I arrived home last night and it seems a little silly to be writing another post about my travels, but I promised myself that this blog would be a complete collection of my semester and I wouldn't feel right if I left a piece out.

Before I left for Geneva, whenever I thought of Switzerland the following things came to mind:
-chocolate
-cheese
-blonde people (not sure where this one came from...)
-the alps

Blondes aside, I knew I'd have my fair share of chocolate and cheese...but I was worried that I wouldn't make it to many mountains. During the first half of the semester I made plans to hike four different weekends but all of them got rained out. It was like mother nature was saying "Why are you hiking? You don't even like physical activity! Here, have some cheese and chocolate instead."

Luckily, we managed to squeeze in three wintery, mountainous weekends before our departure. Up first: Chur, Switzerland. When I told people I would be spending a semester in Switzerland I was usually asked a) what language they speak there or b) if I spoke Swedish (really people????). Here's a fun fact you might not know: Switzerland has FOUR official languages, which are French, German, Italian, and...you guessed it - Romansch. GOTCHA! You thought I was going to say English didn't you!? For those of you scratching your heads right now, click here for some light reading about the Romansch language. Our initial decision to visit Chur had nothing to do with mountains and everything to do with hearing an unfamiliar language being spoken around us (we're real thrill-seekers clearly) but man am I glad we visited. It was beautiful and there are pictures below.

Me and all my friends.

Am I on the left or right? That's for me to know and for you to never find out.

Chamonix, France was next on the list. I'll probably never get over the fact that it was so easy to visit France. I'll also never get over the fact that Chamonix is a cute little town that I would have never thought about visiting but I'm so glad I did. There was no rhyme or reason as to why or how we ended up there one day, but we walked around a mountain, saw some beautiful views, and ate really great fondue (it wouldn't be a Switzerlindsey post if I didn't talk about fondue now would it?). Four for you Chamonix, you go Chamonix.

To give you an idea of how cute the town was. Note: this was before mountains and fondue.

Ain't she a beaut!?

Finally, my last weekend abroad also ended up being my favorite weekend abroad. Zermatt, Switzerland is unlike anywhere I've ever been. A large group of us rented a chalet for the weekend and woke up to views of the Matterhorn for two days straight. Zermatt is notorious for skiing (which I don't do) but that didn't stop me from having a great weekend. On the first day a group of non-skiers headed up a mountain and hiked around for a bit. We stopped for lunch (where, among other things, I ate cheese-filled bacon-wrapped sausage and then proceeded to hate every other meal I ate the rest of my time abroad because nothing is or ever will be as good as that) and then continued on our snowy adventure. The night was spent back at the chalet partying and hanging out with everyone. Day two was much more relaxed. No mountains were climbed, but we did find an ice skating rink. It was enjoyable for about an hour which might be a new world record considering the fact that I usually get bored of that after 20 minutes. We walked around town for a while, ate some good food, and then headed back to Geneva for our last week abroad.

After a long day of hiking, this awkward pose seemed necessary.

We went ice skating! And I bought a new hat! I love you, new hat.

Like I said before, I'm writing this from my comfortable bed in Maryland. I'm going to give myself a few days to relax and think about the semester and then I'll post a wrap-up here.

I would like to retract a previous statement. On Sunday, September 29th at approximately 11:22am I asserted that Oktoberfest is the happiest place in the world. I am hereby demoting Oktoberfest to the title of "2nd happiest place in the world" (i.e. any place you can lie in a bed and watch Netflix with no pants on) and am giving Amsterdam the new title.

Beyond the obvious fact that there are MANY fun things to do in Amsterdam, the entire city is absolutely beautiful. After taking a breezy canal cruise through the city, we visited Anne Frank's annex. While I haven't had as much of a chance to connect with Judaism as I would like to here, I felt very strongly about seeing this big piece of history. I still don't really have words, but I am forever grateful that I was able to have this experience and I will be re-reading her diary over winter break. We cheered ourselves up by taking a trip to the red light district, which requires no added commentary.

The view from the boat. If you look at this picture from a certain angle it feels almost as if you're swimming in the canal.

I cannot take credit for this picture because the museum rules clearly stated that photography was not allowed and so I grabbed this off google instead. This holiday season I'm thankful that there are people in this world who clearly disregard authority so that moments like this can be captured forever.

We also had another chance to see a museum, in the form of the Heineken Experience. What an experience it was! We learned a lot about the history of Heineken and, more importantly, learned how to pour the perfect glass of beer. I opted out of the pouring lesson in order to maximize my beer consumption, but if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to tap a keg, I'm positive I'll do a good job.

Cheers!

It wouldn't be a blog post if I didn't talk about food, so here's a short list of yummy things I ate:
-SO MANY FRENCH FRIES
-bratwurst and currywurst
-more french fries
-nachos from some random Mexican restaurant
-more french fries
-McDonalds

French fries topped with garlic sauce aka heaven in my mouth.

Like I said in my previous post, I will be posting updates about Chur and Chamonix soon. I'm heading to Zermatt this weekend and all three cities are basically winter wonderlands / look extremely similar, so I'm going to compile them into one SUPER MONDO post.

OH also in case you were wondering, I had a lovely Hanukkah/Thanksgiving! A group of us got together to cook a great meal on the first night of Hanukkah and I've been lighting the menorah every night (shout out to Ellen thanks for the awesome gift!). Our program took us to the American International Club of Geneva's annual Thanksgiving dinner which felt less like Thanksgiving and more like a wedding reception...but there was a buffet with super yummy mashed potatoes so I'm not complaining.

Oh my gosh I am the worst person ever and have totally abandoned this blog. For those of you concerned about my whereabouts, have no fear - I am safe and sound in cozy little Geneva. This whole working 9-5 thing is much harder than I thought it would be (shout out to the best summer job ever that I'll be returning to in 2014 and probably every summer after that for the rest of my life) and my free time is usually spent doing homework for the class I'm taking, but since this week is the busiest week I've had here and I have no time to do anything besides study it only seems natural that I should procrastinate by blogging.

I'm trying to think back a month and a half ago to Lisbon, Portugal where I spent the last part of my fall break, but my apologies if this post is a little short. Here's what you need to know about Lisbon:

-We took a tour through a company called "We Hate Tourism" in which we visited a bunch of non-touristy spots and ate really delicious food. The main highlight was standing on the edge of the most-Western spot in mainland Europe, but the Portuguese pastries came in at a close second.

Three cheers for cool sights!

Helloooooo beautiful<3

-All the food there is delicious. The first night we were there we had all you can eat sushi which was AWESOME because I've been deprived of good seafood since August. The second night we had "traditional" Portuguese food. I ordered seafood soup and grilled salmon....not entirely sure why those things are considered traditional Portuguese cuisine but I'm not complaining.

Our unlimited plate of sushi. I'm choosing not to include the picture of my salmon from the second night, because I'm assuming everyone who reads this blog has seen salmon before...more than likely at dinner with me.

-Everything in Lisbon is pretty and if you ever think you might want to visit you should. You should also take me with you. I always thought I'd make a great tour guide, and there's no better place to start that career than in a city I spent a mere two and a half days in.

Stay tuned for updates about Chur, Amsterdam, Chamonix, and (soon to be) Zermatt.

PS: I'll be home in 12 short days. HOW CRAZY IS THAT!?! Now accepting offers for plans (especially those involving food) so please plan for my arrival accordingly. I can't wait to see all of you beautiful people. Yes, even you Matthew.