Busted Beer Pong and the Library Tour

Tuesday involved getting up in time to make it over to small arms survey in time for our 9:30 class-which is about a half hour to forty five minute commute (I know... hard knock life). Class was good, I really like the professor-although ask me again when my 40 page paper is due. We were supposed to meat Barry after class to go and get our UN security badges. So we all waited in our classroom, and we waited, and we waited, and we waited. After 45 minutes we decided to leave only to discover Barry, convinced our class had just happened to go over by 45 minutes was in the office (though we all question the accuracy of this). We headed over to the UN went through security, then we had to go to the library to get our paperwork stamped, then return to security where they processed our paperwork and issued our badges-a ridiculous methodology in my opinion. After the silliness I stopped by Barry's apartment to pick up our new coffee maker (thank GOD) and toaster oven. Then I spent most of the afternoon reading for class the next day. After dinner we decided to try and play beer pong again. Although, as we bonded and listened to music we were suddenly interrupted by a man with something very large stuck somewhere. He came up and started yelling at us in french and we kept apologizing and promising to put the doors back on the hinges over and over but he just continued to yell in french. Eventually we think he said he was going to file a noise complaint (he appeared to work here). As soon as he left we scrambled and cleaned everything up in record time. The man then returned and wrote all of our room numbers down-though we haven't heard anything about it.

Wednesday morning I woke up and had a leisurely breakfast in bed and then went for a run (whoop). I tried to run toward downtown but didn't really find anything special but I have high hopes for next time. Then ate lunch and went to class. Professor Kott seems okay she is a bit of, as described by one of my classmates, a rambler. I still like her but it's the class I'm most worried about as of yet. After class Grace and I went to the train station to try and get our tickets for the weekend trip to Bordeaux. Unfortunately due to the end of vacation week traveling through Paris was impossible, and not traveling through Paris meant a 12 hour journey so we nixed the idea and started from square one. After a LOT of discussion debate and suspense Grace, Matt and I decided to go to Milan Friday afternoon, Bologna Saturday, and Pisa Sunday morning before coming back to the cite Sunday afternoon. Between figuring out where we were going I tried to read for Barry's class.

Thursday I woke up early, but it was only to try and finish the reading. Then we went to the UN for our tour. We saw the conference rooms and learned some fun facts. It was pretty cool coming from MUN held in hotel conference rooms or various university class rooms to see where the UN, or at least part of it, actually debates. Our tour of the building was followed by a riveting tour of the library, we saw all kinds of stacks and even some computers-located in what they call the cyber space. Then we came back to the cite for our class. While it was the standard Barry playing devils advocate to everything I did manage to compare the UN to viagra-what I deem quite the victory. After class we booked our hotel for the weekend and surprised Zunaira for her birthday (since some of us will be gone on her actual birthday on Saturday).

Tomorrow we will be waking up quite early to catch a 5:45 am train to Milan-which means while writing this I should in fact be asleep.

Something I've Randomly Noticed: Women in Europe LOVE fur coats-they are actually everywhere

Something I still detest: Having reading all of a sudden...

Something I'm Happy about: There is a snow storm at Colgate and I'm not there

Holding on to my Heart in Heidelberg (and Munich and Interlaken)

After Shain's class we bolted to catch our 6:15 train. We made it and started our 3 train journey to the small German town of Heidelberg. We made all our connections including the one that was only 5 minutes. While on the final train an old woman stopped to ask us where we were going-we told her Heidelberg and she told us to hold onto our hearts, when we asked what she meant she sang the song "I lost my heart in Heidelberg" it was very, very nice. On the last train I realized (this is at about 11:20) that reception at the hostel was only open until 12:00 am. So I called the hostel to let them know about our late arrival. The woman who answered exclaimed, "why didn't you call me earlier" and I told her our train was late (shhh...) she then didn't say anything-by the way thank you woman for bumping up my phone bill (blame the German hostess Mom and Dad). She finally informed me she would wait for us. We arrived at Heidelberg station and got on a bus, about 20 minutes to our Hostel. We got off the bus and easily found the hostel which was all locked up. We knocked a couple times and eventually a woman came out and said, "oh you called me" I said yes and I was so sorry we were late (it was 12:04) she said I must go catch my bus, but made a call-looking up to one of the higher windows, hung up after about 5 minutes and said "he will be here in 2 minutes" then ran down the street. We stood outside for about another 5-8 minutes and then a man who had clearly been asleep and quickly thrown clothes on came down. He was very nice though and directed us to our hostel "300 m from here" so we walked toward it but passed an open Kebab shop and decided to stop as we were all hungry. So we sat for about a half an hour eating falafel then found our hostel. We split into two groups of 3-as we had booked 2 3 bed rooms. My room went in and discovered it was nice and clean and quite large. Shortly after however, the other three came in and informed us as they had tried to enter the room they discovered it was already occupied-so they walked the 300m back to the lobby and found some method of communicating with the slumbering man again and got the right room.

I woke up the next morning and went for a run through Heidelberg which was very nice! It has a nice balance of old and new and everywhere I went was very very pretty. After the run (and a shower don't worry) we went down to the cafe where the hostel offered free breakfast which was called "Drugstore" - though your guess is as good as mine as to why. But I had a coffee (that was almost normally sized) and an apple tort called "cake." The cafe was very nice, it seemed surprisingly local with older gentlemen playing chess (despite the early morning) and the waitress greeting people she knew. After storing our bags we walked up to Heidelberg Castle which despite the fog was a great view of the little city and we went to the pharmacy museum-which is housed in Heidelberg castle-again your guess is as good as mine (just kidding I asked and it's because there was space). We also saw the largest wine barrel ever-slightly unimpressive until we realized that that was just a large one and in the next room was the real world's largest wine barrel-now this was quite large. After that we decided due to the weather to catch a train to Munich.

We arrived in Munich and after some very skilled detective work figured out how to get to our hostel. When we got off the subway though it seemed very, very suburban. We started walking in the direction of the hostel and onto a street with only houses-not to mention all of this was in snow and wintry mix and I in my optimistic packing state had only packed moccasins as footwear-oops. So we found the house with the right number which seemed to be a preschool. Then we noticed a staircase leading downward that had the rest of the address and an arrow pointing down. A man greeted us and we checked into his very nicely decorated basement. The room was very nice, 2 large beds and a large foldout couch. Seemingly the only other person staying there was an old rather large man who liked to walk to the shower in only a towel. We did have some problems with the shower the first day-it wouldn't get past freezing, which meant I wasn't particularly clean in Munich, but it resolved itself the next day. Then we got ready and went to dinner at the Hofbräuhaus for dinner. I enjoyed some lovely white veal sausage and the dark beer in the size that it was served-a liter (don't worry Mom I only had the one). Served with the sausage was a pretzel and some really really good sweet mustard. After sitting and hanging out we went to a discoteque called something Japanese (apparently our favorite theme). And danced the night away. We woke up the next morning in time to catch the cuckoo clock show in the main square of Munich at noon-later described as Europe's second most overrated tourist attraction-though I'm sure before TV was invented it was quite nice... We grabbed a quick breakfast and went to meet our free walking tour. Our tour guide ended up being this British bloke who was really really funny and a little drunk (no really I saw the beer). But he was really funny making jokes the whole time and at one point grabbing me in a headlock and softly ramming my head into a wall. We stopped to get a hot drink after 3 hours of being in the literally freezing cold, then stopped unsuccessfully at a couple souvenir shops looking for key chains for our new set of keys. Then we tried a new Beer Garden for Dinner. This one was obviously more local than the other-and apparently very popular as we couldn't really get a seat without a reservations, so they sat us between the two bathroom doors separate from all the action. However with frequent requests we managed to be moved to the main hall. I had pork sausage and potato pancakes (though slightly different from latkes) which were all very very good. We ended up staying there for almost 5 hours. We decided to leave when the rather aged man-nicknamed Bob after Grace's grandfather-begin getting a little to touchy with Melissa. Then half of us (including myself) went home and the other 3 went dancing.

The next morning we woke up to discover one of our "dancers" was missing. I woke up about 8:30 (a couple of us wanted to try and get an early start to see Dashau concentration camp) unfortunately we spent most of the morning worrying that our fallen warrior had actually fallen somewhere and was in the hospital. So we frantically tried to find someone who knew the lost's number (he had just gotten a new phone) as well as the numbers for the Munich Police and Hospitals. Eventually we got a hold of our prodigal friend who eventually turned up around 11 am limiting our activities for the day (though I suppose the fact that everybody was healthy and safe was good too...) So we headed back into Munich with all of our luggage (we figured that since we were trying to leave by 2 that paying for storage wasn't worth it-and peaked into a church that was all white on the inside-very cool (mass was going on too...) then we wandered around looking for something to eat (which due to everything always being closed on Sundays wasn't easy-haven't these people heard of Sunday brunch??) By the time we settled on something and ate it outside it was time to catch our train to Interlaken.

Our first (of three) trains arrived in Munich on the late side-15+ minutes which was great because our scheduled "layover" was 12, we were lucky enough-with the help of our conductor Wilhelm to make it in about 4 minutes before our next train was scheduled to leave. So all 6 of us took off running through the train station to our next train-the long one, 3 hours-however this was some kind of make shift commuter trolly type train that was already overcrowded by the time we arrived, so we squeezed our way onto it and ended up sort of sitting on the floor and standing-which was especially helpful as we were trying to read our hundreds of pages of homework while on the trains... We made it to our final train into Interlaken and were late enough that we had to take taxis to our hostel because the bus had stopped running and we were staying outside of the city. We got to the hostel and the hostess had upgraded us to two four person rooms instead of the 7 that we booked (she didn't know why we booked a 7 even though we tried to explain it was because there were 7 of us) The rooms we got though overlooked the lake and it was some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen.

The next morning I woke up and went for a run (yeah baby!!) and basically ran down the same street a couple of times to avoid going to far uphill but it was so beautiful I didn't mind. Then we had our free breakfast, 2 pieces of bread, butter, jelly, a piece of swiss cheese and two small pieces of what was called salami but looked questionable (though it tasted fine in my opinion, I was one of the few brave enough to try it). We caught the bus into Interlaken and Zunaira signed up to go paragliding. But, (despite the fact that the company didn't contact her) we managed to find out paragliding had to be cancelled due to high winds. So we decided to go to where the paragliding took off which was supposed to be beautiful, but our free bus ticket only got us half way so we decided not to. We ended up just walking around Interlaken for a while and catching an earlier (thankfully uneventful) train back to Geneva. After dropping our stuff off at the cite we did our grocery shopping for the week-at a much better store, and then had some dinner and skyped with Jen and Lauren!

Germany (at least southwest Germany) was interesting because it was very Americanized, it was the first place where I saw people wearing uggs and carrying around starbucks, and in one place you could find a San Francisco company, a starbucks, McDonalds and Burger King all next to each other. Yet, despite the Americanization-and this was probably because we were tourists-the reality of what happened there 70 years ago was still hovering over us like a dark cloud. For example, Germans don't really fly the German flag. The whole time we were there I saw one and it was flying over the royal residence. It was interesting having spent all month in France, where they are very resistant to American influence and then going to SW Germany where it is almost overly Americanized.

Today I'm thankful for skype!

Today I am also thankful that Barry is hooking us up with a coffee maker

Finally I'm thankful that my showers are finally getting me clean and I've returned from the French stereotype of cleanliness back to good ol' American standards

Establishing Loose Roots

Monday morning left no time for any relaxation before we woke up and went to our first class which is about a 30-45 minute commute. It's called New International and European Security Challenges and takes place at the Graduate Institute. Our professor is Canadian and teaches at the graduate school. He seems a little dorky but interesting. The class is normally on Tuesdays but we rescheduled as apparently he was off to Louisiana-and it's at 9:30 which means leaving by about 8:45, we momentarily saw a bright spot in this arrangement as the bus passes a Starbucks, however, we later discovered for a grande nonfat latte (my drink of choice) is 7 chf which converts to just about $7, so we said goodbye to our caffeine-though we're still trying to persuade Barry that we DO in fact need a coffee maker for our floor. After class Melissa and I got some soup and salad and then we had an orientation of sorts to the cite (citay). Apparently we are living in the European version of a dormitory for the University of Geneva, though the people here range from all ages including some families-the only requirements being you are a student and not from Geneva-he explained the latter rule is to prevent 18-20 year olds from storming out of their homes and trying to live here because housing is so difficult to find in Geneva. 16 out of the 17 of us are on the same floor it's two hallways connected by a shared (very small) kitchen, in each hallway there are 8 singles a refrigerator and 2 showers. Our rooms have a bed, a very long desk under the window with 2 work spots (so we essentially have two desks-useful?) and a sink, plus lots of closet and shelf space, probably just barely enough to fit all my clothes I have at school and far too much for the clothes I have here.

After our orientation we all went grocery shopping, though of the three grocery chains in Geneva we later learned that we picked the most expensive and the only one that doesn't sell alcohol (for moral reasons). For dinner I had some of the fresh pasta I bought in Florence and brussels sprouts (courtesy of Melissa's fine culinary skills). Tuesday was another early morning as we had to go and apply for our residence permits which will enable us to travel outside of the Schengan States. This was a fairly quick process though we all had to submit pictures that made us look like terrorists, no smiles, hair pulled back, etc. After that the day was free so we stopped to pick up a couple other essentials (q tips, shampoo etc.) and headed back for a delightful afternoon of homework, napping and overpriced laundry.

Wednesday I started my fairly late morning with a run, I heard about a loop that was "quite nice" near the cite and decided to try it, being as I am a beginner it was a bit long for me (by about 2 km) but it added a nice walk at the end (extra exercise which was definitely needed after all the Italian pasta). Then at 2 we had our first class with Professor Kott, a professor actually from University of Geneva (WHAT?) This is our seminar and is called, "Nations and Nationalisms: Europe Between National and Transnational States (1880s-1980s). I really liked Professor Kott, but this is the first time she has ever taught in english and her accent is a cross between French and German, but her english is far better than my french so who's complaining? Most of the rest of the day was spent doing the reading for Professor Shain's class and planning the upcoming weekend trip to Germany. Though that night GSG (geneva study group) managed to set up two beer pong tables in our hallway by removing four separate doors and stacking them using a combination of chairs and stools (we don't go to Colgate for nothing). It was a good bonding experience that left most of us ready to wake up the next morning and finish Shain's readings.

Thursday the morning was spent in fact finishing the readings for Professor Shain and then packing for the weekend. Shain's class-which like Professor Kott's is actually in the Cite which means we all wear our slippers as we don't actually need to go outside. The first part of Professor Shain's 2.5 hour class (so yes over an hour) was spent discussing logistics of Geneva, shopping lists, random facts (like what he has called Migros land (migros is a grocery store) which is like Target) and our "potential" internships in May. Finally after a break our class started-however the only point of the class was to learn that everything will be both narrative and biased so all the reading was fairly pointless. But we skipped out of town right after class for our trip.

Thing I Dislike Today: Reading for homework again

Think I Like Today: Having a (semi) permanent home for the next couple weeks

We Came, We Ate, We Conquered

The final day in Montpellier was spent in my bed and in the train station. The train ride back to Geneva was fairly eventless (for the better I think). We did get an earful of Colgate professor gossip from the professor on the train-that was interesting and I have either forgotten most of it (or it is best to not be repeated here...) We arrived in Geneva and got a group bus ticket to take us to the Cite-our Professor was walking with us when he told us to, "wait here" and then ran off with one of the students-and when I say ran, I do in fact mean that they ran. They returned and our Professor told us to have a good week and to be safe-that was the last we heard of him. We got to the cite-the 12 bed dorm style rooms again, and dropped our stuff and went back downtown to try and find dinner. Unfortunately, all the stores and any affordable restaurants were closed. We ended up finding this grocery store/restaurant/deli that was open (and because it was in Geneva over priced) but I was able to get some sort of grain salad and a crepe-and they threw in a free fruit cup. Then we had to decide whether to wait to meet professor Shain in the morning to retrieve our other suitcases and repack for the week or just take off early in the morning. We decided to brave it and not get our other suitcases. This meant that the upcoming week would be spent in la meme chose clothes that we had been wearing for the last four weeks (mine which had only been washed once in that time frame). So we repacked our overworn, boring clothes and went to bed.

The next morning we arose early to catch our first train to Venice. But we already had bad news before we got on the bus. Melissa had been throwing up all night long. We got on the train and though she seemed sick managed to keep it all down on the train. In a second streak of bad luck Kate forgot her rail pass at the cite and had to go back and missed our train to Venice. But she managed to catch a later one that got her in a few hours later. We had a 6 hour train ride from Geneva to Venice. When we got on the train all 7 of us pulled out our book that we were supposed to be reading for class. I believe between the 7 us we may have finished 3 pages.

We got into the train station at Venice and from the moment we walked out the door of the train station, the palooza that is Venice Carnivale was quite evident. There was music and there were costumes and it was incredible just standing on the steps of the station. We looked up the directions to our hostel and step one was taking a boat on the grand canal-our hostel was almost to the end of the grand canal and so we were able to get (in my humble opinion) the best view of Venice. We stepped of the boat in front of a giant church and took the short walk to our hostel. Our hostel (hotel alla salute) turned out to really be more of a hotel than a hostel. They upgraded our rooms so we all had private bathrooms and 2 rooms of 4, the showers sucked (la meme chose as Montpellier, no curtain, hand held, and very little water pressure-when water came out at all) but there were little bottles of shampoo and conditioner! While Melissa slept, trying to recover from what we all eventually came to call the Gripe (pronounced gripay and french for the flu) a couple of us went out to explore the city. We were walking toward the main Piazza when we came across a collection of hand made carnivale masks! I knew this was my souvenir from Venice and purchase one with musical notes filling in a crescent moon-quite lovely. Matt was instantly infatuated with Carnivale. He knew exactly what kind of mask he wanted and during our walk we walked into every store that sold masks. He also had to complete the ensemble with a black 3 cornered hat with gold trim (later a feather would adorn it). When we finally made it to the Piazza-it took a while stopping at all the mask shops-There was a giant lion made of some kind of greenery and fruit, with lights and tons and tons of people in costume. After admiring the spectacle we headed back for dinner. We got a recommendation from the front desk and headed out to the restaurant. It was okay. i shared a caprese salad with Melissa and has spaghetti with mussels in it. I had a hard time not speaking french to the waiter. Unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances involving symptoms similar to the Gripe (though not the gripe) we returned to the hostel after dinner. The hostel had a free breakfast in the morning which was really really great. There was yogurt, cereal, pastries, and juice. Then we set off to see Venice-of course adorned with our masks. We saw the grand cathedral in the main piazza (though not very much of it because you had to pay to see all the good stuff like the "treasure"-they tried to lure us in with the mystery of the treasure but we resisted and found out later it was bones from the 4th crusade) Then we went to check out the Rialto bridge-it was more impressive from the boat ride in but still worth seeing then we headed over to the train station to book our tickets for that evening stopping for pizza in a random pizzeria on the way, I had a pizza with gorgonzola and Ricotta. Then we walked around the Jewish Ghetto which if you don't go to the museums is mostly just another area of town but it was great walking around the city. One of the coolest things about Venice is you just sort of pick a direction and walk in it so you never know what you're going to see! Then we went to see the Dodge's palace but we missed closing time by about a half an hour. We walked around looking for a place to eat, but it was difficult, Venice is so touristy it was hard to find "local" restaurants. But we managed to find something. I had one of the traditional (I believe it's Roman) dishes-spaghetti with peppers, bacon, and tomatoes I really liked it a lot. Then we went to get our bags and catch our train (the boys stayed another night as did Elise-Elise unfortunately caught the Gripe that morning)

The rest of us had a night train to Rome. This involved 2 compartments with 4 bunk beds (couchettes) each-and the math worked out that there were 3 in one and 2 in the other. This meant we enjoyed our first sleeper car with some strangers. In the other girls' car their roommates were there upon arrival-seemingly a couple watching a movie (though later it turned out that the guy inquired after Katie's number so they probably weren't a couple), Ours didn't show up until an hour into the train-after we were asleep. She entered the compartment on her cell phone (this is a quarter to one in the morning) and wouldn't be quiet until Kate told her to STFU-though I believe her words were slightly more delicate. We arrived in Rome and after a little confusion due to being at a different train station than we thought we were found our hostel and dropped our luggage to go do some light sightseeing. After heading several blocks in the wrong direction due to the strong directional skills of yours truly) we headed toward the Colosseum, we went inside and got audioguides. The Colosseum was amazing and just as impressive as one would imagine. After the Colosseum we headed toward the Trevi Fountain, on the way we ran into the tomb of the unknown soldier. After throwing a coin in the Trevi we stopped at a highly recommended gilato place-that was very very good-I had caramel and banana (and like the guide book said the banana was not yellow but grayish) then we headed back to meet the boys and elise who arrived on their train. Then we headed out a highly recommended restaurant. But when we got there they said reservations only-so we made one for the next day and went to the restaurant next door. I had a pasta similar to the one in Venice with bacon and an appetizer of zucchini flowers and these rice balls that were filled with tomatoes and cheese. Everything was really good. Then we headed over to Campo-the nightlife area. We went to a bar called Sloppy Sam's we hung out there for a while and then went back to the hostel to get some sleep. We woke up the next day grabbed some breakfast to go at the grocery store and headed over to the forum. It was amazing to see all the ruins but it would have been a lot better with the audio tour as nothing was labeled. The weather was very wet and very rainy but we bartered an umbrella salesman down to 2.50 for an umbrella (that was really crappy and barely lasted my whole time in Rome-so overall good purchase) Then we headed over to the Pantheon which surprised me because it was a Catholic church who knew? Then we walked by the Trevi again, stopped for the same gilato (chestnut and cinnamon ginger - the chestnut was AMAZING) and went to see the Italian equivalent of the White House and the 4 fountains-both were very quick to see. We then headed home to shower for dinner. We went to the restaurant and I ordered the same rice ball appetizer (amazing again) and the pasta that was listed as the restaurants specialty which turned out to be a gratin with some sort of meat in it-but it was very good. We then went to another bar we had heard about in the same area but most of the Rome nightlife is American bars with American people so we didn't really see the point in staying out too long. Thursday we had reserved for going to the Vatican so we woke up early to ensure we had enough time and avoid long lines. We got there went through security took some pictures and entered the Basilica where who was saying mass but the Pope! The fascinating part was it was mass with a spectator section and not the most polite spectators. When we left to go to the museum it turned out it was randomly closed that day. So when Matt went home with the Gripe we went to see the Spanish steps and the Cathedral of Rome, then having had a long week already we decided to take a nap that afternoon before dinner. We went to a more local area of Rome popular with students for dinner. We went to a restaurant called Mario's and had a waiter name Matteo who was absolutely high-but he made for some good dinner entertainment. We stopped by to see the Trevi at night and since we were in the area stopped for gilato again-where I learned not to mix flavors that don't go (i had chestnut banana and licorice) We woke up even earlier Friday morning to do the Vatican before leaving Rome. We whizzed through the Vatican museum to the sistene chapel, then while we were in the museum it started to snow-a very unusual occurrence in Rome-a city with palm trees, but it was enough to close the Basilica and make our wait for the bus absolutely miserable.

We were able to make it back to the hostel and pick up or stuff before heading to the train station. Where once again Modern Europe made and appearance but was not opened by one person. We got to Florence and when we got to our hostel's address there was a woman outside and said hostel for 7? and I said yes, turns out our hostel was a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartment. Having the space was nice (though the fact that the heater for both the apartment and the water wasn't turned on until 11 am) A couple of us decided to walk around while the others took naps, we stopped and got the best hot chocolate-it was thick and amazing and then we accidentally ran into an H&M... Then I got to meet Keegan for dinner as she was in Florence the same weekend. We went to a restaurant called Zaza's which was great. I had some sort of penne and bruschetta. Then we went to the NYU dorms to hang out before going out. We went to a club called Babylon which was a lot of fun and on the way home we got Kebabs (and french fries) The next day we went to the covered market where I got handmade and fresh pasta to take back to Geneva with me. Then we saw the David which was truly unexpectedly overwhelming. Then we went to the top of the Duomo for an amazing view. Then we grabbed a quick lunch and went to an outdoor market where I was able to purchase a really great leather weekend bag (made in Florence!). Then we got ready for dinner which we had at Dante's, I had the bruschetta again and a pizza with buffalo mozzarella and sausage-it was SO good. We went out to an Irish pub that was very clearly catering only to study abroad students and then to a club described to be "the true Italian experience" though we managed to avoid any unwanted incidences. On the way home we witnessed this car having an incredibly difficult time pulling out of the parking lot and who was watching but the Adam's Family (I still can't really explain this) and then we turned the corner and some men tried to woo us with an impromptu choreographed Michael Jackson dance-they failed.

The next morning we had a leisurely lunch (pizza again it was SO good) and then headed for the train station-where once again we all enjoyed the cover of Modern Europe. On the train next to us was this woman who didn't really understand the concept of trains nor did she speak english, but her counterpart on her cell phone requested that one of us let her know when she reached her stop (again still can't quite explain this one) but she spent most of the train ride grooming-and not in a good way. We got to Geneva and finally checked into our rooms! It's SO nice to have a semi-permanent place for a while-though we're leaving again on Thursday...

Most Bizarre Happening in Italy: Seeing a woman walking up and down the metro-while breast feeding followed by (presumably) her husband playing the accordion (and adorned with a fake Louis Vuitton bag) while she held a cup bagging for money

Most Excited About: My single in the Cite!!

Montpellier's Final Days

So the midweek update, though I guess it's the end of the week update of the midweek...

Wednesday more school but afterward we went to a Creperie called Kreiker (or something similar) which is known for having over 80 kinds of crepes-including one with escargot. Though I consider myself to be an adventurous eater I'm not quite THAT adventurous, my first (yes I had more than one) was goat cheese and bacon... mmmm bacon... followed by chocolate banana flambe which they did indeed set on fire right in front of my eyes. It was delicious and very affordable. Then we went to the mall for a little bit. While I didn't buy anything we were able to discover the phenomenally brilliant attempts at the english language by the french on their clothing. One said "You know I have a trendy roll" yes R-O-L-L not R-O-L-E, and one that 5 girls bought that fantastically said "Friends that Speak French" in, wait for it, rhinestones. While I was not among the purchasers (the ran out) I am still an ardent admirer. After that I might have gotten another crepe, this time of a stand on the side of the road (it's not as sketchy as it sounds) and this one was buerre sucre YUM. Then Kate and I went to Cafe Georges for some light reading-aka Modern Europe-DO NOT READ THIS BOOK!! But I am up to chapter 6! Only 8 to go before class starts... After that we headed home and Melissa and I booked some hostels for our upcoming trip to Italy WAHOO! Dinner consisted of rice with corn, ham, and something else in it-it was just Kate, Kana (our Japanese "sister") and me as Madame and the Professor went out to dinner... you may make your own assumptions.

Thursday was our last class with Hagrid! Though we barely made it. We ran into Barry (Professor Shain) and he began by shaking a couple peoples hands? Then discussing a couple of logistical issues always followed by "but we'll talk about that tomorrow"-after about 15 minutes I said-so we can talk about this tomorrow? And he understood and acknowledged my very subtle hint that we were cold and hungry and let us go. After class I accompanied Kate and Alison on another trip to the mall-so cultural. I again didn't buy anything but I did try a "food court" crepe-NO GOOD-it was pre made and microwaved, bad life decision. Dinner was some kind of fish, with mushroom sauce cucumbers and a cheese plate-we heard the native french speakers make fun of the professor's accent which made us really nervous as to what they say about us... but oh well who cares we're trying. Then a bunch of us went to the "Shakespeare Cafe" your friendly neighborhood pub, and hung out for a while before trying the highly recommended "Le Huit" which I was in long enough to use the bathroom before we sought out the even more highly recommended O bar. Now, to get to the O bar one must take a bus. So we journeyed to the bus stop and learned we had just missed the bus and the next one didn't come for an hour. So we checked out close discoteque to wait it out-also mediocre. Then we went to the bus. Now for those of you who are used to the "cruiser culture" at dear old 'gate please understand that that is mere training for what this bus was. For those of you who have never had the pleasure of pushing through a crowed of drunk freshmen eager to make it to the Jug on a Monday night along with 15 of their closest friends I'll try to paint a picture. To get onto both the cruiser and the Montpellier party bus it takes team work-those stronger in the group use their bodies to block out those not in your party so as to create a clear path to the door-this involves a high level of skill and ability to push while seemingly not pushing while maintaining contact with the person in front of you to not create even the smallest gap through which somebody could squeeze between you and your friend. Once on the bus you are packed like sardines-to use the age old expression, but you have to maintain your balance (while inebriated) while the crazy (questionably sober) driver whips around tight corners on bumpy roads. The extra trick in this case was that these were not inexperienced freshmen we were battling but highly trained foreign students-along with the not one but TWO security guards on the bus. When we finally arrived at the highly anticipated O bar (we chose tonight because there was no cover) we were literally in the middle of nowhere. Why anybody built a discoteque in this location I'll never know-and further why the voyage out to it is so popular continues to baffle me. The drinks were over priced, the techno blasted non stop (sans words) but the neon lights-and of course the company were both quite good. Overall I'm glad I went, however I don't know if I will offer the same high recommendation of this particular establishment in the future. On the return bus ride home it was four of us girls and three other American girls one of which had her head in her lap with one of the security guards standing over her for the whole ride-sucks to be her. But we eventually made it back to the bus station where the journey had started. On our walk back I did run into Flavio and his friends, all from Switzerland, and he greeted me with the very familiar 3 cheek kisses. Then asked me what bars were still open-him in english and myself in french, I tried to explain the location of the O Bar (which was open until 5) but I failed miserably. I'm not quite sure what happened to Flavio that night but he wasn't in class today...

Today was our last day of ILP-I am completely unaware of what were were supposed to learn and yet the teacher continued to ask me questions despite my frequent response of I DON'T UNDERSTAND, but I made it and the Director of the ILP (by the way that's our school) had a wine and cheese party for us. Our professor following a respectable 2 glasses of wine broke out into a heartfelt thank you speech for being the wonderful students that we are-being studious improving, and being wonderful to our host families-representing America well etc (he must not have heard our mother thinks we're savages). Unfortunately due to his 2 glasses of wine he couldn't remember any of the logistics he wanted to discuss with us and promises to inform us on the train tomorrow-we'll see our last train ride he ended up having a couple of beers with the snack car man... After the petit cocktail party I had my first kabob which was good and then we all rode the Carousel-as it had been a frequent meeting point for us we felt it was very necessary. I had a crepe on my way home and then took a nap as I was still recovering from the O bar experience. For dinner the professor made pasta with squid-I guess he missed his train today due to left over technical difficulties from the strike this week (the french LOVE to strike-they plan how long they are going to be and everything). Now we are getting ready for one more night at the Vert Anglais and Australian Cafe to celebrate Hannah's birthday.

Tomorrow our train leaves around 1:30 pm and we are headed to Geneva for 1 night. Then Sunday morning I (with 7 other people) are off to Venice, Rome and Florence for the week. I am not sure how much internet access I will have but I'm sure my blog will be painfully long and sprinkled with more moments of hilarity. So stay tuned! In the end I'm not quite sure what to think about Montpellier, I'm sure I'll be nostalgic for the activities we all did together in good time, but I don't think it makes my list of top European towns or cities. It is geared toward students which I think sort of removes some of the quaint small town charm. But I had an okay time here, and now I'm ready to move on to other things.

What I miss today: My hair straightener

High Point: Having a shower that was hot for the whole time I was in it-though I still think "shower" is a strong word

Low Point: Almost killing my ILP teacher on the last day of class...

Homeless in the land of the Billy Goats Gruff

Oh boy where to start THIS one!!

Thursday-wow that was a long time ago... Thursday, thursday... WELL we had conversation class which was JUST as much fun as it always is-aka can't wait until class with the female Hagrid is over (and that's only physically-Hagrid seems WAY cooler) but AFTER conversation we went to meet an out of towner (one of Melissa's friends) then a couple of us went shopping. I got a coat-I think it's still snowing in Geneva-and a dress! We got home and our host mother was in quite the mood (though good this time) she asked what we bought and if we would show her and she told us she got some new things too and would we like to see them. Turns out HER new item was lingerie-so we now know what at least 2 bras and a pair of underwear of hers look like. Dinner was surprisingly pleasant though! We ate salad and cheese and something I don't remember.

Friday-the adventure begins. We were able to get out of class a half an hour early in order to catch our 12:30 bus which involved a walk and a tram ride. Then we boarded the bus for Barcelona. We arrived 5 hours later (after passing the Spanish border and quite a number of Billy Goats Gruff) Utilizing the wonderful technology of the apple iPhone-I used this wonderful application and was followed by 15 other people-we try to be inconspicuous. We arrived at our hostel and checked into our two rooms of eight and decided to walk around a little bit as dinner wasn't until later, you know because it's Spain and their whole schedule is much later. So we saw a church (that I still don't know the name of) right of Las Ramblas and we all enjoyed a giant human size cup of coffee (I know we're supposed to be sampling local flavors but we all were really excited for cups of coffee that was more than two sips per cup) We made a quick stop at H&M and a couple of us made some great 5e purchases-including Grace's phenomenal gold sequined skirt (that would go great with our shoes Jen!). We went back to the hostel to get ready for the night (mostly wearing our new H&M purchases). Then went to find somewhere for dinner. We heard going toward the water was a good direction so we ambled in that direction in search of some Spanish cuisine. But given that it was already about 10:30 and we were with 16 tired and grumpy people we settled on a restaurant right on the water probably directed only at tourists. We had Sangria complete with 3 foot straws (which Matt enjoyed using to make Grace's life miserable) then I ate some steamed Mussels-which were great, some salmon-pretty good, and Pudding aka flan. Then we went to find the clubs. After inquiring from quite a few people-including the desk agent of a Best Western we made it the couple KM to the club, we heard about one and tried to get in but apparently the tennis shoes the boys were wearing (later described as "not something they would play basketball in") were not up to par with their dress code and we were turned away. We did however avoid a cover charge at a club called Shoko. Grace, Melissa and I managed to spend 10e on the BEST Mojitos ever (but if you pretend it was the cover charge it is really cheap...) We all danced for a while celebrating Allison's birthday. Finally we decided to leave and we asked for directions back to Las Ramblas-where our hostel was. The man laughed at us gave us some directions and told us to watch out for the Moroccans-at which point we decided to take cabs. We got to the hostel and got ready for bed, the beds turned out to be semi flexible metal planks which made noise anytime anyone moved and the room was about 94 degrees stuffy and the windows didn't open-but it was cheap and a good location and it was for a very short time.

So at this point it's probably important to mention that before leaving for Barcelona we decided as a group it would be fun, given the late hours of Spain to try and go the second night without a hostel.

Saturday morning we needed to store our stuff so we took it to the bus station to put our backpacks in lockers. Then took off to see the city. First we went to the Sagrada Famillia,designed by Gaudi a church 100 years in the making and still not projected to be done until 2026 this structure was AMAZING it was giant and so intricate on the outside. I have never seen any churches that remotely compare (though the Vatican is coming up next week...) After that we took the Metro to Parc Guell which is surrounded by Gaudi architecture including the longest bench in the world. But it was an AMAZING view of the city. Then we stopped for lunch, though it was not quite up to par-mediocre food, followed by slow service and 4e in change but all in 20 cent pieces. Then we took the metro, stopping off at the Arc de Triomf (Barcelona style) and walked to the Picasso Museum by way of the green house built for the world's fair in 1888. The Picasso museum was great, there was an especially cool part where it showed Picasso's version of a more classical painting, but before you went in an electronic screen showed them overlaid. The last exhibit was a bit more... exotic-they were pictures of Japanese women very explicitly positioned with squid and octopi, yes that's right. But something must have been lost in translation because the exhibit started with explaining the popularity of Japanese culture, then a book by Victor Hugo featuring a squid and thus the pictures? Then we went to Starbucks to kill some time before dinner.

For dinner Melissa and I were meeting some Colgate friends who are studying in Barcelona. We had tapas: tuna, potatoes, fried artichoke, and chicken wings. My dinner was a pasta with lime, mint, and mozzarella-it was great. And it was really great to catch up with Keegan. Then the Colgate Barcelona crew showed us the way to a bar with good Sangria. Outside of the bar there was mime. Yes a mime, who in fact mimed to us that we needed to be quiet. Then we were told of a bar that we would all like-though we left our friends as they had just returned from a 3 day field trip. The bar was really great lots of fun and lots of dancing. Then we decided to relocate, however it took quite some time to get to the location of the clubs, we ended up taking the metro where Melissa and I may have skipped the ticket buying process and ran in behind one of our friends. We arrived at the bar scene and tried to get into the same bar where once again the boys (same) shoes were still not good enough for the club. Melissa and I (being cold) decided to enter a bar with a 12e cover charge (after hearing that the rest of the group wanted to go in too) though after further consideration the rest of the group decided to pass but we already paid so we went in. We found a couch and took a very short nap but as it was already 5 am they were starting to clear the bar out (as bars close at 6) At 6 (after a little bit of dancing) we went to meet the group on the beach. We were all cold and tired with no where to go (some of us were huddled up under a light (which we thought would make us warmer, though it was probably just us huddling together in one place) when Zunaira ran over to tell us she found somewhere warm with a bathroom-the two things we all desperately wanted. So we followed. On the door it said something like "Urgencia" I was under the impression that this meant it was Emergency Housing for the temporarily Homeless" like us. However after further discussion the next morning I learned it was actually an ER waiting room (though at one point a police officer did come in to kick out the actual homeless people-for some reason 14 sleeping American kids don't look homeless) But we made it to about 7:20 and then decided to watch the sun rise over the Mediterranean. Unfortunately due to cloud cover it was more like watching daybreak over the Mediterranean-but I think everyone had a great time doing it. Then we went to Starbucks (while some more adventurous people who missed the Sagrada Familia went to see that) to wait for our bus which, didn't come until 1 pm. But we finally got on the bus and made it to Montpellier without any road bumps (most of us sleeping).

Kate and I took the tram from the bus station to the stop closest to our house. Unfortunately we didn't know the way from the tram stop to our house so we did get a little bit lost, but once again iPhone googlemaps SAVED THE DAY!! When we made it back to our lovely Chateau Madame introduced us to the visiting Italian/Switzerland professor (who slightly resembles Carrot Top). Now, as far as we can tell he's sleeping in his Yanesses (hybrid of Yan-our "brother" and Highness) room, but we're about 90% sure Madame is in love with him though we can't tell for sure (though that new underwear's starting to make some sense). We had dinner with the two of them-Leek Soup, cheese, fruit.

Monday we got back to the grind stone with school. Though our class had a new professor due to the vacation of our old one. This one is from Paris and does not take kindly to mistakes (which is bad for us). After school we went to Nicholas to plan some of our trip to Italy. Then we tried to go to this famous Creperie, but it was closed so we wandered around the city for a bit looking for Crepes. Then, Matt told us about this place with the BEST hot chocolate, so we went there. However, while awaiting our infamous hot chocolate Matt and I caught a glimpse of the magic behind the mug and discovered it was powdered Nesquick... a little disappointing but now I know what to get Matt for his birthday! Then I tried to find some new boots, as already after only 3 weeks mine our getting pretty worn. Unfortunately due to the Amazon blood running in my mother's side of the family my giant man feet don't quite fit into the petite sizes of the french women and thus I failed at finding new shoes. But when we returned home we had quite the dinner. Madame had fondue, or some french derivative, to celebrate the swissness of our visiter. This fondue was a mini covered stove that sat in the middle of the table, then you put your cheese into a little square pan and into this stovetop thing until it melted, than we poured it over potatoes and had it with ham (and for the first time wine!) we also got some Ratatouille and of course some fruit. (After dinner I wrote most of this blog until the website crashed which is why it is so delayed in being posted and thus painfully long)

Today, we went to school and had a long day with conversation. Though Barry (our professor) sat in on my conversation class and though we were talking about American Cinema, he managed to bring up his favorite topic: WalMart. Then after class I decided to do my laundry. I got to the laundromat and looked at how it worked. Unfortunately the machines only take the change (and only the one euro change at that) So I walked up and down the street trying to get one euro coins from somebody-it was very difficult but eventually I found a nice cheese salesman who was able to give me all my change in 1 e coins (minus 1 5e bill but I did give him a twenty...) So I was able to commence my laundry experience. After sitting in the washer for about 45 minutes I tried to dry my clothes, but the driers only dry in 5 minute increments and each cost fifty euro cents-and that's after the 3e each washing machines-so after 4 dry cycles I gave up and went to meet some people at Cafe Solo. We chatted for a bit before Kate and I headed home for dinner. For dinner tonight we had soup and pasta and ratatouille, the random professor is still here and they went to a movie today (we think... our french is really not that good)

Barcelona MasterCard Sum Up:
-16 bus tickets from Montpellier to Barcelona: 880e
-1 night in a hostel when you're staying for two: 12e
-Spending part of the night in an ER waiting room: 0e
-Watching daybreak over the Med with GSG: Priceless!

Good News:
-I will have clean underwear tomorrow (if laying all of my still wet clothes out over chairs in our room works)

Best News:
-Having my own room away from Madame SOON