Switzerland

Grüezie everyone!
It has been a while since my last blog entry, and I am trying to think of what happened before our trip to Switzerland, but everything seems so dull in comparison, so I will just jump right into it.
We left Friday the 21st of May and arrived in Zürich around 2 pm where friends of my host parents met up with us. We walked around for a few hours, and although that is never really long enough to get to know a city, I can definitely say it one of the cleanest and idealistic cities I have ever been to. Zürich is nestled in a valley next to a large lake in the Alps. The skyline is distinguished by the many steeples of its old churches (mostly evangelical). The pictures don`t really do it any justice. It is just one of those places that has to be seen with the naked eye. We took this cute little train up the hill to the university where this strange interactive modern art display was. It overlooked the city and the sun (whom I hadn`t seen in weeks) finally decided to show himself and warm things up a bit. I was awoken from my slight depression caused by lack of sunlight. We went into a few of the churches briefly. From the quick walk around, I have to say the Grossmünster was my favorite. The stain glass windows were really unique and interesting. Check it out. http://www.grossmuenster.ch/start.html
As for the people and culture of Zürich ( from what I am told) it is the city with the highest quality of living in the world. The while walking up and down the Bahnhof Street (equivalent to 5th Avenue NYC) we observed many people that looked like they just stepped out of an Armani advertisement. There were also a lot of Indian tourists. Strange combo.
Another thing that you notice immediately is the accent. Switzerland has three official languages: German, French and Italian. Now that I speak and understand German, I really hear the extreme difference between Swiss German and so-called "Hochdeutsch" (standard German). They are practically two separate languages. In Swiss German, most nouns are made diminutive which to Germans sounds somewhat childish. This form does not exist officially in english, but it would be like saying doggy instead of dog. Or in spanish casita instead of casa. The melody of the language is also very different. Standard German has a similar tone to English where as Swiss German has more of an Italian-sounding intonation.
That night we slept at my host father`s parents` house then left at 6:15am the next morning for the mountains. My host sister didn`t come along, so there were only of 5 of us for the hiking trip.
--my host parents, and host father^s brother and his wife. We drove a few hours then had to drive the car onto a train to take us through a mountain. It was a really bizzare feeling to be in a car on a train driving through a tunnel.
I can't describe every hike we did in detail, but we hiked Saturday afternoon, all day Sunday and Monday morning. We had so many little adventures and saw so many cool things. The Alps have so many different kinds of plants and we always had to stop and look at them and identify them which got old after a while, but it did open my eyes to all the things I normally pass over. I particularly liked this precious little flower called the Spring Gentian. The color is such a vibrant purple, it practically shines out from underneath the grass. It was also cool to see how the vegetation changed as we climbed higher up the mountains.
There were a number of interesting paths including hand-made tunnels that you had to crawl though, boards attached to a cliff with a 300 ft. drop off where all you had to cling onto was a piece of wire, paths along a level stream, paths through peoples yards and paths that just seemed to lead to nowhere. We saw many animals including lizards, snakes, squirrels, many kinds of birds and insects, funny black and white goats, cows, sheep and even a capricorn--yes like the horoscope. It's a real animal. I didnt know that either. I thought it was some mythical creature. We stayed in a bed in breakfast in Valais on Saturday and Sunday night. The ¨continental breakfasts¨ were amazing. Organic apricot nectar with warm buttery croissants--most delicious thing ever. My favorite part of the trip though was not eating. There were so many memorable moments, but I have to say the image that will always come to mind when I talk about this trip will be of all five of us sitting in a meadow on a mountain, surrounded by hundreds of colorful wild flowers overlooking the soft yellow sunset-lit valley below after a long hike. It is something I will never forget. It was an amazing trip.
The week before the trip, a college of mine invited me to a puppet show theater where she works as a volunteer. The show was absolutely charming. The building itself was like a fairy tale and all the puppets where hand made. It inspired me to start doing more crafts again. The puppet masters did not make a huge effort to remain hidden, but somehow you become so engaged in the story, you forget they are there. It was really well done. I would take tickets to the theater over material gifts any day.
Going back to the subject of languages, I thought I might share some funny expressions in German that sometimes have English translations, and sometimes not.
For example:
Damit kann man zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen.
Literal translation: With that can one two flies with one flyswatter kill.
What we say in English: You can kill two birds with one stone that way.

Du gehst mir auf die Nerven!
Literal translation: You go me on the nerves!!
English Version: You are a pain in the neck!

Ellbogengesellschaft
LT: elbow society
EV: dog eat dog world

die Daumen drücken
LT: to press the thumbs
EV: to cross your fingers

Hasenbrot
LT: rabbit's bread
EV: leftovers
(I am still a little confused by this one. Do rabbits eat bread??)

This upcoming week is my last week of work in the botanical garden. I am a little sad. I really enjoy working there, but there is too much to do before the flight back home. I am not really looking forward to starting at the university back in Rhody, but I am excited to see all of you again! Only about three more weeks to go! Hope you all are getting plenty of sunshine, working in the garden, going to the beach or just having a relaxing summer.
Xoxo,
Elena

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are able, please take on an exchange student!!! It is a great experience for both student and host family!! Help give the U.S. a good impression on foreigners!! If you know someone who would be good for hosting, suggest it to them!! Organization are always always looking for host families. Or if you know someone who would be a good canditate for the scholarship program I am on here in Germany, have them contact me!
ekrajeskiataoldotcom

Wanderung im Harz

Hi all!
I think I could safely say that this week was one of the worst weeks I`ve had since I`ve been in Germany in terms of just being in a bad mood. But I won`t go into much detail because there is not much to tell besides that I was in a bad mood and the weather was scheisse. It is still cold and wet and gray. I am ready to go back to warm, sunny Rhode Island. I never thought I would say Rhode Island was warm.
I do have some positive things to tell though. The last weekend in April I went on a two-day hike through the Harz Mountains with my host mom, her friend and two guys from my program. We wanted to hike the former East and West boarder line, but the trail itself was not very good, so we took a more pleasant dirt path. We started in a town called Ilsenburg and went over the tallest mountain (der "Brocken" 1430 m) and then hiked down to a small town called Braunlage. There is an old story in the Harz that the witches meet on top of the Brocken on the night of May first and perform some kind of spiritual dance. So naturally, it has developed into a kind of a Halloween-type celebration over the years--just no candy. All the little towns were decorated with witches when we passed through. It was amusing to see the creativity with the decorations. We stayed in a bed and breakfast and then said goodbye to the boys on Sunday morning because they had to return to Nürnberg. So the girls did the rest of the 25 kilometers. Luckily the weather was gorgeous. It makes or breaks a hike. Our final destination was a small town called Walkenried then from there we took the train back home to Göttingen. That night after dinner I went straight to bed. I don`t think I have ever fallen asleep faster in my entire life. I was also luck to have no muscle pains or blisters. Yay! All that bike riding has paid off.
My internship in the botanical garden has been going well. Every week I am with a different gardener, doing something different. The best thing so far was working in the medieval herb garden. I recognised a lot of plants from Harry Potter and medieval films and books. As I posted on Facebook, I got to work with Mandrakes, the plant with roots that look like a human, as well as Wormwood (used to make absinth)and your basic kitchen herbs such as thyme, rosemary, parsley and so on. I can`t wait to see everything bloom in June!
Last weekend I went to a town near Hamburg to visit a german friend who was an exchange student at my high school. It was a short visit because I needed to be back on Sunday afternoon, but it was really nice to see her. It was sort of strange speaking to her in German, but it seemed only polite that I speak German now that we were in Germany. I picked up some northern germany idiosycrasies such as the greeting "Moin Moin" instead of "Hallo" or "Guten Morgen". I think the differences in dialect are much stronger here than in the US. Unfortunately, there was just too little time to do any sight seeing but it was still worth the trip.
Although this week was not that great, there are still a lot of things to look forward to. I was told the weather should be better after the second week in May. I will be so happy when I can go outside without having to wear a jacket. Only about 6 weeks left, then I am homeward bound!
Missing everyone in the US dearly.
Elena
ps. Happy Mother`s Day mama!!