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Interlaken, Bern & LucerneJan 20, 2009
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Me, Whitney and Katherine at a cafe after class reading/journalizing
At the train station with our huge backpacks
Farkel will most likely become a train ride fave
| Hey everybody! I don't know where to begin, I haven't been that good about updating my journal and feel like I have SO much to catch up on! I'll start with our first week of classes. We have all of our classes at the Università della Svizzera Italiana, which people refer to as USI for short. It's about a 20-30 minute walk away from the Montarina, and you go up and down a lot of hills so it's definitely a hike. At least I don't have to feel guilty about all the nice chocolate they have here :) Right now we are taking a marketing course and an introduction to Italian, which would have been more helpful if we already knew some Italian before coming over. There have been many instances where language is a barrier, but even after a few classes of Italian I am able to communicate a little easier. Before and after class it's been fun walking around Lugano on my own and trying to find my way around. A few times some people have come up to me asking directions or speaking Italian, so it's nice to know I can blend in as a local and not stick out like an American when I'm on my own. The first week of classes went by quickly, and a group of us planned a weekend to Interlaken, Switzerland. We originally wanted to go to Milan for our first weekend, but there have been problems with our student visas and we had to stay in the country. Interlaken is known for being the extreme sports capital, and a lot of people planned on skydiving, hanggliding, and skiing/snowboarding. I am not brave enough to do any of those, so I just joined up with everyone else for night sledding as my extreme sport :) Friday we caught the 2pm train to Interlaken. It was a 5 hour train ride including layovers, so we arrived in Interlaken a little after 7pm. Surprisingly we made it without any problems and everyone was checked into the hostel Balmers by 8pm. It was pretty challenging to find a place for dinner, there were 11 girls and there were varying opinions on where to go. We found a German restaurant that looked fun, since we were in the German part of Switzerland we wanted somewhere with local specialties. Right when we walked in the door, the whole restaurant stopped mid-conversation and turned to stare at us. A table of men started laughing and shouting "Velcome to Svitzerland!" which we still can't tell was friendly or mocking us. The waitress came over to tell us there was no room for us despite several open tables, so I guess she didn't have a thing for American girls. We went to a small place next to our hostel before getting ready to check out the bar below Balmers. It was fun meeting other Americans at the bar, I saw a guy wearing an FSU shirt and there were some girls from UVA. I've gotten so used to not understanding most conversations when out in public, so it was strange hearing good English. The next day, I went to Bern (the capital of Switzerland) with 4 other girls. I've never had much experience skiing or snowboarding, and since a girl on our trip broke her leg the week before from skiing I decided the Swiss Alps wasn't the place for to learn how haha. Bern is known for having over 7km of shopping, so we walked the streets and window shopped. There was a Starbucks there, so of course we couldn't pass up stopping to get a drink. After lunch in a little German restaurant the 5 of us took the train back to Interlaken to get ready for night sledding. Sledding was SO much fun, way past my expectations. I imagined night sledding to be like sledding in America, where you sled down a straight hill, then walk back up to sled down again. Instead, we were taken up to the tippy top of the mountain by a gondola, where there was absolutely no artificial light. All you could see where the other snow topped mountains, the clearest stars I have ever seen, and tiny lights from Interlaken wayy below. Each person got a glow stick so we could see the other sledders, and then we looped down the mountain. At the bottom was a restaurant where we had fondue and beer, so it was all around a really awesome night. On our way back from Interlaken we stopped in Lucerne. It was snowy/rainy out, but from what we saw it was a cute town. We were only there for a few hours, but it was enough from the long weekend. It's funny because we've only been at the Montarina for a week and a half, but I couldn't wait to get back to my Swiss home. I've already adjusted to my weekday schedule, and was ready to get some sleep. Right now a bunch of people are huddled in the computer room watching Obama's inaguaration, which is fun watching with a big group. Everyone was distracted in class waiting to get back & watch the inaguration, so we were happy our professor let us out a bit early. This weekend the group of girls I went to Interlaken with are going to Munich, so I've been busy trying to make plans for that along with plans for our fist weeklong break (coming up in about 2 weeks!!) I better get started on my readings for tomorrow's class, just wanted to give you all an update. Hope everyone's been doing well, I would love an email hearing hou you've been :) |
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