Jerrie's Travels

SwissMas <3

My SwissMas.
So first of all. In switzerland. People do not celebrate on the 25th. They celebrate on the 24th. So that was a HUGE adjustment. The night before new years eve I was with Sarah and Katie and we Hung out in Bauma where Sarah lives. It was fun, We were suppose to bake cookies but of course we just ended up talking and laying in bed watching shows on MTV.
I was grody and took a shower. Which i am SO glad I did because later in the day her host mom took us to this ski place cause they had to rent some skis for Sarah. Which of course was FILLED with TONS of cute boys. :)
mmm swiss boys.
We then went back to Sarahs to continue the hanging out. Don't worry, Gnomie was in on the fun too. It was cool to just chill.
NOT SPEND MONEY. and just be. Bauma is really really pretty it is in a valley.
so then it gets pretty late and I am planning on staying the night and Katie has to go home so we walk her to the train station and Sarah and I head back to her house. On the way there we are both kinda like, Ya know, i could go for eating something right now.. what about you? and she is like ya same
so we put this pizza we had bought before into the oven and sat and chit chatted. then we are like. hm what setting is it suppose to be on. Of course i begin to doubt my first choice and change it. Then all of a sudden i smell something and i am like. hmm if i didnt know any better i would say that was smoke... then sarah and I open the oven and out comes ALL this smoke we are like OH LORD!
so i open the door and let it begin to air and and Sarah is like "wheew thank god it didnt set off the fire alarm!"

2 seconds later

BEEEP BEEEEP BEEEEEEEEP!
OH SHIT!
SHHH!!

... out comes host mom.
"is everything alright?" ... turns off alarm
"yea... duhno why that happened the pizza is not even half cooked!"


so we have no idea why so much smoke came. But we ate the pizza as is.
was alright. coulda been better
and then hmmm what else happened. We plugged in the oc and Watched that until we both fell asleep.
The next day i woke up late Quickly showered and was on my way.
i got home around 220 and about an hour later we headed out for the Hike. They do this hike with the whole family every year. In the wild there is a stone with the Name of Andy's Grandpa. It turns out he was a hunter. and one day he was in the wild and spotted a dear. And about second after he shot the deer, His heart stopped. and he passed away in the wild. So they go to the rock every year and light candles on the stone. And then we continued on for about a 20 minute or so Hike. It was really neat because it was SOOOO FOGGY. like it ALWAYS is here. It is ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS FOGGY!
Along the hike i Chatted with a fam member and at the end I would say i was pretty damn proud of myself. I Managed to talk the whole time in german and understand everything that was being said to me.
After the hike we headed home. I showered and got ready for dinner, which was a very special Swiss Dish called Fondue Schinua. I KNOW the spelling for that is wrong but it is prnounced SHH IN YOU AH.
it is oil, and then there are big platters of meat. We had to bowls of oil. One for shrimp and fish and the other was for beef and chicken and pork. And just like fondue you dip it into the bowl of oil until it is cooked.
It was quite tasty. I enjoyed the chicken the most. Big surprise there :P
The table was a MESS. there were tiny bowls everywhere filled with sauces and meat and veggies and pretty much anything you can think of to dip into oil.
We also had Wine from Portugal and some other really fancy red wine. Which was really nice to drink, get my mind off of home.
Then after dinner we sat and Chit Chatted for a bit, Until it was time for presents. I was dreading this for a while just because i didnt know if my gifts would suffice. If it would make me miss home lots, if it would be awkward. But it was really good! they just kept dishing em out and i brought mine down and the girls went through the stuff. It was funny because i gave Thomas and Christian Beer cup holders from Canada and then when they opened the gift from Daniela (there sister who is on exchange in Australia) she had sent them beer cup holders from Australia. So i thought that that was pretty descent.
I was delighted when i opened my gift. I got schoki, of course, Kinda hard to have a swiss christmas without swiss chocolate. and i got candy, and my host dad bought me 30 bucks for my phone so that was wicked. And THEN oh lord.
brace yourselves
I open this think wrapped present and to my surprise it is a piece of paper. My first thought was a picture of me and my host fam, but then as i pull it out it reads
"GUTSCHEIN
Für ein Heidi - Kleid
Liebe Jerrie
Wir Wünschen dir schöne Weihnachten und eingen guten start ins 2009
schön das du bei uns bist"

which means

"Voucher!
For one Heidi Dress
Dearest Jerrie,
We wish for you a beautiful christmas and a great start in 2009
already you are a part of us"
love Doris and Andy.

it also had a funny picture of 2 woman in .. actually really ugly traditional outfits. But i was told they were Austrain outfits.
I was so excited i could not contain myself. I have wanted to buy one since i got here. It was one of the things i REALLY wanted to buy whilst i was here and i NEVER expected them to do something SO nice for me. It really warmed my heart.
So After the gifts we had some shots of Cachaca pronounced CA SHA SA which Thomas received from Christians Brasilian gf Anna.
it is this REALLY strong Brasilian drink. It is as bad if not worse then tequila and chit chatted for only a little bit longer, and then by that time it was midnight and we all headed out to bed.
My SwissMas was a complete success and i felt so greatful to have such a great host family. I really do feel at home here. It'll be sad to leave..
sigh.

Then Yesterday Andy and I headed out to Appenzel which is, like the VERY traditional area of switzerland. They have all the traditional attire and items that make you think "Switzerland" Driving there i was half asleep but when we hit Appenzel land i felt like. whoa. like... almost like austria or something. There were hills EVERYWHERE like. literally. NO flat lands and there were houses dispersed throughout all of the hills. All really tiny houses (Andy had informed me that things were a lot smaller here. the people are apparently really short) which for a swiss person is like my hit. My youngest host sister is nearly as tall as i am. haha. but anyways all little wooden houses all a long the hills. It was really quite beautiful. Once we parked we began the search. We headed into the first store and Told the lady what we were looking for. Now this store. Thats what is was for. Traditional clothes. Do you think they would have any traditional looking dresses? Nope. They had... to be honest. I think, really ugly ones she kept pulling out REALLY long ones that were ugly patterns. The only one i saw that i was slightly interested in was purple and short. And i thought. should i go with a color? But then i was like. No, I want the traditional red swiss outfit.
The lady then said that they might have some in the spring so she took our name and number and we skiddaddled.
Then we went walking a little bit more and andy was like well lets try this store. We Head inside and this woman takes us to the back. And thats where i saw it.
White top. Black Dress, Red Ribbon, Picnic patterned apron. I fell in love
I knew right then that that was it. and i think andy did too. Our faces lit up. Right away i grabbed it and tried it on. At first i couldnt figure the damn thing out. I couldnt find the zipper, and when i did i didnt pull it down all the way so i was like shit this is going to be so small. but it looked like the perfect size on the hanger.
then, after some investigation i figured it out. zipped the bad boy up and couldn't believe my eyes. I truly believe that i am the Canadian Heidi. It fit PERFECT EXACTLY how i wanted it to. It was short, it sucked things it it pushed things up.
i felt like a heidi barbie doll.
after too much money later i think it is by far my favorite thing i have gotten here.
i am searching endlessly for opporotunites to wear it.

Then last night Sarah and I went to Zurich with my friends Patrick Matt and Cyril, We ate at us Mex which is a mexican restaurant. where sarah and i almost had a heart attack!
first thing my eyes saw on the huge menu was
"POUTINE"
we GASPED.
screamed for about a minute straight. and it was obviously decided that that was what we would be having.
of course my favorite poutine is from dq, but this was not that bad! i was so pleased. we were soo happy to have found somewhere to eat poutine and swore we would never (after this exchange) for even a month without poutine ever.
after that we went to club "Q" in Zurich. It was a good time which resulted in a long waiting line, freezing our asses off, followed by dancing our asses off, a long ride home, and a conked out Jerrie in the back seat crashing on Matt. hah poor guy.
we got home.. well i cant even say really late
i will say
early in the morning.
it was a lot of fun.
And THEN today we went to the Theatre to See Hairspray.
I was really excited to see my first show since i got here.. and no wonder it is my first.. each ticket costed 110 bucks!
and 11 of us went!
The show was great. The set was wicked, but the microphones were like.. stuck on the peoples forheads. Totally weird. Like.. it looked like they all had big pimpled on there forheads and then the cords were like through there hair and the down there backs.
.. totally weird.
anyways the show itself was in German and the songs except for a few were in english. I understood most of it because i have seen the movie.
I was really pleased. Then we came home and all 14 of us sat down for a fondue dinner, The Fondue was REALLY good tonight.
i was so full.
shit
i forgot about another adventure
so Andy took me to the Rhine falls which are like these really famous waterfalls and river that goes through germany and switzerland and i think austria or something and they were really cool. We also went to Schauffhausen after that (ugh i know that is spelt wrong ) and that is an old little town and they actually have like a "door" to the town its all closed inside walls and really old they use to have like a draw bridge but its not there anymore and that was really neat. we also visited my host aunt whose HUUUGE dogs just had babies.. well no one of her 3 HUUUGE dogs just had babies.
guess how many?
12 FRIGGEN BABIES
when the mom dog came to feed them literally we had to hold them back like a stampeding herd.
And now here i am writing all this.
which i shouldnt be because i am going to geneva tomorrow and have to wake up in 5 hours. UGH
i need to go to bed asap!

love you mom&dad

posted by Jerrie Ambrus @ 2:38 PM