"Bich!"

Hey all! How's it going?!

Let me tell you- I had a wonderful weekend in Switzerland! At 6:15 pm Friday, Maude, Sean, Amanda and I grabbed our bags and made our way to the Hauptbahnhof. The ticket there was suprisingly cheap- 24 Euro with my BahnCard- and it wasn't a bad ride, either! Very scenic!! And I learned a lot of French vocabulary from Maude, haha. When we arrived in Neuchatel, Maude's brother already had a party in full swing. We cooked pasta, because we were starving, and starting playing some entertaining drinking games. We all went to bed pretty early, but we also had to wake up early the next day. Maude generously let me stay in her room- very cute! Her entire house is just so... European... I love it! And the view out of her backyard is the ALPS! Come on, how cool is that?!

We spent Saturday walking around Neuchatel. We went to the river and the market place, where Maude used to work. The "boss" gave us some free wine and proceeded to tell us that he can speak 10 languages. Maude said he was lying haha. Neuchatel really is beautiful- a lovely lake, with Alps in the distance and surrounded by rolling hills/baby mountains. Gorgeous! (see Facebook for pictures!)

Saturday night, all of Maude's friends came over and we grilled! We made shishkabobs and the ladies (Amanda, Maude and me) made a delicious pasta salad that everyone loved! Again, I went to bed early, but Maude was up with her friends until 5 am and every 20 minutes she'd wake me up with her yelling... but it was funny. Also that night, Maude's friends wouldn't stop yelling "bich"- which means "deer" in French, so now it's a nice inside joke I have with some cool Swiss people haha.

Sunday was our tourist-y day.... Maude, Felix, Lionel, Fabris, Sean, Amanda and I all went to Creaux du Van, which is sort of like Neuchatel's Grand Canyon haha. The drive up the mountain was crazy and then we had to hike through herds of free-roaming cows to get to the place. Very fun! I got tons of sweet pictures (see Facebook album!) and had a really nice day. We ended it by eating traditional Swiss fondue and it was delicious!!! Did you know you're supposed to drink something warm, like tea, with fondue so that you don't get a huge ball of congealed cheese in your intestines? I didn't!

The train ride back was pretty hectic as it was more expensive to go from Switzerland to Germany and we didn't buy our tickets beforehand. We ended up missing our connection to Freiburg in Basel and had to wait 1.5 hours in Switzerland and got back at midnight. Though, it wasn't too bad. Maude's best friend Marilyn came back with us and is here for a week and she's really cool. She knows as much German as I do French (which is obviously not a lot) and she doesn't know English so we communicate in a funny way. But she insists that my French is great (ha.) and Maude says I learn quickly...but I can't speak French at all, I can just say things haha.

Anyway, Monday was a boring day in class, although I am trying to pay more attention in class haha. I decided during the day that I wanted to cook pasta for Sean, Maude and Marilyn, so after class, Sean and I went and bought supplies. After that we went to the river for a little while because it was so hot and humid- very nice and relaxing. I hung around in my room and napped for a little bit then around 6:45, the cooking commenced! I cooked spinach and ricotta tortellini and sauteed mushrooms, broccoli and onions for the basil sauce, with cheese sprinkled on top, of course. Then I made a really nice tomato and mozzarella salad. Delish! I made too much so Kevin got leftovers when he came back from his run, which he appreciated. It was really nice to make a meal for some friends :)

Last night, we went out to a little bar called Brasil and chilled on the couches for about two hours. "The girls"- Maude, Sarah, Marilyn and I- went a little early and while we were there, it started pouring rain so we weren't sure if everyone else would come. But they made it (.5 hour late and soaking wet)! Later, we went to Agar. I said "Let's leave now!" while it wasn't raining and half hour later when we actually left, it wasn't raining but 5 minutes into the walk, it was pouring. The group was 4 girls and 4 guys.... 2 guys had umbrellas........and shared them with the two other guys hahaha. So the girls were soaked- that was cool. But we all had a really fun time! We got back late, and went to bed late. Today, I was the only one in class haha.

Tonight, Maude is supposedly cooking dinner- I hope so! Otherwise, I have something planned haha. Also tonight, Maude's friend Jeanne is coming for the night, so we'll all be going out.

Anyway, I'm pretty much 100% better now. Yay! And I'm really jealous that my mom and sister saw Harry Potter last night. I have to wait until Sunday night to see it in Freiburg in English.... :(

So I have a 12 day break coming up between July and August and I'm trying to plan a little solo-trip through North Eastern Germany! I'm pretty excited. I'll let you know how the planning goes...

Ahh I guess that's all for now! Until next time...
Cheers,
Alaina