I haven’t written since before the holidays and if you’re wondering why, it’s because it stresses me to have to write in English. I forget very simple English words on a regular basis, but you all - my friends, my family, my loved ones, rotarians, and my mom’s Facebook friends - await my proper, detailed blogs.
I spent wonderful holidays with my last host family skiing in the most beautiful place. And then a week later, I changed host families, which was sad, actually. It also felt weird, like a dine and dash; „Thank you for the wonderful holiday, goodbye“. But for real, it was a hard goodbye. I saw how protective my last host mom had become of me, and it felt like she was sending me off to summer camp. She still texts me to make sure I’m doing well, and to make sure I know I have a rotary weekend coming up. It’s nice.
| Would it be insensitive to say #blessed |
Now, I’m all settled into my new family. Things are really really good. They were very excited to have me here, and they welcomed me very warmly. There’s still a sign on the door, „Welcome Kayle“. It‘s cute to me the way the Swiss people struggle with my name. I answer to Kaylee, Kelly, Kylie, and Kallee here, but I really don’t blame them. Anyway, so I’m happy in the new family. They also have a farm, but the differences are, we have pigs, chickens (for eggs), and milk cows in this family, the last one had mainly meat cows and meat chickens. I will say I liked the cows a lot better, though. Pigs are sooo stinky, loud, jumpy... and cows? They are just happy with some grass and a nice rub.
| A view of my new host family's house from my LAST host family's tractor. Touching, if you will. |
A lot of people didn’t believe me when I said i would do anything to flee the Bonhomme Carnaval. But here I am, in Switzerland, safe from the deathly stare of that big.. white.. scary... guy. Here is also carnival season, but it’s not nearly as scary. It’s super interesting to party to marching band music in a costume. My friends from school and I go as M&Ms, and everyone else has a costume too, just like Halloween.
| Bonhomme Carnaval, for reference. (For all my non-french-Canadian readers). |
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| Carnival music is traditionally played from people in costumes, like these. |
I’m learning a lot of other interesting things about this country as well. For example there is a national alarm that plays when there’s an emergency, which is meant to advise you to listen to the radio to see what the emergency is. Every town has a very loud siren, or cars with very loud sirens, to make sure everyone hears about the emergency. It could be a war(ironically, in Switzerland), contaminated water, anything. Also, it’s actually illegal to build a Swiss chalet now. There’s too many Swiss chalets that are only inhabited for 3 weeks a year, so they’re not allowed to build them anymore. But if you WERE to build a Swiss chalet, or any building for that matter, you would need to put poles up to show your neighbours how high it is, how close it is to their house, and basically give them a feel for it. These poles have to be up for one month before you can get a move on with anything. I think that’s pretty interesting.
| "Baugespann," it's called. Simply meant to give the neighbours a feel. Dip their toes. |
I've been having a peak a my mom's Facebook albums lately, and i'd say, I feel the same here as I did in Cuba 2013. Does that make sense?
