Wrap It Up

It's been a month? What? And I'm still blogging? What?! Tonight is my last night in Europe; bitter sweet moment. Everyone left today except Andy and I and it feels kind of weird being the only ones left in Locarno. One thing, it definitely doesn't feel like I've been here for 30 days, and I'm not completely ready to come home, but it'll be nice to be back in my little nook of the Rocky Mountains.
Yesterday was our last official day of class even though all I had was Italian, which I have to say I've learned a lot more than I thought I did, which is cool I suppose.
We had a little going away party at Bar City last night as well. It was a full on buffet with a punch bowl full of sangria and free Hugos! Woo! I still can't for the life of me figure out with the ladies at Bar City love us so much because we're a bunch of obnoxious American kids, but hey, I'll take it because I've had a lot of free drinks and food from there. After, I went for one last stroll along the lake side since I thought it would be my last night in Locarno (turns out I'm still here). This town is beautiful and it's going to be weird not waking up to it every morning.

Bar City! Best Cafe in Switzerland!

Plan for today was get a place to stay in Zurich and then jump on the plane to head back to the states, but everything was booked full so I'm here at the hostel another night in a tiny room with no windows painfully battling the heat and humidity. It's far too hot right now here, and since Europeans don't believe in air conditioning for whatever reason there is no escaping this torturous hell heat; except the grocery store or the lake. Since Andy is still here tonight too we went to Migros (grocery store) and got stuff for a picnic and swam in the lake to cool down. Best idea ever. Had some good Swiss made beer and chocolate and hung out with all the ducks down by the lake.

I apologize for not informing you all sooner of our little friend Donatello here in Locarno, but I always forget to share his stories with you when I get to blogging. Anyway, he's this guy, who we think lives in the piazza, who always wears orange camouflage patterned pants. Sometimes he rides a unicycle, but usually he's just kind of chilling out. I would go into more depth, but the time for the specific stories have passed and there is only really room for a mention of our Swiss friend.
Going on this trip was one of the best decisions I've made, and I've made a lot of really awesome decisions. I was able to travel to Italy, Germany, see Christina, tool around Switzerland, learn physics and Italian and met a bunch of wonderful people along the way. Switzerland is one of my favorite places after this trip; I love it almost as much as I love Canada, and for those of you that know me really well, you know that I really really love Canada. I think I've said this before, but Switzerland is much like America in the sense that it's multiple different cultures clashed together in one country; a political mutt. And as much as I'd hate to say it, the Swiss have much greater national pride than American, or any other country for that matter. There are Swiss flags every block and a Swiss signature on pretty much everything. I very much appreciate this country and its people; not to mention it's absolutely gorgeous as well. After being here only a month, I have a lot of Swiss pride myself, which is weird because I'm not Swiss I'm American. I guess because of the way this country is the culture was really distilled in me during this short time.I'm going to miss hearing the church bells every hour and I'm definitely going to miss being able to order a drink at dinner. That's really going to mess with me, but it will be nice to get free water!
I know I have plenty more stories to tell that would have been too much for this blog, but thank you for reading! I'm so proud of myself, I actually did and I will see you all when I see you I guess!
But before I leave, it is Miss Lindsey's birthday today. Tonight at the lake did a little celebrating in her memory. I love you Linds! Miss you lots and always thinking about you

Love, Kindness, Respect. Pass it On.

Ciao! :)

THTF (Too hot to function)

I don't know where this heat came from, but it is hot and humid. I feel like I jumped in a pool of sweat, it's a fabulous feeling. Thankfully this heat wave is coming at the end of the trip so we don't have to deal with it all month.
Today was the last day of physics :( We all gave our final presentations today so no class tomorrow! Bittersweet. I mean, I feel like I haven't spent much time in class anyway since I've been here, but still. It's pretty much over, which is crazy. I feel like a genius now I learned so much, not just in physics but in Italian and just in general knowledge. Cool stuff.
We had class in out Switzerland Physics Cave today because it is the only place on the planet it seems that you aren't swimming through the hot air. Yuck. The cave is pretty cool; it's like a medieval conference room, which is 2Legit2Quit. Yep.

Switzerland Physics Cave

 Then for dinner tonight we went back to Verscio to get a tradition Swiss meal, which means rabbit? There is absolutely no meat on a rabbit but oooo man the meat is nice and tender, grant it, it could have been just cooked well, but still very good. Some of the MeteoSwiss people there sang songs and played guitar and Dr. James' wife sang for us, and that woman has got some pipes. Woo! Other than that just was a relaxing day. 
Last class of Italian tomorrow, last minute chocolate shopping, and then party at Bar City!

It's a good thing I speak 0 German

I speak no German, which was really helpful when trying to get to and from Germany, so thank god Christina was there otherwise I probably would never make it back to the states and never see any of you ever again. But it's cool, I made it back to Locarno.
Munich is awesome! It kind of felt like Paris, except it was really clean...and the people were really nice. I got in to Munich at around 11pm and since I don't have a phone here I realized once I got off the train it would be near impossible to find Christina. Thankfully I found her, well rather she found me. She gave me a tour of Munich the next day, very professional I must say. We went up this one tower to get an entire view of the city. It was great! Well once you got to the top...there were a lot of stairs, a lot of stairs but hey I guess it was a good work out.

Munich

There is this HUGE garden in Munich called the English Gardens. Its like twice the size of Central Park or something. beautiful, lots of open grassy area with a river running through. The first day there were people on horseback riding around and it was quiet, not a lot of people around. The second day though, it was super hot and there were tons of people hanging out in the park.
Christina works at this Irish pub there and I had Bulmers for the first time and it was SO TASTY! While she was working Friday night I hung out with her Australian friend and his friends at a Hostel. Met a lot of new people, and they all spoke English, because they were either Australian or American. Who knew? That was one thing that made Munich seem like an American city was all the different languages that were being spoken. Cool stuff.
Saturday is was really really hot, I was dying and we went to the Olympic stadium to the Flow Mart (?) which is basically this giant flee market. I got a nice rainbow sweater for really cheap. Score. It was like Munich Day or something yesterday so all over down town all the businesses had shops set up selling things and people were walking around in Lederhosen and there was a ton of live music everywhere. It was like the Art-a-Fair back home, but on some serious steroids. Then we went out that night with some of her friends. Had some drinks went dancing and then hung out and talked till 5 at her apartment. And what really throws me off here is that the sun rises at 4:30 in the morning and doesn't set till about 10.
So I had to leave today, which was sad. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I'll just have to come back out some other time. It was really great to finally get to see her and hang out, even though it was only two days.
Not being able to speak German in Munich was fine because a) I had Christina and b) most people speak English. The second I got on the train no English was to be spoken and I speak 0 German. There was this one stop near the boarder of Germany and Switzerland that I had to get off on and conveniently the stop before it has the same name (which makes complete and logical sense to me) so I get off, realize it's not the right stop and stomp my feet like a child because I knew I wouldn't make my connecting train. There was nobody else in the entire station at this stop except this one old man. He came up to me and tried to help me, but hey guess what, I don't speak German and he didn't speak English or French! Super. But he spoke Italian and I know a little Italian so I was able to communicate my problem. He thought it was no problem and walked me to the correct station, the entire time having a conversation with me. I hardly knew what he was saying and he thought I was hysterical when I was trying to understand everything. By this point I already accepted the fact that I missed my train and was going to have to sleep in the park for the night so I just strolled leisurely along with him to the station, conversing in a broken hand motion/Italian/German/English language. He told me to get on the next train that would take me to Zurich, which didn't help much because I have no smart phone and wouldn't know if there were any trains going down to Bellinzona/Locarno area that night. But whatever. He waited at the train station with me to make sure I got on the right train before he left. Making new friends everyday.
The train to Zurich was PACKED. I gave up looking for a seat and just say in the luggage area between two cars. Another American girl who also happened to be studying abroad in Switzerland came to join my little party. Unlike me, she had a fancy phone which saved my life because we were able to look up connections to Bellinzona from Zurich which ended up matching up with times perfectly.
Ah, the people you meet in the world. Without those two people today I'd probably be sleeping under a tree on the boarder of Switzerland...well maybe not that seems a bit dramatic but you get my point.
After this I've decided to learn German. End. Of. Story.
It's really hot here in Locarno tonight, I don't think I'll be able to sleep! Arg! And it's scary to think I go home this Thursday!! Time flies!!!!!! Weeee.
To end it, Happy Father's Day to the greatest guy around :) Miss you dad!! Hope you had a great day and wish I could have been there to celebrate with you!
O! And I finally found some Milka bars which I'm super stoked about.

That's a big Town Hall

Theatinerkirche

Town Hall

We found Milka!

This is real life!

So um...CERN is a pretty cool place, it's like real life. We left yesterday morning (yesterday as I'm writing this, for reading it was Wednesday morning). That day we got to go down in the tunnel and visit one of the detectors ATLAS. ATLAS is the only detector Americans are allowed to work on because it's the only one America pitched in funding for, so if I become cool someday and get a job at CERN that's what I'll be working on! 

Due to my laziness and how awesome visiting CERN was I don't know if I can write about it and do the experience justice, but I'll try.

First off arriving in Geneva was a HUGE relief as I could understand people around me and read all the signs for the first time in a month. I felt so much less of a lost puppy being able to understand everything (well most of it at least). It was really good for my French speaking and I realized I'm a lot better than I thought. Real life.

Sorry sidetracked myself. CERN. We were only allowed 12 people in the tunnel at a time so the first group that went down were the physics students. 100. Meters underground!!! It's kind of freaky to think about when you're down there, so much Earth above your head. The detector was giant! Think of how big you think it would be then triple that size (or double at the least). I am so glad I got an introduction to particle physics before going because I got to appreciate it so much more because I knew how it worked and what it was doing. It's really cool stuff guys. There were some museums there too that we looked in while the meteorology group went down. There wasn't much there that we hadn't learned in class in the past month but it was still pretty cool. They did have the oldest cyclotron there on display. It is roughly the same diameter as a coffee cup and only cost about $25 USD to make, which I thought was neat. They also had a cosmic ray detector second l look at. 

Geneva is a beautiful city, I am definitely going back some day. That nit we went to an American restaurant with one of Zanolin's friends that works at CERN. Best burger of my life and I also had a glass of hard cider for the first time and Holy Cow! it was scrumptatious. We walked around a little bit last night and then sat on the pier where there is this giant geyser type fountain. I guess it's kind of a l and mark of Geneva since I saw it on a bunch of postcards, but gorgeous gorgeous place. 

This morning we went back to CERN to get a tour from Dr. Zanolin. Everyone went to breakfast while we were waiting for him to arrive and when he got there it was just me and one of the other guys so we got special visitor passes to go into the CERN complex with him so he could drop off some stuff in his friend's office. I felt pretty special not going to lie. The offices weren't as cool as the accelerator. It kind of looked like the halls at MIT, smelled like a meat shop and felt sciencey.....I don't know what that means but that's how it felt. Just like in AC-1 most of the office doors had comics and posters on them. After our Zanolin tour we got to roam around the grounds before we went to see the proton baby making machine. Outside of one of the conference buildings there was a statue of this God who is the creator of the cosmic universe and king of dancers from the Hindu faith. I found inquire fitting at CERN. By this point I was super crunched on time because I had to catch a train this afternoon, but there was no way I was going to miss seeing the proton baby making machine. I can't remember the actual name for it, but it makes protons. It makes protons!!!!! Like how cool is that?! And I got to see it! Which is so much cooler! Our guide for this was the coolest old man ever. He was 80 and still spry and high on physics, I want to be him when I grow up. Anyway he wouldn't let us leave for the train until we say the machine. I want to work on fun stuff like this after grad school. It was great being able to visit this lab I can't put into words how amazing it was. Also learned about Dr. Smith's old boss for when he was discovering particles and stuff. We have really cool professors I realized after learning more about Dr. Smith and spending time with Zanolin. 

My French did come I handy today at the train station. I was a little late getting to the station so I was a little flustered and the billboard for the train I was supposed to get on said so,etching else and I thought I missed the train. The guy I asked only spoke French and I figured it out and fund my train, because I'm a boss like that. So I'm on my way first to St. Gallen and then to Munich for the weekend to visit Christina!!!!!!! Beyond excited.

ATLAS

SPs Represent!

And we're going to Munich awww yeah

Will upload pictures when I get back to Locarno on Sunday.

Now that I've completely traversed Switzerland by train the last thing I want to say is Switzerland is an absolutely beautiful country.

Now that I've found my way to Munich I thought I'd add a little bit. A) Germany is beautiful. B) I don't speak any German c)met some really fun people on the train. 

High Elf?

It was Carolyn's birthday today! Yay! Happy Birthday Carolyn! And we're leaving for Geneva tomorrow!! It's like Christmas Eve! Stoked!
We celebrated Carolyn's birthday today at Bar City with a meal, drinks and a yummy cake. Other than that just worked on my project went to class and packed for the weekend. CERN tomorrow and Thursday and then I'm going to Munich to visit Christina!!!!!!!!!! I might cry...actually I will cry because I'm crying just sitting here thinking about it.
Highlight of my day here it goes:
In physics we were discussing what our different projects are about and it came to my turn, so you know I'm about to explain all my stuff. Dr. Zanolin stops me right before I speak and asks if I've seen Lord of the Rings...HA! Have I seen Lord of the Rings? I got really excited because I thought he was going to make a physics reference to Lord of the Rings, but it was even better. He said that I looked like Galadriel (minus the beautiful silvery locks). I got really flustered and happy because I was so flattered. I guess that being the highlight of my day makes today seem not very exciting if you're not a LOTR fan, but it's the greatest I promise.
I can't believe the trip is almost over, only 9 more days and I'm getting shipped back to the states. Uhg. I do miss my ukulele and my horse though, and my family. And it bugs me because I have a hard time keeping up with hockey and I just checked today for the first time in life a week and a half and I'm really upset the Pens got knocked out. :'( In that case, Go Bruins!
Still have an exciting weekend/week thing ahead and I'm so stoked on life.
Ciao!

Ya...sounds about right

'Merica!

Monday, what's up.
I felt awake and alive today which is weird since I've been running myself into the ground since before finals especially after this weekend. But hello world.
Procrastination. It's cool, so I spent the whole morning trying to bust out some physics project stuff because this evening we had a BBQ for Dr. James' birthday so I couldn't work on it later.
The BBQ was in a little town called Tegna at this secluded little beach. It was bring your own food so we got beef, peppers and a baguette to make kabobs. Felt like camping and it was great!
Since we were at a little beach a few of us jumped in the water and swam...it wasn't cold until you got to the deep end...then it was freezing....We made it out to this rock which means we had to swim back, which was difficult to get motivated to do since the sun was setting and pretty much gone behind the trees at this point. And me, being the idiot that I am left my shorts on and was soaking wet so I walked around all evening in a towel toga. Super classy.
Europeans don't do smores. That was the most shocking part of the whole night. Dr. James' friends had never roasted marshmallows or had smores! Mind. Blown. So we got to share this American wonderfulness with them and it was fabulous.
Other than that, pretty laid back day. Just another day in paradise Sally.

Living the American dream...making smores and stuff

That water was literally moving

I was so relieved when I realized that I had done a post before I left for the weekend because A LOT happened the past few days, but as I don't need to recount our adventures in Lugano this post will be easier and shorter than I thought it was going to be. 
Zurich:
For the first time I've been here I've actually felt like I am in Switzerland. It could have been due to the fact that there was a lot more touristy things around because Zurich is a big city. But still, Locarno and other places in the south feel like Italy. It's really weird being here because each of the cantons speak a different language and have a different culture so it's going from Italy to Germany...which is weird and now I'm confused on what Swiss culture actually is because it's kind of like America in that sense...but with less of an identity. Which sounds awful, but I don't mean it as a bad thing, it's just how it is.
Anyway. Zurich was really pretty. Huge Germanic influence, which makes sense because it's in the German canton, dur. After walking around though it just felt like another big European city, once again, not said negatively. Before dinner we walked along the water front which was the hot spot of the city. There were a bunch of little cafes and street performers and huge parks and lots of people. That night we went bar hoping, but drinking is expensive and we've been traveling 24/7 so every bar we went to I slept while they drank and did that all night. I'm such a killjoy.
Since I was not hungover the next day me and a few other people walked around in the morning before we got on the train to Lucerne (Luzern for the German spelling). We walked around old town Zurich and went into the Grossmünster ("great minster") church which is one of the major churches in Zurich. You can see the towers pretty much wherever you are in the city. I wish we had been there longer because there are a lot of cool things to there, just ran out of time. And then it was off to Luzern!

Zurich

Grossmünster

 O! And Melea there was this peacock dress in one shop which I feel like you would enjoy :)

Luzern:
Luzern was beautiful! Luzern definitely felt like Switzerland, the people there looked Swiss and everything felt Swiss....I can't explain these feelings of Swissness but it was legit. It was real life.
Luzern was a big city, but had class like a small town. Sooooo pretty. We walked around that evening and went to see the Lion Monument that is a sculpture built in a rock that is a commemoration of the Swiss guards that died during the French Revolution. I didn't know anything about it before we got there; figured it would just be some lion statue in a square. No. The lion was built into the side of a rock in a little secluded park. Quite moving.

Lion Monument in Luzern 

The other main attraction of the city is the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke) across the water. It was built in 1333 originally, since been restored I believe and is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe and the world's oldest surviving truss bridge. Walking across the bridge there are paintings on the ceiling from the17th century. So I guess I feel pretty special since I've walked across that bridge. And the water under the bridge, it was literally moving, like really.

Chapel Bridge Luzern

St. Leodegar

 For dinner I had this awesome pretzel sandwich, which was really impossible to eat, but it's a really good idea and it's really good tasting. Score. Last stop in Luzern before we went back to Locarno was St. Leodegar church, which didn't look like much on the outside but way cool on the inside...lots of gold. We also made friends with a cute little fluffy Swiss kitty :)

St. Leodegar

 I'm exhausted, so getting back to Locarno and just hanging out was kind of nice. Yes, I broke down and got on facebook and posted photos so you all can look at those. O and dad, there were so many bikes in Luzern, like everywhere and it was a mess!!!! I thought of you. It was like on big bike pit hole. Fix that would ya? ;)

O and all y'all should appreciate the prices of Starbucks at home because here it's super expensive, like 7.80 francs for a ventilation drink....ya sucks.

Bikes ya?

Happy anniversary mom and dad! And happy birthday Mr. Petras :) Hope you all have fabulous days and I miss you and love you all! Peace.
And wow...that was a long post...