As I sit and write
my week four blog I have just realised how much I have experienced and been a
part of in one month and how being here for five months will bring me so many
opportunities both in the educational world and culturally.
On the cultural
front we are constantly experiencing many different nationalities with regards
to their foods and stories of their beliefs.
Realising that the videos on ‘YouTube’ about the subway system in China
are real and that there are actually people employed to literally cram people
into the carriages certainly made me laugh and realise how different countries are to home.
Wouldn’t get that at Great Victoria Street train station in
Belfast! As Gandhi states:
“Meeting
of different cultures is the widening of mind and spirit.”
On Friday we had a
house meal in which our Chinese housemate cooked us Kung Po – fair to say it
really does put even the best Chinese restaurants back home to shame – it was
delicious! This was then followed by the attempts of Ashleigh and me at the
wonderful chocolate brownie. Our Mum’s
would be proud – they were awesome! This
was a night that we all really enjoyed as not only did it consist of wonderful
food and a variety of conversations but guitar playing and singing – it was a
great way to establish even better friendships with our housemates. It even
resulted in one of them calling us family.
 |
| My house mate Ailing and I |
As a follow-on to
our great night together on Friday, Ashleigh, Yeuxin and I then set off to St.
Gallen on Saturday. This week we actually
made it to our destination! With the sun shining, many laughs and a hot
chocolate costing approximately £6 (it was worth it trust me) it was a great
day.
 |
| Inside the beautiful St Laurence Church in St Gallen |
 |
| With Janine and Salome |
This week we were
also kindly invited for dinner by two of our classmates in university - Salome
and Janine. This was my first proper
‘Swiss’ meal in a proper ‘Swiss’ home.
For dinner we had Chӓschnӧpfli followed by Prussiens. This was a great opportunity to form closer
relationships with other students outside of class and it is fair to say that
Swiss people are so welcoming and everyone is offering to take us somewhere so
that they can be a part of our experience.
At university this
week students from Bolivia arrived to study with us as part of our ‘Global
Education’ class – yet again exposed to more cultures. Within these classes we are looking at
sustainable development and how we are going to teach our pupils the importance
of recycling and the benefits of renewable energy. As UNICEF (1992) states:
“…it promotes the development in children of
attitudes and values…which equips them with knowledge and skills which will
empower them to promote these values and bring change in their lives…”
Having three
different cultures looking at this (UK, Swiss and Bolivia) gives a great
insight as to how we all contribute to this world wide topic. Living in Switzerland shows us exactly how
strict they are at recycling – it is getting hard for us to get used to
separating milk cartons which are plastic from egg boxes etc.! And the worst part, especially since we are
students, is having to pay to get our rubbish collected!
 |
| Three different nationalities out for coffee |
I think it is fair
to say that yet again this has been another packed week and it is hard to get
everything mentioned on this blog.
Reflecting on the week has made me realise how much more independent I
have become. From taking myself off to cycle to a coffee shop in Germany and
sit and admire the view to really becoming proud of my own cooking skills –
it’s amazing what you can do when you have to!
Creating and developing friendships that allow us to go and do simple
things like have coffee together is especially enjoyable. It is fair to say this definitely is home for
the next while so why not make it like it!
Auf Wiedersehen,
Stephanie
No comments:
Post a Comment