I honestly cannot believe that it has already been 2 months! Saying that, it also feels like I’ve been here forever! The craziest part is that it’s just like my life was picked up and moved ½ way across the world… with the addition of some new excitement!
Everyday updates:
I am now a Swiss resident (resident card and all)
I’m a full time student (with a 4-day weekend!)
And, I’m even babysitting for a Swiss family
However, my everyday life,‘vie quotidienne’, has been spiced up since moving to the centre of Europe! Since my last post I’ve been busy and getting the most out of “going global”! Here are some of the highlights:
Weekend in Interlaken:
Interlaken was so great, we had gorgeous weather and the place that we stayed at was so cute (a little german style chalet). Interlaken is right in Swiss-german area of Switzerland, between 2 lakes (inter-laken), and it takes about 2.5 hrs to get there. The first day we were there we took a train up to “The Top of Europe”, the top of Jungfrau which is ~3000m high. However, the name is deceiving as really it’s only the 4th highest mountain in Europe. At the very top, the majority of the people visiting were Asian business men and the best part was that given my blonde hair they all wanted a picture with me hahaha.. Quite entertaining! The next day my friend and I hiked up to the top of a mountain right in the city. During the summer there’s a cable car that can take you up, but in the winter you can only do the hike. The hike incredible and the view from the top was even better… not to mention the t-shirt weather!
Weekend in Chamonix:
After experiencing 17degree weather the last time I went riding here, I had ZERO expectation of getting any nice snow and I was convinced that my snowboard was going to get way more use as my night side table… but I was wrong!!! I left for Chamonix with 4 guys from my french course and it was the first time on snow for two of them! When we got there we rode the afternoon at a smaller mountain in the Chamonix/Mont Blanc valley. The snow was coming down hard for the whole afternoon and evening. That night we went to a Canadian bar, run by a Vancouverite, with probably the best chicken burger I’ve ever had… Chicken burger with Brie cheese=amazing! My only complaint was that there are no caesars in Europe and I had high hopes for this bar... didn’t happen though haha. The hostel we stayed in had a huge attic with tons on bunk beds, pretty sweet atmosphere! The next day we got ready for a sunny day of skiing with fresh powder (…and I lost my contact on the communal bathroom floor, then stepped on it and then had to put it in my eye..yuuuuuum! Luckily no eye infection!) The mountain that we rode was great, and it even had a French Peak-to-Peak! Another amazing part was that the hills don’t close until 5pm, crazy! On the way home we topped off the weekend with a true French dinner on the train consisting of bread, cheese, wine and chocolate…so classy! What an awesome weekend. Ps there were definitely some face shots happening!
Swiss Carnivals!
The past two weekends I have experience something that I cannot compare to anything else that I have ever seen/been to: Swiss Carnivals. Every year the catholic towns of Switzerland celebrate “Carnival” and in each of the towns the celebration has its own unique touch. One thing that they all have in common is the mass amounts of confetti on the streets!
The first one that I went to was in Monthey, in Vallais, the one that Guillaume (Swiss friend in Van) suggested. Although it was the smallest of the carnivals that I went to it was still amazing. Everyone (young and old) was dressed up in costumes of all sorts…it was super common for families to all be dressed up in matching costumes! Even the buildings had decorations on them! The best part of all the festivities was the marching bands. There were more than a dozen bands there all dressed up in matching costumes with amazing face paint jobs! They played everything from cover songs to unknown French songs. Some of the bands even had choreographed dances!
The next carnival was in Luzerne, in the German part of Switzerland. This one was HUGE! We got there in time for the afternoon parade, which consisted of huge floats and people with homemade, extravagant masks. The floats threw candy and oranges as well as chocolate euros! This carnival was so big and eventful that pictures don’t even give it justice!... but you can still check them out on facebook!
The final carnival, Basler Fasnacht, was in Basel and started at 4am! I vote this one as the most unique as well as being the biggest adventure! It all started with a Milan and Swiss-Italian trip last weekend. We left Lausanne on Friday morning at 5am, spent 2 days in Milan, went to the Italian area of Switzerland and then took a trip Sunday night from one side of the country to the other… sounds far, but was really only 3 hours! Our great plan was that we would sleep 3 hours on the train and then sleep in a warming hut in the Basel train station until 4am when the carnival started. But.. our plan backfired. We weren’t able to sleep on the train, first time EVER, and the “warming” hut was SO far from warm it wasn’t even funny… So at 1:30am, with no sleep, we started our adventure by paying 50centimes to use a self-cleaning washroom in the train station haha. From there everything was uphill! There were once again people of ALL ages… even though it was a crazy hour of the morning. Everyone was lined up along the streets in preparation for the carnival. Then suddenly at 4am on the dot all of the streetlights turned off and a glowing bands/floats came from all directions of the city. Truly an amazing experience! All of the bands had lights on their heads or on the top of their masks and each group had a float that was glowing with light. A once in a lifetime experience for sure!
Milan, Lugano, Lacarno and Bellinzona:
Italy is amazing. I must go back. The food was great, the people were great and the whole atmosphere in the country was awesome. In Milan we had sunny weather that made touring the city so much fun! We went to the cathedral, which is the biggest gothic cathedral in the world. Quite a sight. We also went to see the Last Supper painting; it’s incredible how different it is in person. Other than sight seeing we also did some shopping and a lot of eating: market goodies and fruit, pasta, pizza and gelato! After Milan we headed north to Lugano, Switzerland. It was a Sunday and rainy so not very much was open…. I imagine it’s gorgeous in the summer! Bellinzzona was super interesting though. The town’s main attraction is its castles. There are three castles in this tiny town. We visited the two big ones and they were very impressive!
Well those are my travels since the last update and other than that, my ‘vie quotidienne’ has been filled with school, learning the language and culture, and meeting new people! My roommates are great; super friendly, I really couldn’t have asked for better ones! One of them (Bambi) continues to amaze me with his cooking skills! I still see Peggy and Malcom about once a week. Tonight I’m making sushi with one of my friends and Peggy, which will be fuun! …I’m becoming a pro at making sushi! Final piece of news=although today it’s raining, yesterday I went for a run, was stretching on a pier by the lake, fell asleep, and today I noticed that I had a sports bra tan line! SO stoked for springtime!
Well team, that’s it for now! LOVE to all and I apologize for the length of this one! New goal=more frequent shorter updates!
xoxoxMalPal
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