Hallo aus der Schweiz!

North Face of the JungFrau Mountain, Switzerland

           Good Morning all! Or should I say, Goodnight all! It is currently 8:00am in Firenze, and it is 2:00am for almost all those who are reading this post. First, I would like to apologize for not posting anything last Wednesday or Sunday. I have decided that because of weekend traveling, I will be posting every Monday morning (Sunday night for all you). That way you can read about all my weekday adventures, as well as my weekend excursions. Shall we begin?

           This Monday was the first day of classes. The first thought that came to mind when I woke up on Monday was, “Wait, we actually have to go to class here?” Sadly, vacation was over. Classes here are a little different than back at Clemson. My schedule is composed of five classes. Unlike most students here, I did not get the “you should only take easy classes, because you’re never going to want to do homework” memo. So while all my roommates are taking Food and Wine Pairing, Wine Marketing, and Cooking in Florence, I am taking Into to Marketing, HR Management, Intro to Psychology, Italian, and (my favorite) The Ages of Hero’s: The Odyssey, Iliad, Aeneid, and Western Literature. Each class is held once a week for two and a half hours a day… At first I was thinking, “That’s GREAT!” because you don’t have to worry about the class but once a week…WRONG! After 3 classes, back to back to back, you are ready to roll over and die. Not to mention the thick Italian accents that make all the teachers sound like vampires that “want to suck your blood”. However, how can I really complain when I am waking up in the beautiful city of Florence, Italy everyday? In the end, it is only 15 classes per class the whole semester; and the work put in during the weeks, is well worth the adventures had on the weekend.

About to ski down from the Top of the Mountain

            This weekend six of my roommates and I decided to take a trip to Interlaken, Switzerland. Let me tell you, you do not know cold until two layers of pants, a long sleeve tank top, a sweater, a North Face, and a Barbour jacket, gloves, a scarf, two pairs of socks, boots and a hat still isn’t enough to keep you warm. I mean it was -10˚C. We got on the bus at 7pm Thursday and arrived to our adorable hostel in Interlaken around 4am Friday. Lauren and I decided that we wanted to be the first out on the slopes Friday morning, so we woke up at 7am and rushed to get our gear. Three hours of sleep isn’t sleep, it’s a nap, but that didn’t stop us from skiing some of the most beautiful slopes in the world. The entire day of skiing we were surrounded by magnificent snow covered mountains. Although I had not been skiing in about 4 years, poor Lauren had not skied since she was 10. I told her we would take it easy and only ski down the blues and greens. However, little did we know, there are no such thing as blues and greens in the Swiss Alps, only red and blacks with a few blues to help you reach the ski lifts. On the first run, I taught Lauren about pizzas and carving, however, her only method to skiing was flying down the slope full speed and praying she didn’t crash at the bottom, which in most cases she did. One slope her ski feel off at the top and after 10 minutes of me standing at the bottom of the slope watching her struggle to put her ski back on, she decided to walk down the entire slope. She was a trooper though, considering on the first run we took the chair lift all the way to the top of the mountain…Oops. Skiing with Lauren was the highlight of my trip, not only because I was able to laugh with her every time she flew down the mountain and crashed, but also because I got to see some of the most beautiful views of Switzerland I would not have been able to see if I did not ski.

Meg and I at the Top of the Fraumunster Church

       The next day, the roommates and I decided to take a trip to Zurich, which is like the New York City of Switzerland. It was colder, and a lot more developed than I imagined. In Zurich my roommates and I saw to largest clock tower in the world, climbed the beautiful Fraumunster church that looked over the entire city, and I tried all different types of Swiss foods, including Swiss chocolate and pretzels! After the day trip was over, the trip advisor told us to meet her at the Starbucks near the train station, well…little did we know, there are five Starbucks’ near the train station. We decided to leave an hour early to find the Starbucks to ensure we would not be late, however, after visiting every Starbucks in Zurich, we finally found the Starbucks 30 minutes late as the bus was pulling out... After visiting Zurich I realized that I am more interested in site seeing and adventure part of traveling than I am the shopping and tourism part. Zurich was beautiful, but I'm not sure I will be going back soon, at least not when it is -11˚C outside. 

Panoramic view from the Top of the Fraumunster Church

            Overall the trip to Switzerland was a major success. As always, I learned a few things this week: never take 5 more than two, two and a half hour classes a day, never make your meeting location in a big city “The Starbucks by the train station”, when going to Switzerland remember that the minimum wage is 22 franks, so EVERYTHING is expensive, expect to pay 20$ for a cheeseburger with fries, Swiss chocolate is as amazing as everyone says, there is no such thing as a bunny hill in the Swiss Alps, there is no such thing as too many layers in Switzerland, and lastly, the Swiss Alps are home to some of the most beautiful views in the world. 

Well that’s about all for this week. Look for my next post next Monday. Have a great week and a wonderful Valentines Day!  Love and miss you all!

Seven of the Eight Roommates Take on Interlaken!