Thejus G Sajan
Our trip was off to a great start. We had arrived safely and after a good night’s rest, we were all ready for our first official day in Switzerland. We reached St Michael College at around eight o’ clock and the sight of the huge campus just blew our minds away. It was truly a sight to behold, as it looked like a real life version of Hogwarts but with a few, more modern buildings alongside. Everything was neat and organized and the whole place seemed to be run by clockwork.
We were welcomed in the Music room by a very warm and jovial Mr. Matthias Wider, the Principal and our forever kind and gentle coordinator, Mrs. Gisela Murmann. As a token of our welcome, the school brass band then played a few excerpts for us from famous pieces including “The Bare Necessities” from “The Jungle Book” and we were soon asked by the conductor to join them in way of claps and snaps. We were then given the tour of the school. We learned that the school was built in the medieval times and in the Gothic style. It was initially set up by Jesuits as a school for boys. There were lots of interesting portraits and paintings of popes and saints, spiral staircases, and also a chapel within the school, all of which gave a feeling as if the school were fictional and a figment of our imagination. Well, going around the vast campus, climbing up and down a huge number of stairs and wrapping our heads around the reality of the existence of such an amazing place of study was a lot of hard work and tired us out both physically and mentally; so our next stop was the cafeteria.
Having seen a lot of Hollywood movies, we were all familiar with how a high school or college cafeteria should look like. Well, I think it is safe to say that the cafeteria lived up to our expectations. There were various types of breads, doughnuts and other snacks along with numerous other lunch items. There were also a couple of microwaves which the students could use to warm up their lunch. We were served a crunchy salad and delicious lasagna by a smiling lunch lady. It was only our second Swiss meal (after the one we had the previous day from our host families) and so we helped ourselves to a considerable amount. After allowing our stomachs to break down at least a small fraction of what we ate (given the amount), we set off for an English class.
As we were a significant number, and because we were to have classes with other Swiss students, we were split into two groups. The English classes were held in very well lit and spacious classrooms. Here, each of us was paired with a Swiss student. Having let us settle down, the teacher began the class. We had a discussion of one of William Shakespeare’s famous poems – The Seven Ages of Man, an excerpt from his play “As You Like It”. In the poem, the poet compares the whole world to a stage where the men and women are merely actors who have their own entrances, roles and exits. It catalogs seven stages in a man’s life: infant, schoolboy, teenage lover, soldier, justice, aging man and finally one facing imminent death. The poem suggests that each stage in a man’s life calls upon him to play another role. The class was very engaging and interesting as the teacher helped us to look at the poem from the poet’s point of view along with taking our suggestions and points into consideration. Having used the intellectual part of our brain enough for the day, we prepared to set out for an afternoon of sightseeing.
The streets of Switzerland were so clean, tidy and organized with a few fountains of fresh water every few meters. The fountains were well managed and kept and decorated elaborately with flowers. We met with our local tour guide, at the famous Notre Dame Square, who took us along for an exciting tour around the city. Our first stop was the St. Nicholas Cathedral which was a famous Roman Catholic Church built in the Gothic times. It was very well known for its glass paintings which were filled with themes and stories from the Bible. It was also a very important church as far as pilgrims were conscerned. We also saw the Burgeon Tower. We then took a stroll down the streets towards the older part of the city which in its own enchanting way seemed even more beautiful than its modern counterpart. It was so calm and peaceful and so filled with greenery that just a walk around those parts seemed to clear one’s thoughts and refresh them.
We were then taken to the Sarine/Saane River. It was so soothing and beautiful with its crystal clear water but what made it even more interesting was that it formed a linguistic boundary between the French and Swiss-German speaking parts of the bilingual canton of Fribourg. We also went to the St. Jean Bridge which went over the Sarine River.
The last part of our tour around the city was a peculiar way to get up and downhill – the Funiculaire, which was basically a funicular railway between the Upper and Lower Towns of Fribourg. The interesting fact was that it used waste water for its functioning – the one which had to come down was filled with water in its base so as to increase its weight while the one which had to go up was emptied of all water. With that, our first day in Switzerland had drawn to a close. It was a good start – one which made our first impression of Switzerland an amazing and memorable one.
