Marika has been on her RYE journey for over 100 days now and is doing fantastic. She got word late last week that she passed the exam that she had some nerves about, and references below, so that is good news. German is a challenging language but she is conquering it along the way! Here are three questions she was asked so that I could share with the club.
1.Biggest surprise you have encountered so far that you didn’t think about before you left on your journey
People always said that everything happens so fast on exchange but I never really believed them. It was like I blinked and I’m already over 100 days into my exchange. It feels like last week I wrote my A1 exam and this time next week I’ll be writing my A2. Also everything is so close when you have public transit available to you. In Canada I don’t go anywhere unless someone can drive me but here I have a GA and can get on any train going in any direction and go where ever I need without needing to coordinate who will drive who. I knew that the Swiss railway system was amazing but I didn’t realize how much it would change how I go about my days. I spend a LOT of time on trains and I get so much done on them, most of the time it is either sleeping, eating, or doing homework.
2. Favorite “new” food so far
There are so many. I really like Käsespätzle but my favorite so far is probably deep fried camembert. I’ve also had some really good chocolate. Did you know that they have white chocolate Toblerone bars? So good. Also raspberry chocolate is good. One food that I don’t like is Cold Soup. At a joint Rotary meeting that I went to when I first arrived I had what I can only describe as Cold Dill Broccoli soup that I did not like one bit.
3.What are Rotary meetings like over there. Like or dislike about them?
Rotary meetings seem to be pretty similar to ours in Spruce Grove. Before the meeting everyone chats (except they mostly have wine instead of coffee) and then when the meeting starts everyone sits down at tables of around 6 people and instead of it being buffet style they bring everyone’s food out. During the meeting they discuss Club Stuff and usually there is a speech or presentation. I’ve only been to one so far when I gave my presentation because it’s all the way in Oerlikon, Zurich at Noon on Thursdays so I would have to miss a day of school so I’m going to go on school breaks. I had a dinner with my counsellor, YEO and second host family two weekends ago and I have a Christmas dinner with Rotary next month that I am looking forward to. Their meetings are more formal that the Spruce Grove meetings which I would say is the only thing that I dislike.
Say hi to everyone for me! Hope you guys have a good meeting.