Days 58-64: A Taste of Home

Monday- Wednesday:

Monday proceeded like, well, most Mondays. Modern history of the Middle East, followed by a gym visit, followed by lunch and then my Fine Arts class, which was then, followed by dinner at Da Mario’s where I got a delicious pizza. That evening was pretty quite, since my friend and I weren’t actually able to go out, and so I popped in a movie, relaxed, and made it an earlier evening.

Tuesday got a lovely bit of sleeping in, then I hit the gym before convocation at 12:30. After that I went to my museum visit class, came back to the house and relaxed for a bit, before we all headed out to dinner at Wagamamas (they are seriously obsessed with taking us to that place. I mean, I like Asian food… but not that much!) Tuesday night was once again quiet, with some hanging out, some working on my Middle East presentation, and then bed once I realized that it was actually far later than I’d planned on staying up. I know- my life is wild. But not really…

Wednesday I woke up for class, then ran off to the gym afterwards. This was followed by a quick lunch of leftover fried rice before I ran upstairs and got ready for my equestrian lesson. It was a perfect day to go riding, considering that it had been raining this weekend and both Monday and Tuesday. Carrie and I got to the stables, I was put on a fat pony called Troy, who decided that he wanted to be very uppity and silly. So, the trainer (who has started respecting Carrie and me as riders so much more), sent me ahead of the group to just work that little horse until he was sweaty. No problem for me. I took him to the huge stretch, did some warm up trotting, and then let him move into a canter and finally an all-out gallop. It was so exhilarating- seriously- I had a fantastic ride. And that pony could move! When the trainer finally met up with me, Carrie and I did a bit of a slower canter (Troy was still full of energy), and then we finished up the ride through the main Hyde Park trail. After riding, I went to my Humanities class and then we headed out to our Indian food place for a delicious dinner. Dinner was followed by packing and then a quick outing with the group to Freud’s, although I left early as I’m not too fond of the place- loud music, squishy, and expensive drinks. Not really my thing. I kind of want to explore some more, like we did the first month and a half, and find some more fun places! Why not? There’s really no point in returning to the same bar night after night. Let’s kick the repetitious cycle and brave the city, mmk London group? Okay, good. After returning home, I chatted with Sinjin and then Kalie when she got back, and then went to bed in preparation for my weekend in Switzerland!

Thursday:

Cooking soup!

So, in hopes of being a very active and healthy individual, I set my alarm for 7:45 am to go to the gym. Upon that heinous creature going off and pulling me from a very excellent dream about Mexican food (no joke… I was dreaming about food), I sat up, looked outside, and merely glowered at the wind and the rain and the absolute coldness of the weather, rolled over, and reset my alarm for 9. Yeah, laziness totally prevailed. So, feeling slightly more awake the second time my alarm went off, I proceeded to get ready slowly, finish packing up while simultaneously praying to my backpack’s temperamental zipper to be quiet so I wouldn’t wake up my sleeping roommate, and run downstairs to print my ticket and get breakfast. Except… apparently they start putting breakfast away 10 minutes earlier than mentioned. That was kind of a bummer, considering my ravenous hunger and lack of food. Whatever. I printed my tickets out, hurtled back upstairs, and was happy to see that I actually had a decent amount of time before my scheduled point of departure from the house. When 11 came around, I threw the last few things into my backpack, which was packed rather efficiently if I do say so myself, quietly left the room while wishing I was still asleep like my roomie, and left the house on my next adventure: to Switzerland! Correction, to Chateau D’oex, my second favorite place in the world. Seriously, though. 

Thus began a day of extensive traveling. I jumped on the tube, go to the train station at King’s Cross, found my train, hopped on that one, got a shuttle bus to the airport, made it to my plane with plenty of time (go me for good planning. My family would be so proud), and sat through an hour and a half flight with a little napping and some good music on my ipod. After disembarking, I wandered to an ATM, swore at it when it gave me a 100 pound franc note instead of smaller ones, said bonjour to a few people that gave me weird looks (probably for being so giddily happy in the Geneva airport), and found the train station. After talking to a very nice man with a strong French accent who thought I was funny for knowing my train time but not my platform number, I made it to Platform 3, waited a bit, and hopped on my first train. I jumped off at Montreaux, used my 3 minute window to run to Platform 5 (while praying that I was headed to the correct train), jumped on that baby just as the doors were closing, and proceeded to spend the next hour really hoping I’d gotten on the correct train. I’ll admit, I prayed a bit at this point, since it was the last leg of my journey. Of course, I graced the train members with a massive smile when “Chateau D’oex” appeared on the announcement screen, and all was good. I grabbed my stuff, opened my umbrella, and stepped out into the night in one of the most wonderful places in the world. 

At this point, I wasn’t exactly sure where I was, since I’d never entered this area from this direction, but I was too happy to really care. So, when my mind told me I should go left, I went right because my sense of direction is normally fairly skewed. And, believe it or not, that was the correct direction! So proud of myself for not listening to my first thoughts. Once I passed one of the tourist shops I knew exactly where I was going, and so I pretty much sang and skipped my way down the long street, all the way up the way-too-long hill to our apartment, all in the cold and rain. But honestly… it really wasn’t that awful of a walk, because I was

So. Freaking. Happy.

I can’t explain it… the happiness… just consumed me. I can’t remember the last time I was this happy… but it was probably the first time I skyped my parents after being in London, or finding out that I get to go home for Christmas and see everyone. I don’t know. It was one of the monumental moments. All I know if that I need this break and the appearance of that apartment made my heart dance and sing and probably do all sorts of crazy happy things.  I couldn’t even be angry when the zipper on my backpack decided to jam and made me sit in the rain for a few minutes trying to yank the key to the apartment out of the pocket. Gotta have a few roadblocks, right? So after getting into the building, I found my grandfather’s apartment, unlocked the door, and stepped in. Seriously- it was such an amazing feeling when I walked into that apartment. I hope everyone has a place like this, because this kind of happiness is rare.

I spent the night setting out my stuff, exploring around the apartment and reacquainting myself with it, making some soup and finding crackers since I failed to buy any food on my way up the mountain and there was no way I was walking back into town, showering, and finally crashing out into my bed. Such an amazing feeling… except I was so pumped on adrenaline that I barely got any sleep. Oh well, the whole point of this place is just relaxing and enjoying myself and doing absolutely nothing with one of my best friends. So, lack of sleep? No problem. I can do as much relaxing as I want all weekend! 

Friday:

I woke up to a cloudy, rainy morning, but the downcast weather did nothing for my mood. I got ready quickly, being so excited to run back to the train station to pick up Jillian! Of course, I did get distracted by the multiple closets in the house. Now, I must digress for a moment to explain this. Not only does the apartment have a wine cave/storage thing (although it was empty upon arrival…), but everyone who visits here tends to leave stuff that they don’t really want/need anymore, so we just accumulate a bunch of awesome clothes. I’m talking boots, jackets, slippers, sweats, and the likes. So, having a little bit of time before I had to run down to the station, I might have regressed back into little-girl days and tried on a bunch of stuff. Yeah, it was kind of fun. I can’t lie. I finally settled on a binocular case for a “purse” since I left mine in London and some ugg boots since my own leather boots weren’t really suited for the rain. 

Yeah.... we did that.

Upon this clothing decision (and the decision that Jillian and I were definitely going to have fun trying stuff on later), I grabbed my camera and umbrella and proceeded to hike back down into town and to the train station. I made it to the station just as Jillian was arriving and we had a delightful roomie reunion. Seriously, I love that girl. She’s pretty much another sister. Scratch that- she is another sister. Anyhow, we were both ecstatic to see one another, and we proceeded to jump right into telling stories and venting and it was as though we were right back at Pepperdine. We stopped by the small market on the way down through the town to pick up some light groceries and champagne, and then made our way up the mountain back to the apartment. I was so excited to show off one of my favorite places and Jillian was probably just as delighted as myself by the place. 

We unpacked her stuff, she cleaned up, and then we spent the next 4 hours munching cheese and butter “twists” and chocolate and catching up on everything plus a little bit more. It was exactly what we both needed, it seemed, and by the time 3 rolled around we were ready to go out into the rain again and explore the town a little. We walked up the main street (or, basically, the Street, since the town itself is fairly small), and then found the larger grocery store, which we entered and grabbed some food for breakfast and lunch for the weekend, since why shouldn’t we utilize the fact that we had a small kitchenette at our disposal? After bagging our purchases of eggs, sausage, bread, pasta, more chocolate and champagne, and apples, we battled with Jillian’s umbrella for a bit and then popped into a small café. Jillian got a cappuccino and I opted out of the coffee and in for the white wine. Why not? When in Switzerland… 

After our relaxing hour and a half in the café, chatting some more (of course!), we decided that we might as well head back up to the apartment. We got back, got into comfy clothes, and began cooking up a lovely dinner of sausage and pasta while I grabbed the champagne. After a very anticlimactic pop and a strong smell of apples, we recognized the picture of playing children on the back of the bottle and realized we’d purchased apple cider. Let’s just say we had a huge laugh at ourselves for that one. Oh well, at least we had 2 actual bottles from the second market, one of which we exchanged for the apple cider before beginning our delicious home-cooked meal. I’ve gotta say, I could totally do this every weekend. I’m trying to persuade Jillian to live with my next year, because honestly- we work well together, and if we can get 2 other a-suities from last year together in an apartment… well, let’s just say that it would be epically awesome. 

After dinner and chatting and some silly pictures, we decided to call it an early night. Yes, we definitely fell right back into last year’s “grandma status”, but why not? The beds were comfortable, we were tired, it was dark, and we were in Switzerland! You don’t have to do anything here, and we fully decided to take advantage of that fact. So, before 10 even rolled around, we were crashed out and loving the fact that our roomie status was reinstated, if only for a few days.

Saturday:

So, after a good 13 hours of sleep, we rolled out of bed at 10:30, ready to, well… slowly start the day. While Jillian figured out train times and platforms for us I proceeded to have the most entertaining breakfast-making experience I’ve had in a while. Seriously, the minute I cook for someone other than myself I butcher it. Lovely. After knocking over the freshly-whisked eggs and losing half of the raw mixture to the countertop, I used the rest of our eggs to make scrambled eggs, which actually turned out well enough. I just happened to leave no eggs for the following morning. Oh well. A sausage was reheated, some bread cut up and buttered, and voila! Breakfast! It was actually quite nice having something other than a quick bowl of cereal or a badly toasted half-bagel, or nothing at all, as per usual in London. Breakfast was a nice, lazy experience, and after continuing our roomie chatting, we finally decided to get dressed and head out into the absolutely BEAUTIFUL day. 

Yes, did I mention that it was no longer raining and that it was, in fact, sunny and actually warm outside? Oh yes, we got a brilliantly gorgeous day to explore. So, forgoing jackets and scarves, we headed out into the day and ran all up and down the various streets and side-streets of Chateau D’oex, before we finally found a hiking trail that we decided to brave (I once again borrowed some shoes from the closet. That thing is awesome). Now, this was probably one of our best noncommittal decisions yet. The day was lovely, the trails were fresh, and we had all the time in the world!

As we walked, we pulled out the chicken sandwiches we’d made earlier at breakfast and munched on those. I swear, this place looks unreal at times. If a movie were filmed here, no one would believe that it was an actual place. Pictures don’t do it justice (although, as you can see, I have tried to capture the resplendent beauty). After a mini-hike in which we chose trails based on where the sun was (it actually got a bit chilly in the shade, although we were both still psyched to be running around without worrying about jackets, we headed back to the apartment (after picking an ideal place for dinner) and relaxed for a bit, taking on the whole “siesta” idea from Barcelona. Once dinner rolled around, we headed back into town and found the bar/restaurant/discotheque we’d picked out earlier, ordered some white wine, and then proceeded to decide that a little splurging was in order. So, I ordered steak and Jillian ordered pork, both of which came with amazing mushroom sauce, vegetables, and fries. Seriously… worth every franc. That was a delicious dinner. 

And it wasn’t done yet.

While consuming our deliciously awesome meal, we checked out the residents, and finally decided that the pizza-maker was the best looking of the bunch. But seriously… he was quite a good-looking pizza maker. We contemplated asking if he had a brother… Dinner was followed by another glass of wine for me and some vanilla ice cream topped with whiskey for Jillian. Yes, we really are a classy bunch. So, following dessert, we chatted for a bit, got free discotheque passes (definitely going to utilize those when we go back in January… haha) and then decided to head back up to the apartment. After showering and getting into super comfy clothes, we opened our own bottle of very nice white wine and proceeded to fall back into another of our amazing roomie-chats, eventually finished off the last of the pasta sitting in the fridge (cause, you know, we really needed more food), tried to opened a slightly cheap bottle of champagne to mix with orange juice and failed, and so the party tricks came out! One large knife aimed towards a temperamental champagne bottle later, the cork was out somewhere in the world with one of those fantastic popping noises. Oh, the joy of party tricks, right?

So, we toasted to Jillian’s finesse when it came to battling it out with bottles, finished up the night with some mimosas and further chatting, and then realized that it was actually midnight. I mean, we’re definitely Grandmas when we’re together, so we figured that we’d clean up the dishes and crash out again. Why not? Honestly, this place is meant for catching up on sleep. So we pulled our covers down ,crawled into our amazingly comfortable beds, and crashed out for the last time (at least for now) in Switzerland. What an awesome final evening for our weekend! 

Sunday:

I woke up a bit before the alarm and was able to catch the ending of what looked to be quite an incredible sunrise. After snapping a quick photo of this (again, not at all being able to capture the actual beauty of the moment), I climbed back into bed and slept until 9, when Jillian’s alarm went off. Ugh, that was definitely not a noise that either of us wanted to hear. We slowly (while complaining) crawled out of bed and began getting ready for our day of travel. Once again, it was beautiful in Chateau D’oex, with the sun shining, clear skies, warmth, no signs of rain…. Neither of us wanted to leave, which was actually a big deal, considering we both agreed that we always couldn’t wait to return to our programs on all the other trips we’d taken this semester so far. But there’s something fantastic about this place- why would anyone want to leave? I know that I didn’t.

Jillian and I made breakfast slowly, finishing off our leftover apples and sausage and bread (we did a fantastic job at getting exactly the correct amount of food). We sliced up the remaining bread, pulled our the pre-sliced chicken we’d bought, and made some small sandwiches to take with us on our train rides, successfully finishing off everything in the fridge, other than the second bottle of apple cider… but that was kind of an insult to us so we didn’t care too much about that. After breakfast we cleaned up the rest of the dishes, packed up our stuff, and I hugged one of my best friends goodbye as she left to catch her earlier train.

I had about an hour to wait after she left, and I spent the rest of the time making sure everything in the house was cleaned up and put away, trash taken out, and the likes (I mean, I do want to be able to use this fantastic place again!). It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to do. I left the door open just so I could feel the slight breeze and occasionally step out onto the balcony and feel the warmth of the sun, and every time I did this I kind of wanted to cry. I didn’t want to leave Switzerland. I felt like I was home here, and although I absolutely love London, Chateau D’oex has family memories in it, and now another great weekend with a great friend, and leaving it just seemed… terrible. I could’ve stayed there for the rest of the semester, no problems, just relaxing and catching up on sleep… At least I have the consoling knowledge that I get to go back at the end of January for the hot air balloon festival.

Still… I didn’t want to leave. Locking up and turning off all the lights was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do in a long time. I walked back up to the train station, said my goodbyes to the cute little town as I walked, and made my train. This time I was actually traveling during the day, so I was able to look at the scenery as I drove through towns, which was a rather nice way of traveling. I made my connection at Montreux, and spent half of that ride dozing in and out of sleep. Upon arriving at the airport, I realized that I had given myself plenty of time, especially when going through security literally took 2 minutes. It took longer taking my laptop out of my backpack than it did to send the stuff through the x-ray. After I collected my things, I found a small food place and bought an extremely overpriced sandwich (awesome airport- are sandwiches really worth 10 francs?), but at least it tasted good. After food I got severely creeped on by the passport guy, who kept staring and smiling at my awkwardly. Weird. After, I sat down at the table I am currently sitting at, and finished typing this lovely blog up. I’ve still got an hour until my gate opens, but I guess that’s better than rushing like a maniac and being late. So, now…. I relax and I wait to get on the airplane that will be taking me back to London… and reality. Because the minute I get back I’ve got to finish a project that I’ll be presenting in my Modern Middle East class tomorrow. Great. Can we just skip forward to after that class, please? Thanks. At least I had an amazing weekend. That’s something that I can think about when all the stress of final projects and papers comes flooding in!

So, I made it home safe and sound. Such a long day of traveling. 2 trains, an airplane, a shuttle, another train, the tube, and then walking to my house! Wow. Craziness!