CHRISTMAS

So it's been a while and I am sorry. I'll try to remember as much as I can.

Christmas Eve:
I enjoyed my lack of Friday classes (2hrs math, 2 hrs biology, and 5 hours of biology) by sleeping until.. late o' clock. Splendid, i'd say. We then got a tree and topped it with christmasy stuff. BUT NO LIGHTS. We put on CANDLES. AND LIT THEM. We had fondue of great tastiness. Then, after dinner(which we made last forever for Maurin, the 10year old boy), we opened presents. I got a Swiss army knife, chocolate, shirts and some other little stuff. Maurin totally loved the Sharks shirt i got him and it fit perfectly. After presents, we sang German Christmas songs and had a yummy dessert.

Christmas Day:
We drove up to Winterthur and met with all of my hostdad's side of the family. Fantastic food. It was really weird to be with another family as though I'm a part. I can tell you it feels in no way like Christmas. Though, i don't think last year did either... so maybe that's just the feeling as i get older and it loses it's specialness. After dinner, we also sang more songs. I went up to my laptop and Skyped with my family and with others that i really had needed to Skype. We spend the night at the house.

The Day After (when I put it in majuscules, it looks scary):
We drove a little ways to my hostmom's parents. Though, her father was in the hospital so we stopped there first. We then had a lunch/dinner thing there of RACLETTE (only the best cheese-potato mash ever). I watched Maurin's soccer movie that he got with Luana, Maurin, and Gabriela. We drove home that night.

The 27th-28th (best name for it, i guess):
I got up and took a train to Zürich then a straight shot to Stuttgart, Germany. 4 hours total was not too bad. I met up with the Bach family and stayed there for two nights. We went on some TV tower thing that you could see all of Stuttgart. Then the next day, we went to the Mercedes Benz museum. We read almost EVERYTHING. Very interesting stuff. Then I saw The Tourist with Miri (in English. There's some American barracks there). Much better than i thought it would be.

The 29th:
Hung out with the Bachs. Then got a train back to Zürich then i was supposed to get on the 5.07 train by Winterthur to get to Frauenfeld but i took the 5.09 by Winterthur and got off at Wil. They picked me up there and just laughed. We drove to a birthday party for my hostmom's brother. Good dinner. The kids and i then watched the first Harry Potter movie in German. That night, we stayed at my hostmom's parent's house.

The 30th:
Got up. Ate breakfast. Then Luana, Sereina, Gabriela(hostmom), and I went to Konstanz, Germany (it's just on the border) to go shopping. It's SUPPOSED to be cheaper. It may be so, but it was still way out of my budget and with the stuff that we also have here (i.e. H&M) it was all the same NUMBERS but the € is worth more than the CHF. So no deals. No one bought anything. We took the trains home and had pizza for dinner.

Today is Silvester:
Silvester isn't just a persons name, i guess. It's new years eve. I'm going to a raclette dinner at a friends house and then i have no idea.

Alright, so there was loads before Christmas but i really can't remember all. I'll edit it in later if i remember enough info to make it worth typing.
-Eddie

Unihockey

We had an Unihockey match today. I didn't play but it was a great game to watch. After the first period, we were winning 1-0 from a penalty shot goal. Then, after the second period, we were down 4-1. The third period was very exciting. We were able to get 3 quick goals to tie it up. Then, not long after, Chur (the city we played) scored a beautiful goal. Within the last minute, we scored an even better shot to tie it up and take it through overtime and finally to SHOOTOUT. We missed the first two shots while Chur scored them however it went the opposite for the next 3 shots each and we WON!

Great game. Great day. Great job, boys.


That is all

Disneyland

We went on the MATTERHORN! In SWITZERLAND. So not really Disneyland. THIS WAS THE REAL DEAL, BRO. I shall start the weekend from the beginning of the weekend, however.

On Saturday, I got up and went to Luzern train station and met up with other Luzern-ies. From there we took a train to Bern (1hour) and there to Visp (one hour) where we ALL got together and squeezed on another train to Zurmatt (1hour). We then got all our bags to the Youth Hostel and took loads of pictures. Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my battery before I left so I had enough power to take a few photos. We ventured from there to the main part of the town and began a SCAVENGER HUNT... type-thing. It involved: 10 words in Wallis-schwiizerdüütsch, taking a pic with the Swiss flag and the matterhorn (postcards counted), a pic of a wedding, and others. The last was to trade toothpaste for something cool. We got a keychain from some shop. That shopkeeper was such a bro.
Then. We went into the Matterhorn Museum. NEVER EVER EVER go there. It involved little things of interest. It was good warmness though. After an hour there, we went to dinner at fondue. That had to have been the nastiest cheese ever. It was chunky fondue. I would've preferred swallowing barf. Once we got out of there, we commenced a battle of snow-ice. I did not win.
From there, we went to club under Rotary supervision for the night. It was great. Good music, hilarious dancing. An overall great night.

TODAY
Gosh, I can't believe this was all today but...
Morning time. Breakfast sucked. I had no voice. We went to the gondolas to the small Matterhorn. I had no voice. Ascended the mountains. Still no voice. Got to the top. It was freezing and the snow was everywhere and we couldnt see the legitimate Matterhorn. 50km/hour wind too. Awesome. Still no voice. We went into a glacier next. I found a secret ice-slide with another Californian so we deemed it ours. They wouldnt let us go down it though. It was "blocked off" as they say. As though measly little ropes block it off. HA. Still no voice.
{This is the point where I fall asleep writing the blog and postpone finishing it until Wednesday}
So from there... we went to lunch, which was SPAGHETTI!!! T'was yummy. Still no voice. Then we raced down to Zurmatt and back to our train. It took me about 3.5hours to get home for a good fish dinner. Yayyy.

Since I wrote that first part of this blog, more has happened. On Tuesday, I had no English class so I could sleep in until 9 WHICH I FRICKIN DID. Then after school, I went to visit Martin in the hospital again with Sierra and Ana. He's doing much better and he's walking around. I then ventured to Sierra's Rotary Hostclub for dinner and that was thrilling.
Wednesday, (today) it has begun SNOWING! Like real snow that stays on the ground. It's been snowing on and off for the last week but this is the first that it has stayed on the ground.

ALSO!! I had a multilingual dream! High German, SwissGerman, and English! It was awesome! It really didn't make sense, but it was funny. Just that was a cool thing to tell you all.

That's what's rollin' here.
-Eddie

Thanksgiving

It's interesting that the one year I'm away from the States on the 4th Thursday of the November, I find myself appreciating it the most. So in light of this, I've made a list of what I'm thankful for this year.

I'm unbelievably thankful family. I thank my parents for raising me in such a loving environment. I'm thankful that I've been supported throughout my whole life through every [reasonable] aspiration of mine; from my 5 years of Karate, to this great adventure I am experiencing now. I'm thankful that despite every personal feeling they had, they could let me go on my own earlier than they had expected. I'm thankful for my awesome sister. I had never been able to see how well we get along until I lived with another family of children and could compare. I'm thankful for every great family experience I've ever had. I'm thankful for all of the positive outcomes from negative events in the past year. I'm thankful for the era of "Cousin Camp" and all the fun times we had at the beach. I love and miss you all.

I am thankful for my friends. I'm thankful for all the fun stuff my best friend and I have been through. I'm thankful for all my friends that have been with me through the ups and downs of life and school. I'm thankful for my film buddies who I always have blast with. I'm thankful for my friends at hockey, including my inspiring coaches and teammates. For everyone who has believed in me.

I am thankful for my greatest roll models. I'm thankful for Ray Marquiss for telling me whatever I needed to here to help me and for his ability of control. I don't think he even knows how much he has affected my life. I'm also thankful for Brian Conroy, who was a great inspiration in my role as a comedian in theatre. Without him, there would be valuable aspects of my comical abilities missing and basic attitudes towards theatre missing.

I'm thankful for Rotary and all Rotarians. I am thankful for my club at home that has included me so well in the group. Also, all the people who have helped me start the exchange. I'm thankful for those who of donated to the great program of Rotary Youth Exchange.

I'm thankful for all the great people I've met because of Rotary. All of the exchange students I met last year while I prepared for my own exchange, the students I've met here from all over the world, my host-families, my new classmates that became my friends within the first day, and all of the great Rotarians that I would consider friends. I am extremely thankful that I have included myself in this program because of all the great people I've befriended.

I could go on for ages about who and what I am thankful for just in this year, but that could get boring. If you are reading this, chances are I am thankful that I met you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

-Eddie

Mission Kuugahr FAILS

YESTERDAY.
I was going to get on a train and go to Geneva with another American. So, I got up in the morning. Rode my bike to the station. Picked up some breakfast, and got on the train. At about 18min into the ride (before the first stop in Sursee), the train stopped. About 20min later, they told us to not get off the train and to have patience. Okay no big deal. In about 15min intervals after that, we were told the same thing until at about 1hour and a half in the same spot, they told us a train would pick us up. So after 2hours of sitting in the same spot, we moved again. The new train took us to Bern and I met up with my friend there instead. We walked around and randomly found two other friend from South Africa and Australia. After an excited day, we all went our separate ways.

TODAY
We had a Unihockey match. We lost but it was very exciting and went to overtime. The other teams' first two goals were lame and one just trickled in. Unfortunate but fun.

Halloween plays crap music

It'll be three months that I've been here tomorrow. Whoa. Everyday seems to last forever, but the months fly by. The Southern-hemis are on the end of their exchange, getting ready to head back home. It' be sad to watch them go. For all I know, I'll never see them again. It's one thing to leave your family because you know you'll come back after but as they leave us from the exchange experience, I realize that it's not guaranteed we meet again. Then again, I do live in California... they might want to come visit me.

Last weekend, we had a three day weekend because the canton of Lucerne is Catholic and Monday was a day to remember the dead or something like that. So on Sunday night (Halloween), some friends and I hung out for the night. We went to "British Night." Basically the club's way of playing shitty music for a whole night. T'was cool, yet again.

Then on Monday, I went to Fribourg and walked around with a friend while we waited for more to show up. The whole day was a lot of walking, getting to closed stores because of the holiday. We ended up in Bern to wander and then I went with Grace to a smaller city by her house in which they have a large mall. I mean, for Switzerland. It's the biggest I've seen BY FAR. And very well designed.

This week has been average. Hockey practice continues. School is alright. Math is way beyond me. History is.. well... history.

okay! I done now.
-Eddie

Cake

Hey all

Not much has been going on. School is going well. Last week was back to normal (whatever that is). It was pretty cold. Snow has been falling on Pilatus (the huge mountain).
Last weekend, I hung out with another guy from the Bay Area (though not the same Rotary district) in Stans, a small town on the southern side of Vierwaldstättersee (the Lake of Lucerne). We saw a cool glass-blowing place that had a glass-labyrinth. Unfortunately, it closed as we got there. After, we met up with some other exchange students and went out for the night. T'was awesome. I have some new awesome Aussie, Canadian and New Zealand friends. Because I've never taken a nightbus before, I took the wrong bus home. It gets better. The bus I took went in the right direction and if I had gotten off at Eichhof, I could have been okay. BUT, I fell asleep while I waited for the bus to take off. So when the hooker I had leaned on got off, I up to realize I was on the other side of Kriens. Basically to get home, I walked (and ran at one point) from Valley Fair to Westmont at 2:45am instead of what could have been Rolling hills to Westmont.

It's a good story, I guess. Funnier now than then.

On.. what day was that... thursday? Sure. It was Thursday in this story. After school, I went to Bern for jsut a couple hours to hang out with an Aussie. We went to McDonalds. It was very good. They have better American cheese here. And meat. Too bad it's 12stutz for the meal. Then we wondered around the market and bought some Condescending-Glasses. Short meet up. Was nice.

Not much going on other than that. I got my license to play Unihockey in Switzerland. Yayyy
Then there's a lot of "oh let's hang out" then at the last minute "oh nevermind, I can't"

baii, you all.
-Eddie

Italian graffiti sucks

WELL, this last week I've been in Italy with the family! Pretty cool! It's so weird to be only 2hours from the southern border (1.5 in the other directions). When we go through the Gotthard tunnel, on the other side, it's the Italian speaking part of Switz. and then from there its about an hour to Italy. The border is nothing. We slow down to 5mph then boom, next country. Well, I mean... who would be attacking Switzerland?
Ehh, my feet are cold. Hold on, I'll get some socks.
BACK.

SO, Sunday:
Woke up at 4.30.
We left at 6am.
Made some important potty stops.
Then we found where we were staying for the night. We stayed on someone's farm near Colle di Val d'Elsa. It was really cool. The rooms weren't like the nicest but on the property they had loads of chickens, ducks, pigs, dogs, and OSTRICHES. yes.
After we settled in, we went to the main part of the city. Lots of wandering around.

Monday:
The family and I went to Siena. We saw the first bank ever, I guess. On the huge courtyard, we had lunch and avoided the rain. The amount of English spoken was incredible. You don't appreciate hearing English until you are away from it so long. Lots of Americans and Aussies.

Tuesday:
San Gimignano. Enjoyed some ice cream. Went on a 2hour hike and met some Dutch with whom we talked to for the walk. It was fun. We learned some Dutch and had a multilingual conversation. We had dinner at the same pizzeria as Sunday. Very good.

Wednesday:
Firenze! More wandering, ice cream and pictures. Saw David and other cool rock-people. After some more looking at stuff (very cool, but I can't really elaborate), we went looking for a winery. It took a while but we go there to find out they don't do wine-tasting. Stefan bought some wine then we stopped at another. We found out the girl that served the wine was from the US when I said something in English and so the whole conversation consisted of Italian, English, highGerman, and Swiss German. He bought more wine and we headed to the place we stayed.

Thursday:
T'was a slow day. The kids and I fed the pigs and we all went with the WHITE gardener looking for mushrooms. Stefan wanted to go to a small town so we drove there. It was cute. Especially with the squashed birds.

Friday:
PISA!!!! We drove to Pisa (with some difficulty). You know, they have a tower that is tilting to one side? Quite fascinating. ATE ICE CREAM. Lots of walking. Then we shopped... sorta. After, we headed home. The girls played some weird picture game and we stopped a beach for a half hour. No swimming though. Too cold.

So that's all i got. Fun week. Lots of laughs...and walking.

Okay, bye bye.
-Eddie

HOI

So I just got a message from a certain person that told me I was being lazy and not keeping up with the blog and I though "Hey, I've totally been up-to-date" but then i saw the last post! So long ago!

I can't tell you certain dates but i'll just ramble on about everything i remember since last time.
For last weekend, the fam and i went to Winterthur (again) for my host-cousin's b-day. She decided we would all go to Aguamare, an epically awesome waterpark. All of the enterances and exits to slides and pools were inside so the storm outside was no bother. The slides weren't like super great, but i still loved the warmth of not being outside. The place also has an INDOOR WAVE POOL. Cool. Lastly, it was great that there were no people at the top of each slide, instead, there were fancy-schmancy lights.

School has been great. Basically everyone there is super nice to me and i even got a teacher that looks like Ned Flanders from the Simpsons. I'll get a photo of him next class. Last week of school was some special week and more than half of the school was on a trip including Luana(sister), who went to some snowy place to work on Romeo and Juliet stuffs, and Stefan(dad) went to Berlin with his class. Unfortunately, our grade didn't go on adventures like that. Monday consisted of a 7hour history class about Iran and everytime "Flanders" had anything to say about the US, he would look at me with his dorky-ass smile. It got old. fast. For lunch, i had to go to Rotary. Some evil person put brussel sprouts in my chicken. They had even tried to cover it in bacon to hide it. Nope, i know it was there. Blechhh
Tuesday was cool. Our class went to Lausanne, which is in the French speaking part of Switz., and whilst there, we went to the Olympic Museum. After, we wandered around the city speaking Peter Griffin-Italian. "BAPADA POOPI!"
Wednesday... Music and German class. Combined. The songs were all in old German. HA. What a waste of my day. It was great to catch up on sleep.
Thursday morning was something with Flanders but i'm not sure what it was... the afternoon involved a map game and a lot of running around on our imaginary horses throughout the school looking for orange cards. Quite fun.
Friday was economy in the morning, which was actually interesting and i could understand most of it. The afternoon was sport and no one wanted to tell me that if i wanted to play tennis, i had to go to Kriens and since i went to the gym, i had to do DANCE. Fun... i guess.

SATURDAY:
Zopf in the morning. Then Maurin, Stefan and I drove to Miri's house in Stuttgart and the Bachs (who live on Chopinstrasse ^,,^) treated us to epic cake and coffee. Miri, her dad, Stefan, Maurin and I then made our way to Mannheim and watch the SJ SHARKS play die Adler!!!! The announcer dude from the Tank was there along with Sharkie, and some important dude who sounded familiar... It was AWESOME. Miri and I sang the National Anthem alone with the singer. The first two periods were humiliating. I swear it was the Rampage out there... no offense but... ughh
The third period included 2 quick sharks goals for 2-1. Then, while 4 on 4, die Adler tied it up. With maybe 17seconds left, we scored but they disallowed it for some reason. The other real Sharks fans and i chanted "BULLSHIT." Eventually, the Sharks won in Shootout. The night was overall super ultra awesome.

SUNDAY:
Morning with the Bachs
We left for the main city by lightrail train. We got off and got tickets to the VfB Stuttgart gegen Frankfurt match! We then walked around Oktoberfest until the game. It was so cool. Huge-ass tents with beer and meat and boots and unbelievably drunk people. There were rides that looked so unsafe and huge. I had a currywurst that was SOOO good.

The football match was awesome. We had seats near the visitor corner so they yelled and threw stuff at us. It was incredibly entertaining. I loved it. VfB lost 2-1 but i still think the goal that was called offsides was okay and the score should've been 2-2. I've never seen so many police in riot suits.

That's all i can remember at the moment. i'll add more soon.
Ciao!
-Eddie

Photossss

So I've been reminded to post pictures on here so here are some good ones. I think I'll make a Photobucket thing or something. Dunno yet but I'll figure it out. I thought this site would have something easier to post the pics with. Here y'all go:

SCHOOL

FIRST WEEK OF SCHOOL is of finish. So one thing with school here is that i have the same
group of kids throughout school and they will be together for 4 years.... good thing the group i got is weird and awesome or this would be a loooonnng year. Not that i want it over quickly... i just... yeah. Whatever.

I've for-sure learned more German/swiss german in that last week of real school than the 4 week "Crash Course" crap i went to.

ANYWHO. Differences between school back home:
-Every single day is totally different. And Mitty thought they were so special with their wicked schedule
-Classes are sometimes 45min and sometimes 90min.
-Anytime there is a passing period, even if it's just 5min, we have a break.
-Gum is allowed or they just dont care... (except for PE and Music)
-I have a FIVE HOUR PERIOD on fridays. It switches every other week between Chemie and Biologie.
-They have coffee machines that you can buy from. It's cool.
-You can buy soda at school. Though the soda here goes flat quicker than at home
-There are pretty legit lunches here. Like REAL meals. Also awesome
-The lockers have keys, not combo locks
-Nearly the same number of students as Westmont, however, like 3 times as many teachers.
-MAX 24 students per class. :O
-I go for about 7-9 hours to school
-EPIC LUNCH TIMES. Some days, i have a 2 hour lunch
-Ice rink attached to the school. nuff said
-Smoking area...
-I have 11 classes.
-Books are not supplied
-Tap water tastes better than bottled water

Can't think of anything else. These have been some long days and i'm always tired because of all the german learning.

Talk to y'all later.
-Eddie

ormahgorsh

ITS WEDNESDAY. So that means only 2 days left of language camp. yesss. and then we go to regular school in which i shall begin actually learning helpful German. yayy

Anyways. On monday after class, i met up with Grace from Australia and hung out in luzern. Twas cool. Learned some Greek, drank Rivella, and bought (and ate, of course) expensive chocolate.

Yesterday after class i went to Menznau with Gabriela to get Unihockey stuff. I bought an 80$ pair of gloves and 30$ sport hoodie. When i got to practice, i found out the other goalie that has the gear that i need wasnt coming. I ended up playing without a helmet, cup, chest protector(which isnt too bad because the ball is nearly a whiffle ball), correct pants, OR leg pads. I was able to avoid both getting re-injured or allowing too many goals. My knees are messed up from the first time i played because i failed a putting the leg guards on correctly.


well, thats all ive got to say. I just got a little bored and thought i could write a little.
until next time,
eddie

Night of the 4th of September

Anywho, epic night. Though it was really lame reason to meet up. I got there late, fortunately, and we practiced singing the god-awful "Gang ruef de Bruune" song. Ate dinner with awesome people. Then we separated into different countries and met a dude from Danville who's mom works for San Jose police. All us 'Mericans chanted "USA" and "'MERICA!" while the others sang their country anthem. We all walked to some big building and sang the song then went our separate ways. SO LAME. Then i went to Zug with some Americans (and hella boss Californians). Aussie accent is still awesome, the Mexicans think they count as "Americans" (they are NORTH Americans, GOD), and New Zealand has an epic dance. Nuff said, Good night

Imma goalie agin? say whha???

Aight so imma rite this so duh swizz kant reed it. cuz dats fun fer mii. woop woop. Nah, just kidding. That would be soooo difficult for me. I couldn't let myself write a whole blog like that. ewww. ANYWHO, sooo I've not posted in a couple weeks and i apologize. German class has gotten so much better with the new teacher. She doesn't have the 30 bajillion accents the other one had and she can understand us in either spanish, english, or german. which is awesome. Productivity has skyrocketed and i feel like i'm actually getting the money's worth. that is, if we've paid. However, the class is 4 hours which leaves a whole day open that none of my swiss friends have because they are in the actual school. I'd much rather be in the kantonsschule instead. Then, i learned i could pay an easy 500$ more to take a class that will get me a fluency certificate thing. Yeah, right thanks. I wanna do this again. I'll take the class at the school for FREE, thank you very much.

Also, I went to my first Unihockey practice on Tuesday. It was very fun though i did a lot of following. After, they asked if I'd like to try goalie since i play goal for roller. That was their way of saying i sucked and should not take up bench space. I then played goalie for Thursday's training and played quite well for a first time. I still wasn't happy with my playing completely but i had more fun. Im gunna get a players license next training so i can play back-up during this season. I think they much preferred me playing goal. My knees are beat up though (Google "Floorball" to see why).

Last night, I went with the Club(16u and 18u teams) to watch the Luzern pro team play the 2nd best team in Switzerland. They lost 2-11. But it was cool. Today there's a flag parade thingy for Rotary that could either be awesome or extremely retarded. I'm not sure if ill have enough pins but thats no matter. So off I go on another adventure.

BAI

GOSH... I hate tourists...

Finished with the first week of language camp. I really don't think it was productive. 'Unfortunately,' I'm ill today so I took a break from the super helpful class. After basically every class last week, I hung out in Luzern (the class is smack dab in the center) with either the americans or the spanish speakers. We go to Migros way too much and get nearly the same thing every time.
Luzern's pretty awesome. I mean, if half of Asia is here, it better be cool. However, that means there are a SHITLOAD of tourists here. All the non-europe tourists have ZERO bus courtesy, meaning: they can and WILL use every seat they can. At least tourists understand "ACHTUNG!"... or saw the bus when I did. And I don't wanna sound racist but,,,,,, the asian tourists don't seem to understand personal space. Yes, I understand the bubble changes in Europe but I prefer that my belly button be un-violated. I just wanted my Brotmann at the Bahnhof bakery but nnoooooo, it's much more important that he yell to the child in another language and move me out of the way in midst of ordering...
Anyways, we took Claudio to the airport on Saturday which involved a 3:30am wake-up. I must've cried more than the family combined. That's when it hit how long this is gunna be away from home. So, yes, I am homesick to the extent of: I miss my family, a few friends, the cheapness and taquitos... THEN, we drove to Stefan's dad's house for brunch (it was maybe 8.30 o.0). The kids and I entertained ourselves by killing the wasps and flies that were landing on my FOOD. Then we watched American Dragon in german and I fell asleep on the floor. They took pictures but I won't post them cuz I look hungover... After, we all went to Gabriela's cousin's wedding at 1 or so. It was nice. I felt so proud of myself when i could understand the poem the pastor said :D. The singer there sung "Hallelujah" amazingly (It's in Shrek 1, I think). He said "bathing" wrong though :P. OH AND the wedding was catered with PIZZA. dude. pizza. yesssss.
After the afternoon adventure, we got home at about 5 and everyone slept somewhere. We missed the Zuerich football match, though they lost anyway.
Lucky me got to wake up at 6.30 the next morning to go to a Rotary welcome meeting. It made me laugh to think about the welcome meeting for 5170's students which had like 10. There were about 50 at this one. I had loads of fun. Made new friends. This one dude was a Canadian from Australia... awesome accent, no lie. Talked to some mexicans, some brazilians (happily, the female stereotype is still applicable:D). It still makes me angry I don't fluently speak a language that other people can't understand. All I can do is lay on the CA accent as much as possible so just the Americans and Canadians catch what I say. When I got home, I slept again. When I woke up, EVERYTHING was tagged with a sticky note in either white, pink, or yellow. On said notes are the name of the item. Sereina heard about the idea to help me with the nouns. It's helped a lot actually because I'll remember the thing with the name and colour on it (White: der, pink: die, yellow: das). I moved to Claudio's room after. He's got a Canadian flag nailed to the cement wall that I need to put my flag over soon. Oh, kinda random but when I pulled out the flag on the first week, Luana started to count the stars and she was surprised I knew the number and why there are 50 stars. See? Even some Americans prepare.
So that's all I can remember from this week but I'll remember something after I post this xP

OKAY BYE
-Eddie [eats way too much chocolate]

1 week down

Soooooo... It's been a week. Explored Luzern with Claudio, Nathy, and Julia on my third day. Quite fun indeed. We checked out the watch prices as entertainment...anywhere from 40$ to 60,000$!!! crazzzyyyyy. Then another day, Gabriela and I went to Horw to run some errands. I had to get more passport photos >:( then went to the SUPER AWESOME immigration building and SUPER AWESOME city check-in thingie... i dunno.... wahtevar. Got a phone... that won't work downstairss ugghhh. and, dude, everyone rides bikes so at the stores, there are parking garages for bikes! and bike parking spots EVERYWHERE. its so coolllll.

on... whatever day that was... we went to Bern, the capital, to get Claudio his Ecuadorian visa. Their embassy is pretty lame, btw. We checked out the capital building and the ultra hugeness banks (including the one that destroyed America's economy). THEN, whilst at a crepe kiosk, 3 kids from the US that i met in DC (all from rotary). so that was nice to speak some californian and still be understood. and the crepe was mega goodly. chocolateeeyy. Bern was cool. Their accent was annoying though. I'm glad i'll learn the luzern accent. ALso, i got a new wallet as i had no coin pouch in my previous (Franken come in 5, 2, 1... etc coinage).

Yesterday was "Bye bye, Claudio/ Welcome Eddie" party here. So we had a bunch of the family's friends and family over all day. It rain so we stayed inside for most of it abr isch war gut. Some people brought us gifts and i got some chocolate, a beer and an expensive watch from the really nice rich neighbor ;) and some books, one in a Zürich accent of swiss german. I also impressed stefan's bro by pronouncing "Quölfrisch Appenzeller"(beer from zürich) in his native accent. Thus, i got a beer myself :)

throughout the week, we've played loads of card and board games, played unihockey with the neighbors, enjoyed great bread, tried new chocolate, have some beers, share stories, and overall, had an awesome first week.
thats it for now! tomorrow starts German school for 4 weeks!
-Eddie

Whew

Well, I made it. All of my flights landed early and I had a window seat the whole way xD. The family picked me up about 8.25am. We went to the store to get food for breakfast and had an AWESOME breakfast. very yummi. We played card games throughout the day and i played hockey with Claudio for a while. We had green curry with chicken for dinner which was very good! I got to taste chocolate and more bread :D

This morning, Stefan and I went to the forest and picked mushrooms to eat for dinner. I found a few big ones and we got a total of 3/4 a kilo of pilze! woooo!

so far, the family is awesome, the food is awesome, the view is awesome, and i cant understand the swiss shit... hahah

that's all for now!
ciao

OOkey

hallo leute,
I GOT MY DEPARTURE TIME!! yeaaaaaahhhhhhhh. I leave at 6:30am on the 6th of August and will arrive in Zürich at 8:05am on the 7th. Along with the 9hour time difference....it'll be a long day and a half. With the current plan, I'll take a ride from SJ to Denver and have 30 minutes to get on my next plane. THIRTY MINUTES in DENVER INT!!! Thatll be an adventure in itself. THEN, A bunch of students will meet up in Washington Dulles to take the final ride to Zürich. yayyy. So this basically means that the countdown above is correct. ummmmmm. Oh! I spoke with my sponsor club today and some dude from LosGatos Morning Club was there and overheard us discussing the idea that my computer sucks and i need a new one to skype with. In their club, there's a dude that works in Apple and might be able to get a bitchin deal if i go speak for like 5-10min. YEee. The only thing i dont like about it is the whole "the meeting starts at 7:15am" thing. ugh... but if gets a deal on a computer... i'm ALL IN (twss). okiii thats it for now. talk to you few ppl later

KAY BAI
-Eddie

:D

Ok, so first... LOOK HOW MANY DAYS ARE LEFT! (well, it's slightly inaccurate cuz we don't know what day i'll leave exactly) woohooo! I cannot even explain the weird combo of anxiety and excitement and fear and stress. It's like... whoa. I'm still working on cleaning up my room for Tammo's (the dude coming from Germany. He'll go to Westmont) stay. He will learn to like the Sharks xD. I would also like to point out the flag counter to the right--> that shows the number of different users. Idk (kp) I just thought it was pretty wicked. :D soooo yeahh. OH. and mah host mum, Gabriela, says they like to go hiking and pick mushrooms! D: Mushrooms are awesome but, like, yikes. Stefan teaches biology so I guess he should know safe or not... but still....

ok that is all for now. mostly cuz there's not much else to say. kk bye bye!

Die Alpen!

Hey! Check this out! The student that I will "replace" sent me photos of the view from his home! Those are the Alps!!!!! O.O and below them is the Lake of Lucerne!

Why would someone want to leave that? oi...

I made this because I can

and.... yaa. the title says it all...