Bonjour

I'm really feeling the trip to Paris right now. Like really. I've been fishing my clothes out from the hamper (read: separated my clothes from my sisters clothes). In a day or two (I'll get around to do it on Thursday, I'm sure) I'll be buying a certain amount of Euros - we all know if I bring my card to Paris I'll be skint the next few months I'm here.. hihi.

Haha, Lisa's clothes to the left and mine to the right. HMM

Before we get down to business (hoho), I want to give a shout out to one of my girls. The one girl in school that - even though she carries her big ass computer (it's huge) every day - hardly ever takes her computer up in class without being told that we need one. The girl that doesn't even have facebook (I know. Your jaw just dropped)!! The girl that posts a comment on almost every one of my posts, and I know when I write that she'll read this. You are the sweetest sweetheart. This is a picture of her:

HEI RANDI! Blir like glad kvar gong du skrive, det e so kjekt at du følge med! Sjøl om ej veit et par andre kika innom av og til (hei pappa), so e du min (einaste) trufastaste (hehehehe) lesar/kommentator! Ilu!

Apart from that, there was something I wanted to write about. Exactly. Switzerland. Sveits. Der Schweiz. My host country at the time being (yes, this means exactly what you think it does - I'm not gonna base myself in Norway my entire life).

Every time when we go out and do something, where I get to know someone new, there are the standard questions: "Where are you from? What are you doing here? Do you like it here?" (If I wanted to I could write these questions on German, btw) It's simple, it's interesting (or is it?) and it helps start a conversation (when I move somewhere else in Norway, I might pretend I'm from abroad just to get to know people, hah!).

So you guys probably know where I'm from (Norway), what I'm doing here (exchange year) and if I like it here (well, if not I would be whining 24/7. We all know it). But then, after the opening questions, there are some special individuals who get as far to asking me; what do I like about Switzerland? Weell. I don't know really. I mean, I'm sure I could spend a lot of time right now just thinking about some stuff I really like about Switzerland. But I'm tired, I've got a full schedule tomorrow, and - being born a Norwegian - I'm trained to pointing out the stuff I don't like before I get to what I find good. So let's start with the main thing.

Looks like breakfast/lunch/tea/every bloody day if you ask me.........

Cheese. Right now your probably thinking: "WTF? Who goes to Switzerland when they don't really like cheese all that much?" I'll tell you. I do. Because I don't stereotype (read: was crossing my fingers to end up in a lactose intolerant family). Don't misunderstand me here. I do eat cheese back north from time to time . I just don't like it (well, I like feta and home made pizza. nomnom). But being a good exchange student as I am, I have eaten cheese, probably every day (not today though! But it's only about noon.. so we'll see). Every kind there is. And even though I was trying really hard to like it. I didn't. I'm sorry Switzerland, I prefer other milk products.

Gotta love that yoghurt.Nomnomnomnom. That's one thing I like about Swisslandia (this is how Joel likes to write it), they have a lot of different yoghurts. And it's cheap!

Alright, so now that I've been able to whine about the one thing that really bugs me (actually food in general, I pretty much just really like Norwegian (Kneekkebrrøøøøød med sylte!), Italian and Asian food. Even though I'm open to try anything and when I'm hungry I can eat everything (without meat ofc), there are a few special dishes that I like. Everything else I just eat. lol). What do I like here?

Well. ERM. Seeing as I'm mentally trained to complain about stuff, and I could only think of one thing that really bugs me (alright, so the school system bugs me a little bit. But that's just because it's not adjusted to my lazy personality), there has to be a lot of stuff I like, right?

Hate to break it to you all. But this here, is the best milk in the world. It's the only one I drink (any other type of milk is a wannabe!). I give this milk 50% of the cred for my good health.

The funny thing is that I can't really put my finger on it. I mean, I like the public transportation (it's on time, which is more rare than you'd think), the scenery (when the sun shines) and so on. I think all in all I've just been extremely lucky (finally some good karma eh?). It's like I've hit the jack pot where it really counts, you know? I've got a good (and experienced) host family, I've been placed in a small area where getting to know people is pretty much easy, and I've been placed in a class with lots of great people (I like all of them, strangely enough. Normally I always manage to find one person that annoys me), and my teachers aren't all that bad (and I know from former experience that this makes one hell of a difference). And as a result, everything has kinda sorted itself out.

So what do I like about Switzerland? I'd have to say the people. The mood. The fact that they have (almost) all the good qualities Norwegians possess, but lack the ones I dislike (e.g. extreme carelessness)... well, at least I like the people I know, lol. Not making a statement about the entire swiss people, just about the 100+ people (yes, totally did that on purpose) that I've gotten to know the short time I've been here. Good people.

Did I btw mention that I got through customs with this in my hand luggage?

Zurich-Amsterdam-Oslo-Ålesund pause Ørsta-Oslo-Amsterdam-Zurich

Noticed it first when I got back that I carried it my pencil case the entire time. Bet you I wouldn't have been able to if I was wearing a burka!

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go prepare for Paris.

Watch this in the meantime

Cheers for now

Sunny