I feel like in the past four months of my life I have only had time to blink and now I am moving onto my senior year of college.

where in the hell does time go…

I’ve learned so much about myself in the past four months.  Brinberg put it well when he said they way that we saw the Alps on that first day of our lifechanging experience would not be the same way we would see the Alps when we left. 

i feel likei have accomplished so much and matured so much i dont really feel like the same person as I was when I came here….

I’ve learned how to be obnoxiously patient, something I’ve always had trouble with.  I’ve learned that if something doesn’t go the way it is exactly supposed to, its okay, its actually not the end of the world.  In general I think I have become more passionate about life but also more relaxed at the same time. Not a shabby way to live if you ask me! 

I would love to sit here and write some more sappy realizations about how much I miss everything and anything, but it is imperative I walk down that hill one last time and get a few last minute gifts…so that I can give a little bit of myself to those people at home who mean the most to me, so I can share a little Swiss Euro experience with them…

I see myself writing a book on the flight home about everything…just kind of letting the tides roll out, that is if tonight (MY LAST FEEAKIN NIGHT AHH) gives me a few hours of peaceful shut eye…FAT CHANCE

yesterday/last night consisted of a final 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall Beer Olymic #2 Sesh while looking out over the ALPS…

tonight consistsof pictures by the Alps and then training to an 8 course meal with all my frands and then probably to one last night at the famous Peter Pans…

I will be sitting on a flight that leaves from Zurich tomorrow around 10 in the morning OUR time…and I arrive tomorrow at approximately 3 PM Amurrican time….

I have to say that my experience has been quite the  HELLO WORLD experience and i can’t wait to add to all my travels in the oncoming years of my life.  I’ve morphed into a travel mind…I can’t see myself sitting still for too long.

TRULY AND ALWAYS YOURS SWITZERLAND,

FINLEY EURO GIRL HINES

PS. Thank you for giving me some of the best memories of my life…I owe ya one kid <3

However, I still have a few days to make the most of it so here goes…

I got back from my wild N’ crazy trips to Nice and Barcelona and those need to be a blog in itself because they were wild…

I slept all day when I got back///AND THEN LAYED OUT BY THE POOL!! I love this time of year.  Imagine me and all my friends laying out by a pool in Lugano where we live.  The pool is still empty but that doesn’t even matter one bit!

I went hiking on Tuesday with Brinberg!!! (Yep he’s Back and I lOVE it!) and hot Julien came too.  There were about 12 of us hiking the wild terrain of Switzerland…San Salvatore….it ended up being quite the rendevous, being that it was roughly 10 miles.  We got gelato at the end and went out with a shebang! I layed in my bed and finished the 4th Twilight book after that one..and boy was she good!

Wednesday this week my friends finally made it back from Barcelona (me, Kelsey, and Tenley all bought train reservations so the eruption in Iceland didn’t affect us, but our friends who had booked flights were still stuck in Barcelona). I layed out for a while by the empty pool side and jammed to some tunes with some gal palz. AND of course we started class again, which I’m not too sad about because we are working with an NGO in Kenya to devise a funding proposal for them to advance a non-for profit school for children! WAHOO! Wish me luck…NAYWAYZ

i KNOW THIS is super short and kind of boring and I do want to write more but this is my last day of my Eurail pass (so sad) which means I won’t be able train anywhere else while I’m here unless it costs me 100000 dollars.  Therefore, I am going to Como with Kel and Ten to check out the surroundings and cool things they have…

I’ll write more about everything else a little later…maybe…unless the droughted pool is calling my name….

<3Euro Girl soon to morph back to American Girl in roughly 7 days….

MY COWBOY BOOTS HAVE NOW BECOME MY GYPSY BOOTS…

When we told our house dad hot Julien that we had to stop in Napels on our way to Sorrento, Italy (S. Agnello to be more specific) he thought we were absolutely insane.  He told us the city is run by the Mafia- the police are controlled by the mafia (so don’t trust them).  This made me a little apprehensive at first but we had to make a pit stop in Napels to get to Sorrento.

I found myself analyzing everyone that walked by. It went a little like this… “Definentely Mafia” “Oohhhh yeah.  Mafia for sure” and a little something like… “For sure Mafia, don’t look anyone in the eye”. (I figured I’d be safer that way).  When we finally piled onto the metro Laura and I got a little separated from the group and found ourselves surrounded by nothing more than Mafia look alikes.  We held our cool though.  Laura later told me she was really nervous she was going to get pick-pocketed by someone on the metro ride—but she held her cool- so it was okay. 

SO….we got there safely—to the beautiful land of Sorrento…when I say beautiful I truly mean it.  Finally we were somewhere that was warmer for once and surrounded by lemon and orange groves.  We stopped off at a local store to get some boxed wine then we made it to our Hostel, which really wasn’t a hostel at all…more like a hotel in my eyes.  The area wasn’t as hectic as usual, no discotecas to be found…very low key which was nice.  We ate some dinner: I hate to say it but I ate a big fat cheeseburger in Italy… no comment

Our hostel had this amazing sky bar (minus the bar) that we chilled at that night.  It was really pretty because all of Sorrento could be seen from it—all lit up, it was much better than a night of crazy times at a discoteca…or maybe equivalent to it…

ANYWAYS…

Later that night Josh and I went on a little adventure.

(side note) Time frame: around the time one would hear a rooster crowing.

So we were in someone’s orchard of nice ripe oranges.  It was a little creepy I have to admit, but the gate was unlocked so we figured it would be alright.  When we heard the rooster crow, Josh’s demeanor changed from “BA PKA” boy to “responsible PKA boy” and he said we should leave.  On the other hand I told him I thought it was a joke (the rooster wasn’t real), and that everything was alright.  But we ended up leaving anyways..

(side note) The above story is a little more for my benefit so I can remember one of the funniest times in my life.  I am aware that it probably sounds confusing and/or not funny.

The next morning I was feeling wonderful as I through open the windows and took a big whiff of the Sorrentonian air.  There was a small futbol field right outside of our window.  I figure it was some type of adult league…and I secretly wish I could have jumped in the game—but I didn’t feel it was necessary…

Anywho, we decided to go to Capri Island on Saturday.  We started off a little slow that day—but hey, that’s okay when you’re on vacay. 

I noticed a tradition of Italy? Love locks.  One of the cutest gestures ever.  If my boyfriend took a metal lock and attached it forever to a metal fence and wrote I “I love you” on it, I feel that I would be truly swept off my feet. 

love locks

I also decided to take a little break from walking and skate a bowl.  Below is the specific pool in which I skated…it was amazing…look out for me on TV…I think I saw some people filming.

gnar bowl

  After meandering through town and looking at the amazing coastline…taking many photographs…and videos of course…we decided not only were we indescribably parched, we were also having hunger pains.  SO we stopped at this street Pizzeria and it was beyond amazing…in turn we became sooooooo sooooo stoked on life.

lunch

I shared a simple Marguerhita  Pizza with Kaylen.  It was so incredibly nice this day.  We sat outside in the Sorrento/Capri Sun and I actually got a little sunburn!! It was a glorious change from Winter scarves and boots.

We then got some scrumptious Gelato and ran to catch the ferry to Capri Island.

We arrived in Capri after about 20 minutes and a nap on a ferry boat ride.  Capri was absolutely beautiful.  Originally we wanted to go on a small voyage to the Gratto, but because it was off-season all the tours were closed so we decided to just walk around.  I had originally thought the hills in Lugano would outdo anything or anywhere I would travel to, but Capri changed this for me…we hiked up, and up and up in the warm weather—but it was well worth it.

view 1

view 2: school girl  

view 3

We stayed in Capri until Sunset and decided to eat some dinner to kill time before our ferry left to go back to the mainland.  When in Capri, do as the Capricians (?) do….I had a pasta dish from the sea.  At the time it was absolutely wonderful but I feel as if there was a “bad clam” in my meal due to the fact that I got sick around 11:30 pm that night.  After it was all said and done I felt better so that was good.

We decided to stay at the hostel again on Saturday night because it was by far the most ragin’ event ever.  They actually had some great live music that Liz was doing the honkey tonkey dance to.  Haha sorry to call you out Liz, but I have to say it was the funniest thing I have ever witnessed in my life.  I wish I had videoed it…HAHAHAH.

I met some funny guys from Napoli…Naples…and tried to figure out if they were Mafia members…I couldn’t decipher by the end of the night.  One of the men wanted to marry me…but I told him I wasn’t ready to settle down yet…I told him I played futbol and he thought it was a dream..he said he knew he was supposed to marry a girl from the states…he told me he was a Dr. and drove a Ferrari, sorry Mr. Mafia Man…tempting, but—No. 

We woke up Sunday morning to venture to Pompei….a few things I discovered on Sunday morning…

• Scracks…so delicious and so addicting…

• No Obliteri, no Party.

• Lemons do exist that are the size of my head.

• Dogs really do know how to play dead

• Bush Gardens doesn’t do Pompei justice.

• I have amazing photography skills

Pompei was amazing.  My whole perception of what Pompei was completely changed when I got there.  I didn’t really understand how large it actually was.  A WHOLE CITY, not just one measley ride at BG in Williamsburg, VA.  It kept going on and on.  When Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D., it took a lot of people by surprise.  I was able to see one of the men who was preserved by the volcanic ash in the same position he was in when he died.

Sorrento was definentely a GREAT weekend…wish I could have stayed longer… 

I still need to update a whole lot more (Germany trip, Paris, Dublin, and London trip, and now my Rome, Florence, and Venice trip) so be looking out….

This is just another town and I’m only passin’ through!

PEACE

So here’s the deal…Amsterdam was a doozy…Everything about it was bucking wild.  On the train ride back to Lugano I had some mixed thoughts and smells.  Let me try to create a vivid image

My hair smelt of a mixture of five different smokes…they only one I recognized was cigarette, but I could use my imagination to think of the others.  I hadn’t showered in 2 days and yes this is a major big deal for me.  I tried to look at the glass more half full for the fact that the grungy look I was pulling off made my image more Euro than ever, so I just let it fly.  I had a few bruises on my legs and arms and I can tell you (although some of you may have thought differently) that I didn’t get these from doing a double kickflip in front of the Heineken brewery, I fell around 6 a.m. one night on the sheeted ice that covered the city.  My feet were dying from the awesome new boots I purchased, but in the state of Amsterdam nothing really mattered, I feel like it was a city released.  So I figure I want to tell you everything that happened to me in Amsterdam because some of it was way too funny/wyld/crazy/super super swaheet!  So I guess the best place to start would be at the beginning, being that it began with not only with German border cops but also our train coming to a halting stop in Germany due to a “human accident”.

The Beginning

Please take a moment to imagine me sitting on a train in a section with just Morgan and myself.  Then imagine 3 huge German border officers screaming in German tongue at various people to open their bags and sticking their sticky fingers all over your things…so I was nervy when I saw this obviously.  Trying to act cool was just sat there and waited for our turn…ill give a little play by play (PBP) because its more fun that way…

• German boy #1 I’ll call him comes up to me and asks me if I smoke cigz…I say no.

• He then looks at me in a very confusing way.

• I look back.

• He asks again-I give the same answer.

• He then asks me if I smoke marijuana.

• I say no and at this point he’s making me very nervous.

• He stares at me again. Then turns to Morgan and asks her the same things in the same way.

• I almost wanted to admit that I smoked cigz so he would just leave me alone but I was scared.

• Marijuana? No.

• He moves on…border line patrol in German voices is scary…but I got through it like a champ.

Moving on—we were supposed to arrive in Amsterdam in the morning so I tried to go to bed but it was hard because it’s weird sleeping on trains. Somehow I doze off (kind of) and find myself to a halt on the train tracks somewhere not in Amsterdam…new PBP

• Speaker phone chimes on like the ones on a cruise line: “fewiof hioewh guirgsdji  dhwiehfow”

• Who knows….the glories of speaking English in Europe.

• We hear this one woman behind speaking in some sort of slurred/accented/kind of English, “Accident wit person takes long time to clean up”.

• WTF

• We get off of the train because of the pre-described human fatality and find ourselves on a German charter bus that not only gets lost and asks direction roughly 4 times, but also begins to drive on a 1-way road…when in Germany right?

• So we finally get to the train station and I have decided two things: one this land is absolutely freezing and I didn’t pack enough warm clothes and two my trusty cowboy boots were leaking..awesome..but it was okay because I’ve learned the definition of “roughing it”

The Freezing Beautiful CrazyAss Land of Amsterdamn

Day One

• BOB’s: known as “sketchy”
  1. True to his word.
  2. The super sketchiness was due to the people in the “hangout” room.
  3. Our roommates (two guys from Spain and two from Finland) were also pretty sketchy.
  4. The shower that turned from scorching hot to ice cold randomly and was so dirty I couldn’t take a showerexcept for one time I while i was there–also pretty sketchy
• Juice boxes: a couple swigs kept us warm and allowed our explorations to begin with some type of warm feeling.
• Wok to wok: one of the best places to eat hands down.
• Psychedelic Herbs and Pills, Magic Truffles, etc: stores like this followed me throughout the city.
• Burger bar: first spotted on the first day i was there, little did i know it would save me life on the morning after night one.
• Coffeeshop Free1: my first coffeshop experience
• Heineken Brouwery: very cool.

Night One

1. Wild pregame at Bob’s: met another Australian guy= way too funny. Learned some new games.
2. noticed a sign that read: Funky people party…and i liked it.
3. Confusion when trying to get to this club called Paradiso.  Laura Me and a few of the guys were the only y ones who were adventurous to make it to the club…the others went somewhere else. We Met a guy who graduated from JMU and he showed us the way…and gave us a cab driver’s number (JMU kids love those cab drivers). We were thankful for him.
4. Me and Laura learned to tell people we were from Canada.
5. Take risks live it up: me and laura: to each their own…duo: livin your life: Red light district.
6. laura and i thought a a clever way to get us drinks…and it worked the whole night…fo free!
7. …6 a.m. rolled around and we made our way back…swagger of a college kid.

Day 2

1. Burger Bar was my and Laura’s hero.
2. Bought some rad new bootz.
3. Walked around in the freezing snow and loved it…kind of.
4.  Noticed amsterdams obsession with bicycles…if they can go green so can we!
5. Also noticed their crazy manicans…they made me laugh everytime I saw them and at the same time they scared me…they look like theyre glaring right at you..it waaaas weird.

weird…little freaky…

1. It was also weird seeing the people in Amsterdam…lots of young and crazy ones, and then just some weird ass ones…
2. Anne frank museum was amazing and im so glad I went to it.  One of my favorite times this far for sure!!

3. Pancake bakery also saved my life this day…so so good

[side note] this reminds me of the water in amsterdam…other people will tell you different, but this comes from someone who will drink tap water…the water there is wack! It tastes so incredibly thick like substantially thick hot chocolate…it was difficult for me to drink…this could have been a major problem (but it wasn’t)

1. Walking around town I noticed some pretty funny characters…my favorite scene was a man playing an instrument on my left hand side, trying to serenade the general public, while on my right side was a man laying amongst the pigeons trying to serenade a young boy and his father who were trying to feed the pigeons.  In the end the man got up and I still don’t really know what he was thinking/doing…probably not very much at all…amsterdamn does that to some people.
2. Bought a really cool turquoise shell ring
3. I am now aware that in Amsterdam you can get bulbs and send them to anywhere in the world…they were so proud of this! And if I could have managed to buy some for my mother you would be damn sure I would have <3

Night 2

1. Everyone was so infatuated with me and Laura’s description of Paradiso that we all decided to go rage there again…and this time believe it or not, meiss, was even better than the last!!!
2. Imagine walking into a crazy euro atmosphere with a ticket booth on your right and a coat check on your left—we learned the first night it is best to suck it up and check your coat…having around your arm=burden in the party galaxy. Anywho, so you walk through huge doors and see a never ending staircase to your right and as you turn your head to look in front you are blinded by a crazy site of Euros…dancing wildly and the techno bumpin…it was wonderful…
3. One of the most fun parts of the night was the break dancers…it was a girls world for break dancer badazzez.  I was feeling a little excited as I was watching all of this and almost jumped in at the action…actually it sort of happened…it was more like Laura trying to push me in thinking it was the funniest thing in the world, and me thinking I was the coolest person in the world, and the breakers telling me to come in, so I stepped in…
   1. And I realized who I was surrounded by
   2. And then I jumped out…to say my little Euro dignity that I have gained…
   3. It was the.best.night.ever…
   4. 5 a.m. rolled around and I guess it was time to say goodbye to Paradiso and a big old HELLO to McDonalds? Guilty as charged unfortunately…but at the time it was ridicolosz
   5. This would be the night I gained my battle wounds…it was not really cool…walking a lllooonng way in boots on a sheet of ice introduced my knee to the ground real quick…but I shook it off

Day 3: Final Destination

 Once again waking up and getting only 3 hours of sleep was nice because it was cold out.  I still didn’t shower…I couldn’t deal.  So, we made our way around town.  A part I hadn’t been to before.  There was a cheese shop and it was really goooood.  I sampled like everyone and it was neat.

Next I went to the Van Gough Museum and this is when someone caught me doing something against the rules and it was a little scary.

So we get to the museum and I hear someone talking in the backround being all like “don’t take pictures, it’s illegal” your doomed basically.

So I get to this one painting of Van’s and it not only was magnificent, but it was a picture of two companion ponies that reminded me of me and Morgan.  So, I tried to be as sneaky as ever and whipped out my camera, put it on no flash, and

1. Raised the camera still making sure to hide it at a hidden angle.
2. Pushed down on the button and jumped out of my pants upon hearing a frightening man’s voice in my ear.
3. Forbidden was all he said as my heart dropped into my stomach and I tried to play it really cool…dumb American style.

[side note]FYI, don’t break the rules in a famous Art Museum such as Van Gough, it can only lead to disappointment and butterflies…

I couldn’t deal anymore after this…we got Happy Wok for the 3^rd time this weekend and it was just as good, if not better than the last time.

We sat around in Bob’s and chilled for a little while then went to the train station and made it back safely.

End

Amsterdam was nothing like I have ever seen, experienced, tasted, smelled, fallen on ice, gotten in trouble, gotten crunked, had butterflies, danced with Euro breakers, witnessed before.  And I love it for that.  I will always remember it for not only a lot of my firsts but a lot of my lasts…

As I was leaving the great land of Amsta I heard it whisper to me: “Wish I could keep you much longer, I know you gotta go cas you got things to do” and sure enough Amsta was right. I’m off on my first crazy 10-day long break and the anticipation is killing me.

This week was examination week:

1. My Italian midterm: A

2. My Consumer Behavior Semester Project: TBA

3. My readiness to roam and live my life wildly: ASAP

My itinerary for the next 10ish days:

1. Paris: LOVE

2. Dublin: KEWL

3. London:HOLLA..ill be there for VDay WITH mah boyfriends!

4. I’m so excited. You only live once so I gotsta make the best of it!

Smile on me baby

FinLEY

Alright so here goes….i can never seem to keep up with the blogosphere…i started this blog after i got back from Interlaken and was supposed to finish it but it is now a week since then and i have already been to amsterdam and back. so i figure ill tell a little about Interlaken and then move on to AMSTADAMNNNNNNNNNNNI

Friday started out like any old Friday, I passed my Italian quiz and made conversation with Magda…I learned that one of the reasons Magda gives us 3 different breaks during class is so she can have a smoke outside with the other Euros…I learned how to say where’s the bathroom…Dove il bajno? which is a lifesaver for me. 

Unfortunately my afternoon activities consisted of finishing my midterm paper on creating a marketing plan to help decrease the rate of unintended pregnancies in the United States…wonderful

My afternoon rounded off with snuggling with Laura and Meghan as we watched the movie 300….

then it was firdizzle nightizzle…this was a big big doozy

some of us girls went out to dinner to this place called Cantatone which was AMAZING and we got back to home to a bunch of drunken Americans who were a bit frazzeled.  To make this a short story, the catostrophe was over a lost purse, one which was found in this boys suitcase when we finally got back from interlaken on sunday- who would ever guess…

INTERLAKEN

Interlaken was sooo amazing…night sleding was ridiculous…it was so fast and there were no lights! we wore these necklaces with little blinking lights on them soo everyone could kinda see everyone…sometimes i would get really nervous because all of a sudden i would be speeding down the hill uncontrollably and cause major traffic jamz…but it was more fun that way.

MORGIE and me With our BA sledz: after we rode dirty in the swiss alps!

moving on to after sleding…we had dinner and went back to the hostel which had a wild discoteca in the basement..local Euroz everywhere…so much fun! Its kinda funny becasue the way that the people dance in Europe is so different than the way they pop it in the US…so after a few minutes of watching, we caught on…

bedtime was roughly 4 AM…once again me and LAURA and KYLE and i think that was it (i can’t remember that far back) headed back to our bunk bedz to sleep for roughly 5 hours.

ON sunday…we went to the world snow competition  in Grindelwald which was really neat!

LAURA+I=giraffes in love

LEFT: ME                                                 RIGHT: LAURA 

ALL in ALL it was a wonderfully adventurous time <3

until the song says we’re finished…

<3 EuRo PrInCeZz

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

Italian class was a doozy today.  Magda kept calling on me to answer questions….the pressure was on.  I think she likes saying my name because it sounds kind of Italian…she says Feeeeeenleeeeeeey. Magda taught me what the words on the expresso machine meant…very helpful.  Today I got an expresso senza zucherro…without sugar; it was an experience.

The little expresso

My money pouch has become very conveinent.  I actually love it.  Its a little touristy but I hide it underneath my parka when ever I’m going out on the town…so I still appear Euro.

My lovely non-Euro handy pouch.

Plans change very quickly around here.  Instead of going hiking on Saturday, me and Laura joined another group of peeps to get a headstart in Milan….Julian our hot house daddy said the night scene there was ridiculous…and we also figured we’d get a head start with buying our jerseys and/or painting our faces to be

1. Friday after class we go to Bellenzona to view the castles from the 1400′s.
2. Saturday me and Laura are hopin the train to Milan
3. Sunday we go to Milan to be futbol fans who purchase jerseys and get wild before witnessing David Beckham school people.

 Finding hostels for the first break is soooo hard and time consuming.  I guess we have 12 people in our group for when we go to Paris, Dublin, London and Venice.  Good thing we have a bunch of type A personalities in our group…

I went to Migros again today to buy some mustard, peanut butter, yogurt and pretzels…I love that place.

I’m now on my way to visit Peter Pan’s Bar again……wonder what will happen tonight?

 Here’s to the nights we felt alive!

FINLEY <3

Friday Night

1. Night of arrival.
2. Went to a bar called Peter Pan…don’t ask.
3. It was super wild and fun filled with euro music that was new to Switzerland, but has been around in the U.S. for quite a while…Nelly “Hot in Here” was my favorite.
4. Pitcher beyond pitcher made everyone put their dancing shoes on and me and my accomplice Laur Schwartz decided we needed to go to the discoteca.
5. No one knew where in the hell it was.  Sketchy locals were an option, but we decided to play it safe…so we thought about trying to locate it ourself …instead we passed out at the Monterina.

Saturday Night

1. Second night to rock ‘n roll.
2. I tried to dress really Euro…and remembered my FLIP…I had a feeling it would be much needed that night.
3. We venture to the Spaghetti House for 5 swiss franc glasses of wine and Morgan and I split an entre…we decided this would from now on be the best bet to make sure we had more money and consumed less calories- both of which can easily be spent on other things…
4. I talk to a Swiss local and he tells me to go to the discoteca….I already k now this
5. He says go to the OOOOOOps Bar first.
6. OOOOOps Bar was wild. Full of Euros-I wanted to be them…good thing I dressed Euro.I tried a vodka tonic that was 10 Swiss Francs- it wasn’t worth it so I switched back to the pitchers. 
7. I filmed one local saying in his accent….”True Life, I’m so Euro”….I’ll post the video soon….it is the greatest thing in the world.
8. Me and Laura meet two more locals who say they are going to a discoteca. Enough said.
9. We begin walking to their car with them….we hear Switzerland’s the safest thing in the world. Not safe enough for two little American weenies so we bring our two American boys with us. We all drive to the disco.
10. Long line. Really Badass. Totally Euro.  Totally my style.  The line takes roughly twenty minutes.  One of the locals tells me to speak slower he can’t understand me….he told me I sounded like a radio….I take it as it is.
11. Anticipation leads us inside where the bouncer cards us….Switzerland’s drinking age is 18, I forgot to bring my ID. The only one who forgot to bring it.
12. DISCOTECA ends badly….whoooopsies….just means the next first time will be even better! 
13. I let Laura down…..we still had a very fun time tredging back up the huge hills to go home…..Switzerland’s never a dissapointment!

Sunday

1. Was mello. Walked around town and acted Euro.
2. Realized the internet is absolutely horrible at the Monterina.  Land line. 
3. Monterina turns off wireless on purpose, to make sure we bond enough in the common room…it will never be turned back on.
4. There are roughly 6 ethernet cords for 42 people in the common room. Conjure your own opinion.

Monday

1. Was the first day of school. Enough said.
2. My teacher is very awesome, thank you Brinberg!
3. Discovered the Cappucino machines at school.  Very helpful…only one Swiss Franc.
4. Aerobics class was very interesting…taught by a local instructor.  All 42 of us in a high school gym (the high school looks like a beautiful, huge, historic castle) but it was hysterical.  I have another video of this but it will be posted later too.  My favorite part of this was when “Mama Mia” started playing when we were side stepping=very intensive.
5. First trip to the Walmart, if there’s even a comparison, of Lugano: Migros.  Buy some things necessary to prepare lunch for the week.

Tuesday

1. First day of Italian class.  Me chiamo Finley. Solo Americana, di Virginia Beach. Sto buena.
2. Long day school basically from 9-5.
3. First trip to the liquor store.
4. We walk the 1.5 mile walk back to school after dinner to plan our first of three spring breaks, we drink wine in the classroom of our school.
5. Why? Because it’s really Euro.  And it’s legal. And it was badass!

Wednesday

1. Today is actually Wednesday, so I have caught up.
2. Day dreamed about how I will see David Beckham play in Milan on Sunday.
3. I had a lot of fun at aerobics today, I was so sore from Monday, it was great!
4. I met a local name Lara and I gave her my name to facebook me.  She did. I’m really excited…one more step closer to going Euro

 

5. Carried my hiking bookbag to school today, which wasn’t very Euro.  But very necessary.  Everyone was secretly jealous. I didn’t want to struggle any more with my little shoulder thing I used in Blacksburg…I’mnot dealing with the same kind of hills.
6. Go to school again to use the internet with Laura and Julia and some boys because of obvious reasons after dinner. 
7. Got to skype with Sarah and Kate and Kelly, Lanie, Feeney and all my other Aphi homeboys.
8. It’s roughly 1:30 a.m. here so we’ll probably start walking back soon.

Tomorrow starts the daily….(hopefully daily) updates……

I’ll take your dollar and your Euro and go spend it fast…..

FINLEY