296th Day-17/12/2011

I woke up around 10am :D When I opened the curtain, everything outside the window was WHITE :D Finally,after a LONG LONG LONG wiat...it finally snowed :D It really made my day :D I spent some time standing in front of the window to see the snow :D so nice so nice :D

I spend the whole afternoon with my host mum baking Christmas cookies (guezli in swiss german). It was nice at the start but after 2 hours I started to feel bored :( It was so weird that my host mum used the chocolate powder that is expired in 1995!!!!!!! It smelt normal but still!!

from my window!!

garden!

cookies before..

cookies after..

another type of cookies..

can u see snowing?

I also helped my host dad to make the magazine!! I forgot to mention :D I did a magazine about Malaysia in German :D I used 2-3 months to compile all the information and my host dad helped me to correct it and print it :D He looked really cool when he was stapling and cutting magazines :D 50 copies of MY magazine, Meine Heimatland Deine Freunde :D A super meaningful Chritmas present from my host dad and thanks for everyone that helped me finish the magazine, especially Valerie, Yin Suan, Jia Yee and my host dad :D

had to fold it one by one..

in process..

cutting..

stapling..

My day hasn't end :D Around 6pm, I took the train to Zurich to meet with the new exchange students!! Today, 13 of us had a Christmas Party!! I reached there one hour earlier and talked with Lauren! It was really hard to organize this party because it's very hard to contact everyone and not everyone coordinated!! We always had to wait wait..call call..rush rush!! Big thanks to Lauren, the main organizer :D

Around 10pm, we finally reached Basel!! Fei San and Matthew came to meet us! Because we had the party in a hostel and I didnt want to pay for it ; I asked Fei San to join us then so at the end I can go home with Fei San!hehe..a bit selfish!! Lauren,Fei San and Matthew and I took the later train to the hostel but we reached 1st! The others got lost AGAIN :( It proofed that I am right and they really need LAUREN :D

The party officially started at 11pm! The first thing we did were exchange presents-'Secret Santa'!! Last month, everyone of us got a name that we had to buy present for and a budget! I was the Santa of Anny(from China). I bought her a chocolate fondue and I really think my present is super good..hehe :D I took so long time to decide what I should buy for her :D To my surprise, my santa was DAISUKE :D The guy from Japan!! I got a cute and nice music box from him :D It was really obvious that not everyone was detailed on the presents!! But overall this Secret Santa was a sucess :D

After that, Daisuke, Xue and Anny went to cook maggie mee and mee goreng!All of us were crazy about the food..hehe! The conclusion was WE ARE ASIANS :D After that, we started to play small game like 'never have I ever' and we drank alcohol!! Super fun :D Around 12pm, I decided to stay overnight in hostel and Fei San,Matthew went home. I felt guilty to them because they looked boring! The whole night, we had vodka and coke cocktail then margaretta with ice tea then some lemon bitter booze tequila and bailys wisky.

Almost all of us drank! But because we are ASIANS we didnt do anything that crossed the line :D Daisuke and Munk were so funny when they were drunk! Daisuke kept telling us about his girlfriend and he loved football more than his girlfriend :D and in midnight in basel, it finally snowed :D

in hostel..

WAH!!

snacks..:D

our chef..Daisuke..Munk and Pum

jin..xue..me and anny..

margot..jeen..mild and jin..

aiyo..fei san!

lauren and pea :D

saw my face? RED RED RED

Daisuke xue and me :D

Most of us slept around 4am!! Luckiy, I didn't have any headache :D It was nice to do something crazy after a long time :D

295th Day-16/12/2011

Christmas is finally here.This week I spent some time shopping for presents. The Christmas atmosphere was everywhere. I could see many people choosing presents, wrapping and buying presents :D

Friday after school, I took a 2.5 hour train to Luzern. Why? Because Matthew, a malaysian exchange student to Berlin came to Switzerland. As the 'host' of Switzerland, of course I need to meet him.I met with him and Fei San :D Fei San was satisfied and happy with her Christmas present.

Too bad, Friday's weather was super bad. Storming, raining and windy!! We weren't able to see much and because of winter..everything turned dark around 5pm! He saw almost nothing!!I got the train voucher from my parents and he used it but too bad it didn't help him to save much money!!Too bad!Until now I still regret to let him use the voucher..hehe!! We went to Bern too. Around 11pm, Matthew and I went to Zurich and met with Zen. Matthew slept in Zen's house and I went home alone!

nice lighting!! in Luzern

can u feel the wind?

can u see the mond? :O

in bern :D parliment hse..

matthew and fei san :O

 Matthew is super quiet but it's still nice to have a small gathering with Malaysians! We went to three big cities of Switzerland..but he saw almost nothing..hehe!!But overall, we still saw the Christmas lighting of the cities :D Actually, that was the main reason I wont mind take so many hours train to come to this small gathering :D

290th Day- 11/12/2011

On Saturday morning we woke up around 7.30am because we had to go to the airport to send Alicia off. We waited in Starbucks for 1 hour but no one showed up. Luckily, we walked around and found out that there was another Starbucks in the airport!! We saw Alicia and hugged her goodbye.Her whole family and us accompanied her to the gate. When she hugged the family members one by one, they cried and we cried too:( .Everyone was sad and we were so afraid because we are going to face the same situation one month later!!

When we were walking to the train station to take the train to the AFS camp, we met Alicia's best schoolmate! She was in the toilet and she hasn't meet Alicia yet!!!!!!!! Just 3 mins difference and she wont see Alicia anymore and no one knows if it is possible for Alicia to come back to Switzerland anymore!!So cruel..We were all sad in the train..I am not so close with Alicia but I still remembered that we talked a lot in the last AFS camp. Now, we were still heading to the camp but she was not with us :(

stopped by zurich..

We reached Einselden and walked around! We got to drink free wine and orange juice. Around 2pm, all the exchange students came! The same people from the last camp but less!! Now, everyone can speak German. I am lazy to write all the details of the camp.

free drinks

Overall, the camp was a lot better than the first camp. This time we had two new volunteers. They were talkative and nice but I think the best part of the camp was when we were separated into small groups and shared our stories in the exchange year in front of the candles. When you say something positive, you can light up a candle. When it was something sad, you have to blow off a candle. We talked for so long and it was nice to share and listen to others' stories. At last, we had 5 candles on and 5 candles off. That means in our exchange year we had happy moments and sad moments and they were equal and balanced. In this camp, I became closer with the Thai girls and we had the same enemy..hehe Oh yeah..our camp place had a super nice view :D

playing games..

FAME :D

i look so fat :(

handsome right?

making cookies..

dinner time..

our enemy,,

检讨环节

salon?

we visited the church at night..
scary :O

nail polish :D by karen

muahaha :D

view from our camp place..

with thai girlss :D

the place we slept..

ninja game :D

lunch!!

nice right?

nice view..

like walking to heaven!!

volunteers :D

group photo!!

This camp made me realise that I am going home really soon. It also gave me a big chance to think over what I had done, changed and learnt in this whole year! I know very well 100% that I wont regret taking this step and spent my whole year in my second home!