time flies...

So it's been a week since I posted. I sincerely cannot believe that time is going SO quickly. I've been so caught up in all the fun and crazy things that have happened that there are a few items of not-so-fun things I have been meaning to share. First, my flat iron got fried. so that is why my hair looks curly in all the pics....it's a shower at night, a bun and curls in the morning...jealous much that my hair does that? That's what I thought ;) but really. I'm sad and still mourning the death of my dear pink flat iron. Number two: A lot of places don't take credit cards. Odd, but lucky I can use an ATM. (Quick shout out to my wonderful mama who loves me and also loves depositing dollars in there) Three: I have a cold again. And that's just sad. But it hasn't affected my ability to participate at all which I am grateful for. Four: I pretty much WAY underpacked on the contact solution situation. But don't worry I'm amazing and have gotten it all figured out. Five: We only have a week left. Since it has been a week since I last posted I'll just give you a run-down on what we've been doing on each day.

Monday: Dornach to visit the Goetheanum-described by our professors as the "closest to Hogwarts you will ever see" but I beg to differ. It felt more like being on a fluffy zonked-out pink cloud-I seriously felt so relaxed it was bizarre. They study Anthroposophy there, check out this site if you want more info. The architecture is STUNNING I know you will enjoy it. P.S. It's NOTHING like Hogwarts.

Tuesday:Fribourg and the Funiculaire aka the "Poo Choo"...a train that is essentially and completely powered by POOP. You read correctly. It was nasty smelling. We also did a BAREFOOT pilgrimage on St. James all the way to the Cathedral where we climbed the debated 372/364/387 stairs up a gigantic spiral staircase to an INCREDIBLE view of the city. Also here we shopped at H&M where I got a skirt, swimsuit and a dress and two headbands. I think I may return the skirt though I haven't decided yet.

Wednesday: We were supposed to visit Lauterbrunnen Valley but it was raining so we went to the Vitra Interior Design Museum which I fell in love with, I want a pretty design house!!!!! I loved the pretty clocks, the amazing pillows, the statues, interestingly shaped couches and chairs and tables, it was beautiful. Pictures to follow on FB. Regrettably most of you will probably see them in person before they are on the web, because we found out that uploading pictures and skype makes the internet crash horribly and then everyone gets angry. So be patient! Also this was another exciting adventure this day; I actually bought my H&M dress here and had a bag that I had bought a book from the museum in. So when I went to the register to pay, I accidentally left the museum bag (which had my book, also my camera and my umbrella in it) at the cash register. So we continued on and walked the streets, met the group back at the bus stop, hopped on the bus, and as we were riding I saw this SWEET poster I wanted to take a picture of when I realized I don't have my camera! AHHHHH! So upon this realization I turn to Bob and told him the bag had my camera to which he says "go". Immediately I pushed the stop button on the bus, hopped off turned and gave Karlie a "come with me pleeeeaase" face, she hopped off, and we set off on our quest. We had 20 minutes to go back, find the bag, and race back to the train platform from where we had a 3 hour train ride home. We literally sprinted 8 blocks back to H&M where I ran to the cash register and asked in out of breath broken German but mostly sign language, if they had my bag WHICH THEY DID. Long story short, grabbed bag, shouted "Danka" a thousand times, sprinted full out with our backpacks unibomber-style strapped and clipped onto our backs through the city, onto the bus where an extremely nice man helped us find our train station and platform on his iphone, booked it through the station neatly hurdling 5-6 trailing suitcases and onto the train with 4 minutes to spare. BOOM.

Thursday: BERN! THE MOST AMAZING MUSEUM EVER EVER EVER EVER. The Museum of Natural History. Designed by Claude Khun. Website here. He is my idol guys, his work at the museum was amazing! He actually literally designs THE MUSEUM, as in the displays etc, as well as the posters, advertisements, brochures, etc. Guys I loved this. I bought a book of his work because I love it so much. One more time: I REALLY LOVED THIS DAY. OH. Also we saw the National Weaponry Museum, and the ALBERT EINSTEIN MUSEUM. It was sweet.

Friday: Lauterbrunnen!!! THE PRETTIEST PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH YOU COULD SEE PICTURES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Over 72 waterfalls in this gorgeous, lush, green, flower-filled, cow-filled beautiful incredible valley/canyon/mountains. Oh man, I loved it. I sat in a field and enjoyed the sunny weather and did my assignment for the day. P.S. we took a crazy cool Gondola to get up there. Actually this is our methods for transportation to get there. 10 Minute walk, Cog Train, Train, Train, Bus, Bus, Tram, Gondola, Hike. WHOOOO. We do a lot of riding on trains, just FYI. We have been teaching our friend Ryan (who didn't grow up in Utah) a lot of games which he finds totally fascinating. It's pretty awesome.

Saturday: COW FIGHTING. This was insane. we hiked up to what is essentially the boonies of Switzerland (which of course is gorgeous) to a field where 60 plus pregnant cows were herded into an area roped off with what is actually just twine on stakes where they moan and hoof the ground, and snort and FIGHT. Yes they actually smack heads with their horns and push each other down the hill and fight and yeah. It was wicked cold that day. We BBQ'd in the mountains and had Fondue for dinner which was YUCKY. I didn't like it.

Sunday: We went to this sweeeet Stefan Sagmeister show, it was AWESOME! He is a fantastic world-renound designer who I very much like. Any of you who know me well know I have a sweet book of his (the one where his face is a die-cut and has booklets that can be placed behind his face to change the appearance) and the show was sweet. Then we went to Geneva and hit up the boardwalk where we jumped an Olympic height platform (like 10 meters/33 feet), played beach volleyball and jumped off island docks. ALSO Geneva is having this music festival in a while and to advertise they have placed 20 pianos around the city for people to play and I played one! Then all these people came and were taking pictures and videos and stuff and then apparently I'm going to be on this website/facebook, SWEET! We hauled back to Au Bel Air and ate dinner and started watching Sound of Music.

Today: We went to Yvoire, France, I went to France!!! Here we did a group project evaluating Customer Experience which was interesting, layed on the grass, I had a French Crepe and Gelato, and then boated home. And now I'm blogging.

Guys this is crazy awesome, I'm sorry I've been a bad blogger and I love you all.

Ali