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.