swisstmas

it's almost christmas!!! and i'm coming home soon!!

i'm feeling especially festive today, as it is snowing REAL SNOW here in Neuchatel, heavy enough to stay on the ground!

i'm sitting here wearing my christmas sweater listening to christmas carols while eating a clementine (a fruit i associate with christmas for obvious reasons)

i went to the christmas market in montreux on friday with the school, and it was AMAZING. (i bought some christmas presents there wink wink)

it was hosted by Canada or had something to do with Canada ANYWAYS so there was Canadian paraphernalia everywhere 

and i had POUTINE

and CREPES WITH MAPLE SYRUP!!!!!!!

and THREE APPLE CIDERS!

best friday night i've had in a long time

they were selling kraft peanut butter at one of the stands, those little jars, for TWENTY FRANCS.  i really value good peanut butter, but i didn't bother spending the money on it since i will be home again in a few days anyways

SEE YOU SOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!

paris!

i can't believe i forgot to write about my trip to paris!

i went directly to paris from bruges in early november, just for the weekend.

so we had to get up at 5 to catch an early train into paris, and when we got there we went to our hostel to freshen up and then headed to the louvre.  going to the louvre was especially amazing for me because a lot of the art we had been talking about in art class was there, and it was really cool to be able to see it all first hand!  

and i saw the mona lisa, which is really no big deal.  pretty small.

after the louvre, we got the rest of the afternoon free, so we went for lunch, went to the l'arc de triumphe and then took a double decker bus tour of the city.

i screamed when i saw the eiffel tower for the first time.  not that it was any different than i was expecting, but it was just amazing to see a piece of architecture that you've seen in a billion pictures and BOOM it's right in front of you.

that consumed most of our afternoon, and for dinner we went to georges (a really trendy expensive restaurant, you know the one from sex and the city when carrie goes to meet alex's wife) and then we went to see the eiffel tower at night with its light show etc.  i wasn't a HUGE fan of the lights, but before they started it was really nice seeing it lit up.

the next day we did a bike tour of versailles which was AMAZING.  it had been a while since i had ridden a bike and it was good to be riding again.  we got our lunch at a fresh market, which was delicious and went to the palace etc.  a great day

dinner at the hostel, went out.

the next day i went on a walking tour of montmartre (the 'artist district' of paris) and that is where i will live one day.  after that we had the afternoon free again which is used to go shopping in amazing vintage stores (oh my word.) 

an amazing trip!  so glad i finally made it there.

barcelona

barcelona!  my first independent travel!  me and eleven of my friends went to barcelona on the weekend of the 20th of november and it was excellent if i do say so myself.

we took a train to geneva and then a plane to barcelona.  when we arrived it was pretty late, and there was no time for sightseeing of any kind, so we got a very very late dinner and walked around for a while.

the next day, we went for a quick lunch then took a double decker bus tour of the city (my theory on taking a double decker bus tour is DO IT if you can because it's not very expensive, you see all of the sights, and you can get on and off at any point, using your ticket for the whole day.  this is especially ideal if you only have a few days wherever you're staying) we saw a lot of Gaudi's architecture which is AMAZING.  we got off at Gaudi park aka a Dr. Seuss book, and walked around there and took pictures for probably two hours.  we got back on the bus and walked back to our hotel and went out for the night.

the next day we went to the aquarium (you know how i feel about sea life, this was very exciting for me) which i do have to say, was a teensy bit disappointing considering the first aquarium i ever went to was the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago- the most amazing aquarium in the world. ANYWAYS. there was this huge huge tank at the end with billions of sand tiger sharks and this one huge really really really strange looking fish (i wasn't able to take photos because my camera ran out of batteries) and you could walk under and look up and that was cool.

and then i bought a shark t shit.

yeah.

i know.

one of my life goals completed.

it was really nice weather so we went out on the long stretch of grass in front of the aquarium and hung out there for a while and pretended we didn't have to go back to neuchatel anytime soon.

i would call that trip a success, considering i had to be responsible for everything by myself.

that's all for now! byeeeeee

ps: i unfortunately didn't have my nice camera with me which explains why the pictures are not very high quality

bruges remembrance day trip

Hello all!

Well, this past week has been a busy one for traveling.  I went to Bruges, Belgium with the whole school for their remembrance day ceremony and to visit World War I sites.  We flew into Brussels on the Tuesday and then took a bus to our hotel in Bruges.  That afternoon, we took a walking tour of Bruges and went to a local restaurant for dinner.  The next day, we went to Ypres for the Remembrance Day ceremony, which was really good.  There was a parade and then the actual ceremony at Menin gate.  Afterwards, we went to Menin gate and looked at that, and then left the area to tour some areas of importance with regards to WWI.  We went to different Canadian graveyards and to Passendale.  The next day we took a bus ride to Vimy Ridge which was beautiful and went to the monument which was incredible.  It's huge in size and really artfully done.  We spent some time taking pictures and taking the whole thing in, and then got back on the bus.  Our next stop was the Newfoundland monument and another tour of the landscape.  Overall it was an amazing trip and really interesting because I didn't have much knowledge of WWI before that point, which inspired me to learn more about it!  

krakow, poland

This weekend I traveled to Krakow, Poland with a group from school.  It was my first trip outside of Switzerland!  We took a train at 6:24 am (ugh) to the Zurich airport and then a plane to Warsaw and finally a plane into Krakow.  And THERE WAS SNOW THERE.  You can't even imagine how happy I was... I got to wear my winter jacket and mittens and everything.  So happy.
When we got there we did a bit of a bus tour on the way to our hotel, then went on a walking tour of Krakow just in the area where we were staying.  We went to the Wawel Castle which was built for Casimir the Great, the last king of Poland.  That was really beautiful, it was kind of raining the whole time but I didn't mind.  We eventually made it to the market square which ended up just being a 5 minute walk away from our hotel, and there was a nice outdoor market there (where the next day I bought a giant knit wool sweater and an amber ring) and then we went to the restaurant where we would eat dinner.  The food was pretty mediocre, but you can't expect much from a school trip... after dinner i ordered a hot chocolate which ended up being more like really hot pudding as opposed to an actual beverage.  So so good.  After that we just went back the hotel because we were exha a a usted from getting up at 5 and traveling and such. 
The next day we went to the Wieliczka salt mine which is 327 METRES UNDERGROUND.  Kind of scary but very cool.  There were all these statues made from salt blocks and cool salt formations and a whole bunch of cathedrals that you can get married in and things.  Very cool.  We had to climb down a million stairs to get down, and then to get back up we took a really sketchy miner's elevator which was pretty fun!

After the salt mines we went back to the area around our hotel and we got the whole afternoon and evening free.  For lunch we went to a little vegetarian restaurant beside our hotel and had fried perogies.  SO DELICIOUS.  Then we went down to the market square where I made a few purchases, and then decided to go to this really sketchy bar called The Tower which was actually really far underground and resembled a cave and played heavy metal music and some occasional Blink 182.  It ended up being a pretty fun time and we went back there a few times during the trip.  After spending a while in the market square, we went back to the place we went to for dinner and had perogies again.... (boiled this time, equally as if not better than the fried perogies) and then we hung out at the hotel for a bit.  After we just went to a few bars and then came back and went to sleep.

The next day we went to the Auschwitz and Birknau concentration camps.  That was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life.  While I knew it was important for me to be there, I couldn't help but be truly disgusted by what I was learning and what I knew had happened there.  I didn't think I was going to be as emotional as I ended up being, that surprised me.  It was definitely a life changing experience, and though I wouldn't go back there again I would recommend going if you are ever in Krakow.

That afternoon we had free where we did a little more shopping and a little more hanging out at The Tower.  We went to the former Jewish ghetto (there are actually very few Jews still living in Krakow) and had dinner at a restaurant called Ariel, again pretty mediocre.  The soup was really good though.  

The next morning we toured the former Jewish ghetto (we didn't get to see any of it really the night before because it was dark) which was cool.  There was a really great flea market going on which we got to go to and I did a little more shopping there.  (Everything is REALLY cheap in Poland.  Who woulda known...)

We got back on the bus and did a quick tour of Schindler's factory and areas that Schindler's List was filmed in (a movie I have yet to see, but I wish I'd seen it before going) and then headed to the airport to go home!

This trip was a great start to the traveling I will be doing this year, I think I'm really going to love living here!  Poland is a really great place, I didn't know what to expect going in, but definitely go there if you ever get the chance!

peace brothas

my new habitat

I guess since I am now settled in Switzerland, I should tell you a little bit about where I'm living.  I'm living in a village , Corcelles, just outside of Neuchatel, the city where I go to school.  It's just a short bus ride into Neuchatel, and I go there for school every day and on weekends at night usually.  I have a hilarious roommate named Emily from Toronto, and we share a tiny little room with two beds really close together, but it's not too bad.  It is very easy to get around here, the public transportation is unnaturally on time, and you can take the bus, tram or train ANYWHERE.  I don't have to pay for the bus or train because I got a bus pass when I went to school, and I got a card that gives me a half-price train ticket to anywhere in Switzerland (ie. if I decide to go to Zurich, or Geneva or anywhere else ... in Switzerland) which is great!  

This weekend was Fetes des Vendanges, which is a festival celebrating the harvesting of the grapes.  Which means it is a lot of drunk people in downtown Neuchatel.  But there is also a lot of reeeally great food, which I spent a lot of money on, and there are parades and confetti EVERYWHERE.  It was really enjoyable, we went both nights.  There were a bunch of outdoor dance floor area type things set up where I obviously busted moves. Fun.

Anyways, things are still going well here.  I hope everyone who reads this is having a wonderful time, whatever it is you may be doing!

SEEEE YAAAAAAA

Hello all reading the jill blog!

I decided to start this old thing up so you could all see what I'm up to on my year abroad, traveling and such.  

I arrived in Neuchatel on Tuesday after a week of traveling to Grindelwald (in the German part of Switzerland) and Locarno (in the Italian part of Switzerland).  

Grindelwald was very scenic, there were mountains all around, and usually every morning I would wake up facing the window and be shocked when I realized that i was not looking at a postcard, but alas, I was surrounded by mountains!  We did a lot of outdoor activities and a few hikes, one particularly beautiful one where we took the gondola up to the top of a mountain and hiked all the way down (I did manage to get a rather nasty scrape when I tripped like the typical Jill I am while walking/running down  - did you know that running down a hill is the greatest feeling in the world?)  There were cows EVERYWHERE and they actually wore cowbells and you could hear them all around and it was actually very calming and pretty sounding and not as loud and obnoxious as you would think....

Okay, so.  Then we headed to Locarno which felt JUST like being in Italy - there were piazzas and cobblestone streets and gelato and all the Italian trimmings.  

It was here that our teachers gave us permission to have 'a glass of wine or beer' which turned into a really fun and hilarious night.  And then, of course, the permission was revoked for the rest of the orientation trip.  Blast.

We did a hike in Locarno on our last day there, which actually felt a lot like hiking in Southern Ontario, minus the fact that there were crystal blue rivers and waterfalls and little hobbit houses everywhere.  It was nice.

So, anxious to get to Neuchatel and meet the people we would be living with and see where we would be living, we hopped on a four and a half hour train to Neuchatel (very cold.)  And finally we were here!  We took a tour of the school, which was very short, because it isn't huge, and then went for a tour of the town of Neuchatel during which I had delicious crepes (banana and chocolate ahhhhhh).

So here I am!  My new home for the next while.  Weird thought.  I'll get used to it though!

Thanks for reading, friends.