Zermatt Unplugged Concert

This year was the 10th anniversary for the Zermatt Unplugged Concert. It’s basically a week of concerts happening everywhere in Zermatt from on the mountains to down in the village and in big tents. There are free concerts and concerts you have to pay for. I was able to go to 3 big concerts the first one was Graham Candy, the second one was a Nelly Furtado concert thanks to my mom, Sean Madigan and Sean Kelly, Nelly’s guitarist. My friend and I went and we were on the floor in the 12th row and we were sitting next to Graham Candy the artist we saw in concert the night before. We got to go backstage and it was a good time. The third was a KT Tunstall concert and that was also very good. I had a good time I bonded with my host cousin, the one I went to all the concerts with. It was also the last week I got to ski in Zermatt, it was well enjoyed. I will miss being in the mountains I have really had great experiences there and I was able to have such an amazing opportunity thanks to my wonderful host family!!  

my new friends 

the taste village stage

Graham Candy

Tom Freund

Fil Bo Riva

I saw Fil Bo Riva while I was walking around!

The Nelly Furtado concert seats 

Nelly 

Nelly

Nelly

Sitting next to Graham Candy at the Nelly concert 

our seats

Sean Kelly and I back stage! Sean grew up in North Bay and now he plays for Nelly and hooked me up with some great tickets to the concert!

The crew and my host cousin

back stage snacks

KT Tunstall

new friends 

My Thai and Estonian friends came to visit me in Zermatt for a ski day

Debrah Scarlett

Anach Cuan band playing on the streets 

Long Tall Jefferson

ein bisschen spazieren

We don't let cold/cloudy days keep us inside! My host dad and I took the kids for a walk in the forest. We ended up meeting with his parents and they came along for a bit. We took our time and walked around it was really sweet. We saw some cows and horses but it was just nice quality time.

host grandpa and nevio 

nevio

host grandma, nevio and leonie with a horse 

lustige kinder (funny kids)

I LOVE living in the farm lands!! 

Saas-Fee Rotex weekend

Every so often Rotex organizes weekends and events for the rotary exchange students to get together. This weekend we went to Saas Fee. The weather wasn’t that great and we were actually unable to do a lot of the things we planned on doing. We were going to go skating but it was raining and we weren’t supposed to skate on the ice when theres water or it would crack and we couldn’t go sledding because there wasn’t enough snow but we still had a good time. We had an intensive snowball fight and we played games and did bonding activities but honestly when were together it doesn’t really matter what we do its just great to be around such amazing people and we always make fun out of everything. Rotex amazes me, all of them are so nice and the weekends are always well organized and they are so supportive. Its so nice to have such a big family from people who come from all over the world. 

friends from all around the world 

what it looks like trying to get exchange students to get together to take a nice picture

Closest thing it gets to a nice picture with hyped up exchange students 

Mid snowball fight announcement 

My friend Connor from Australia 

Old Swiss house

My host grand parents have an old house close to where we live, it used to be the house of my host grandmas parents. One day I was telling my host mom about how I love old architecture and objects and thats when she told me about this house. It was cool to see what life was like for my host grandma when she was growing up. I saw so many interesting things and learned a lot about how things were done back in the day. They are trying to clear some stuff out so I got an old butter press and a cute hand painted jug with cows on it. 

the old tractor 

my host grandpa showing me around 

the living room and a bedroom

the kitchen and dining room 

butter turner

host grandma on the deck

nevio doing laundry 

where they kept the alcohol 

milk and alcohol beverage containers 

the house

B1 German Test

The day Ive been studying the past 8 months for… The day that I get to show what I can do. My B1 German test! As most of you should know I have been studying German since my arrival in Switzerland in August. Studying German is special because they speak a different dialect of Swiss German in every canton and they don't speak High German anywhere outside of school. Also the Canton of Fribourg, where I live is mainly French so its interessting for me haha. The night of the test I was soo nervous and just couldn’t focus on anything. I got up at 4:30 in the morning to catch an early enough train to get me to Zurich on time for the test. I met my friend Benja from Argentina in Bern and we studied on the train ride there together. Turns out we were early and the first ones there but I mean at least we weren’t late! During the test I was so nervous but I think we all were. I finally got my B1 test results back and I got 87% and will be receiving a language diploma!