100 days in Switzerland has been reached!
Thanks to a Swiss bank holiday and two days off uni, we have enjoyed a chillaxed week in Switzerland after being so busy since Easter on placement and project weeks. It was nice to finally have time to breathe again.
The three days off gave us all a chance to do our own thing. Zoe and Josh’s families were here, so they enjoyed taking day excursions around the lake, despite the weather not being too good. On the Tuesday, I went with Zoe, her mum and sister to Meersburg on the ferry boat. Thankfully there was a break in the weather and we enjoyed some sunshine as we wandered the streets of this cute little German town on the shores of Lake Constance. Famous for its castle, vineyards and wine, we enjoyed exploring it and of course, had time to enjoy an ice cream.
I also enjoyed taking the train to Rorschach to visit Judith, Nikita and Rebecca as it was their last week in Switzerland before heading home. I got a tour of Rorschach and Judith cooked me yummy chilli penne pasta, which reminded me of the Ramore at home and how much I missed it! It was also nice to get the Swiss trains again, oh how I’ve missed their efficiency and spectacular views along the lake. I said my final farewell to the girls as I won’t be seeing them until September when we are back at Stran. It was an emotional goodbye but we enjoyed looking back at our time in Switzerland and talking about all the adventures we all have had and what an amazing experience this has been.
Finally it was time to go back to the PH, and our first classes included discussions about poverty and socio-economic backgrounds in our Heterogeneity and Integration module. This proved quite an interesting topic to discuss in a country of wealth like Switzerland. Our lecturer showed a documentary of a rough council estate in Glasgow. I watched in amusement as the Swiss students tried to follow exactly what the young girl was saying about her life growing up there. We ended up having to translate (felt quite nice for once not being the one to need translation). I found it interesting to discover that low economic and socially deprived areas don’t really exist for ‘Swiss’ people, and Swiss people pride themselves in this. However, the exception of this rule appears to be migrant families. I can actually vouch for this first hand as I have come to notice that the apartment area I live in, seems to be predominately an area of ethnic minorities, as I talked to my Bosnian neighbour a while back and notice these women with veils (majority being Eastern European).
It has been quite a humbling experience to actually be in the ‘minority’ for once in a country that isn’t your own, almost feeling that you are part of the lower cast citizens in a country. I do feel that Switzerland in some ways is not very welcoming to foreigners, and being a foreigner in this country has given me a fresh perspective on what it must be like for ethnic minority families coming to NI and what this must be like. In some ways, this experience has given me a new empathy for them and perhaps a way to become more relatable in the future when I am a teacher.As Jones (2015) writes; schools are often a first point of contact between the local community and the newcomer family; therefore they play a crucial role in the integration of these families.
Without a doubt, the highlight of this week was on Saturday when Zoe and I decided to take a spontaneous trip to Maienfeld. home to Heidiland, the place where Swiss author Johanna Spyri was inspired to write her famous book about Heidi, the orphan living in the Swiss alps. On a day when the weather was 27degrees, the sky was cloudless and the mountains so clear, this hike which followed the Heidi trail up into the mountain, showing Heidi’s house and parts of the story along the way was STUNNING! Finally after two and a half hours we made it to the top of Oschenberg (1111m), the final point in the trail, where we enjoyed lunch and a 1L bottle of coke which cost 8CHF (it was worth it). We chilled for hours at the top in the Heidi meadow and enjoyed the 180° panoramic views of the Swiss alps. It was INCREDIBLE and probably one of my highlights of being in Switzerland so far! I can now see why Johanna was inspired by this place and how Heidi’s appreciation for nature can and still inspires people all over the world. I feel this is definitely something I would love to teach to my pupils in the future, being able to show them all the pictures from our hike.
“Heididorf evokes in us the longing for our homeland and for harmony. As a symbol of kindness, cheerfulness and out bong with nature, it joins a worldwide net of more than 500 significant and inspiring places that have been inaugurated as peace blossoms.”
{Sri Chinmoy Friedensblüte}
Another brilliant week in Switzerland!
REFERENCES:
Jones, S (2015), Newcomer pupils in Northern Ireland: a pastoral perspective, Pastoral Care in Education, 33:3, 154-160, DOI: 10.1080/02643944.2015.1070192
Sri Chinmoy Friedensblüte (1999), Sri Chinmoy Peace Committee, Maienfeld.
LIVING IN SWITZERLAND 