Days 10-16: 99 Red Balloons Go Flying...

Okay, so here we are again with a weekly update. And boy- there is quite an amount of stuff to mention. So, I'm thinking we'll go with the "what happened this week" first. Well, at least the boring ,monotonous stuff. Then we can move onto the finer and far more exciting points. So-

Monday: I had my ever-lovely 8am class, then some more class (oh Mondays, my hardest day of the week), this was followed my a little gym time, group dinner at Madsen where they tried to feed us semi-raw/raw meat (um, no?), and then had a relaxing Monday night.
Tuesday: We had a group photo today, so I was obliged to get decent before noon (weird... that never happens), this was followed by me skipping the gym for a little How I Met Your Mother and House, then class, then hanging out and a bit of socializing, followed by dinner at Di Marios, some writing and website work, and then some... wait for it... reading! Lovely.
Wednesday: I got to sleep in today. It was lovely. This was followed by the gym, a little bit of a migraine (eww), then some drama figuring out train tickets (lots of drama- I had to reschedule my flight to Switzerland because there were no trains), which was then followed by getting a great email (but you'll see this later), then no class (yeh cancellations!) dinner at Byrons (which was a trek to get to, considering the normal one was closed for reparations and we had to battle the cold to find a new one, but at least the waiter was cute). Once I got back, there was packing and all the necessities of travel preparation, and then my "early night" turned into a super late one that gave me about 3.5 hours of sleep. So, a nap.
Thursday: I got up at 4:30 to make my plane on time. Grabbed a quick breakfast, took the tube to a train to a shuttle, to the plane, to 2 more trains before I reached Chateau D'Oex in the afternoon! It was lovely and snowing and a gorgeous winter wonderland. I ran down to the market and got some necessities (ie, apples, bread, champagne, pasta), made it to the house where i took a 4 hour nap while waiting for 2 or my friends, then met Mike and Allie at the train station. We hit a bar on our way to the apartment, then trekked up the hill and enjoyed a lazy night of reconnecting.
Friday: We got up, made breakfast, met Jillian at the train station, did some more food and champagne shopping, went to a cute cafe, hung out at the house and spent much time catching up, watching movies, and being relaxed and lazy. We decided to hit one of the restaurants that night and got really, really good fajitas. Yes, Mexican food in Switzerland. And they were bomb. We headed back up to the house for more socializing, party tricks, and delicious mimosas.
Saturday: Allie left us early in the morning to head to a retreat, but Mike, Jillian, and I enjoyed further laziness. More movies, more cooking and relaxing, and then we headed into town to check out the boots at the beginning of the balloon festival. We went back up to the house, made dinner, headed back down to the bar, relaxed there for a bit, then went back up and enjoyed our last night together with some card games, jenga, and more mimosas. It was beautiful.
Sunday: We woke up early to slowly prepare to leave the wonderful Chateau D'Oex. Our packing was sporadically stopped as we ran outside and took pictures of the hot air balloons and slowly began filling the sky. Seriously- one of the most beautiful and amazing images I've seen. Hence the plethora of pictures that shall be provided below. After hanging for a few hours, we made it to the train station, ended up parting in Lausanne, I got to the airport and through security and onto my plane without problems. Customs took forever on the other end, and I swear I saw a woman that looked like Robin Williams in Mrs Doubtfire (the Mrs Doubtfire version of him... haha), and finally got on the train back home! I made it there without problems, unpacked, relaxed, and finally got all my pictures uploaded.

What a week!

Okay, so now for the in-detail updates:

1. Balloon Festival was EPIC. Wanna see? Of course you do. Please, indulge the the visual beauty of photography: Um, not sure why the pictures look like they took drugs and got thrown all over the place, but I'm too lazy to fix it. Just enjoy their sporadic placement.

2. Okay, the other  VERY important thing that happened this past week. Ready for it? I don't think you are? Okay, fine, let's post another picture:

Can you read it? I got accepted into the London Summer programs, so I'll be here for another 3 months! It's going to be like year round school, except in one of the most amazing places in the world. I'm psyched. I get an internship at a publishing company/journalism company (depending on what we can find) and then the religion program where I get to go to Israel for a week!

Seriously... I can't believe it. I'm such a fortunate person, and I can't thank my family enough for allowing me to have this opportunity. Right now, it's still so surreal.


Anyhow, I think that's the main stuff for this week! I'm going to Egypt in a week! Woohoo!