Taking on mountains.

"You have brains in your head. You have shoes on your feet. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. You are the one who will decide where to go". - Dr. Seuss

Hello!

Wow. Life here in Switzerland is just so crazy good!

School is slowly (I mean, really really really slowly) getting better. But I will take the little improvements :) My family is so great! My sibilings are so cute! And my French is getting great too! The other day, I went with my younger sister to see my little brother act in an improv match, and I understood basically everything! 3 hours of improv! So great!

So, this past weekend, I went to Luzern and Engelberg for a Rotex weekend. But before that, I went to Italy. Just for lunch. Because it is free to go and it is only 30 minutes from Switzerland. Even better.

So, Brandon, Zion, and I met up with Becky in this city (I can't spell it or pronounce it, haha) with the intention of eating pizza and gelato. Italian style. :)

City map, that turned out to be a little hard to read. . . :)

My crew. Brandon, Zion, and Becky. Ready to eat!
It was a little rainy, but still. So Italian! It was amazing. Literally just across the border from Switzerland, yet so different! Zion and I, being the Americans that we have been unable to be for over 6 months, decided to wear sweats. People in Switzerland, or Europe for that matter, DO NOT wear sweats. At all. Zip. Zilch. Zero. None. So we decided to be rebels, and since our sole goal was to wat lots of pizza, to wear sweats, so our stomachs could expand and we would still be comfy :)
Oh. My.
It. Was. So. Amazing.
Words cannot describe the amazingness my mouth tasted.
And the best part, mine cost me 5 euros. (For Europe, that is CHEAP!)

For dessert, we spent 3 euros (still so cheap!) on some gelato! Once again, pure bliss in my mouth. Ahhhhhhh.
Brandon died and went to heaven.
What I wanted to do after eating. :)


I had to take a picture of this sign. We were SO CLOSE.

One of our other friends was suppossed to join us, but couldn't. This is for you Jenna. We missed you!

So after all this, I headed to Luzern. More specifically, a small village 20 minutes outside, so spend the night with some girlies!

Becky, Zion, Kathleen (we were staying at her house) Jenna, Michelle, and I, after arriving, decided to make a nice dinner, in favor of V day :)

After our nice dinner of pasta, cheese, and salad, we all got settled in to watch a mushy movie, P.S. I Love You. So sweet! You have to watch it! But before we started the movie, Kathleen's host brother came down all dressed for a party, and we had to get a picture!

Kathleen and her bro :)

Peace out. I think he was a little overwhelmed. Being surrounded by so many Americans and Canadians :)

We went to bed pretty early that night, so we could wake up early and make peanut butter cups! You see, for the Rotex events, we all have to bring a dessert from our motherland. So we decided to work together and make our version of Resess! Which turned our pretty good!

Working hard or barely working?

I, for some reason, forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but they were amazing! We made a little mess though, which called Kathleen to go a little crazy. . .

A.K.A. On the floor scrubbing.

After the cleaning frenzy, we got all our gear together and headed to the bus stop which would get us to Luzern just in time for the train that all the exchangies were going to take up to Engelberg.

When we first got to the bus stop:) All happy and excited!

Until we realized that someone read the times wrong, and the bus was in fact, in 30 minutes. Which means we will miss the train. Great. (And I thought I had public transportation all figured out).

So, at 11:47, the bus came. Finally. We got on and headed for Luzern. There was SO MUCH traffic though. But alas, we made it.

La gare! Die banhof! The train station! Finally!

So, we rode the train for about an hour up and into the mountains into Engelberg! Once we got there, we had the task of finding the hostel where everyone was. . . Eventually, after the scenic route of the town, we found it :)

Since everyone was waiting on us (we were an hour and a half late, dang bus), we just dropped our stuff of and headed out to the ice rink! On the way there though, I met all the newbies! A.K.A. All the new exchange students that just got here (well, a month ago) from Australia, South Africa, etc. This was something us oldies had been so looking forward to!

Once at the rink, we all got our skates on and everyone, but me, took off flying! I was scared out of my mind for some reason!

Once they got me onto the ice, I needed a picture to document that giant step. And the fact that I was still alive after 30 seconds on the ice! Haha. Zion, Jenna (laughing at my being scared) and me!

Here, everyone was doing a conga line. Except for me. Sitting on that chair helper thingy. Haha. Holding on for dear life.

Becky and French Andrew going pro. :)

Group photo! All the exchangies from the West half of Switzerland! (If you are looking for me, as in playing the Laura version of Where's Waldo, look for the tall guy who is the 3rd for from the right, white hat, then look to his left. I am the little one in the white coat determined to be in the photo :) )

Me, Becky, Zion, and Jenna. :)

Us girls with one of the newbies from down under, Michael. We like to call him newbs though. :) Such bloddy fun being an oldie as he would say!

Jenna lent me this Canada shirt I was wearing, and Brandon loaned me his gloves. I was all Canadian and it was only appropriate I get a picture with one of my favorite Canadians! Spreadin' the Canadian love!

In an attempt to get a picture with my other Canadians, I needed to remain upright and somehow move closer to them. This proved to be difficult beings that I still needed help to remain upright. Haha.

After some serious balance and concentration, I managed to move a few inches on my skates. Some of my other Canadians, YodA and Brandon :)

We have 2 Andrews. 1 of the Andrews lives in the French part though and the other the German part. Hence, here I am with Becky, German Andrew, me, and French Andrew. :) All of whom I love!

After taking our skates off, our feet hurt. Just a little. Here we have French Andrew attempting to make it better. Ugh. Skating. So painful. Haha.

Once we all got back after 3 hours of skating, Rotex let us play in the snow. And Zion found a toy gun. Strange, yes. But fun when taking Charlie's Angels photos!
After some nose bleeds from snow fights, we headed inside and played a million different card games! Then ate spagetti and then decided to play some NINJA!

So we headed outside and got to karate chopping!

For those of you that aren't aware of the game NINJA, it is where you all stand in a circle and then attempt to get everyone out of the game using mad ninja skills. Don't worry. Most of the time, it is harmless :)

Once back inside, we played this game where you have a chocolate bar wrapped in tape and newspaper, a fork, a knife, gloves, a scarf, a hat, and a die. You play in a group of 10 and have to roll the die until you get a 6. Once you get a 6, you have to put on the gloves, scarf, and hat and then eat the chocolate by ripping open the package with only the fork and knife. And as you are working away, everyone else is still rolling the die and when another person rolls a 6, you have to quick rip the hat, scarf, and gloves off and pass it to them! It was a little hard and intense!. Haha.

Me. Not understanding how to open it. :)

Bryanne getting somewhere!

So. That night, after tons of dessert and talking English and all, we headed to bed. But, since Jenna and I had started out the weekend with some colds, and the cold weather only made them worse. Hence, Jenna and I were hacking up lungs the WHOLE night. We had to sneak up to the boys floor for cough drops, which only helped for like 2 seconds. 5 minutes of sleep that night. Ugh.

Anyway. After that 5 minutes of sleep and hacking up that lung later, we got up at 7:30 to YodA banging a pan right above our head. So we got up and had breakfast, made our sandwichs for lunch, and then spent 3 hours, legit, cleaning the house we stayed at.

After that, we all loaded up in our gear and headed to the mountains and gondolas. Why? So we could go SLEDDING! Of course, we had to wait outside for Rotex for a good 15 minutes. . . So we took some pictures :)

Zion and me!

Once we got there, we got our passes and headed up the mountain in the gondolas! Once at the top, we grabbed some sleds and headed down!

After sledding in St. Moritz, I was a little nervous for this one, since sledding here in Switzerland is INTESNE. But it was SO MUCH FUN! Except for when I catapulted off the sled 2 times. But still, good stuff :)

Round 2! Heading up again with Ben and a newbie (forgot her name. . . . :) )

Round 3! We look like we are starting to drag. . .

It was snowing like crazy outside this day! Like blizzard! So going super fast down a mountain is cold enough, but add in snow pelting you. That's lots of fun :)

Heading down!

So after 2 or 3 rounds, most people just stayed at the top and sat around this campfire and ate. But Jenna, Brandon, Ben and I decided that we wanted to keep going and race down! So it was Jenna and I on 1 sled again Brandon on another and Ben on the 3rd sled. We raced down 3 times I think, but the last time, Jenna and Brandon found a shortcut right at the end.

End result, cheating doesn't let you win the race. Haha. They fell down the side! Don't worry. None of us had to go to the hospital. 1 newbie did, he got 5 stitches. But is all better now:)

After all those trips up and down the mountain, I was not only soaked, cold, and bruised, but so tired! But it was all totally worth it!
After shot of Zion, Jenna, me, French Andrew, and Becky!

This is what we all looked like. Except I snapped a photo of Matt before he started melting :)

Funny shot!

Walking back to the house to change and get our gear. Champions. Taking home the gold. (See that blizzard?!)

After we got back to the house, we all had to quick change (everyone was just dripping and leaving puddles everywhere from the melting snow) and then head back to the train to leave. Of course, hurry up and wait happened and we were all standing outside ready while Rotex was doing whatever they were doing inside still. . . More photos!

Me, Sophie (from Canada) and Jenna :)

It is so funny. Everytime I ask just 1 other person to get a photo with, EVERYONE hops in the photo! This was suppossed to be just me and Jenna. Oh well. Another group photo of all the oldies!

The sledding conquerors! Champions. Taking on the Swiss mountains. Brandon, Ben, Jenna and I. Winners. :)

One of our newbies. Michael, brought 4 bags. I, Laura, who always packs WAY too much, only brought 1 backpack. He has a suitcase, a duffel, a store bag, and a hand bag. For 1 night. Oh newbs. So funny.

As usual, Zion and I were singing on the train back to Luzern, and Gina kept creeping over the seat to check it out :)

And that is all! In Luzern, we all went our separate ways. This was supossed to be our last sleepover weekend, but I hear rumors that there is another one they are planning. I hope! This can't be the last one!

Let's see. Sunday night when I got home, I literally slept for an hour, since I was coughing so much and then stayed home yesterday from school. Last night was a little better but still. Ugh. Being sick in Switzerland is ridiculous. There are so many things I could be doing other than hacking up the other lung. Sigh. But that's okay. I guess it gives me time to update my blog!

I hope you all have a fantastic week! Talk to you soon!

Love Always, Laura

It's the day of love. And love is what this is.

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!

I hope you all had an absolutely fabulous day yesterday filled with lots of LOVE!

I know I, on one hand, had a fantastic Valentine's Day! But I will get to that later.

First, I have to let you all know that I will be returning to the United States of America on July 13th. LESS THAN 5 MONTHS AWAY! Oh my.

BUT.

Life is excellent and I still have a little less than 5 more excellent months to adventure and galabant around this amazing country.

So. Let's see here. What has little ole' me been up to in little ole' Switzerland?

I finally got around to taking a picture of my new house! Even though I have been living here for almost 2 months. Haha. Isn't it cute?!

Friday, Jenna (my new canadian friend who lives in Luzern here) and Beck came over for a sleepover! Becky slept over because she had to take the ACT's on Saturday and I live a lot closer to where they are, and Jenna because she can!

That night, Jenna and I left Becky at home with the sitter so she could get to bed on time and Jenna and I went to Lausanne, bought candy, took trains, and then came home and watched Titanic. Only the best movie EVER!

Jenna with our candy bag!

10 francs and 30 cents worth of candy to be exact. Only took about 3.698 seconds to eat.
While waiting for our train, we had some fun with the ads. :)
:)
Each month, we get 150 francs allowance from Rotary. Unfortunetly, after buying numerous rounds of candy, I had none left and was forced to dumpster dive. :) Haha.

After our adventures on Friday night, Jenna and I got up at 5:30am to make Becky a good luck and nutritional breakfast! (so kind of us, haha), then went back to bed for 2 hours. Then woke up again, then got ready, then took a train.

Where to? To Neuchatel! It is a larger city in the French part on a beautiful lake! There we meet up with some other exchangies! Ben (from Michigan), Brandon (from Canada), Lauren (from Canada), and a NEWBIE! (all the exchange students from the Southern Hemisphere that just got here a few weeks ago, which makes me an oldie now!), Michael, from Australlia! I was really excited about the newbie. . . . :) Here is the crew, without me since I was taking the picture, sitting on an old castle wall!

We ventured into a church to repent for all those D's. . . . . . :)

We ended up spending the whole day together, and everyone even came back to my house (exciting, since I live so far away from everyone) and ate ice cream to end a great day!

Sunday, I went to this spa IN THE ALPS!

Legit, right? It is literally right in the mountains! My host mom woke me up Sunday morning, and was like "Do you want to go swimming in hot pools?". 5 minutes later, literally, we were in the car headed to the Alps. It was so cool! The water was so hot yet it was like snow! Amazing!

After, we went for a little "vigorous walk" and then went to a little family get-together. By the time we got home at 7pm, I was SO TIRED. And it was 7! So I get all ready for bed and head up to my sister's room to tell her Bonne Nuit! and see that she is trying on dresses for school on Monday. I had completely forgotten. Monday we were suppossed to dress up for school. Ugh. So, 2 hours later, I had found an outfit, had my mom cut it and sew it to make it fit better, found some shoes, necklace, hair things, a jacket, tights, etc. . .

Monday mornings final product! (Sorry, we were rushing for the train, but I wanted a picture!)

EVERYONE at school was so dressed up! Like tuxs and high heels and all that jazz. It was like homecoming!

After school, which finished early, Zion and I headed to Bern to meet with Brandon, Jenna, and Michael to celebrate V Day!

There was thig random Cupid in the Bern train station! We asked him to get a picture and he agreed, but while I was searching in my giant bag for my camera, this interviewer took him away. I never got my picture. :( The only bad part of my V Day. Along with those horrible shoes. Moving on!

In all the train stations, there are these photo booths. It seems that all the cool kids in Switzerland have taken pictures in them, and yesterday, while waiting for Michael's train to come in, we decided to get one. Now, trying to squeeze all of us (Brandon is 6'4, Zion 6'1) into a little itty bitty box turned out to be quite the task. So after we all finally pile into to one and put the money in, we read the screen and realize that it is broken. We then had to undo ourselves and pile into another one, because we were going to get one! So, it took us a few reconfiguirations, but we did it! Here it is!
Close up!

After the photo, we still had some time to burn to wait for Mikey, so we ventured into the sun (it was so hot!) and found Mr. Free Hugs Grape Man. Then got a picture with him :) Uh. It is making my feet hurt though just looking at those high heels. Pain. Anyway, aren't we cute?!
We love each other.

I love this picture. We are all laughing (even me, behind the camera :) ) and loving life!

At this point, I thought me feet were going to fall off. Zion offered to carry me. :)

Laura, Zion, and Jenna. V Day Lovers.

Newbie and Oldie. Michael and Brandon. They act like they may not love each other. But they really do. After all, it was V Day. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope you all had a fabulous Valentine's Day! I know I did :)

Love your favorite Swiss, Laura

"Sometimes, the mose ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people." - Nicholas Sparks