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Introducing Mystery Class #2 Lausanne, Switzerland 46.5196 N, 6.6321 E   "Salut du club de géographie à l’École Internationale de Lausanne!" (Hello from the Geography Club at the International School of Lausanne!) Our small group of students meets after school every Monday to study more about Geography and our world. There are nine of us including two pairs of siblings. Though we live in Switzerland, none of us is actually Swiss. Our nationalities are American, Brazilian, British, Dominican, French and Hungarian. Before living in Switzerland we have lived in many places including Australia, France, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Our teacher for the club actually teaches our music classes as well. Sometimes we worry about him because he really loves Mickey Mouse. It might be because he lived in Orlando, Florida and worked at Walt Disney World before moving to Switzerland.   Our School  Our school has about 600 students from ages 3 to 18. They come from nearly fifty different countries. Though we may have very different backgrounds, we all work together at school to learn and grow with the hope of making our school and world better. In our cafeteria/auditorium, there are flags for all of the countries that our students come from. The flags all hang together in the room where we gather together everyday. They make the room really pretty, and they also are also a constant reminder of our international community. In Primary school, we have classroom teachers who instruct Reading, Math, Spelling, Art, IT (Computers) and English. These teachers also lead us in study of Social Studies and Science through units of inquiry and exploration. We also have separate lessons for French, Music, P.E, Swimming, Skiing, and Library. It is a very busy schedule because we have 8 lessons everyday. But we also get to run off our energy with a morning recess, lunch recess and an afternoon recess. This is a picture of our playground Our City Lausanne is located in the southwest corner of Switzerland, on the northern side of Lake Geneva ("Lac Leman" in French). On the other side of the lake we can see France and the beginning of the French Alps. Our side of the lake here in Switzerland is rather hilly. Because of this, there are areas in the center of our city built on two levels, with some streets staying in the lower level and others using bridges to connect the tops of the hills. A Bridge in Lausanne Sometimes buildings are constructed into the side of a hill so that when we go shopping in a store, there are many ground level entrances but they could be 2 or 3 floors apart. Do you like Sports? Lausanne is a very sporty city. There are many International Sporting Federations that are based here or nearby. They include the International Federations for Volleyball, Ice Skating, Swimming, Baseball, Archery, Table Tennis, Bobsled, Rowing, and many more. The reason for this is that Lausanne is also the home of the International Olympic Committee. Though it has never hosted an Olympic Games, Lausanne is called the Olympic Capital and is permitted to fly the Olympic Flag and display the Olympic Rings. The Olympic Museum Olympic Sculpture The Olympic Museum is located here as well. It displays a history of the Olympic games (past, present and future) and there are a lot of donated items from Olympic athletes on display. The Gardens outside are full of art work celebrating achievement in athletics. The museum strives to demonstrate that Olympism is a combination of Sport, Art and Culture. Just to the east of Lausanne, the vineyards that rise up the hillsides from Lake Geneva were named a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2007. The terrace vineyards of Lavaux, built by monks over 800 years ago, benefit from direct sunlight as well as the reflected sun from the lake. Swiss wines are becoming more and more popular around the world. Our Country Switzerland is known for the fact that it is a mountainous country. The Alps run through the center of the country and the Jura are along the western border that is shared with France. The most famous mountain which sits on the Switzerland-Italy border is the Matterhorn. We use the Swiss Franc as our currency. The paper notes are very colorful and are based on the arts with pictures of musicians, designers, artists and writers. The 10 Franc is yellow, the 20 Franc is red, the 50 Franc is green, the 100 Franc is Blue, the 200 Franc is brown and the 1000 Franc is purple. Also, our currency is interesting because it comes in different sizes based on the value. The larger the denomination/value, the larger the size of the bill. There are four official languages in Switzerland. In order of the number of people who speak them as their first language, they are Swiss-German, French, Italian and Romansh. The language someone learns first of course is based on the area of the country in which they live. We live in the Swiss Romand which is the area closest to France. That is why we have French lessons everyday at school. The Swiss cows that live in the mountains all have bells around their necks so the farmers can hear where they are. The Swiss farmers make a lot of cheese and chocolate from the milk that the cows produce. The Swiss eat a lot of both of these. They enjoy eating a dish called Cheese Fondue which is basically melted cheese in a pot that is placed in the middle of the table. Everyone shares the same pot of cheese to dip pieces of bread. Would You Like to Write to Us? Switzerland is a very exciting country that we feel lucky to call home if only for a little while. If you want to write to us to ask us questions, we would be happy to answer them as best we can. Please email us