Switzerland

This is when we were waiting for our friend Chris Varga who snowboards with his board sideways down the hill... I am not sure he knew the board was supposed to face downhill j/k haha but he was a good sport about it.
Matt took the three above of me... I will post better ones of the Alps when people put them on facebook.
One of the young grils that we met and her minature horse
Matt on the left Max on the right
The first pair of young girls we met
The lake
If you click the picture it becomes bigger and it looks like the swan is crying
Max and Matt with our beers and our view of the Lake Thunree behind us

Max, Matt, and I


Max and I at Neuhaus which is where we had the beers near the water
Train station called Interlaken West
We took pictures here while we wated for our bus to the lake


The Hostel


Hola,

So I left off last Sunday, which consisted of sleeping, eating, and work. On Monday, I started all my classes. My international economics is extremely boring and hot. It should be okay material wise. My other classes are doing fine. I picked up a Spain and Catalonia through the arts. But I dropped it for an Internship, which deals with photography and graphic design with the newest materials in the world. It is part of a small museum connected to the Museum of Modern Art. I am not sure what I will be doing but I am excited. It is not for sure but the head of the program said as soon as I send my resume in I got the position. I found about the Internship opportunity through talking with people especially this kid named Louis Pierre who is from Georgetown but lives in South Africa. And happened to be Andrew Baker’s, a friend I am living with next year, freshman roommate. He was telling me about the internship and how no one really spoke Spanish. So I went to the head of the internship explain my case and somehow I jumped through all the requirements including 5 semesters of college level Spanish. Oh well, I have confidence to speak even though I suck which makes me better than half the kids who do have the requirements. I am looking forward to the internship, which is supplemented by a class, which makes me reflect on the culture through diaries and presentations. It also has reading material to go along with it. The class will be held in Spanish.

This week I also posted a lot of my photos on Facebook. I got an incredible amount of positive feedback, which I thought was really cool. I also did not go out at all this week, which made me feel a lot better. I think my Spanish is improving again I felt stuck on a plateau for a while. I also scheduled a tutor for Spanish, which is like extra time to learn it is not the type of tutor if you are doing badly. I am keeping a book for questions that pop up in my head and for expressions or words that I need to learn. I also scheduled an intercambia with a kid named Sergi. An interncambia is where I speak Spanish to a local and he corrects me and he speaks English and I correct him. Usually over some coffee or lunch. I saw on his facebook that he was on a boat on the Mediterranean. Maybe I can befriend him and get a free ride when it is warmer out. As with internships this summer, I have been denied left and right but I am still trucking along with emails and looking for opportunities. I am sure I will figure it out.

On Thursday, I met Vicent from ESCI. We talked for one full hour all in Spanish!!!! I felt really good and cultural after that. He was very patient with my Spanish but we seemed to be able to communicate well and enjoyed our time together. Also on Thursday, I left for Geneva and got some snow pants from my GA Luis Juste. The pants were crucial to go skiing even though I did not fall that much. Paco made me some great food, which held me off for food until I arrived in Interlaken. Before that, we arrived in Geneva thinking we were going to go out till around 4:30 am like in Spain and then take the train at 5 am to go to Interlaken. Turns out everything and I mean everything closes at 2 (well except this shady convenience store in the Red Light District which we left very quickly). We had to sit in a closed strip mall in between two revolving doors for a few hours until the train opened. It was not that bad, but annoying to say the least. We got on the train and were off to stay at the number 1 rated most fun hostel in Europe out of 8000 hostels. In general, I was disappointed if it is the most fun in Europe. It was called Balmers and we had a private room for the seven guys on the trip. When we arrived in the morning 4 guys paid an extra 100 Swiss Franc to go skiing for two days. Matt, Max Leinweber (from Cornell), and I decided not to and went and watched the Semis of the Australian Open at a place you would never expect, Hooters. The town is small and it was the best option. We had some local Swiss beer called Rugen Brau and then headed to Lake Thunersee. This Lake was beautiful even though in the valley of the Alps it was cloudy/overcast. We had a few more beers on some patio and took many pictures. I taught Max and Matt how to use all the functions on their camera and we went picture crazy. We sat there for a few hours and just hung out and talked. We ended up buying the beer mugs for five franks after we left the patio near the lake. We met these young girls and for some reason took some pictures of them. After awhile, they rode off on their bikes and we met some other young girls who were riding miniature horses. Pretty strange. We finished the day by walking back and picking up some beer at the grocery store. We had dinner at the Hostel and there was this really sketchy club at the Hostel as well. Of course we had to live it up while we were there, so we went to the club, but it was just a bunch of Americans. It was only okay and I went to bed around 2.

We woke up at eight the next morning (each with a massive headache) and headed to the mountain called Jungfrau. The top of this mountain is called the Top of Europe (even though it is not the highest point) and is where they filmed part of a 007 movie. It looked beautiful, but we were not going to spend 50 francs extra to see it. We got to the mountain via bus, train, and this really cool train/trolley sort of thing. It climbed the mountain and broke through the cloud cover of the valley. I do not think I will ever see a more beautiful mountain view in my life. Literally I did not talk on the way up I was just astonished.

Once we got trained up to the top of the mountain we put on our skis and hit the slopes. After the first run I had my grove back. The skiing is not as good as out west but very close. Honestly though the thing that sticks out in my mind is the view that we had all the time. If you think of a picture of the Alps and then imagine if you could take that picture and ski in it. That is what I did. My friend Steve Hurley said when he fell he would never get mad because he would just look around and be like wow this is awesome. I was one of the better skiers of the group and when we took easier trails I would just causally go down the hill and look around taking in the moment/view. I really felt like I did something special and it made the expensive trip worthwhile.

The Mountains are a lot closer together than out west so it looks like you are skiing right next to these huge mountains. The weather was perfect too, not too cold and sunny. Also practically no wind. The day ended with this amazing run down the mountain, which had trails through small ski villages too. It was really cool. Unfortunately I did not feel comfortable bringing my camera skiing so I could not take pictures, but my friends took some good ones and I will post some when they put them up on facebook.

When we got on the first train Matt started to feel really bad. He could not make it on the next train; I stayed with him in this small ski village called Lauterbrunnen, where he had to be driven to the nearest clinic. Luckily they spoke perfect English. He got taken care of turns out he was just hyperventilating and had a heart beat over 150 beats per min. I waited for him in the waiting room where they had really strange games for kids such as an extensive collection of finger puppets. I thought that was really funny. We also had the receptionist write a note in German to prove to the rental place that we were in a hospital and not skiing on the mountain so we did not get overcharged for a late return. We did not need the note but I thought the note was pretty cool and kept it. Oh and Matt was charged over 300 Francs for the visit. Talk about a rip off. But he just has to report it to his insurance and they will reimburse him.

We got back exhausted. We all went to hooters again to get food and then took the 11:00 train back to Geneva. We took three trains to get back and one of them had this really shady guy on it. He was doing drugs and asking for cigarettes. It seemed no one else cared or was bothered by him including the conductors, except us, the Americans. Anyway we got to Geneva and got in a cab to get to the Airport (turns out it is the only thing open past 2 a.m.). I was exhausted and slept till we could check in and then slept at the gate as well. Swiss Air is an amazing airline and gives you great chocolate. They even woke me up for the free drinks and croissants. Oh I also had a whole row to myself, which was awesome. Once we got back to Barcelona it felt like I was coming home. It was great!

I noticed the differences immediately in language and acceptance to foreigners in Switzerland compared to Spain. First off anytime I approached someone who I knew did know English I would instinctively talk/respond in Spanish (haha). They must have been really confused. In Geneva people speak French. In Interlaken people spoke German. And you could see and feel the differences in the culture instantly. I liked the Germans better. They were a lot warmer to us. It is also incredible how many people are multilingual. This is true among all social classes and races too. I predict in the future American’s lack of language versatility will become a problem. Also speaking of languages, once again I think my Spanish is on. I think I have surpassed this plateau that I felt stuck on and feel a lot more confident in my Spanish. I am communicating better with everyone.