Yes...Switzerland was rainy...but it was also one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen :)

Hello all...first of all my apologies for the delays on this post, it just seems as though there's so much to do! 


I left off with a wonderful weekend experienced in the beautiful Capalbio and the crazy Boar Festival! Not too much happened that week, I just had classes.  The only major thing that happened was that I got approved to be involved in community service in Florence.  I'm really excited about this as I hope it will help me get to know some of the locals better.  It's a little funny though because the community service project I got chosen for is the Ars de Fides association that coincidentally offers tours of the most major churches in Florence free of charge to English speaking tourists haha.  Unfortunately this means that I have to memorize about 10 pages of info about the San Lorenzo church, ideally before my first shift next Wednesday!! Wish me luck!! haha


Now on to the good stuff...made my first trip out of Italy this past weekend!! The trip started on Friday with me leaving my apartment at 9:15 in the morning, giving myself plenty of time to make it to the train station for my 10 am train to Montreux.  Silly me however remembered that I forgot to take my passport with me about half way to the train station and had to literally run home to get it.  But don't worry!! I made it to the train station with about 10 minutes to spare and got on my train safe and sound...made it to Milan (almost got attacked by a pigeon at the train station!)...and then finally pulled into the Montreux train station (after seeing some beautiful scenery on the way) right at 3:23 to find the lovely Nishita waiting for me!! I was so happy to see her! However she did make me feel like a bum a little since she looked so amazing in her suit and heels and I was dressed down in jeans and a t-shirt haha...but alas...story of  my life :)


We proceeded to take the first train up to her school (Swiss Hotel Management School) (which by the way is on the side of a mountain!!!) and arrived there about 30 minutes later :) Now for those of you who don't know the exact layout of Switzerland, Montreux is a city that is on the opposite end of Lake Geneva from Geneva and is a beautiful place to live with a lake right there for the summer water sports and mountains all around it available for skiing in the winter! Nishi's school is in a small town on the side of the mountain called Caux and is housed in the Caux Palace.  The whole school has spectacular views of the surrounding country and in general is just amazing! Sorry to say this Missouri State but I actually found myself thinking "why didn't I go to school here instead??" 

That's me pointing to Caux Palace from down by the lake! 


After taking a tour of the school, we sat down with Nishi's hilarious best friend Mugs and had dinner at their French restaurant where all the students are trained in their first year in the classic style of French service (in case you haven't ever eaten at a high class French restaurant the service is really difficult and intense!!), I had the poached salmon and it was delicious! That night we started the evening by having a cocktail in the schools bar and club called the Grotto and then taking the last train down to the city with a ton of her school friends to go to this club called Millisime.  Not gonna lie...I was a little apprehensive cause of the weird name but this was probably the nicest club I've ever been to.  All of their drinks were amazing (although super expensive!!) and all of her friends were so nice with sharing their drinks as well...such a fun night!


During my stay Nishi and I stayed with one of her friends in downtown Montreux who's apartment was in a super good location right near Millesime and the train station, we went out again on Saturday night (although this time with the girls) but I left a little early cause I was soooo tired.  We would have done more in Montreux on Saturday but unfortunately it was raining the whole day :( So instead we decided to hope for better weather on Sunday....too bad it was raining then too! But instead of chickening out we decided to brave the rain and the cold to go see the Freddy Kruger statue!! Oh wait...haha...I mean the Freddie Mercury statue...and for those of you who like me didn't know who that was till I looked him up on wikipedia just now, he was the lead singer of Queen!! who knew?! here's the wikipedia on him if you would like to read :)


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Mercury


Unfortunately after walking around Montreux for a bit we headed back up to school for my last few hours to spend with Nishi in Montreux :( I left the next morning and Switzerland was so sad I was leaving that it cried/rained haha...however good news!!! I have made plans to go back and visit over Thanksgiving weekend because Nishita is in this really cool performance thing at SHMS that weekend called International Day! It is on November 27 and this chick is going to be there! I'm so excited to go back and I'm really hoping we can work out a weekend for Nishi to come visit me in Florence as well so we can go to all the Jersey Shore clubs together haha....


So now that you have heard about my wonderful weekend in Switzerland, there's only a few things left to tell you!!!


One: I have been seriously thinking lately about continuing to stay abroad after I graduate in December (my family is all probably thinking "Oh no she's gonna pull a Maureen!" haha).  So, today in my Organizational Behavior in the Hospitality Industry class I talked to the professor and asked him his thoughts on American students working abroad.  He told me that while it was unfortunate that I wasn't fluent in any other languages, he does have some connections in the UK and Australia that he can set me up with so I can start networking! He also said that in his opinion he thinks that a good place for me to start out would be in Australia...so ya, just a thought, but now I'm getting really excited about possible working abroad!!


Two: I have been very very busy booking and booking trips!! Here is the updated list of trips I am planning on going on...(bolded means they're for sure happening!!)


Sept 23-25-Tuscan Maremma free excursion with SAI
Sept 30-Oct 2-Sicily with Maria
Oct 7-8-Venice with Maria
Oct 9-Wine Producer field trip with class (only not confirmed because I haven't paid the 65 euro deposit yet!)
Oct 13-16-Dublin, Ireland with Stacey
Oct 22-29-Morocco with Stacey and Sarah
Oct 30-Nov 2-Munich, Germany to see the Neuschwanstein Castle
Nov 5-Parma with SAI
Nov 19-20-Rome with SAI
Nov 25-28-Montreux, Switzerland for International Day!
Dec 2-5-London for Harry Potter tour :)
Dec 8-11-Paris and Amsterdam with Stacey!


So for those of you who haven't realized this....ALL MY FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!! That means no more endless searching on Ryanair, Easyjet, Skyscanner, Momondo, or any of those other budget airline flight websites that get soooo annoying after a while :)


Till next time my dears :)