BelliZONa….and other shananigans…we caught onto something

 First off: WOW, I can’t believe I have only been here for a week…it just makes me more excited for what I can cram into the rest of my 4 months here.

I LOVE EUROPE

I think I miss a few things though…

1. I think I miss Ranch dressing.  I have learned to eat pizza without it, which is probably better for me anyways. 
2. And maybe venti coffees from Starbucks, sometimes one needs more than just a cappucino shot. 
3. I also miss Tostito Lime chips…..Sara you better be eating enough of them for both of us. 
4. Good working internet.
5. Ice.

But hey, those are all American things so if I really want to look like I have gone Euro, I think I’ll have to forget about them for the time being….plus it has been fun to try new things.

Thing’s that I do not aboslutely at all miss.

1. Rush, but I do miss my Aphi girlz?!?!?!?!
2. How rushed life is in the United States…they don’t even have coffee shops where you “take it to go”.  Relaxing and not rushing is kind of nice.
3. Being able to walk everywhere and anywhere.

Now its time for the nitty gritty….my

weakend/Monday and Tuesday activities

Sorry I didn’t write any sooner, I’m still recovering from the weekend and every time I have sat down to blog I have not had the strength.  Anywayz…..these past couple of days have been amazing in not only in Lugano, but also in Bellinzona and Milan.  I’ll start from the beginning…I believe it was last Thursday when my latest adventures began.

Thurdizzle.

Wonderful day.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and I spent basically the whole time in class…I went home and took a shower then decided to go to Peter Pans…I got there a little later than everyone else..so everyone was a little more crazier than I.  Within the first 15 minutes I was there, 3 glasses had been broken by..guess who…American students…wonderful.  It actually was pretty funny though. Every body was singing karoke and songs like, “Take me Home Country Roads” go figure.  Haha its funny to think about it.  I’m pretty sure some people got it on tape.  This was one of those nights where my level went from 0 to 6.5.  That’s all I’m going to say about that one.  Lots of drama…lots of memories…lots of fun.

Friminizzle.

Friday started out a little rough…we had Magna at 9 a.m. sharp… but not to worry, I was woken up by the ladies who work at the reception desk at roughly 7 a.m.  Then tracked onto Italian class. 

The mile and a half walk to class has really grown on me.  It’s really  nice to be woken up by freezing cold air.  Wafting it into my face as I cross the city, it really makes me feel alive…(I’m actually being serious).

After our first break, Julia, Laura and I decided to take a little speedy walk to “Speedy Pizza” because we heard it was very well.  Magna thought we were crazy…”Piiiiiiiiza eeeeeeiin zaaaaa moornnin?”  YES Magna. 

Anyways Magna let us out like 30 minutes early because we were taking our first trip to Bellinzona!!!  (I have to keep reminding myself not to call it Bellinoza….which I continually have an issue with.) 

Not only was it our first trip, but it was our first trip to experience the train….and we encountered those creepy men you meet on them too.  I feel like this one was pretty drunk…he just kept mumbling to us in Italian, none of which we could understand…and staring…they love to stare. 

side note: smiling here is different than smiling in the United States…The U.S. smile equals hello, hi, thank you, etc.  The Italian/European smile (in most cases) equals an invitation to something your imagination could help you out with.

So after remembering about the little side note, we began to just look forward and sort of ignore the man…which is something we will never forget to do again…LESSON LEARNED…..

I got to Bellinzona and it was BEAUTIFUL!  The unfortunate thing that happened was my camera died right when I got off of the train…FA-BU-LO-US.. But I made sure to take lots mental notes.  I know I won’t forget it was one of the prettiest sights I have ever seen.  I also stole some people’s cameras at times to play photographer Fin for a little, it was so sauve.

In this picture, I may have been focusing a little too hard, it looks like Emily is losing her patience…wonder if it was her camera I was making memories with?

I did pull out my video flip, but I still can’t figure out how to download pictures…I think I’m sly with this thing…But Meghan Cahill kindly informed me that everyone knows when I pull it out to document activitiez…

Semi-creepy….

There were 3 castles in all, only one of which you could actually go in/on.  SO we did and looking out from the tops of the castles all you could see beautiful snow capped mountains.  It’s not very easy to describe in words..ill have to work on it-maybe i’ll come up with a poem…we shall see.  We drank wine and walked around to help our body temperatures stay above freezing. 

SOOOOOOOO              ANYWAYZZZZZ….

side note: it’s is exactly 11:11 a.m. right now and that means good luck

We found this beautiful old Catholic church and decided to go in and take a looksy…Morgan and I wrote a prayer in the prayer book, donated a CHF, and lit a candle together like little cuties.  We hope it comes true….

Around roughly 4 we decided we were a little hungry for something I would like to call Dunch: dinner/lunch.  I figured out that the Swiss don’t even think about consuming dinner until around 7 p.m. so basically every bar we went into was only serving alcohol.  They can drink all day here…  We finally found this little bar where they were serving maybe 2 appetizers so we just pointed to one that had the word proscuitto in it and hoped for the best…It was basically a ham sandwich with cheese on it, and it was the best one Morgan, Laura and I had ever split…The waitress was really sneaky and tried to charge me 8 CHF for a glass of wine that cost 4 CHF on the menu…she didn’t fool me…I’m just glad I confronted her about it after we got our sammy…

The train ride home was pretty funny, one of the guys in my group couldn’t stop yelling disturbingly loudly.  WHenever one of us would tell him to shut it he would scream…”I am from America and I live in a free country. I CAN DO ANYTHING I WANT TO!”  Let’s just hope that those Swiss people on the train didn’t understand English….

We all got back and everyone was exhausted….but that isn’t an excuse when you have so much life to live up…especially in EUROPE! SOOOOOO…

• We went to an irish pub where we met american kids: California, texas, Wyoming
• Turns out there is an American Univsrsity right up the road from us called Franklin College.  As much as I love Euroness, seeing and talking to people from the same culture as me was pretty relaxing and it kinda felt like home…All the boys were happy because they were actually playing ESPN Americano on the TVs that were there.
• It was definentley one of  THE. BEST.NIGHTS.EVER.

• I woke up with a Salami Sandwich on the floor of me and Morgan's room…[confusion+pause=cluelessness]

Sundattle: so the best thing that happened to me today was that David Beckham asked for my number and took me on a hot dinner date after he won his futbol game, oh and that I met a bunch of other hot European models, and oh that I got to vist el Duomo...but I guess I'll start from the beginning...

Train rides are always crazy.  Something always goes wrong it is inevitable.  SO when we woke up at rougly 520 a.m. someone obviously forgot to bring their passport to the station and missed the train ride to Milan. WOWSERZ…good thing it wasn’t me…Lauren ended up meeting up with us in the end so it was okay. I have decided to put some bullet points in order that I either experienced or thought about them due to the fact that it is taking me too long to write this lovely blog…..its like a blogathon….

1. El Duomo: the most beautiful church I have ever seen.  Absolutely huge, rIdicOOOLOUZ  detailing.
2. Pigeons were everywhere outside of el Duomo.  A few in my group decided to be human perches where the pigeons would fly around them and land on them…I couldn’t make myself do it…but hey to each their own…
3. p.s. they were the fattest pigeons I have ever seen…EVER.
4. After el Duomo, it was onto the stadium.   We followed the goup and litterally walked the entire city of Milan.
5. Stopped at a local bakery stand where I experienced my first real Italian Cannoli…=HEAVEN.
6. We mosied around some other castles and met some interesting people who were selling bracelts and other things.
7. Bought an AC Milan hat which I am sooooo excited to wear! It is suuuper cool
8. When we finally made it to the ticket stand to get our tickets, I saw a boy from my group named Greg.

9. The minute he opened his mouth I knew there was a story to tell.  To keep things roughly PG, he fell face forward into a table at a discoteca and knocked out about 2 1/2 teeth o mah gawd…

10. We ate some pizza at a local place and began to drink out of our wine juice boxes.  Met some Italian boys that gave us free wine, police officers that gave us some free chocolate, and an Australian boy that bought me a coffee shot at the game…it was kinda strange but hey…when in Italy.
11.  The level of excitement was absolutely unreal at the Milan game. Ive been playing soccer my whole life and NEVER have I been to a game or played in one, and been exposed to such enthusiasm-flags flying everywhere people yelling, crowd going crazy
12. Bathrooms were absolutely insane at the stadium.  Picture a hole in the ground. That is all.
13.  David Beckham was amazing, and so was Ronaldinho<3.  Beckham begged me to go to dinner with him but I had to sadly decline to go meet up with some other hotties who were in Italy for fashion week.
14. On the way home, Laur, Kyle and I  got stranded because I had to go to the bathroom nefore the train and bla blah next thing we knew, we had to take a different one…a little confusing, but who doesn’t love an adventure, right?
15. We finally made it home.  One thing I forgot to mention, United States of Benetton is the craziest store I have ever seen, with the craziest and most raunchy ads in both the store and on display…wow

Then it was back to school, which was totally fine in this case being that I went back to Lugano.

Tuesizzle highlight: Running by the lake at night time with morgan.  The city was all lit up and outlined
the mountains. Absolutely beautiful.  I found a little gelato stand which we decided we should try sometime.
It was so easy to breathe because the air was so clean...but it was kinda hard to breathe at the same time
because I was a little out of shape but BEP kept pushing me along....wonderful times

Side note: They don’t have sweet pickles in Lugano, I figured it out today when I was at Migros…when roughly 3 different employees thought they could each help me better than the other…all speaking Italian…no sweet pickles in Lugano

Witnessday

….This is a little side story to tell…I experienced a real foreign Dr. office today.  I had to get an earplug removed from my ear that got in too deep.  It’s actually pretty funny ONLY because it didn’t really ever hurt, I just felt like I couldn’t hear…Thank goodness Morgan Mommy and HOT Julien were with me..I could have never done it alone..it was a lot better than Brinberg trying to get it out of my ear with tweasers.  But now you know, when I talk about the noisy level in the Monterina, I am being serious haha…I just need to make sure that next time, if there is a next time, which I’m sure there will be a next time- I need to make sure not to put the little guy too deep, it will help to prevent 200$ of Dr. bills [since my insurance doesn't work in Switzerland....]

Thank you Mommy Thorndike. I love you.

Things I’m looking forward to: Night sleding and fun times ahead in EEEEEEEIIIIInterlaken.

Things I’m not looking forward to: Midterm on Thursday…already?

I am so excited for everyday and so thankful everyday that I am allowed to have this opportunity…it just keeps getting better…

UNTIL NEXT TIME

<3 finstrosity

Advertisement