Laura's Swiss Adventure: The beginning of a decade. . .

Bonjour! First, I am writing this on a French keyboard, so the letters may be a little jumbled, but I will do my best. Anyway. I have 1 hour, and decided to update this as I have time before the big New Year's party I am going to with my mom and brother, Ilan. We are even getting all dressed up! Well, my day's have been busy here lately! My new family is so sweet and great, and I have been on the go with them, living up the vacation while it lasts! Here is a run down of the past few days. . . .

On Monday, Ilan, Nora, and I made Bricelets, a traditional Swiss recipe. Here are the directions, si tu veux (if you want:) ) In French and German, your choice :)

It was actually pretty intense. There are 3 steps.

1. Put the batter in the iron (kinda like a waffle iron)

2. Let it bake, and continue to watch it, and when it is browned, quickly remove from the iron, trying to not burn your fingers and place on a board.

3. QUICKLY lay out the bricelet and then roll it onto the little roller thingy.

Now the problem is, you have like 30 seconds to get it wrapped up before it hardens, but in that 30 seconds, it is SUPER DUPER hot. Resulting in burnt fingers. Ilan was originally doing the rolling, until we changed and I failed and needed help. Lol.

Nora and Ilan, eating a failed one. . Poor little guy. Never had a chance to be a real bricelet.

After we became pro's, we made ice cream cones and bowls too. I know. We rock. Haha. THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!!

Monday night, we went bowling! Unfortunetly, I scored a whopping 12! But I still had fun! Here is Nora, my little sis of 12 years, and moi!

Tuesday, we headed to AQUAPARC! It is this giant indoor water park on the other side of Lake Genevé. This is when we were waiting for our tickets. We had lots of fun, and Ilan and I can now say we conquered the Booster Loop. What is this you ask? This would be the only like its kind in the world. It is a body slide that reaches speeds of 80 km, with 3G acceleration. This includes a trap, which is how the ride starts, and after the trap door opens and you go flying straight down, you go through a loop then down to the bottom. Let's remember that this is a BODY SLIDE. It was pretty intense. Ilan and I chicked out the first time we went up, but then went up again and SURVIVED! Then we did it a 2nd time. It was intense. Google it. I am such a campion. Haha.

After the water park, we went back home and I immediatly went with my conselor to meet my 3rd host family! They live RIGHT on the lake, closer than I am now, and own a vineyard. I will have a 19 year old brother, a 17 year old sister, and a 15 year old brother, and of course, a mom and dad. They were sooooo sweet too! When Jean-Francois (next host dad) offered me some of his wine, I thought it was a trick since my conselor was there (ah! I see through this test!) , but they said I could have some, and it was SO GOOD!

After, we headed with my conselor's son and my 3 next host siblings to McDonald's (of course because it is where the cool kids here eat, for real) in Lausanne and then went to see the movie The Tourist, in French of course. And I actually understood everything up until the end, when it got crazy in the last 2 minutes, but a good movie. Go see it. After you finish reading this great post of course.

Wednesday found me getting up early and heading to St. Moritz, which is competly on the other side of Switzerland in the mountains. Becky, Zion and I had planned to take the Glacier Express there, which began in Brig and then headed to St. Moritz. Unfortunetly, Zion and I missed a train in Vevey, which resulted in us missing the Glacier Express by 10 minutes, and Becky spending the whole day alone on the Glacier Express. Zion and I tried to figure out how to catch up with her, but we never did. But we did take the exact same route! So we got to see all the same scenery!

But when we got to Brig, we had some time to wait for our connection and we found him. . . . .

We had lots of fun with him. But when we tried to invite him along with us, he wouldn't budge. :(

Zion and I had SOOO much stuff and had to take quite a few trains to get to St. Moritz, so here is a picture of us after getting on train #3, 4, 5, 6, can't remember. They are all blurring together.

Waiting for the train in Brig. Couldn't resist a picture. . :)

On the final train, I ran into VERA! It was so crazy! I was getting on, and her friend, (who I had met when I was in Weinfelden) spotted me and when I got on the train, there was Vera! Crazy. We weren't going to the same place, but we were together for about an hour! Small world.

Zion and I thought we would be cool and take pictures of us out the window. She has the picture of me though. . . So here is Zion!

This is a picture of me somewhere in Switzerland, on some train, somewhere in the mountains, enjoying the ride.

On the same train we ran into Vera on, we met him. This is Andres. He is our new friend from the Italian part of Switzerland. I think he thinks Zion and I are 2 crazy people, but we totally kept him entertained on this 2 hour train. He taught us some Italian, some German, some Polish, and uhh, I can't remember what else. I decided then to be cool and go incognito while Zion filmed me speaking German. She has the video though, but I will post it once I copy it to my computer. :) Pretty much I can speak 5 languages now. :) Oh, and I love his face in this picture. What is she doing???

Once we got to St. Moritz, we headed to the hostel we were going to stay at, dropped our stuff off, got dressed, asked some 12 year olds to take a picture of us, and then hit the town!

We took a bus into the town, had dinner, went to a club to go dancing, but there was NO ONE there. We were the only 3 dancing, and there was like 5 other people there. Including the owner. But what I think is so funny is this. So we ate at this pub. And while there, we asked the waiter where is a good club for dancing. This is how the conversation goes. . .

Zion- ''Where is a good place to go dancing here?''

Guy- ''Well, there is this really good one, but it is a little expensive''

(Normally they are 10 to 20 francs to get into, so we were thinking expensive is 40 to 50 francs)

Zion- ''What is expensive?''

Guy- ''Oh, about 500 to 600 francs, but it is really good!'' (leaves)

All of us- ''(laughing) WHAT?! We would never pay that. Okay. We will find a club on our own. Haha''.

Ridiculous. WHO PAYS THAT?! Apparently, people who have lots of money and live in St. Moritz. Crazy.

After our ''dancing'' experience, if you could call it that, we headed back to the hostel, but since it was after 10 and there were no more buses, we walked. We were in such deep conversation, I'm not sure exactly how long it took us, but I think it was about an hour walk. Then we headed to bed!

The next day, we got up bright and early, after getting to bed at 2am, got ready, and headed out to go sledding. We took a 30 minute train ride down the mountains to a town called Preda, where we rented 2 sleds and then procedded to sled down this giant hill to the next town. It was about a 15 minute sled ride, but it ended up taking us an hour, because the first stretch of road, which is flat, turns out, is not part of the course. But we thought it was. So we tried sledding down. Which didn't work because it was flat.

Before heading down. A.K.A. Before battle.

The 3 musketeers!

Getting ready!!!

Walking, after giving up on sledding down what I thought was the hill which was flat. I was annoyed.

After finding that that wasn't the hill, and discovering the actual hill, Becky and I sled down together, behind Zion. We wiped out 2 times, one of which left a plesent LARGE bruise on my leg, which looks great with this dress I am currently wearing for New Years. Battle wounds people. Battle wounds. It was fun, but really scary. The first half I was screaming bloody murder I believe. And they have a speed thing halfway down, and it was saying 40 km, which is FAST for a sled. Basically, only campions survive. :)

CAMPIONS!

We like to consider this picture Miss Posh and Blair. Long story. Just pretend it is so funny and admire how great I look in those pants from this angle. :)