European Tour: First Days in Riva

When we finally got to the Casa (what we all called the house), we were given an orientation and a tour. We picked roommates and whether we wanted to live in the Casa or an apartment in town. The downside of living in an apartment: no internet, have to walk to the Casa for class and meals (rain or shine). The downside of living in the Casa: our "RA" lived there (he got fired later however) and you were more supervised. After Kathryn and I decided we should live together, we chose the house.

Our room, and Kathryn

The Classroom

Which I'm glad we did, considering there were many a day we were woken up by our professor announcing that class was starting in 2 minutes. I would fly out of the bed, put on some slippers, grab my stuff and get into a seat. Taking the bathroom break time to brush my teeth and get something for breakfast later...so good planning on our part, Kathryn.

Anyways, I did the obligatory pictures for Mom and Dad and oohhed and ahhed over the cool things in the house.

The classroom was a big room that had a balcony at the back (straight across from where you walked in), it had 4 bedrooms coming off of it. One to the left, bottom of the picture, which was mine and Kathryn's. One to the top left was a 3 bedroom where Steph, Meg and Courtney were. 3 bedroom to the top right where Eric, Rob and Ben... lived. And then a 2 bedroom @ the bottom right where Rex and Todd were.

Road leading into town

Looking towards the town

 From the balcony that was off the back of the classroom you could look side to side and see the main road that went in and out of Riva. You can also see the mountains that were on either side of Riva San Vitale, which were part of the Swiss Alps. That's right, I said Alps...

After getting settled down a little bit, we decided we should christen the town and go out. Now, Riva is not a hotbed for Saturday night activity. There are 3 in the town, you can sit in the front of one and see the other 2. The population is 2,489...and they definitely notice when 30 some odd college kids roll into town. I'm pretty sure the bars are open for us (being the VT students) and of course the local drunks who became our friends.

 

 As you can see from the pictures, we literally would take over the bar when we entered. I would say that at least 5-10 people went to a bar every night (minus the nights before midterms or finals). The locals would dance with us, and Karoke night was definitely a favorite...even when the local lady took over to belt out Italian Opera. While the rest of us were singing Britney Spears...

Some pictures from our tour de Riva, where Jeffrey (the aforementioned fired RA) that took us through the town and gave us some history.

Oldest church in Switzerland

Center of Town

To be continued...Next up: European Tour: Lugano

European Tour: Getting There

I'll start @ the beginning (always a good place to start), we left out of Dulles Airport. And since I'm from Northern Virginia, not only did I have my parents there (like most of my fellow students), I had my entourage. I think it totaled 9 people: Brad, Victor, Richie, Jay, Bobby, Ashley, Christy and my parents. A little excessive, no? But that's okay, I knew my friends loved me and were sad to see me go. We took the obligitory picture while waiting in the long line to check in.

Christy, Me and Ashley

After checking in, making it through security, hanging out waiting for the plane and boarding...we were finally ready for Europe. If you know me, you know that I'm usually asleep before the plane even taxis onto the runway. But this time I stayed up for a little bit, probably a combo of the nerves and the excitement. The inner photogropher in me snapped this shot of the sunset from the plane.

How puurty

We made our way from Washington, D.C. to Paris, France and Charles De Gaulle. I have to say that it's probably my most hated airport (and that's saying something because I despise Atlanta). But I don't think we had many problems on the way there...mostly on the way back, so we'll cover that later. We had a bit of a layover in Paris, so we did what any big group does. Found a corner and piled all of our shit in it. Asking people to watch it as you went to the bathroom, got a magazine to read, food to eat, etc. Some people decided it would be a crucial time for a nap...

Kristin (with her mask on) and Kathryn catching up on sleep.

Bryan and Maggie hitting the hay.

I had already slept on the airplane, hence me not sleeping in the airport and being able to snap embarrassing pictures of people sleeping.

I won't lie. I don't really remember the plane ride to Milan, Italy. The next thing I really remember is walking through the Milan airport to get our bags. There was a Nun waiting at the baggage claim. She tried to talk to me (and a few others) in Italian. Now, they did try to prepare us for the trip...they made us take a semester of Italian before we went. However, the teacher was like my grandma and I wrote in Spanish most of the time and still got an A...so the whole conversation in Italian wasn't working for me. I just smiled and nodded at the Nun and ran away as soon as I got my bags.

We then made our way to the charter bus that waited outside to drive us to Riva. I remember being scared @ some points on the drive cause you're thinking "Is this HUGE bus really going to go under this little bridge?" or "Are we really going 60 mph around this curve?" but nevertheless, we made it there safely.

Out of all the things in my blurry memory that I remember the most was the feeling of pulling up to the Villa Maderni and just being in awe. Amazed by how cool it looked, amazed that I was in Switzerland and would live there for the next 4 months and amazed that the girl who doesn't like change, or to be away from her friends and family had actually signed up for this.

To be continued...next up: First days in Riva

A New Blog Series...

I kind of wish I had started this blog when I did my study abroad in Europe. There are some pictures I look at now and just think "What in the hell is that?!" But if I would've written in down then, I would know now. My mom encouraged me to write it all down before "my mind goes" ...you know, at the ripe old age of 24 :p So, I thought...maybe I will.

So every Friday I'm going to write about all the cities we traveled to, about our professors, about the workload, and about the awesome people I met along the way.

Yay for reliving the best 4 months of my life! :)

Um...Oopsies?

The summer before my junior year of high school, I got into a bad car accident.

I was making a left hand turn out of our neighborhood on a rainy day. I guess since it hadn't rained in awhile the oil from the road was on the surface, and then add the rain into the equation and I started to hydroplane as I was turning. If I was just on a regular road, I probably would've turned the car around a few times and it wouldn't have been that big a deal. However, there was a median there and my back left tire hit it. Which, being in a top-heavy 1994 Ford Explorer, made my car roll. I ended up doing a complete 360, the car landing back on it's tires (Thank God, I didn't have to crawl out) and actually facing the oncoming traffic.  I remember my first thought being "OH SHIT, my parent's are going to KILL me." And then I worried about calling my friend Reema, who I was on the way to retrieve before the accident. A nice lady went around collecting the things that had been thrown out of the car, my purse, my CDs, everything that wasn't secured down pretty much. A nice man, who reminded me of my grandpa, stood next to the window and talked to me until the paramedics arrived.

So while we're waiting, I look down and see blood everywhere. And I'm just like "Where the hell is that coming from?" I felt no pain, whatsoever. I checked my head, nothing. Checked the places where my internal organs are...nothing. I then looked down and saw something (for the lack of a better word) fatty looking. It kind of looked like raw chicken, but more white. I then looked for the source of that and realized that the blood and chicken were coming from my elbow. At this point the paramedics arrived and are asking me all kinds of questions. What's today's date? What's your name, etc. And then they get the back board and open the door and start talking about how they're going to get me onto said back board when the passenger's side is completely crushed in. I, having an irrational fear of being picked up, FREAKED out. I was completely calm until the moment the paramedics suggested they were going to pick me up. At that time I started with the "I'm fine. I can walk. See, look at me move my legs!!" To which the paramedics FREAKED out at my wiggling legs and were like "STOP MOVING! YOU COULD HAVE A BACK INJURY."

They finally figured out how to get me on the back board with one person coming in from the driver's side door and the other by the driver's side passenger's door. The whole time I'm insisting that I'm fine, moving different body parts and their yelling @ me telling me to stop moving. When they finally get me on the back board, they completely secured me down so I couldn't move a thing (how rude) and carried me to the ambulance.

As I'm laying the ambulance, they're thinking I have a head injury cause of something going on with my eyes. I think it was just the fact that I was FREAKED from them picking me up and that I was just in a car accident. But they're getting ready to transport me when a police officer walks onto the ambulance. He cites me for not being able "to maintain control of my vehicle" asks me to sign said ticket and says "See you in court!" I was shocked, and so was the paramedic. Who began to chew the police officer out for wanting me to sign it @ the time, under the circumstances and especially because I was a minor.

I got to the hospital, got all the obligatory tests, and nothing was wrong...other than my elbow. The most pain I have ever felt in my life was when the nurse stuck the needle IN my elbow to numb it before she started stitching me up. I will admit I'm an emotional crier, TV, books, a lot makes me cry. But I'm not a crier when I'm in pain...I usually laugh @ myself and "walk it off." This is one of the only times I can remember tears streaming down my face and begging the lady to stop stabbing my insides with a needle. After she sews me up she goes "OK, let's go get an X-ray and make sure we got all the glass out." Uh...shouldn't we have done that BEFORE you stitched me up? Low and behold, there's glass in my elbow to which she says "That will work it's way out eventually..." Gee, thanks Lady.

I wish I had a better picture from the front of the car. Because I am sure glad I didn't have a passenger, I'm not sure what would've happened to them. The passenger side was the turning radius and was completely smushed throughout the accident. I know I'm definitely lucky, it could've ended way differently than me just having a messed up elbow (which I can tell when it's going to rain, and I can't lean on it cause I no longer have a "fat pad"). Sometimes I still have dreams about it. I don't know if I'd classify it as a nightmare. I just kind of get in the car accident and everything goes really slow again (which it did @ the time too) and I'm just like "Here I go again..." as my car rolls.

All in all, definitely turned out better than it could have. But I definitely think I'm done with the car rolling stunts...I'll leave that to the pros.

I believe my mother is mocking me...

Only he could pull this off...

Pop. 

In my Dad's PJ pants. 

Love him :)

Happy Birthday!!

She likes to keep her birthday on the downlow. I LOVE celebrating birthdays. So, as a comprise (not posting on Facebook), I decided to do a little blog post, so here it goes...

Happy Birthday Jen!!

My "judging people, watching ridiculous tivo'd tv, laughing @ random things @ random times, advice giver, bitching partner, walking buddy, going to National's games, laying by the pool, sarcastic, kind hearted" best friend.

Thanks for being my best friend and awesome roommate! I hope you have an amazing birthday! :)

Please don't kill me for posting pictures of you. I was actually proud that I found enough (where you're not running away or hiding) to use for this!