Day 5: Bye Bye Switzerland

After a late night I don't think anyone was pleased to be woken up at 5 in the morning to leave for Holland by bus. We were already pretty much all packed so all we had to do was get dressed, brush our teeth and make our way downstairs with our suitcases. We picked up lunch and breakfast bags on our way out, then we got into the bus and we were off. We had to leave early so that we wouldn't meet traffic at the border. We didn't and everything went smoothly, getting us home almost an hour earlier than expected. 

Bye Bye Switzerland!

Day 4: Disco Time

The final evening activity was the disco. We all got dressed up and were stuffed into an insanely hot chapel on the top floor. It was too small for us and because it was storming outside all of the windows were closed so it was crazily hot in that room. I went to bed much later than I'd promised myself I would. I would start heading downstairs to go to bed, then hear a song that I'd like and go back to dance. Discos are just so addicting. :)

Amelia, Ziyoda, Me, Fiona, Adelina, Lizzy, Emilie & Mayu

In the disco. 

Day 4: Is that a Fork!?

After we'd let our feet air dry and put our shoes back on we walked back to the meeting point and met up with the rest of the group. Then we got walked along the edge of the water to see the Charlie Chaplin statue and and huge ---- in the water. Can you guess what it's going to be? 

A swan, flowers and a bee. 

Wait a minute. Isthatafork!? A fork!? In the water. Did I see that right? Yes, you did. It is a fork. In the water. A huge fork. 

Lizzy, Emilie, Me, Nora & Mayu

Posing with the Charlie Chaplin statue

Posing with the fork. What an awkward photo. That fork is in my head...hmmm. Let me confront the photographer. 

Day 4: By the Water in Montreux

After Gruyere we got dropped off in Montreux to have free time. It's a pretty big city so we got told to come back and check in with the teachers in two hours and then we'd get another two hours. My friends and I went first to a huge shopping mall. It wasn't very interesting, but somehow we managed to spend the first half of our time there. We were watching our watches, concious of the time. We had just bought ice cream (it had taken longer than we'd thought) and we had five minutes to get back to the teachers before they'd get VERY mad at us. So we ran. That is, Lizzy and I ran. The others walked. We made it in time though, that's what matters. After that, we broke off into two smaller groups. Near the end of the time I was leading my group back and we bumped into a huge lake. So we took it as another photo opp and took some more photos. The water was FREEZING, but we all put our feet in. 

Emilie, Me, Adelina, Amelia, Ellie & Lizzy

Posing on the rocks. No, we did not think we were mermaids. 

Lizzy and I

Day 4: Gruyere

For us Biologists, day 4 was a fun day with not much work and lots of free time. The first place we went to was a working cheese factory/museum. Although we did have to fill out some questions while walking around the factory, it was mostly fun. We got to see how they made all of the dairy into cheese! And guess who was talking on our audio guide...a cow! 

The cheese factory

That's quite a lot of Gruyere cheese...

After the cheese factory we went into the mountain top village of Gruyere. It was a tiny walled city with a castle at one end. We got about 45 minutes to wander around the town meaning that we didn't have the time to go into the castle, but we still walked around the edge of it for awhile, getting a very nice view of Montreux and the surrounding mountains. 

The main square of the town

Amelia, Mayu, Adelina, Ellie, Emilie, Nora, Lizzy, and Me

Amelia, Ellie, Nora, Adelina, Lizzy, Emilie, Me and Mayu on the city wall. If we'd walked backwards we would have fallen to our deaths. Luckily we were smart enough not to step backwards. 

Me on the walk around the castle. 

Walking around the castle...

Day 3: Fourth Of July BBQ

That evening was the Fourth of July and we had a BBQ outside with hotdogs and ketchup and salads and other stuff. It was very yummy, and it was fun to eat outside in the nice weather. 

Lizzy, Emilie, Amelia, Ellie, Nathan, Lizzy, Tom

The BBQ

Playing softball with the Center staff

After dinner there were lots of activities offered and I decided to play softball. It wasn't proper softball, as we used a rounders bat and a tennis ball meaning there was no need for the big gloves. While my team fielded, I stood on first base and managed to get three people out in a row. It was lots of fun. In the end the teams drew. 

So, it was a very American evening for the Fourth of July. BBQ and softball. The only thing that could have made it even better would have been to have a huge fire in the fire pit in the back garden of the Center. 

Day 3: Another Mountain

After we'd gone back up the chair lift and down the two gondolas we got back on the bus and went up another mountain where we did some more Biology work. We walked along a little trail along the side of the mountain and looked at how the land had formed and why different plants were where they were. 

Amelia, Lizzy, Emilie, Adelina, Nathan, Nora, Mayu

I was nearly always at the back of the pack taking photos like this one. 

Snail! 

Flowers

The hill...

Day 3: Work on the Glacier

Once we were in the middle of nowhere on the glacier we redid our experiments and recorded our results (again). It was pretty cold, but not as cold as I'd expected, although I was glad that Mommy had made me bring my snow boots. 

Group shot of Biology 1

Wendy, Emilie, Nora, Natalia, Lizzy, Ellie, Amelia, Mayu and me

We saw this really cool circle rainbow surrounding the sun. (Just to let you know, the sky wasn't that dark, I edited the photo so that you can see the rainbow better.)

Wendy, Emilie, Lizzy, Nora & Mayu

Day 3: Up to the Glacier

On the third day everyone went to the Glacier, Biology and Geography. Before we left we had to time ourselves blowing up a balloon so we could measure our lung capacity. I was one of the many who couldn't actually blow the balloon up, so I used Emilie's results. We also had to measure our heart rate before exercise, as well as directly after and a minute after. 

Then we got on the hour long bus drive to the Glacier. 

Natalia, Ellie, Amelia, Nora, Adelina, Emilie, Mayu, Lizzy, & Me

After the first gondola we had to repeat all of the experiments and record our results. And then it was up another gondola to the glacier at 3000m. 

The view from the second gondola

Looking out at the mountains from the top of the second gondola

We had to take a chairlift down onto the glacier. Some of my friends had never been on a chairlift before and were pretty nervous. 

Walking out onto the glacier

Day 2: Practicing for our Hunger Games Tryouts...

After dinner we had free time. (Yay! Finally) My friends and I decided that out of the different activities given by the hostel we'd like to practice for our Hunger Games Tryouts. In other words, we practiced our shooting skills. With a bow and arrow - Katniss style. It was pretty fun. 

Lizzy, Nora and Mayu. Lizzy was really good. 

Amelia, Me and Emilie shooting. On my first shot I got a bullseye, but it must have been beginners luck because it never happened again. 

Day 2: Railroad Photoshoot

Ellie's dad offered to walk with some of us out of the property and down to the nearby train station in hopes of seeing a train. When we found out that one wouldn't be coming in a pretty long time, we took the opportunity to take some more photos. On the train tracks. 

Amelia, Adelina, Ziyoda, Ellie, Mayu & Nora at the train station

On the train tracks

Posing with the EVIL cows. Just as we were taking this picture those cows behind us started stampeding and we had to run away. It was fairly traumatizing. 

Pretty view. 

:)