Wow I am a bad blogger

I am super bad at being diligent with this. Sorry! I don't have my pictures plugged in so this will be without sweet pics for now. Well to quickly catch up since Switzerland...classes are still going well. We had midterms this past week and I think they went well. Now I am on Spring Break! whoohoo.
I am currently sitting in a insanely awesome hotel room in Venice waiting on my parents to go to breakfast. Since when was I the one who woke my parents up...? switching roles for sure. Anyway, we got here yesterday and just walked around since a lot had already closed but we did go into the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition of his machines and his inventions. I went this summer but we needed to keep my ADD dad occupied. Then we had a great dinner, I actually had fish!! first time since i've been in Italy because Florence has NO fish ANYWHERE. They are too territorially proud to share traditional foods around here.

This past week I was lucky enough for Cole to come visit during his spring break. He had a great apartment for a week through the HomeAway deal where people rent out homes and such. (such a great deal!) We tore up the Pitti Palace. We went one day when it was raining and saw all the interior things like the apartments and some other painting exhibits. The next day (his 3rd) we climbed to the top of the Duomo and spent hours in the extensive Pitti Palace gardens. I am always envious of the Palace or Villa gardens, they did them right back in the day. To reverse a bit, Cole arrived on Saturday and I exhausted him even further by dragging him up to Piazza Michaelangelo (the one that looks over the city) and up to San Miniato which is right above the Piazza. So we had a lot of walking while he was here.

My awesome friends and I have found a unbelievable bar, The Art Bar. I am not joking when I say they have the best Pina Colada (even beat mexico) and Mojitos (sorry Greg) I have ever had in my life. So we are making it a weekly event. Since we found it the week before, I had to bring Cole to experience this place with us and also convinced Rebekah to come! It was a great end to my midterms.

(I realize this post is scattered, I am trying to summarize or else I will just blab on and on)
Thursday, my parents arrived and we all went to dinner at a place Cole and I discovered on his street. It was the best meal i've had in Italy thus far. Apparently it is very famous for the elite people such as Sting, John Travolta and some others had pictures up in there. The owner was very eclectic, a very refreshing personality. I wish I had taken a picture of the bracelets he had not taken off in 22 years. He buys something from places he travels and keeps it on so pretty much he is a walking documentary of his life in my mind.

Ok, I think the parents are ready! finally! I am starving. I will try to post again sooner rather than in a few weeks haha. Sorry friends! Miss you all.
Love, LJ

A brief recap...

The amazing alps!

Sorry for the lack up updating! Somehow I seem to always get distracted when I am about to post.
I don't know where to begin. Well we went to Switzerland (Interlaken and Bern) last weekend. They have a special place in my heart now. I have never been so amazed by creation in my life. Everything just seems better when surrounded by mountains and fresh mountain air. We got to Bern Friday afternoon and decided to hang around there for a bit and explore since we had no clue what was even there. (reason being we decided we were going 1 week prior so didn't have much time to research things). That city is great, a lot to look at and a ton of great architecture. We decided to eat lunch there and quickly found out FOOD IS VERY EXPENSIVE there, even more so in Interlaken. We tried to find what we thought was a "traditional Swiss meal" ironically we did. We ate Rosti which is essentially hash browns topped with whatever you want. So delicious and thankfully fairly inexpensive. (meaning 23 CHF per plate, their currency is almost equal to the dollar)

I look gross since it was raining and early
but happy with my Starbucks!

 After our Bern escapades we took the 50 min train ride to Interlaken. Let me tell you, most beautiful scenery! EVERR. Tell me how it is possible for there to be a lake, so sailboats and water activities AND a snowy mountain with all the winter sports you could dream of in one place! pure bliss in other words. When we arrived we had a very short walk to a great Bed and Breakfast (yes rebekah and I are like an old married couple, weird) we found with super nice owners who helped us SO much since we were slightly clueless as to what we really wanted to do besides stare at the mountains. She pointed us to some places for dinner and a nice walk around Interlaken. Surprisingly it was not as cold as Milan was so it was nice to be outside. We found a friendly pub type place since we were still stuffed from lunch and had a local beer, super good. The next day we planned on going into the mountains and taking cable cars to Schilthorn which is one of the peaks but has a 360 lookout of the alps, sounded pretty amazing but it was 90.00 per person, little steep for college students. We resorted to going to Murren which is just one cable car down from that point but 40 less so definitely the better option. Especially because the smart person I am accidently lead us up what seemed to be just another pathway but was a steep road...needless to say we got our workout in and were sweating. BUT it lead us to a wonderful trail that was flat and took us back to where we needed to go anyway. It was a good mistake, we were able to see way more from up there and take some great pictures of the mountains. We found a place for lunch on a balcony looking at the mountains (although they were in every direction) rebekah got an insane burger made from local sausage or something? not really sure and I don't even know what I got but it was good and swiss. We finally made our way down to prepare for our night sledding adventure! We got so lucky, the place we stayed had winter clothes they let us borrow so we didn't have to pay a fortune for rentals. We were in a group of about 20, all american college students of course because we are the only idiots to sled down a dark mountain in the cold. It was a blast although I realized after that a part of my sled was broken causing me to have some steering difficulties. The best way to describe this sledding is mario cart. The guides told us that and they were not joking. I was always VERY bad at mario cart, ask Sophie. After the sledding there was a fodue dinner included which was SO delicious, how could cheese and anything be bad really. Finally the night was over and we crashed exhausted from exploring. The next day was unfortunately rainy and so cloudy no mountains were visible so we took an earlier train back to Bern. We were so lucky to have great weather on saturday! We had a few hours to kill in Bern so we went to the only open establishment....STARBUCKS! best moment of my life. not really, but I really enjoyed having what I consider normal coffee again, dirty chi latte :). The only bad thing about traveling in Europe is everything really shuts down on Sundays. I appreciate it in one sense but it is annoying when you just want to find some food. Ok enough about the weekend, writing about it is making me want to go again.

When in Italy? A lot of these were shared efforts.

We (meaning Rebekah, our great neighbors and friends Emma and Rachel) have started a great thing called Thursday dinners. We need a name for them. Last thursday we had a toaster-oven pizza party, actually turned out great! Who knew toaster ovens were so powerful. I also made some pasta with white pasta sauce (thank you Mrs. Carter for the wonderful recipe) and a few bottles of wine. (not a good idea before taking a train the next day, lesson learned) We planned to go see the Kings Speech but it was sadly cancelled which lead to wonderful things. Such as 80's night and finding an amazing pastry shop, even better than the "secret pastry shop". Last night we had a tomato soup and grilled cheese night with awesome oatmeal chocolate chip cookes shannon made with some cin-sugar apples. I have really embraced being able to cook here! Even if we don't have an over or processor or microwave or sharp knives haha. It's been a learning experience everyday.

 

We miss dryers. Our clothes are stiff.

This week was pretty good, read a good book for one of my classes and had an awesome "field trip" in my wine class to a gelato place to learn how "real" gelato is made. Big difference, changed how I taste gelato and ice cream now! Then we went to a really neat wine shop in their cellar for another lesson on how to decipher the Italian wine labels and regions and types etc. There is so much about Italian wine! I love it and have learned a lot already.

Well, I should get some work done and do something with myself. I am very ready for Cole to come on the 12th and my parents to come on the 18th!! Although, midterms are in that mix too but shouldn't be too stressful. I think Rebekah and I are going to visit the Uffizi tomorrow and be tourists for a day.

Miss and love y'all. Hope reading this has helped you procrastinate :)
Lauren Jane