Leah Toth: My Life in Schweiz aka Switzerland

Well we’re already halfway through the semester, and time is only moving faster and faster everyday. There’s so much I still have to see in Switzerland before I can leave this beautiful country. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Zurich, Bern, Basel and Lucerne and that doesn’t even include the cities farther South from Olten that I still have to visit. My favorite trip so far within Switzerland has been visiting the Matterhorn and the town of Zermatt. I’ve heard so much about the ginormous mountain but it still was unbelievable seeing it in person. I also won’t forget how cold it was at the top! For some reason I made the smart decision to wear a skirt to journey to the top, lesson learned.

The weather has been unreal, 20 degrees in April and I’m already wearing shorts. Spending our lunch breaks sitting by the river is a nice break from the long days in class. It’s been awesome living with all the exchange students. There’s always someone to hang out with or someone whose interested in traveling to the same place as you. Never a dull moment when there’s over 20 different nationalities living under the same roof!

 

We recently had an event for Easter called Osterapero. All the students on the Friday got out of class at the same time and met in the school foyer for  appetizers, wine and beer hosted by the school. Almost everyone I have met over the last couple of months attended and it turned out to be quite the event that went well into the night. It was awesome to feel apart of such a close community of students and no longer feel like the foreign Canadian exchange student.

 

 

Victoria and I have now made a trip out of Switzerland. Our first destination we travelled to was Prague. It was such a change of pace from our peaceful, relaxing life in Olten that it was almost a bit of a culture shock. The architecture was amazing and the city itself was beautiful but the busyness of the city definitely made me appreciate how orderly and safe I felt while living in Switzerland. We made our first big mistake of the trip and missed our return flight out of Prague. Having travelled Europe previously and never having missed a flight, I didn’t think it would ever happen to me, but it did. At first it was stressful trying to figure out what to do about returning home but in the end we realized you can’t sweat the small stuff all the time and living abroad these things are bound to happen. On the bright side, we got to spend an extra day in Prague with some friends from home and eventually made it home safe and sound the next day.

Leah is a third year Bachelor of Business Administration student studying abroad at FHNW in Olten, Swizerland.