She rode out pandemic in Switzerland

They’re health conscious, but they eat a lot of potatoes and cheese.

They can drink alcohol in high school, but on class field trips, they’re told not to get drunk and they seem to abide by that.

Those are just some of the observations that Columbia Falls native Maggie McKeon had during her 11 months living in Switzerland as a foreign exchange student.

The entire experience was complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, which didn’t leave Switzerland unscathed by any means. Still, McKeon managed to avoid getting the disease before she was vaccinated and she said the vast majority of people wore their masks and no one complained about it.

“They live so closely to begin with, they do things for their neighbors,” she said.

While the Swiss were very polite and friendly, they were also direct, McKeon noted.

“Maggie,” friends would say. “Your German is horrible.”

McKeon said she traveled by train or walked to most places. She figured she walked about 8 miles a day, which was a good thing, because the chocolate in Switzerland lived up to its billing.

Her favorite was Cailler with hazelnuts.

“I ate so many of those,” she said.

McKeon graduated from Columbia Falls High School in 2019, a standout student, but in Switzerland she was now back in high school, as a sophomore, no less.

She found herself in a chemistry and biology heavy curriculum, and had to re-learn everything. Worse yet, in German.

Grades wise, the chemistry didn’t go so well, she said, as she struggled with the periodic table, only in German this time around.

School days were long, too. They started at 7 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m., though she did get a big break for lunch.

High school age kids can drink and she recalled that on one field trip, they were told they could drink, but just not get drunk. It was geology trip. The road trip was fun. The learning? Meh.

“We talked about rocks for two days in German,” she said.

In a country full of mountains, she never skied. Not once. Her Swiss host mom didn’t want her to get coronavirus from the crowds.

So she toured the country on her own and with friends from Kosovo by foot and train.

All in all, she said she’d recommend the experience to anyone. She didn’t speak English for almost a year and the cultural experience was well worth it.

“It was interesting to see how people in a different part of the world live their life,” she said.

Now McKeon is off to Seattle University next month to major in International Studies. No more periodic tables in English or German, for her.