Salue! (Greetings from Switzerland!)

To finish off my time in Scotland Aunt Patsy and I spent the day in Blairgowrie. We walked along the River Ericht, had lunch at her favourite place downtown, and wandered some of the charity shops. Along the river there is a spot called Cargill's Leap, it was a narrow gorge in the river where kids used to "leap" across the river. This resulted in some youth falling to their demise when they didn't make the leap to the other side. Now, it is no longer a narrow gorge as the city took the liberty of blasting it so that kids could no longer attempt to leap across the river.

After a busy week in Scotland it was time to say goodbye and head to the Edinburgh Airport to catch my flight to Switzerland! My flight was over all uneventful. First, I flew from Edinburgh to Copenhagen where I had a 2 hour layover then off to Zurich. By the evening I had safely arrived in Zurich and had to catch the train to Bern where I would meet my coordinator Christian. When I arrived in Bern and got off the train I went up to the streets but could not find the spot where I was to meet Christian, that was a little stressful! But, a kind gentleman helped me out and directed me back into the train station to the lower level where I was meant to be. Here I wandered nervously hoping to be claimed. Luckily Christian picked me out easily and we were off!

We aren't capable
of taking nice pictures :S

Christian and his wife Isabelle live next to his parents farm that he works on and intends to take over in a few years. On the farm they have about 30 dairy cows as well as potatoes, cherries, apples, and pears that they sell at their small roadside stand. Isabelle works in an Elementary School as a Psychomotor Therapist. What she does sounds similar to one of my clinic classes in school so that was pretty cool. 

On Thursday Chris put me on a train to Bern to meet his sister Stephanie (who I had never met) to show me around the city. Again I found myself crossing my fingers that I would again be claimed at the train station! After an anxious 15 minutes of waiting she found me and we were off to explore the city. We saw the parliament buildings, the famous clock tower (Zytglogge), ate gelato, wandered downtown, and had a drink at an outdoor tiki bar that was on the roof of the train station! Did you know that Bern was named after the first animal the founder met on the hunt there, a bear, so locals actually pronounce it Bearn opposed to Burn like us? They also normally have bears at BearPark, but I did not get to see them because the park is under construction. 

2015 IFYE incoming Delegates

Friday, June 26 Christian and I headed to Lucerne for the IFYE Incoming Weekend. For this weekend we had a house on (or near, I am not sure) Pilatus Mountain, it had an amazing view! At the incoming weekend I met the other IFYE delegates; there was 3 from Tiwan, 1 from South Korea, 1 from Costa Rica, 1 from England, 1 from Norway, and 1 from Estonia. We learned about Switzerland, IFYE, and each other's countries. We also went up Titlis Mountain in Engelburg and did a tour of the only glass factory in Switzerland. On Sunday we had a BBQ where many host families came out to meet us. Here I met my last host family, the Boss family, and my first host family, the Rothenbuhler's.

IFYE stands for International Youth Farm Exchange (www.ifye.ch). It is a volunteer organization that is solely based on exchanges. It is not an organization of clubs like us, the Swiss equivalent to Junior Farmers is Landjugend (www.landjugend.ch) and they are not directly involved in the exchange and you do not have to be a member to go on an IFYE exchange.Not all of the other countries have a Junior Farmers like us either; a lot of the delegates came from 4H clubs. 

A little about my first hosts: the Rothenbuhler's. Frantzi (host mom) and Fritzi (host dad) have been taking in IFYE's for quite some time now. Currently one of their daughters, Linda, is on an IFYE exchange in South Korea and previously their second daughter, Sina, did and IFYE exchange to Costa Rica. Later this year their youngest daughter Jana will be doing a school/work exchange to New Zeland (not through IFYE). They have one more daughter (the oldest), Sabrina has not done an exchange. Sabrina (28) and her husband live in Gruenenmatt with their 2 daughters Ladina (5) and Alicia (2.5). Sabrina speaks English but her husband and children do not. This makes it very interesting because her kids ask me things in Swiss German but I don't understand so they must think I am crazy! But, we manage with some hand signals and pointing. Sina (25) lives in Burgdorf with her son Malik (1.5). Again, Sina speaks English but her son does not. Both Sabrina and Sina work 2-3 days per week so Franzi watches her grandkids a few days a week. Jana (19) speaks english very well. She is actually going to school for english in September when she goes to New Zeland! Jana is living at home and just graduated from her Commercial Apprenticeship program (which is basically the end of our high school). Franzi and Fritz own a 13 hectare farm in Thalgraben Valley (Lützelflüh). They have pigs and cows. They have about 80 sows and they keep the young pigs until they are about 23kgs then they get sold to another barn. The cows that they have do not belong to them; they are another farmers heifers and pregnant heifers, they stay here until just before they are ready to calve then they are sent to the owners dairy barn. On the farm they harvest hay, they bale the hay into small bales somewhat by hand! The hay is brought loose into the mow where they fork it into the baler, from there it is pushed onto a wagon and stacked by hand! Oh! And the house, barn, and mow are all attached! Then there are 2 more small pig barns behind the house/barn. The house to the left is actually 2 appartment and there is one more apartment beside the house, as well as a granny flat in the house! 

Over the past week and a half with the Rothenbuhler's I have observed life on the farm (a pig farm none the less!), I have done some cooking, house/farm work, shipped pigs, played with the kids, went shopping in the local stores, went to the pool and the river (did I mention it has been above 30C most of the time?!), experience the scenery, and went to a tractor pull and party in Zimmerwald (btw the party never ended; I'm thinking Canadian tractor pulls should adopt this!).

This weekend we will be heading to a cottage on the lake where I have been told they have a SUP board! And next week I am hoping to catch up with 2013 Swiss delegate Christa! Stay tuned for upcoming adventures! I will try and post more often so the next posts aren't so long! Tschuess! (That is how they say good-bye, I am trying very hard to say it right but I can't seem to get it yet. It sounds kind of like "shoes" with a soft T.)