Switzerland Exchange

Too much has happened already in two months

1. went on one of the most beautiful mountain hikes in my life. organized by students so they payed for everything. were were on mount Rigi and godamn it was beautiful. It was like i was in heaven. I felt so small yet so big. The clouds were floating like an ocean in the air making the mountains look like little islands. i want to take more hikes like that.

2. went to a cheese market trying out different cheeses alone. yeah i like going on dates with myself but on the other hand the more you do it the more you kind of long for connection to do it with someone. anyways, it was a cozy sunny day and i tried different cheeses. My palette is very picky when it comes to cheese and as a child i only liked mozarella, parmesan, thyme cheese and jong belegen 48+ cheese. still a fine amount though. My bf made me try some american cheeses during our traintrip back to Eugene and he made me less anxious about trying out new stuff when it comes to food. So this time i was able to try out some stuff at this market and omygod there were some really good cheeses in there. aaand i just found out i deleted my tasty cheese notes on accident, fuck. there were two mild alp cheeses that are suuper tasty. maybe i only like mild cheese because the other cheeses were such a rollercoaster. one tasted like chocolate first and then got into a muddy cheesy after taste. the other was a bit spicy at first which was nice but right after it turned into a strong chemical taste. i wanted to try out the fondu but the lines were soo long. the vibes were really cozy and i don't know why i didn't just buy the tastiest cheese i tried on that market. for a length of the size of a hand and 3/4 cm height: 20chf. Pricy but it's very authentic swiss cheese from the cows in the swiss alps. all these farmers collectively went to this city, from the middle of nowhere, to sell their cheeses they've been making for years. i had the urge. always trust your urges.

2. for the first time i went to a dragshow in zurich. i've never felt so much energy in my entire life before. these kings and queens were awesome and they fucking served every single time. my jaw kept open the entire time because i don't know how describe it in words. i'm just in awe. the theme was villians and omygod the way voldemort popped off with abracadabra from lady gaga... Yyyeess. And darth vader gave a spicyy aff lapdance to chewbaka during a therapy session??? omygod???. lord ozai blazed off some fucking HEAT and turned into fucking mister worldwide????? Cruella did an act so gracefully in aerial silks and that reminded me of my old circus times when i was a kid. i lovedd aerial silks and now i miss it. might get back to it. anyways, no one saw it coming and she was SOO GOOODD.
during these shows i screamed the entire time as well together with my classmates i went with. They wanted to be here also because their ident has a dragshow in it and they wanted to get more inspiration. i love that with animation so much because to get more inspired to be able to mimic pieces of life in there you sometimes have to experience it yourself.

3. I FINALLY got to attend a punk show after months where this band, suicide catdoors, is releasing their first album. on top of that i sold some of my art on the market there as well. it was alright. super awkward at the beginning because i knew NO ONE and everyone speaks swiss german. i only know a classmate of mine who was there but she was busy because she's friends with the bandmembers. There were also other bands playing i forgot the names of, oops, but they were nice too. i missed being in a moshpit so bad i NEEDED this.

4. Halloween party at school. ofc at the end of october though, but it was awesome. everyone put their soul into it and alot of people made their own costumes. There was even an outfit competition. The person who was 1st place was a streetcone it was genius. I went as a doll so i had a corset and a dress and everything. drew stuff on on knuckles.

5. Halloween party at some random club. It was hosted for international students and since i already used my costume from the day before it was too sweaty to use it again so instead i went as a genderbend self. godamn people foreal thought i was a 17 y/o guy who wanted to look more manly but just looked younger. Idk what else i had to make a costume with. But then i forgot that my friend said i could go as noodle from gorillaz. i srsly had the outfit, without the hat though but still. it was the most regretful thing ever because guess what, someone else i've met before went as fucking Malcom when i arrived at this club. BRO.
btw i've met this girl at some pre-game and she was very clingy to me and said multiple times: 'damn you really look like an actual guy.' she wanted to hold my hand or arm all the time. was it flirting? idk a girl never did this to me. i guess i look hella fine as a man. as an emo/alt/punk guy specifically. on top of that we were sitting next to eachother in the overly crowded bus that all went collectively to this club and she asked me: 'can i put my head on your shoulder?' i was like: 'yeah sure.' thinking it would mean just platonically right. Then she said: 'i never wanna leave you.' GIRL. the whole time i thought oh she just means it in a platonical way. When we finally arrived i was meeting new people and she foreal held me tight to be with me. Even when we got inside she followed me around and wanted to dance with me. We danced for some time but then i got super uncomfortable because of her clinginess. so i said i just wanted to walk around and meet new people on my own. Later i found out it was flirting but i'm so incredibly bad with recognizing that. Some people are just very touchy clingy as personality without having flirtacious reasons. anyways,

6. multiple dinners with roommates and other international students from our student building. It was really nice because i got to try out some different dishes from different countries. rn i tried mexican and spanish dishes. I gave people pancakes ofcourse. The spanish dish was with ALOT of potatoes, bread and eggs. They made this vegetable salad that only contained bell pepper. i don't like bell pepper at all, it's the most discusting vegetable for me, but surprisingly they made it taste pretty good. during that this mexican girl made an interesting alcoholic juice. She put lemonjuice on the sides of the cup and sprinkled it with chiliflakes. then she poured in soysauce, beer and tomato juice. it was such a rollercoaster of flavours. but the more i drank it the worst it got.
The mexican dish was with tortilla's with these two mystery sauces that tasted so fucking good and i couldn't manage to ask what it was. we ate it with onions, cheese and avocado's ofcourse. As desert we she made a reaallyy tasty sweet rice desert that reminded me of an indonesian rice desert i ate when i visited my family on an island in indonesia somehow. soon i will try some authentic indian food hehehe.

7. chaotic cabin weekend that was just partying for two nights. we hiked in the soft dense snow as well and we saw a sun halo which was craazzyyy to see in real life. The snow was amazing btw, i love snow so much. I got to make a snow angel and got into snowbal fights as soon as we arrived. we couldn't make a snowman because the snow was too soft. also we were forced to take a minty shot at the entrance before going into our rooms...The parties were chaotic because there was a fight happening between three drunk people that resulted into blood. no joke. two of them were banned and had left the next morning. the victim who bled stayed because he didn't do anything awful. Also it was chaotic because everyone was loud and most of them acting like kids who apparently can't hear orders. The activities like hiking and dancing and playing boardgames were fun though so that was nice. i got to meet new people as well around the fireplace. We also played this "killing" game during the entire weekend to try to kill your opponent in secret by your assigned place and murderweapon. we had to choose random wrapped papers and i happen to kill this one guy with a pillow in the living room. The next day while playing boardgames he joined us in the living room, where there was one pillow on a chair, and i had the most perfect time to do it. but at that point i wasn't sure if we were playing it or not because no one else was taking it seriously anymore after the first day (alot of people got killed during the first day). So instead i was just losing everytime we played some boardgames and found out i'm very stupid and bad when it comes to strategy. people actually got mad. and i foreal most of the time don't know if people are jokingly mad or not. i am so bad with finding out social cues i almost cried during these boardgames. they were just games but everyone got super invested in it that they dragged me along with anger. i was hella good with UNO though.

8. i was having dinner with some of my classmates from my project and tried this typical swiss dish called: raclette. felt like a gourmette thingy but with lots of cheese and mashed potatoes, paprika powder, pickled onions and corn and more pickles. It was really good. you put the cheese with paprika powder on top in the mini pan and when it got soft you let it melt on your potatoes. super yummy.

besides from fun events, i got more stressed out from school because of this scientific writing paper and i'm a month behind because i still don't know what to find out with dreams in film. I love dreams so much because it's always random and i love random and surprises in a weird way. i have maybe the question but i don't know if it's phrased well.
Anyways, the animation project goes well, we are really fast. i realized i'm really fast with everything. but i should take more breaks and slowdown a little maybe.

i'm gonna be doing alot more soon. i hope my cold is getting better tomorrow and won't return.

oops, i forgot to make weekly entries. This month we were just busy creating the story, concept art stuff and storyboards for our ident for adult swim.
we're in a team of 4 ppl and i'll be art director. someone else is helping me with character designs and backgrounds. the two other teammates are working on the story. based on the story and the entire worldbuilding they've created we have to design it.

Dude finally i'm making so much progress on my artistic skills with design. I've made so many different drawings, i've never done that before and i am still learning which designs fit the world better than the others, in agreement with the other teammates and my teachers.
Finally i'm also applying the visual arts better in animation. We got these presentations about visual development IN ANIMATION, which i missed SO much in my school back home. Because we only got to learn how to make new ideas and i was like what the fuck is this i don't need this bullshit. sorry, but my teacher never worked on any animation work and he's giving us visual development?? i feel like the school wasn't making a good decision if i gotta be really honest. Some assignments were really fun and useful so those were nice.

But at this school in Switzerland we get visual development class from someone who worked as an art director in multiple animations and got to tell us about how to make interesting visuals in an animation. Also he FINALLY explained color. damnit my school can do better because i think visual development is one of the KEY elements in animation. Like why are we even making animations besides telling stories? to captivate the audience to make the story much more stronger by using color, shapes, composition, etc. to create new worlds within the story. why do these characters stand out? what do these backgrounds represent? why do they look like that? why is this green and the other is purple? are these symbols telling something? why is this shot darker than the other shot? how can we make it more frightening? how can we make it more happy? how can we make it more serious? how can we make it more surprising? ETC. one of the things that shape the entire world around the story. VERY IMPORTANT. My home school should do better tbh, but i am very glad i got the chance to go here to HSLU.
sorry, i got crazy fomo because now i'm regretting going here instead of my home school tbh, oops.

Anyways, besides school i am also surrounded by crazy looking mountains. a couple weeks ago i went on one of the most beautiful hikes of my life. the only sentence i could speak during the hike was: 'this is so beautiful'. We got an entire panorama on top of this mountain surrounded by a sea of clouds where mountain tops reached above it like little islands. i want to hike that trail again. But there are so many other trails that are even more beautiful i HAVE to hike them.
At the same time i found out there are alot of rare endangered flowers around mountaintops, like the Silver Thistle that i've seen a couple times. I really want to find the Edelweis as well.
I want to walk and hike around so many places but i'm somehow scared all the time that something terrible will happen. now if i don't wear this specific necklace i'm always wearing that i've made during flute camp, my day will become unlucky and worse. i don't want to think about that. a classmate has solo traveled a lot and she said there will be a very low chance that something terrible will happen. i want to be more free and i really don't want to think about all the shit my parents keep saying to me because they are super overprotected. if they keep saying 'be careful, watch out for other people, don't go with a random person, don't do this don't do that' i get incredibly anxious and that will make me miss out on so many experiences in my life. but even when they're not saying it it's still engraved and hardwired in my brain. i don't want to be anxious anymoooreee.

P.S: the person who worked at adult swim worked on The Amazing World of Gumball which is insane. He gave us some story ideas and feedback and it was super helpful.

anxious when pitching a story so i made sure someone else in my group was presenting it. sorry, i'm getting slightly dizzy whenever i am standing in front of a few people.

Anyways, we were trying to make up stories for our clients: Adult Swim, Amnesty and Kurzfilmnacht. A few tricks for making stories we've used are:

• mindmap -> write down as many associations as possible
• writing down random: figure, action, scenery and mix them together
• writing down a random object in some paper, put it in a bin folded, pick out a random paper and make as many associations as possible based on the randomly picked object.

The thing i'm proud of is adding suggestions to certain ideas.
But what i've noticed is that i go along peoples ideas too quick. I should say more what i think of things. But that's because i haven't consumed enough media lately to be able to grasp some inspirations.

WHAT WAS MY PERSONAL BIGGEST SUCCES?
currently, animating a person through some corridors getting followed by aphex twin

WHAT WAS MY BIGGEST CHALLENGE, AND WHY?
giving people feedback. to think critically about someone elses work.

WHAT WAS ONE THING IN MY WORKFLOW THAT I WOULD DO AGAIN NEXT TIME?

NOT doing straight ahead animation tbh.

WHAT IS ONE THING I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY IN MY WORKFLOW NEXT TIME?
questioning why i make this.

WHAT DID I LEARN ABOUT MY OWN CREATIVE PROCESS?
reflecting is key. giving feedback is so important because it will benefit both of you. The person who will receive it gets more ideas while i discover something new about myself.

IS THERE SOMETHING ELSE I'VE LEARNED?
The teacher drew some sort of a chard to show how to get out of your comfortzone but still feel you're quite a bit comfortable in doing so.
You got 'safespace' in the middle of the circle and way outside of it you got the space that's completely out of your comfortzone. But right in between those two things you got the 'bravespace'. Reminds me of what david bowie said in an interview that you show greater growth and ideas when you're right in between the comfortable and the uncomfortable. It just takes only one step to get there and it takes courage to do so. And i think you can add that to anything in life right now. I could use it to get better at communicating with others by making a small step like joining them for lunch, by just being in their presence.

First day of school was yesterday and it was super messy because my brain is fucking dumb. There was this introduction happening on the ground floor and i asked someone what it was and they were like: 'yeah its for everyone who studies here.' so i was like oh, but i have to go to my class at 9:00. And they were like: 'you can do that after.' So i was hella confused and stayed there eventhough my teacher said in the mail that i can go join them.
Dude i could've just went upstairs to see if anyone is in that class or not and then leave if nobody was there. UGH. After a talk was done i saw animation people and realized hours later i accidentally joined 1st year like omygooooood that's when i knew i hate myself.

A couple hours later i joined my right class, 2nd year, while they were already busy with a project. I joined a group immediately and it was fun. The teacher told me about some important stuff what the schedule was and i was like alright okay nice.
But when class was over i was like oh its done so imma head home. When i got home i looked at my phone and i saw a message a couple hours ago that there was a fucking party going on and i was again confused for who it was. Bro nooobody, not even the teacher, said anything about a party to me. It's an annual animation intro party and everyone got shirts, there was karaoke, shared dinner, a whole fest going on. I feel miserable because now i can't talk to people around me easily because they don't know me at all and i'm hella nervous when meeting new people and i feel so awful when i don't know what to say. Not even during group projects now. Godamnit. Parties are more easy to meet new people, aaaaaagggghh.

I was still super amazed by the school itself because it's HUGE and they got CUBICLES for animators finally. However even through all of that i feel incredibly lonely and scared. I want to connect but don't know how and i don't want to seem weird all the time because i don't know what to say. I overhtink too much but in the heat of the moment you can't escape that.

Yesterday it was very messy which stressed me out so much. I went by train through Frankfurt and Basel which took me more than 9 hours because of delays. Thankgod i signed up for a Buddy system where you get a buddy showing you around town. She wanted to help me carry my luggage to my apartment which is so sweet. As i catched the train to Luzern i realized my data wasn't working at all. So i was stressed my buddy wouldn't be at the station at 20:30. I was praying if calling worked and finally it did. I was meeting up with her at the station and she brought her friend with her who was going to go back to her home country India soon. They were both telling me all about the train system which is handy. We first bought some food because i haven't eaten well the entire trip. They bought two cheesecakes and a pizza. I also bought a pizza. Dude Switzerland is so expensive. Every product is minimum 2 CHF, which is 2,14 Euro's which is 2,51 dollar, which is stupid.

When we arrived at my apartment my tennor didn't send me an email of a code for a box where my key is. the last mail i received from them saying: 'Your key 407 is in a box with the key for room 507.' I was confused first with what they meant and thought it was in box 507 but no. Apparently you need a code to a box where your key is in. After 30 minutes i found the keycode in the depths of my spam mails. like super hidden which sucked. My key was in a box together with 507. Like why wouldn't you put the code in that last mail. Whatever at least we got in and checked my apartment. When they left my buddy gave me her cheesecake as a gift it was so kind. And then i was struggling finding wifi but it was on the back of the door on a super tiny card. i think i was just pretty dumb the whole time because of stress. I was very blessed meeting with them carrying my luggage all the way to the 4th floor because the elevator doesn't work, and also using their data to find stuff in my mail.

Now that it's morning, I got this beautiful view from my window of the mountains between some concrete flats. In the distance a few colored houses are sitting between the trees in this sunny weather. It's so pretty overhere. I used the sun as alarm to not burn me in my face to get up out of bed. I was so nervous to meet with my roommates. As i dressed up and opened my door to go to the bathroom i heard someone stepping out of it across the hall so i said hi. 'Ohmygod you scared me.' he said before putting his hands on his face and chest to calm down. 'Oh i'm so sorry, imsosorry haha.' Dude it was scary for me too man. 'Sorry you have to see me this way, i'm Martin.' He was just dressed with a shirt and pants looking like he just came from the beach. 'No it's fine it's morning anyways, my name is Lois.' I said. 'Nice to meet you!.' He went back to his room and i noticed there was no toilet paper left, so i decided to go to the grocery store.

Thankgod there's a Lidl because it's always pretty cheap. But not in Switzerland nope. Just for 4 days eating i'm left with 37 CHF which is 40 euros goddamnit. It's as expensive like the Albert Heijn in the Netherlands... *big sigh* stupid Switzerland. but maybe it's not stupid after all for me because i get 460 CHF per month from their government, heheheh, for groceries, data,school stuff and traveling as a student. AND i get 500 from my dutch government because i'm abroad as a student. Crazy privelege i behold and i'm not going to deny that.

I'll be attending the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU). They have multiple buildings for certain majors. I study my Animation major at the Lucerne School of Design, Film and Art, a little outside the downtown area of Lucerne.
I'm not in Switzerland yet because i still need to arrange a lot of stuff. I'm just starting this entry right now already because it's nice to know what's involved for people who maybe want to go here as well or just want to experience an exchange in general.

(I will edit this entry several times so i can cross things off)

The stuff i already had done:
For the school's application:

• portfolio
• motivation letter
• passport info
• resume
• relevant language certificate(s)
• Learning Agreement (agreement from both schools to attend the school from abroad)
• Transcript of Records (grades)

When i was accepted i had to declare consent to declare i will only study there and nowhere else.

Then i had to arrange an accomodation. Thank god the school offers some specific accomodations to students from specific majors. I'll be staying in this certain apartment building where it's recommended for art and music students to stay there.
The important thing is to mail their housing-mail that you want to reserve a room. Else it won't be shown that a room is free in your HSLU-account. Everything seemed full when i looked around for rooms on my account website before mailing them. After you mail them you'll get a message on your account that there will be a room free when you click on the 'accomodation' button. Much later when you booked a room you'll get the rest of the information such as payment.

Making sure you're insured for travel and overall health

The stuff i still need to arrange are:

Residence Permit

bank account information

making sure my country knows i'm studying elsewhere by sending them proof (i need both institutions to sign the paper form)

student grant (SEMP for Switzerland)

travel fee

Residence Permit: I need to hand in the following things for the Migration Office in Lucerne when i come over within 14 days:

Application form 6 (school sends it to me)

Copy of passport: valid for at least 3 months beyond the intended date of departure

Confirmation of Enrolment (will be issued by your Student Services Coordinator or Exchange Program Coordinator)

Copy health Insurance

Evidence of sufficient financial means through current statement of a bank account in your name with the required minimum amount of CHF 21.000 for a whole academic year, CHF 10.500 for one semester

or alternatively:

a declaration of financial guarantee of a solvent person with residence in Switzerland

For EU/EFTA passport holders: submit a letter from your parents confirming that they support you financially during your studies

The ones i crossed out are the things I have already laid out ready.

i send a form to both institutions to sign as proof that my country knows i'll be going abroad.It's at the same time a request for a travel fee. i need to wait now. Update: i arranged it.

For my student grant there will be two workshops for more information about it. The first one will be held when i'm spending time in the US though but it'll be fine. The second one will be held in person somewhere at school.

Okay, i hope these tasks won't stack up even more. i'm praying i'm not forgetting something. But yeah, this is all the stuff that you need to arrange for an exchange which can be pretty tiring, but it's worth the work.

My greatest tip is to KEEP MAILING both education institutions contacts if you have questions. It still happens that things are overlooked. I didn't even know i had to send an entire form to my municipality instead of only marking and answering a few questions on their website. I found out because of the travel insurance subject my advisor told me, but unfortunately she didn't gave me any exact information about how to arrange that. Anyways, we're good now, i hope.

Also another tip is to READ THE FORMS REALLY WELL that you'll get per email by the institution abroad. I need a long time to read, idk why, most of the time 5 times even if it was in my native language. Sometimes i didn't read certain words which made me skip important things.
At the beginning, when i had to do the application form, i didn't read you only had to fill in your personal information first in order to get send to the main application website. After doing the first part i didn't read that it will take at least 3 workdays to get processed, oops. So i was stressed out because i handed it in 2 days before the deadline. I first thought to just wait till i got every document ready and then fill out everything all at once, but nu-uh. i mailed the institutions advisor and she send me right away to the website, thank god she's fast with replying.

Update: i got really confused why this other advisor from HSLU send me a mail WITH the document about visa requirements having name subject name of the mail being VISA and accomodation. I recently discovered don't need a long stay visa. It's called a Residence Permit. she sent me two different documents for both students who don't need visas and do. So i was confused which one i should follow. But now i know.