March Madness

One of the oddest things I've had to do while in Switzerland is explain March Madness. Not even the Canadians really understood the pain I felt for my bracket when Dayton beat Ohio State. And during my flooball tournament, I had nobody to celebrate Harvard's win with. Which leads me to my next topic of conversation...

Yes, I played in the floorball tournament. I was supposed to meet my team outside the gym at 6pm, but after a late bus, making me miss my second bus up to the university, I arrived more like 6:10ish. Which wasn't really a problem. The problem was the fact that I did not know how to play floorball. My friend David, the one who coerced me into playing in the tournament in the first place, explained the rules to me via Facebook messages about 90 minutes before our first game. At least everyone on the team knew that I did not have any experience with the game so we could all set our expectations at my abilities to about zero.

We first had to play the three other teams in our pool. I guess you could say the tournament was set up more or less like the World Cup; we had to advance out of our group first. We lost our first game and tied the other two. We tied for second place in our group with the team we had lost to, so unfortunately they entered the winner's bracket and we entered the loser's bracket. By this time, I had more or less figured out how to play. The first team we played in the loser's bracket was not good at all. So I scored a hat trick. And since girls' goals are worth two points instead of one, I score six points in that game! We proceeded to win the loser's bracket, officially placing in ninth (but I think saying we won the loser's bracket sounds better). I scored a fourth goal in another game, except this time the ball just ricocheted off my foot and into the net as opposed to me actually putting an effort into hitting the ball in the right direction. Since we kept winning games and advancing in our bracket, I was at the gym until 11pm, for a total of 5 hours of floorball competition. Which probably explains why I was still sore three days later. That, and the fact that I should probably go to the gym.

I also met a handful of new people by playing in the tournament. Two of the guys on our team are exchange students from Sweden, and one of them was actually in one of my classes. Another guy on the team is in another two of my classes.

Me and David after one of the games

The team

In other news, I've been super busy with homework lately. One of my classes only lasts half the semester, so the final essay was due yesterday and the final exam was today. My class that takes place over Spring Break as a block seminar also has memos due next week. I'm trying to finish those up before heading out of town. Thursday night I fly to London to meet up with Miller, my friend from USC! We're spending the weekend there, and then taking the Chunnel to Paris (checking that off my bucket list!). I'll spend three days there, and then fly to Madrid to visit Megan, another friend from USC, for the rest of the week. I am so incredibly excited for my trip! Until then, tschüss!

One Month Down!

Today marks one month in Switzerland! I cannot believe that these past four weeks have gone by so quickly. I am fully immersed in classes now, have booked many fabulous travel plans for the rest of the semester, and am enjoying (nearly) every minute of my time here. I have now begun one of my block seminar classes, which is three weekends in March. Although it's a bit rough now, I know I'll be glad to have it under my belt once Spring Break gets here! Since I am unable to travel during these three weeks, this blog post does not consist of any cool places I've visited, but instead about my integration into St Gallen, and some highs and lows from the past few weeks.

High: I booked my trip to Rome for Easter! I am going with my friend Shannon, who is currently studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain. I cannot wait for not only our trip, but to see a friend from USC!

Low: My credit card company shut off my cards while I was booking my train to Rome due to unusual spending in Europe, even though I notified them that I would be in Europe...after most of an afternoon, and many phone calls later, my credit cards are thankfully working again.

High: I figured out how to use the gym! I went with my roommate Sim and our friend Giovanna. The gym is so small compared to Strom back at USC, but I guess it makes sense since this university is smaller than USC. I counted a total of 10 treadmills. Hopefully working out at this altitude (2,215 feet according to Wikipedia) will get me in tip top shape!

Low: I couldn't tell you how far I ran on the treadmill because the distance was in kilometers...well, I mean I ran 3 kilometers, but I had no concept of how far that was until I found a kilometer-to-mile converter on the internet (it's about 1.86 miles). Also, whenever I try to describe the weather in Fahrenheit, or the amount of snow Detroit is currently getting, in inches, nobody knows what I'm talking about. I'm getting better at the conversions, but it still throws me every time someone is excited that the weather is 10 degrees. 

High: I have such a great group of friends here. As I'm typing this, I'm waiting on some girls to come home from class so we can watch the Bachelor season finale together. My building is pretty far from the center of town, and even farther from the university, but almost everyone in the building is friends with each other, which is pretty great.

Low: On my two week anniversary in St Gallen, I got on the wrong bus. As I noted above, my building is decently far from everything so we all have a bus pass. I have to take 2 buses to get to the university; one from the building to the train station, and another from the train station to the university. On my way home from class, I often stop at the grocery in town. On this particular day, I was absolutely famished, so I ran to the grocery to get food for the week, waited for the bus outside the store, and got on the bus going the opposite direction from my building (in my defense, the two bus lines are the same number). Thankfully, I realized that I was going the wrong way pretty quickly, but it still took me about 30 minutes to get home, as opposed to the five minute bus ride it should have been. Instead of being upset, like I would have been in the US, I decided to not worry about it. It was a nice day and I had food with me, so I just sat down on the sidewalk and made myself a sandwich. No shame.

High: The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Apparently there is typically tons of snow this time of year, but we're experiencing temperatures in the 50s, nearing 60. On Sunday, I walked up to the Three Ponds with Kelsey and Frankie from USC, Frankie's girlfriend who's visiting from UGA, Salim (a friend of mine from New Zealand), and two girls from Kelsey's building. There were tons of people laying out, and we all decided that once it warms up, we'll have to go back with our bathing suits and try to swim in the (hopefully not freezing) lakes. The lakes are up the hill (or mountain?) from town and we were awarded beautiful views after our hike up!

That's Lake Constance in the distance. Germany and Austria are on the other side!

This was our view of St. Gallen from the top of the hill!

Another side note: My friend David, the exchange student from USC who is an actual student here in St Gallen, asked me to play on his floorball team for a tournament in two weeks. And in case you were wondering, no, I have no idea how to play floorball. I made David promise to teach me how to play. This shall be interesting, but hey, when in Switzerland...Attached is a link to a promotional video for the university's floorball team. Wish me luck!
HSG Unihockey