Switzerland--Geneva, Interlaken: Third Weekend

i know it is ridiculous how long i have been gone and without internet!
We had a SBA field trip beginning on Wednesday after shortened morning classes. We took a double decker coach bus to Geneva. The ride took like 6-8 hours, but we watched Shawshank redemption and Devil Wears Prada, so it was alright. We were given a bathroom break at a rest area somewhere in Switzerland. Literally the bathroom was a room with a circular hole in the floor...seriously nothing to sit on. However, Allie used it. She tried to explain the logistics to me, but i still just don't understand.
We then had our first experience with Etap hotels. Miami likes to use these value-shacks for any and all field trip excursions. The set up is 3 to a room with a double bed and a little single lofted on top. Although the rooms were clean and safe, they did entail a bit of awkward male on male snuggling, which is even more awkward when roomates are randomly assigned.
The professors were really excited to take us to Edelweiss for dinner that night. It was a Swiss fondu restaurant, where Miami had already paid for 3 courses of fondu. The first was the standard bread and cheese combonation, next was a huge plate of raw steak that you cooked in broth in over the flame, last was the chocolate and fruit which was amazing. It wasn't only the food that made Edelweiss unique, they had a wide array of weird live entertainment. There was a big horn that stretched from the second level all the way to the basement where we were all sitting. Prof Campbell, Allie, Me, and Erik all gave it a shot. I was also privledged to get to hold the bells with Jess, which was cool until he was 4 songs in and we had red marks on our shoulders and ringing ears for the rest of dinner. We had red wine, mitch's choice, to compliment the steak. Ok, so maybe we had two bottles.


The next day we toured geneva with a map they gave us by ourselves for an
hour. Our group mostly hung out by the peer with Prof Herron and his wife. After that we visited the WTO and had a lecture in a press conference room, however, a lot of people fell asleep or made origami fortune tellers. Then we hoped back on the bus and went to a nice hotel for a lunch of weird appetizer-like finger foods and the P&G speaker. The P&G guy was definitely my favorite BUS420 speaker we had. He was a Miami grad who worked in the finance department for P&G and took the opportunity to move to Geneva with the company. Incidentally, his wife also worked for P&G and could also transfer to Switzerland and continue her career in marketing. They pretty much had an amazing life: Subsidized housing, Private schooling and daycare for the kids, 80% pay increase, English speaking work environment, and well, they also got to live in Geneva, Switzerland...which is obviously an incredible european city with endless opportunities for weekend travel.
Then they dropped us off at the
trainstation for our weekend to begin. Interlaken is indescribable, i don't even think the pictures do it justice. Unfortunately we had some seriously crap weather, 50 degrees and rain, and the fog made it a little difficult to see. Besides extreme sports there isn't a whole lot to do in interlaken. We somehow ended up eating at Hooters the first night, but we were able to get chicken--so that made it worthwhile. The next day we went....White water rafting
through the swiss alps...it was absolutely insane. I loved every second of
it. It was soooo cold, which sucked, but we bought the CDROM of pictures
that they took of us, so we have some unbelievable pictures. It took nearly 40 minutes to get all of the rafting gear on. You start out in a wetsuit (which are surprisingly flattering), then you get water shoes, a long sleeve wetsuit top, a life jacket, a wind breaker, and a helmet. All of the helmets had funny things written on the front. (we didn't get to pick them) Allie= Precious, Me=Knifehead, Michael=Single (he's not), Mike=Scorpio, Cody=Randy, Jess T=Peanut Butter, Bj= The Hoff. By the time we were fully in our gear you could hardly recognize who was who. Our raft was mike, dylan, me, allie, jess, alison, monique, and bj. The ride to the top of the river was intense...some people were nevous, some were just enjoying the view, i was loving the song higher ground. The anticipation was so much fun. The water was freezing and we got soaked, it was amazing. We were right in the middle of two huge mountains and the view was incredible. ( I feel like I am using the same expressive adjectives repeatedly, but in all honesty interlaken is simply indescribable). After we finished we were given complimentary beers and caught the first bus back to our hotel at funny farm for a hot shower.
OHHH how could i forget to explain "funny farm"... It was a hostel for only 14 euro a night, which should have tipped us off in the first place. Allie arrived at the barn a few minutes before I did, and i ran into her as she was running away from the place, pissed/terrified/upset. I've done the whole summer camp thing, so I figured it would be no big deal staying in a less than 2 star place for a few nights... Seriously though, there was a Barn outside, no heat, no electricity, barely running water, creaky wooden floor boards, 1930's bunk beds, no locks on the doors, and 2 other rooms contected to ours which was in the middle, so no possibility of locking, bathrooms and showers outside, and we were on the 6th floor of this place. It was straight out of a really low budget horror film. My loyalty was convincing me to keep my mouth shut and be a good sport, however my common sense won over... and Allie, Monique, and I went back to the front desk and got the only room left in the hotel which was a 3 person room, which was perfect. Ok, so I could definitely do a 2 star hotel or shabby hostel, but funny farm was the equivalent to sleeping in a cardboard box (however, at least the box is at ground level). The people in the barn literally had to be drunk nonstop to be able to deal with that place. And they were, annoyingly. Funny farm wasn't all bad though, it had a really fun bar in the basement. All the miami people went there every night. They also had a happy hour special: buy one beer and get a shot of yager. I love yager, and i'm also a huge mooch. Ok and the next full day, we rented bikes and explored interlauken's mountain trails and stuff and shopped a little. I love this picture <--- I am seriously a foot shorter than these girls anyway. I bought a tacky little girls switzerland sweatshirt...notice in the picture at the bottom. It was a great purchase, I wore it to the bar that night and people actually bought me drinks because of my sweatshirt, i'm not exactly sure how to take interpret that. That afternoon, we didn't really have any plans so we randomly decided to go Bungee jumping! We were planning on skydiving, but the weather was awful so it was cancelled. Bungy Jumping was seriously the most exillerating thing i have ever done. It was an amazing rush, but at the same time it was incredibly peaceful. We met up at 4 and they took groups up by weight ( so they could adjust the rope) and we didn't get back until around 11. Us little girls were in the last group of the night, it was around 9:30 and the sun was just beginning to set. We were in a gondola 134 meters (450 feet...50 stories) above the lake below, we were surrounded by mountains and could see little waterfalls flowing into the lake. It is important that you jump straight out and up of the gondola because if you just let yourself fall (or be a whimp and get a little push) you will end up getting whiplashed, and possibly come straight back up and hit the bottom of the gondola. I felt strangely calm when it was my turn. They had really crazy extreme sport music playing in the gondola and i jumped up and out, 8th grade Elks diving team style, represent ;). Nearly everyone screamed (ahem...allie), i just found it so incredibly peaceful that screaming would have ruined the moment. Freefalling into a lake 450 feet in the middle of the Swiss Alps, it was a natural high in it's purest form. Your mind goes white and your muscles go stagnete, your body is completely idle to the point that you wonder if it is performing it's instrinsic functions at all. The only time your heart rate has been this fast was at birth (that little tidbit is from the brochure). After the initial freefall, you bungee up and down a couple times and regain normal thought, then they pull you down into a little canoe in the middle of this lake. Literally in 45 seconds you go from a mosh pit in the gondola, to a sick free fall, and then you are in the middle of a quiet lake on a canoe with two completly random people, it was actually a really bizare experience...but genuinely the most intense thing have ever done. The last picture shows the two crazy bungee jumping guys. The weekend in Interlauken was such a breath of fresh air from all the touristy stuff we have been doing.
We leave tuesday for brussels then amsterdam...another really long weekend away! I booked our place for the birthday weekend in amsterdam! It is 2, 4-person apartments 5 minutes away from the red light district. It has a nice kitchen and a bed for everyone. I sent them an email because their policy is that you have to stay sunday night because they don't do sunday checkouts or they make you pay for the last night, so i told them it was our birthdays and
that we had class on monday and attached a picture of our 8 person group. The owner calls me and is like "Hi is this the 2nd girl from the left!..." haha oh well, im lame, or possibly i'm turning into my mom. We got an amazing deal as far as Amsterdam goes...i'm really crossing my fingers that the place is ok because I booked it kinda sketchily by myself and I have 10 people counting on it ahhhh! Lots to do...laundry, packing...school?

Currently Listening to: Higher Ground-Red Hott Chili Peppers
Straight to Video-Truepenny
Sunshine of your Love-Clapton
Black Cadillacs-Modest Mouse

Currently Reading: State of Denial


-me