Salut!

My journey started on May 4^th and lasted until May 8^th. After taking one overnight train and then a regional one in Switzerland (11 hours from Graz to Zürich and 2 hours from Zürich to Lausanne), I finally arrived at my final destination.

My friend and I headed straight to the Haute école pédagogique du canton de Vaud (HEP) where we were greeted with some goodies. The aim of this international week was to gain a deeper understanding about innovative approaches to gamification in schools. Our university was located close to beautiful Lake Geneva. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t play along – we were confronted with fog for the first couple of days, thus impeding our visibility of both the lake and the mountains surrounding it.

On Monday we played some cooperative games alongside other international participants, who were mostly from Belgium, France and the German speaking part of Switzerland. This was a perfect opportunity for me to improve my French. Well at least I tried! It was really fun to play cooperative games with my new friends. We also developed new rules and modified our game together, which was more difficult than expected. HEP even provided us with some yummy snacks while playing. After classes we went to our hostel which was a bit further outside of town. My friend and I shared a room which was a lot of fun. In the evening we went straight back to the city where we grabbed dinner with some internationals.

On Tuesday we spent the whole day at a different campus where the “FabLab” was located. The “FabLab” is a makerspace, meaning an open workspace with 3D-printers, laser cutters and many more cool toys. We created our own games and even got to use the laser-cutter! Unfortunately, we ran into some technical issues with our model which meant that our product did not quite look the way I wanted it to look. I still had a good time and learned a lot. In the evening we got invited to a Belgium party outside the city. Everyone was really nice and welcomed us instantly even though we are not Belgian. My friend and I had a great time there.

On Wednesday we had a sport lesson in the morning. To be honest, the lesson was a bit unnecessary because I did not learn a lot. After the lesson my friend and I went to Lake Geneva and jumped in! The lake was absolutely freezing and I could hardly breathe for a few seconds. It was worth it though! Now I can say that I swam in Lake Geneva! In the afternoon there were a lot of different presentations of games. The game I found most fascinating was the one about gambling addiction, even though I would not use it in school it was still interesting. We spent our evening in a sports bar with some internationals. There we watched the football game FC Bayern München versus Paris Saint-German. Nearly everyone inside was on the side of PSG so I tried my best to shout especially loud for Bayern München (it did not work – PSG won the game.)

On Thursday we had another sports lesson which I enjoyed very much! This was probably the lesson which I loved the most. We experienced digital tools in physical education. It was very interactive and fun. Sadly, the digital tool is quite expensive (nearly 30.000 CHF). In the afternoon we learned about the use of digital tools in the classroom. The teachers really tried their best, but it was chaotic and it was bit hard to understand their accent. After school we spent some time at a beeping tournament at HEP where we had tons of fun. For dinner we had traditional Swiss cheese fondue which tasted amazing. We even went to a bar with everyone, even the professors went!

Friday was our last day in Lausanne. At the university we reflected on our whole week and gave some feedback. Afterwards, everyone went to the lake, we talked, played cards and had a good time. Saying goodbye was a bit hard because I really enjoyed my time with everyone.

I learned so many things in those 5 days in Lausanne and met so many welcoming, open and nice people. I really enjoyed my time in Switzerland, and I can definitely say that I will remember it for a long time!

Photos & Text: Amina Seeleitner