Day 13
Today was our free day to spend with our host families! We started the day with a lovely breakfast again, but this time, outside! The weather was beautiful today. After breakfast, we went to the local farmer’s market with Ms. Noreisch and her family to check out some fresh produce and baked goods. We began to collect food items for the picnic we planned to have later that day, and after visiting the farmer’s market, we went to the supermarket. We met back up with Ms. Noreisch’s children in the library, after they had split off to go to the “ludothek,” which was essentially a library for toys. Aarau seemed like a lovely place to grow up, safe enough that small children can walk to and from home freely. We headed back to the house to grab the rest of the picnic stuff we needed and then we started to walk down to the river. After a lovely, sunny walk, we set up our picnic across the bridge of the Aare River, on a little sandy patch. The picnic spread was delicious, probably the best picnic I had ever had because of how great the cheese and bread were. Although the water was quite cold, we dipped our feet in and enjoyed the view for a while. Soren started skipping rocks, and although he was mostly failing, he still had a better success rate than Cassidy and I. I had never really figured out how to skip rocks. That is, until l Ms. Noreisch’s husband, who was really good at skipping rocks, showed me his technique. The most awesome and electric moment followed, in which I copied his technique perfectly and genuinely skipped a rock 6 or 7 times almost across the whole river. I felt so accomplished and proud and cool. After hanging out at the river a little while longer (featuring me desperately trying to prove that the awesome rock-skipping was not a fluke), we walked back to the house. Then, Ms. Noreisch, Cassidy, Soren and I joined some of the other Dins and hosts to partake in a special guided tour of Aarau, led by Milana’s father—Milana was another one of the G3B students! We were pretty hot after the tour, so we decided to go for a swim, or rather, a float down the Aare River. It was so much fun that we just had to go twice. We hung out by the Schwanbar for a little while longer and then began to wind things down for the night, as we were anticipating an exhausting travel day the following day, beginning early in the morning. However, this beautiful, relaxing day was the perfect way to end our stay in Aarau.
Day 12
The three of us had a quick breakfast and packed our lunches for our exciting day trip to Schaffhausen. We met up with the rest of the students and Dins at the train station and set off on our journey. Once we arrived in Schaffhausen, we explored the downtown area for a while before heading to the major sights: the castle and the falls! We walked up many many steps to see the castle, but it was all worth it, as it was a very beautiful castle. When we were inside, we sang a little to say a formal goodbye to the students of NKSA, and then headed to the upstairs area of the castle, where we had a very windy lunch. I must admit that at this point of tour I was grasping at any opportunity to wear a summer dress, so I was a little bit chilly. We reconvened back inside, and then travelled to see the main attraction: the waterfalls! We walked from behind the falls to see many angles of the beautiful attraction and took some flicks, and then hopped on a little boat that would take us to the other side. At that point, it was time for us to catch the train heading back to Aarau, so we said our goodbyes to the group of NKSA students, who then very sweetly gifted us a Swiss flag with all their signatures on it for us to remember the trip. Once we returned to Aarau, Soren, Cassidy and I spent some time with Ms. Noreisch’s children and then had some downtime before dinner. For dinner, we all had traditional Swiss raclette, which was absolutely delicious and thoroughly enjoyed, despite being typically a wintertime meal. Cassidy, Soren and I had the night to ourselves, so we watched some Black Mirror, did blind karaoke, and then went to bed relatively early.
Day 11
Cassidy and I started off our day with a nice breakfast with Diane’s dad before Diane came to pick us up to go to NKSA. We were switching homestays, so we had to move out all our stuff and bring it to Ms. Noreisch’s house, where Soren was staying. There was a little bit of confusion about timing (oopsie), so Cassidy and I unfortunately missed a workshop the Dins were doing at the school, but at least we made it in time to join our host class, G3B, for “English Class” (a picnic excursion). We all brought packed lunches to a field/playground area on one of Aarau’s beautiful hills, and played games and chatted with one another. Afterwards, the G3B students had to attend a class without us (boo real class), so the Dins had some time to ourselves before rehearsal. Alex, Mark and I decided to rent bikes, with Ms. Noreisch’s help. The three of us biked down to the river, Alex and Mark on E-bikes, and me on a manual bike (#strong #girlpower #cardio #awesome). It was so so so beautiful I felt so free. It was maybe a little scary at times, like when I thought we were going to get hit by a bus, but everything was fine actually. On the way back Mark and I switched bikes and wow I have never experienced something like an E-bike before it was kind of jarring when it randomly propelled me forward but still fun nonetheless. We returned with time to spare before rehearsal! Then we rehearsed, which was good except for maybe when we started trying to make “arch” happen (thing at end of McDonald’s Girl where people make M shape with their body but in maybe the hardest way possible). I always wanted to fly… until I actually tried it. I could not get myself up there. Apparently it takes a lot of practice but maybe I’m just not built for that. After rehearsal, we got ready for the concert and once we were changed we got to mingle with guests and eat some yummy snacks. And then we had the concert #yaay #iloveperformingwiththedins. The auditorium at NKSA is lovely and we appreciated the effort the students and staff put into organizing our concert, and the audience was fantastic! After some merch-selling, Cassidy, Soren and I headed back with Ms. Noreisch to her house for the night, but not without picking up pizza on the way! We had a post-concert late-night pizza dinner and then each headed to bed.
Day 10
Diane, Cassidy and I started our day with a delicious spread of breakfast, featuring the crunchy Ovomaltine spread, which, when paired with fresh bread, turned out to be Cassidy’s new favourite snack (and maybe mine too). Diane dropped us off at NKSA at 9:45 AM to join the rest of the Dins for a pop-up performance, teasing our concert the following day. After our performance, Diane and Alex (another NKSA student, not Alex Gayle) took us to see their favourite spots in Aarau, and we got lunch from Migros, which we are told is much better than its rival grocery, Coop. After this, about half of the Dins and I opted to go on a mini-trip to Bern, one of Switzerland’s most historic cities. While there, we got to see Bern’s famous bank and government buildings, as well as the beautiful Cathedral, and then stopped for some gelato. I think this was my (much overdue) first ice cream of world tour. We spent a few more hours sightseeing (yes, we saw the bears in Bern!) and enjoying the views of the especially turquoise Aare river. We headed back to Aarau, where Diane kindly picked me and Cassidy up from the train station to drive back to her house for the evening. For dinner, Diane and her family prepared a delicious meal of French crêpes with a wide variety of toppings. After just one savoury crêpe, I gave into my sweet tooth and put chocolate and fruit on the rest. This was definitely one of my favourite meals of tour so far, and it was made sweeter by the opportunity to talk to Diane and her parents and learn more about their family. After dinner, Diane, Cassidy and I decided to head to the river to hang out and play cards. We drove down, bringing along Pinceau, Diane’s sweet dog who loves to swim. By the time we walked to the riverside and found a good spot to hang out, it had started to drizzle. We let Pinceau swim for a bit and then decided to relocate our card game to a cute bar downtown (where Pinceau even got his own dog bowl!). Diane taught me and Cassidy how to play “Beaver Hang,” a Swiss children’s card game, and it was lots of fun, although it felt like Diane beat us every time. Soon enough, it was time for us to head back to the house and get ready for bed.
Day 9
After a long day of train delays and cancellations, as well as a surprise pit stop in Colmar, home of the European Parliament,* for refreshments and an impromptu content creation session, the Dins finally arrived in the beautiful small town of Aarau, Switzerland. We were immediately welcomed by our lovely hosts at the train station, and brought to NKSA, our exchange school, for an “apero.” This was full of delicious food and drink generously brought by the high school students, and was the first time Khang tried Rivella, a classic Swiss soda, which soon became his new fixation. We got to meet the students who were going to be hosting us at their school, or even in their homes, and learn a bit more about each other. A couple students put together an introductory slideshow, which included insights to Swiss culture, sightseeing recommendations, and superlatives for all their classmates. We could really see the effort they put into making our warm welcome full of their personality! After some more chatting at the apero, the Dins were tired and headed back to their homestays for our first night in the land of Roger Federer, where we met host families and recovered from a long day of travel. In Aarau, Cassidy and I were staying with Diane from NKSA, who was the coolest (and most fashionable) host ever! Diane is vegetarian, which made meal prep for me and Cassidy (who is not quite vegetarian but does not like seafood or pork) very breezy! She and her mom prepared us a lovely dinner of quiche and salad, and we had a great time getting to know the two of them. Diane and her mom made us feel right at home, so Cassidy and I drifted off to sleep early so we could take on Aarau bright and early the next day.
-Kalashree #289
