SOOOO... This past Thursday I left for Switzerland!! There were about 17 of us going from IES and we left directly from the IES center at about 4:30PM right after our last class (Italian). We then cabbed it to Termini where we met up with the rest of the group and hopped on a high speed train to Florence. Once in Florence we took a bus to Interlaken which I believe was about an 8 hour drive. I went with some of my best friends that I have made here and some others that I got to know during the trip (Kurt, Matt, Greg, Gregg, Anndel, Andrew, Alex, Kelsey, Kellyn, Chelsea, Jaquelin, Mae, Brittany, Karly, Natalie, and Brandon). So the bus ride was pretty entertaining. We all napped a little bit. We got to watch ENGLISH movies (The Bourne Identity series) the entire way there (Ah I was so excited!!!)!! We all acted immature and goofed off. Brandon bought ipod speakers for 10 euro and blared techno music in the dead of the night, to which all of the IES kids had a dance in your seat party to. I don't think the kids from the other program liked us very much. A few of the boys thought it would be a good idea to chug wine on the bus towards the end of the trip so that was entertaining to observe as well (P.S. song of the trip "Call on me" and "Just Dance").
We stayed at a "hotel" called Funny Farm and it was the biggest hostel I have ever seen. I definitely wasn't prepared for the conditions. Chincy bunk beds, no towels, mold on the ceiling of the bathroom. We were living luxuriously. We arrived at Funny Farm at about 4am Friday morning. All of the girls with the exception of Natalie and Karly shared a room and all of the guys shared a room directly above us. All of the girls decided to go to bed because well it was four in the morning and they wanted to be able to function the next day.... but not I!! Anndel and I went down to the bar with the guys and hung out for a while and by a while I mean until the sun rose and breakfast was served..... (Breakfast was toast and jam by the way. The mean Swiss/German lady said it was a Swiss breakfast but I say it was a rip off)...
So we went to bed at about 7 am and woke up at about 10:30 and decided that it was about time to jump off some canyons. We had to wait until 2:30 so we decided to venture to this small restaurant in town where some of the boys had gotten Kabob's earlier (We called the restaurant Kabob for the entire trip). So I made the large mistake of trying to eat the entire Kabob myself which probably could have fed a small country (No one is shocked I know). The entire time we drove up the mountain to Canyon Jump I was fighting off the urge to vomit. So we get up a portion of a mountain, park the car, and hike up a trail to the jumping point. Anndel, the southerner who cant remember the last time she has seen snow, fell twice during the trek and a spontaneous snow ball fight broke out at one point. We signed a release form, paid 85 euro, and got strapped in for the fall. Anndel was so scared that she cried while being strapped in and bawled to our Swiss guide once on the platform to jump; she eventually made the jump though. I loved it!! I was petrified but have never done something so cool in you life. You are strapped in to a harness and free fall 300 feet before you start swinging between two canyon walls. After the jump the boys insisted on eating dinner at Hooter's, where I feasted on curly fries because they were the cheapest thing on the menu (7£). A diet coke was 4£. Europe is ridiculous!!!! We then went to the hostel and got ready for the Euro pop discoteca that was located in the basement of our hostel: complete ridiculousness and so much fun. Once again we stayed up way to late and got up at 8am to go skiing in the Swiss alps (130£... YIKES I'm gonna come home penniless and I don't even like skiing!!)
Ok so I don't know exactly what I was expecting because um it was the SWISS ALPS but I thought I could find a bunny trail somewhere and kind of dilly dally with all of the other beginners down a small part of a mountain.... UM NO!! Anyone who is wondering... the Alps is NOT for beginners!! We took a train all the way up this mountain because that is the main ski lift. We get off and the girls go to the "Beginner's trail." Anndel has skied once before in her life and wipes out hard 3 ft down the slope and then even harder 30 feet down the hill (Oh how I wish I had a video of it.) Seeing how terribly Anndel did made me feel like I would be okay... So Anndel quits the whole skiing thing 15 minutes after arriving. We tell her to hang out where she is and that we will be back to get her after we do a run. Soooo.... We all start going down this trail Matt and Kellyn get ahead of me and Kelsey. Kelsey wipes out and I lose her. I try to take this turn to a lift thinking that's where Matt and Kellyn went only to eat it Hard and then to realize that I am alone!!.. I turn around and continue to head down the trail. I never find anyone.. There are no other ski lifts down the ENTIRE mountain. It took me two hours to finish this trail BY MYSELF... It was insanely hard and every ten feet you could either run directly into a large forest of trees or off of a cliff... no literally (This was no Tussey mountain!!) I start crying into my ski goggles half way down the mountain and continued to do so for 20 minutes while I went so slow that 4 year- olds were wooshing by me showing considerably more skill than myself. It literally took me 2 hours!! and I went down THE ENTIRE mountain, and I'm not sure if you are aware but the alps are somewhat large. I thought I was going to be alone for the rest of the day but luckily I found Kelsey at the bottom. We took the train ride back up the mountain and began our search for Anndel whom we were were convinced was about 6 beers deep at a Swiss bar somewhere. We eventually hear Anndel screaming our names and running after us with ski gear in hand. Apparently Anndel was so convinced that were going to come back down to get her and was scared of being left that she has laid in the position where she had fallen for 3 HOURS just waiting for us to come back... She said during her time alone she had many self revelations and a few good cry sessions (HAHHA)... We then spent the rest of the day eating and drinking hot chocolate. At about 4:30 we left the mountain and returned to home sweet home at the Funny Farm. At which time we ate more Kabob, drank more beer (I learned a game called speed quarters.. so much fun girls can't wait to teach you!!), had a 6th grade war with the boys upstairs after they tried to hoist out beer off of our balcony with a hand made hook and rope concoction. At the end of the night we once again returned to the disco and danced absurdly. By the way they play a lot of American music in Europe but it's all from like 5 to 10 years ago. I distinctly remember getting my groove on to "It's getting hot in here" by Nelly
Sunday we woke up at 10:30 and packed up our things and attempted to clean our frat house of a room. We left Funny Farm at 4PM and took a bus the entire way home. We watched movies the entire way back again (Van Wilder, Knocked Up, Superbad, 21). However we were somewhat less rambunctious considering I probably got a total of 14 hours of sleep over the three nights I was there and the others had similar experiences. We arrived back in Rome at 4AM Monday morning and cabbed it back home to get 3 hours of sleep before waking up for classes :)
....SOOOO worth it!!
P.S. there was a giant 250 lb Saint Bernard named Splif and a female bartender with dreadlocks that went by the name of "Jelly" residing at Funny Farm... this is the place we stayed hahah
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