Liechtenstenian Adventure

Let's start with Thursday night, when me and my six new friends left for Liechtenstein. They're all in the same program, which provides them with half-fare cards. With these cards you also ride Switzerland public transportation for free after 7pm! Lauren had this extra one that she wasn't going to use and let me use it. So we get on the first train and we just show our passes to the woman and we're all good. But at the first stop we all decide to move upstairs because we'd mistakenly chosen the silent car. Upstairs the same conductor comes by again and I show her my card (with Lauren's name on it, of course). She asks to see a passport! So I'm like, "ok..." and I start opening my wallet really slowly, and as I am, Seth says to her in German, "We were the ones that were just downstairs. Remember us? We just moved up here." And she was like, "Oh ok!" and moved on! HAHA, I almost had a heart attack. Anyway, the pass served me faithfully for the next five trains and saved me a TON of money.

Since the hostel we booked was in Austria (right across the border), we took the train to Shaan, Liechtenstein, waited at a sketchy bust stop with a buch of teenage hoodrats to catch two more buses to our final destination, Feldkirch, Austria, at about 11pm. The hostel was the most adorable Austrian hostel I've ever seen and the seven of us had our own room. The next morning we woke up, had breakfast and checked out. We spent some time walking around Feldkirch, an adorably quaint little medieval town, shopping and checking out the castle, and then caught the bus to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein. Here, we got Liechtenstein stamped into our passports (for CHF 3) and then explored the little city. I went to the stamp museum-- stamps being what Liechtenstein is famous for, and we filled up on Liechtenstenian souvenirs. The city was surrounded by picturesque mountains and overlooked by the castle in which the royal family still lives! It was also perfectly clean and well-kept. In the evening we took the train to Lugano, the captial of Ticino, the Italian part of Switzerland. We got there around 11pm again (free train rides) and luckily the hostel (or should I say 'villa'?) was right next to the train station. Even though we were exhausted, we went downtown for a quick bite at Burger King and for a great view of the lit up city over the lake.

Lugano is amazing; it's dotted with palm trees and backed by snow-capped mountains. It's at least 20 degrees warmer than any city surrounding it, and it's right on a lake. In short: it's paradise. We spent the next day (today) walking along the unbelievably beautiful waterfront park, taking pictures on long, small docks of the city on the water and the mountains. It was breathtaking. After, we went to the grocery store for lunch. I got an elbow bread, a little glass of chocolate mousse, a couple clementines and a bag of mini bocconcini. We sat at the waterfront and ate. It was so peaceful and the sun was out, which was fantastic. After lunch, we'd had our heart set on going to Campione d'Italia, which is a little part of Italy that's completely surrounded by Switzerland. Unfortunately, after two hours of going up and down the stairs from the train station to the center about three times asking people where to catch the bus, as well as buying tickets, we discovered that because there was going to be a bike race the buses weren't running for a while. So on a whim we went back to the ticket booth, explained our story, asked for a refund for our unused tickets...and got it! WOOHOO! Then, because we deserved it, we got gelato and ate it sitting at the edge of a dock, our feet dangling off the edge. And by 7pm we were on a train back to Fribourg!

On the first train, there were a group of Italian guys behind us and a group of German guys in front of us, each blasting their own techno music. It was SO obnoxious and they continued even after the conductor told them "Non siamo in discoteca." (They were clearly drunk.) But we made the best of it, joking that it was like we were in a Verizon commercial. You know the one where the guy's in a hostel with two European guys dancing to loud techno in the background and he says, "Hey, this is Fred's phone. Fred won't get the message that there's another hostel open down the road. Instead, he'll just stay here and hang out with the techno twins." or something? HAHA, that was us.

PS. I may have said Venice was a photographer's dream, but I meant Lugano. Fantastico.

Les Cours

So yesterday I went to my first class. It was about enunciation, which makes it sound ridiculously easy. Wrong. Haha, it wasn't that bad, but I had trouble following along, to be honest. The prof handed out a worksheet and there weren't enough to go around so I had to look on with the girl next to me, which made it even harder because I need to really READ it, not just glance over at it. Anyway, after class she made me a copy and I went home and studied/translated.

Today my class was morphology. Luckily, I took nearly a very similar class sophomore year at UVM so I was able to follow the entire time. I even knew the answer to the prof's questions a few times but I was afraid to respond because I didn't want him to ask a follow-up that I didn't understand. That's scary. One thing I do have to learn though: which IPA symbols are used in French. Obviously most of them are the same as in English but there are a lot of crazy French vowels and nasals that are not in English. Should be interesting!

Earlier today I finally met Lauren, the girl that Molly knows at Wheaten that I found out was coming here through yet another crazy Ryan connection. Haha. We went out for coffee and then we met a friend of hers, Mary, and they showed me around Fribourg a little bit, letting me in on secrets like which grocery store was cheapest and the fact that you never tip at a restaurant. Lauren plays volleyball every Monday and Wednesday; it's just sort of pick-up, so I'm going to do it too! (Even though I wish Cindy were here to play with me). I just need to buy some sneakers and shorts, which I can't do yet because I don't have any money. I don't have any money because the university can't make a deposit until I have a bank account and I can't get a bank account until I have my permis de sejour and who knows when I'm getting my permis de sejour. Anyway, the program that Lauren went through allowed her to meet 8 other American students, which is cool, and she introduced me to a couple of them who actually ended up being in my class! So this weekend they're all planning to go to Liechtenstein and invited me with them. Should be a good time in the 2nd-smallest country in the world. =)

Oh, AND Lauren told me one of the Americans she knows is from UVM. WHAT?!

After class I met my friend Tim downtown (emphasis on the DOWN) for the Mardi Gras festivities. Everyone was dressed up in crazy costumes, it was like a Fribourgeois Halloween. We walked up to the very top of this mountain with a castle that overlooks the city. It was gorgeous all lit up and you could hear the music from the festival from way up there. Unfortunately, since it was a Tuesday, the festivities were not nearly as grand as they were on the weekend. What is it with me and missing carnivals?

Tomorrow is my last class; after that I've officially finished my first week of school! Wahoo!

Geneve

Today a group of about 26 of us exchanges went to Geneva. The chaperone was my contact guy, M. Egger, a really cool dude who, I found out today, speaks 7 langues. Yep, 7. French, German, Swiss German, Italian, Spanish, English, Portuguese. Amazing! Anyway, first we went to the Red Cross Museum. This was really awesome because the Croix-Rouge was actually founded by a man from Geneva that decided it was inhumane to leave the wounded just laying there to die after a battle. Interestingly enough, the Swiss flag is the Red Cross flag with the colors reversed. This is because it originated in Switzerland, but the Swiss didn't want to make their flag exactly the same because they wanted the Red Cross to become international and not only associated with Switzerland. And it did! YEY!

After the tour of the museum, they served a delicious lunch to us and I had a very nice conversation with a Turkish woman. I told her I was Italian and I think she thought that meant I was fluent. I wish. Anyway, after that we headed to CERN, which is the European Organization for Nuclear Research. It was wacked out and 3/4 of it was in France, so at the end, we went into the field and straddled the France-Switzerland border, hehe. Anyway, the first part was a mini-lecutre in French about Physics. Yeahhhh, I wouldn't have even understood it in English. Then we had a tour in English but I still didn't really understand to be honest, between the guy's heavy accent and the TOPIC, haha, but it was really cool anyway!!

On the way home we drove on this highway that was literally ON the edge of a cliff that was on the water. I think it was right above the train tracks, actually. Picture this foggy, light blue water backed by huge blue mountains that looked like they were capped with pink cotton candy because of the way the sunset reflected the snow. OH MAN!

=) Love from Fribourg

Bern

Today I went to the capital city, since it's only 20 minutes away. It's actually fairly small but SO charming! It's the quintessential Swiss city. I got to tour Einstein's apartment, where he actually came up with one of his many very important Physics theories! The name 'Bern' actually comes from the word 'bear' which is the city mascot. There's a pit of live bears, too, that are the biggest attraction in the city. Too bad none of them were out because of the weather. I didn't stay as long as I would've wanted because it was too cold (I know, who thought I'd ever say that?), so I absolutely have to go back to Bern when it gets warmer.

A French Burlington

Quand je suis arrivée ici, je me suis rendu compte que mon français a besoin d'aide. Beaucoup d'aide. À cause de cela, je vais essayer d'écrire mon blog en français. La petite-ville de Fribourg est vraiment mignonne. Ça me fait penser à Burlington parce qu'il y a des montagnes bleues en derrière et une petite rue piétonnière comme Church Street, mais un peu plus grande. Tous les gens sont vraiment gentils. J'avais un rendez-vous avec le monsieur avec qui j'avais écrit avant d'arriver, M. Egger. C'était un homme vraiment sympatique et il a expliqué tout ce que je devais savoir pour être étudiante à l'Université de Fribourg. Oui, c'était beaucoup d'information mais je n'étais pas accablée. Et samedi, 26 de nous, de tous pays différents, allons à Genève pour le jour et M. Egger sera là. Après, je suis allée au pharmacie pour achèter quelquechose pour mon malgorge (oui, bien sûr que je suis malade) et puis au supermarché. Cela était vraiment chouette; c'était grand comme aux États-Unis avec beaucoup de choix! Je me suis amusée beaucoup, haha.

Les cours a commencé aujourd'hui, mais je dois faire un rendez-vous avec deux profs avant d'aller en classe. Et tous mes classes, en plus les bureaux importants, sont 2 minutes à pied de moi. C'est fantastique. Je dois ouvrir un compte au banc parce que chaque mois, l'université dépôt ma bourse là. C'est vers CHF 1,700 à mois, je pense. Et avec cela je dois payer mon résidence et achèter de la nourriture, et le reste c'est pour moi! En plus, si je ne veux pas suivre l'examen finale, je ne suis pas obligée de le faire! Mais comme c'est beau..

Je viens de venir du bureau d'une dame qui m'a aidé à choisir les cours. Elle a choisi trois pour moi et a dit que si je travaille beaucoup, ces trois vont suffit. Les classes ne commencent pas jusqu'à la semaine prochaine pour cette faculté et moi, je ne peux pas attendre! Et ce sont ce que je vais suivre: Grammaire des dispositifs syntaxiques, Morphologie, et Linguistique de l'énonciation.

Fribourg!

I'm here, in Fribourg, in my very cozy and adorable little room. Finally a place to call my own! A very nice gentleman gave me the tour and there are a lot of great things available to us, most notably a HUGE kitchen.

Today was boring; I traveled on three different trains for a total of 8 hours. As the train came into Switzerland, you could tell; it was simply gorgeous! The tracks were literally inches from this vast blue lake with mountains that looked like there were sitting in the water.

Last night around 8pm Kinu and I went down to San Marco and were again disappointed to find that the festivities didn't REALLY start until tomorrow (today). It seems no Venetian really knows... There were a lot of people dressed up and wearing masks, though, which was pretty cool. Anyway, we spent the night talking about languages, of course, and I told Kinu the extent of my Japanese, which she loved. I helped her with her English and we joked around about the differences between American and British English. Ready? "I'm going to have a shower." (UGH!) "I'm waiting in the queue." (UGH!!) And, and..."How are you today?" "Lovely." (UGH!!!)

That's it for now.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW NONNA!!
Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day, I guess.

Carnevale

Last night my roommates and I spent the night talking. Turns out that Kinu works as a personal trainer in a high-class hotel, so she was telling me all the celebrities she's met. It was so funny because she'd be like, "Ohh, do you know...what's his name...oh, what is it...Zac Efron?! Yeah, I met him. And uh....the guy....um....oh, Jude Law!" Haha, oh, and Nicole Kidman and Dakota Fanning, just to name drop. Haha, it was hysterical.

Today we thought Carnevale was starting in the morning, so we headed down to San Marco for 10. They were just setting up, but there were a lot of people. So we strolled around Venice, going in and out of shops, until we found out the festivities wouldn't start until the evening! So I decided to go back to Murano, since I missed it yesterday and we would meet up tonight to go back to San Marco.

So I went to Murano and after asking probably eight people where I could tour a factory, I finally found it on my own. It was SO cool! You literally just walk into the factory and stand inches from the dudes. You feel like you're in their way. And it's weird because there's just this group of tourists, cameras at the ready, all hovered near the door and watching them work. SO COOL! After that, I wanted to buy something because you see all the work that goes into it. So I went into some shops and got something for someone who's name rhymes with Bindy. Hah, but they had SO many great things! For example, an entire orchestra of little glass people. Also, a glass Barack Obama holding a sign that says "Yes We Can", haha!

For dinner we all ordered our own personal pizzas and ate together in the room. Soon we'll head down to the "festival". We'll see how festival-like it really is, because apparently the real party starts tomorrow. But I'm leaving for Fribourg tomorrow. My two-week adventure is over..