The Long and Complicated Journey of Obtaining a Visa!

As some of you may know, I have had some complications with getting my visa. I applied for a student visa in the US, like I was supposed to, with plenty of time for getting the visa. I waited and waited and waited…and waited some more. The two weeks before I left, I was a nervous wreck. I didn’t know what to do without my visa. I kept calling the Consulate in Chicago, but all they could tell me was that it was “Pending.” Supposedly that’s all they could see (yes, I know, it doesn’t make sense!) I was emailing all two email addresses for people in Switzerland that could help me, but everyone was on vacation. Finally, I asked my professor from Calvin (the one who helped me get this opportunity) and asked if he knew what to do. He sent out an email to all the school contacts he had and I finally started getting responses. I knew that I could go to Switzerland without my visa, but it would be on a Tourist Visa. The Tourist Visa is an implied visa, where you can go to Europe (within the Schengen Zone) for a maximum of 90 days within a 180-day period. That means, if I came here and never got my visa, I would have to leave after 90 days, wait another 90 days to finish the 180-day period, and only after that could I come back. There’s no way I can take University classes and everything if I’m only here for a maximum of three months at a time. Also, that defeats the purpose of intending to spend a year abroad, not to mention it’s a giant bill of plane tickets back and forth. Absolutely none of that sounds fun!

Once I got here, a woman from SalZH, who has been helping me the whole time with visa things, got in contact with the Migrationsamt (Migration department) and asked what was going on with my visa and why it was still pending after more than 13 weeks in their office (the standard application time is 8-12 weeks). After several phone calls, we found out that I filled out the application incorrectly, which caused it to be forwarded to a different department, where they decided I couldn’t get the work visa and were just “sitting on it.” I meant to apply for a student visa though. If you’re confused, I understand—I was/am too. It’s all rather confusing!

We were pretty convinced for a while that this would mean I would have to go back to the US at least to pick up my visa. There was a chance that I would even have to go home to start the visa process all over again, which meant probably missing three months anyway. Of course this was not ideal, but in the end, all I wanted was a visa. I sent an email to a gentleman at the Migrationsamt explaining my error in the visa and asking if there was any way to continue with my application, without having to start over completely. His email responses were brief and vague, but eventually I got in the mail my “Ermächtigung zur Visumserteilung” (Authorization for the Issuance of a Visa). I was told that I needed to go to the Swiss Consulate in Stuttgart, Germany in order to get my visa. I had to bring a new application, but would be able to pick it up the same day!

Last Friday, Dorina and I had the day free, so we went to Stuttgart together. I needed to be to the Consulate between 9-12, but everything has to be to them by 11 (I don’t know what is allowed between 11-12…) Stuttgart is about 3 hours away by train from Winterthur, so I had to get up at about 5am to get there on time! That was not fun—anyone who knows me, knows I am NOT a morning person. I was so excited to finally get my visa, though, that I didn’t care…that much. :-)

We almost couldn’t find the Consulate, but asked some official-looking businessman and he was able to point us in the right direction. I’m lucky I had Dorina with me :-) We got there, took a number, and eventually I was called to the counter. They took my things and told me to come back at 2pm. At 2, I went back and my visa was all ready. All I had to do was go back to Winterthur and register with the city, saying that I’m living there, and then I would get the Residence Permit. Dorina and I spent the rest of the day shopping in Stuttgart, since it’s so much cheaper than Switzerland!

Yesterday, I went to the Einwohnerkontrolle (Residents’ Registration Office) and registered. Everything went smoothly and the woman was really really nice! There are still a couple more steps (as there always seem to be) but I shouldn’t have any problems with those. They’re baby steps compared to what I’ve had to do so far!

I am now the proud holder of a Student Visa. Finally. :-)

Heimweh

The Dictionary on my computer, defines homesick as this, with an example sentence:

home·sick adjective \ˈhōm-ˌsik\

Experiencing a longing for one's home during a period of absence for it.
He was homesick for America after five weeks in Europe.

and Merriam-Webster defines it as this:

home·sick adjective \ˈhōm-ˌsik\ 
Longing for home and family while absent from them.

Two of the top questions I get asked here would be "Hast du dich schon ein bisschen eingelebt?" (Have you settled yourself in a bit?) and "Und hast du immer noch kein Heimweh?" (And you still have no homesickness?)

The first question I now find silly. Of course I've settled in--I've been here for five weeks officially. (PS. whoa, weird that I look up the definition today and the example sentence is about being in Europe for five weeks...spooky!) The second question, I always answer with "Nein, nicht wirklich." (No, not really.) or "Noch nicht." (Not yet.) 

I then try to think about why, or what homesick really means. I've been abroad before, for different lengths of time, and the last time I rarely, if at all, experienced homesickness. This time around, my situation is a bit different. I don't have any American friends who are in the same situation as me and with whom I can share a sort of "home base." This time, I am alone. I'm not really alone, because there are of course a lot of people surrounding me every day, and I have begun to make friends, but I am alone in the sense of having a "home base." And that's fine with me! I don't necessarily need that, but I think it makes me, this time, more susceptible to homesickness. 

Yet, I still haven't really experienced homesickness. At least, I don't think I have. I've always thought of homesickness as the strong desire to go back home; however, if someone offered me a plane ticket home right now, I don't think I would take it. I like it here and I'm enjoying being here. I'm still excited to be here and I'm not ready to leave.

Today, however, I did find myself wishing that my family members or some of my friends would just happen to walk through the door and give me a big hug. Is that homesick? I still want to be here and I don't yet want to go home, but I miss my family and friends. Is it homesick when you want your family or friends to be here? I guess I always assumed it was me wanting to be wherever my family or friends are or wherever home is.

According to my Computer Dictionary, I am not yet homesick. But according to Merriam Webster, I maybe am.

I think part of me has felt that homesickness is a sign of weakness. If I'm homesick, then I'm not really that "Brave World Traveler" that some people think I am. But if I'm never homesick, then that's kind of strange. I guess I expect to be homesick at Christmas and on my birthday, but the in-between times...I don't know. Maybe being a "Brave World Traveler" has nothing to do with whether or not I am ever homesick, but rather with the fact that I'm here and staying here.

Kickoff Camp

This past Thursday-Friday, we had Kickoff Camp. The point of Kickoff Camp is for the students and the teachers to spend time together and have fun with each other! It's a fun way to start the year :-) The Oberstufe (secondary students - grades 7-9) go to a different place than the elementary students, and the Oberstufe students stay overnight.

We all met at 8:30am at one of the school buildings and parted ways to travel to the campsite. In America, it probably would have looked something like this: Everyone piles into big, yellow school buses (maybe even Coach buses, if you're lucky!) with luggage and everything and everyone heads for the campsite. Or, volunteer parent chaperones would drive carfuls of students to the campground together.

Not in Switzerland!
In Switzerland, getting there is half the adventure :-) Our campground was about 8 miles north of Winterthur. 

This is the driving route.

 Students traveled together by class. Some students traveled by foot, and some by bicycle. One class went by car (they set up all of the tents before everyone arrived), and one group went by boat. I was with the group that went by boat! Now, if you're thinking that we rode in something like this:

Nope.

You are wrong.

We traveled with something more like this:

But without the seats. And no decorations--only black.

There were six of us in the bigger boat (me, another teacher, and four girls), and three in the smaller boat (the main teacher and two boys) and one boy trailed along by inner-tube behind the smaller boat! First we drove to a town called Frauenfeld, where a mother of one of the students dropped us off. The main teacher's friend had left a trailer behind for us with the boats and supplies. We unloaded everything, inflated the boats, changed into appropriate boating (and swimming if necessary) clothes, put on our life jackets and set out on the river. The river is called the Thur river.

A=Winterthur, B=Frauenfeld, and the Red spot=Our Campground

We went for a while and then pulled over for a short break and to switch rowers. Then we continued on. After another short while, we stopped and ate lunch in a wide open field. It was beautiful :-) We then traveled the rest of the way to our campsite. Along the way, we encountered a small...ledge? waterfall? I'm not sure what you would call it. It wasn't big enough to be a waterfall, I don't think, but ledge sounds weird. Anyway, it was about 1.5ft tall and we had to go over it--no way around it! We weren't afraid and were prepared for it, so we were excited to go over it. As we went over, we clung to the boat and water poured over the sides. We didn't tip over and no one fell out, but we sure were wet! Shortly thereafter, we arrived at the campground!

After arriving, we leisurely changed into dry clothes and put our things in our respective tents. Each class was divided by boys and girls, and there was one tent for the teachers. Now, you're probably picturing a tent like this:

Not even close.

Wrong again! Our tents were homemade out of tarps, rope, and beams of wood. They looked more like this:

Excuse the MS-Paint-esque drawing...Google Images didn't have anything sufficient.

There was one large tarp over a rope, tied between two wooden beams, and a gray tarp on the ground. Luckily, I was raised to be a camper and am used to camping in tents--so a makeshift tent was not hard to adjust to! (Thanks, Mom and Dad ;-) ) Luckily another teacher lent me a sleeping bag since mine didn't exactly make the cut into my suitcase. All the other teachers and students had mats under their sleeping bags, but I didn't because 1. I'm used to sleeping sans mats, and 2. I wasn't given one with the borrowed sleeping bag. People were surprised when I said I didn't have a mat and offered me their own mat, but I said I didn't need one--to which I received some pretty strange looks. I guess sleeping without a mat is kind of strange--more "roughing it"? One point for the American! (Thanks again, Mom and Dad ;-) ) Haha.

As each class arrived from their various journeys, students engaged in games of soccer or other active and clever games, some I didn't recognize. The teachers milled around, chatting with students or other teachers and relaxing around the site. Some students even waded into the river, although swimming was not allowed (just wading). Eventually we ate dinner and then the 9. Klasse (the oldest students there) led a sort of Olympics. It wasn't exactly like Olympics, but more like silly games at various stations led by two or three of the 9. Klasse students. The teams were picked randomly by the teachers ahead of time and they rotated each station every five minutes or so. I think there was a winner at the end, maybe calculated on how well they did at each silly game, and the teammates got a CD or something. It's hard to follow sometimes when it's all in Swiss German ;-)

After the Olympics, everyone gathered around the fire for some fellowship and songs. Eventually it was time for the students to get ready for bed. Soon enough, it was time for Quiet Time/Lights Out (not that there were lights to put out...). Each teacher was given a time to have Night Watch. I was lucky enough to be given the 12am-1am time slot (the second slot). I stayed awake until 12, since Lights Out was just at 10:45 or so, and sat by the fire with the other teachers until then. It was nice to sit by the warm fire (as it got rather cold at night!) and talk with the other teachers. I had Night Watch with one other teacher. It was very easy; we just stood in the middle of camp and listened for anyone talking or doing something they weren't supposed to. If someone was breaking the rules, we had to write them up, but all was quiet for our post. After that, I headed straight for bed. With two layers of clothing, an extra blanket, warm woolen socks borrowed from Dorina, and a down sleeping bag, I really was not that cold during the night--I only had trouble sleeping due to snoring around me ;-)

In the morning it was very foggy and cold and drizzly. Breakfast came quickly and afterwards we had to tear down camp. My allergies had been bothering me for a couple of days, and the cold rainy weather did not help; however, I managed to pull through. We traveled back to the school building that we'd met at (this time, we were driven back--no boat ride against the current home, luckily. That would have been awful in the cold rain!). After hanging all of the tarps in a giant open room to dry, we went home. Unfortunately, I developed a cold, but with a long weekend (Friday-Sunday) of sleep and rest, I am feeling much better now. :-)

Love what you do and do what you love

With every job comes things you don't like to do and things you do love to do. You hope, though, that the things you do like to do outweigh the things you don't. In my case, that is most certainly true :-)

While my last post about my job may have given the impression that I was extremely overwhelmed with the job, it was just simply an overwhelming week. Lots of new information, new faces, new everything--and all in a foreign language. While my German is proving to be quite sufficient here, it still takes more brain power than thinking in, listening to, or speaking in English.

This week, needless to say, went a lot better than last week! Regardless of the parts of my job I'm not necessarily as fond of, I find myself in quite a good mood every day! I don't know what it is about teaching and being in the classroom that just puts a smile on my face. I'm teaching parts of some lessons and students are starting to open up to me. And, while I certainly don't have all the names of all the students memorized, I am recognizing all of their faces and remembering quite a remarkable number of names.

I'm working in a few English classes, which is fun and sometimes challenging. I know what it's like to be on the other side of the desk, intimidated by the person in front, but I still get frustrated at the avoidance of eye-contact to not answer my questions (especially when I'm still learning names!) and the silence/lack of participation. It'll come though. I'm also working in a few German classes, which is challenging for my German, but in the best way! It's fun when there is two-way learning going on--the students are learning from me/the other teacher, and I am learning from the students! Everyone loves to feel like an expert in something, and sometimes the students get to be that expert when they help me with my German. And they love that. Another part of my job is to do Homework Help after school three times per week. There is one student who I've worked with a number of times--sometimes with German, sometimes with Math, but always communicated in German--and when I'm not sure what something is called, he gets this little smile on his face and tells me what it is in German. It's not a haha-you're-stupid smirk, but a wow-I'm-teaching-the-teacher smile. And, to him, it probably feels so silly and weird that I can't remember what "divide" is or that I don't know what "vertigo" is in German ("durch" and "Gleichgewichtsstörung" respectively, in case you're curious), but now he gets to be the expert for a minute, which I think is an important part in the teacher-student relationship. :-)

So, even though there are parts of my job that I don't look forward to every day, there are bigger parts that I do look forward to. And that's the most important part :-)


Sidenote: We all thought I was done with the carpet-cleaning business back in July when I finished at Stanley Steemer, right? Wrong. Yesterday, I had to clean the carpet in a classroom and was told that the rest of the school needs to be done next week. We clean the carpets every three months with an at-home carpet cleaner, and while it won't always be my job, this time it is. (The parents do it sometimes.) When I was cleaning the carpet yesterday, I couldn't help but wish there was instead a Stanley Steemer in Winterthur...haha!

Bugs don't have ears

Prepare yourself for a very silly and somewhat stupid post. Maybe you'll find my discovery as interesting as I did ;-)

The windows here are quite different than at home. At home, we have a screen and the window typically just slides up and down. Here, there are no screens, and depending on how you move the handle, the window can be tilted open or opened like a door.

I think they're called Tilt-and-turn windows. At least, that's what popped up when I googled them :-)

In the picture above, you can see how the handle is turned. If it is turned sideways, you can open it like a door. If the handle is turned upside-down, it tilts open from the top. And, if the handle is turned downwards, the window is closed and locked. I really like them, I think because they feel more open and spacious. My window in my room is actually a door/window. If I have the handle turned sideways, it opens like a door and I can actually walk outside (See a picture of it here).

Another interesting thing is that the blinds are outside the window. They are metal (or something like that...I'm not an expert!) and there is a rod inside that I can turn to open/close the blinds and crank to raise them. Pretty cool!

The only downside, is that bugs can freely come into my room as they please. And, when it gets dark, the bugs all love to come into my room (or Dorina's room) when I/we have the lights on. We get everything--moths, spiders, flies, mosquitoes, and other unidentifiable bugs. Sometimes we squash them with a shoe or trap them with a glass and paper and set them free outside. Or sometimes we get the vacuum and just attack them.

The first time Dorina and I got the vacuum to kill a giant moth, I asked her "won't the moth fly away as soon as we turn the vacuum on?" She laughed and said "They don't have ears!" I actually stopped to think about this. I'd never thought about it before. Apparently they don't. Or they're really not surprised by the sudden, loud noise of the vacuum cleaner. So now, whenever we have a bug or three in our rooms, we get the vacuum. You could say we're professional bug-killers now.

A rollercoaster of a week

The first week of school is officially over! It feels like it's been more than a week since last Monday, but probably just because the week was so crazy and there was so much information every day. The school is not like American schools where there is one giant building housing all the classrooms and students, but instead three different buildings around the city that belong to the school, as well as two more buildings for the daycare. Each building is referred to by the street name, so mine is called "Trollstrasse."

Another difference from our American schools, is that each grade has a teacher (Klassenlehrer), who is their main teacher. They do, however, have other teachers for other subjects. This Klassenlehrer stays their teacher for a number of years--so you better hope you like him/her! Each Klassenlehrer has his/her own classroom, but the teachers who only teach one or two specific subjects (Fachlehrer) do not have their own classroom and move to different rooms, basically wherever one is free. It's generally consistent where they teach, but during the first week, all the details are still being ironed out. So, at times it can be confusing about who is supposed to be where--for both the teachers and the students!

The daily schedule is also quite different. While school starts every day at 7:45, and the various lessons are all the same length, the lessons being taught are different each day of the week (I guess like block scheduling, but still different than that), and the day does not always end at the same time. I'm still trying to figure out when the school day is over for the students, because some classes get out earlier in the day, while other students have another class to go to. I guess the best way to explain that, is that it is more like college, where some people are done with their classes earlier in the day than others. Lunch is also only served on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, and is not obligatory for all students to attend. They can go home and eat if they are not signed up for lunch at school! I'm not used to so much freedom given to the students, but I think it's a great thing--as long as they can handle it!

As an intern, I wear many hats for my job. I help out with lunch, I supervise the school cleaning (the students do the cleaning!), I work after school for Homework Help, I make sure the Teacher's Lounge is clean and tidy all the time, and really whatever other little odd jobs people ask me to do. On top off all this, I work with some teachers during certain lessons as an assistant--the main reason why I'm here! So, as you can imagine, there was quite a lot going on this week and quite a lot to learn!

I am assisting in both English and German classes and have so far done mostly Small Group work or observing, but that won't necessarily be all the time. I also am leading an elective English Conversation class, for those that need or want some extra English speaking practice and I'm leading an elective Keyboarding class--which, I must laugh a little about, because the Swiss German keyboard differs from the German keyboard, which differs from the American English keyboard! Luckily, I'm there mostly to supervise and make sure they work or answer questions if they have any, and the students are just working on individual laptops.

The beginning of the week was very crazy and honestly, a bit overwhelming and stressful. At times it felt unmanageable to remember everything I need to do, and I'm still learning to remember it all, but now that the first week is over, it's all feeling a bit more manageable. I'm also very lucky that there is another intern at the Trollstrasse who worked at the school for the last 7 weeks of last year, so he knows quite well what is going on and how to do everything!

I'm sure I'll think back in a few weeks to how stressed and overwhelmed I felt and wonder why I felt so confused at times. And I'll try to get some pictures of the building to show you in another post :-)

Zürich!

This past week has been the prep week at the school, which means that we all have been quite busy! The first day of school is on Monday and that means there was a lot to be done (and probably still is). After such a long and busy week, Dorina and I decided to go to Zürich for the day on Saturday! I was pretty excited since my only time in Zürich before today was at the airport, which is not actually IN Zürich (the canton, yes, but the city, no), so it doesn't really count ;-)

When we got to Zürich, we walked down Bahnhofstrasse, which was named the most expensive street for retail property in Europe, and the third most expensive worldwide! There were some pretty big names on that street, but there were also some more inexpensive shops, like H&M. Shops like Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Cartier and others definitely make up for the more wallet-friendly shops though! We didn't go in many stores, but did some window shopping (which I learned is "Schaufensterbummel" in German). I didn't take any pictures of this because there were so many people and I was so busy looking at everything. Bahnhofstrasse reminded me so much of Vienna, especially living right off Mariahilferstrasse (although Mariahilferstrasse is not so expensive--the comparable street in Vienna to this street would be Graben). I felt so much Heimweh for Vienna, being back in a big city with so much to see. (Heimweh=homesickness, but I feel like Heimweh just fits better. That's Denglish for you.) So far, I love Winterthur, but I do miss living in the heart of everything.

After walking down Bahnhofstrasse and wandering through a Flea Market (with so many cute antique things!!), we stopped and sat by the lake (Zürichersee) and listened to an American performer while we ate lunch. We had some fresh bread and cheese, followed by a piece of cake for each of us. Yum :-)

This is the Zürichersee (Lake Zürich)

Me in front of the lake. Not where we ate lunch, but the lake nonetheless :-)

We then walked through the Altstadt (the old part of the city) before deciding to go up into a tower of a church to look out over the city. The stairs up to the top were very very narrow and steep, which was slightly terrifying. We started going up about 15minutes before the church tower closed, so a lot of people were going down, which meant squeezing by and clinging to the rope railing for some kind of stability. One woman joked that it would be rather awful if one was pregnant going up or down these stairs, just because of how crowded it was. But, once we got to the top, it was very worth it. I love looking out over European cities because they are not the perfect grids like our cities tend to be. The roads are curved and hilly, making the buildings look haphazardly placed. Don't get me wrong, our grid cities are great for navigation, but I think the curvy, not-so-planned cities are more aesthetically pleasing.

I love the color of the water!

Dorina and I at the top

Dorina and I asked this man to take a picture of us (see picture directly above). He was taking pictures with a large, fancy camera, so we both thought it would end up being a great picture. It's not bad, but he told us to turn our heads to face towards the sun otherwise it would be too dark, which was a good idea, but then we ended up looking slightly awkward. Or at least I did. Oops! :-)

Afterwards, we wandered through the Altstadt again

Steep hills, cobbled roads. Yep, I'm in Europe :-)

After all this, naturally we were exhausted so we headed back to the train station to go home. Tomorrow I plan to just relax and enjoy my Sunday because Monday is the start of school, and I have a feeling things will be quite busy with all of that ;-) Stay tuned for details about school!

My Backyard

I've been here now for about three-ish days. I'm not sure whether to count my 17-hour sleep as a day or not...it's not like I saw much of Switzerland in that time! After my 17 hours of sleep, I wandered around the neighborhood a little bit. I didn't go too far, for fear of getting lost, but I did take some pictures to hopefully show best how truly beautiful this place is. I'm lucky I get to call this my home!

First some pictures of the house:

My bed and GIANT window

My shelves and desk (no chair yet)

The kitchen

Dining room table

Living room

Patio table

Love the view!

Upper-level backyard (behind patio). There is a lower level backyard too, but I didn't really take any pictures of it.

The front of the house!

And now for a couple of pictures from my wandering:

Some cool looking houses

This is what I get to see every day! :-)

I just love it.

Yesterday, Dorina (the other intern), and I explored downtown Winterthur. We walked around mostly but also stopped in a couple of shops. I meant to take pictures but didn't. Maybe next time--I do have a whole year! We spoke entirely in German, which was an odd feeling when I thought about it, because it's been so long since that happened, but it was great! I felt so rusty when I got here since I hadn't practiced my German much over the summer, but I seem to have fallen back into it rather quickly and nicely :-)

Today, Dorina and I went to church together. It was quite a large church but I enjoyed it. Everyone spoke Swiss German (which, if you haven't heard, is quite different than standard German), but luckily for me, there was a headset with an English translation! If there wasn't a headset, I probably would have understood less than 10%. Maybe once I listened I'd catch more, but it really is quite different than standard German. Some of the songs were in Swiss German, though, and I could understand them better when written, but spoken is always harder. I saw after the service that they also offer a translation in standard German, which maybe I'll try next week, if we go back to the same church :-)