Beyond Chocolates: Our Experiences in Switzerland and more...
"Hello..Gruezi.. Bon Giourino..Bon Jour "
After much deliberation of trying to compile our adventures in a small article, I finally decided to start writing! Honestly, this blog may not do justice to the fabulous experiences that we have had in the past weeks, but atleast, it does give an ideaof our time in Switzerland!
We lived in St Gallen, Switzerland for 10 full weeks under the MBA student exchange program with 'Universitat Sankt Gallen'.These 10 weeks were the most exciting, intriguing, enriching,exhausting (sometimes) and above all, memorable weeks of our lives.Touring Europe as a tourist and involving in Exchange with a European University by representing a US University are two absolutely opposite ways to see Europe.We are fortunate to have been a part of the latter way.
After initial natural challenges of settling in new alien place, with different societies, culture, norms,weather etc, we no longer felt alien after first two weeks.Swiss Germans are wonderful people and although much is written and said about them, knowing them by living among them defies all pre concieved notions.Swiss are very particular about timings and we remembered that from day one! They are introvert initially, but once bonded, believe in life long relationships.We have been helped at every step.Simple things like garbage disposal are really important in Swiss land (no wonder its sooo clean!) Learning German was another cherishing experience, since a new language opens doors to a new culture.We both were excited and thrilled to be able to converse with the locals in their language, which , though for me were just expressions in few words :) Life couldnt get better...Also now we know, that Swiss Chocolates and cheeses have a reason to be so popular!:) Swiss Cheese fondue is probably one of the best "family" dinner I have had!
Switzerland is one of the few places which is beautiful in both seasons-winter and summer.We got a direct view of Snow clad Alps from our fourth floor apartment! The weather overall was not that cold, with a little snow for couple of weeks (my first time!!)
Travel was one of our main considerations for choosing Switzerland and we managed to fulfill that quite well.We visited France, Italy,Monaco, Germany, Austria and most of Switzerland.Our idea of choosing places was to take the unconventional routes, and visit smaller, less known towns, which give us a glimse of local life and culture, though not missing the major attractions.Even though, by the end of 9th week, I was sick and exhausted of a "backpackers" life, I must admit that travel was the BEST part of our trip.We learnt a little about Austrian Germans,German Germans, French and Italian cultures.Food was another adventure, since Chandradev and I love to try new cuisines and hence we absolutely enjoyed every bit of it!
Shopping was fun as always! Apart from cheeses and chocolates, as souvenirs of each place we visited, we collected many things like stamps, coins, postcards, and even some art work!
Europe is fascinating.Even after visiting tons of magnificent churches, castles, museums, concerts,palaces/fortresses, fountains, parks, gardens, cafe shops, pizzerias, and piazzas, we still have more than half of Europe remaining to visit! Europe has astounding amount of culture, art and history to offer to the rest of the world and we are indeed fortunate to get even a glimpse of the magnificent past, through these places.
I have to mention some of our memorable experiences without which this article wouldnt be complete: Swiss Chocolate factory tour (free chocolate tasting!!), Seeing Swiss Cheese making in traditional village of Switzerland, Walking along the Cote d' Azur (French Riviera), Venice Winter Carnivale (mask parades and bollywood blast!), Sunday mass in presence of Pope/ Musee Vaticano in Roma (breath taking!), Spanish Horses performance show in Vienna(most popular and rarest breed of horses in world), New Year's eve in Zurich (rocking nite:)), Lunch cruise on lake Lucerne-surrounding the Swiss alps (absolutely beautiful), changing of guard ceremony of Palace of Prince of Monaco in Montecarlo(its supposed to be pretty popular) and driving in Montecarlo on Formula-1 race track (was just awesome!) and finally, the BMW factory tour in Munich(seeing all those cool machines be made from start to finish!)
Hence, all in all, looking back, we are absolutely delighted about our decision of going on an exchange study program.While life is back to normal here in US,after returning from the trip, we feel rejuvenated and enriched after such valuable experiences, and perhaps ready to travel the eastern Europe some time soon! :)
PS: Feel free to have a look at the fun times we have had by these pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/khyatiandCD
"Thank you...Danke schon....Grazie.....Merci"
After much deliberation of trying to compile our adventures in a small article, I finally decided to start writing! Honestly, this blog may not do justice to the fabulous experiences that we have had in the past weeks, but atleast, it does give an ideaof our time in Switzerland!
We lived in St Gallen, Switzerland for 10 full weeks under the MBA student exchange program with 'Universitat Sankt Gallen'.These 10 weeks were the most exciting, intriguing, enriching,exhausting (sometimes) and above all, memorable weeks of our lives.Touring Europe as a tourist and involving in Exchange with a European University by representing a US University are two absolutely opposite ways to see Europe.We are fortunate to have been a part of the latter way.
After initial natural challenges of settling in new alien place, with different societies, culture, norms,weather etc, we no longer felt alien after first two weeks.Swiss Germans are wonderful people and although much is written and said about them, knowing them by living among them defies all pre concieved notions.Swiss are very particular about timings and we remembered that from day one! They are introvert initially, but once bonded, believe in life long relationships.We have been helped at every step.Simple things like garbage disposal are really important in Swiss land (no wonder its sooo clean!) Learning German was another cherishing experience, since a new language opens doors to a new culture.We both were excited and thrilled to be able to converse with the locals in their language, which , though for me were just expressions in few words :) Life couldnt get better...Also now we know, that Swiss Chocolates and cheeses have a reason to be so popular!:) Swiss Cheese fondue is probably one of the best "family" dinner I have had!
Switzerland is one of the few places which is beautiful in both seasons-winter and summer.We got a direct view of Snow clad Alps from our fourth floor apartment! The weather overall was not that cold, with a little snow for couple of weeks (my first time!!)
Travel was one of our main considerations for choosing Switzerland and we managed to fulfill that quite well.We visited France, Italy,Monaco, Germany, Austria and most of Switzerland.Our idea of choosing places was to take the unconventional routes, and visit smaller, less known towns, which give us a glimse of local life and culture, though not missing the major attractions.Even though, by the end of 9th week, I was sick and exhausted of a "backpackers" life, I must admit that travel was the BEST part of our trip.We learnt a little about Austrian Germans,German Germans, French and Italian cultures.Food was another adventure, since Chandradev and I love to try new cuisines and hence we absolutely enjoyed every bit of it!
Shopping was fun as always! Apart from cheeses and chocolates, as souvenirs of each place we visited, we collected many things like stamps, coins, postcards, and even some art work!
Europe is fascinating.Even after visiting tons of magnificent churches, castles, museums, concerts,palaces/fortresses, fountains, parks, gardens, cafe shops, pizzerias, and piazzas, we still have more than half of Europe remaining to visit! Europe has astounding amount of culture, art and history to offer to the rest of the world and we are indeed fortunate to get even a glimpse of the magnificent past, through these places.
I have to mention some of our memorable experiences without which this article wouldnt be complete: Swiss Chocolate factory tour (free chocolate tasting!!), Seeing Swiss Cheese making in traditional village of Switzerland, Walking along the Cote d' Azur (French Riviera), Venice Winter Carnivale (mask parades and bollywood blast!), Sunday mass in presence of Pope/ Musee Vaticano in Roma (breath taking!), Spanish Horses performance show in Vienna(most popular and rarest breed of horses in world), New Year's eve in Zurich (rocking nite:)), Lunch cruise on lake Lucerne-surrounding the Swiss alps (absolutely beautiful), changing of guard ceremony of Palace of Prince of Monaco in Montecarlo(its supposed to be pretty popular) and driving in Montecarlo on Formula-1 race track (was just awesome!) and finally, the BMW factory tour in Munich(seeing all those cool machines be made from start to finish!)
Hence, all in all, looking back, we are absolutely delighted about our decision of going on an exchange study program.While life is back to normal here in US,after returning from the trip, we feel rejuvenated and enriched after such valuable experiences, and perhaps ready to travel the eastern Europe some time soon! :)
PS: Feel free to have a look at the fun times we have had by these pictures:http://picasaweb.google.com/khyatiandCD
"Thank you...Danke schon....Grazie.....Merci"
posted by Khyati @ 3/01/2007 05:18:00 PM
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