Sorry everyone

Ive kind of lost it in terms of blogging. I didnt keep up properly, and now I will be home in less than 3 weeks. So, rather than try to fulfill my lost cause, I will fulfill each and every one of you that asks upon my return. Ive had an amazing semester that has taken me all over western and some of eastern europe. I am still amazed at the places Ive seen and the places I still intend to go in my life. My favorite country has been Austria followed by Slovenia then Portugal. My favorite foods are Rösti and Wienerschnitzel (enjoyed with a great beer). Last weekend I hiked alone in the Jungfraujoch Bernese Oberland region and I will never be able to replicate how I felt washing my face in an alpine stream, lying in a bed of ready to melt snow and waking up to watch the sun rise of the Monk and Eiger Peaks 3 hours after it should have risen. I love the Alps and I will miss them as soon as I am home, but for now, I miss home and the people there.

Newer albums for those without Facebook

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225733&l=33f2f&id=6800010
Lisbon and Sintra, Portugal

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228767&l=b7b89&id=6800010
Bled, Slovenia

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237175&l=2cb43&id=6800010
Copenhagen, Sweden, Berlin

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2237188&l=477af&id=6800010
Dresden

Enjoy facebookless family and friends

Slovenia...finally

First of all, Happy Birthday to my good sister on this April 16th. She is turning the big 25, some would say she is at the half of her half-life. Second, let me apologize (it seems I start every post by apologizing) for not posting about Slovenia. I am very late, and since Slovenia, I have been to Brussels, Copenhagen, Malmo Sweden, Berlin, and Dresden. So, Finally...Slovenia.

Slovenia was one of the most beautiful places I have been so far. And it rained most of the time I was there. Mark, Kyle, Molly and myself arrived in Bled around 7Am on a Friday after a 12 hour night train from Geneva with a stop in Zurich. The hostel, which was run by the nicest Slovenian family picked us up from the station and immediately we knew that Slovenians were the nicest people ever. They cooked us a huge egg breakfast (something I hadnt had inquite a while) and then drove us into town(we werent in Bled, we were in Selo about 15km out) and gave us a tour of the town. Bled is a small village perched on a beautful lake in a valley of the Julian Alps. On one side of the lake is a large cliff with Bled castle on top. In the center of the lake, there is a tiny island with room enough for only one church.

Our first morning, we hiked to the castle and were welcomed with amazing views and an even more amazing monk, Andre. Andre ran a wine cellar out of the castle and helped me complete one of my Euro-goals. Sabrage. Sabrage is the art of chopping a champagne bottle's top of with a sabre, a sweet party trick. I did it on my second try and we enjoyed the champagne bottle at 1030 am that morn.

Over the rest of the trip, we enjoyed amazing Slovenian food (for really cheap), we participated in the Slovenian National rafting Competitiong (no joke), took a boat to the island church, rang the bell in the chapel for good luck, and slept better than I ever have. Either the Slovenians put rohypnol in their dinner food, or they make the best damn beds ever.

Soon, I will cover the past week in Scandinavia and Germany.

Pesach in a foreign land

Passover started monday night. I celebrated with the Gross family, a nice French-Ashkenazi family living on the border of Switzerland. They however did not provide the seder, but brought me to their friends house. Their friends were Moroccan-Sephardic and I attended the Chabad-Lubavitch service before the 9 PM seder started. Herve Gross (the patriarch of the family I was with) had never been to this Chabad, and knew only his friend whose house we would be dining in. Odd, then, that when we walked in, I knew 2 people in this Chabad. 1 was Stephen, a Canadian student who I was unaware was Jewish and in living in the John Knox Centre where I live. The 2nd was a Cornell student studying through BU whom I met in Gryon during a ski trip. Small world.

Anyways, the seder was hilarious. Most of it was in French or Hebrew, but the funny part would be when mabe 4 of the guests would be readng from different parts all arguing about where they were in the Haggadah. Eventually, one of them would yell the loudest, and instead of doing it over, they would be finished and we would dip the greens in salt water, or whatever part we finished. It was a traditional Moroccan feast as I am told and we had fish balls, lamb, and a gamut of other amazing foods that I grew full over. Long story short, I got home at 2:15 because they eat and drink too much here. Chag Sameach

Posts and Posts and Posts and...

It appears that I am several weekends behind on the posting. I still need to update ye on Venice, Padova, and Portugal. But, I want to talk about Slovenia as quickly as possible so I will give the shortened versions of Italy and Portugal (besides, I already gave you all my pictures anyway).

Padua, IT with Amy and Kevin
60,ooo Student University of Padova, Romeo was exiled there, crazy night life, Spritzers are the drink of choice, Kevin's friend Bart led us around, the city is divided between ugly and beautiful. I had fun.

Venice, IT with Amy and Kevin
Canals, canals, glass, masks, Murano, boats, canals, walking, canals. There really isn't much to Venice, we only made it a day trip, I've been there before and its a tourist trap. Just a lot of nice walking.

Lisbon, PT with Ashley and Kevin
Amazing. Like a Portuguese version of San Fransisco. Hilly, tram cars, golden gate bridge, nice people, best seafood I've ever had, good public transportation system, fun night life (drank something called the Hemmingway Special), Fado is a spanish guitar-opera thing with a beautiful sound that is in almost ever bar in Lisbon.

Sintra, PT with Ashley and Kevin
Lord Byron called Sintra an "Eden". So true. Unbelievable architecture over gardens. One garden was sprawled on a hill including caves, over lakes, lookout towers, grottos, rivers: all to mimic Dante's Inferno. Crazy awesome. Good Porto in Portugal, surprising?

PS. I shaved my beard.
Here is the album.

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2225733&l=33f2f&id=6800010

Apologies

So, let me please apologize for my lack of blogposts the past few weeks. I have absolutely no excuse. However, it has come up to bite me in the ass, as now I have to update the past 3 weekends (time is flying by) of Gruyéres, Lausanne, Neuchatel, Basel, Venice, Padova, aaaaand Portugal`s Lisbon and Sintra. Wow. 3 weekends, 3 countries, 4 languages, 8 cities, 12, 19, 39... That is alot of numbers.

Let us start from the beginning. Basel, Neuchatel, Gruyéres, Lausanne. This was all one weekend broke into 2 days as day trips. No expenses for hostels, just food, drink, and whatever museum or castel we wanted to see. Basel was...interesting. We ate at a restaurant called Gifthüttli, which means Poisin cabin, but it was amazing. In my love for Rösti, I hate a huge platter adorned with a sausage, just the way I like it. It is a very pretty large schwiezer-deutsch town (swiss-german). I posted the pictures in all my links, so people should be able to see the beautiful Rathaus and the Rhine R. By the way, this trip was with Kevin, Molly, Amy. Before we headed home (as it was only a day thing, 3 hours away), Kevin and I wanted to grab a brew at the oldest Brewpub in Switzerland, the Fischerstube that serves their own Ueli Bier, quite delish. On the way home, we decided to walk around Neuchatel and watch the sunset over Lake Neuchatel. Its a rather quaint french speaking town, known mainly for their university. The lake is nice although the swans get rowdy if you try to feed them granola, so dont.

The next day we headed out around 8 for an arrival in Gruyéres around 11. Its an intensly small town with only one road, perched on the top of a hill in a green valley flanked on all sides by alps. Very beautiful. This time, the roster was supposed to be the same as the day before, with Amy, Molly and Kevin. However Amy decided she was quote unquote tired. So last minute, I convince Meghan to steal Amys Eurail pass, which they dont check IDs with, and we headed off for the Swiss Cheese capitol. First stop: the swiss cheese factory. We took a tour, and our tickets to get in were none other than pieces of Gruyéres cheese, aged 6, 8, 10 mos. old. The 8 was the best. After the tour, we hiked up the hill to the actual town walked the one street to the end, where we discovered(knew it was there) a sweet castle. Amazing mountanous and valley views, a theme I am beginning to see a trend of in Switzerland. Everywhere. After the castle, we went to a bar outside of the Giger museum. Ahh the Giger museum. We did not pay the 8CHF entry fee, but it may have been worth a laugh. HR Giger, the swiss surrealist who envisioned Alien and Species movie series has a museum in Gruyéres dedicated to fantasy eroticism. Weird. The bar however was cool, and was fashioned with mold casts of alien spines everywhere. They made up the ceiling, the chairs, table legs. There were mutated baby heads coming out from the wall, all in all a wholly odd experience, but one worth having. After this, we headed home around 4 and stopped in Laussanne to get some Kebab, walk around, have a drink, and watch the sunset over Lac Leman. Tres beau. This blog post will get incredibly long if I include all 3 weekends in here, so I will cut it short and do the other 2 soon.

I have just realized the extent of my travels here. By the time I reach the USA, I will have hit Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Czech Republic, and Hungary. 11. Damn. This weekend is Bled, Slovenia, I cannot wait.

All of my pictures in one big bang (thanks to CERN)

Hopefully this will work...

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2221832&l=14108&id=6800010
-these are my trips to Padua, Venice, and the Geneva Auto Show

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2213664&l=f0a25&id=6800010
-these are day trips i took to save money to Basel, Neuchatel, Gruyeres, and Lausanne

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2212528&l=60ab9&id=6800010
-spring break in Sicily, Florence, and the CinqueTerre

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2206040&l=424f1&id=6800010
-Salzburg and Vienna, Austria (so far my facorite country)

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2194705&l=1ed82&id=6800010
-Luzern, Bern, and Madrid

http://indiana.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2185953&l=3eef5&id=6800010
-Orientation Week in Geneva and around Lac Leman.


Now, of course I have taken more pictures than this, but this is all that I have posted on facebook, which means the others are either confidential, or not as good of pictures (or both). In any case, this is a new method of sharing my pictures with family that are sans facebook, so I am not sure if it will work. I encourage people to leave comments as to the pictures and the funcionality of the links. Soon I will update on Padua, Venice, and my upcoming weekend in Lisbon, Portugal.

The staircase can be quite...treacherous (and rewarding)

Let me preface my Sping Break post by first stating that either Sicily or the Cinqueterre are (hopefully) where I will be when the apocolypse comes.

Sicily takes 23 hours to reach by train from Geneva. Now that eveyone is aware of this, I would advise all to take the train to Taormina. It is well worth it. My Spring Break was a 10 day italian food and wine festival ranging from the olive oily/frutti de mare(seafood) sicilian tastes to the (bland by comparison) Tuscan fare. If it werent for the amazing scenery and hiking in the CinqueTerre, I would have regret my excursion there. I also hit Florence for a day, somewhere I do not visualize myself returning to unless for a good reason. Florence is like New York, only tourists and mean locals. I think I am a small charming Euro-town kind of person.

I wish I could go over all that I did in Italy in one blog post, but this is not possible. I will shorten. Climbed volcano Mt. Etna in a 26km hike. Ate more pasta and seafood infused together than an italian version of 20,000 leagues. Thomas doesnt do directions. The Ionian Sea is freezing in February. Amy is an illiterate. Hiking is treacherous and rewarding. When it rains, people without raincoats and umbrellas (ie, our group) eats to avoid the rain. Gelato deserves to be consumed 2 times a day.

If anyone has any questions, comments, concerns (Vargo 1998) they can skype me. Pictures included should show the Duomo in Siracusa, Me in front of Vernazzo, one of the 5Terre cities, and my group (Thomas, Amy, Alaine plus an annexed Erica). Enjoy

The hills are alive...with beer and churches (Austria)

I love Wienershnitzel. and Austian monk-made beer. and any type of Wurst.

This past weekend I traveled to Salzburg and Wien (Vienna) by train from Geneva. It was a spectacular time. We left Geneva at 7PM on Thursday night, arrived in Salzburg via nacht train at 4AM, then toured the morning-ghost town until things opened and we were able to get some Austrian breakfast. I traveled with Abby Anderson, Molly Gilmore, Ginnie Fridell, and Kevin Creighton. After seeing almost all of the old town before it even opened, the girls departed Kevin and I and left for a 4 hour Sound of Music Tour. We opted out of this, decided to climb the towns overlooking cliffs and searched for the Augustiner brewery and abbey. After much searching, we found the brewery and were appalled to discover that a beerhaus was not open at 930AM. I mean, who would see that coming?

After walking, drinking beer, eating, walking and drinking beer, eating and walking, and a mix of all three, we met back up with the girls and decided to have an early dinner (around 430). We ate at the oldest restaurant in Europe, the Stiftskeller, founded in 803 and situated in a cellar right next to the St. Peter's church, a beautiful building right under the cliffs with an amazing graveyard. That night, we took the 3 hour train to Vienna and planned our time while there. This is now Friday night.

Saturday morning, we decided to walk Vienna and see every single chuch we could, taking in all the Gothic architecture and beautiful Hapsburg influenced palaces, parks, and squares. Kevin and I continued enjoying the fine Austrian beer everywhere we went, while the girls watched on in amazement.

Really I cant explain our trip more than a pile of amazing food (incapacitating amounts of wienerschnitzel), great gelato in Vienna, about 10 churches all with different splendid grandeur and lots and lots of beerhauses, biergartens, kindergartens, kinder chocolate...

Regret: not bringing a pedometer to Europe, I wished i could log all the space I cover.

More pictures will follow.

A Fruitful weekend

Hello again friends and family. I did not travel outside of Geneva this weekend (unless you count a day excursion to the French Alps to hike, but we didnt go any further than a bus, a tram, another bus, then a 3 mile walk to get to the mountain, and I dont count that), but I did make many plans for future travel. This upcoming weekend, I am planning on hitting Vienna and Salzburg, Austria with Kevin, Molly, and Ginnie. The weekend and week after that is my Spring Break (early I know), and I am heading south with Thomas, Amy, and Alaine to see Sicily, then back up north for the Cinqeterre. In Sicily we are staying in Taormina and Siracusa, with day excursions to climb Mt. Etna, the biggest volcano in Europe, still currently active and spewing liquid hot magma (had to say it). We will also see the beautiful Aeolieon Islands, where the God of Wind (from Homer`s Oddessey) resides. The train to Taormina from Geneva is a measly 20 hours. Aside from planning and hiking, chocolate is the other main point of this post.

Swiss Chocolate. Let me count the ways I love thee.

Lindt, Caillier, Melchior, Toblerone, etc, etc...

In America, I am not much of a chocolate eater. But, this is no America friends. The chocolate here is possibly the greatest thing ever. Whether it be noir, blanc, truffle, avec 76% cacao, or tiramisu infused, they all taste better than the best chocolate you have ever had in the puny land of Hershey. I scoff at Ghirardelli, Hershey, Tollhouse (the chocolate chips).

Moral of the story - It is worth the trip here, if not only for the brown sweets.

Also, enjoy this picture of (L to R) me, Lorena, Kevin, Amy playing in the Swiss snow.

Madrid, Oh how ye toy with my heart.

Hello friends.

I have returneth from Madrid and there I have learned many things.

1. Chorizo al infierno, although means `sausage from hell`, is not that at all. Spanish people do not know how to make spicy food, although they can make one hell of a Paella and Sangria. Besides this, Tapas was all I ate over the weekend. For those that do not know, Tapas are like little appetizer dishes that people order several of to make a whole meal, normally for dinner, which takes place between 9 and 11.

2. Siesta is fantastic. Siesta is a midday nap where the whole city basically shuts down from around 2-5. However, on our stilted time frames, we decided to take ours from 6-9 for some off reason.

3. I can never keep up the Spanish. Not the language, that was fine, but the nightlife. These people expect me to eat dinner at 10pm, go out at 1am, then come home at 6am. Not gonna happen. At best, we may have made it to 3am on friday and saturday night. Lame, i know, but my body was not made for this type of life. Lucky for me, neither were my compatriates, and we were all in aggreeance on when to turn in.

Highlights of Madrid- The Prado museum is amazing (tons of Jesus pictures). The Place de Mayor is a cool square where we saw a horse dancing show; seriously, dancing horses, it was crazy. Pulpo Tapas (octopus) is really really salty, way to salty if you ask me. Met North Star friend Josh Frost and he was able to show us some of the sights. Saw roughly 40 hookers all on one street near the Puerto del Sol, one of them hissed at Thomas which was funny.

In the most ignorant words possible, Madrid is like a more expensive, cleaner Mexico.

Pictures include dancing horse show and Thomas with Paella and Sangria.

More pictures for those without facebook - I am gone in Madrid for the weekend, this should keep people happy

Alaine, Kevin, Me before our trek up the cliff to the Monastery of Death






Drinking some Vin Chaud atop Villars-Bretaye resort. Beautiful mountains, easy skiing.

I love my bright yellow turtle. You could spot me from the farthest peak in this picture with it on. Imagine skiing whilst looking at that. Thats the most dangerous part of Alps skiing, the view.

Spectacular Spectacular

Please enjoy the Alps in my Union Suit. Lord knows I did.

This past weekend, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of skiing the Alps. It was amazing. Although we may have chosen a resort that was a bit to easy, Gryon, it was still a blast, and the hostel we stayed at, Chalet Martin, was this unbelievable Swiss Chalet. After a day of skiing, we decided we should relax at some Thermal Pools in the nearby town of Lavez-Les Bains. If you parlez francias, you know the meaning of that. Anyhow, upon traveling down the Mt., and taking a train to St. Maurice to catch the bus to the pools, we (Alaine, Kevin, I) discovered that something was wrong with the bus schedule...we couldnt understand it.

So, like great travelers, we changed our plans and decided to hike up a cliff face to a monastery we spotted just outside of town. Upon asking a very nosehaired man directions, he scoffed, decided we were crazy, told us it was at our own danger and described where to start ascending the 1600 steps up the cliff. We soon understood his manner, because as we where climbing, the ice and snow that had just befallen the region had started to melt under the midday sun. Un petite peu dangereuse. So, we devised a safe-ish system of hugging the wall and covering out heads whenever we heard a loud noise and made our ascent, then eventual descent as we discovered the beautiful monastery carved into the cliff. All in all, a great trip I would say.

Prochaine semaine, Madrid avec Amy, Thomas, et Kevin.

The Ghost of Mt. Pilatus

As you can see, I visited Luzern and Berne this past weekend with Ashley, Shirin, and Kevin. As soon as we arrived in Luzern, we went straight to the Mt. Pilatus(after dropping our bags of at the hotel), to buy our gondola tickets. The gondola cost us only 29CHF each after a 1/2 off discount with our Swiss Half Passes (good for 1/2 price on trains, busses, ferries, its a good deal) and it was totally worth it.

The gondola right up was unbelievable and divided into 3 legs. The first 2 were in a small private one, only fitting the 4 of us. At the end of the second leg, we had to get out, were able to walk around where there was a restaurant, a zip line, a ropes course, and the longest alpine luge ever (as kevin claims, but it was realllly long, so i believe him). Then, we boarded the big gondola with about 20 other people. This one only runs one at a time, unlike the other, which wa smor elike a ski gondola. This is where they filmed the Bond movie with Jaws, where the restaurant blows up at the end. This is also the same gondola where the fight scene took place, so you can imagine how I felt. If you cant, I was slightly scared. I only held back my urine because I think my bladder was pushed up to my heart out of fright. Its not that I am scared of heights, but more like I am scared of old machines I put my life in the hands of. Like doctors.

However, once we got to the top, it was alll worth it. The view was amazing, and made me want to get to the top of every mountain possible. It was windy as all hell though, and I wish I had brought that scarf I found abouve the particle accelerator at CERN. Its a nice scarf although sometimes I think it is radioactive. Oh well, worst comes to worst, I get a superpower, eh?

I hate long posts, so I may write more later, but for now, mountains are great, scarfs are free, and Burma-Shave gives you long lasting glee.

More Pictures

The Weeping Lion of Luzern
Some Bears of Berne


A view of Berne with (L to R) Ashley, Me, Kevin, Shirin

Kevin's Post I don't feel like rewriting, I mean come on, he already wrote the story and I can't spin a good yarn.

I am also too lazy to flip the names and junk, so just read it like it is (edited slightly):

Today is worth writing about. Today, not even a picture could describe my stories, so a thousand words (or so) will have to cut it.

Zach and I (remember my fellow IU-ian?) took a chance and walked to the Airport with somewhat poor directions. But really, it was a simple hop-skip-and a jump away. The walk there was uneventful and of little evidence of what was to come. Zach, who initiated this trip in order to cash out an undisclosed amount of cashiers checks, was heading towards the AmEx counter when I spotted a Duty Free store. We had little to do tonight besides pack, so we figured we’d stop by the Store after the AmEx to pick up some entertainment, duty free of course.

In order to get into this Store, there was a set of automated doors that one has to walk through (they actually are the doorway into France—I’ve walked there twice). So we walk in and stop at the Store. Zach, in his facil français, asks the woman if we need tickets to buy items Duty Free. She says yes, so we leave. We leave…

The door in had a “Do Not Enter” sign and above that, in French, it said “Pas Sortie”. The only place to go was into line for customs to cross into France. Up to the Counter we go.

“Parlez-vous français?”

“Non, mais tu parles le français bien.”

Zach turns to me, “Kevin, your French is better than mine, tell him we don’t want to be here.”

“Ok, nous na voulons pas être ici.”

“Ah, desolée.”

“Est-ce que nous pouvons sortir”

“Ah, you made mistake.” (this is my non-English speaking French compadre. Very funny ass).

“Ouis.”

“You can leave ::presses button and hidden door opens::, bye.”

We made it to Suisse. We left the airport defeated. One might think we were done, but never doubt my fortitude.

Once back onto fresh Suisse soil and breathing fresh Suisse air (ever breathed French air?), we continued our journey back. We joked a bit about our excursion and temporary imprisonment on French soil, and vowed revolution. In the middle of our vows, a 22-28 year old ‘boy’ walked by us. He wore a blue puffy jacket, baggy jeans, and was listening to his iPod. He was a bit on the stout side, and would also be considered short. Oh, he also wore a genuine leather belt. He looked at me; I looked at him. It was a consensual look. I continued on nonchalantly.

.276 seconds later, I heard “blah blah blah quoi?” (That’s what French sounds like when you don’t listen carefully.) Zach and I both turn around in symphony and look at this foreigner on our soil.

I respond in American, “What?” and even act un peu bedazzled.

In response, he begins to remove his belt. Yes, his genuine leather belt was beginning to be removed from his pants while looking, with his angriest face, like he could take two on one.

My first thought: “This punk wants my recently withdrawn money…we’ll see who wins this one.”

My second though: “Maybe he is looking to trade sexual favors…”

Thirdly: “He likes my belt—maybe I should take mine off and trade with him.”

In reply, Zach says, “No thanks!” and we both walk off as quick as possible. We made sure to not look back until he was a good 200 paces away. Way to avert a sexual/violent disaster. It is possible that my superior size scared him off, or that he was so confused by our refusal at his attempt at malicious behavior.

A Bientôt

Some amazing pictures from Luzern

On top of Mt. Pilatus. Amazing sites, really cold, really wind, really worth it.







I LOVE RöSTI. I had been waiting all day for some good heavy food, and we finally found it. Below is the end of a celebration for Carnival later in February, the band was unbelievable, they gave out free whiskey and coffee concoctions and chocolates, and were very friendly. I am pretty sure the bigwig in the center is the mayor of Luzern.

Format Change

I have changed my format as the last format was designed solely for A Lesson in Class. The new and improved blog has links. Enjoy suckas.

Du Hast

Disclaimer-In my nature of being stubborn, I will be typing this post as if I were typing on an American keyboard. These are not typos...mainly.

I am sitting here in mz office at the IIHL, the International Institute of Humanitarian Law, and I have the most unbelievable view. I am right in front of a window overlooking the whole citz with the alps in the background. Unfortunatelz, todaz is kind of gross and the mountains are mostlz covered in clouds. I am hoping it doesnt rain tomorrow, because I wanted to take a long hike in the Juras, which are a smaller mountain range just outside of Geneva in France.

Saturdaz morning I am going to Luyern (damnit, actuallz its Luzern) with some friends, Ashlez, Shirin, and Kevin. We booked a 3 star hotel for cheaper than the hostel, but Kevin and I have to sneak in later on. Eric told me about a hike called the Grand Round on top of Mt. Pilatus, but I think its not open until Maz. However, thez do have the worlds steepest cog railwaz in the world with the last car being made entirelz of glass so zou can see all down the mountain as zour climbing up. Should be a great hike, but a bit cold. Thez also have a casino there where we will hang out at night. I wish I had brought a tuxedo so badlz right now. I plan on onlz plazing a few games of blackjack, onlz as much as I would be spending on drinks for that night, and if I lose I wont drink. If I win, I maz have a celebratorz drink, but Iàd like to keep anz excess monez that roll mz waz.

I just booked a flight to Lisbon for just over 100 CHF(swiss francs), which was a great deal. That will be in late March, I am verz excited for that trip. As for now, I should get back to doing the work that thez havent given me zet, apparentlz I found the most laid back internship in Geneva, the last interns here said thez didnt have enough to do most of the time. I did bring mz Ipood, so I think iàll listen to Bob Dzlanàs £most of the Time now£.

Debriefing- Reallz, onlz the zs and the ys are displaced on these kezboards, as well as the placements of commas and other grammatical tools. Still annozing.

Some Pictures for those w/o FB

The Beautiful view from atop Castle Chillon in Montreaux


A foggy morning nearby where I live


The market in Ferney, France

Prix

Prices in Geneva are ridiculous. Everything is on the Swiss Franc and they decided that things should cost 3 times as much as they normally should here. A pint of beer costs around 7-9 CHF (Swiss Franc), which is insane. On saturday morning myself and 3 friends decided we should walk to France, when you could easily take the bus. It took around 35 minutes, but was well worth it. There was an open air market in the town, Ferney-Voltaire, and the stalls were filled with beautiful fruits, cheeses, meats, wines, etc. There were oranges almost as big as your head, which was odd. It only cost 2 Euros for 2 Kilos of kiwis, which ended up being around 15 large kiwis, an amazing deal. Also, concerning Peanut Butter: Reckman told me that peanut butter in Europe was gross. I told everyone here the same thing. Someone bought it anyway and there happens to be nothing wrong with it, besides it being expensive. So, either PB is only gross in France, or it is only normal in Geneva.

Bonjour/Gutentag

Hello friends, enemies, family, vagabonds. Today was my 2nd day in Geneva, CH, and I am loving it here. I have not uploaded any pics to my computer yet, so you will have to wait for some of those. Last night I went to a local bar with 3 other guys and 3 girls from the program. Everthing here is a good walk from the John Knox centre where I live, but I love the countryside - you can see both the Juras and the Alps from the front door of the centre. I took a run this morning at 630 with the guys I went to the bar with, and it was maybe one of the harder things Ive done in a while. I didnt vomit afterwards, which is progress for me. We watched a bit of the sunrise over the alps at the end of about a 2 1/2 mile jog. Although I felt a bit woozy and shakey afterward,but the cold shower felt amazing. Today we went to the US Mission, The UN, the Red Cross Museum. Nothing too special, but it was interesting. I got an ID for the UN library with my picture on it, and ate in the UN cafeteria. I dont have much time now, dinner is in a bit and I have to change. The cook, Jose, is a Spaniard and speaks no english, only french and spanish. He roasted a whole lamb, so I am looking forward to it. Latas.