25 Sep All the way up

From Zurich to San Francisco

I’m finally in the U.S.! Can’t believe my semester abroad is already happening! Hi, I’m Benjamin Blapp, I’m a 25 years old exchange student from Switzerland (to all Americans out there which may probably read this blog, Switzerland is not Sweden, Switzerland is this little country in the middle of Europe. You probably know our famous Swiss watches like the ones from Rolex or IWC and our Swiss army knife. But far more important, Switzerland is the country where the best chocolate and cheese in the world is coming from. By the way, what you call “Swiss cheese” here in the U.S. is a disappointment and far away from REAL Swiss cheese. Probably I will come back to this important difference and my struggle to find real cheese to satisfy my addiction in one of my blogs later in the semester). But first, I want to start off this blog with little about myself and why I’m so excited to be here.

After graduating in 2013 from Highschool, I started to work for Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Switzerland. During the following years, I joined a sustainable young fashion brand from Switzerland, called “Larrio Amedrino” and currently we are putting a lot of effort in relaunching the brand.

After three years of working for Mercedes-Benz I began to study part-time at the “School of Management and Law” called “ZHAW” in Winterthur near Zurich. I already knew from the beginning that I was going to want to study abroad. I always wanted to travel to the United States for more than just vacation. I wanted to live the American way of life, experience the culture and explore the beautiful landscapes. Well, I guess I made it! I’m finally here trying to escape from the serious side of my life from the past years! This is exactly the break I needed and I thankfully take my chance to live my life to the fullest.

And how did my adventure start?

Well, even though I was only here for a month, I can tell you, it was a crazy journey so far! I didn’t plan anything for my half year here. My journey started in this sense on the 10^th of August in New York (I did book to late and therefore there wasn’t any flight left to San Francisco…). Of course, the first thing I was doing at the airport, was connecting to the WIFI and looking for an Airbnb. After a few hours, I had a housing and some plans for the night and the next days. What an impressive city, even better than I imagined it! Three loooong days, thousands of steps later, tired but very excited, I flew to San Diego. Hello California, hello sunshine state! Feels good to be here! So what’s next? How do I get up to San Francisco now? Initially, I was thinking of buying a good old American old-timer like a Cadillac Continental, Buick Riviera, Dodge Charger, Ford Mustang or or or. Owning one of these beautiful cars from the sixties to seventies would be a childhood dream come true! Unfortunately, this didn’t happen. I guess at one point my common sense managed to change my desire to own an old-timer to something more useful for my exchange semester. That’s why I decided to buy a camper van instead. Just imagine all the travels I could do with a camper van, the freedom of going wherever I want and the feeling of driving one of this iconic Volkswagen camper vans would be incredible! At least I do have a Ford Mustang 5.0L V8 rental as a tiny little compensation. Ok than let’s get started, let’s put some miles on that Mustang Baby! There is little more than one week left until the 22^nd of August when the orientation days are going to start. I already knew that these lovely Volkswagen camper vans are very popular and hard to get. What I didn’t knew was that there is a huge gap between the trashy cheap ones to the almost perfectly and way to expensive restored vans. There was literally not even one in ok conditions in a price range from 10’000 to 14’000 USD. After looking through craigslist for at least 50 times, checking out eight different camper vans from San Diego up to Santa Barbara, I found myself seven days later at my friend’s house in Orange CA. Still without a camper… but this past few days were the best days of my journey! I was in Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Long Beach, Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and of course in Orange in my so called “summer residence”. The best story by far is the following: At day two we picked up our friends from Long Beach who told their friends they are going to be at the beach for only two hours. After spending four crazy days with us they returned in their own car to Long Beach! Now, they are proud owners of a reliable green 98’ Honda Civic which is past his best times but who cares?! We love him already and we are calling him tenderly “Die Gurke” which is German and means “the cucumber”.

Unfortunately, these sunny days went by way to fast and I had to leave the summer residence for the nearing orientation days. I packed my bags on this beautiful Monday afternoon and started my eight-hour trip all the way up to San Francisco. I arrived with my rental car wearing swimming trunks, a tank top and flipflops. Damn is that freezing up here! First, I had to change my cloths before meeting my friends at the IEEC QBar event. At this very moment I already knew I would have to buy a jacket immediately the next day! Needless to say, I didn’t brought a jacket with me. Luckily, a friend from Switzerland (by the way our new IEEC president) and his roommate accommodated me at their apartment for the first week. Thanks Janick and Alex!

Well this was a part of my uncommon way from Zurich to San Francisco. I know this short blog will never cover all of what I experienced in the last few weeks, but it will give you a brief insight of how my exchange program started or probably your own international exchange program could start. I hope that some of you managed to read through the whole blog. If you are interested in more stories or details of my journey or if you are planning on doing an exchange, don’t hesitate to ask me any questions or hit me up for a coffee! You can contact me on Facebook or via text +1 562 336 5454.

In my next blog, I will tell you how and where I finally bought my camper and how I spent my 25^th birthday on my first camping trip to the Yosemite National Park.

Later,
Ben

The summer residence:
https://ibb.co/m80HWp