Fire! and Fasnacht in Basel

Ok finally getting around to doing this. Sunday before last I stayed in basel for the fasnacht. On sunday evening we went to Liestal(like 20 minutes from basel) where there was a parade of fire, basically. It was pretty intense- I liked it. Then at 4 am on monday fasnacht began in basel. How can I describe this? It was costumed drummers and flute players marching around the city with lanterns. It was pretty eerie. I think I made back to where we were staying around 7 in the morning. During the day on monday there were more parades. But with a more celebratory feeling- floats, and candy, and confetti. I enjoyed it during the day alot better.

Well, last week wasnt so great. I had a really bad stomach sickness from tuesday until friday. We thought I might have had appendicitis, so I spent friday in the hospital. They did a lot of blood tests, and I got an ultrasound, and they determined that I didnt. I was ok again by saturday. Carnival(as in mardi gras) is celebrated pretty widely here. I went to fasnacht(swiss carnival) in chur on saturday night. Pretty much everyone was costumed, and there were like some marching bands randomly going through the streets. Next monday im going to the basel fasnacht, which is way bigger than the one in chur. Im pretty sure its the biggest in switzerland. Im not sure why its next monday since ash wednesday is today, but whatever, im looking forward to it. A little difficult to get pictures at night. Ha, and the inside one is in the train station. We tried going down the stairs but got caught in the middle of the band.

Appenzell, The Burton European Open

On Saturday I went to Urnäsch in Appenzell, with my hostparents, my counselor, and Chloe(from Utah). It was a traditional new years celebration, with singng costumed(trees with bells) people. The burton european open is going on right now in flims laax, so I watched some of the competitions yesterday while I was snowboarding. It was really cool. I went to arosa for the first time on my lunch break today. Its about an hour away. Thats where the sleighs were. I managed not to get any good pictures of the competition.
Sunday makes the 24th time boarding.

Snowboarding/Christmas

I know its been awhile. But I actually havent done much other than snowboard lately. I had 2 days of lessons last week. That helped alot. Ive got it down pretty good now, I want to try the halfpipe at some point. Today I did one of the hardest runs in Flims/laax twice with my hostparents. Somebody died on it already this season, and today somebody was hurt pretty bad on it. I think Ive gone 16 times now- not bad. Christmas was good. On christmas eve we went to Sedrun(deeper in the alps) to my hostmoms mothers house. So I met alot of my hostmoms family, then after dinner we went to mass. It was all in romansh- including a male choir. Then yesterday we went to Luzern, to my hostdads brothers house. It was good, I met some of my hostdads family. We had meat fondue, with horse meat- it tasted good. I got some pictures from Crap Sogn Gion(one of the more popular ski areas), but ill try to get some better ones with me in them. And the tree, yes its real, and yes those are real candles.

Zermatt Rotary Gathering

All the rotary exchange students in Switzerland(like 120 or so) went to Zermatt for the weekend. It was great, everybody had a lot of fun. Most of saturday was spent getting to zermatt. It took me about 8 hours to get there. After that we had free time, and then went to a museum an hour before dinner. We had fondue(my first time). I thought it was pretty good. We slept on saturday in groups in different hotels, depending on whether you chose to go skiing snowboarding or "hiking". The group of hikers I was with got a 4 star hotel--pretty cool, but one group of unfortunates got a hostel. Sunday we took the lifts up to the little matterhorn-almost 13000 feet(air was rather thin). We didnt actually go hiking, but there was an ice palace in the glacier and some great views of the mountains. That was pretty much it. It was just awesome to be with the other exchange students. The pics: We had a view of the matterhorn from our balcony actually. Then the palace and the peak of the mountain we were on(you can probably tell that it was cold and windy).

A full Weekend

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I had a great weekend with my rotary counsellor. On Saturday we drove to zürich(and took the ferry across the lake). Once we got out of the traffic in zürich it didnt take long to make it to our destination, a tiny town called Teufen, where we would be staying the night with my counsellors cousin. Her husband lived for awhile in england and later in Canada for 4 years, so he spoke perfect english. The interesting part is that they actually own a castle and a large chunk of farmland, mostly devoted to wine production, but also some cows and horses. After taking a look around we left for a neighboring town called Freienstein, where there was a small fest. The fest was all about the regional wine, and they were making grape schnapps from whats left after the wine is made. We had an interesting dinner. The main thing of the fest was Treberwurst. Basically its sausage cooked in the grape stuff. Before you eat it though you pour a shot of schnapps on it and light it. It tasted pretty good actually. At about 9 we drove to Winterthur, only about 30 minutes away. It was my first time there so we walked around the old part of the city, eventually making it to a Turkish club thing- it was very cool, a great place to chill. On our way out of Winterthur we couldnt quite find the right exit. After almost an hour of searching we did find the right way, the sign was almost hidden. Anyway we slept in the castle and had breakfast there on Sunday. Around 11 we left for Rheinfall in the very north of switzerland. Its an impressive waterfall on the Rhine river and right next to the city Schaffhausen. Schaffhausen is small but there is a huge castle there. Its public and there are even deer in the courtyard. After Schaffhausen we drove back along Lake Constance, so I guess I saw germany for the first time too(but only across the lake). Well, I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving...I personally had tortellini and a piece of strawberry cake. A little late but Happy Birthday Mike! Hope it was a good one--The big 2-1. The pictures go in order--we slept in the castle with yellow shutters. The winery was in the dungeonlike basement, and you can see some ancient wine too.

Zurich, a concert, and the start of the winter season

I spent last saturday in Zurich with a friend. We just walked around the city since she d never been there. We did see a demonstration though. I think it was about refugees in switzerland. On saturday night I came back to chur and went to a conzert(the happy space hippies--check em out on myspace). The guitarist is in my class, so it was cool for that reason. But it seriously rocked too, so it was awesome. Sunday I was on the slopes for the first time. I spent 2 hours learning how to stay up. But it was great, I loved it. The snow was perfect--its actually early this year. I was a little sore this morning but I didnt have class in the afternoon, so I went back. Today went better. I was on a different run because the one from yesterday is closed during the week(technically i guess its before the season, so not too much is open yet). I went down 3 times and by the third time I wasnt eating too much snow. The snow on this run was considerably harder though so im pretty sore at the moment. Only pictures that ive got out of all this excitement are from the demonstration.