Hallo!Hoi!Gruzei 

After a rather large break in blogs I am back with another update. I’ve been in quarantine for around two months now and I’ve been waiting until I had enough information to make a sufficient blog post. I’m a big believer in the saying “every cloud has a silver lining” and amongst all the turbulence we face at the moment looking at the little things that make us smile are of the utmost importance. For me life looks a bit different at the moment and surprisingly I’ve kept myself so busy I’m always shocked when I find out it’s Friday and not Tuesday. 

School:

Along with most other school students worldwide, I’ve begun to experience online learning and despite my longing for human contact, I’m enjoying this experience. I am completing all of my classwork and even taking part in a few exams that are taking place. I have a few video conferences every week however these are often sporadic and short. I do struggle at times with the video calls as these tend to be spoken in Swiss German and not High German which for a person new to German is very hard. This crisis is quickly getting solved as whenever there is a question time I very quickly say “Kannst du hochdeutsch sprechen bitte” (can you speak high german please.) The school will hopefully open on the 8th of June for me and I feel pretty confident in this date at this current point in time. I love school here and am so grateful to be going to such an amazing school where I am able to learn and grow with every lesson. 

Sport:

This time has seen me take up a new hobby running… Yes, every day I now voluntarily go for an hour-long jog. On top of this, I’ve also been taking advantage of living in Steinach and have been going stand up paddleboarding on the lake a few times. The water is a bit cold still (something I found out the hard way) but it’s rather warm on top of the water. My host family who are absolutely amazing have still been showing me much of Switzerland through hiking and bike riding tours. Down below I will put some of the favourite photos from my outdoor adventures. 

Cooking:

Another new hobby of mine is baking although this isn’t really new but all this extra time has allowed me to do it more frequently. I’ve tried all sorts of things: Cinnamon rolls, Cookies, Chocolate cakes, Lamingtons, Pavlova, Brownies and Sponge cake to name a few. 

Reflection (?):

All this time in Isolation has given me lots of time to think and not just about what’s happening right now. This time is definitely hard and challenging for everyone from all different parts of society. For me, it’s being away from all that I know in another country during a global pandemic. At times I may be upset that I’m not getting the ‘normal’ exchange experience and that I’m just doing stuff I could be doing in Australia. The thing is all of these daily life things I’m doing I’m doing in Switzerland, a completely different country and if you ask me that’s pretty cool. Everything is a little bit different, as I write this now I look out my window to see houses unlike any house I’d find back home. When I go to eat all the wrappers are in German, all small differences that make even the smallest things exciting. Once it was said to me exchange isn’t a holiday but instead, it’s life in another country and what a beautiful life it is. 

Until next time,

Liebe Grüsse

Chloe.