HEELLLPPP MEEEE; i'm dying
Dec 12I felt really weird all morning long and thought that maybe I was still tired from the weekend. My body felt totally exhausted and my stomach was a little bit upset. I made it through both of my classes but 5 minutes after walking through the door of my apartment my insides totally gave out on me.
I feel like death. My face is a very awkward shade of green and everything I put in my mouth comes back out 5 seconds later.
If someone wants to bring me some 7-up it would be greatly appreciated. The third day in Italy I broke my foot so I guess it only makes sense that I’d spend my last days here barfing and doing homework. Aaaahhhhhh, why meee?
i just want to sleep all day
I made the decision on the bus last night that I was going to skip Italian class this morning. I slept in until 10:45 (THE latest I’ve slept in since, well, about a year ago!). But even with sleeping in I felt disgusting all day long. Drinking on Saturday night mixed with the 8-hour bus ride last night killed me.
I woke up to a phone call from Pete. Man oh man. The way I feel about him is so messed up that I don’t even have the energy to go into it (which will prolly make him happy cuz he hates when I write about him anyways). Compared to the screamfest that I had with him on Saturday night, today’s talk was a good one. Happy but sad at the same time. Meeh.
I’m ready for home. I feel burnt out from school here. Today I felt myself going through the motions: wake up, take a shower, eat Corn Flakes, walk to school, play on the internet, go to Printmaking, eat an apple, work work work, play on the internet some more, walk to the gym, walk home and get in bed in attempt to warm myself up since it’s freezing here, eat dinner with the fam, get back in bed and mess around on the computer.
Well, actually, in printmaking a journal-worthy thing happened today. Our class is so much freaking fun. At first I really didn’t get along with anyone in it; we are all so different it’s, liek, funny to see us all talking and laughing together but somehow we’ve clicked. Wednesday is our final critique and we’ve been begging our teacher to let us bring in a pot-luck type snack day complete with a few bottles of wine and champage. The SUF policy is “no alcohol on campus.” Liek, zero. None. Buuuuutttttt we’ve been begging Kraczyna for weeks and weeks to let us and backed it with “We’ll all be so much more honest and willing to speak during the critique if you let us have a few drinks.”
Well, today he came into class and was like, “I just had a very important conversation with the dean of students…” (we’re all liek, ‘oh crap, this sounds bad’) “…and I convinced her that it’s okay for you all to bring in a few bottles for the critique on Wednesday.” Kraczyna is awesome.
The rest of my day is going to be dedicated to writing about our weekend in Switzerland, working on my Fam and Gender paper, unpacking/packing (!!), and catching up on some much needed sleep. Ciao ciao!
happy 21st pete
Dec 10After breakfast I got back in my bed and prayed that the pounding in my head would go away. It didn’t all day long. It never does actually, so I’m not too sure why I even tried to fight it. I didn’t feel like doing anything on Sunday. There was talk of horse back riding but I hate horses sooo I turned it down. All I wanted to do was curl up in my bed and piece together the night before.
Eventually I managed to pull myself together and after buying myself a little present (a new sweatshirt from Balmers and a Toblerone) I headed downtown with the ladies and Dave for lunch. It was warming up again and all of the snow started to melt but it felt good to be outside. Chicken fingers and french fries cheered me up a little bit. After lunch we headed back to the hostel and basically sat around and ate Toblerone’s until it was time to leave.
Even though we did basically nothing all weekend long, it was the exact kind of weekend that we all needed. We were in a city with no museums, no monuments, no nothing. All we were really able to do was let our brains rest and enjoy ourselves and the company of new friends that we’ve made while we’ve been in Europe. Actually, I don’t know about everyone else, but I needed this trip and overall I did have a fabulous time.
Our bus ended up leaving around 5ish. There was no drinking on the way back this time – we didn’t even have to talk about it. Everyone was totally alcoholed out. We watched the Bird Cage and Love Actually before we finally got to stop and hop off the bus for food and air and bathroom and stuff. At the truck stop however… our bus broke down. We were at the stop for about an hour because seriously, the bus driver would turn the key and nothing would happen. We all had to unload and hang out while, liek, 8 guys tinkered around and tried to figure out what the heck was wrong.
An hour later though, we were back on the bus and it was working again. I would have killed someone if we would have gotten stuck in Milan. We had a good 4 more hours of driving after that. My head was still pounding and I was totally uncomfortable sitting in my seat. By the time we arrived at Santa Maria Novella, I was a total zombie. Mar, Rachel, her roommate and I shared a cab home and within about 10 minutes after walking through the front door I was curled up and snoring.
What a fabulous “last weekend.” :)
Zurich, Hooters, and waaay too much to drink
Dec 9The day began with my phone alarm going off at 7AM – the bus for snowboarding was leaving at 8 and we were sposed to be out and ready to go by 7:45. Waking up wasn’t that bad because everyone was pretty excited about hitting the mountain. It’s been forever since the last time I woke up early in order to bundle up and head out onto the mountain; ahhh I miss that so much and can’t wait to go snowboarding at home!
Outside, Interlaken (which was brown when we showed up the day before) was covered in a huge white blanket. It snowed A LOT and was still snowing! Cooool! Somehow we all managed to get ourselves downstairs and were all bundled and sitting on the couches ready to go when Simon came in with the news. “There is a 50/50 chance that we’re going to be able to go… sit tight and I’ll get back to you guys in about 15 minutes.” WHAT?! When he said that I knew that we weren’t going. If the roads and runs weren’t open right then, and it was still snowing outside… UGH.
We got all dressed and excited for nothing. Snowboarding was cancelled for the day. I was totally disappointed and sat on the couch and pouted about it for about an hour after he made the announcement. I wanted to go on this trip for the snowboarding… boo. We didn’t know what to do for our day after that. The rental place made us return all of the jackets, pants, gloves, and goggles that they rented out (no one but me had actual snowboarding clothes there) sooo the option of playing in the snow was out also. BOOO.
Simon told us that Bus2Alps was offering a day-trip to Zurich for only 30 franks instead. Sounded better than nothing soo we all decided to go on that. The trip left at 11… we were up at 8 with nothing to do. We ended up sitting around the lobby discussing politics and religion; well actually, everyone else I was sitting with was discussing politics and religion while I was coloring and playing MASH (two of my favorite things).
The bus ride to Zurich was only about an hour and a half long (which is crazy cuz it’s clear on the other side of the country compared to Interlaken). Switzerland is tiny. I was freezing the entire ride there. I had my hood of my sweatshirt on, my scarf wrapped around my entire head about 5 times, and my arms inside of my shirt. Laura, who was sitting next to me, looked cold too – she was curled up in the tiniest ball that I’ve ever seen a person in! We watched Batman Begins. I didn’t really get it sooo I spent a lot of the trip napping.
When we finally got there it was cold and rainy. We originally set out in search of a restaurant with about 15 people but somehow our group turned into three: me, Marilena, and Dan. Zurich was a really cool place. TONS of awesome shopping (there was an H&M on every block, no joke. It was hard to resist going into all of them!) and really beautiful. We picked the right place to go to get in the Christmas spirit. The entire town had decorations and Christmas lights up. I loved it!
We walked for about 30 minutes before we finally found a restaurant that wasn’t ridiculously expensive to eat at. Switzerland is freaking expensive. EVERYTHING there. They don’t use the euro; they’re on the Swiss Frank (which from now on I will refer to as Frankfurters since that’s what Laura and I called them all weekend long). The exchange for the frankfurter is even worse than the dollar which doesn’t really help too much I guess. I took 200 frankfurters out of the ATM on Friday morning and it turned out to be a perfect amount for the weekend – phew.
We ate at the Swiss version of the Hardrock Café. I think the three of us were so cold from walking around that we didn’t really care where we ate as long as it was warm!!
After lunch we headed back out into the cold in the direction of an outside (but well heated bar) by an ice skating rink inside the courtyard of a giant castle. Cool! On our walk there we ran into Navid, Laura, Rachel, and Dave… somehow the girls convinced the guys to go shopping with them. Ha, I’m so shopped out from this trip at this point so we headed on to the bar.
The Ice Bar was really cool. I was in Christmas heaven. Seriously, I have never been to a place that got me more in the Christmas spirit than that bar (except maybe Naples in Long Beach). We ordered coffee and sat out under umbrellas and heat lamps and just enjoyed everything around us.
After the bar we headed back to the meeting spot cuz it was already time to head back. Inside the train station there was even MOOORREEE Christmas! Aisles and aisles of booths were set up selling Christmas/holiday stuff. In the center of the room was a HUGE Christmas tree completely covered in Swarovski ornaments!!! I’d kill for a tree like that… it was the most beautiful Christmas tree I’ve ever seen.
Eventually we had to head home from Christmas paradise. On the bus we watched Animal House and drank wine. Classic. God, that movie never gets old.
Back at Balmer’s we bundled up and headed out in search of dinner. Marilena, Laura, Natalie, Adam, Navid, Rachel, Dan, and I ended up at Hooter’s. Yup… Hooter’s. More than anything else, Hooter’s makes me think of Big Daddy. It was a lot of fun. Platters of chicked wings and pitchers of beer for everyone! The walk back home was a lot warmer than the walk there, that’s for sure. On the way home I was tackled into the snow by Adam… he better sleep with one eye open cuz I’m going to get him for that.
By the time we got back to the Balmer’s it was already around 10:30. We opened a bunch of bottles of wine and champagne and sat with about 13 people in our room drinking and talking and taking pictures. I was getting really nervous because oh, did I mention that Pete’s 21st birthday was the next day?? Which meant his 12:01 was that night? I was waay nervous to call him because I already knew how the entire situation was going to go: I was going to call him at MY midnight in Switzerland all excited about his birthday, and he was going to be not even as close to excited as me about it which was going to make me sad because I was going to start wondering why I even bother trying to do nice things for him. Then, since I was drunk, I was going to get sad and cry and drink more, then when I was totally ridiculous I was going to call him back and yell at him for making me feel stupid.
My prediction was DEAD ON. I called and cried after because he hardly reacted at all to my calling and passed his phone onto Stephanie for me to talk to? Don’t get me wrong, I love Steph and all but um I was calling with the sole intention of talking to Pete. On his birthday. I think that by now the world is pretty aware of the fact that I LIVE for birthdays and doing special things for people. It’s hard to want to care about someone that doesn’t even notice things that you do for them; and yet I still do and end up just getting angry at myself for still feeling like that. I dunno, I think I deserve a little more of, well, I dunno, something I’m just not sure what. Uh huh, yup.
ASLDFKAJ;SOEIAMS;LDKFJIEASN;DLKGAOIDGNKDFALOAIDF!!!!!
Anyways, when I came back into our hostel room full of about 10 people I admit that my crying did cause kind of a big scene and I’m so happy that I had incredible friends there to make me feel better. I was telling them all day long that I was going to be a huge disappointment of a phone call and everyone thought I was just being paranoid but when I came back in crying (I never cry these days) they knew I was serious. “You need this more than I do,” is what Natalie said to me as she handed over a more-than-half-full box of wine (which I finished in a matter of minutes). I don’t know HOW they did it but somehow about 15 minutes later I was back on my feet downstairs dancing. And dancing. And dancing.
To make a long long long evening short I’m just going to be honest and say that I don’t remember much past going down the club to dance. I have a memory here and there of calling Pete again and telling him a long list of all the things that he does that makes me sad (it’s a loong list too). I remember loving all of my friends again for making me feel better. I remember Dan trying to make me feel better. I remember hearing really great stories before falling asleep. I remember waking up the next morning in the jeans and tank top I’d worn “out” the night before. And I rememeber going down to breakfast and still being drunk and eating all the toast with Laura (who was still drunk also).
Wait, I just moved onto the next day… there were tons of pictures from the night before and none of them helped recover the events of the night before in my brain. Maaan. Overall, midnight on December 10 was probably my low point of, well, the year. Hahahaha, all I have to say is thank goodness I was in a hostel with good friends and no where to go.
a ruckus at Balmer's
Dec 8I woke up this morning around 7AM to Navid going in and out of the room about 20 times. One of the activities that the program puts on in skydiving and he and Chris were both scheduled to jump that morning. I was in no mood to be awake at 7AM considering that I had just fallen asleep only a few hours before. When they came back a little bit later we were all still in bed sleeping. Unfortunately skydiving for that day was cancelled because there was too much wind.
I have no desire to ever go skydiving. It’s not that I’m too scared or anything, but honestly it just doesn’t sound that something that cool to do and to be honest I’m not that impressed by people that do/have done it. AND it costs a ton of money…??? I really don’t get it. I gues the adrenaline rush would be cool but honestly? Go run a mile and you’ll get the same feeling. I didn’t argue with anyone that wanted to do it; I mean it’s THEIR $400 afterall.
After showering in the sketchy water-fountain-esque shower and brushing my teeth in the traugh-like sink the girls and I headed towards downtown Interlaken. The city of Interlaken itself was tiny but really beautiful and German-mountain-village looking. I loved it. We hit every souvenir store that existed in that town. Unfortunatly, a lot of places were closed because December 8 is a big holiday for Europeans (the Immaculate Conception) but it was fine.
Swiss people are not very nice. Natalie got yelled at in the first bar we went to for some coffee. Then a few stores later we were all yelled at again. Ehhh, whoooaa everyone, calm down! Jeez. I didn’t end up buying anything except some chocolate from a really awesome chocolate store. Whaaaat?!? C’mon, the Swiss are famous for their chocolate, beer, knives, weird hats, yodlers, and cookoo clocks and it only made sense to purchase one or two of the things on that list!
There was no snow in Interlaken. The air was cold and we were bundled up with scarves and gloves but there was no sign of snow (except on top of all the really tall mountains that surrounded the town). Our plan for the next day was to go snowboarding and unfortunately the nearest resort that would prolly be open was a good three hour drive away! Ugh.
After walking around for 30 minutes trying to find a non-Italian restaurant, we grabbed some sandwiches and each bought two different, really pretty cans, of beers and headed back to the hostel. We sat on the comfy couches in the living-room area of it and kicked back for a while. Have I mentioned that our hostel was awesome? Rick described it as “the place to go if you’re missing your frat house at home.” It had a TV room, pool tables, ping-pong tables, a comfy living room, a dining room with cheap (but not too bad) food, a souvenir store, AND a really cool bar/discotek that everyone in the city goes to at night! Sooo maybe my parents wouldn’t like it so much, but we loved it!
The plan after lunch was to go ice skating at the rink down the street but by the time we were done defrosting and eating the session was already over. Instead we popped in High Fidelity and spaced out with our second beers and Toblerone’s.
Part way through the movie we headed next door to the snowboard/ski rental place and rented boards and boots for snowboarding the next day. Yay! I WAS SO FREAKING EXCITED TO GO SNOWBOARDING! AND this was the thing I got for free sooo it felt doubly as good to be able to go riding for a day paying nothing when everyone else had to pay 220 euro.
Then the drinking began. Our hostel conveniently had TWO happy hours so of course we were at both of them! The first happy hour began at 5:00. To pass the three hours before our fondue dinner reservations we pushed two tables together, all bought two beers each, and layed some playing cards out for a good old fashioned game of Kings. I don’t even remember the last time I played Kings because it was so long ago. God I love that game. We had about 12 people around the table playing too, which made it even better.
At dinner the drinking continued with an unlimited pitcher of wine. A pot of cheese fondue and several pitchers later the conversation turned serious. Adam, the most fabulous gay boy I have ever known that I love love love so much, sat with us and answered all of our questions about homosexuality that we’ve all had in our brains but always lacked an appropriate person to ask. I’m not kidding when I say that I’ve never met anyone like Adam. He is the most secure, comfortable in his own skin, guy that I know.
Eventually after dinner we headed down to Metro (the bar in Balmer’s) and danced until it was time to go to sleep. Dancing is still probably one of my favorite things to do in life. I could dance all day and night if I possible.
Half way through the evening I wanted to go out to get some air annnddd to my surprise, IT WAS SNOWING! I was so excited because that meant that snowboarding the next day was going to be fabulous.
Our entire room was in bed by midnight. Hahaha. I guess it had been a long evening since it started at 5:00 happy hour ANNND we were all going snowboarding the next day and didn’t want to feel tired and dead for it so it only made sense. I slept reaaaallyy well. I wasn’t even THAT drunk either. Based on the wide-range of snoring in our room that night though I’d say that majority of the room was pretty out of it. Navid tried to convince me that I was one of the snorers since he was sleeping next to me but I’m sure that (for once) it wasn’t me. Psh.
The 8 hour bus ride
Dec 7Around 6:15ish Marilena and I emptied the contents of a wine bottle into a water bottle (glass bottles are just waaay too heavy to walk and drink out of) and made our way down to Piazza Savonorola. The bus was due to pick us up at 7 and since soo many kids from SUF were signed up to go they made a special stop at Syracuse for us. It was a big drunken fiesta in the piazza before the bus came. EVERYONE had drinks! Some girls even found a place that sold juice boxes of wine!!
The program that was taking us on this trip was called “Bus2Alps” and the dude that ran the whole thing was an Australian named Simon. He was cool but you could tell that the whole thing was totally disorganized. First of all, he didn’t have a final head count and two people (he was one of them) didn’t end up having a seat. One kid had to sit in the aisle and Simon stood the whole time until we go to the half-way point and met up with the other bus.
Santa Clara took up the back half of the bus. I think that all of the other people on it hated us. It might have been from our screaming sing along with music blasting out of iPod speakers. It might have been one of us getting up to go to the bathroom every two minutes (the liquid starting kicking in all at once). It might have been from us talking waaay too loud or taking a million pictures… who knows.
The girls sitting in front of Marilena and I sucked and put their seats back as far as they could go which made our seats about half the size of how they should normally be. Ugh.
The ride was looong. It took about 8 hours to get there (we arrived at the hostel at 3 in the morning!). We stopped once at an Italian-style truck stop for some food then drove on. At one point everyone seemed like they were dozing off. I could not sleep for the life of me. I even took one of Dan’s mystery pills but it didn’t help me fall asleep. I felt totally relaxed and wide-awake. AHHH. It was so annoying. When we finally got to the mountains everyone was back awake with me.
The snowy Alps out the window were incredible. Even though it was pitch black outside, the moon reflecting off the snow made them glow a little bit. I was content with being awake to watch them go by. Only the last 45ish minutes of the drive had twisty roads, so that was nice. Other than the girl that got sick from drinking too much no one barfed. Haha, ew. Gross. Thank god.
When we finally got to the hostel and unloaded all of our stuff, we checked in and headed to our rooms. I ended up in an 8-person room with Marilena, Laura, Natalie, Rachel, Navid, Dan, and Chris. It worked out perfectly. Our room had 4 bunk beds; it was the biggest slumber party I’ve ever been to.
After about 10 minutes of chatting we realized that we were all totally exhausted and the room (other than a few snore-ers) was totally quiet until the next morning.
