Thursday, January 29, 2009
Gone for the Weekend
Okay so this weekend is going to be the first out of Switzerland adventure!! Tomorrow morning I leave for London. I will be catching a train to Geneva around 8:30 am, and flying out of the Geneva airport at 11:15 am...then arriving at the london Gatwick airport at aroung 12:00 pm, so it's a pretty short flight. I'm super excited, and can't wait to tell you all about it :) Please pray that my friends and I have safe travels this weekend!!
Monday, January 26, 2009
Kind of a lonely weekend here in Lausanne
So the original plan for this last weekend was to go to Paris!! Well, that did not work out according to plan. My Eurail pass, that was supposed to arrive on Wednesday of last week, did not get here until Saturday. So that was a little sad. It was a little lonely with almost all 56 people that I live with being gone. But I had a nice, slow weekend here in Lausanne. Despite the quiet house, I was able to meet some wonderful people from the other Pepperdine abroad programs that were coming to visit Lausanne, and that will definitely come in handy if I ever go to any of their programs!
It snowed all morning on Saturday, so I opted to stay in and relax have a late breakfast, catch upon homework, and chill.
On Saturday night Professor Giboney invited a bunch of us up to her apartment on the 5th floor of the hotel. When we got there she had popcorn and hot chocolate ready to make, she is so cute. So we start to make the popcorn in the microwave, and all the power goes out in the whole apartment!! We had to track down the maintenance guy to turn it back on, and the second we try to make the popcorn again we knock out all the power...again!! He told us it was because the popcorn bag was too big for the microwave, and that the turning tray was spinning but the popcorn was not, and that’s what caused the power outage…yeah, he was really confused! So now we’re afraid to use the microwave, so we resorted to heating milk in a pan in the stove to make our Ho Cho. So then we sit down to put the movie in the DVD player and a little message popped up that said, in French, that this DVD was in the wrong region. Professor Giboney did not know that you couldn’t play an American DVD in any DVD player in Europe. We resorted to watching the movie on a laptop. Our movie experience was a little bit of a fiasco! The movie was very good though, I definitely recommend it. It was called “Though None Go With Me.”
Sunday morning was absolutely gorgeous, and I have never enjoyed the walk to church more. It was the epitome of the clearing after the storm. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and there was snow covering the Alps.
Church yesterday morning was wonderful, and the Smith family, once again, fed us a delicious lunch. I am so thankful for them, especially when every meal here is average 15 franks. I think I forgot to mention my European McDonalds experience…well let me tell you about it. Your average combo meal, #2 or #6 or whatever, is about 12 franks here!! That is absurd!! Where we have our dollar menu, they have a 3 frank menu, there are no refillable drinks and no self serve ketchup; every ketchup packet is 20 cents. Anyways… things are just different. I have a lot of school work this week. A religion exam and a large french quiz already on Tuesday. So as fun as traveling is, school is still very important, so prayers are always needed in that department!!
Well, I'm off to study until my next class!! LOVE YOU ALL:)
It snowed all morning on Saturday, so I opted to stay in and relax have a late breakfast, catch upon homework, and chill.
On Saturday night Professor Giboney invited a bunch of us up to her apartment on the 5th floor of the hotel. When we got there she had popcorn and hot chocolate ready to make, she is so cute. So we start to make the popcorn in the microwave, and all the power goes out in the whole apartment!! We had to track down the maintenance guy to turn it back on, and the second we try to make the popcorn again we knock out all the power...again!! He told us it was because the popcorn bag was too big for the microwave, and that the turning tray was spinning but the popcorn was not, and that’s what caused the power outage…yeah, he was really confused! So now we’re afraid to use the microwave, so we resorted to heating milk in a pan in the stove to make our Ho Cho. So then we sit down to put the movie in the DVD player and a little message popped up that said, in French, that this DVD was in the wrong region. Professor Giboney did not know that you couldn’t play an American DVD in any DVD player in Europe. We resorted to watching the movie on a laptop. Our movie experience was a little bit of a fiasco! The movie was very good though, I definitely recommend it. It was called “Though None Go With Me.”
Sunday morning was absolutely gorgeous, and I have never enjoyed the walk to church more. It was the epitome of the clearing after the storm. The sun was shining, the sky was blue and there was snow covering the Alps.
Church yesterday morning was wonderful, and the Smith family, once again, fed us a delicious lunch. I am so thankful for them, especially when every meal here is average 15 franks. I think I forgot to mention my European McDonalds experience…well let me tell you about it. Your average combo meal, #2 or #6 or whatever, is about 12 franks here!! That is absurd!! Where we have our dollar menu, they have a 3 frank menu, there are no refillable drinks and no self serve ketchup; every ketchup packet is 20 cents. Anyways… things are just different. I have a lot of school work this week. A religion exam and a large french quiz already on Tuesday. So as fun as traveling is, school is still very important, so prayers are always needed in that department!!
Well, I'm off to study until my next class!! LOVE YOU ALL:)
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Switzie Days!
Well....a lot has happened since last week. I saw the Alps for the first time, it snowed and it rained!! I spent this weekend hanging out in Switzerland and getting to know the place where I live, and the people I live with before I take off and see the rest of Europe.
On Friday I went to Geneva and visited the United Nations and the Red Cross Museum. Both very informational visits, but not the most stimulating when you're exhausted and can't really understand your tour guide!! But it was fun. After that we spent the rest of the day exploring Geneva and ate fondue at a little Swiss restaurant for dinner:)
On Saturday we woke up early and went to the market Saturday Market here in Lausanne. The market was comparable to the farmer's market in Old Town Temecula, except there were a lot more antiques. There was a man playing the accordion!!! I wanted to take a picture with him but I wasn't sure how to ask in French, and I didn't want him to be creeped out!! So I let that one go.... Then that afternoon, we caught a train up to Montreux, a little town up the shore and visited the Chateau de Chillon, an old castle in Switzerland with too much history to even go into! It was an amazing day!
Sunday, today, I went to church at Brady Smith's house; Paul Begin's brother-in-law! It was so neat to listen to the service all in french, and sing the same songs we do back home all the way in Switzerland! And then we had a potluck with the people there ...It was a wonderful weekend :)
Sunday, today, I went to church at Brady Smith's house; Paul Begin's brother-in-law! It was so neat to listen to the service all in french, and sing the same songs we do back home all the way in Switzerland! And then we had a potluck with the people there ...It was a wonderful weekend :)
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
The First Weekend
So....after the 10 hour flight to London, two hour lay over and another hour and a half flight to Geneva, I finally arrived here in Switzerland! Upon arrival I had no idea what time it was or even what day it was! Coming all the way from sunny Southern California it was quite the shocker!
The first weekend was orientation and we got a tour of the city of Lausanne!! That was probably my favorite part. The city here is so cute, and every building has so much character. The city is built on three hills, so there is not much flat ground. We walk most places, so I don't think I have to worry about gaining much weight!!
The cathedral is beautiful, and probably my favorite landmark in the city. We got to go inside during our tour, I took so many pictures. There is so much history to soak up in such a small amount of time. On Saturday we went to the Olympic Museum. We learned all about how the Olympics are all planned, and that all of the meetings for it are held right here in Lausanne.
The view from my balcony is supposed to be amazing, but I have yet to see it. The fog and over-cast weather has been so heavy that I still have not been able to see lake Geneva, which is right below my building, or the Alps, which are just on the other side of the lake. I haven't seen the sun in about four days, so that's a little depressing. I'm losing color by the hour!! EEEEPP
The first weekend was orientation and we got a tour of the city of Lausanne!! That was probably my favorite part. The city here is so cute, and every building has so much character. The city is built on three hills, so there is not much flat ground. We walk most places, so I don't think I have to worry about gaining much weight!!
The cathedral is beautiful, and probably my favorite landmark in the city. We got to go inside during our tour, I took so many pictures. There is so much history to soak up in such a small amount of time. On Saturday we went to the Olympic Museum. We learned all about how the Olympics are all planned, and that all of the meetings for it are held right here in Lausanne.
The view from my balcony is supposed to be amazing, but I have yet to see it. The fog and over-cast weather has been so heavy that I still have not been able to see lake Geneva, which is right below my building, or the Alps, which are just on the other side of the lake. I haven't seen the sun in about four days, so that's a little depressing. I'm losing color by the hour!! EEEEPP
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