Wow I only have three weeks left here.  Things have been so busy that I haven’t gotten around to updating my blog.  So lets see we have a second group of students because we are now started on our second session here.  I will miss the students from last session and the experiences we all shared together.  Over the last couple of weeks I have gone to Milano, Sirmione, Zurich, Bellinzona, Ascona, Canyoning, and tons of other wonderful places.  While I have been here I have learned a lot of interesting things.  First of all I learned that I have an “accent” but I have no idea how that is possible and many people have stated that it sounds like I am from the south.  I have learned that the bugs (especially the wasps) are about 3 times the size of the regular insects in America.  I have tasted so much gelato and all of it has been amazing.  I do not like swiss pizza so I am excited to eat Italian pizza again.  I have been very happy with my time here but there are a few things that I have really missed.  I was very sad that I missed my best friend’s wedding and to not be there on that day was difficult.  I think it was even more difficult because since I skyped into the wedding I got to experience the beautiful moments that I missed in person.  I have missed good thai food and ethnic food.  I have also missed those fun evening nights where Kevin and I go out for happy hour with friends and try new places to eat.  I even went to a Mexican restaurant here hoping for something similar to Mexican food but of course I was sadly disappointed.  Of course what I miss the most is my family and friends and not being able to experience these amazing sights and have amazing adventures together.

I have learned a lot from my time here so far.  I have learned that a lot of people make stereotypes about ethnicities and I have learned that all of those stereotypes can be broken if people only choose to do so.  I have learned how to teach classes and I regularly teach art classes and I substitute teach ESL classes.  This has made me realize the effort teachers put into their work and it has also made me realize how much I would love to be an art teacher one day.  I have learned so much about other cultures and how they view life and how they live life. 

For these next couple of weeks I will be doing some fun things.  This weekend I will be going back to Milano and then I will also go to Bellagio on lake Como, which is very exciting!  Next weekend I will be traveling to Venice and I will explore the city and in Florence I plan on visiting my great grandfathers grave at the American War Memorial.  He was killed in Italy by a land mine and was buried right outside of Florence (which is the main reason I am traveling there).  For the next couple of weeks I will be learning how to wind surf (if there is wind) which will be a fun adventure as well. 

Here are some pictures of the past couple of weeks:

 View from the top of my hike up San Salvatore.  This is in Lugano

                                                                  Sirmione

                                                                Bellinzona Castle

                                                      Traveling to Zurich

                                                                Zurich

                                                         gnome shop in Zurich

                                                    The Duomo in Milano (3rd largest Cathedral in Europe)

Wow what a wonderful first week in Lugano at TASIS.  I love my job here.  It is very rewarding and even though I work almost all hours of the day and get very little sleep it is so worth it.  I spend my days going on adventures with the students and being a part of a very special time in their life.  All of the students who go here are very rich and some are even Saudi Princes.  There is Chanel, DG, and Juicy everywhere.  It is a very interesting the first day when the students arrive on campus.  Parents are angry that their student has to share a bathroom with three other girls and that their child has a “depressing room” even though almost all the rooms have a balcony with an amazing room.  The students even become more upset when they find out that they can’t wear super short shorts, see through shirts, ripped jeans, or name brands written across their clothes.  Tasis believes in being a respectable image to the community and they do not like how certain brand names portray women so that is why they are so strict in what the students wear.  You should have heard the uproar from the students (who were supposed to read their handbook which stated these rules) when the dean said they cannot wear name brands. 

As for my job, my boss is amazing and my coworkers are amazing so that is really helpful.  The first night together as staff we went out to a fancy Italian Restaurant and ate an extremely good meal in which I had the best tiramisu I have ever tasted.  As for my coworkers, it is funny some of the things here that go on with the staff.  There is an ongoing joke about the ripped jeans as our boss stated that when someone wears them it looks like they have been attacked by a cougar.  Also we have lots of fun together and make an effort to have dinner together and enjoy each other’s company.  The students here have been amazing and have made me feel rewarded for my work with them.  I have some students in my group from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and they are amazing and I love learning about their culture.  They have really grown fond of me and they are constantly telling me how much they like me and one girl said “I missed you” and I asked her what she meant and she said  “I missed you since yesterday, I love seeing you and you are so much fun to be around”  I guess my excitement from being here is contagious and these students keep telling me “your so cute because your so excited and that makes me so excited”.  My students also won best photo for our group photo contest so that means our photo will be up on the tasis website for the year.

Some things I have learned while I have been here: 

There is no way I want to drive on these roads, many of them are one way and busses take them.  Today we were on the bus to go on a hiking trip and almost hit another bus going around a blind corner on a rickety road, there was no room to pull over so the other bus had to back up until there was another road to pull off on.  I am pretty scared to drive here but if I need to drive I guess I will.   

Pasta Pasta Pasta!!!!  I am so sick of it!  There has been way too many carbs in the diet here.

I probably will come back home in better shape than I have ever been in.  I live a half mile from the school and I walk back and forth to my house about three times a day so I get in at least 3 miles every day in walking just from work to home.  I also walk everywhere on campus when I am on roaming duty (checking on students) and then also on every day I do at least two sports.  Its crazy how active we are.   On top of that since I am sick of pasta I eat from the salad bar which usually consists of some lettuce and carrots, and if we are lucky tomatoes and cucumbers.  They also don’t have good dressing so I just use olive oil and vinegar and then cut up some meat and put it on my salad.  I also eat a lot of fruit so I am guessing this will be one healthy summer minus all the gelato I plan to eat.  As I sit here writing this I am on my balcony looking at the lake with the lovely house lights glistening off in the distance, I have to keep pinching myself because I cannot believe I am here!  

                                                              Lake Lugano

                                                                            Dinner

                                                               Group of us Counselors

                                                View from my room (its really pretty at night)

                                                             View of Lugano

                                                  Our winning Picture for the Group Shot

Some of the Girls in my group

Today I headed off to zermatt and met a man and woman about my parents age that were from Utah.  Almost everyone I meet that are from america are from california.  This was kind of neat because my family is travelling to Utah today.  I told them about that and where my family is going and they said that Capitol Reef (where my family is going to camp at) is their favorite place to go camping in Utah.  They also said that they had traveled to Oregon and that they love Lincoln City.  I thought this was funny because to us in Oregon that is just one of many gorgeous beaches.  This whole thing made me happy to think what a small world it is.  So onto the trip.  I went from Montreaux to Visp and then from Visp to Zermatt.  It was a gorgeous day and very hot but i had backed some warmer clothes because Zermatt can get cold.  I stopped in Visp for an expresso which was really good and then rode the mountain train up to Zermatt.  It was such a beautiful ride and there were many waterfalls and a beautiful scenic view.  My plan was to arrive in Zermatt and then ride the lift to the ice cave and then come back to see the festival.  Well the lift was closed and the festival didnt start till later in the night so both those were out, but I think hiking was just as enjoyable.  I loved hiking along the trail watching the Matterhorn get closer and closer.  It was gorgeous out and there were many beautiful houses.  I loved being able to fill up my waterbottle with freezing cold alpine water.  It was fun to see that even the sheep have bells.  I cant do it justice with describing it, but it was just a beautiful day up in the alps.  

                                                                    espresso in Zmutt

                                                                          zermatt

                                                           can you tell that I am happy :)

                                                                     alpine water

                                                              Zmutt: where i hiked to

                           sheep with bells and cool horns, now all they need is whistles (hehehe dad joke)

Wow it has been a long journey over the last couple of days, but everything worked out perfectly.  After landing in Lugano I had to stay in a hostel overnight as my trains were canceled due to a landslide north of Lugano about 20 minutes.  Although staying in a hostel that night was not what I wanted to do especially since I am traveling alone I ended up not minding it except for the man snoring super loud and talking in his sleep.  I then got up at 5:00 am to head out to Vevey where I would meet up with my friend from high school Lindsay.  I rode through Italy and went through Milano, Dolmodolsola, Sion, Montreaux, and then ended up in Vevey where lindsay works.  Throughout the trip I was surprised by how nice people were whether it was people volunteering to help me lift my 70 lb bag or offering me food.  I had a spanish couple that were seated next to me that treated me like family they offered me hot cocoa and and crackers.  we both spoke different languages but connected over the beautiful scenery and tried to point out things like waterfalls and castles to each other.  When the ticket men went by he assumed we were family and I did not have my passport or my billet (ticket) checked.  We laughed when these things happened and said "familia" because they were treating us like a family.  I also had the ticketman on the train ask if it was ok if he told me a joke and when i said ok he said:  "does your bag hold you or do you hold your bag" (it is a huge beast).  I also enjoyed walking down the street to people saying bonjour as they are very friendly here. After meeting lindsay we went down to the lake where the rocks have built in chairs that you can sit in and we watched a boat go by in which after it passed we had to quickly leave as the wake was crashing on us.  We ate a good sandwich and toured the lakefront.  After that lindsay went back to work and I rode the funicular to the top of Momt Pelerim in vevey and not only did I have a wonderful view of the city and the lake but I was able to follow the sound of cow bells to view the swiss cows (they are much prettier than american cows).  I was mistaken a couple of times for as a swiss local and had a man ask me if I spoke English and after I said yes he said "oh I thought you lived here."  I am so happy to look like I fit in because I hate standing out as an "american".  After that Lindsay and I went shopping for dinner we went to meat market which was amazing and she made me and her husband an amazing ham with swiss cheese potatoes gratin, and salad.  In some of my pictures you can see vineyards sweeping the hillsides and this is seen everywhere in this area.  I asked lindsay why there are so many vineyards on almost every square inch of land and she said it is because they are protected land just like a national reserve/park so that no one can build on them.  She said they are a part of UNESCO.   Tomorrow I will be traveling to zermatt.

Also here are some fun photos from the trip:

         I thought this was funny, they have condoms for sale right next to the pregnancy test

  

As time draws on I am finding it quite crazy to think that in three weeks I will be in Switzerland.  I have been dreaming of this day ever since I visited Switzerland 4 years ago.  I will be going a couple of days early to visit my friend Lindsay and her soon to be husband over in Montreaux Switzerland.  While I am over there I plan to go to Zermatt and hike a trail that has views of the Matterhorn and immerse myself in the countryside of the Swiss alps.  I then plan on going to some areas close by and explore some towns like Laussane and Guyeres (yes that is the cheese).  The reason I love Switzerland so much is not only the good wine, cheese, and chocolate but I love the countryside.  The alps make you feel inconceivably small as you stand under mountains that feels like they rise straight up with no end in sight.  Many things about traveling are hard to describe, it is just something that one has to experience.   I feel right at home in Switzerland and I wish that my family was with me because I believe that this would be the place where they would love to explore.  I can just imagine my dad enjoying the many bike paths that he could travel on and my mom enjoying the beautiful flowers and countryside.  My husband has already gone to Switzerland with me about 4 years ago and it deeply saddens me that my other half will not be able to enjoy these adventures with me.  The only fun thing about it is that since we do everything together now, we will finally have something exciting to talk about because we will be experiencing life from two different angles for two months.

After visiting my friend Lindsay I will be returning to Lugano to work for a school called TASIS.  It is a summer school for high school students.  Below is a map of the campus of the school.  Basically for my job I am in charge of monitoring the students, taking them on trips, running sports and after school activities, and making sure the students have a good time.  I get to take them on weekend trips and we also have half day excursions on Wednesdays.  I will be working mostly in the evenings and early mornings so if you want to skype me when I am there I will have to get on early my time and late at night your time since it is a 9 hour difference.  For example:  I might be on skype at 7:00 am my time so that means it would be around 10:00 pm your time.  Some places I might be visiting this summer is:  Lake Como, Rome, Venice, Milano, and other Italian cities as well as some Swiss towns and alpine regions.  

Some interesting things about Switzerland:  

• Our director wanted to have a night where the students made s'mores as most of the students have never had one and this is the reason; Switzerland has an overabundance of chocolate but they do not have marshmellows or grahm crackers.  We were asked to bring these items with us if we could fit them in our luggage.
• Every Swiss town is equipped with a town bunker which holds enough food and room for most of the town people and most Swiss houses are constructed with their own bunkers.  The Swiss people make use of the bunkers in their house to make their own wine and grappa.
• When driving on the roads,  the lights turn from Green to Yellow to Red to Yellow to Green.  Since people only drive stick shifts they use the yellow light again to kind of be a "ready get your car into gear" and then green to go
• The Swiss are very polite and even hearing someone honk their horn is uncommon
• There are 4 languages spoken in Switzerland:  German, Italian, French, and Swiss-Deutsch

   

Here is also a couple of pictures of the campus:  http://switzerland.tasis.com/page.cfm?p=1087

I will be leaving to Switzerland June 12th to spend two months working as a counselor at a school in Lugano, Switzerland.   Lugano is part of the Italian region of Switzerland which means everyone speaks Italian but on the bright side I will only be an hour away from Milan.  I have just a little over a month before I go so I have a lot to finish up here like finding a job for the school year, learning Italian,  and getting all the summer jobs I was going to complete before I leave.  I am going to miss all my family and friends but it will be an exciting adventure and a wonderful way to make money for a summer job.   I decided to start this blog to help show you a little piece of what i love about traveling and why I love Switzerland.  

                                                                       Lugano

 I miss the clinging of the bells from the swiss dairy cows

 Lake Lugano

 The school I will be staying at