My exchange year has gone by very quickly. It’s hard to believe I only have a little over 3 months left in Switzerland. In February I switched host families and it’s really cool to see the differences between the two. Each has different expectations and traditions. One tradition that was different for me was in the host family on birthdays the whole family goes to the birthday persons room in the morning and wakes them up by singing happy birthday. What was also surprising for me was most of the time people sing happy birthday for others in English rather than in German. Since it was my birthday in March and my host dad and host sister also have birthdays around the same time I got to throw a party with my host family. The party was ABBA themed and everyone got to dress up and watch a live band. I was really grateful for event and I had a great time celebrating with my friends.

During my time here I’ve also been able to go skiing a lot more. In Florida we obviously don’t have mountains. And before last year I had never gone skiing, but recently I have been able to go skiing almost every weekend with my host family because they have an apartment in the alps. Skiing has become something that I really enjoy. At first it wasn’t so much fun because I was comfortable skiing but as time went by and I practiced more I always look forward to skiing.

Almost every time I go I have been able to bring a good friend of mine with me and we make sure to be there super early in the morning up until the last gondola goes up. Unfortunately the ski season is ending and I won’t be able to go again this year. But since the ski season is ending that also means the snow on the mountains is melting and soon enough I will be able to go hiking. I really look forward to on hikes with my friends and see wonderful views. At the beginning of my exchange I didn’t take much advantage of the trails and only went on a few hikes with my host family, but I hope that I will have the chance and time to go on more this coming summer. This might be a little hard because school here ends in early July. The students here only have 5 weeks summer break but through out the year they get a lot of breaks as well.

Three weeks after winter break my school had their sport break which lets students go skiing since it’s the perfect time. During this time I had my project week something all students have to do. You get the choice to do many things during this week. You can learn salsa, do something with tech, or most people choose to go skiing or snow boarding. My project week was with religion. I found it really interesting I got to go to a Mosque, a Buddhist monastery, a catholic church, and a synagogue. For me it was really interesting to learn about all the different cultures and I had a really good time.