Meeting other exchange students, Bowling Night and Lucerne trip (wow!)

Buddy System Group of the University of St.Gallen had done a great job planning interesting things for the exchange students. The idea was to help us get an introduction to the university and the culture of St.Gallen and Switzerland.

So, here we were. About 140-150 people from all continents of the world. Some easy to talk to. Some who seem reluctant to interact (At least in the beginning)

Over the course of these events I met a lot of people from across the world and had a great time. Since I live alone, I don't have room mates and a lot of these guys knew each other because they share apartments. I know them now too but it would have been easier I think if I was sharing an apartment. Lot of interesting things happened during these outings. But I think its important to respect people's privacy and I won't share particular conversations or events here. Maybe some insights which I may share here and some definitely on www.ankit9doshi.com Just want to say that students in other countries work really hard. Probably harder than people in India and are much more independent(no insight here!). A lot of these guys were using their own money for this exchange programme or were on scholarship. Unlike a lot of Indians here, they were here to study and for the experience.

I didnt take my camera to the first small party they organised nor to the Bowling night. Have posted pictures of all those places where I did.

The University has its own student's bar run by the students themselves. It's called 'The Meeting Point' and thats where they took us the first day. Since we were in the happy hour, people had to play stone,paper, scissor game with the bartender and if you win you either get a 50% discount or a free drink. Not too many people got drunk and it was great chatting with people. Almost everyone seemed to be complaining about how expensive Switzerland was! This is also where I first met the 2 guys from IIM A and 1 from IIM B.

The bowling night was a lot of fun and I think this is where the ice really broke and people really started interacting. Our lane was represented by Switzerland, USA, Colombia,China and of course India. They had booked the whole place for us and we played for about 3 hours non-stop. Damages:10 CHF

There was a St.Gallen city tour the next day and we were like about 85 students moving around St.Gallen in a group. Too much crowd in one place for Switzerland I think :P St.Gallen has a lot of interesting history around it(for e.g. the meeting of St.Gallen and the bear..) and one of the most beautiful cathedrals ever. I didn't have a camera then and also pictures weren't allowed at some places. But I will click pictures and post them for sure. The library here is amazing and it has original texts some dating more than 1000 years ago. They have the oldest German dictionary as well. At one point of time, St.Gallen was so influential that kings from across Europe would come there for ceremonies,conferences and consultation. It was a cradle of knowledge and they have texts on almost all disciplines. A lot of research was done over the centuries in St.Gallen.

The Lucerne trip was memorable. We were lucky with excellent weather and the buddy system guys ensured that we used almost all forms of transport :P Bus to Lucerne, Boat to the foot of Mt.Pilatus, World's steepest cog wheel rail on the way up and Cable car and Gondola's on the way down. Let pictures do the talking now!

And another slideshow of the same trip (pardon, the pics are not in order)