Hallo! Last weekend I went outside of Italy and into the land of cheese and chocolate…Switzerland! My host family, two of their friends (including Elena, an english teacher that gave me an opportunity to give a presentation to her students), and I left on Friday afternoon and arrived 4 hours later in Zürich, Switzerland. My host parents have Swiss friends who live near the center, so we stayed at their house. Their house was beautiful!! It was full of antique furniture and little gadgets that they’ve collected over the years from family generations. They were very generous for inviting us to stay in their house. After we arrived, we went straight to dinner because it was already past 8! We ate at a nice hotel nearby. I ate a Thai curry with rice, but then had a stomach ache afterward. After finishing dinner around 11, we went back to the house and went to bed.

I slept really well in the cool weather, and my stomach ache had healed the next morning! We ate a formal breakfast of bread, jam, and strawberries with tea and coffee, and headed out to see the beautiful city of Zürich. The city was absolutely beautiful! Even though it was windy, rainy, and cold for the majority of the day, I still enjoyed every second. It’s a big city, but all of the houses and streets are really small, making the city look even bigger! Pigi and I rode the small ferris wheel that was set up at the time, it was amazing because we could see the whole city from above! There was a festival going on at the time, so we got to see dancing, music, canoe races, and food from all over the world. For lunch we all ate at a small Swiss restaurant in the city. We ordered raclette, a famous Swiss cheese dish. We were each given a small, palm-sized, square tray with a portable stove for all of us in the middle of the table. To make raclette, we would place a piece of cheese on the tray and than heat it up on the stove for a minute or so. Than take it off, scoop it out with a small wooden spatula on your plate, and then eat it with potatoes, vegetables, or by itself! It was truly delicious! After walking around the city a bit more, we took a bus back to the house and prepared for the night.

That night we went out again to go to a party hosted by another Swiss friend. She was celebrating the new ecological pool that she just installed. Her pool is incredible! On the sides of the pool there are plants that help to clean the water. Everything is organic, and toxic free, no chemicals inside. It looks amazing too, kinda like a pond, but cleaner!! The party was fun, there was a lot of food, people, and talking. At the end of the night all of us Italians watched the soccer game between Italy and Germany. By around 11pm there were almost 20 people gathered around the television! Sadly in the end Italy lost, but it was fun watching anyway.

Sunday morning we ate breakfast at another Swiss friend’s house, and headed back on the road for Italy. It was a really fun weekend, and I’m so thankful that I got the opportunity to visit yet another place during my exchange.

Here’s my new video for June! <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChD2X4kHyRo&gt;