Sick-os

Everyone is getting sick! I'm trying to avoid all the sick people, by either staying in the lounge, or sitting at my desk with the window open. My mom would be proud. My poor roommate has some sort of virus and has been told to not leave her bed. We've been taking fruit from the dining room for her, and the nurse has been bringing her meals. Hopefully I don't catch what she has!

Classes are classes. There's a group project in almost every class, so figuring out times to meet with all of them is a challenge. Most of the projects will be over by the end of February or the beginning of March, so the spring shouldn't be too bad... minus worrying about finals.

We're hopefully going to Italy this weekend. We haven't planned anything yet, so who knows if we'll be able to. The idea is to leave tomorrow night for Florence, stay in a hostel Thursday night and Friday night there, then go to Milan for Saturday night. Sunday we'll be coming back here. If you don't hear from me all weekend, then you'll know that we actually went.

Oh! We have a mascot! I've named him Toby, though we're not even sure he's a boy. He's this adorable grey cat that roams campus, and sometimes is even let into our dorm. You can hear him meow-ing all the time. He tends to hang out by this one door, so we think who ever lives there let him in once... and I'm sure is regretting it now. He's fun to play with, but makes me miss Barnum and Bailey. Don't worry mom, I washed my hands after playing with him and didn't let him lick me :)

JUST to let you know, the address I have posted to send me mail does work. I assume that people are waiting to send me those huge care packages until they know it works. So. It does. Don't have the address? You're in luck! I just so happen to know it!

Emily Connor
GIHE
Rue de l'Ondine 20
1630 Bulle
Switzerland

No excuses. I'm getting lonely.

Back to homework. Enjoy your day!


.love and chocolate.

First Real Weekend

Classes have been going well so far. Lots of reading, but it’s do able. I can’t imagine how most students take 7 classes, and some even take 10. It’s really insane.

On Friday a whole bunch of us went to Chateau d’Oex for a hot air balloon festival. We took the train over, which was about an hour ride. We got there around 3, walked through the town looking for information about the festival, and found out that nothing was going on until 7. Super. We were expecting there to just be balloons up in the air all over the place. Apparently that day they decided not to do that. So we all bummed around Chateau d’Oex until 7 (mind you, it was QUITE cold once the sun went down). There was a church on top of a hill in the middle of town, which was where we went to get the best view. At 7 there was a whole lights and balloons display. It’s hard to explain, but basically there were filled balloons scattered along the hillside of the town, and some candles or lights that made the shapes of more balloons. Since it was dark, every time a balloon’s flame would go on, we could see the balloons. Without the flame, it was just dark. So the balloons would light up set to the music. It was very cool, but VERY cold.

We all took the train back to Bulle, and went down town to a local bar for the evening. It was great because pretty much all the people that were there, were Glion students. It was a nice way to meet people and try to convince them not to hate us just because we’re American.

Saturday was amazing. I took an early train to meet my friend from UNH, Carrie, in Geneva. She’s studying abroad in Dijon, France. We met at the train station for our much needed reunion. Caitlyn and Elyse came on a later train, but the phone numbers that were exchanged weren’t quite right, so we couldn’t get in touch to meet up. So Carrie and I spent the whole day walking around and exploring Geneva. Talking to someone from home, face-to-face, who isn’t biased as to what’s going on here was EXACTLY what I needed. We had a wonderful day filled with random shops, an unexpected show from a type of marching band, and Carrie being able to speak French (that’s really the only reason I keep her around J).

We decided to find some place to get dinner, and decided on an authentic Mexican food place… lol. We walk by to see if they’re open, and who’s inside but Caitlyn and Elyse! So it was great that we were all able to get together for dinner. Carrie’s train was around 7, and ours was at 7:10. We all went to the train station to see Carrie off. Again, we came back and then went out with a bunch of friends for the evening.

Today was a bit of a lazy day. We all got to stay in bed late, and then go to the “American” brunch that they serve on Sunday. It was eggs, bacon (though they were all out when we were there), crepes, waffles, something like a chicken burrito, pizza, cereal, toast, hot dogs (random?), and some other stuff. It was definitely good though.

We all came back and did a bunch of reading all afternoon. Dinner and a movie in the evening, and just some quality hanging out time.

Time to get some more reading done.

.love and chocolate.

Gruyeres and classes

On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Nash took the three of us to Gruyeres. It's a town about a 10 minutetrain ride from us. Took the train there, and then had to walk up to the town. It was SUCH a beautiful view from up there. We got lots of pictures, and they're posted on facebook. We went tothe Chateau de Gruyeres and did a tour around that. It was such an amazing place. The town itselfis adorable. Tiny, just one cobblestone "road" with little shops and cafes all around it. We stoppedon our way back down for ice cream. Definately a fun place to visit.

Monday was like an orienation day. The three of us were pointed out in every freaking class. Every teacher said something like, "These are our american students, from new hampshire. They're different. They're special. Don't let them sit together all the time. They need to branch out" it was incredibly obnoxious. We're going to branch out, CHILL.

We ended up going out to a bar Monday night called Big Ben. We didn't leave until 10, so we only stayed out until about 11:30... since we had an 8am class the next morning. It was really fun to go out with other Glion students.

Classes really started yesterday. We're taking 5 classes: Tourism Operations Managment, Marketing, Conventions and Exhibitions Management, HR Management, and Leadership. At this point, it seems that my favorite is going to be tourism, followed by leadership, conventions, and HR/marketing (they're tied at this point). Classes will be intense, because the whole grade is comprised of a project grade and a final exam. That's it! Very different from UNH.

We worked it out to only have classes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Lots of time to travel on our weekends! We're going to Geneva this weekend to meet up with my friend Carrie (Dempster, for those who know who she is). She's been abroad in France since September and I can't waaait to see her. It will be a great UNH reunion.

Time to go back to class. One more this afternoon.

.love and chocolate.

P.S. So sad about Heath Ledger!!!! :( :( :(

Disclaimer

Just to let you know, the date and time of my posts is about 10 hours behind. Not sure why.

.love and chocolate.

The Beginning

Bonjour!!!

Yea, that's about all the french I know. But it's really all I need, for the most part.

So! It has certainly been a collection of adventures so far. The flight over to London was ok. For any of you who have flown with me before... there was LOTS of turbulance (sp?). And you know how much I just LOVE that. Yea, so basically I almost had a mini-melt down on the plane. But I held it together.

We were a bit delayed out of Heathrow because of the PLANE CRASH there that I'm sure you've all heard about. Elyse and I arrive in Geneva and checked into our sweet hotel. Caitlyn was supposed to arrive at 11:15... but apparently our flight had been the last one allowed out of Heathrow. So it was interesting to try and find out which flight she was actually able to get on, and finally get her back to the hotel with us. After we settled a little bit, the three of us headed into the city area of Geneva on the train. It was soooooo pretty! Gorgeous old buildings, THE LAKE, expensive shops, and lots of good people watching. We tried getting dinner, but everywhere we went was SOOO expensive! Yea, welcome to Europe. Well, we ended up at McDonald's. DON'T judge me.

After dinner we decided to head back to the hotel. This is the beginning of Adventure #1. We got on a train that we THOUGHT would take us back to our hotel. After 2 stops, we realized we were on the wrong train. We got off at... some stop. Looked up the timetable there, and found that the next train going back to the city wasn't for another 45 minutes. "Let's get a taxi", we figured. Yea. That was like trying to hail a cab in Sudbury, or Durham. It was clearly not going to happen. So we waited at this sketchy ass station for the next train. Over an hour after we had planned, we got back to the hotel to go to bed.

Yesterday was our travel day to Bulle. We took a train to Romant, then a mini-van-taxi picked us and three other people going to Glion. Apparently the driver thought I would be fun to talk to. Mind you, he spoke no english. And I speak basically no french. That was interesting. I smiled a lot and nodded and hopefully didn't agree to give him my first born.

Welcome to Bulle! We got to "campus" around 1:30. Checked in, got our room assignments, etc. Caitlyn and I are on the second floor, 2 doors down from each other. Elyse is one floor below us. The rooms are nice. We have our own bathrooms! Whoo! And people who clean them! Would you like a picture? I'm sure you would.
So that's my side of the room, very naked, very unpacked. My roommate, Aura (like "Oww Ruh"), has the other side. She's from Mexico and very nice. So the picture is taken from our little hall, with closets behind me to the right, and the bathroom on the left immediately when you walk in the door. I'll put a more complete set of pictures on facebook.

I say "campus" because it's not really a campus. Not like UNH, at least. There is one building that has all the classes and dining room. Then, about 200 meters away is the residence building. And that's it. Both buildings are in the middle of like, a huge apartment village. It's very strange. At least I shouldn't get too lost.

I went down to Caitlyn's room to visit, and we decided to set up her iPod speakers. This is the beginning of Adventure #2. We plugged in what we THOUGHT was a converter, then plugged her speakers into that. After about, 15 seconds, Caitlyn sees smoke. She unpluggs everything and opens the window so that we don't set off the alarm. Whoops! Aparently it wasn't a converter, just an adapter. You live, you learn, right? But not only was there smoke, it had also blown out the whole room. No outlets worked, no lights. So we had to go downstairs and talk to this guy George (he had shown us around earlier. Nice, cute, and from Sweden) about it. We just said that the lights didn't work... they didn't need to know about the smoke. George said he'd take care of it.

At that point we had to meet with Michael Nash. He's a professor here, and basically our advisor while we're at Glion. He's this older man from London, who knows everything about everything. He greeted us and was so thrilled to have his "three americans" here (that's what he, and almost everyone else, calls us). He took us on another tour of the school, helped us with our computers, and then toured us around Bulle. It's an adorable town, with little shops and cafes everywhere. But, it is definately small... and very removed from everything else. But that's how most of Switzerland is. Lots of open space and rolling hills in between insanely beautiful mountains.

Speaking of mountains, would you like to see the view from my window? Right-o.Amazing, isn't it? That is looking towards the south-east sort of, and away from the center of Bulle.

We then returned to our rooms to unpack some more, and then Caitlyn's roommate arrived. Her name is, Vennie (I'm not sure if that's spelled right), and she's from Mexico also. Her two friends, Carlos and Francisco, live in the room in between us.

Caitlyn, Elyse and I went to dinner around 6:15 (it was only served 6-6:30... yea). Dinner was pizza and salad, which was just fine with me. After we decided to walk into town to pick up a few things. On Saturdays, most stores close at 4, but a couple places are still open. On Sunday everything is closed.

On our walk back, we went through this little park, that had a sort of... maze. This is the beginning of Adventure #3. There were bridges that you walked over that we ground level, and then dug into the ground is like a cement maze. There are 2 slides, also. I'll have to get a picture of that. It was very fun. I decided to go down one of the slides. Got stuck and dirty. But it was fun. Then I thought the maze part was too creep to walk through, so I walked on top of the maze walls. Got stuck. Had to get Caitlyn and Elyse to help me down. Then we couldn't find the path back down to the sidewalk (though this park was really no bigger than... our downstairs, or the distance from The Knot to BNG). We thought we were going to get arrested for walking on the grass. After about 10 steps, we found the path. It sounds lame now that I'm typing it, but it was definately an adventure.

The rest of the night was just spent socializing and unpacking. Auda went to Geneva for the night with some friends. Unfortunately, as exhausted as I was, I couldn't sleep. It's 9:30 now, and I've been up since 6:30. And I'm getting sick because I'm not sleeping. Whoo! Good times.

Had my second melt-down this morning. I couldn't figure out how to get on the internet, and lost it. But now that I have facebook... all is well.

I will hopefully be writing here often. Though I'm not sure if anyone is actually reading these. I miss everyone so much, and can't wait to hear from all of you.

.love and chocolate.

One week

So, one week from now I will be in Switzerland. This is out of control. It really hasn't hit me yet that I will be all the way across the Atlantic for nearly 5 months. If you have enough interest in my life to read this, then I will certainly be missing you while I'm there.

Keep me updated, k?

.Love and chocolate.

1

My first blog... wowwww.

So, I'm sure you will all want daily reports of my life in Switzerland. You are in luck. This is where you will be able to find such reports. Please enjoy and leave comments so I can have some connection with the states.