All in Switz

And so, the long awaited post about the AFS Work Camp.

First of all, no, we did not get money for working. Yes, we had to pay. Yes, we had to REALLY WORK. Yes, it was kinda excruciating. And yes, IT WAS AWESOME.

So on the first day, which was on Sunday 30th of September, I had to take the 12pm train to Zurich, cause it takes me 2 hours to reach Zurich. Blah de blah blah. Reached Effretikon at 2+pm and that's where we met up with all the exchangies who are going for this camp. Oh it was just 20 exchange students, and guess what? All Malaysians are in :) Yeah, well we signed up on the first few days after we got the letter because we were kinda kiasu that we couldn't get it but HEY. Whaddaya know? We all got in :D Before I forget, I shall list down the exchangies and their countries.

Malaysia : Me (duh), Shu Chien, Shu Jie, Pei San, Jun Khee, KC
Thailand : Baifai, Keow, Fon, Give
Japan : Yuka, Yuiko
Columbia : Sabina, Juan Carlos
Honduras : Carolina, Gaby
Peru : Andrea
Brazil : Alex
Costa Rica : Yoselyn
Paraguay : Amanda

So we had to take the bus from Effretikon to Kyburg Gemeindehaus, which was kinda 20 minutes of dizzy bus ride along curving roads. When we got off the bus, we met up with the leaders of the camp. Lemme list it out. Eliane, Florin, Dennis and Mauricio. Florin and Dennis are 19 year-old students who came back from an exchange year abroad and Mauricio, from Ecuador, was an exchange student in Switzerland 2 or 3 years ago and is now studying in Luzern. Eliane is just an AFS staff who volunteered for this camp. Seriously, the whole time, my mind was like "Holy mama why so lengzai". Well, forgive me for being a girl. I hope no one from camp finds this blog. But seriously, it was holy mama-ly lengzai. UGH haha we squeal to ourselves on the tiniest things. But now back to business. We walked to the scout house, which we stayed for the whole duration of the camp, and kind of settled ourselves in. We got the bunker room on the 3rd floor while the boys get the 4th. There were only 4 boys exchangies in this camp, so they got the smalles bunker room. After that we gathered at the dining room for a quick snack, then went up to the sofa room, where we had short introduction of ourselves and assigned ourselves chores during the camp. We played a game, where we had to write down what we like so far about Switzerland and put it all in a bag, then everyone pick one paper randomly and everyone has to guess who wrote it. Well, I wrote (I think) "Berge, Schnee, Sicherheit, Leute, Schule, Käse, Schoggi, and KEBAB" which means "Mountains, Snow, Safety, People, School, Cheese, Chocolate and KEBAB". I think Yos picked my paper and the moment she said Kebab, KC just shouted "MUN" and pointed at me. *sigh* Just so you know, I almost always suggest that we eat kebab for our meals whenever we hang out together, plus KC introduced us the kebab in Winterthur which is like superb, which makes me crave for it more. *sigh*. Anyways after that we played Hide and Seek, Swiss style. So we were divided into 2 groups, the hiders and the seekers. I was in the hiders group, along with Florin as our leader. This hide and seek is so much different. We don't just hide, we have to do markings and signals and directions to guide the seekers to the place we hide. So we made arrows using rocks and twigs and stuff. We reached a flight of stairs and we started walking down the stairs. Apparently it doesn't end. We walked and we walked and we walked, and I was worried about us getting up. With my physical state, I could be half dead when we reach the house again. We stopped, not at the bottom, but somewhere where we could hide in the middle of the mountain. I think this whole game took us about an hour or so, and the seekers hadn't even found us yet. Florin went back up to check up on them, and he came back down to tell us that they've called off the game and asked us to go back up to the house. Swear words were running through my mind. I mean, what if Florin didn't go up? How long would they even wait to come down and call us? And so we had to climb and climb and climb. Apparently again, some wise guy cleared all our markings and directions, so the seekers had no clue where we were. Bleh. Dinner was then served and we had spagghetti, if I'm not mistaken. After the meal we went up to the sofa room and just hung around and talk, then after that we went back down to the dining room, and I forgot what happened, but the day ended with us all partying and dancing and the last song we danced to was OPPA GANGNAM STYLE. Hell yeah. After that we Malaysians and the Thais stayed in the dinning room and we all shared the 2 mooncakes I brought cause apparently they do celebrate mooncake festival in Thailand and that day being the Mooncake festival, I thought it was right to celebrate it together with some mooncake my parents sent me.

So the next day, early in the morning, wake up and ate breakfast, then we had to walk to our work place. A guy explained to us about the "importance" of our work and the reason why we're paying to work. They wanted to keep the forest a "light forest" so that the trees won't grow and block the sunlight and endangered plant species could continue to grow. So our job is to cut weeds and those pesky newly growing trees and bushes. It was just a piece of land off the road, and there wasn't a proper way from the road into the forest. Plus, it was all steep down hill. With my experience of falling down, I was scared. Even with the hiking shoes I borrowed from my host-aunt, I still wasn't convinced that I wouldn't slip. We worked till lunch and then we went back up to eat and then after lunch we came back down to work until dinner time. Before dinner, we were allowed to go shower. We went to a nearby school and used their toilets and showers. It was so nice, compared to the camps and expeditions I've been in Malaysia. Proper heated showers, with proper changing rooms, with clean floor and clean shower rooms. Then it was dinner. I have to say, that we did not have enough to eat. We did a lot of hard work, but they cook just barely enough for all of us. Eliane left, but Andrea, also an AFS Staff came to replace her. We ended the night again partying and dancing our butts off. Before we went to sleep, we went up to the boys bunker and kinda like gossiped (in Mandarin, of course) till we couldn't tahan anymore.

On Tuesday, early in the morning, woke up again and had breakfast. Then off to work. My arms were already killing me for pulling those little trees the previous day. Thank god for Yoko-yoko. I had to apply it before sleep, and after I woke up. It was killing me. Fortunately, we only had to work half day. After lunch, we went to the castle in Kyburg as a "camp trip". A short while through the trip, Florin and Dennis had to leave, because they are still having school and AFS only allowed them to skip 2 days of school to join this camp. Gotta say, it was sad seeing them leave. "Somebody" was even sadder. That "Somebody" was like a leech since the first day we came, and honestly it kinda made me sick. We had to leave the castle at around 5.30pm cause that's the time they close. Back "home" we went to shower before taking dinner, and I found a tick on the back of my knee. The day before, Andrea already warned us because when Eliane went back home she found 2 ticks and asked us to take notice. At first I thought it was like "Pfft it's just tick." but when I saw it clinging on to me, I freaked. I thought it was just like a mud drop and I couldn't gently brush it off so I picked it out and looked closely. It had legs. 6 of them. And so, the 4 of us Malaysian girls spent like almost 30 minutes in the shower checking each others' body (I know it sounds wrong, but that's really how we did it) for ticks. We were late to dinner and everyone was waiting for us. This time, everyone learned their lesson. Eat fast or starve. We had to eat fast and refill our plates before the food runs out. We were like beggars. And yes, we ended the night AGAIN with dancing. Funny thing about today was, us Asians started playing those K-Pop songs like Nobody, Sorry and Gee, since they were so fascinated by Psy's Oppa Gangnam Style. Then we started dancing those synchronized, choreographed dance steps and we finally "took the stage". Usually it was the Latinos playing Latino music and just salsa or swayed their hips to the song but that night. THAT NIGHT. We were all doing like NOBODY NOBODY LIKE YOU *clap* *clap* *clap* *clap* and GEE GEE GEE GEE BABY BABY BABY. There were all stunned with eyes wide open. Alex said it was a culture shock to them. HAH! Think we always sit down so calmly and watch you guys sway? Play the music of our people and you shall be in awe. And yes, we went to the boys bunker to continue our gossips.

The next day, we had to work the whole day. A new leader came, Maraika or something, from Germany. She's now doing volunteer work abroad, but she was never in an exchange year. Yeah I know this sounds mean but she was kind of an outcast in the camp. We've tried engaging her in a conversation but she just ends it. Just like that. And she doesn't talk to us. So we worked till lunch and went back and eat and then back again to work and then back again for shower and dinner. Since it was the last night in camp, Sabina and Carol found a spot somewhere far off in the woods for a campfire. And so we did went there after dinner and shower. It was a long walk and the weather was cold. We started off telling ghost stories. I started with the first story. I told them the story Teacher Yew told me and Emily last time, "The Ten Fingers". I've actually told this story to the Thais and Malaysians during our "mooncake festival celebration", so they were expecting it already. I'm glad to say I did manage to scare some people a bit. Maybe not a lot. Then Mauricio told this damn scary story that made Pei San cry. After that the night was so cold we kinda just spent the night standing next to the camp fire and listening to Baifai play her Ukulele. A group of us walked back to the house at midnight, and surprisingly at midnight, the moon was so bright we didn't even need a torchlight to see where we're going. We were so pooped, I was half asleep during our gossip session. Mauricio came up and we talked with him for a while, and he was telling us about his Uni here in Luzern.

On Thursday, the last day, Pei San and I were responsible for the cooking. We chopped about 14 apples the night before so we could sleep in a bit longer. We made Birchermüesli for breakfast because we're trying to cook everything in the kitchen and we're almost out of bread. After breakfast we had to go to work again, but this time Pei San and I went later than the rest because we had to stay back and wash the dishes. We also get to leave early from work to cook lunch, which was macaroni and cheese. It was the only day that we couldn't finish the meal, because we cooked 2kgs of macaroni. Then we were all assigned to different work in cleaning the entire house, mine being folding and arranging the wool blankets and pillows. Did I mention that they provide us pillows? I haven't had such a nice sleep in any camp, excluding the orientation camp in Malaysia cause that was in a hotel please. After that we took like plenty of photos before running to catch the bus. And so the camp ended, just like that.

I'll upload the photos soon, cause it's 10.31pm and way past my bedtime.

AND SO the photos.