This is just a little blog I made to keep all my friends and family (love you mum and dad and Hannah) updated about what's happening on this side of the world. This way, when someone asks me I can just give them the link instead of telling the same story billions of times. Literally. ^^
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Escargo
Christmas dinner was... snails. It was actually pretty nice, not slimy or rubberry or any other textures I was expecting. Just like normal meat. And it was cooked in a garlic sauce and tasted kind of salty, but not overpoweringly salty. I liked it. Anyway, today I'm going to go 'bobbing.' I'm not exactly sure what that is, but apparently it's loads of fun. And there may or may not be a snow war today... ^^
Friday, December 24, 2010
HOLIDAYS!!!
I GET TO SLEEP IN EVERY DAY NOW INSTEAD OF WAKING UP AT 6:00 IN THE MORNING!!!!!!!! YAAAAYYYY!!
I have two weeks of holidays for the Christmas/New Year period. It's pretty exciting!
I'm going to Paris for New Years. Dad, you should probably put some more money on my card. Like, $500. I CAN'T WAIT!
I have two weeks of holidays for the Christmas/New Year period. It's pretty exciting!
I'm going to Paris for New Years. Dad, you should probably put some more money on my card. Like, $500. I CAN'T WAIT!
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Watch Museum
On Saturday I hopped on a train to La Chaux du Fonds and visited a museum. I expected it to be boring but it was actually super cool. Switzerland is apparently the country of the pocket watch, so they have a pretty big museum. And it was 'museum day' that day, so it was totally free. There was this one pocket watch I saw that was absolutely beautiful: The back of it and the face was made of glass, so you could see all the parts inside, which were all made of yellow gold. And it had rubies in amongst all the gold parts, which looked amazing. (I think the rubies was used to do the same thing we use quartz for today) And then we went shopping for a bit until we all realised that none of the other ones really like shopping, and then we bought hot chocolates and went home. It was pretty fun ^^
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Wednesday
On Wednesday, we were running low on food so we just popped over to France to do some grocery shopping. Apparently, it's no big deal. Gwen couldn't understand why I was almost literally exploding with excitement. We also went to the dentist while we were there and visited a few book stores. I have to go now because we're going to France again now for the Christmas markets... Have fun staying in one country!
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The Christmas markets were pretty cool. There were a lot of stalls selling the kind of useless trinkets that you get in all markets, but with a Christmas theme. One stall had these super cool lollies of Santa and the Reindeers and other Christmassy things, it was so cool. And we ate these strange things that were kind of like donuts and covered in sugar and they were yummy. ^^
------------------------------------------------ EDIT ---------------------------------------------------------
The Christmas markets were pretty cool. There were a lot of stalls selling the kind of useless trinkets that you get in all markets, but with a Christmas theme. One stall had these super cool lollies of Santa and the Reindeers and other Christmassy things, it was so cool. And we ate these strange things that were kind of like donuts and covered in sugar and they were yummy. ^^
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Bern
Yesterday I went on a little excursion. To Bern. I think it's kind of strange travelling for forty minutes in a train and arriving in another city that speaks a completely different language to the city you just left. But it was really really fun. I was with all the other Australian kids on this exchange for a whole day speaking English fluently with other people. It's been three weeks since I last did that. ^^
First we visited the Swiss equivelant of Parliament House. They had just elected a new President the day before, so it was interesting to be one of the first people to see her in action. After that we went to the Museum of Communication, which was actually really cool. It had four exhibitions with some of the different kinds of communication: mobile phones, computers and tv, telephones and the postal service. It was really cool to go around the room and see computers that took up a whole room, and move along and see them change so quickly to the modern laptops and notebooks that everyone has today. And the same with mobile phones. They were MASSIVE when they first came out, with tiny little screens, but now most of the mobile phones we have are nothing BUT screens! (aka. iPhone)
We ate lunch in a small restaurant, which was absolutely delicious, and then had free time to go shopping and sight seeing and whatever else we wanted to do. I visited this really massive, really beautiful cathedral that I can't remember the name of, and then I went into a souvenir shop that should rename itself 'rip-off' (I bought a bag for 18Francs there) and then we went to look at the bears. The bear is the animal mascot/icon thingy of the state of Bern, so they have three very sad looking bears in two very small enclosures (probably only 50m x 100m each). Apparently they have an eagle in Geneva, because that's the animal icon of Geneva. And then the time was up because we had spent so long in the Cathedral so I quickly bought a hot chocolate from Macca's and went to the train station. And then I went back home.
But before we actually got home, I went to a shopping centre with my Swiss mum and sisters. It was so cool. They have such cheap clothes (relative to everything else in Switzerland) in some of those shops! But I forgot to take my money, so I couldn't buy anything. It's probably better that way. And then I went back home. For real this time. And ate a delicious lasagne for dinner and went to bed. And that was my day of no school (yay!). :)
First we visited the Swiss equivelant of Parliament House. They had just elected a new President the day before, so it was interesting to be one of the first people to see her in action. After that we went to the Museum of Communication, which was actually really cool. It had four exhibitions with some of the different kinds of communication: mobile phones, computers and tv, telephones and the postal service. It was really cool to go around the room and see computers that took up a whole room, and move along and see them change so quickly to the modern laptops and notebooks that everyone has today. And the same with mobile phones. They were MASSIVE when they first came out, with tiny little screens, but now most of the mobile phones we have are nothing BUT screens! (aka. iPhone)
We ate lunch in a small restaurant, which was absolutely delicious, and then had free time to go shopping and sight seeing and whatever else we wanted to do. I visited this really massive, really beautiful cathedral that I can't remember the name of, and then I went into a souvenir shop that should rename itself 'rip-off' (I bought a bag for 18Francs there) and then we went to look at the bears. The bear is the animal mascot/icon thingy of the state of Bern, so they have three very sad looking bears in two very small enclosures (probably only 50m x 100m each). Apparently they have an eagle in Geneva, because that's the animal icon of Geneva. And then the time was up because we had spent so long in the Cathedral so I quickly bought a hot chocolate from Macca's and went to the train station. And then I went back home.
But before we actually got home, I went to a shopping centre with my Swiss mum and sisters. It was so cool. They have such cheap clothes (relative to everything else in Switzerland) in some of those shops! But I forgot to take my money, so I couldn't buy anything. It's probably better that way. And then I went back home. For real this time. And ate a delicious lasagne for dinner and went to bed. And that was my day of no school (yay!). :)
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Judo Championships
On Saturday I went to watch the Swiss Judo Championship, as you may have guessed from the title of this blog. It was pretty funny at some points. I don't really understand the rules of Judo, so to me it looked like this: two people would bow to each other, then they would walk towards each other and try to grab their opponents' sleeves. Once this was done, they would wriggle around a bit and kick at each others legs until one of them lost their balance. (Actually, it would probably be more accurate to say that their balance was stolen from them, but that doesn't really make sense.) Then the two people would wriggle around a bit on the floor, usually one of them sitting on top of the other, who would usually be curled into a ball. This would continue until the referee raised his hand, then they would stop and repeat the above sequence until the clock ran out or one of them was so super awesome that they just won all their points in one go. And that is Judo, from a Lizzie-perspective.
There was this one guy at the championship (see below) who was absolutely massive, and towered over his opponent in a very scary way. He was one of the few people who was so super awesome that he just won all his points in one go.
HE'S MASSIVE!!!!!
Anyway, that's all from me for now so...
See ya later!
Lizzie.
There was this one guy at the championship (see below) who was absolutely massive, and towered over his opponent in a very scary way. He was one of the few people who was so super awesome that he just won all his points in one go.
HE'S MASSIVE!!!!!
Anyway, that's all from me for now so...
See ya later!
Lizzie.
Just Chillin'
On Sunday Afternoon I tried walking in some snowboots. It was pretty fun, but I got a little wet because I fell over a few times. The snow was super super deep in some places! It was also freezing cold and windy! But it was fun, and it looks pretty impressive in the photo I think. I still haven't built a snowman or chucked a snowball yet, I'm too scared to get my gloves wet and cold!
It rained today as well while I was walking to and from school. Not the heavy Australian rain that leaves everything nice and fresh afterwards, but the cold, miserable drizzle that happens in Switzerland in the winter. And it leaves the ground all wet and slippery and covered in patches of ice. But everything else is just brilliant!
Lizzie.
It rained today as well while I was walking to and from school. Not the heavy Australian rain that leaves everything nice and fresh afterwards, but the cold, miserable drizzle that happens in Switzerland in the winter. And it leaves the ground all wet and slippery and covered in patches of ice. But everything else is just brilliant!
Lizzie.
Thursday, December 02, 2010
While you're all on holidays...
School in Switzerland is so different to Australia! I'm not sure, but I think that they have grades 1-6, 7-10 and 11-13. I'm in twelth grade, which is actually the second grade at my school, which means my class is 2E. Confusing? There's only 18 people in my class, including me. I only have 12 subjects, because I don't have to do German or Italian. This is my main classroom where I have French, Maths, English, Economics and Legal Studies:
The other subjects I do are Art History, Biology, Physics, History, Music, Visual Art and Physical Education. I have PE in an actual gym, like in America! :
Every room is all in the one building with hallways between classes instead of walkways like in Australia. And the building is six stories high. It's called Lycee Blaise-Cendrars. Lycee is just the french word for high-school. This is the signpost out the front, the bus came before I could get a photo of the actual school:
It's also a lot more difficult. There idea of easy maths is geometry with vectors and norms and stuff. I suppose that might be easy for me if it were in English, I don't know. But what we did in Maths B last term is what they are going to do here next term. So their easy maths is our medium maths. Gotta go now. I'm going to play the Wii with my sister. x)
Lizzie.
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
Il fait froid!
Dad sent me a link to a site that shows the weather in Saignelegier. If anyone is curious, here it is:
http://www.local.ch/en/Saignelegier/meteo.html
I think the temperature shown is an average, because it was absolutely freezing cold this morning (-8) but alright this afternoon, definitely above zero. Dreaming of summer in Townsville every night!
Lizzie.
http://www.local.ch/en/Saignelegier/meteo.html
I think the temperature shown is an average, because it was absolutely freezing cold this morning (-8) but alright this afternoon, definitely above zero. Dreaming of summer in Townsville every night!
Lizzie.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Winter Wonderland
The second day of Switzerland I woke up to a measly amount of snow, not even enough to make a snowball. But on the third morning, I woke up to this:
This is the view of the front yard from my bedroom window. Did you know that snow actually glitters? It looks absolutely amazing when it's just fresh and there are no footprints or dirty tire tracks through it. Imagine a massive field full of pine trees with dark green leaves, covered in pure white snow. Welcome to my life. (Just try not to imagine the bitter cold ^^)
Lizzie
Hey!
Today was pretty funny. At least I think it was. I don't think my host family did. The train was late to the station today because of all the snow, and it stopped unexpectedly a few times along the way, so I was super late getting to my home town from school. As I was walking home, I came across my Swiss dad walking in the opposite direction. Apparently they thought I was lost and set up a search party for me with at least three other third parties. A full on search party! Swiss people worry a lot. But it's cool now. ^^
Monday, November 29, 2010
I said goodbye to my parents and boarded the plane just after midday on Saturday.
It was pretty exciting. Everyone was crying for some reason...
All of us posed for a massive group photo in Singapore airport. Believe it or not, this is actually a pretty good one, because everyone is looking at the camera and most to them are smiling except for that random guy in the top left, for some reason. While we were there, some random Singaporeans took photos of us too. Maybe they thought we were famous. (HA!)
Bonjour!
Hey everyone! I finally started up a blog to share what's going on in Switzerland!
It's been super difficult, super cold and super fun so far! And also super beautiful! This is just the starting post, so I haven't put very much in it, but I will add more as I go, I promise.
Lizzie.
It's been super difficult, super cold and super fun so far! And also super beautiful! This is just the starting post, so I haven't put very much in it, but I will add more as I go, I promise.
Lizzie.
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