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