Moving on... It's getting harder and harder to keep up with this blog, with so much going on that I want to write about but so little time to write it in! Now I even have classes and homework on top of it, so be happy I am sacrificing my free time to fill you in!
Mmm so last Friday I still had no voice but went out drinking and dancing again, first at Beauregard (a student apartment complex) then at Irish again. The music was much better this time and there were more people, but the girls I was with had to huddle closely in a group while sketchy looking men circled around us. One thing I've noticed is that Swiss boys will openly stare but are too shy to do anything whereas Americans will come up and start dancing with you whether or not you are interested.
On Saturday it was cold when I woke up, but I decided it was a good day to bike from Fribourg to Bern (the capital) which my friend said was about an hour and fifteen minute ride. So I'm biking on my sweet purple bike up and down mountains and it's so beautiful. Along the way, I realized why the dairy products here are so good... look at how built these cows are!
The whole time I'm biking, I'm doing so along this clear stream and there are random Swiss chalets scattered around the hillsides and it's just so peaceful (except when a car zooms by an inch away from you going 80 kph).
I get to Bern in just under an hour and a half, my feet completely numb, and then I get lost for another hour. I got lost for an hour just trying to find the city center! I almost got on the autobahn in the process, and ended up walking through a local community's carnivale celebration where everyone was dressed up, even the band.
Then I got through the carnivale and was still lost, and stopped at a gas station where no one spoke French or English only German. They found me someone to talk to with my little German and he basically told me to take the bus with my bike, but I said just tell me how to bike there and he pointed in some direction and then I figured it out. An hour later I was in Bern's city center and bought a pair of jeans--which was difficult because I have no idea my european size, but it was fine and then I walked around looking for Swiss army knives, but by that time it was past 4pm and everything closes in Switzerland at 4 on Saturday. I window shopped until 7 when I was free on the train, (although my bike was not, I had to buy it a ticket) and came back to Fribourg.
The next morning Dan and I got up way too early again (this time, being sick did not help and I was not feeling it) but many beautiful train rides later and one train ride later that went up the side of Grindelwald--only the Swiss would build such a steep train--we got a bluebird day of skiing in virgin powder. Interlaken (where Grindelwald/Jungfrau region is) definitely has the most amazing views of any place I've been in Switzerland.
The entire time we were there we kept finding new trails with amazing powder stashes and the weather was just perfect, I was in such a great mood. We even hiked up a bowl and got such fresh tracks... it was an EPIC run, no question about it.
Monday was the first day of for real classes, and unfortunately I have an 8am in Perolles which is a 30-40 minute walk, but luckily only a 10 minute bike ride. It is a 3 hour 3rd year economics lecture, and the guy started out with "I'm going to be teaching this class in English" and when everybody else but me freaked out he said "Je vous plaisante" which means just kidding. The rest of the lecture was in French which I was surprisingly able to follow, except I had trouble taking notes and listening to the next thing he was saying so there are a lot of holes in my notes. Everybody else in the class had a pencil pouch complete with all necessary scholastic items, graph paper, and a friend--it was so lonely! There were 2 breaks where everyone either ran to get a coffee or a smoke, and I had no one to talk to and no one sitting next to me. After that lecture I felt super alone and unhappy.
But then I decided to play futsal, and was (as usual) the only girl who showed up. There were also a bunch of characters, but I made 2 authentically Swiss friends and felt a loooot better. My afternoon class was canceled which was awesome, so I chilled until I had to go back down to Perolles to place FUSSBALLTENNIS! They legit have a soccer tennis course, and I was the only new person but I feel like I got better really quickly. By the way, especially for Indo people, fussballtennis is basically a developed country's verious of takraw and it hurts wayyy less because we wear shoes and use soccer balls instead of barefoot with that ball of I forget what material. I made some more Swiss friends, which was sweet. After that though, my groin killed for 3 days, not a typical motion I use.
After fussballtennis I rushed home to eat/shower/get ready for the first Crazy Monday of the semester! We all started in St-Justin hanging out for awhile which was a lot of fun and met more people and then headed to Cafe Populaire (or Popu) which was reeeeally crowded and we were kind of late so we got in maybe 2 dances before the lights came on and it was time to head to Irish. There was a mass infront of Irish and we were sardined in it for a good 45 minutes, I barely had to stand up on my own and I met a lot of people very awkwardly. We finally got in and danced and I never made it to stop 3: Rock Cafe, which is super sketchy anyway. Long day.
Tuesday I had an art history class "Ombre et Lumiere" where I actually was with some people I knew but unfortunately I got assigned to the very first oral presentation which is in about a week and a half. Sucks that I have to teach the second class in art history when : A) I've never taken art history B) French is not my first language C) I have no idea how they do oral presentations here... so that's not stressful or anything. I'll let you know how that goes...
Tuesday night me and Olalla and Cristina and others trekked to Perolles to do African Dance. On the way there the bus came before we could buy tickets, so the whole time I'm about to wet myself worrying that Control will come on and I'll be fined 100 CHF and be taken to jail. So I make them get off with me in a couple stops and walk through the rain. Then the teacher doesn't even show up (don't tell Isabel that!) so we take the bus back, this time with a ticket but on the wrong bus so we end up having to walk anyway.
Wednesday I spent a lot of time in the Art History library where my partner ended up being as well. Although she ignored me and when I saw her read an email from me did not respond. She eventually saw me and we discussed our project in French and after 3 hours I sent her my 4 paintings to study from each breakthrough in Italian Renaissance art and she comes over and says I picked good images so she'll just use them too. I'm like okay thanks, way to make me do all the work and not find any paintings... She's cold and definitely Swiss.
Then I had a belgian litterature class and a church class that was canceled. Although I am a little concerned that the church history class will be 3 monks, someone studying to become a priest, and me, a Jew. But I figured why not take a class like this when I'm in the epicenter of Catholicism in Switzerland? We shall see.
By the way I'm sorry I don't have photos for all of these things.
That night our program went out for cheese fondue! Authentic fondue moitie-moitie which has two types of cheeses Gruyere and something else that I forget. We learned the proper way to dip the bread and potatoes and were told only wine and hot liquids - no cold water unless you don't want to be able to shit for days (it will congeal the cheese). I didn't understand the idea of using small pieces, so I was shoving hot, cheesy masses of food in my mouth.
I felt that for a good 24 hours. The next day I had a class in English, which is unfortunate and a result of Tufts' strict guidelines, but at least 5/6 are in French. It's actually a phonetics and phonology class and my teacher has a British accent and as it turns out I am the only native English speaker in the class (not even the teacher is!) so it will be very cool because I will serve as a comparison between UK/American dialects. Guess I can't skip my Thursday morning class :o(
Then I went on a bike ride to these paths I had seen to go run on. They were steep and on the side of a cliff and covered in ice, so I decided to run somewhere else (good call, Jen!). And met up with them later and ended up running on these amazingly beautiful paths by streams and mountains and fields, etc, for like an hour. Unfortunately there is no leash law so I had to pretend to be brave near dogs (I'm still scarred from the dog attack) but they seem way more chill when unleashed, so so far so good! Switz is gorgeous, and I can only imagine how pretty it will be in a couple months. I came back just in time to bump into some ACP girls for a meeting, I guess I was destined not to miss it.
That was last week, this weekend is Carnaval de Bolzes! So I will write about that next time I get a chance... I am enticed by the fire crackers and music I can hear through my window.
Observations:
-Everyone in my classes is old enough to be the professor
-Swiss people treat emails like snail mail, very frustrating to wait days for a short response.
-Everyone uses facebook chats, skype, and texts but not calls because they're so expensive.
-Everyone in my classes has a little pencil pouch with different colored pens, pencils, whiteout, rulers, calculator, and other school supplies.
-People knock on the desk when class is over.
-In my longer lectures that have breaks, everyone runs outside to get a quick smoke.
-The portions are huge, but doggy bags are taboo.
-The Swiss (and really all Europeans) know English grammar, American politics, and American history better than we do.
-It is way too easy to resort to English.
-Iberia airlines keeps screwing me on booking a flight to Madrid next month.
-I am finally meeting Swiss people!
Ciao!
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