Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Today, well I guess yesterday, I left the United States on a three month study abroad trip to Switzerland. All of my emotions leading up to my departure were drastically different. One day I would be ecstatic to be going abroad, the next day I wouldn't want to leave all that I have back in Washington.

After Josh dropped me off at the airport, and many tears had fallen, Maddie and I set out on our European adventure...3 hours before the flight was scheduled to leave. Yeah, so we were a little early, no big deal. A 3 hour wait led to a 10 hour plane ride, where we were served dinner and breakfast and got to watch an array of different movies. I chose to first watch The Social Network, then proceeded that with Going the Distance...which sadly wasn't working properly so I had to settle for Eat Pray Love. A nap, reading, and playing on my iPod then occurred and we had landed safely in London.

Between our landing in London and our departure from there we had about an hour and a half. An hour and a half to get through customs, security, and the mall-esque terminal to end up at our gate with only about 15 minutes before we boarded. Also in this time I had to make a quick call back to the States on a pay phone because, silly me, I forgot to tell my bank that I would be in Europe for three months! I didn't want my account to freeze, since I had to use my debit card immediately after entering Switzerland, so my dad, wonderful man that he is, took my call at 4am PST and the called the bank for me.

About 30mins later than scheduled we left London to head to Geneva. This flight luckily was only an hour and a half long, so it didn't take much time to travel. Once we got to Geneva we had to go through customs, grab our luggage and find representatives from the university we're attending. Luckily they knew French because when we had to buy our half-fare pass and train ticket, we would have been clueless. Not only was the lady speaking rapid fire French, she was also really slow at making our half-fare passes. Maybe because you talk so fast?

Regardless, we got our tickets and literally had to jump on the train. We made it just in time for the train and Colby, Maddie, and I had to jump on the train, while the girl helping us was throwing us our luggage. Only 3 more hours left until Brig. This consisted of accidentally sitting in first class, getting kicked out of first class, having to move EIGHT pieces of luggage two trains from where first class was, not having a map to figure out when we were supposed to get off, and having to throw our luggage off the train to make sure we'd get everything off in time.

Then it was an extremely short van ride to the residence halls, we got all checked in. Then it hit me. I'm going to be living in Switzerland for three months. During the whole time we were traveling it felt like I was only going to be gone for the weekend, just like it was another vacation. Nope, three months of school and traveling in Europe. After gathering my emotions Maddie, Colby, and I headed out to find something to eat since we hadn't had food since the flight to London. We found some delicious pizza and ended up paying 7.50 Swiss Franks for water. Lesson 1: Always ask for still water or else they'll give you sparkling.

Then unpacking as well as trying to figure out how I can watch TV shows since Hulu, all television stations, and Netflix all don't work anywhere else but the United States. Now I'm sitting in my bed starting this blog to share with everyone what I hope to be a grand adventure in Europe. It's been a long day, so it is most definitely time to go to bed.

- Love -