I'll get back to blogging about my recent trips soon enough with Rome coming next, however there is a lot to be said today. I just finished my first business exam this morning, second exam since my French exam was last Tuesday after my trip to Rome. It was the Ethical Dimensions of International Business class so the exam was 12 pages of writing essays. Six questions were presented, I had to answer three and the answers needed to be four pages in length; needles to say, my pencil never left the paper for the full three hours. I need to get used to writing that much however because 1) I'll be doing it all this week with exams and 2) I'm tackling standardized tests next year. Innovation exam tomorrow.
I really wish I was in the US today. I probably found out that bin Laden was killed a full twelve hours after everyone in the US was, and all I see is facebook exploding with statuses and news feeds announcing patriotic messages. I really don't mean to sound cliché or to sound a bit like a tool, but I really just want to be in Tennessee right now or in DC better yet. Pictures of Americans celebrating in the streets all over the country doesn't help. I just want to be there.
Of course, nothing was said today about it at school. Grant it, I only went to take an exam and only talked to a few people and didn't even find out until afterwards, but it would have been nice to hear a someone living in Europe acknowledge the fact that America just made the single most important security threat removal possibly ever. Obviously, I count as someone living in Europe, and I didn't start celebrating randomly, but this may be because I'm still in a different country, and despite being here for a semester, are still not sure how people from different countries may react. Now that I think about it, I may have written some sort of sentence in my Ethics exam about how the US must control their influence over other countries so as to not impose our culture on others. I'm guilty and only fueling the fire; we are undoubtedly still the most resected and greatest country in the world. We make mistakes, we have dirty politicians like every other country in the world, we have a crazy sport that no other country understands, and we live in our own bubble of American pride and sometimes ignorance. This is all for good reason though. The pride comes from somewhere. It's from our communities of strong values, our religion, our troops, our drive to excel, and from the American dream itself. Find me another country who has all this.
What impression do I give when changing my profile picture to an American flag?
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Et Dimanche!
Sunday was another lovely day in a lovely city. We started by heading to the BMW Museum. They have their headquarters in Munich, and have a really great museum right beside the Olympic park. (Munich had the Olympics right after Grenoble did in 1972, I think). It was about a 30 minute metro ride, and unfortunately Ava scheduled a bike tour and we had to said goodbye to her that morning before we left.
The museum was absolutely great. It was just a bunch of history, a bunch of cars, and cool, James Bond type music playing all the time. Well, of course they would play awesome music while you look at sleek, sexy cars. Tyler Howard (from Knoxville, TN currently studying in Linz, Austia as previously mentioned) REALLY REALLY REALLY likes cars. He is most certainly our car lover in residence, and has the Ferrari pull-over to prove it. He was like a little kid in a candy shop at the BMW museum, but so were the rest of us really.
What was really neat about this museum was that the staff wasn't just there to remind you not to touch things like every other museum in Europe, but they talked about the cars, answered questions, and if you're a sweet American who smiled at the staff, let you sit in the cars. The museum also had a art exhibit where famous artists like Andy Warhol painted the cars. Those cars looked really great, and I've pictured my favorite one. It just looks like speed with all of the crazy lines and colors. We also found a car that was bright orange, so the Vols spell out was in order!
After the museum, we toured through the Olympic park a bit on our way back to the Hostel. By the way, we stayed in the Euro Youth Hostel, which was really nice, had a full bar, lounge area, and great breakfasts. After we walked through the Olympic park, Jasmine, Jody, Asher, and I had to go back to our respective study abroad locations and leave Munich. We all went to the airport together and said sad goodbyes. Not too sad, though, because Asher was coming to Grenoble and I'd see Jasmine in a week in ROME!
Auf Wiedersehen Munchen!
The museum was absolutely great. It was just a bunch of history, a bunch of cars, and cool, James Bond type music playing all the time. Well, of course they would play awesome music while you look at sleek, sexy cars. Tyler Howard (from Knoxville, TN currently studying in Linz, Austia as previously mentioned) REALLY REALLY REALLY likes cars. He is most certainly our car lover in residence, and has the Ferrari pull-over to prove it. He was like a little kid in a candy shop at the BMW museum, but so were the rest of us really.
What was really neat about this museum was that the staff wasn't just there to remind you not to touch things like every other museum in Europe, but they talked about the cars, answered questions, and if you're a sweet American who smiled at the staff, let you sit in the cars. The museum also had a art exhibit where famous artists like Andy Warhol painted the cars. Those cars looked really great, and I've pictured my favorite one. It just looks like speed with all of the crazy lines and colors. We also found a car that was bright orange, so the Vols spell out was in order!
After the museum, we toured through the Olympic park a bit on our way back to the Hostel. By the way, we stayed in the Euro Youth Hostel, which was really nice, had a full bar, lounge area, and great breakfasts. After we walked through the Olympic park, Jasmine, Jody, Asher, and I had to go back to our respective study abroad locations and leave Munich. We all went to the airport together and said sad goodbyes. Not too sad, though, because Asher was coming to Grenoble and I'd see Jasmine in a week in ROME!
Auf Wiedersehen Munchen!
Samedi en Munich!
On Saturday, the GLS Gang (Asher, Jasmine, Tyler, Jody, Ava, and I) got up to attend a FREE tour of Munich. At many hostels in Europe there are free tour group that leaves. The free tour company has been in every city I've been to so far (Asher and I participated in Paris), and they function on tips alone. When we do these tours, I usually pay about 5 to 10€ depending on how cute the tour guide is and how much I learn (because, contrary to popular belief, I am here to learn). This tour of Munich was really, really well done; the tour guide was super informative, made jokes, and was super enthusiastic!
Things to learn about Munich.
1. The answer to 99.9% of all questions is BEER. All of the questions that the tour guide asked for audience participation the answer was beer. What was the reward for blah blah blah? What did the settlers want? What did the Swedes want in exchange for getting off Bavarian land? What do all the monks point to? Beer.
2. The plaza will always have a Biergarten (German for beer garden). Beer gardena are outside tables in a gathering of trees in the center of a plaza where one can buy lots and lots of beer and sit for hours, which many do.
3. One should always drink more beer. It's just part of the city. Everything is centered on the drink of choice, the relaxation of choice, and the best way to party. It's the essential tool for living the good life in Munich.
4. The name "Munchen" in German comes from an older word "Munichen" meaning "by the monks." Really, the name just means something to the effect of "city of monks." So the city is full of a monk symbol where a monk in black robes holds a Bible in one hand and points to the famous beer house, Hofbrauhaus, with the other hand.
5. It's the third largest city in Germany behind Berlin and Hamburg.
6. The town hall is really cool because it has a little mini performance. During certain parts of the day, it plays an out-of-tune song and has figures dance around and joust! It's always Austria vs. Bavaria, and OF COURSE Bavaria always wins.
7. For clarification, Munich is part of the Bavarian region that was just Bavaria before it became part of German. They had there own royal family and hate the Austrians. (Why does this make me want to watch the Sound of Music?).
The tour guide was keen on letting us know that Munich was the place for the best beer in the world, but she was also keen on talking about World War II and the Nazi party. I honestly didn't realize the exact location of the origin of the Nazi party, but it was most certainly in Munich. During the 1920s, extremist politics and radical parties sprung up all over Munich and none other than Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government (which resulted in his imprisonment). After being released from prison, Hitler and the Nazi party thrived in Munich, eventually took hold of the city (and many other cities to come), and created the first concentration camp ten miles outside Munich. The city was absolutely destroyed during the war, and the US had a big part in restoring the city to its original state and glory after the war.
According to the tour guide, the Germans take an excellent approach to teaching others about the Nazi party and WWII. Instead of forgetting it ever happened, Munich likes to teach tourists and kids about the war in hopes that something like that will never happen again. There are many places in the city where you can still actually see that a Nazi party was present at one time, with plaques and symbols that have only been partially removed. They definitely don't want to forget, they want to learn.
This is awesome, and Germany can now claim the top seat in the competition of best European country. They are so awesome today that it's hard to think where the country was not even a hundred years ago.
The tour lasted about 3 hours, and afterward we got lunch and drank beer in the famous beer garden in the center of town. I have a massive, MASSIVE sausage hotdog thing and a beer; I know this sounds crazy and my stomach hated me afterward. We then climbed to the top of the a cathedral steeple to look out a Munich. It was really gorgeous from up there, and it gave a great view of the "Cathedral Church of Our Lady" which is a really unique church with a green, bubble roof. Lesson from Munich: climb a million stairs BEFORE going to a biergarten. Some had trouble.
This picture is at the wonderful biergarten!
This picture is certainly worth mentioning. This is some sort of beer wagon where one pays about 35€ to drink as much awesome beer as they can while pedaling around Munich. These guys are really, really drunk, yelling at us and trying to bicycle. Priceless.
We then took naps, went out to another beer hall named Ausgustiner (very German, right?). Afterwards, we somehow found the most fun park in the world that had some sort of crazy spin thing. We were way too entertained by this.
Aren't we lovely?
Things to learn about Munich.
1. The answer to 99.9% of all questions is BEER. All of the questions that the tour guide asked for audience participation the answer was beer. What was the reward for blah blah blah? What did the settlers want? What did the Swedes want in exchange for getting off Bavarian land? What do all the monks point to? Beer.
2. The plaza will always have a Biergarten (German for beer garden). Beer gardena are outside tables in a gathering of trees in the center of a plaza where one can buy lots and lots of beer and sit for hours, which many do.
3. One should always drink more beer. It's just part of the city. Everything is centered on the drink of choice, the relaxation of choice, and the best way to party. It's the essential tool for living the good life in Munich.
4. The name "Munchen" in German comes from an older word "Munichen" meaning "by the monks." Really, the name just means something to the effect of "city of monks." So the city is full of a monk symbol where a monk in black robes holds a Bible in one hand and points to the famous beer house, Hofbrauhaus, with the other hand.
5. It's the third largest city in Germany behind Berlin and Hamburg.
6. The town hall is really cool because it has a little mini performance. During certain parts of the day, it plays an out-of-tune song and has figures dance around and joust! It's always Austria vs. Bavaria, and OF COURSE Bavaria always wins.
7. For clarification, Munich is part of the Bavarian region that was just Bavaria before it became part of German. They had there own royal family and hate the Austrians. (Why does this make me want to watch the Sound of Music?).
The tour guide was keen on letting us know that Munich was the place for the best beer in the world, but she was also keen on talking about World War II and the Nazi party. I honestly didn't realize the exact location of the origin of the Nazi party, but it was most certainly in Munich. During the 1920s, extremist politics and radical parties sprung up all over Munich and none other than Adolf Hitler tried to overthrow the government (which resulted in his imprisonment). After being released from prison, Hitler and the Nazi party thrived in Munich, eventually took hold of the city (and many other cities to come), and created the first concentration camp ten miles outside Munich. The city was absolutely destroyed during the war, and the US had a big part in restoring the city to its original state and glory after the war.
According to the tour guide, the Germans take an excellent approach to teaching others about the Nazi party and WWII. Instead of forgetting it ever happened, Munich likes to teach tourists and kids about the war in hopes that something like that will never happen again. There are many places in the city where you can still actually see that a Nazi party was present at one time, with plaques and symbols that have only been partially removed. They definitely don't want to forget, they want to learn.
This is awesome, and Germany can now claim the top seat in the competition of best European country. They are so awesome today that it's hard to think where the country was not even a hundred years ago.
The tour lasted about 3 hours, and afterward we got lunch and drank beer in the famous beer garden in the center of town. I have a massive, MASSIVE sausage hotdog thing and a beer; I know this sounds crazy and my stomach hated me afterward. We then climbed to the top of the a cathedral steeple to look out a Munich. It was really gorgeous from up there, and it gave a great view of the "Cathedral Church of Our Lady" which is a really unique church with a green, bubble roof. Lesson from Munich: climb a million stairs BEFORE going to a biergarten. Some had trouble.
This picture is at the wonderful biergarten!
This picture is certainly worth mentioning. This is some sort of beer wagon where one pays about 35€ to drink as much awesome beer as they can while pedaling around Munich. These guys are really, really drunk, yelling at us and trying to bicycle. Priceless.
We then took naps, went out to another beer hall named Ausgustiner (very German, right?). Afterwards, we somehow found the most fun park in the world that had some sort of crazy spin thing. We were way too entertained by this.
Aren't we lovely?
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Munich, Allemagne!
Munich is a magical place. It is most certainly the best trip I have been on so far. Obviously, I had never been to Germany, didn't really know what to expect other than a definite language barrier, and didn't really know why or how Jasmine and Tyler choose Munich for our epic GLS reunion in Europe. It was indeed an epic reunion. The gang included: Jasmine (studying in Rome), Jody (Bordeaux, France), Tyler (Linz, Austria), Ava (Madrid, Spain), Asher (Manchester, U.K.), and myself.
So, Munich is AWESOME! It was really the best trip, with the best people, in the best possible city. As one can definitely tell from the pictures to follow, Munich is simply a really happy, cheerful place that is really just full of drunk, happy beer enjoying lots of sausage and crazy potato salad. One would think this wouldn't really my place considering I'm not a big beer drinker and have a big aversion to red meat, however you just have to go for it and have the time of your life. It was so much fun to go around this crazy town with the best people. I mean, the best people including all of the Germans that live there full-time. Munich isn't really that touristy so we got to see a city as its finest and really do what the locals do, which is sit in beer gardens, laugh really loud, sing songs, and build awesome cars (not all at the same time). Germans are my favorite Europeans so far, no doubt; so far, because I haven't been to the U.K. yet and may fall in love with their accents. However, Germans are the most disciplined, hard-working, brilliant yet most fun-loving people I have ever been around. As any good E.U. student knows, Germany dominates business, but now I know that they also have a ton of fun and enjoy life more than most. Maybe that's why GLS fit in so well. We do most things better than most people... including having fun, and so do the Germans.
Tyler, Ava, Jody, and Jasmine arrived in Munich pretty early on Friday, and Asher and I caught up at Hofbrauhaus when we arrived around 9 that night. Hofbrauhaus in the world-renowned beer house in Munich. EVERYONE where is it, they know all about it, and EVERYONE has to go there when in Germany at all. It is Germany's premier beer house. Just to clarify, a beer house is simply a huge (HUGE!) hall of long wooden tables and benches where all Germans go to drink, talk, sing, laugh for hours (HOURS!). This is even more interesting when you add a full German band (called an "Oompah" band) and lots of men in lederhosen!!! Lederhosen! These are technically traditional German wear of leather shorts with suspenders, however it usually looks something like this...
Ava somehow took this picture at Hofbrauhaus! Anyway, the atmosphere is amazing with so many people is a huge room laughing and drinking. Brilliant.
Hofbrauhaus! I can't even spell it correctly with my American keyboard, and Lord knows I can't say it correctly. Sarah, from a small town in Germany and in all of my business classes) really made fun of me a couple days before I left for Munich when I was describing where I was meeting my friends. I mean, she horse laughed at me. But, I will learn German because it's the best language ever... eventually.
So, this was just Friday night. More later.
So, Munich is AWESOME! It was really the best trip, with the best people, in the best possible city. As one can definitely tell from the pictures to follow, Munich is simply a really happy, cheerful place that is really just full of drunk, happy beer enjoying lots of sausage and crazy potato salad. One would think this wouldn't really my place considering I'm not a big beer drinker and have a big aversion to red meat, however you just have to go for it and have the time of your life. It was so much fun to go around this crazy town with the best people. I mean, the best people including all of the Germans that live there full-time. Munich isn't really that touristy so we got to see a city as its finest and really do what the locals do, which is sit in beer gardens, laugh really loud, sing songs, and build awesome cars (not all at the same time). Germans are my favorite Europeans so far, no doubt; so far, because I haven't been to the U.K. yet and may fall in love with their accents. However, Germans are the most disciplined, hard-working, brilliant yet most fun-loving people I have ever been around. As any good E.U. student knows, Germany dominates business, but now I know that they also have a ton of fun and enjoy life more than most. Maybe that's why GLS fit in so well. We do most things better than most people... including having fun, and so do the Germans.
Tyler, Ava, Jody, and Jasmine arrived in Munich pretty early on Friday, and Asher and I caught up at Hofbrauhaus when we arrived around 9 that night. Hofbrauhaus in the world-renowned beer house in Munich. EVERYONE where is it, they know all about it, and EVERYONE has to go there when in Germany at all. It is Germany's premier beer house. Just to clarify, a beer house is simply a huge (HUGE!) hall of long wooden tables and benches where all Germans go to drink, talk, sing, laugh for hours (HOURS!). This is even more interesting when you add a full German band (called an "Oompah" band) and lots of men in lederhosen!!! Lederhosen! These are technically traditional German wear of leather shorts with suspenders, however it usually looks something like this...
Ava somehow took this picture at Hofbrauhaus! Anyway, the atmosphere is amazing with so many people is a huge room laughing and drinking. Brilliant.
Hofbrauhaus! I can't even spell it correctly with my American keyboard, and Lord knows I can't say it correctly. Sarah, from a small town in Germany and in all of my business classes) really made fun of me a couple days before I left for Munich when I was describing where I was meeting my friends. I mean, she horse laughed at me. But, I will learn German because it's the best language ever... eventually.
So, this was just Friday night. More later.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
"Hell Week"
In GLS we obviously have a very demanding course load, however there is always that one week where there is something due everyday. We like to call this "Hell Week." It originated, I believe, during the second semester of sophomore year when Asher, Jody, RJ, and I were busy doing the business plan competition and were also bombarded with some crazy Statistics project. Of course, I don't really remember exactly what went down that week or what assignments were due, but it was called the Hell Week from then on. Well, so being the young, chipper (hehe, Chipper) people that we are, we all enter junior year ready to learn and ready to conquer the business world. During about the third or fourth week of classes, we determined that we were in Hell Week. It was just that we had a quiz or two that week, probably an IT assignment and something else. Well, during last semester, Hell Week never ended. It most certainly extended ALL SEMESTER. This is why studying abroad was somewhat relaxing at first. I mean, we don't have regular assignments, we only have to read for class, and have only one big exam at the end of the semester.
Well, this relaxation caught up to us, Kate and I and the rest of the business school, big time during the last month. We have had AT LEAST one group presentation a week for the past month, and last week was officially known as this semester's Hell Week. Let's see, I had a 3000 word paper due on the sustainability of the Eurozone, which I will gladly discuss with anyone and argue, contrary to my paper, that the euro should be abolished, I had a presentation due on Thursday, and two other group presentations to work on. Not to mention that I needed to clean the apartment, become presentable, and actually have clean clothes before Asher come to Grenoble.
Anyway, I just needed some sort of post about how terrible that week was. It seriously didn't end, and I didn't stop revising, as the British would say, all week. I also expected Asher to show up at the Grenoble train station, aka the Gare, around 8:30 to 9:30 on Thursday night, however he didn't get there till 12:30. I was really freaked out for a while! He, of course, finally got there after I had made friends with an older lady waited for her family. (We talked for several hours in broken French and English). So, that Friday, around 3, we left for Munich!!! Aka, the best city ever with the best people ever. The next post will be epic!
Well, this relaxation caught up to us, Kate and I and the rest of the business school, big time during the last month. We have had AT LEAST one group presentation a week for the past month, and last week was officially known as this semester's Hell Week. Let's see, I had a 3000 word paper due on the sustainability of the Eurozone, which I will gladly discuss with anyone and argue, contrary to my paper, that the euro should be abolished, I had a presentation due on Thursday, and two other group presentations to work on. Not to mention that I needed to clean the apartment, become presentable, and actually have clean clothes before Asher come to Grenoble.
Anyway, I just needed some sort of post about how terrible that week was. It seriously didn't end, and I didn't stop revising, as the British would say, all week. I also expected Asher to show up at the Grenoble train station, aka the Gare, around 8:30 to 9:30 on Thursday night, however he didn't get there till 12:30. I was really freaked out for a while! He, of course, finally got there after I had made friends with an older lady waited for her family. (We talked for several hours in broken French and English). So, that Friday, around 3, we left for Munich!!! Aka, the best city ever with the best people ever. The next post will be epic!
Plus Genève
The next day, on Sunday, we had breakfast at the hotel and then set off for the United Nations. The United Nations was a really great place, and we had a guided tour and everything which gave us a lot of information about the building and the functions of the U.N. It has huge rooms, obviously, that many, many important people go to discuss security, human rights, economic development, etc. The building itself is known as the Palais des Nations and was originally the location for the League of Nations before WWII. It's located in a gorgeous park complete with some sort of challet, peacocks roaming the grounds freely (even though some are eaten...), and other monuments and such. It's on Lake Geneva, and you can see the Alps from le Palais.
The ceiling above is in the Spanish room, and it represents how different cultures, ideas, and people can come together to cooperate, have peace, etc. The first pic is also of the Spanish room. It's called the Spanish room simply because some Spanish guy designed it or something.
In the picture, you can barely see it, but there are tons of different monuments and sculptures given from various countries and politicians. The rotating ball/statue thing was a gift from a U.S. President (I don't remember who, don't judge), but it is easily the biggest and coolest of the gifts (duh). However, it used to rotate, but now it doesn't, sadly.
Above are the pictures of the Council Chamber. Very cool because the entire room is painted including the ceiling representing human progress, cooperation, medical advances, and human rights. The ceiling has a painting of the five continents, as represented by five giants, uniting to bring peace and prosperity. The painting were also a gift from Spain. Spain doesn't dominate the building though; there is art from France, marble from Switzerland, not surprisingly, tapestries from Belgium, and others. (Man, I love tapestries from Belgium, I'm really, honestly in love with them, and they are all over Europe).
So for the rest of the day, we ate some lunch, walked around Geneva a bit, went to a suburb of Geneva and walked around since it was such a cute area, and gawked at beautiful cars. It was a great trip, and I would love to go back to Geneva. It is a really great, clean, rich place, and it would be a brilliant place to live. The Swiss are super disciplined, on time, clean, and friendly; it really just makes for a pleasant stay.
Now that my traveling with CEA is over and Geneva was our last trip, I get to spill on what really went down, right? Well, we all found it very difficult to get along with our CEA director, unfortunately. He grew up in Detroit, married a French woman, and has lived in Grenoble for about 30 years now. He is way too French, as in, he is the second most liberal person I have ever met, is extremely stuck in his ways, and likes to be really pessimistic about everything. Thus, he is very set on our agendas and likes to make rude, pessimistic comments constantly. This is really unfortunate because it sets a bad tone for some of our trips and puts many in bad moods. During this trip, many of us just scrammed away from the group just to be away from the tension. It obviously doesn't matter now at all, but it just goes to show that being an adult doesn't mean you act like one and getting along with people is sometimes much, much harder than it should be, even if you're in fabulous places like Geneva!
Next trip post: MUNICH!!!
The ceiling above is in the Spanish room, and it represents how different cultures, ideas, and people can come together to cooperate, have peace, etc. The first pic is also of the Spanish room. It's called the Spanish room simply because some Spanish guy designed it or something.
In the picture, you can barely see it, but there are tons of different monuments and sculptures given from various countries and politicians. The rotating ball/statue thing was a gift from a U.S. President (I don't remember who, don't judge), but it is easily the biggest and coolest of the gifts (duh). However, it used to rotate, but now it doesn't, sadly.
Above are the pictures of the Council Chamber. Very cool because the entire room is painted including the ceiling representing human progress, cooperation, medical advances, and human rights. The ceiling has a painting of the five continents, as represented by five giants, uniting to bring peace and prosperity. The painting were also a gift from Spain. Spain doesn't dominate the building though; there is art from France, marble from Switzerland, not surprisingly, tapestries from Belgium, and others. (Man, I love tapestries from Belgium, I'm really, honestly in love with them, and they are all over Europe).
So for the rest of the day, we ate some lunch, walked around Geneva a bit, went to a suburb of Geneva and walked around since it was such a cute area, and gawked at beautiful cars. It was a great trip, and I would love to go back to Geneva. It is a really great, clean, rich place, and it would be a brilliant place to live. The Swiss are super disciplined, on time, clean, and friendly; it really just makes for a pleasant stay.
Now that my traveling with CEA is over and Geneva was our last trip, I get to spill on what really went down, right? Well, we all found it very difficult to get along with our CEA director, unfortunately. He grew up in Detroit, married a French woman, and has lived in Grenoble for about 30 years now. He is way too French, as in, he is the second most liberal person I have ever met, is extremely stuck in his ways, and likes to be really pessimistic about everything. Thus, he is very set on our agendas and likes to make rude, pessimistic comments constantly. This is really unfortunate because it sets a bad tone for some of our trips and puts many in bad moods. During this trip, many of us just scrammed away from the group just to be away from the tension. It obviously doesn't matter now at all, but it just goes to show that being an adult doesn't mean you act like one and getting along with people is sometimes much, much harder than it should be, even if you're in fabulous places like Geneva!
Next trip post: MUNICH!!!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Genève!
I'm going to have to play a little catch up. It's obviously been a crazy, jam-packed couple of weeks with Geneva, Munich, and Rome, but here we go. On Saturday the 9th, our CEA group went to Geneva for a night. We got there really early in the morning, as in we left around 7 and got to Geneva around 9. Thus, we had all day to go around and see how rich Geneva is.
The city is truly dripping with money. I mean we continued to see so many fancy Ferraris, a bunch of Chanel, Dior, Bvlgari shops, and beautiful trams that are pieces of art by themselves. The city was just really nice. It is on the edge of Lake Geneva, known as Lac Lemon in French which doesn't do it justice, and the city is build around one of the lake's bays. Geneva historically was just industrialized and had some sort of man-made water geyser to release pressure. Today, the geyser has simply become a big tourist thing since it is right in the middle of the bay, and they have increased the height to about 100 meters. (Sorry I function in meters instead of feet and yards, currently.) They, also, just call it the fountain now. The wikipedia page tells me that it is visible from above as well, and that many people actually get drenched by walking across the stone pier to the fountain.
The first day, we got to our hotel which was nice and really close to everything. We went to a chocolate superstore where many of us bought chocolates for friends and ourselves. Kate, Carrie, and I went shopping a bit afterwards especially at H&M. We spent the day walking around, looking through cathedrals, and laying the the wonderful park by the lake. That night, I officially got some Geneva fondue. Switzerland is known for its fondue, chocolate, and watches, so I got my fix of chocolate and fondue that day and I was wearing my imitation Geneva watch! Anyway, the fondue restaurant was on the main pier and is apparently a local favorite. The fondue was really good, just cheese and bread though. I know one should be obligated to say that a local, refined dish is absolutely exquisite, however I'm going to be honest and say that fondue in Geneva was slightly above average. And on that note, I'm going to say that the chocolate wasn't as good as Barcelona, but that may have been just what I choose.
Check out some of our pictures though, truly a beautiful country full of watch-loving, disciplined people who hate when you jaywalk. The parks were also wonderful; one of the parks has giant chess boards and pieces that old men stand around playing, very nice.
Au revoir! Bisous.
The city is truly dripping with money. I mean we continued to see so many fancy Ferraris, a bunch of Chanel, Dior, Bvlgari shops, and beautiful trams that are pieces of art by themselves. The city was just really nice. It is on the edge of Lake Geneva, known as Lac Lemon in French which doesn't do it justice, and the city is build around one of the lake's bays. Geneva historically was just industrialized and had some sort of man-made water geyser to release pressure. Today, the geyser has simply become a big tourist thing since it is right in the middle of the bay, and they have increased the height to about 100 meters. (Sorry I function in meters instead of feet and yards, currently.) They, also, just call it the fountain now. The wikipedia page tells me that it is visible from above as well, and that many people actually get drenched by walking across the stone pier to the fountain.
The first day, we got to our hotel which was nice and really close to everything. We went to a chocolate superstore where many of us bought chocolates for friends and ourselves. Kate, Carrie, and I went shopping a bit afterwards especially at H&M. We spent the day walking around, looking through cathedrals, and laying the the wonderful park by the lake. That night, I officially got some Geneva fondue. Switzerland is known for its fondue, chocolate, and watches, so I got my fix of chocolate and fondue that day and I was wearing my imitation Geneva watch! Anyway, the fondue restaurant was on the main pier and is apparently a local favorite. The fondue was really good, just cheese and bread though. I know one should be obligated to say that a local, refined dish is absolutely exquisite, however I'm going to be honest and say that fondue in Geneva was slightly above average. And on that note, I'm going to say that the chocolate wasn't as good as Barcelona, but that may have been just what I choose.
Check out some of our pictures though, truly a beautiful country full of watch-loving, disciplined people who hate when you jaywalk. The parks were also wonderful; one of the parks has giant chess boards and pieces that old men stand around playing, very nice.
Au revoir! Bisous.
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