-->Switzerland was AMAZING! The scenery was beautiful more than I ever imagined. It made me want to go skiing next winter season. I haven't been around mountain snow since I think 5th grade when I went snowboarding with Kate & my dad. The beautiful mountain snow & just the whole picture/scenery really made me want to try skiing again and just be adventurous! Basically this Swiss trip was the chronicles of Julie & Jen, we knew other people going from our program but those girls also knew their camp friends & school friends so they were off with them. Nonetheless, it was still amazing & so so so much fun! We pulled it together & made it work as if it was our own trip which was really nice!
We left Thursday evening to fly from Madrid to Geneva airport. I wish we could have spent a day in Geneva since we were in Switzerland but oh well, maybe one day. We had the Bus2alps group pick us up at the airport along with the other 150 people( all basically juniors in college) to take us on our 2 1/2 hr bus ride to Interlaken. Interlaken means between 2 lakes. It is surrounded by Germany, so the most spoken language is German(swiss- german) then French etc.. I think everyone slept on the bus because it was already 2am when we first got to the famous Balmer's Hostel. I went to bed by around 3ish because I was exhausted but a lot of people did party, they're crazyy!
--- Note to Self: BRING SHOWER SHOES, AHHHHH---
Friday I got up really early with Jen so she could go skiing. & I could go skydiving. Well that was a fail because skydiving was canceled because the weather was really bad; it was really cloudy & soon later it was to a be a huge blizzard storm. I was really dissapointed since that was my plan for the majority of the day, but oh well it was not in my control! I decided to stay up & go with Jen so she could go skiing. The whole process of getting ready, eating, waiting to get all the equipment took a few hours. I was exhausted & it was stil only 10am. I didn't want to ski because it was already a VERY VERY VERY expensive weekend & there BUNNY slopes are America's medium slopes. Not for me as basically this would be my first time in 11 years or something crazy like that. I left Jen & hung out with other girls that are on my CEA trip with me. We ate at the best Thai food place right next to the hostel I have ever had! We then walked randomly into the town looking for the so called ' famous chocolate' that Switzerland is supposed to have. We'll we found some places but everything closes during the day, like Spain, so that was dissapointed but we did find a bar to go to until the shop opened up again. It was called Bruddy's( I think) & we all got hot chocolate with Bailey's. It was veryyyy delicious! More groups of people came in so it was basically a college party in this bar in the small town of Interlaken. I guess what else is their to do when you don't do any of the extreme sports they have. The chocolate shop was finally open & it was sooo yummy! I obviously had dark chocolate and coconut. YUM YUM YUM! We made our trek home in the blizzard. My feet were FROZEN, whoever said( or maybe no one ever did ha) that boots had insulation, they were WRONG! My socks were soaked, grrrrr. I went back to the hostel, chilled by the fire & then showered etc.. Jen was still not back from skiing & I didn't want to be in the room by myself so I went downstairs to the tv & the fireplace and just relaxed. I sat next to a guy Ryan, from California, who was traveling by himself for about a month & a half to a bunch of different places. He just graduated in December & I guess wanted to explore the world,how cool yet I don't think I could be alone for THAT long, especially being a girl! NO WAY JOSE. Anyway we chatted for about 45 minutes which was awesome since I had nothing else to do. Thanks Ryan for keeping me occupied!
Metro Bar, is the famous bar in Interlaken that everyone from the town & the hostel goes to at night time. They have happy hour & then really pricey drinks after that but I guess that's what happens when there is 300 students in this hostel every weekend. Now since I'm on the topic of all these students. One word comes to mind: CLONES! I kid you not in the slightest bit. Now I know I grew up on Long Island, but man, I guess well it's true not a guess that the town I'm from is just not like all these other towns. Out of the 300 students there who were studying abroad in Barcelona, Rome, Florence, & Madrid, I'd say 280 of them were Jewish, WITHOUT A DOUBT. These people were japs, not that it is a bad thing persay but just not my usual kind of people I hang out with. I have never ever ever ever seen more BlackBerrys in my life! As soon as we got there on Thursday night, every outlet was taken by people charging there blackberrys & people freaking out that they wouldn't be able to BBM( black berry messanger/chat) which their friends. To my knowledge, all those people they were BBMing were in Interlaken with them, it was just a rediciulous scene. I DID get to see people that I went to middle school with that I used to be good friends with & haven't seen in years which was nice & also girls who I played on the N.Bellmore N. Merrick basketball league with. YAY for actually knowing people ha. But this hostel experience & weekend made me realize that Madrid was the BEST choice I made. I am SO happy I am not in Barcelona or other places where all these people know everyone. It it just not the experience that I was looking for so Thank You God :)
-------------- words to describe this entire Balmer's Hostel student experience: JEWISH, JEW SUMMER CAMP(every1 knew every1 through camp), BBM, JAPS, ----------------
No more venting! Saturday morning woke up at 7;20 am to get ready & PRAYING that skydiving wasn't canceled again. The whole point of this trip was to go skydiving, what a waste it would have been if it didn't go through. It looked really gloomy out & I was really getting worried that it would be canceled but IT WASNT! YAY I was SOO happy. It was all girls who went on the 8am trip. I think about 15 of us went out to skydive at this time. None of us were nervous it was faboulus! We pulled up & immediately got instructions on what to do when we first jump out etc.. I was the third group to go which was perfect because I got to see & hear others reactions but still not be at the end waiting impatiently. P.S. It was FREEZING again, I thought I was going to lose my toes, I had to keep wiggling them around to make sure they were still there, very uncomfortable! I was all geared up & it was finally my turn. Jen& I went up together with 2 other girls. We went up 11,000 feet & the scenery was beautiful! All the snow peaking out with some green underneath, just wonderful! I thought I would be nervous but I wasn't at all. I think I was more worried about my toes & getting hypothermia. We were all squised in a little airplane but obviously worth it. I was the 3rd person to jump. I watched the other two girls infront of me just drop out like flies. Now its my turn, I scoot up on the bench , dangle my feet over & the next thing I know I out of a plane. My right eye immediaetly started tearing, I couldn't breath for about 10 seconds becuase of all the air rushing past you & the high altitude that I was at, & my ears were completely shot( it sounded like I was under water). All this was VERY WORTH IT! I saw all the mountains & then after a few seconds the guy pulled out the parachute & we were just cruising down. This is where I quickly wipped out my camera & started recording me skydiving :) YAY for a free video( obv not best quality but beats spending $150 on something I will only watch once or twice ). I was soo happy skydiving it was crazy experience that I would reccomend to anyone. HOWEVER, if you want more of a thrill, which is what I thought skydiving would be, I would reccomend Cliff diving/canyon diving. This is like bungee jumping & sinnce there is no one attached to your back, tandem, it is your job to run & jump off the cliff. SCARY! I would DEFF like to try that at some point. Skydiving was awesome it just was a different experience then what I expected.
Later Saturday night we all went Night sledding. It was an hr long ride where you were each on your own individual slede & went down a barely lit path. The only way to know what was ahead of you was to follow the red blinking lights that everyone had to wear on their backs. It was a great time. We ended the sledding trip with a cheese fondu dinner & a famous food of Switzerland called Rösti. It is basically just hashbrowns and a lot of time it comes with breakfast foods on top etc.. Went back to MetrobBar( thats what everyone does here for the weekend nights) & had so much fun dancing etc...
Sunday, walked around the town again, ate lunch & started our journey back to Madrid. Supringsly I really missed Madrid & just being in Spain. I couldn't wait to get back to see my friends here! I MISSED THEM MUCHO esp Megan, Brit! Flight got delayed, grrr but we finally made it home & I immedialtey unpacked & made my way to the Irish Pub O'Reily's to watch the SuperBowl. It started at Midnight here so it was a VERY long day for me. I stayed until the 4th quarter but then had to make my way home because I had class at 9am meaning I need to get up at 7;30 am. OBV. I didn't wake up at 7:30 and woke up at 8:30 and RAN to the metro to make Spanish. what a tiring morning, my teacher even let us out early because she said we all needed coffee from staying up so late for the SuperBowl. YIKES. Onto sad news, when I got home I found out that my good friend at school, Kristen, her sister got in a TERRIBLE car accident on Friday from hydroplanning in the rain. Jillan, who I've hung out with before etcc.. is now in the ICU and I haven't heard much news yet. The passenger, Jill's friend was, killed which is an awful thing. I am keeping the Gillis's in my thoughts & prayers & wishing them all to stay strong.
Anyway... GREAT WEEKEND! & Looking forward to this upcoming weekend in BARCELONA!! WOO I get to see Dirk, Matt & maybe Acri. This should be VERYYYY FUN !
HASTA LUEGO !!!!
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