Bonjour Mes Amis!

Florence and Venice!

2010-02-18T03:56:00.000-08:00

It poured the entire time we were in Florence!
The chocolate festival!

Mariesa, Me, and Michele at dinner!

Ceele and I in the square by the Ufitzi gallery!

Mariesa, Katie, and Aneasha hanging out in the square!

In my mask for Carnivale in Venice!

Taylor and I in Venice!

So I basically just got back from the best week of my life. It went straight from a fantastic weekend in Italy to an incredible week in Greece!
Last Thursday, Ceele, Aneasha, and I left on an afternoon train to Florence. I was so excited to go because not only were we going to stay in the Florence house but I was going to get to see my suitemate, Allie, from last year! Once we arrived in Florence, it was already pretty late, so Allie showed us around the house and then we got settled into our rooms before going out to dinner. It turned out to be one of Allie’s friend’s birthday and she added Ceele and I to the reservation so we got to meet a lot of the students in the Florence program. We had such a great time at dinner then went to bed early to get ready for our big day of sightseeing.
Friday morning, we went to breakfast at a great café that all of the Florence kids eat at then we were lucky enough to be shown around by Eric, one of the students from the program. He first took us to see the Duomo. It was so amazing! It was so different to see it after learning about it. I had much more appreciation for it this time around. Around noon, we headed to the train station to meet up with the other three girls from our group. Once we met up with them, we went to the Ufitzi Gallery which was incredible! I saw so many paintings that we studied in humanities and religion. It was so great to be able to see them in person finally. Then we walked over to a chocolate festival which was amazing but still did not compare to Swiss chocolate! We then just walked around through the markets and bought leather handbags and rain boots since it was POURING RAIN! Plus, we were heading to Venice for Carnivale (along with the rest of Europe) and we heard that when it rains in Venice, it floods. We went out for another amazing dinner then wandered through the streets of Florence until we were too tired to go on. Plus, we knew we had a big day on Saturday.
Saturday, we got on an early train from Florence to Venice for Carnivale! I was so excited! We had all bought masks in Florence because everyone dresses up crazy and wears masks! They were selling these really extravagant masks everywhere! When we got to Venice the weather was great luckily and we walked around the confusing streets trying to find our hostel. Once we got settled in the hostel, we headed to Saint Marco’s Basillica to meet up with some people from the Florence Program. When we got to the square, we realized that most of Pepperdine’s international students were there! We saw students from every program and it was so great to be all together. After seeing all of the amazing churches and buildings, we headed back to the hostel to get ready for the night activities. We all got to dress up crazy and wear things like ballerina skirts and capes! It was so incredible to meet up with so many Pepperdine students and see so many people dressed up. We ended up hanging out in the square all night to enjoy the festivities! It was such an amazing experience!

Paris!

2010-02-18T03:43:00.001-08:00

In front of the Louvre!
Me and Ceele!

Arc de Triomphe!

In front of the Arc!

Ceele and I in front of the Eiffel Tower!

Sacre Coeur!

Eiffel Tower!

This past weekend, I traveled to Paris with Ceele, Katie, Mariesa, Michele, and Aneasha. Even though I have been to Paris before with my family, it was such an amazing experience to go after studying all of the architecture and paintings that are there! We left on Friday morning and had rented an apartment for the weekend. It took us about an hour and half to find the key place, find the apartment, and then get the bolted door unlocked. It didn’t help that it was pouring rain! But it didn’t stop us from enjoying the beauty of Paris! Since it was a rainy idea, we figured we would visit the museums. First, we went to Musee d’Orssay. It was such an amazing museum. I could have spent hours in there! It made it even more interesting since we are covering all of these artists and paintings in Humanities and covered some of them last semester in Religion. After, we walked over to a café and had dinner before heading to the Louvre. It was awesome because the Louvre is free on Fridays after six! So we ran through the different galleries taking in all the amazing paintings and art pieces. My favorite one was Death of a Virgin by Caravaggio. He was one of my favorite artists that we studied first semester and that was one of my favorite paintings. To see it in person was absolutely amazing! After all of the museum hopping, we were exhausted so we headed back to the apartment.
Saturday, we started the morning off by walking down Champs Elysees. It was beautiful but so cold! It was super sunny but then it started snowing! It was crazy! There were so many beautiful shops and of course, I wanted to buy everything! We walked all the way down to Arc de Triomphe. It was even more beautiful then I remember. After, we bought food for lunch and went and ate in the park next to the Eiffel Tower. It was so cold! I don’t think I have ever been so cold! After lunch, we waited in the freezing cold to get tickets to go up to the top. When we got up there it started snowing again! It was so amazing to be at the top of the Eiffel Tower while it snowed. Once we were frozen solid, we decided to go see Notre Dame. Not only was I excited to see the church again, but it was so warm inside! After that, we dashed up to Sacré-Cœur for the sunset! It was so beautiful! We got to see the Eiffel Tower at sunset and once again, the church was so warm! We went and got dinner to escape the cold then walked around Montmarte. We walked through the exact square where my sister and I had our drawing done! The drawing turned out so good and is now in our family room. But at this time of year, there were no street vendors out. But we did get crapes at the same stand that I got crapes at with my family! It brought back such good memories but made me miss them so much!

Thonon les Bains and Chateau d'Oex!

2010-02-18T02:50:00.000-08:00

Walking around the town.
The harbor.
Ceele, Me, Dylan, EB, and Chris on the boat!

EB, Me, Ceele, and Megan.

Ceele and I on the boat across Lake Geneva.

Chris and I at the harbor!

Katie and I at Chateau d'Oex.

Me kissing the Shottish hot air balloon.

Some of the balloons over Chateau d'Oex.

The next weekend, I decided to stay around and do two day trips. On Friday Ceele, EB, Dylan, Chris, Megan and I took a boat across Lake Geneva to a small town in France, Thonon les Bains. It turned out to be a really cute little town. We walked around by the lake for a little while then hiked up to the downtown. Here we had lunch and found an amazing candy shop! It was such a fun day out!
On Saturday, we went with Katie, Mariesa and some of their friends from the Florence and Heidelberg programs to a Hot Air Balloon festival at Chateau d’Oex. Chateau d’Oex is the place where the first hot air balloon to circumnavigate the world took off from so the entire town is big on the hot air balloon thing. They had all of these amazing hot air balloons that filled the sky. They had this huge balloon that turned out to be a Scottish man complete with kilt and bagpipes! It was so pretty to see all the balloons but I was bummed I didn’t get to ride in one! Maybe next time! Sunday, we spent the day relaxing and getting ready for the rest of the week. Another great weekend in Switzerland!

Wengen!

2010-02-18T02:38:00.000-08:00

Solothurn!
Maddie showing us how to eat raclette.

Me, Ceele, and Mariesa before skiing!

Most beautiful view ever!

Ceele, Katie, Me, and Mariesa at the top!

Crowds there to watch the world cup!

Mariesa and Maddie with dedicated fans!

Maddie, Katie, Me, Alex, Ceele, and Mariesa at the ceremony after party!

Us with the amazing Thalmann family!

It has been a while since I have updated my blog and a couple have weekends have gone by but I will do my best to sum up these past few weekends!
My first weekend of travel traveled with Ceele, Katie, Mariesa, and Alex. I got invited to go stay with a girl, Maddie, who lives in Switzerland. Maddie studied abroad in the United States and stayed with at Mariesa’s house so thought she would return the favor for Mariesa and some of her friends. I can honestly say it was one of the best weekends of my life. We left here on Friday and took a train out to her small town of Solothurn. It was such a cute town! It was nice to visit a place that I have never heard of before and that isn’t a huge tourist trap. The town was so peaceful and so quaint. She walked us through the town and then to her house. Her family was so welcoming from the moment we got there! They completely opened up their home for us and gave us all of their kids rooms to sleep in. That night, they cooked us this huge Swiss meal. It was this amazing cheese, Raclette, with all of these different things to drizzle it over like potatoes, pears, pickles, chicken, pineapple and a bunch of other crazy things. It was delicious! It was fun to make too! They had this specific device that allowed each person to heat up their own cheese and then you could scrape it onto your plate with these little wooden paddles. It was so amazing!
The next morning, we woke up early to go skiing in the Alps! There was a skiing World Cup in a city called Wengen not too far from Solothurn so we decided to ski there. Before we left, Maddie’s dad packed our backpacks with these amazing lunches (they were the nicest family ever!). The train ride up to the mountain was crazy! There were so many excited and crazy people going up to the ski resort and everyone was just yelling and shouting the entire time! The view was so amazing! It felt like we were on top of the world! It was such a beautiful, bright, blue, sunny day too. We were so lucky. Once we started to rent skis I started to get nervous since I haven’t skied since I was maybe 12. Turns out, I definitely forgot how to ski. Ceele (who hasn’t skied since she was 8) and I accidentally followed the other members in our group up the main lift and ended up at the top of a black diamond. Long story short, Ceele and I got left behind and it took us 4 hours, a lot of tears, and a strangers help to get down the entire mountain. We skied two towns over and had to take a small train to get back to the rental shop. After that was over, we met up with everyone else and decided it was time to relax! So Maddie told us about this “after party” she knew about. Turns out this “after party” was the World Cup award ceremony! It was so awesome! There was a huge stage and crowds of people waving Swiss flags around and people painted in red and white from head to toe! After the ceremony, there was these huge party tents filled with people. They had a live band, a DJ, and tons of dancing! We spent the rest of the night dancing (still in our ski clothes) and then made the adventure back to Solothurn where her mom had homemade lasagna waiting on the table for us! So incredible!
Sunday morning, we all slept in till about 11. When we woke up, her parents made us this amazing Swiss lunch! We had rosti (basically hash browns) with meat over it along with rice, salad, and bread. Then they brought out these slices of pineapple with drizzled chocolate and whipped cream on top for dessert! After lunch, it was unfortunately time to head back to Lausanne. It was such an amazing weekend! It was such an incredible experience to get to stay in a home with a Swiss family. It allowed me to experience Swiss culture in a whole new way!

Switzerland, Take Two!

2010-01-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

The view from my room! Snow everywhere!
The forest!

Ceele and I in our intense snow shoeing gear!

Me, Simon, and Ceele!

Alexander, Me, Simon, Ceele, and Amy

The group snow shoeing!

All bundled up!

Trekking through the snow!

Eskimo!

Ceele and I!

So after a fantastic winter break, I am back in Lausanne for another great semester! After the very long trip over, I spent my first two days back sleeping and resting. It felt so great to just relax and see friends again! Lausanne looks so pretty! Everything is covered in snow! It is also freezing!
Today (January 9th) was my first day out of the house since I have been back. The new semester students are going through orientation and so we have been able to tag along on some of the activities. Today's activity was snow shoeing! Now I have never been snow shoeing before so I knew it would be interesting. We made sure to get nice and bundled up before we left. I ended up wearing a tank top, a long sleeve, a sweatshirt, another sweatshirt, a ski jacket, a scarf, a head wrap, leggings, jeans, wool socks shoes, and gloves. I was bundled from head to toe but it still wasn't enough! My feet went numb as soon as we stepped outside and my face was freezing the entire time! We took the metro and the bus out to a different city up in the mountains and started snow shoeing from there through the forest. It was so beautiful! Everything was white and looked like a postcard. Snow shoeing is not as hard as I thought it would be, but it definitely was not easy! Ice kept forming in the arch of my foot and freezing making it very painful to walk. Luckily my friend Simon was there to help me get it out! We walked down different paths and ended up in the middle of this huge field with so much fresh powder! It was so much fun to play in! After exploring the woods, we were all freezing so we went and enjoyed an amazing cup of hot chocolate. On our way back, it started to snow really hard! I was so cold! I can't believe this is what I am living in now! But it is so beautiful that it makes it all worth it! :)

Disneyland Paris!

2009-11-14T07:24:00.001-08:00

Me and Ceele in front of Thunder Mountain! (It was so much fun! The actual "mountain" was on an island in the middle of this lake, so to get to it, the ride shot under the lake and came out on the island! So fun!!)
The castle!

The maze that was closed :(

Ceele and I. This was one of our many times on Space Mountain! (It was so much more intense! It shot you up into the dark and had corkscrews and loops!)

During our stressful time in Paris, we got to see Notre Dame!

Since we had the field trip on Friday we couldn't do any big weekend traveling so we decided to take a day trip to Paris and go to Disneyland. Disneyland closes at 10pm and the last train going back to Lausanne left at 5pm. So we spent the night in Paris and planned on catching the 8am train back to Lausanne on Sunday morning. We spent all day Saturday from opening to closing at Disneyland. It was so much fun, and almost exactly like the Disneyland in Anaheim, except for the rides are so much more intense. We rode Space Mountain about 10 times and Thunder Mountain was just as fun. It was raining all day! But it was still so much fun! It reminded me of how much fun I had the first time I went to Disneyland Paris with my family. One very distinct memory I have of the park was this giant Alice and Wonderland maze that had this giant Queen of Hearts that was around one of the corners and she would jump up and yell when you ran around teh corner. I remember it scaring the life out of me and my sister. So I was looking foward to going in it again this trip, but when we got there it was closed. I was so disappointed but I took a picture of the outside for my sister! On Sunday morning we woke up early to catch the metro to the train station and then the train back to Lausanne. BUT, while on the metro, I realized that I left my phone in the hotel room so Ceele and I had to jump off and catch the metro back to the hotel. Ceele waited in the station until I got back and we caught the next metro to meet our other 2 friends at the train station. Our train left at 7:58 and we were going to have about 2 minutes to spare to run through the station and make it on our train. But with our luck the metro broke down in the middle of a tunnel for about 3 minutes and we missed our train. We ran up to the platform as the train was pulling away. I could have literally reached out and touched it, but we were about 10 seconds too late. To make things worse, that was the only train going back to Lausanne on Sunday. So every way we tried to get back home didn't work out and it looked like we were going to have to spend the night in Paris, with mid-terms the next morning. After 9 hours of trying to get back home we finally found a whack route back to Lausanne on a train where we had to switch 4 times. 18 hours later, we got back to Lausanne at 1am and had to study for our mid-term the next day. Little did we know that going to Disneyland for one day could cause so much drama. But while stuck in Paris we tried to make the best of it and walked down to the Notre Dame and took some pictures before catching our train. Even though it wasn’t the best circumstances, I still love Paris!!

Geneva!

2009-11-13T07:57:00.000-08:00

The Front Of the United Nations Headquarters
The Giant Chair in front of the UN

United Nations

Ceele and I in the main conference room in the UN

Geneva Cathedral

Yvonne, Michele, and I in Geneva

Simon and I in front of the Reformation wall

Ceele and I at a park in Geneva.

One weekend we took a field trip as a group to the United Nations headquarters in Geneva and the Reformation Museum. It was really interesting to see the Reformation Museum because we had just learned about it in Humanities. That is one thing that makes studying abroad amazing! You can learn about something one day and see it the next! It makes this educational experience that much more meaningful. The United Nations headquarters was also very interesting. It was huge and we had this really cool tour guide who spoke like 10 languages! We then went over to the Reformation Wall. Then back to Lausanne!

Corsica!

2009-11-10T13:09:00.001-08:00

The Palais des Papes

Ceele, Simon and me in Avignon!

Jenny, Sarah, Me, Yvonne, Ceele, and Michele at the beach!

Taylor, Cindy, Ceele, Sarah, and I on the boat!

Ceele, Josh, and I!

Me and Ceele at the port we stopped at for lunch!

Part of the coves we went by!

I know it has been a very long time, but things have been so crazy and busy here! So in October we had our first Educational Field Trip. This semester it was to Corsica. Corsica is a fairly large island in the Mediterranean, south of France and west of Italy. We stayed in the capital of Corsica, Ajaccio. It was absolutely beautiful! It reminded me a lot of Malta and we had such a blast! So on Tuesday, we met in the lobby of our building at 4:30am!!! Two buses picked up our group and set out on our 7 hour journey to Avignon, France. We arrived in Avignon around 11am to tour the Palais des Papes (Palace of the Popes). During the 1300's the popes relocated to Avignon to escape the violent chaos in Rome. Many Popes lived in the palace up until 1377 when they went back to Rome. We took a walking tour through the palace and a little bit around the town. If the weather had been better it would have been enjoyable, but it was hard to focus on anything when it was about 45 degrees plus heavy winds. I swear I thought I was going to fly away! After touring the palace we went to a group lunch at a nice restaurant in town. After lunch we headed back to the buses for another 3 hour drive to Marseilles to catch the ferry to Corsica. We had been told that we were taking an overnight ferry to Corsica, and that we had cabins with beds to sleep in for the night. Of course, I start freaking out because I think we are going to end up on some sort of tiny boat that we are paddling ourselves, but it turned out to be a huge cruise ship! We boarded around 7pm and after getting settled in had dinner on the boat. I knew we had a big day the next day so Ceele and I decided to go to bed early so we were both asleep before we even left the port!

On Wednesday, we arrived at 7am on the ferry in Corsica and once again our buses took us to our hotels. The group was so large that we had been split up into 2 different hotels that were about 15 minutes apart. One was right on the water, and the other was directly in the center of town. Although the seaside one would have been nice, I was satisfied with ours being in the middle, it meant that everyone had to walk to us! Our hotel was Hotel Napoleon. So once upon a time, there was a man named Napoleon Bonaparte and he was born on the island of Corsica. Then he died and Corsica realized he was their only claim to fame so they dedicated everything to him. I mean everything. Hotels, restaurants, streets, squares, museums, beaches. Everything. In the afternoon, we toured the house of Napoleon Bonaparte. Shocker.

On Thursday, we boarded our buses once again for a 3 hour drive into the center of the island to a place called Corte. It is a university town of supposedly one of the most historic universities of the island. Again the weather was not the best with low temperatures and wind chill. We spent most of the day in museums and shops except for the train ride we took around the town. And when I say train I mean a tiny super embarrassing trolley that took us through the time. It was buried into the mountains and was actually a very quaint, pretty town. I just wish the museum was more interesting. It was so boring even our program staff was complaining! That’s when you know it’s bad. We then had a long bus ride back. It was too windy and we all ended up getting carsick! Ugh!

Friday was the best day of the trip. We boarded a tour boat at 8:30am and didn't come back to port until 5pm. We spent all day touring the coast of Corsica and sailing through the Mediterranean. It was absolutely gorgeous! The boat was pulling in between huge caverns and rocks that had never been touched by man. The water was so blue you could see for days to the bottom! We stopped at a small village on the way that only had 18 people living there. It was so tiny. There were just cows roaming around on the beach. We had packed sack lunches that morning to take with us and eat when we stopped at the village. There were also bees there who like my lunch as much as I did! A few of us found a small swimming cove that was just a little bit of a hike around the hillside, but it was well worth it. After getting back from the boat tour we were on our own for dinner so of course we resorted to a Panini stand that we found. Paninis never fail!

Saturday was check-out day. The plan was to check out at 11am and have free time for the rest of the day until we had to be at the airport at 6. So my roommate and I decided to sleep in that morning and go down for breakfast, then pack our bags, checkout and roam the city. A stress free morning right? Wrong. We got a call from our director at 8:50am who was frantically trying to get a hold of all the students to tell them that the hotel had just informed her that our checkout time was 9am and that breakfast was also closing at 9am instead of 10am. Yay. We had no time to shower, no time to get ready. It was basically, jump out of bed, run down to breakfast, run back up throw clothes in the bag without folding, sit on bag to zip it shut, checkout and then try to have a nice day on the town. Luckily it all worked out and we ended up having a really nice day. I went shopping around the town and then sat at the beach for a while. It turned out to be a very relaxing day! At 5pm we loaded the buses and headed for the airport. It was back to Lausanne! It was definitely a trip to remember!!

Milan and Como!

2009-10-06T04:46:00.000-07:00

The amazing shopping center!
Ceele and I in front of the Duomo!

Inside the shopping center! (Prada!!)

Castello Sforzesco

Fountain in front of Castello Sforzesco.

Cute chairs in the park!

George's Villa.

Shopping streets in Bellagio!

Lake Como!

The lake again!

Fairy ride back!

Me and Ceele :)

Ceele and I out in Milan!

Buongiorno! Well I didn’t think things could get much better after a weekend in Nice, but I was wrong. I had the most amazing weekend in Milan! This weekend I traveled with Ceele, Taylor, Cindy, Kimber, Chase, Ryan, and Adrian. It was so much fun! We left Friday morning and had a three hour train ride straight to Milan. As soon as we got off the train, we realized our new challenge. We were no longer in a French speaking part of Europe and unless Italy recently changed their national language to Spanish or English, I knew we were in big trouble. So we stood around for a good 20 minutes with blank stares on our faces trying to figure out the street names. Finally, Taylor decided to bust out her high school Italian and it worked like a charm! We eventually found our hostel and I man was it an experience. This hostel was actually run by a Chinese family who spoke pretty good English which was helpful. However, the entire place reeked of orange chicken and fried rice. Lucky for us, we did not spend much time there. We didn’t waste any time before we started walking the city trying to find the Duomo. I was also keeping my eye out for the shopping center that I visited with my family. I remember the first time I went to Milan, we only had a couple hours there and we got dropped off right in front of this giant, covered, designer-store heaven. It was where I got my first Prada bag. It was a magical day. So magical, in fact, that I never even noticed the Duomo was right next to it. But I didn’t miss it this time. It was absolutely stunning. The entire thing is covered in statues and is layered all the way up. The inside was amazing too. The entire floor was inlayed marble and each column had different sculptures at the top. The stained windows at the back were all so bright and so detailed. What I did not like about the Duomo was the amount of pigeons that filled the square. I was terrified the entire time! This guy tried to get me to take these seeds in my hand so they would come all over me! I don’t think so! But Ceele did it! I felt so bad for the poor girl. After the Duomo, we ventured over to this old castle that was so amazing! It is called Castello Sforzesco. It had this beautiful fountain in front of it and had all of these great museums inside of them. Behind the castle was a beautiful park filled with runners, trees, ponds, bridges, and park benches. They had this adorable mini amphitheatre that had chairs put into the stone where seats should be. That night, we found a great and cheap pizzeria and got to bed early to get ready for the next big day ahead of us.
On Saturday, Ceele and I decided to break off and take a day trip to Lake Como. At first, we were a little nervous to go out on our own, but I have never been more proud of us. We found our way to the train station, bought our tickets, got on the right train, got off in Como, found the lake, bought fairy tickets to Bellagio, got on the fairy to come back, bought train tickets back to Milan, and took the Metro from the train station to the hotel. And everything was in Italian! But Lake Como was absolutely breathtaking. The gorgeous villas and quaint towns surrounding the lake made everything picture perfect. George wasn’t in at his villa this time, but he left the key under the mat for us. We had beautiful weather too! Except we learned very quickly that wearing shorts out in public is not as common in Italy as it is in California. Every single person we walked by looked us both up and down like we were crazy! I have never got so many death stares in my life. Bellagio was absolutely amazing. It was such a beautiful town and I am so glad I got to visit. All of the cobblestone roads had stairways off of them leading to shops on both sides. They had the most beautiful silk and cashmere scarves that were made in Italy. They also had amazing leather products! Unfortunately, I realized that I was a traveling college student who paid for the ticket out to Bellagio and had to eat lunch so no scarves for now. But it still was an amazing trip! When we got back to Milan that night, Ceele and I decided to head out for a nice dinner. Another cultural difference is that no one goes out until extremely late! We didn’t leave for dinner until around 10 because most restaurants stay open till about 1 am and then everyone leaves the restaurants and heads the bars around 1 and to the clubs around 2! Such a crazy night life! But once again, we didn’t make it out that late. We were extremely tired so after we got a peak at the night life, we headed in just as everything was getting started. Still, such an amazing day!
Sunday, our train didn’t leave till 2, so we enjoyed the morning eating more gelato and exploring Milan before heading back to Lausanne. Another amazing weekend! Ciao!

Nice!

2009-10-01T05:14:00.000-07:00

On the train ride there!
Chase, me, Ceele, and Nathan in front of the fountain.

Another beautiful fountain!

On our way out for the night!

At the beach!

Me and Ceele!

Nice!

Flower market!

Amazing flowers!

Flower ice cream!

Nice at night!

Last night out!

Well, I just got back from my first weekend trip and it was amazing! Me and four friends (Ceele, Kimber, Nathan, and Chase) left Friday morning on a 7:15 train and were off to Geneva to make our first transfer. Surprisingly, the first transfer was pretty smooth! Well, at least that’s what we thought until we were yelled at by a bunch of angry French people. Apparently, we were in the right seats, but in the wrong car! After that situation got settled, it was smooth sailing all the way to Nice. When we arrived in Nice, we decided to find our hostel first. Yes. That is correct. A hostel. Even though I was extremely nervous about it, it turned out to pretty nice. Yes, there were some questionable stains on the carpet, but it had its own bathroom and shower and was right in the middle of everything. We then went to a small café on one of the main shopping strips. I was so excited to see a bowl of pasta for 7 dollars! Then I realized that we were now on the Euro making everything suddenly much more expensive. After lunch, we decided to walk around Nice and ended up finding two beautiful fountains! Nice is so amazing! It’s so exotic but still very European. It’s like the Hawaii of Europe! The second half of our group (Taylor, Cindy, and Rachelle) came in on a train about three hours later. Once they came in, we walked around a little longer then went and got ready for dinner. We walked into Old Town and found a strip of amazing restaurants. Everyone was sitting outside and enjoying long dinners and conversation. Of course, the place we decide on is the American Bar. However, it turned out to be a lot of fun. We all had a great time and some American classics!
Saturday, we got an early start and headed out to the beach. Unlike our beaches back home, there are rocks everywhere. They replace the sand. So lying out became very interesting. But did that stop me from falling asleep? Definitely not. After it warmed up a little bit, we decided to finally go for a swim in the Mediterranean. It was amazing! The water is so blue and clear and not too cold either! It was almost a little too clear. It was so freaky being able to see the bottom of the sea. After the beach, we decided to go through all of the markets. They were so amazing! Nice is famous for having one of the most beautiful flower markets ever! (Mom and Grandpa, you would have loved it!) Everything was so bright and colorful. As soon as you walked up, the incredible smells were overwhelming. So beautiful! We then walked down the strip by the beach until we found this amazing gelato shop! Not only did it taste amazing, but when you order it on a cone, they shape your ice cream into a flower! It was so delicious and so cute! After a long day of walking around, we went and got ready for a nice dinner down in Old Town. We ate at this amazing restaurant with a great environment. We also had such great weather! It was nine o’clock at night and we were sitting outside in jeans and tank tops! After dinner, we walked down to this bar that I had read about in my travel book. It said that there was a bar upstairs and a dance floor downstairs. So naturally, when we got there, I went searching for the dance floor downstairs. After searching for the stairs, Ceele pointed out to me the 3 steps that lead down to a separate section of the building with two long picnic tables and a DJ booth. Little did we know how packed it would get later in the night. It ended up being the highlight of my trip to Nice. We met tons of people from all over Europe and had a great time! First weekend of travel = success!!

Bern!

2009-09-24T02:08:00.000-07:00

The Capital!
Taylor, Cindy, Ceele, and I in the capital!

Swiss bank!

Me and Ceele

In the water fountain in front of the capital!

Bern!

9/18/09
Today, we started our day nice and early by loading up a huge bus and heading out to Switzerland’s capital, Bern. We started by going on a guided tour of the Celts exhibition. We then were allowed to explore the Einstein museum upstairs which turned out to be really interesting. However, the day really picked up once we were allowed to go and explore the city ourselves. Now what is really tricky about Switzerland is that they have four official languages. So even though we have been studying French, Bern is in the German speaking part of Switzerland making things for all of us even harder. Luckily we found a really great Italian restaurant where the owner of the restaurant spoke English! After eating, we walked over to the Parliament building which was beautiful. It had beautiful fountains and was right next to another incredibly beautiful building which turned out to be a bank (go figure). After resting, we all decided to go out to discover the night life in Lausanne. A huge group from Pepperdine went to this club, Darling, and we all had the best time! It definitely made me think of my friends and miss them even more than I already do!

Chantilly? Excusez-moi?

2009-09-17T12:50:00.000-07:00

Amazing hot chocolate!

Taylor, Cindy, Me, and Ceele!

Today is Wednesday, the first day of classes! Luckily, I don’t have any classes until 10:10. So today I had French in the morning and then I have religion at 4:25. So far, I really like my French professor. He is very understanding and patient. He has been helping us a lot with our pronunciation which is hilarious every time. Today, on our break, Ceele and I walked into town (on our own!) and went to the store to buy a few things. We even found our way back! It’s not too hard to find your way around Lausanne, especially since we have been on so many walking tours. All of the staff here has been great with directions and helping us get aquatinted with the city! Later on in the day, I had religion and then went out for another adventure in Lausanne! Ceele and I met up with some new friends, Cindy and Taylor, and decided to go out for some world famous hot chocolate! We got some simple directions and headed out on our way. Well it turns out that the directions were not so simple and not so easy to follow at night! After a lot of wrong turns and a lot of laughs we finally found the little café. Not only did I get to use the French that I learned in the morning, but I got to enjoy a delicious cup of hot chocolate! It is more like warm chocolate pudding with a lot of heavy whipped cream!! Mmmmmm!

View from the top!

2009-09-17T12:39:00.001-07:00

Tuesday, we began our day once again with intensive French. We then met for another walking tour. This time we went back to the cathedral. However, this time, we did not only walk through it, but climbed up to the top. Even though we had to walk up a lot of stairs to get there, the view from the top made it all worth it. After that, we walked to an art museum that displayed L’art Brut. This is an art collection composed of a bunch of works done by people who were in prison or mental hospitals. The art was definitely out there, but also very interesting. That night, we went back to Manora for dinner and then hung out at the house and got ready to start classes!!

Intensive French....Intensive Walking!

2009-09-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

View from the start of our adventure!
In one of the public gardens!

Our new best friend!

The public gardens in Switzerland have everything! They are kept so neat and have tons of fresh veggies!

A beautiful trail through the woods.

On Monday, we started our intensive French classes. In the morning, we met for our first chunk of intensive French with our new teacher. We went over a bunch of questions to ask people and introduced the students in our class. He then realized how far we still need to go! He also barely speaks English which should make this year very interesting! In the afternoon, they decided to take us out for another walking tour for our second chunk of intensive French. What they should have called it was a hike, not a walking tour. We started by walking down to the metro station and riding it up to the last stop possible. We then got out and started our “walk” at the top of this exhibit called Lausanne Jardins 2009. We continued to follow pink and black posts all throughout Lausanne to see different public gardens planted throughout the city and walked all the way back to the Pepperdine house. This may not seem that bad, but we were gone for at least 4 hours and definitely hike down some dirt trails in the middle of the woods. Ironically, I hardly heard any French. Monday night, we went back to Manora for dinner and passed out after a long day!

A Day At the Vineyards!

2009-09-17T11:48:00.000-07:00

On Sunday, our entire group walked down to the train station and we took a train out to a nearby town, Lavaux. Here we walked through the UNESCO World Heritage vineyards. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We walked on paths through terraced vineyards that bordered Lake Geneva. We were even allowed to eat some of the grapes! There were small towns throughout the vineyards that were so cute and quaint with an amazing view of the lake! After walking through the vineyards, we took a boat to the next town, Lutry. Here we were given free time. Ceele, Naomi, and I ended up exploring the town with a Lausanne native. Finola was an older lady who was born in Ireland and has lived in Lausanne for 30 years. She took us through the quiet town, which was deserted because it was Sunday. She knew the streets very well and was able to explain to us all about the town and the country. She showed us a beautiful church and even took us to an amazing café where she treated us three to cappuccinos. After, she walked us along the lake and told us stories and taught us some French phrases. She was one of the sweetest ladies I have ever met. Her generosity and willingness to share her knowledge reminded me a lot of my own grandma and made me miss her even more!!

Finally in Switzerland!

2009-09-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

The view from our room!!

Hotel La Croisse

Our Room! :)

The waiting is over. I am finally in Switzerland! We landed in Geneva on Friday night, September 11th. Once we arrived, the staff picked us up in a huge bus and we made our way from Geneva to Lausanne, however, it was pitch black outside so I could not see much of the country. Once we arrived at the house, we all got together to receive our room and roommate assignments. The house is amazing! It is a renovated hotel, Hotel La Croisee. On floor 0 (yes, floor 0. One of the many things that is different in Europe) are the classrooms, which are a lot different than regular classrooms, a lounge area, a study room/library, a computer room, and program offices. On -1, there is the Student center which has a pool table, ping pong table, couches, a separate movie room, a separate music room, and a kitchen. On floor -2 there is a bomb shelter (don’t be scared mom, it is just the law in Switzerland) and a small gym. And by gym, I mean a room with a yoga mat, a mirror on the wall, and two sets of weights. Floors 1-4 have all of the student rooms. What is really neat is that each room is different from the next one, but still very similar. We all have this huge closet type things, but some are painted and in different spots. My room is baby blue with teal bedding. We also all have balconies. My room faces the lake. It has the most breathtaking view. There is also a sink and mirror in our rooms which is new and extremely convenient. Each floor also has study rooms at the end of the hall for people to use computers, read, and obviously study. Overall, the house is amazing!
The weather since I have been here has been random. The first couple days it was sunny but chilly. But they have us walking around so much that by the time you get out and get going, it gets hot again. The nights get cold but nothing compared to how cold it will get in the winter.
Our first day here, we went through an orientation, and then went out for our first day in the city. We went on our first of many walking tours. We walked through the streets to one of the biggest cathedrals. It was absolutely beautiful. The streets of Lausanne remind me a lot of the rest of Europe, but are still unique. The cities are very clean and you can tell the Swiss have a lot of pride in their country. That night, we ate at Menora which is a restaurant that we will be eating at a lot. I’m starting to think that Switzerland doesn’t have specific foods that are unique to their country. All of the foods that were served were just like back home, except some are prepared differently. At this restaurant, you could get anything from chicken and rice, to pizza, to pasta. However, I have yet to see a Mexican restaurant! After dinner Ceele and I went with two other girls, Cindy and Taylor, to find an ATM and a place that sold shampoo. Even though this may seem like an easy, everyday task, it is a lot more complicated in a foreign country and a foreign language! It can also be tricky because everything over here closes around 6. But not only did we find an ATM and an open pharmacy, we found our way back to the house!