Half of October and all of November

So, though a lot of time has passed, there really aren't a whole lot of big new things to talk about.

School is long, and I'm actually starting to run out of things to ponder. If any of you have any ideas of things I could sit and think about, please let me know. That's only a joke; I do in fact have things to work on during class so I do stay busy enough.
School takes up almost all of my time. This last week I got home between 7.30 and 8.30 every night. After a long day I don't really have much energy to do much of anything, so on weekends I try to pack as many things as I possibly can.
Most of the time I will meet up with Swiss friends in the evenings, and travel with other exchange students during the day. If you are wondering why I don't travel with with Swiss kids, it's because I have a GA, which allows me to use any method of transportation for free (well, it's actually very expensive but Rotary buys every student a GA)and many of my Swiss friends don't have one. They are also very busy with school; When I ask many of the students what they did over the weekend, they often say they were studying.

As for German, it is getting better. The problem is that it is very difficult to notice any improvement. During class, I only understand about 5 percent more than what I did on the first day. However, I can now follow the conversation during dinner. So I know it is improving, but like I said, it's very hard to tell. I am in a language course in Zurich now though, so in theory my German should continue to improve.

About a week ago, the first snow fell. It was so peaceful and pleasant and it really was beautiful. It snowed most of the night, so in the morning there was a nice, 4 inch layer of snow. This also means that the ski season will be starting soon...!
Because my family owns an apartment in Adelboden (a small town in the mountains), we will go skiing every other week.

For Thanksgiving a small group of exchange students and I had an American Thanksgiving dinner that we shared with a few other families. It was a lot of fun, with good food and lots of story telling. I slept extra well that night.
The next day was the Zibele-Märit (Onion Market)! This is a 5-600 year old tradition that is held in Bern. Basically all the farmers who grow onions come to Bern at 4.30 am and set up booths, and tens of thousands of people come. All the Trams through Bern are shut down that day, so I got to walk through the city. Confetti was literally everywhere! All the kids have bags of it, and they simply throw it in your face as you walk by. There are also these little plastic hammers that the kids/teens buy. It was really quite funny, because you would just watch a teen go up to an old lady he doesn't know, and would just repeatedly bop her on her head. What was funny is that she would simply stand there with a smile until he stopped.

This weekend I had a Rotary trip to Zermatt (Where the Matterhorn is). It was a large group of about 105 kids, and we all stayed at a small youth hostile. I wish I could say that the Matterhorn was beautiful, but unfortunately we couldn't see it due to the weather. For dinner we went to a restaurant and ate Fondue. I didn't really care for it, but I still ate a lot. It was at about 12.30 that night night that I started feeling sick. After not sleeping and being on the verge of throwing-up the entire night, I had to leave early and go home the next morning. So here I am Monday afternoon in bed writing this blog post. But it's not too bad anymore, and tomorrow I will be in school.

So, that's about it, and the next post will be about Christmas!