Going Roman’. . . .

HELLO! Guess what?! IT IS VACATION! YAY!

But first, I have some news. So, school here has been up and down all year. Some days the kids are nice to me and the rest of the days they aren’t. So, I talked to my counselor about it, and we came to the decision that it was just easiest if I stopped school (there was only a month left anyway) and take a French course, so I can perfect my French and then take the Language Proficiency Test. Which makes me so much happier! So after the vacation, I’ll spend 2 weeks studying away and then finish with taking the test! And then travel for the last 2 weeks of May, then have 11 more days, then the family comes! Crazy, right?! I mean, seriously! I basically have 2.5 more months. It is so funny to think back on those first few days here, because it seems like just yesterday. I thought this year was going to go by so slow. And boy, was I wrong. It passes right before your eyes.

Okay. Back to my “adventures”. Last Sunday, was my host brothers confirmation, so we all went to church, saw him be confirmed, then came home and ate from 11am until 5pm! Non-stop! Oh my. My stomach has never hurt so bad. It was intense. Haha.

Then, last Monday, the traveling began!

Brandon and I headed to Basel, which is up in the upper left hand corner, and boarders France and Germany. It takes 3 hours to get there though, and so, on my first day of vacation, I still got up at 6:30am, so we could be in Basel by 10. No time to sleep for this girl. Although, for the first few months here, I could not sleep on trains, at all. But now, I am ALWAYS sleeping on trains. Haha. It is quite the nice system though. Travel all day. Sleep on trains traveling to the places. Okay. Back to Monday. So, he has an exchange student friend, who is also with Rotary, that lives in France, and he figured that  Daryn ( a girl, just for clarification) and I would get along great, so he invited her over to Switzerland for the day and the 3 of us wandered! My favorite thing to do. We went shopping in all the expensive stores that exchange students can’t afford, we showed Daryn how us Swiss kids do it, we introduced her to Migros and the art of picnicking, and realized how great us Swiss kids have it with our GA’s, since in France, they get no type of transport pass, and so when we were showing her all the places we traveled in the past week, she was blown away. Once again, I feel in love with my GA. All trains, trams, buses, boats. I’m going to frame it when I get home.

Basel! On the Rhine (wait, is it the Rhone? Not sure, It’s one of them. . . . ) Where we had our picnic lunch!

Brandon and I on the bridge over the river.

On the  bridge, they had all the canton flags flying. So, of course I snapped a picture of VAUD! Yay for the canton VAUD!

This is one of the most famous buildings in Basel, for obvious reasons. Haha. It houses the “mayor” and other government offices.

So, at this point it was 2pm already, and Becky was going to come and join us. So we headed back to the train station to pick her up and then decided to head to 3 Countries Corner where you can stand in France, Germany, and Switzerland at the same time  

Directions. Makes life so much easier. Especially when traveling with boys who think they know it all and won’t ask for directions. But I’m not bitter or anything about all the time lost trying to find places. . . . . Haha.

3 countries at 1 time!  

So legit. I mean, 3 countries at 1 time. Haha.

Daryn! Our true Frenchie.  

Becky and I!

I apologize that on every post, I put up pictures of flowers. I just  can’t get enough.

There was this giant mirror on the side of this building, so we snapped a photo! Brandon, me, Daryn, and then Becky!

After our 3 places at 1 time experience (it was rather moving haha), Daryn had to head back over the boarder to France. So we said good-byes and promised that next time, we will come to France to meet up! But since it was only 3:45, we still had time to travel! So Brandon had the idea to go to these Roman ruins outside of Basel ( I had never heard of them), but we went with it and hopped on a train there!

P.S. Now do you get the post title??? Going Roman’, like roaming, just Roman because they are Roman ruins?!?! Haha. I  know. So creative it just blows your minds. Okay. Back on track.

Brandon scoping out the premise. For once, he looked at a map for directions. It was a break-through.

So this town we were in, called KaiserAugust,  was, obviously, once a Roman town. And nowadays, they have built an actual town where people live around the ruins. So you just wander all through the town and find the ruins Pretty neat!

First stop. It used to be a house. This one was the hardest for me to picture back then. . . Maybe you see it. . 

Afterwards, we headed outside the town and found the theatre! It was really cool!

Brandon and Becky in the window! Can you see those little black dots? Haha.

Giant column. Very cool.  

Shadows excite me. Like,, look, it’s me! But not really! But yes, it is! Very baffling as well. Shadows. Mystery of mankind. Ugh. Getting of track again.

Me through the window!

Me in the window!

Ah. Shadows again! Brandon, Becky and me!

Sometimes, we’ll talk about how we will remember each other after this year and we’ll mimic one another. When people mimic me, they make 1 of these 2 faces. 

I did not realize she was taking this photo. So I guess it is me “in my natural element”. Or, I look like this. . .

Laughing unconrolably, doing something I shouldn’t be but not realizing I shouldn’t be doing it. Haha. For instance. the sign says don’t climb. I didn’t realize that until I was laying on the wall. Or I am laughing uncontrollably because I either thought of something really funny, or I told someone my signature joke.

Q: What’s brown and sticky?!

A: A STICK! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! It never gets old!!!! Hahahaha!

Me at the top of the theatre!

Taking a little break

Becky and I!

Professional photographer. One of my many skills.

Opera. Another one of my many skills.  

Random sculpture with no arms. So I have no arms. Haha.

We then wandered over the the Amphitheatre! But unfortunately, it turned out to be pretty run down  

And I found a boy. Haha.

Now.

Then.

You know you are in Switzerland when the Roman ruins are in the middle of a field with cows and a tractor driving right in front of it. So Swiss. Haha. I love it.

Brandon and I walking to the next ruins.

Becky! So cute  

Some more ruins!

Climbing up! Don’t worry. This time it was permitted  

Conqueror #1.

Conqueror #2.  

So, there was this random hole (my bet was it was the toilet) and Brandon was amused by it. So he wanted action shots of him jumping into it, right? So Becky’s camera is super high tech, and takes a million photos a second, but Brandon couldn’t hear to understand what we were saying, so he literally jumped into the hole 10 times and each time, the camera took 50 pictures of him jumping. End result. I think I have 2GB of photos of him jumping into that hole. It was funny at the time. Haha.

Becky on the top of the ruins!

And Brandon and I down below!

Becky’s bag, which weighed a good 15 pounds, broke. So she had to carry it like that. Poor thing. . .

This was a church the Romans built but it has been reconstructed so people still worship in it today.

 

And we finished the day chilling by the Rhine River. It was SO HOT! (Notice I was in black pants, a sweatshirt, and boots and Brandon was in shorts and a t-shirt?) No one informed me that it was like the desert up in Basel! So, I was literally sweating to death, and the river was so cold, so it felt so good.  

And that concludes Day 1 of my vacation adventures!