda ya. Went to English and Chemistry classes in the morning, and then to Biology. Where the teacher, a youngish man, maybe around 35, yelled at me in the middle of class and then took away my phone (which I need because it has my translator.) And then for about 15 minutes I sat, in my Bio. chair, going through fits of crying, getting POed at my self and pulling myself together, only to start balling again 30 seconds later. I don't think I've missed anyone in my life like I miss Leonard Guindon at that moment, for those of you who don't know, Leonard was my Bio teacher at Olney. And I realized, really realized, where I was, how I was alone, and how god awful scared I was. I finally got it together and just decided not to like my biology teacher. And that was that.


There were some good things about last week though. In the first week of school there were a group of five other girls I ate lunch with, I didn't really talk at all though, so you couldn't really consider them my friends. Well last week on Monday I decided to buck up and do it. So I talked. With my limited vocabulary and my downright terrible grammar, I talked. And they were so nice, helping me when I made a mistake, encouraging me when I got frustrated and making conversation with me. My German has improved so so so much just since then. Speaking really is the key to learning. So now I can say, I officially have friends here as well.


My host family, my mother in particular, are god sent. They are just as helpful as the girls at school and a billion times more. They even make me special gluten and dairy free food every night for dinner.


I have to say even though the language is the main reason I wanted to come over here, it is the main thing I am resenting, in fact the only thing I am resenting. Right now I am listening to the first Harry Potter on audio book, watching German movies or English ones dubbed in German (which is very funny, because when I pay attention to their lips I can actually tell what they are saying,) reading "easy readers" in German, reading a book in English about German grammar and trying to speak as much as I possibly can.


I here, I'm working at it, and (hopefully) I'm succeeding.