Here We Go...

Just when I thought my life in Switzerland couldn't get any busier, uni started.

My first week was...HECTIC. Trying to take full advantage of my exchange, I attended almost every French class on offer (only with Hermione's time-turner could I have achieved more) and as many sports classes as I could squeeze in in between. Then, I was faced the difficult task of picking which ones to keep. In the end, I decided on eight. It's two more than I require credit for, but I couldn’t cull more than that, I just couldn’t.

And now, I am looking at my brand new, neatly ruled and brightly colour-coded timetable. It makes me happy.

·      Culture of Peace; Human Rights.

·      Analysis and Practise.

·      Grammar.

·      Linguistics.

·      French Songs.

·      Translation from English.

·      Literature and Culture.

·      And last, but definitely not least, Intercultural Interaction.

Plus one Discofit, one Step, one Rock ‘n Roll, one Salsa and one Pilates class to follow.

Oh, and let’s not forget my weekly Tandem meeting. For those unfamiliar with the term, it is a language exchange program. Simple and very effective. For me, it involves meeting for two hours over coffee (or preferably, hot chocolate and rhubarb tart) with a lovely French girl. One hour spoken in English, the other in French: an excellent cure for “Franglais”.

I have also cunningly kept my Fridays and Monday mornings free... It would be a shame not to travel when Switzerland is so conveniently located, don’t you think, dear reader?

So, it looks like I have quite a semester ahead of me. And with a little luck, and lots of chocolate, it may just be my best one yet!

La Gruyère

Last weekend, I got my first taste of the Swiss countryside. And it tasted good. The peaceful village we visited was not too hot or too cold; neither too large nor too small. La Gruyère was just right. 

As our train chugged into the countryside from Lausanne, cities evolved into towns into villages and cows began to outnumber human beings. Ninety minutes and eight hundred (vertical) metres later, we arrived at our first destination: Le Château de Gruyère.

Having spent most of my life in Australia and America, both “baby nations”, flying to Europe was like travelling through a time machine. While locals nonchalantly point to this five-hundred-year-old building and that thousand-year-old cathedral, I marvel, wide-eyed, at history. Firsthand. Not through a television screen, nor on the page of a text book. Walking around Gruyère Castle, I almost expected to see Macbeth standing on the balcony, mid-soliloquy, and to hear J.S. Bach’s music floating through the Baroque-style garden.

La Gruyère is also renowned for its Fantastic Art – a genre that I am a very big fan of. The exhibition at the castle was imagination and creation at its best. The vivid colours and otherworldly creatures wove through the castle like a magic spell, adding to its charm. Simply enchanting.

After lunch, we decided to make the most of the beautiful weather and take a walk through the countryside. Needless to say, it was beautiful. I love being blown away by the little things. Mountains (Australians, you know what I mean). Cows, with big brown spots. The way a railroad curves around a village like in a toy train set... We also made a few new friends. Of the equine variety. They neighed pleasantly in response to our greetings; evidently as multilingual as their Swiss human counterparts.

Next stop: La Maison du Gruyère, fromagerie. A little too commercial for my liking, but still very cheesy. In a good way. I was very impressed by the cheese ‘cave’. Ok, so ‘cave’ translates to ‘cellar’ in English, but it is actually the more appropriate term here. See?

Enough for one day? Not without my chocolate! Ten minutes from La Gruyère, in the little village of Broc is Cailler Chocolate Factory – also known as Nestlé, I’m just a little ashamed of supporting a company infamous for not supporting fair-trade. But I was in Switzerland, standing in front of chocolate heaven... So, I vowed to buy lots of Cadbury once I was back in Australia (huge sacrifice), and in we went.

There was a great tour of the facility – learning the history, seeing the machinery at work, trying cacao beans from around the world, all that jazz – but let’s face it, our minds were only on one thing: chocolate tasting. And it was worth the wait. Cheese isn’t really my thing (don’t look at me like that), but I more than make up for it with chocolate. 

Ok, now I’m eating dark chocolate as I type. But hey, got to get in the blogging mood, right? And I’m sure that’s a technique for good writing!

I am proud to admit that I tried every type of dark chocolate on offer at Cailler, plus quite a few of the milk variety. Truffles, pralines, caramels...nutty, crispy, creamy...
A chocoholic’s dream.  

So, that’s La Gruyère! So sweet. So Swiss.