Written by 2025 McCall MacBain International Fellow Cole Pybus
As I looked down at my boots, wedged into a tiny stone foothold on the Allmenalp mountain cliff face, I peered down at the valley of Kandersteg, sitting hundreds of meters below my feet. This was the moment when it truly set in that I was a long way from my hometown of Niagara Falls, Canada.
I had never done any sort of rock climbing or mountaineering before, but when my Swiss friend Philipp offered to show me one of his favourite via ferrata (Italian for “iron path”) areas, I didn’t hesitate to give it a try. Although it was super challenging and quite scary at certain points, the feeling of triumph after completing the ascent and conquering the mountain was unparalleled. I think that experience was quite representative of my fellowship year.
Having never travelled outside of North America, I really had no idea what to expect upon my arrival in Switzerland. As I got off the plane feeling jetlagged and confused, I recall dragging all of my luggage through the Geneva airport, hauling it to the station platform and finding the train. Looking out the train window as the city buildings gave way to the beautiful French Alps on the edge of Lac Léman gave me a wave of energy and excitement for my year ahead. I arrived in Montreux for my language school term, a small town on the edge of Lac Léman which is famous for a world-renowned jazz festival. My host dad kindly offered to pick me up from the train station and drove me to the apartment where I was warmly greeted by the host mom and the family dog, Nina!
Upon my arrival at the language school and during the initial introductions to the rest of the class, I realized I had a lot of work to do to get my French language skills up to a comprehensible level for life in Switzerland. I specifically remember checking in at the front desk of the language school for the first time, attempting to introduce myself and explaining that I’m a student in what I thought was somewhat comprehensible French. I was met with a blank stare from the receptionist and a response in English. In the class itself, immediately after I introduced myself, my teacher asked the rest of the class, “Est-ce que tout le monde comprend l’accent du Cole?”, asking if everyone else was able to understand me.
I realized that before this, I had never been in a room where I was the only one with my accent. Although at first this was a challenge, slowly but surely, with lots of practice at home over dinner with my host family, I managed to improve my French. I think learning to speak a new language is something everyone should experience at least once. French being my first additional language, I hadn’t really encountered the frustration of wanting to try to make jokes or deeply connect with others, only to be limited by the basic vocabulary and phrases that I had at my disposal. It made me reflect on all the non-native speakers of English I know, and how much of their personality I might have missed out on because I could only understand their second or third language.
Another cultural difference I came across was the different formalities when greeting people, depending on how well you know them, as well as their relationship to you. One that was a little strange to me was how people greeted staff at stores or restaurants. In Canada, I would always say “Hi, how are you?” regardless of whether I knew them or not. I soon learned from my host family that in Switzerland, saying that to someone you don’t know is quite strange and not something that is commonly done. Of course, this was after I had been greeting every single stranger with “Ça va?” for about 2 months. No wonder I was getting confused expressions during each interaction!
One of my absolute favourite parts about living in Switzerland was just how accessible it was to go skiing in the Alps. Once the season started in late November, I was trying to explore as many different mountains and resorts as I possibly could during my weekends off from the language school. It was also super cool being able to get anywhere I wanted solely on the public transit system in the country. Every single bus, train, metro and funicular is included in the same transit network, which made it super easy to plan weekend trips anywhere. Sometimes, after a long day of skiing, I would come home to have a very delicious fondue or raclette dinner with my host family; this was always the highlight of my week!
Getting to live with the host family was an excellent introduction to Switzerland, and I’m super grateful to have gotten the opportunity to meet so many amazing people, visit so many places, and study at École Polytechnique Féderale de Lausanne, in the 4th largest city in the country, Lausanne!
My academic term was quite challenging in terms of coursework, but I had a very international experience getting to meet many other exchange students from around the world, as well as the local Swiss students. It was very rewarding to have practiced my French in Montreux during the language term, because now I feel like I can connect on a deeper level with French, Swiss and even Québécois students, whereas in the past I would not have been able to do so in an effective way.