Picking up where I left off, the time has come to relay our tale of easily the MOST stressful experience of my life.
After partying in Paris until upwards of 5 a.m., my measly phone alarm was not sufficient to rouse us at 10 a.m. on Sunday. Let me preface this by saying that our train from Paris to Switzerland was at 12:58 p.m. on Sunday.
After hitting my snooze several times and potentially even turning off the alarm all together, I awoke at 11:15 a.m. I remember that moment distinctly. "Jenna." "Yeah?" "It's 11:15." Awkward silence. "WHAT?"
Jenna got the worst of the hangover and was sick all morning. Due to our brilliant planning skills, we hadn't even packed yet. So it was in a half drunk half hungover state that we had to get all our stuff together and get going.
Around noon we had finally put everything (including numerous bottles of wine) into some kind of bag and went to the lobby to try to get the concierge to call us a cab. For whatever reason, he refused. Unable to hardly stand on her own, Jenna waited in the lobby (still unsuccessfully trying to convince him to just call one) while I risked my life in traffic.
After countless failed attempts at hailing a cab, I found one (a van no less) around 12:05. He didn't speak English very well but I thought he was just going to turn around to come back for us. What I didn't understand was that his intent was to get gas then come back and get us. So after speaking to him, I ran inside and dragged Jenna and all our luggage out in front of the hotel.
Ten minutes after he hadn't come back, things were looking grim. Jenna gave up and went back inside for a last attempt at convincing the concierge. At 12:20, my van cabbie pulled back up. We hopped into the cab and even though this guy didn't understand us very well, he was amazing. He even gave Jenna the greatest hangover cure pill of all time. He got us to a train station with time to spare.
Unfortunately, it was the wrong train station. We realized this at about 12:35. Panicked, we grabbed another cab and had a very scary and efficient cab ride to the correct station.
We arrived at probably 12:52. After running into the station (with approximately 70 lbs of luggage apiece, mind you) and Jenna finding our platform number, I spotted the way and we ran full speed ahead through the train station.
At 12:55 we were on the platform when a full bottle of red wine tumbled out of one of my bags. It shattered all over the platform, causing us to pause in shock for a split second. After a moment of hesitation, I yelled apologies in the best French I could manage at the conductor (who was yelling at us), turned back to Jenna and yelled "GO!" and we continued our sprint.
At 12:56, we got on the damn train. We hadn't finished putting up our luggage before it started moving. I had exerted myself so much that for a solid 10 minutes all I could do was breathe heavily in my seat, drink water, and mutter, "We're on the train."
Once things calmed down, we tried to go back to sleep, but this was impossible for several reasons: one, our adrenaline was pumping too hard to have even an ounce of exhaustion left, and two, we were in the car with a massive school field trip.
We did get a beautiful (albeit rainy) view of the countryside though:
Of course once we got there, we went to the wrong dorms due to a miscommunication. Thanks to a very helpful guy who lived there, we got a cab to the correct ones. We dropped our stuff off and hiked to a nearby McDonald's...mistake. The cheapest value menu was somewhere around $17 for no apparent reason. It was still a novelty though, so not a total loss...
Pulp Fiction metric system comes to life!:
We also got our first look at the Swiss Alps just outside our windows:
After that we went back to check out our dorms. Maureen and I were in the same suite and we briefly met our suite-mates before going to bed.
And although I guess people were complaining, I actually like our dorms here:
Turns out our suite-mates were awesome, but I'll elaborate on that where more appropriate.
Monday, July 18th - What Up, Swans?
Monday morning we had our first day of Global Economic Governance, followed by a picnic at Lake Geneva with our classmates and professors, which was really fun!
We said goodbye to our awesome RA/professor, Professor Vaughan, which was sad cause she was really awesome.
It was also extremely windy, even by Oklahoma standards!
After the lake, I had some things to take care of regarding on-campus interviews. So we went back to the dorms for a while so I could try to hammer out some cover letters.
With the assistance of Jenna, Maureen and Harris, I managed to get everything done and we continued the wine-fest that evening. As we sat around discussing several law-school related and job-related topics, Maureen and I's suite-mate Mahmut came home. He's a really awesome guy from Turkey who's been living here in Switzerland for about 10 months, studying, working, and finishing up his degree.
We hung out with him for a while and then left to attempt to meet up with Professor Vaughan. So off we went to the bar on the very efficient metro:
Upon exiting the metro (around midnight, mind you), we actually ran into our French RA, Luc, who was a hot mess. He was wandering around the metro station and was pretty excited to see us. Without hesitation, he turned around with us and proceeded back to the bar, Great Escape.
Unfortunately, Luc had just come from the bar with the professors and (unbeknownst to us at the time) they had already moved on.
We all ended up hanging out that night until obscene hours, but it was beyond awesome getting to know both Mahmut and Luc. Happily, this was only the beginning.
Tuesday, July 19th - Naps, et les Reliques de la Mort
In the interest of doing nothing halfway, we partied too hard Monday night. So after class and a presentation from a member of the Olympic Committee, we made a short grocery trip and headed back to relax for a while.
Jenna took a nap and Maureen and I chatted for a bit. A few people from Stetson who we ran into at the grocery store were going to see Harry Potter that evening, so I quickly jumped on board with that.
We tried to leave for the movie early, but due to not knowing exactly where on earth we were, it took a little longer than anticipated (and even at a discounted rate was still 15.50 franc!). As stated in my last entry, I could give an extensive review of HP, but this is not the proper platform. Suffice it to say that I was in tears for a significant portion of the movie and that some Stetson kids got to know me a lot better because of it, haha. My nerdiness was revealed!
That night we took it semi-easy and hung out in my dorm upon my return from HP. Another late night and quality time spent with Mahmut finished off our second full day in Switzerland.
Wednesday, July 20th - Blogging and Laundry Day
Wednesday we really slowed down...at least during the day, anyway. We got a new professor for the remaining two days of Global Economic Governance and I worked mostly on the blog. Jenna and I managed to do laundry thanks to Mahmut's laundry card (the system here is confusing - you have to put down a deposit and use the card and get money back...it's ridiculous).
Another ridiculous side note: they have 1000 franc bills here. So every time we went to the ATM, we would end up getting money in 100 or 200 franc bills. Completely absurd!
Still having a healthy stock of wine to our names, we wasted no time in cracking into it that evening. We had already planned on meeting up with Luc that night, and managed to catch him and some of our Stetson friends on their way out of the complex (this ended up being a main mode of communication throughout our stay with lack of cell phones). We went to a bar called King's Cross...or something...and met up with some Mercer people as well. That was yet another late night of fun partying...
Thursday, July 21st - Van Gogh Exhibit
After class on Thursday, a bunch of us gathered to venture to the local Van Gogh exhibit. It was fun adventuring around town while Luc pursued his goal of getting me lost on public transit...
Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures at the actual exhibit, but we got lots of pictures in the garden afterwards, and found a cool little alcove in which to climb some trees!
Van Gogh house:
Garden:
We went back to Lausanne and walked around the main square a little bit. We got some genuine Swiss chocolate:
And found a cool little garden area:
After that we went back to the dorm and met up with Mahmut, who had taken off work in anticipation of his trip on Friday to the US! He saved the day by getting Maureen's accidentally locked luggage open, thereby freeing her passport which we needed for our trip to the UN and WTO on Friday. We spent that last evening with Mahmut basically watching YouTube marathons. We of course introduced him to the Bed Intruder Song, and he showed us videos of a Sensation White show he went to in Amsterdam (which we now desperately need in our lives). It was a fun, chill evening.
Friday, July 22nd - Geneva, Switzlerand - the UN and WTO
Friday morning we had to get up even earlier than normal so we could travel to Geneva to visit the UN and WTO. So we suited up and went on our merry way. After a couple train rides (where Luc consistently tried to get me to exit at the wrong stops) and a few bus stops, we arrived at the UN:
They let us in 5 at a time, but security seemed to be mostly for show. In any case, the UN was similar to the Peace Palace in that there were a lot of gifts from several different countries all around. We did get an actual tour, and the tour guide was very nice and informative.
Some donated gifts (including the not so impressive carpet...):
The actual building and courtyard:
The General Assembly:
Donated murals (I think from Spain) depicting war and its effects:
German donated art:
A cool ceiling from another Spanish-speaking country in the Human Rights negotiating room:
After the UN, we walked to a courtyard, passing some interesting sights along the way. There is a three-legged chair that symbolizes the impact of an activated mine severing a limb:
There was also a political protest marching by, which is the first thing like that we've seen on the trip.
We went to a small plaza for lunch, and Jenna (much to my disdain) kept feeding the stupid birds:
We passed a very upscale Alfa Romeo on our way to the WTO:
We entered the WTO one by one and they traded our passports for a plastic card, which none of us were feeling, but oh well. We didn't get an actual tour (it's more an administrative building than anything). The main conference room did have a really cool ceiling though:
And we had too much fun playing with the microphones they use for translations:
And making other things into props:
After an informative presentation, we decided to hit the city of Geneva.
After a short (and rainy) shopping trip, Jenna Maureen and I found a pizzeria with some great people-watching.
World's largest fountain:
That night we came back and ended up, once again, at the Great Escape.
Adventures on the metro:
We all hung out late that night, having fun still getting to know each other and just hanging out.
I have to stop here for several reasons. We're wrapping up our last class and Jenna and I have a train to Venice to catch in two hours. Plus, we ran out of room in our Europe album that's currently on here, so soon I'm gonna run out of pictures to go with the stories.
Not sure how internet is gonna go in Italy. We should definitely have it in Rome, but I'm not 100% sure about Venice, where we'll be until August 1st. We had a crazy last night with everyone in our program and we're sad to say goodbye!!
More updates soon, I hope.
Breaking a bottle of wine while running to catch a train is priceless!
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