Nice, France & the Principality of Monaco

The fruit & flower market
Some of the group at lunch (Chris, me, HCL, Jack)
The group before swimming
It actually looked like this.
Amazing.

A couple of weekends ago Jack, Chris S. (from here on known as HCL), Stephen, Chris C. and I went to Nice, France for the weekend (per usual it was Cait & the boys). It was Jack's birthday weekend and we decided that the best way to celebrate was to head to the Mediterranean to soak up the sun and swim. We left after they got out of their class on Friday afternoon, and after stopping to get some lunch, candy and necessary supplies for the 6 hour train ride, we arrived at the train station and loaded on to the TGV (French speed train). The train ride started smoothly, as we left Switzerland and were venturing into France we passed the time by playing M.A.S.H. and telling stories. All was well until about 4 hours into our trip when the train broke down. We stopped in the middle of the tracks and after finding a conductor who spoke English, were explained that someone had messed with the track's electrical system and that all trains were down. Eventually we were up and running and then it broke down again, what we didn't know is that this would happen various times throughout the rest of the ride. We ended up passing the time in the food and drink car of the train easing our pain with sandwiches and a couple of well needed beers, and after sitting on the tracks for 6 hours, we were back on our way. What was supposed to be a 6 hour ride arriving at 7 pm turned into a 12 hour epic journey, and we got into Nice at 1 AM on Saturday morning. Luckily our hostel (which was a ways away) was still picking people up and taking them back to the hostel, so we got a ride and settled in for the night.

In true hostel style, once we got settled and were ready to go to bed we were awoken by the most intense snoring I have ever heard (it even beat you dad). This was not normal snoring, there honestly had to be something wrong with the guy, needless to say it kept us up all night and a couple of times throughout the night caused people to yell out in anger. Besides the bad roomie, the hostel we were staying in was awesome, it was this old villa and the original owner was the author of Le Petit Prince (if you've taken 3 or more years of French, I can assure you that you've read this book, its hugely famous in Francophone countries). Everything had Petit Prince decor and the hostel had its own gardens, lots of rooms and a really awesome bar. It was a ways from downtown but the hostel was nice enough to pick people up and drop them off at the closest tram stop. If anyone ever goes to Nice, Villa Saint Exupery is the place to stay.

Anyways, on Saturday morning we got up bright and early, got some breakfast and headed into town. Our first stop was the fruit and flower market in the center of town where Stephen and I bought some of the best fruit we have ever had, and then we all grabbed lunch at a local cafe where we had a 3 course meal of seafood for 16 Euro each. After eating, and stopping at a local tourist shop to get bathing suits (HCL and Chris were brave and opted for the euro suit), we took our first dip in the Mediterranean. The sea was a perfect blend of green and blue -just what I had remembered from being there 5 years earlier-, I tried to take a ton of pictures of it, but no matter how many I took it couldn't capture the beauty of it all. After a couple of hours of swimming and laying on the pebble beach we headed back to the hostel to get ready for a night of luxury and gambling at the world famous Monte Carlo Casino in the principality of Monaco.

We showered and got ultra dressed up and then headed to the train station to catch a train to Monaco. The ride there was amazing, the sun was setting and we passed through multiple cliff filled coves with beautiful villas up in the hills, the French Riveria really is perfect. Once we got to Monaco is started raining, but even through the bad weather you could tell that this city (or country?) was one of the nicest places I've ever been to. The streets were beautiful and lined with amazing shops and restaurants and it all was up on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. It was truly filled with luxury and beauty. We found our way to the Monte Carlo and after hearing and reading about the strict dress code (and then dressing up in suits and a cute dress) found that it was a little more relaxed than we had anticipated. Either way we had a great time. The building (which doesn't allow photos) was amazing, everything is gold plated and decorated like I imagine the royal palace was. We gambled for a bit, Chris C. even won 100 Euros on the slot machine, I won 10 cents and decided to keep the slip for a scrap book rather than cashing in. Once we got our fill of gambling we headed back to Nice and hung out at the hostel bar for the rest of the night. Thanks to some collective creativity, we came up with a story for why we were all so dressed up and told people that is was HCL's bachelor party and we were the wedding party, and I was the best man....for some reason everyone believed this, and we spent the rest of the night cheers-ing to the wedding and trying to keep our stories straight.

Sunday we woke up early again got some breakfast (tried to avoid people we had been lying to the whole night before) and headed back to our usual beach to go swimming one last time before it was time to head back to Geneva. After swimming for a while and then drying off in the Provencal sun we got another amazing meal of fish, mussels... and all the things we would NEVER be able to afford in Switzerland, and headed back to the train station to hop a train to Geneva. This time the train ride was only 6 hours long (thank god, another 12 hour train ride could have been the end of us) and we arrived back in Geneva at around 11 pm. What was a random weekend trip, ended up being a jaunt to one of the most beautiful places any of us have ever been and a great bonding experience. I don't know when I'll be able to get back to Nice, but I do know it needs to happen sometime soon.

Studying abroad....forever.

(Some of the Genève family...read on for details)

I have yet to update my blog about my trip to Nice, France & Monaco but I promise, it is coming!

Things have been great in Switzerland and the time has been flying by, I can't believe my internship is 2/3rds of the way over and that my time is Europe is already half over, it isn't a good feeling. I'm sure I'll be happy to see family and friends and get back to school, but I have this nagging suspicion that I'll be wishing I was in Genève the whole time. I realized how sad I'm going to be to have this trip end this weekend, most of the interns went out of town (off to Zermatt or Zurich for the weekend) so I was left with the usual group (or family as we like to call ourselves), and I wouldn't have had it any other way. The weekend was filled with all things ordinary: watching movies and tv shows in Jack's room, walking the streets of Genève, markets in France and going to the Natural History Museum, and it was perfect. As we were enjoying our lazy weekend, Heidi and I realized that we had just a little over a month left of our study abroad, after discussing this at some length we then realized that not only will we be leaving Europe, but we will be leaving all of our new Ohio State and U. of Washington friends as well. While I may have only known this group of people for 5 weeks, I feel like they've always been apart of my life...I think there's something about study abroad that makes you connect with people faster than in any other situation. Heidi and I began questioning what our lives will be like when we won't have someone around to refer to as Zambo, or Jack to make us laugh or Chris to look like he just walked out of a GQ ad, and we decided that it won't be good. So the question for now is, how to study abroad forever...if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Besides thinking way too much about the end of the trip, I've been making more travel plans and am so excited for the upcoming weeks! Jack and I bought tickets to go to Prague, which is the one place I REALLY wanted to see, and I cannot wait, and a group of us will be heading to Zermatt, Switzerland to see the Matterhorn and tromp around the Alps, I can't wait. Things are also in the process of being planned for my family's trip out to Europe, we have the hotels in Genève and Paris picked out and are starting to look for a place in Rome. Daniel and I have been discussing our travel plans as well and have been looking up islands off the coast of France and Spain to go to. Part of me doesn't want the internship to end and part of me wants it to speed up just so I can go to all of these wonderful places. I can't wait!

Work has been good, Heidi and I are both building new websites for our organization and are prepping for the UNECE (UN Economic Commission of Europe) meeting this weekend and early next week. Our organization is having a side event at the meetings where Heidi and I will be special rapporteurs and will have to write a report that will be presented to the office of the UNECE, it is all very exciting, slightly stressful and extremely terrifying. It is nice that things are picking up again at the office, time goes way faster when you have things to do that don't revolve around facebook, checking your email every five minutes, or....updating your blog. Alright back to work.

Madrid, Spain

I've been a blogging failure the past couple of weeks, sorry for going so long without an update. The past 3 weeks or so has been a blast, I'm still enjoying my internship (although there is significantly less to do since the UNHRC came to an end) and am having fun hanging out with the other interns from Ohio State and U. of Washington. We've been continually exploring Genève and all it has to offer, while continually becoming poorer and poorer - things are expensive in Switzerland.

Two weekends ago I went on my first trip out of Switzerland (besides some day trips to France) and went to Madrid, Spain to meet up with my friend Daniel from high school who is currently studying abroad in Santander, Spain. It was an AMAZING and hectic trip.

I worked a half day on Thursday and left from work with my massive backpack and headed to the Genève airport where I caught my direct flight to Madrid. Everything was going smoothly until I landed in Madrid and my phone ran out of minutes, luckily I had just talked to Daniel and we had made plans to meet right outside of customs. Once I got my things and headed out of customs Daniel was no where to be found. I spent the next hour and a half roaming the airport and cursing my phone which at this point had died and was completely useless. I finally found a pay phone and after some issues with the Spanish directions figured out how to call Daniel, five or so calls (adding up to 100 US dollars) and another hour later (2 1/2 hours in total) Daniel and I figured out that we were at different terminals. Daniel being the smart cookie that he is figured out how to get to my terminal and we were finally off to our hostel, just a little later than anticipated.

Once at our hostel (Las Musas) we checked into our room and immediately headed to the nearest Plaza for some food and much needed Sangria. After eating we ended up meeting up with our friend Tia who had just moved to Madrid for a couple of months to be an Au Pair and spent the rest of the evening catching up on things in front of the royal palace and then walking around the Plaza Mayor.

The next morning Daniel & I woke up bright and early to grab some breakfast and then head to the Reina Sofìa museum. At the museum we got to see some amazing Spanish art, including Picasso's Guernica, which brought both of us to tears. After the museum we got lunch, and in true Spanish fashion it was the biggest lunch I have ever had, and then went back to the hostel to take a siesta. --Siestas by the way are the most brilliant things ever and I'm seriously considering lobbying for them in the USA when I get back.-- After we had finished our naps we headed back out on the town to see the main cathedral and walk through the palace gardens, both of which were absolutely beautiful. And once again in true Spanish fashion at 9 pm we then met up with Tia and went out for a dinner filled with sangria and tapas. After dinner we went into another part of Madrid to watch a Flamenco dance. I had never had the chance to experience Flamenco before and was AMAZED by the dancing. There was a band of around 6 men who were singing and playing Spanish music as three women performed the most amazing, intense and passionate dances I have ever seen. Needless to say after leaving the show I was convinced that I needed to take up Flamenco lessons. Once again, staying true to Spanish form after the show we proceeded to stay out in Madrid until 5 AM roaming the streets, drinking sangria and getting a feel for Madrid.

Even after such a late night Daniel, Tia and I were troopers and woke up early the next morning to head to another museum, this time it was the Prado where we got to see some more amazing Spanish art like Goya, El Greco & Velazquez. We walked around for a couple of hours before getting lunch at a small restaurant and sampling a traditional Spanish fare of paella (a mixture of rice and seafood). After lunch Daniel and I headed to the royal palace to see a military band show that was playing for the weekend, while at first the music and bands were interesting, because of our late night the night before, Daniel and I had trouble staying awake and decided it was time for another siesta. We got up an hour later, refreshed and decided to go to our usual cafe in the nearest plaza to get some tapas and sangria. We stayed out late talking and soaking up the sights and sounds of Madrid. Early the next morning I flew out and after missing my flight and being stuck at the airport for 6 hours I was finally back in Genève (it wouldn't be traveling unless something went wrong right?).

The trip to Madrid was amazing. Thanks to Daniel I learned a ton about Spanish history and culture and was really able to appreciate my trip. It was really great to get out of Genève and experience a culture that is so polar opposite (remember the Swiss are reserved, everything closes at early and they love following rules). As strange as it seems, even though I couldn't communicate with anyone there (my spanish is no bueno if you will), I felt so connected with Madrid and the people there. It is a place so filled with life, passion, art and history and was a great thing to experience. I cannot wait to go back to Spain at the end of my trip and get to experience and learn more about Spanish culture. It was a place that I had never really had the urge to visit (not that I would have turned it down) but now that I've been I have a feeling it will always have a special place in my heart.