Counting down

10 more hours and I'll be leaving. Yea! And yet sad at the same time!!! A few pictures I borrowed from my friends that have me in them. :) And a few that I borrowed that DONT have me in them.

Be home soon!!!

Here's a view from the top of Saint Pierre Cathedral in Geneva. Pretty huh. The fountain out there in the lake is kinda cool... but I wouldn't say Geneva is my most favorite place in Switzerland. It was interesting but other cities are more fun.

I am ready for it to be Tuesday morning and I can be on my way home. I am looking forward to air conditioning and movies and not having to STUFF myself every night at dinner because it's rude not to clean off your plate! I'll let you all know if I have lost any weight or gained it. Okay, maybe I wont let you know if it is the latter. I'll just put a bag over my head and cry.

Anyway, I am SO so So so So so SOOOOO excited to come home again! I have loved it here but it's time to come home now. :D

See you all soon!

Sunburnt to a crisp

Ow. I got a nasty burn today in Geneva. Sunburn that is. Geneva is a neat city though. Theres a water jet that shoots up like 300 feet in the air in the middle of the river. I went and saw an ancient art museum and the history of watches museum. That was neat. They had these tiny little mechanical birds that could move their beaks, wings and tails and sang a little song. That was amazing to me. There were so many beautiful watches in there. I don't have any photos because cameras were not allowed in the museum. But I stole this picture of the little bird on a fake gun watch thing from Google. :) See that TINY bird on the end of the fake gun? It really moves! That's so amazing!!!

There are some people out in the hall. A boy is asking "which one of you girls knows how to gut a fish?" What a dork. We all know how to gut a fish.

Anyway, yeah, Geneva... We got ourselves somewhat lost in the city today. Which is part of the reason I got a sunburn.

I think the sun burnt my brain because I can't think to type right now. But I really miss you all and can't wait to come home. Only 3 more days and on the 1st I'll be traveling home. YEA!!!

Random Pop Art

Here's a random fork in the shore of Lake Geneva. As you can see, I rented a bike and rode it along the boardwalk of the shores of Lake Geneva. That was fun. I had forgotten how much I like riding a bike.

I'll have you all know... it took a lot for me not to edit my fat arm in this picture. Grrr... stupid arms. Oh well. Anyway, I get to come home soon. I am excited about that. :D I wish it were tomorrow. We have to get up and leave from our hotel for the airport at 4 in the morning on Tuesday. Which will actually only be 8 at night in Utah. But I think it'll feel like 4 a.m. cuz I'm used to Swiss time now.
I wont get home until 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday!!! Crazy. We have several layovers that are more than an hour. Anyhow, I've got to catch a train so I better go get my bag ready.

Love ya!

Tagged

Tagged

ABC tag
A- Attached or single: Seriously Single
B- Best Friend: Most all of them.
C-Cake or Pie: Pumpkin pie
D- Day of the Week: Wednesday
E- Essential Item: Computer
F- Favorite Color: blue
G-Gummi Bears or Worms: Bears
H-Home town: Kearns, UT and Bountiful UT. Funny, I'm attached to both.
I- Indulgences: Warm brownies with milk.
J- January or July?: July Nights. I love warm summer nights where you can be outside at midnight and it's perfect temperature!
K-Kids: Love them. Hope to have some someday.
L-Life is incomplete without: Family and Faith (I couldn't agree more.)
M- Marriage Date: Sometime soon I hope. Prince charming? Where the H@** are you!!!???
N- Number of Siblings: A sister on either side and, 1 baby brother!
O- Oranges or Apples: Oranges. I love that juicy little fruit! each slice is full of hundreds of little orange packets. Yea!
P- Phobias or Fears: Purple leotards. Nightmares. Really.
Q- Quote: "He is the cheese in my macaroni!"
R- Reason To Smile: Family, friends, good chocolate, vacations to far away places.
S- Season: Spring. The breath of life and hope is just coming back at this time.
T- Tag Three: Stephanie, Ape, Beans
U- Unknown fact about me: I dream about flying (by way of flapping my arms) frequently.
V- Vegetarian or Meat Eater: Carnivore.
W- Worst Habit: Being really mean to myself.
X-Rays or Ultrasounds: X-rays. At least it's over with quick and they don't push on your FULL bladder making you use everything you've got to hold in your pee.
Y-Your favorite food: So many to choose from. Um... Tomato soup with cheese bread and milk to drink.
Z: Zodiac Sign: Gemini. No wonder I am confused so often. I am two people in one. lol.

AND
One word tag
One word Tag,1. Where is your cell phone?. . . . . Mother
Your significant other? . . . . . . Mystery.
3. Your hair? . . . . . . . . . . . . long.
4. Your mother? . . . . . . . . . .Creative
5. Your father? . . . . . . . . . . . Funny
6. Your favorite thing? . . . . . Family
7. Your dream last night? . . . Airborne
8. Your favorite drink? . . . . . Grape
9. Your dream/goal? . . . . . . . Peace
10. The room you're in? . . . . .hallway (hotel)
11. Your hobby? . . . . . . . . . . . crafting
Your fear? . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . Alone (forever)
13. Where do you want to be in six years? .... Married (with child)
14. Where were you last night? . . . . . . . . . . . Switzerland (with cow)
15. What you're not? . . . . . . . . .skinny (European women have put me to shame)
16. Muffins? . . . . . . . . . . . . .blueberry
17. One of your wish list items? . . .Independence
18. Where you grew up? . . . . . . . .Kearns
19. The last thing you did? . . . . .Shower (cold, because of sunburn. Ahhh... nice)
20. What are you wearing? . . . . . .Outfit
21. Your t.v.? . . . . . . . . . . . .Old
l22. Your pets? . . . . . . . . . . . .None (Sad to say)
23. Your computer? . . . . . . . . . .Incredible
24. Your life? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Progressing
25. Your mood? . . . . . . . . . . . .Moderate
26. Missing someone? . . . . . . . . . Andrea
27. Your car? . . . . . . . . . . . . Unregistered
28. Something your not wearing? . . . mascara (screw it. I'm on vacation.)
29. Favorite store? . . . . . . . . .Orsay
30. Your summer? . . . . . . . . . . Sweltering
31. Like someone? . . . . . . . . . . Yes
32. Your favorite color? . . . . . . .Azul
33. When was the last time you laughed?. .Dinner
34. Last time you cried? . . . . . . . This morning. (I am Jabba the Hut and I don't fit into European clothing.)

Summer Nights

Tonight is a beautiful Summer night. It is so quiet and calm outside and it's just perfect temperature wise. The cow bells aren't ringing so I assume the cows have gone home. (ha ha ha). It is 11:49 p.m. Here but only 3:49 in the afternoon in Utah.

I'm going back to Bern tomorrow. I am going to blow some more cash. Ah, the consolation prize for still being single. You get to travel the world and finish college. It is amazing and beautiful... and lonely. Sorry, I'm in a sad mood. Probably ought to go to bed.

Love you all.

Fun fun

Today was the first day of my 10 days of free time. I went to a little city by Lake Geneva called Vevey. I had a lot of fun. I love having enough time to look at stuff. I wanted to go back to the Chateau de Chillon now that it is sunny, but I got hot and sunburned before I could get there.

I found a bunch of cool stuff though. I purchased a few things. Everything here is 3 times as much as it is in the states. According to one of the teachers here, the last time they checked (3 years ago) minimum wage was 20$ an hour!!! No wonder I can't afford anything! But the fashion here is just amazing. I am determined to graduate, pay off college costs, save up, and then throw out ALL my clothes and come here and buy a whole new wardrobe! Okay... maybe it will take a while. But you get the point. The clothes are awesome.

Here are a few pictures from our hike on Thursday. It was beautiful. The girls braided my hair so I could be "Heidi of the Mountain" like in the Swiss story "Heidi" it was pretty fun. The cows were nice and tame and let us pet them.

Beautiful Switzerland

Finally we have had some sunshine! The locals say this has been the wettest June they have had in a decade or so. I am sad that the day we went to see the Matterhorn it was covered in clouds. But Oh well. Here are a few photos of the cows and cowfights.

I will try to explain a picture or two. I think the cow fights are obvious. I would try to fix all the photos so they have captions, but the dang internet here is so sporadic that I can't do much without upsetting the thing.

So anyway, after the cowfights we went on a nice little hike in the alps and the sun was shining and the birds were singing and all was beautiful. I also have included a photo of a local pipe smoking man and the strange carpet in the phoenix airport. Oh yeah and the one where my friend and I are lying on a rock is an old Druid Sacrificial thing where they used to sacrifice young virgins to the Gods. lol. So that's what we're doing... being sacrificed.
Anyway, I gatta go because the internet gods are angry and I am losing signal. sigh. I will try again tomorrow. :)

Tomorrow we are going on a hike through what is supposed to be the most beautiful valley on Earth. I hope I get some good photos and can post them for you. Anyhow, bye for now!

Cow fights were funny

Yesterday we went to the cow fights up above Sion. That was fun. All the cows are pregnant and territorial. So there's lots of head butting going on.
I really liked the day because there was only one venue that we did and we didn't have to run from train to train and town to town. I really felt like the day was relaxing and enjoyable. I got to go on a little hike up in the Alps. They were so beautiful. Full of little yellow flowers. and big yellow flowers and way way green mountains. Oh so gorgeous.
People on our trip are starting to get on each other's nerves. There's a bit of behind the back talking going on. It's kind of sad. I think I've accidentally made some enemies myself. Whoops. Well theres only one more week where we have to really be together and then the last 10 days we're all on our own. I've decided to go back to the towns I felt rushed in and go shopping and sight seeing by myself. I didn't find very many people who are staying in the country. And those who are, don't seem to want to do the same thing as me, so I'm going by myself. Anyway, I'll post my pictures soon. Love you all!!!

A Day of Rest... At Last!

Well I can't tell you how much I was looking forward to today. They have us rushing around so much durring the week. I feel like we're always stressed out to get somewhere. I don't know if it could be different with such a big group, but it sure is annoying. I was so tired today that I really did rest for a long time.

Tomorrow we are traveling to Luzern which

 is in the middle of Switzerland (about 3 hours away from Leysin, where our hotel is.)  There is supposed to be an amazing acoustics museum there. 

Yesterday we went to one of my favorite places so far. The name of it is Sion, which translates into Zion. Our church meetings will be there next week and the week after. I am looking forward to going back.

We went to a street festival there yesterday which was supposed to be about art, but the main focus was on little kids and then equally on the HUGE celebration of the soccer championships that are going on here in this country. They won their first game. I know

 because of the many fireworks that were going off last night around 11 p.m. and the cars driving all around town honking and yelling happily.

Our photo assignment was to get lots of people pictures at the festival. I got several that I like a lot. Here's a few of them.

A girl just came down and sat next to me to use the internet. I wa

s reading a local Utah story about how they are banning bikini's in a pool in Kanab and kinda shaking my head because I think people should have the choice to do what is right and not to be forced to do the right thing. She just looked down her nose at me and said she was glad that she didn't have to be exposed to seeing that disgusting display of the human body.

 I guess we can't all be as holy as her.

 

I am trying to make friends here. So far has been okay. I think it's kind of like trying to form an alliance on Survivor. People don't really stay loyal when it comes to sticking together in town. So I am just doing whatever I want and if people happen to want to come with me, all the better. 

If I ever do a Europe trip again I think it would definitely be better with a friend or a family member. Does anyone want to come with me? PLEASE!!! It's awesome here, but it would be so much more fun with someone to share it with. :) I really like my roommates. Nicole is from Riverton and very laid back and friendly. Kait is so funny. She's from Idaho I think and I found out she actually lives in the same building as me at home! Yea! The other two are Michelle and Abby. I don't know where they're from but they're nice. They do their own thing most of the time. Michelle is amazing with photography and has a fantastic selection of music. She doesn't talk to me very much but when she does she's nice.

Anyhow, I better get off of the internet before someone has to have me killed. It doesn't work very often and I only have a little while on it when it does. Go figure. I'm going to have so much to catch people up on when I get home. And it's going to take a long time for me to catch up on your blogs too!!! Love you all!

Monks and Mountains Mixed

I am back from the Monastery. That would be the Grand-Saint-Bernard Hospice. It is this hospice HIGH in the alps that was founded by a monk named Saint Bernard who was moved upon by the suffering of travelers crossing the Alps from Italy or the other way around. So he built the monastery and bred the dogs specially to dig through deep snow and scent out people buried in avalanches and such.

We had to snowshoe up there up this incredibly steep mountain. I thought they were kidding when they pointed out which way we were going... but no. We went straight up the side of a snow and ice covered mountain. I swear I almost died! It was pretty bad. Anyway, there are people waiting for this computer so I can't keep typing right now, but I will try to send some more info soon! Miss everyone!

The picture is of me with the guards at the border of Italy. They thought it was pretty funny that I am from Utah. Not sure why. Whatever they said about it was in Italian and I sure didn't understand it. But hey, they were funny.

Anyhow, I have to run, but I will put up more info real soon!!!

Heidi

Not dead. No time to explain. More this weekend!!!!