BuddySystem® together with the MBA program at Uni S.G. arranged hiking trip in the nearby hills. We started by visiting a cheese-making factory/museum and the proceeded to trek for 3-4 hours up and down green hills and into valleys and canyons until we reached our destination: a water park. Oh, the water was so nice and there was so much to do that I think I stayed for almost 4 hours. 
Taking a well deserved rest after some serious walking
Not surprisingly I went skiing this (third consecutive) weekend as well. Still so lovely.
However, since the weather is getting warmer I have begun enjoying my bike (which I brought with me from
Luckily Easter is such a long break that there was also time for some genuine sight-seeing. Together with Astrid (exchange student from the
The place was much bigger than I had expected and very welcoming with a full-size replica of a roman nobleman's house, where we could relax and play a game with utterly confusing rules.
Since these ruins were in close vicinity to
No prizes for guessing what type of weather we got the following two hours, but the dark clouds do give me an omnious appearance. Looks cool in a Darth Vader kind of way, don't you think?
It is so nice to have the Alps (where the snow is plentiful and the slopes are amazingly long) just around the corner. I have literally made a split-second decision of going for a alpine weekend, something that is impossible (or at least very expensive and cumbersome) in
Can you see me behind the Nargile/shisha/hookah?
The week after we went to Zürich for some night-time sightseeing.
No comments/pictures :-)
Yesterday I was in Zürich, visiting an old friend and joining the locals in their celebration of Spring’s arrival. It is called Sechseläuten and involves a parade of various guilds of the city, as can be seen in the pictures below.
The highpoint was however the burning of a snowman-like figure filled with explosives and placed on top a big pile of firewood. Supposedly a rapid explosion (less than 15 minutes) heralds a warm and long summer. It felt as if the entire city was on the move, luckily we managed to squeeze ourselves into a position where the Böögg at least partly was visible.
Achtung: For those who like chronological order the coming posts will be confusing as I try to catch up with events since Easter.
Now that I have been here a while you might wonder how my German is faring. I’d say I'm at the stage where, in order to understand 99%, I need people to speak at a moderate speed. Nonetheless I was surprised during a lecture about Swiss history and politics that I understood almost everything, even the jokes. Outside of lectures it is trickier. Swiss-German is so different that even native Germans who have been here for several years don’t understand it. Luckily most people in SG are happy to speak German-German (Hochdeutsch) when asked. In addition everything is written in Hochdeutsch, giving me ample opportunity to increase my vocabulary. The exceptions that prove this rule are the SMSs. These are, more often than not, in Swiss-German and to make them utterly unintelligible they follow different spelling rules depending on which part of
LG
This has had one major consequence. Skiing. When there is precipitation in SG (elevation 600 m) it is almost guaranteed that it is snowing at the alp tops. And since there is no sweeter combination than ski slopes covered with fresh snow and free of tourists (we are now in the post-season) I am one happy (and now slightly tanned) exchange student.
But besides hitting the slopes every weekend so far I have also done other things, like...after-ski. Local beer is good and the view is just terrific. It really does help me find the energy needed for my studies.
Last week also entailed an episode that gave me some deeper knowledge of the habits of my host country. At the university canteen I saw a bottle of the local brand fruit juice. I checked the label and it said something about blood orange. Since I was feeling sleepy I thought this might be just what I needed. I was right in my assumption that I would get a jolt from this drink but pretty much wrong about everything else. As I began to drink my newly purchased beverage I quickly discovered my mistake. I had bought Molke, which is not a fruit-based drink but one whose main ingredient is a bi-product of cheese making. Even though it is supposedly extremely healthy I will wait a long time before sipping that stuff again. 
Of widerlüge!
All signs point to an excellent time here. People are friendly and outgoing; courses seem cool and there is a gazillion fun things to do. I am worried I might get too carried away in my optimism.
I can confirm the impression that everything here is expensive, ridiculously so. The thing that best illustrates this is the tendency of many places to charge for the ketchup for the fries. On the plus side (or negative for my studies) beer and alcohol is marginally cheaper than at home.
