Boston In Our Hearts, Basel Under Our Feet

With heavy hearts we met this morning as a group.  Of all the potential dangers that we planned for, no one saw this coming.  We arrived at school, many of us still in shock.  Coverage was on the front page of the local newspapers here, and it was the last thing any of us expected to see.  By the time we were all together again, most of the students had contacted family members, and as usual with the Marathon, each person had some sort of connection.  That is the beautiful thing about Marathon Monday, it brings so many together to celebrate a true Bostonian holiday.  It is a helpless feeling being so far from home when tragedy strikes, but to our students' credit, they were able to put everything in perspective, and it was a good feeling to be able to come together as a group.  Some of the Swiss students even wore their Boston attire to show support. A thousand thoughts were running through all of our minds, but upon hearing fortunate news that all immediate friends and family members are safe, we did our best to make the most of the day.

Our morning session consisted of us hearing the conclusion of the famed Swiss children's story, A Bell for Ursli, and we also read about the legend of William Tell, who is a founding father of sorts of the Swiss nation.  After our Swiss course, students had two periods to shadow their host brothers and sisters, before we met up as a group to head to a music museum.

The museum is housed in an intriguing building, to say the least.  Adjacent to a church and directly across the street from the school, the museum is located in a a former prison.  The exhibition rooms are actually in the former cells.  They even left on cell in tact, and I hope that this is the only time our students will be "in jail."

Students rather despondent,
except for Patrick, to be "in jail"

Logan playing an oddly arranged piano

After the museum, we had lunch back at the school.  Lunch time is a bit different here, as Swiss students have the option to head out into town, eat at home, or eat at school.  We have lunch provided for us for free at the school, and the students will attest that the food is quite delicious.  All of it is made fresh on the premises, and there is a wide variety to choose from.  

While we were eating, a news station called the school asking about our perspectives on the bombings in Boston.  The same news channel had covered our reception the day before, and they wanted to know our opinions about what had happened.  I was able to catch the news channel later in the evening, and below is the news report.  Brendan and I certainly would have liked to make our Basel television debuts in much another way.

Three Country Corner

After lunch, we had a walking tour around the city of Basel.  Osi is somewhat of an expert on seemingly everything in Basel, and he was quite informative on the tour, but our host brothers and sisters also had a chance to chime in along the way and deliver short speeches about various points of the tour.  The highlights of the tour included a stop at famous Cathedral (literally called the cathedral in German), the three country corner (where France, Switzerland, and Germany meet), and a stop atop the 31st floor at the exhibition center at a place called Bar Rouge (don't worry, only sodas were served, but Annie did go wild with a Shirley Temple).

Annie with here Shirley Temple 31 stories above Basel

It is has been a long and trying day in many ways, but the solace I took from today was found in the resolve our students have, in the resiliency of not letting senseless acts of violence dampen our spirits, and in the joy of the communal bond that of being Americans, and, more importantly, Bostonians.  We are thinking of all those afflicted, and we know that we may be going home to a very different state, but we know that one thing will be the same, the pride that all people from Massachusetts will have, no matter what.

*I apologize for the previous blog post lacking pictures or video.  I heard the news in the middle of putting the blog post together, and I will try and upload pictures later.