Homework, Homework, Homework

Sorry to let my readership down, but the past week hasn't been too exciting. I spent the weekend working on my report on South Africa and finally finished last night. One down, 4 (maybe 5) to go. I'm really trying to get a jump on my semester projects so that when my mother and Corey are here I can spend the time visiting with them. I leave Thursday evening on the night train to Vienna. Christian and I are spending Easter weekend there and if we have time we are also going to take a day trip to Budapest...so there will be some exciting posts coming next week...I hope :)

Hallo an alle!

It's been a fairly quiet week. We went out to a pub near the school called Paddy Obrien's on Wednesday for St. Patrick's Day. It isn't a big day here like it is at home. I asked my Swiss buddy about it and he said that 99.5% of people don't know what or when it is, but the pub was still packed and we had a good time. As you can see from the picture, green beer is universal. I have also included a picture of a couple of guys playing a traditional Swiss instrument called an Alphorn. They were in the Coop (grocery store)...kind of unusal, but interesting. This past weekend, Koryn and I just went into Zurich and browsed the shops. We also toured a monastery church, the Grossmünster, which dates back to the 1100's. It had a crypt in it that we checked out and we were also able to climb to the top of one of the towers and view the city. The walk up was creepy...a tiny, spiral, stone staircase only wide enough for one and completely enclosed. I was feeling a little claustrophobic, but made it. Other than that, I am keeping busy with school work...lots of group projects to do. I am hoping to get out to the slopes this weekend because I don`t want my season to end on a bad note. And now that I`ve recovered from my injury...time to get back on the horse. Hope everyone is well!

Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones

She would never say where she came from
Yesterday do not matter if it's gone
While the sun is bright
Or in the darkest night
No one knows
She comes and goes

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you ...

Do not question why she needs to be so free
She'll tell you it's the only way to be
She just can not be chained
To a life where nothing's gained
And nothing's lost
At such a cost

There's no time to lose, I heard her say
Catch your dreams before they slip away
Dying all the time
Lose your dreams
And you will lose your mind
Is not life unkind?

Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday
Who could hang a name on you?
When you change with every new day
Still I'm gonna miss you ...

Luzern & Engelberg-Titlis, Switzerland

Last week I went to yoga class on Wednesday. It is offered weekly and from what I can tell it is free for students, so I plan to do that every Wednesday henceforth. She initially was speaking entirely in German, which I had not considered. I thought I could just watch the people next to me, but when they are doing things like tightening their buttocks, it's pretty hard to tell. She caught on fairly quick that I was lost and did the rest of the class in German and English, thankfully. Saturday, Koryn, Jeff (American guy) and I took the train to Lucerne. We spent the day doing some very touristy things, which even though I usually hate were kind of fun. I think because the things we did were rather quirky. For example, we went to a place called Gletscher Garten Luzern (Glacier Garden Lucerne), which starts out showing the natural landmark left by the glacier in 1873, proceeds to a glacier museum, then turns into a teddy bear museum, then a mirror maze and finally ends with the Lion Monument which is a sculpture that commemorates the Swiss Guards who were massacred in 1792 during the French Revolution! Very strange. The next place we went was Bourbaki Panorama which is a circular painting from 1881 that is 112 by 10 meters. It was quite stunning, but unfortunately I was unable to take pictures. After that we had lunch at a Swiss restaurant and I finally tried some Swiss culinary specialties...fondue, raclette and rosti. They were all very delicious. And Evelyn, I have included a picture just for you! After lunch we went to another unusual museum, Depot, which has bar codes on all of its objects and using a scanning device, you point it at the bar code of the object that interests you and the information appears on the scanner. You could even play games where it tells you a story on the scanner, sends you to find a particular object that you read about and then asks you a multiple choice question after about it. It was very interactive! Naturally after a long day of touring, we hit a pub for a couple pints and then I turned in for the night at my hostel (https://www.backpackerslucerne.ch/index_en.php). It was really great actually and only $32/night! The next morning I got up and hopped a train to Engelberg-Titlis to go boarding. The ride there was absolutely beautiful. I had about the worst day of snowboarding of my life and was back on the train only a few hours after I got there. I was following the crowd and kept going up, up, up, not knowing that I should have got off a lot earlier and ended up way too high and the only runs down were beyond my experience level. I got a serious case of the nerves and then I took a pretty nasty spill and called it a day. The week coming up consists of school, homework and celebrating St. Paddy's Day of course! Luckily my classes that day were cancelled and I don't have class until noon the next day! Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Wicked Powder!

I finally made it to the Alps yesterday! We couldn't have asked for better conditions. There hasn't been any snow around here since the first weekend I got here (so three weeks ago), but when I woke up bright and early to catch the train to Flumserberg, it was snowing! It was an awesome day of boarding and I am already planning my next trip out next weekend. Within Switzerland there are around 50 different places to go boarding. This one was about a two hour train ride away from Winterthur. Next weekend I think I am going to head to one near Lucerne and potentially grab a room at a hostel for a night and spend one day boarding and another touring Lucerne. Other than that, it's just been the daily grind...school, homework, laundry, grocery shopping...nothing exciting enough for a blog post :)