Sunday afternoon and I just returned from our first weekend away from good old Geneva. (Happy Birthday, Mommy! I love you!) As I sit here and consume the culinary masterpiece that is the European “Bueno” bar, I will share with all of you the interesting and exciting happenings that have been these past few days.
We began classes on Monday of last week so that kind of put a damper on all of the fun non-school related things we were all busy with. My classes all seem fine though my only concern is getting credit for all of them when I return to Illinois in the fall. Regardless, that is neither here nor there at this point and I suppose I will worry about it later or write a few e-mails this week to figure it all out. I am taking European Politics (with everyone in the program—though I’ve already taken Politics of the EU, our first five weeks of class will be focused on Swiss Politics which are, like a lot of things here, weird and very different from other European countries), Human Rights (which should be interesting once we get away from all the theoretical stuff), French Intermediate 2 (great so far, only 7 kids in my class and my teacher is very nice and very French though that is kind of an oxymoron), Geography of Europe (which should be entitled “Talk about cultural differences with cute little German lady” and Problems with International Organizations (should be interesting, though the fact that it is scheduled until late Thursday afternoon is really putting a damper on my travel plans). Anyway, still have some reading to do for tomorrow’s classes but that will get done after I finish this post and take a LONG nap (and maybe go for a brew and watch the bears win the NFC Championship…J).
This weekend, myself and friends Alaine (from UMASS Amhurst), Natalie (from Kent State) and Erica (from Miami of Ohio) went to Zurich and Luzern though I ALMOST missed the morning train for Zurich! Thursday following class, a group of us went out for dinner (I now like falafel) and then came back and drank a bit. Alaine, Nat and Erica went back to their homestays and I stayed at the Knox Center with others. Long story short, I was up a little late making phone calls and made our 7:45 AM train to Zurich on Friday with less than 2 minutes to spare. Won’t happen again…. Right...
We arrived in Zurich midday though the train ride there was just as incredible as the city itself. Trains here are awesome to say the least and extremely clean and quiet and have THE BEST VIEWS you will ever see. It was worth the money just to be able to look out the window for 3 hours and see clear blue water, rolling hills, snow topped mountains and forests everywhere. Incredible. Zurich was great and would probably be greater if I were rich J We stayed at a youth hostel in the downtown area and spent most of Friday looking around, seeing churches (though I am definitely partial to Catholic churches over protestant ones), walking along the lake, stopping for tea and whatnot. It was so interesting to be in German-speaking Switzerland after I had just gotten used to hearing French all the time. Furthermore, Swiss-German is very unlike even standard German so we were really lost in translation most of this trip. Even so, a smile and some pointing will usually get you where you need to go. For dinner on Friday, we stopped at a grocery store, picked up some wine and cheese and headed back to the hostel. Apparently, we sounded like fun because we met 3 guys (2 from Australia and 1 from Germany) who stopped by our room before heading out (no potential dry-spell breakers, sorry all). We all headed to a Japanese place where I got a cider-esque drink with some vodka in it (delicious, though $$$--I am whole-heartedly sticking to beer from now on) and tried my first of saki (blech). We picked up another straggling gentleman from the States and headed off to another bar where the 8 of us just hung out before leaving to retrieve yet ANOTHER bite of falafel before heading back to the hostel. I was definitely in bed by 1 but it was still a great opening to our first weekend out of the city.
Saturday, we went for tea and headed to the contemporary art museum which was awesome though I am kind of art museum-ed out for awhile. Then, we jumped on the train and headed off to Luzerne which is known as the tourist capital of Switzerland. Though I definitely liked Zurich better, the weather was beautiful in Luzerne and the old streets and river running through it definitely had some charm. We stayed in a hotel (for cheaper than our hostel in Zurich!), went out for Italian food after passing out for a few hours which was hilarious as the restaurant staff spoke italian and swiss german and we spoke english, spanish, french and arabic. You would be surprised how much drawing on the back of napkins and some smiling can get you. ha! We came back only to sleep another whole night. I think I walked 1000000 miles this weekend—let’s hope those pounds just melt away.
(written tuesday morning) Got back on Sunday afternoon, passed out for a few hours and then went to watch DA BEARSSSS at our favorite irish pub. I will be in Madrid the weekend of the Super Bowl but will hopefully get back in time and not be too tired to watch them win it!!! I have been battling the flu for the past few days (probably thanks to the youth hostel...) so I have to finish my french homework before class at 11 but photos are up on webshots and I will do my best to write something more compelling sometime soon. oh AND i get to see my partner in crime, MK&A Roma style this weekend... does life get any better?
Listening to...Cheated Hearts- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs.
lots of love,
aim
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