There is no room at the inn...

Zach, Lorena, Kevin and Me in front of the Knox Center post-snowball fight


Wow, well it has just been much too long since I've written on this. Needless to say, life has been working in fast forward as of late and I realize that I have a TON of catching up to do. I suppose the best way to go about this is to work on each post reflecting on the part of February that I completely neglected and then move quickly on to this past week that I just spent on Spring Break... but, bear with me as it will certainly take awhile....


SO, where did we last leave off? Ahh yes...

The weekend of February 9-11, I opted to stay in Switzerland for the weekend as I had just spent the last month gallivanting around Europe and needed at least one week of sleep before the world tour started again. Luckily, Erica was here too so I had someone to occupy this down time with. Our weekend began with a beautiful shopping day in Old Town (All too often, I forget how beautiful Geneva is because we all spend so much time hating on the fact that it is, in fact, made up of a) old people b) chocolate) But regardless, it was nice to stop in a pick up a few things at H&M, get some coffee and enjoy some good company in the unseasonably warm and beautiful Swiss sun.

Saturday we decided that we were finally going to head out to Chamonix, France for the day to hit the slopes. The weather has definitely been bizarre here since we've arrived. The first few weekends were mostly rain and sleet (to be expected), followed by HUGE snow storm (though not on par to the 2 day class cancellation that all of you back at U of I enjoyed) and now the temps have been ridiculously warm. Regardless, Erica and I hopped on a bus towards our neighbor to the east to try to catch one of the last good weekends for snow in the area.

So, we pack up, hop on the bus, and start to get settled in--eagerly anticipating our upcoming day on the slopes. Within 10 minutes, we're at the French border (yes, we are just THAT close to another country. Crazy!) So, the customs officers get on the bus to check passports and Erica realizes that she, in fact, has forgotten hers as she had taken it out of her bag just the night before. Us being us thought that perhaps we could sweet talk the French border patrol into letting us pass (that's how you get ahead in life, no?) but unfortunately, they were not amused and rather than simply turning us away, we were detained in customs for nearly an hour where I proceeded to strategically mention my former work for the United States Customs Office (though this still didn't really help our cause and I still received the third degree about any possible drugs that I might be carrying

FCO (French Customs Official) : "Doz your bahg 'aaave any of zee pot?"
Moi: "No, sir. I honestly don't smoke marijuana nor have I ever been in possession of any form of drug. Just aspirin."
FCO: "Vee vill 'aaaave to search zee bag"
Erica: "C'est necessaire? I mean, really. I just forgot my passport and we can just turn around and go back to Switzerland. No big deal"
FCO: "NON! Vee vill search zee bagggh"

Etc.)

Needless to say, I still did not have any pot though I think some of our American counterparts who had also forgotten their passports actually were in possession so I suppose the French paranoia was not totally unfounded.

So, after an hour, our nouveau ami escorted us back over to the Swiss side of the border to get us "readmitted" (apparently, we had been in an effective state of real "no man's land" which was kind of bizarre) Upon reaching the Swiss side, the Swiss lady asked if we had our visa (no, we did not because Dr. Coe our program director suggested that we simply tell a small lie upon entering the country in order to not require a visa) So, that was another 15 minutes of headache and for a short time, I thought that perhaps I would be stuck in a perpetual state of limbo at least until one of the two countries decided to let us in (I think we considered making a break for it and running across the border a few times). Finally, after a bit, we were readmitted to the motherland and decided to nurse our sorrows in a cup of chai and a cookie from starbucks (I know, typical American, but I needed some chai).

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was just spent relaxing, reading and getting caught up on sleep. I truly wish I was here longer so that I didn't feel so pressured to travel every single weekend (but how can I really complain, I know). I'm off to do a few more errandie things and get back in school mode but I promise posts on Budapest and Spring Break are forthcoming. I hope everyone is doing wonderfully and I hope to talk to each and every one of you very soon.

Listening to... You Only Live Once- The Strokes
Reading... Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis

Lots of love,

aim