1/4th of a year » School

Being a Monk

raphy — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:56:43 +0000

With my school I went to a monarchy the past three days . In the 12th grade my school organizes a special week for every class. For the ones who don't study economic: a week, where they about economic learn in a practical way , and the ones who study economic go to a monarchy for a change. It is a little bit ironical but it does make sense. Anyway. This tuesday my classmates and I headed off to the monarchy in "Engelberg" (middle part of Switzerland). We got separated from the girls after a stop at Luzern. Then we went on with our teacher right to the monarchy. After arriving and welcoming we went to our first prayer. In a catholic church, which was part of the monarchy, we stood on two sides faced to each other and read some psalms for about 20 minutes. It would be our first prayer out of nine with the monks. The rest of the afternoon we received our rooms and got some instruction from one of the monks. We ate dinner with the monks in silence. No word was spoken. Only one.... READ MORE!

Study or Fail!

raphy — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 13:23:38 +0000

Hello everybody!

Yes, I am still alive and I haven't given up my blog. The last 4 weeks were just really busy for me. So busy that I couldn't even update my blog. So, you are probably asking yourself what did Raphy do in January? Well second of week of Januray I went to a snowboard camp! I got suspended from school for a week, which was really awesome! In that camp I got trained to a snowboard instructor. We stayed in a really nice hotel! Twin rooms with televisions, bath and shower included! I expected some military barracks with really uncomfortable beds. The whole week the sun shone, the snow was perfect and I just had a blast in that snowboard trainee camp. Third week back in school! I had to catch up with all the materials I missed. Or better I should have. Still I had to study for some exams and write two essays: one about the city "Basel" and second a portrait of a teacher. The teacher one was actually fun to write. Week four of January I got the chance to show off all my new learned skills in snowboarding. I went to another snowboard camp, this time not as participant but as a leader. My brother came along as a participant. Sadly he does skiing and not snowboarding. (snowboarding is way better...) Otherwise I probably would have been his instructor. The camp was a snow sport camp of my school. Every grade until the 12th grade has such a camp once a year. READ MORE!

Why Am I So Busy???

raphy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:36:13 +0000

So, as the old readers probably noticed I am not posting as much as I used too! That has one simple reason: I am really busy right now. Am I really? I tried to put down some reasons and make a conclusion: 1. School .... READ MORE

Fall Break (and so on)

raphy — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:15:11 +0000

p style="text-align: justify;">At the moment I am enjoying three weeks of fall break. Two weeks are already over but in those two weeks I spent my days in south Switzerland at our apartment in the mountains. We had a great and really relaxing time up there. At the end of this post I have some pictures with impressions for you guys.

But today I actually want to write about how this all works with school breaks in Switzerland. Well, as most of you probably already know the breaks are much more spread out over the whole year rather than having a huge summer break and a week of spring break. In Switzerland school starts usually at the beginning of august. Then we have seven weeks of school till we get our next break. The fall break, which is three weeks long, is usually.... READ MORE

French Brainstorm

raphy — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 20:04:53 +0000

I shouldn't have done it. I knew it was going to be really annoying but for some reason I had to show them. I had learnt it during a american history class and I bothered all my friends with it. I remember walking through the hall way and wet all my friends who where passing by. Yeah I showed them the whole in the cap of a bottle. For those who have no idea what I mean; It is easy! You take some think sharp (like a pair of scissors) and put a very little whole in the cap. Now when the bottle is filled with water you can splash water at every person. It's really fun you should try it. Anyways I showed my......

Back in School

raphy — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:53:49 +0000

Two days accomplished. My first school day wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. My new main class teacher was an old teacher that I already knew. (In Switzerland you are in groups of like 20 people and each group called class has their own main teacher and you stay in that group for almost every subject. But I don't want to go too deep into the Swiss School System right now...) He could remember me, but he couldn't remember that I was gone for one year. He was also outside of school for a half year. But at the end he figured it out and the whole class laughed because he asked me before how the past half year was and I just said it was really good and he didn't noticed I wasn't in Switzerland.

My new class members seem to be....

Comeback

raphy — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:37:54 +0000

It is true. There were many rumors about it. I am giving my comeback. After one year pausing. After a year spending time in a different country. I am going back to old school. I am going back to my old school in Switzerland. This past year went over so fast! Too fast!

Now I am already back for more than two weeks and still EVERYTHING is sooo small. I am trying to get used of my old culture and their habits. But this is not that easy like I have imagined. Sometimes people in the US asked me about differences between the States and Switzerland/Europe. Back then sometimes I struggled with giving a good answer. But now I see a million differences. It already starts with....