Settling in was a bit tricky. Also writing this post is. Somehow you think about what to write and where to start and then all of the sudden one entire month is already gone. So instead of doing other tasks or my homework I will just do it.

Getting there.

I arrived on a Monday, everything was packed in the trunk of my father’s car and without any bigger issues we managed to arrive on time

Arriving at the campus it quickly became clear that the HSLU buildings the in Rotkreuz are situated in an area called Suurstoffi, a mixed development zone with mid size housing. Apartments share the same space as Offices, Gyms, Doctors and some restaurants.

The entire area is pedestrianized and parking is only available below ground or on the outside.

The first week was spend investigating the town of Rotkreuz its surroundings and some evening activities with other exchange students from all over the world. As the weather was quite decent I managed to squeeze in some hiking so I went to the nearby city of Küssnacht. Wich is behind the Chappelerberg.

With an elevation of 680m. The weather was ideal for this first real hike. Not to warm but sunny and no wind. In total the trip was 13 Kilometers and took me around 3 hours.

After these first few days and some introductory sessions where I got my identity card the first week began.

The first week

My usual week is divided into three parts. Working on Mondays, Lecture in Zürich on Tuesday and Wednesday and one lecture on Thursday and Friday in Rotkreuz.

The courses in Zürich are all from the masters program and the class in Rotkreuz is from the bachelor modules. Each had to be selected in advance and during the first sessions I had to find out if I made the right decision. Now with some more lectures behind me I would say that this was a decent choice, the classes are challenging and I can learn something new there would be some other courses that would also be interesting but these would collide with my current schedule. Riding the Train takes time and is quite time consuming and expensive, so committing to these two days was the right decision.

In between classes I did do some more hiking, for example I visited the nearby lake of the city Zug. There are several places where you can go for a swim so I will definitely try to take advantage of this in the upcoming warm summer months.

Things I mostly miss so far are my Bicycle for getting around fast and some kitchen utensils (mixer and scale) as well as some miscellaneous stuff. This weekend I’ll travel back home, to grab the things I have missed.

On the topic of things I want to do and will update here in an upcoming post:

• Go fore some more hiking
• Explore the cities of Lucerne, Bern, Genf and more of Zürich
• Try out stand-up-paddling
• Cycling once my Bicycle is here

Also there are several more events of ESN spread around the month, for example there was a Bar course this week where you could try out different recipes and mix your own drinks as well as learn a bit about the techniques. These events are well organized and depending on my schedule I’ll try to join more of them.