Today our assigned Tour Guide for the day was Sarah. At 6:10 am she recklessly banged on my door telling Curtis and I to wake up. Then came the usual morning routine (showering, brushing my teeth, ironing my clothes and getting dressed). At 7:00am made it to breakfast, I decided to eat some yogurt and cereal which wasn’t bad at all. Following breakfast Sarah made sure we each had our packed lunch and gave us a brief summary of the activities she had planned for us. I left school feeling good about what Sarah had planned for us because she did her homework well.
Bright and early we headed down the hill to catch our 7:29am bus. Our first destination of the day was the Four Points by Sheraton (A fabulous Hotel). We reached Zürich At 10:30am via Swiss rail. Upon arrival we had a few minutes to spare since we weren’t going to meet with Mrs. Alexia Hungerbuhler (Director of Sales and Marketing) until 11:00am, we used the time to take bathrooms breaks and observe the hotel front entrance/lobby. At 11:00am began our tour Mrs. Hungerbuhler gave us a brief speech about her life in the business. Mrs. Hungerbuhler worked in Rome, where she did several internships and speaks about four languages (German, English, Italian and French). The Four Points has 3 meeting rooms, A large gym, 5 total floors, 1 tanning bed, 1 Thai massage room,1 sauna, 4 elevators, 1 lounge/bar area, 2 restaurants (1 of them offers hot and cold continental breakfast, they also offer an), 132 bedrooms and a fabulous view from the show room (shopping area, trees, river and transportation). However, this 4 star Hotel has all these fabulous features, what caught my eye was the front desk/lobby area. The neon green and black colors give that specific area an Asian theme. The colors were eye catching. Upon completion of our Four Points tour we were offered coffee and tea by Mrs. Hungerbuhler which was a nice gesture considering that most places in Switzerland we go to try to nickel and dime us. As we enjoyed our delicious black coffee and tea the students and myself shared a little of our background with Mrs. Hungerbuhler. She seemed impressed but then again I don’t blame her because the students from this study abroad all come from different international backgrounds.
At approximately 12:30pm we had lunch by a nice lake in Zurich. Unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy my breakfast because I received a disturbing text message from home. June 12th, 2008 my brother received 10 stitches (a broken lamp cut his leg while he was taking out trash). I felt hopeless and upset because every Thursday I’m the one to take out the trash with him, I feel guilty that this happened to him and not me. After we were done with our disgusting lunch (ham and cheese sandwiches on dry bread with sour apples on the side) we entered the Swiss National Museum. This Museum contained Switzerland’s largest collection of objects regarding the cultural history of Switzerland. Its exhibition covers all periods, from Prehistory to the 21st century. The building was officially inaugurated in 1898 by Gustav Gull. The building is distinguished by its use of stylistic elements from various historical periods, which it fuses into something new, more like a reflection of the historic spirit of the age. The museum had timeless pieces such as the new telephone invented, first typewriter, DVD player and computer. The museum was very historical and old school however I couldn’t concentrate much on what the museum was offering because all I was thinking about was my brother being hurt back at home.
The museum was good considering that im the kind of person who dislikes attending museums. Once we completed our walk through the museum we were going to stroll around Zurich. That wasn’t possible because there was a soccer game on the way and the streets were flooded with drunken locals. I think it was the best choice to head back home. I didn’t want any of the beautiful ladies on this study abroad to encounter issues with the drunken men in Zurich. We arrived back in SSTH before planned, as soon as we stepped foot on campus I started blogging away. I didn’t go to sleep till 4am, unfortunately I had to miss the party at the disco on campus but it was all worth it because the next day I was going to Milan, Italy.
I woke up excited, happy, thrilled and relaxed all in one. I was actually allowed to skip breakfast which I didn’t miss at all. Waking up at 7:20am felt better than a day at Macy*s. I had plenty of smiles on my face. Some of my classmates (Elliott, Sasha, Mark and Katherine) were surprised to see me smiling, because they know I am not a morning person. My happiness was evident to mostly everyone, the key to that happiness and joy was not eating breakfast. I must be grateful that Adele our tour guide for the day woke me up at 7:20am because I had missed my 7:10am alarm.
Today was a simple and easy going day in Chur. The first stop made was at the Kulturnforum Worth Museum which illustrates a few outdoor sculptures. Although there were only 4 sculptures in the Garden we had a fabulous time. The trees, fresh green grass and bronze sculptures were astonishing. There really wasn’t much to see therefore we took some photographs and started heading towards our next location. At 10:00am we arrived at our second stop of the day (Ratisches Museum). Upon entrance we met with enthusiastic Dr. Jurg Simonett who gave us a tour of the museum. The art in this museum is extremely small; it originally opened as a house in 1872. Some of the artifacts were hand made stone, they even have a children’s museum which changes its special exhibits every 4 to 5 months and the regular exhibitions change every 10 years. Although I am not a museum fan I must admit that this museum has a wide variety to offer to their public.
After briefly touring 2 museums in Chur we were given an hour of free time. Having this time was great because I was able to go into Migros and buy some goodies for my dorm room. It took me 30 minutes to shop around for some chocolates, water, juice, chips and batteries. At approximately 12:20pm we ate lunch, I forgot what we ate but one thing I could remember is it wasn’t “pork”. The afternoon came in and we had plenty of time to blog. Blogging time came in at the perfect time because I need to catch up on 3 blogs. I spent the rest of the early afternoon blogging and eating chocolate with some of the other classmates. Once we were done blogging we had dinner. I ate some delicious ostrich with bake potatoes and cheesy broccoli with carrots. If my mother finds out I had ostrich for dinner she would be so proud because she knows the kind of eater I am (Very Picky).
Today was a fairly easy going day. I can’t complain at all because I accomplished a lot. Catching up on my blogs gave me the satisfaction I have been missing. Thanks Adele and Adrianne for putting together a wonderful morning.Also the food was delicious and savory. Tomorrow the will be visiting Zurich, It definitely sounds like fun to me.
6:30am the alarm goes off giving me 30 minutes to get ready for breakfast. I had some milk, coffee and bread which made me sick. I thought it had affected me only but the milk made Sasha, Gia and Katherine also got sick from drinking the milk at breakfast. All morning long we were throwing up and having diarrhea. That is definitely not the way I wanted our morning to start. Thanks to Elliott who gave me Maalox they helped calm down the stomach pains and heart burn. I kept telling people the extreme consumption of daily lactose products was going to make me sick. However how they say the show must go on and that’s exactly what I did.
At 9:30am Sophie and Marianne were kind enough to drive us to Heidi’s Town. After we were dropped off in the parking lot we hiked up a hill 10 minutes and reached Heidi’s house. We met up with our “tour guide” Carolina Meester, she was a horrible tour guide and with a “personality flatter than an expired coke bottle. “ Although Carolina was worse than bad – Heidi’s house was very nice and traditionally old school. I only hit my head 6 times due to the small stairs and low ceilings. Heidi really did not exist, the author invented the characther, and she is more of an example of how people lived in the late 1800s. In those times DVDs’, TVs’ or radios did not exist. Heidi was an ugly silly looking character and her house smelled like burnt wood. The dishes, beds, Wine barrels, Stairs and Kitchen table were all wooden the house looked more like a diarrhea parade. I can’t imagine surving in that kind of era, the living conditions were very limited and bad. Heidi’s house also had a whole lot of spider webs, this house should be renamed from Heidi’s house to Cruela Devils house.
Once our “interesting tour” of Heidi’s boring broken down house we came back to SSTH for Lunch (Brussels sprouts, Lamb and Wet rice). The food wasn’t that great but when you are hungry you really don’t have a choice. At 2:00pm we arrived at the luxurious Grand Quellenhof Resort Bad Ragaz. Immediately we were greeted by Katherine (A.P. to CEO), she was very charming and sweet. We were escorted to the boardroom were a power point presentation was presented by Katherine and Peter (CEO). Throughout the whole presentation both Katherine and Peter were entertaining and fun. The Quellenhof opened in 1869 and currently they are reconstructing and new building project. They can currently cater to approximately 300 people, 20 in individual treatment rooms, Therapy building (beauty, physical and mental health), 8 different business rooms and a smokers lounge. The above are some of the many facts that this wonderful well rounded luxurious resorts offers. They do have a long term vision for the future in order to expand. Some of their goals are to be one of the leading health, Spa and Golf Resort. Thermal water in the forefront. New Standards in the luxury hotel business. Their fourth resort will open in May of 2009.
As the day went along it kept getting better. At 4pm we arrived at the Wine Yard, thank God Sophie joined us because the Wine Yard owner barely spoke english. The wine yard looked very interesting however Mr. Lampert the owner gave us an inside tour and gave us facts on how his business has been sucessful throughout the years. He has been making wine for 25 years and some of the best in Switzerland. Capacity of his tanks hold 3 to 4 thousand liters of wine, Prices range between 15 and 22 francs per bottle, Chardanae is mda from 3 different wines(blended). Most of his wine production is red about 85%, 10% white and 5%merlat. Mr. Lambert usually has 4 people working most of the year however during the 2 week Harvesting period in the middle of october he hires 40 extra employees. Once the owner of the winery was done giving us the important facts in regards to his business we participated in a wine tasting which included snacks (cheese, Bread and salami). The bread was fluffy and tasty.
Once we were completed our 3 excursions for the day we arrived at campus for dinner. Today went great and I am happy that as the day went on the stomach pains went away, thats made my day such a fun and enjoyable one. I must say Asha Burton did a good job as the tour guide for the day. She kept the line moving up constantly and checked up on her sick classmates constantly through out the day. Tommorrow will be a boring day the only thing im looking forward to is not attending breakfast because I get to sleep in an extra hour.
Today I woke up ready and hyper to get going on our long day. As usual I had ham, cheese and bread for breakfast. I am starting to dislike cheese and ham. Breakfast was boring. I will be the first to say that waking up at 6am in the morning is not the most exciting part of my day. However like a true professional I behaved business like.
When we arrived in Davos, stopped at the tourism office. The front desk receptionists were nasty and rude and even lied about not knowing English. My first impression of Davos was that they do not welcome Americans. The tourist office representative was not knowledgeable about Davos – and I can not even remember his name. However willingly or not he gave us some facts in regard to Davos such as that is located in the Alps and is 15,000 feet above sea level. Davos meant sanatorium back in the day it was a popular place were people went for therapy to treat such diseases as schizophrenia and bipolar. It is also the largest tourism city in Switzerland yet they lack diversity when it comes to culture. I refuse to keep blogging about the Davos tourism office since I am still upset at the way they treated us; they pretend like we were no body.
We left the tourism office and the unexpected happened, Dr. Garely used her persuasive style and charm to get us a tour at the Steigenberger Beleverde Hotel. The General Manager, Slyvia Wyrsch, was kind enough to give us a tour of her 5-star hotel. The Steigenberger hotel has a large parking lot, the lobby is spacious and newly renovated, the dinning area is elegant and luxurious. They also have a convention center where important politicians gather yearly. The Steigenberger is a German Hotel Chain (over 80 in Europe). The average rack rates during the summer time are 326-800 CHF per night (single/double) and 450-2,000 CHF per night (suites). Their maximum capacity is 242 people per night and they have hosted over 50 Noble prize winners.
The bedrooms are large, comfortable and the bathrooms have plenty of amenities.
I would like to thank Slyvia Wyrsch for the excellent tour she gave us of her fabulous hotel and wellness area.
At 12:00pm we went to a beautiful lake and sat on benches to eat our bagged lunch (once again the Apples were sour).. We strolled around the lake and had bathroom breaks right after that we walked thirty-five minutes to the Arabella Sheraton Seehof Hotel. Upon entry I was extremely amazed by the large pink chandelier after that my impression of the 4-star hotel went down hill. Robert Attenberger, Executive Assistant Manager, gave us a tour of this hotel. There’s a side of this hotel that is 700 years old, there are a few pine wood rooms, they have two bars and five dinning restaurants. I wasn’t impressed with this hotel at all, the rooms were extremely small, the ceilings were low, the “gourmet” restaurant looked very low class and their rooms were extremely over priced, being that they were small, ugly, and old fashioned.
Today it started out very shaky. We got extremely bad customer service from the tourism office in Davos. However, Slyvia Steigenberger made my day she was lovely and with her piercing green eyes that caught the light of the sun she was stunning. Her hotel was luxurious. The tour of the Arabella Shraton Seehof hotel was not what I expected, for it is recognized as a four star hotel (in my eyes it wasn’t great at all). I must thank Shevarma Pemberton for being a good tour guide today she.
Tomorrow I sense will be a great day because we will get to do more hotel inspections which I like because it allows me to view luxurious vacation spots and well-being centers.
Today I woke up a little later than usual. However like superman I managed to make it on time for breakfast. I drank a coffee and ate a croissant, cheese and ham, which caused me to become very sick.
Since May 31st, I have been eating ham and cheese, nine out of eleven days. If we were served some bacon, sausage and eggs I would be the happiest man alive. After breakfast we had 30 minutes of down time before our lecture with Sophie Blattamnn.
At around 8:15am our lecture with Sophie Blattman begun. Today’s lecture was on the different kinds of teas and coffees. In New York coffee is warmer than Swiss coffee. Also in New York, coffee is much stronger than in Switzerland. Switzerland lacks variety of flavors in their coffee. Two of my favorite coffees are the Espresso and Cappuccino. The Espresso is Cafe with creme, but served in the smaller cup, with small saucer. The same amount of beans are used but only half the amount of water. The Cappucino is served in a rounded large cup. Hot milk is added to the coffee, then the foam from the milk is spooned on top. However the coffee is finished with some chocolate powder sprinkled on top of the foam. Sophie gave us a brief demostration of how the coffee is done and the proper serving cup. Sophie also lectured us on some teas I am not a big fan though however there are some ones that are said to be good like the tea nature, ice tea, herbal teas and ceylon tea. The only tea I am able to drink is ice tea and the reason why is because it is cold and lemony. I also learned that in Switzerland when people go skiing their coffee is mixed with such alcoholic beverages like vodka and Jack Daniels to keep themselves warm.
At lunch today we ate some delicious food. As always we were served our three course meal. Once we were completed with lunch most of us spent time going over future itineraries and what needs to be done in order to end this experience on a high note. I was also happy because we were allowed blogging time, which allowed me much need time that I used wisely to catch up on blogs. Time flew by so quickly when I looked up it was dinner time, I enjoyed myself because Prof. Blake-Neis and Dr. Garely kept us entertained throughout the whole dinner. At around 8pm the classmates and I met in the lobby and worked on our text book homework, while doing homework we ate chocolate and drank soda. At 11pm we were all happy because we accomplished our main goal, which was to finish our homework.
I’m happy and excited that today was a fairly easy going day. I’m grateful that we were able to learn the different kind of coffees and teas. So far this experience has been a pleasent one in Switzerland. I must thank Gore-Tex because thanks to the free comfortable boots they provided me with I been hiking mountains up and down Chur for the last two weeks. Also thank you Liliana for being a good tour guide throughout the entire day. God is love, life is great amen.
The sun went right through my window at 7:30am I immediately got up showered and met some of my classmates in the lobby at 8:20am. The bus picked us up at 8:29 am after a 13-minute bus ride we arrived at the train terminal and ate breakfast at a local Cafe. I had a buttered pretzel, croissant and orange juice. I arrived at the St. Mariae Himmelfahrt Cathedral at 9:30 am. Soon after I blessed myself with holy water and took my place on the bench Prof. Neis, Elliott, Shevarma, Sasha and Sarah arrived at Church.
The one hour high mass was phenomenal, I have never experienced a high mass in a different country or language. The brown benches were extremely hard and uncomfortable and I kept calling on Jesus to allow me to get through the mass. The Priest was an elderly man and although I couldn’t understand him I still felt the Lords presence. After the service was done we went to Cindy’s Diner in Chur. The diner had a 1950’s theme to it, with pictures of Elvis Presley, motorcycles and art paintings. I purchased the all American meal for 14.50 CHF, which included a hamburger with bacon, cheese, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes, a large order of french fries and a large fountain soda.
Once we were all done with our delicious lunch we strolled around the Chur for about an hour. Unfortunately all we did was walk around because all the stores were closed. After a long afternoon we arrived at SSTH. I took a nap for about two hours and when I woke up it was dinner time.
For the first time since arriving at SSTH – dinner was delayed. The reason for it was the arrival of the new international students who are on campus to study food service as well as culinary arts. I felt a little weird because for a week we didn’t have to share the facilities with other students and all of the sudden the dinning room, computer room and smoking room was crammed full with other people. I had spaghetti’s with meatballs and salad for dinner. The meal was so good I a second helping. (The European students are learning how to serve water properly, how to serve the plates on the right side of the table and how to remove the plates from the table with the proper hand and in the proper order. Mr Oliver has also taught them that Ladies must always be served before the Gentleman.)
Today was a good Sunday. I felt spiritually healed and in peace. I could have not asked for a better day. Everyday I wake up grateful to be part of an extraordinary journey like this. I pray that the rest of this journey continues to be successful because this feeling is driving me to be the best I can be.
Today I woke up, looking out my window I saw grey clouds and rain falling down but knowing that today was going to be a free day I was excited and impatient to go on the Itinerary I had planned with some of my class mates. The plan for the day goes as followed Basel, Switzerland in the morning and Zurich, Switzerland in the afternoon. However our itinerary was changed around instead we visited Basel, Switzerland in the morning and St.Louis, France in the afternoon. Saturday our Swiss passes came in handy because we were able to travel without paying for train transportation.
We took the train at 7:58 am and arrived at Basel approximately at 10:38 am, immediately my two classmates and myself went into Burger King for brunch. I had a tasty Number 5 meal which includes a chicken sandwich, french fries and soda. At the time I felt like a King in the Best burger place in the world. Once we were done with our meals we started walking to Basel Zoo. The walk to the zoo was extremely fun because it was the opening day of the EURO WORLD CUP. The locals were parading up and down the streets in Basel with b
ooze and the team colors (red and white), I was chanting along with them Ole Ole Ole Ole Ole. The crowd was very enthusiastic and up beat, although I barely understood what they were saying I felt happy seeing people happy and smiling constantly. Upon completion of our brief entertainment with the locals we had troublele finding the Zoo, However we worked as a team and arrived at Basel Zoo shortly after 12:00pm.
The arrival at the Zoo was great the tickets were $12 dollars per person. The security guard at the gate gave me a Zoo map and postcard for free to send back home to America. I took the opportunity to write my dad a long postcard to wish him a happy fathers day and let him know how much more I appreciate him now that I’m away from home for the first time in my life. Sarah, Mark and I ran like 3 little kids in a candy store immediately we started taking pictures of some of the animals such as the Gorillas, Zebras, Sea Horses, Snakes, Alligators, Tarantulas, Monkeys, Cheetahs, Kangaroos and Fishes. The dimension of the Zoo is amazing because there are three different walk ways that lead to the entrance/Exit is built more like a Maze. Basel Zoo is a safe zoo for all ages and also they are extremely sanitary. I was happy to have lasted 2 hours in Basel Zoo, the trees, Walkways and several ponds throughout the Zoo along with the viewing of the animals made the experience unforgettable. This is a tour I would recommend to people because the staff and animals in Basel Zoo are a real class act.
We exited the zoo at 2:00pm, Upon exit I was surprised to see Gia, Adele and Asha waiting for us. St.Louis, France here we come, We took the Train to the Voltz Platz, Switzerland and walked Past the Border of France. I felt like royalty when i stepped into French territory. The first question I asked a French local was “Parle Vouz Le Anglais?”, He replied “Jai Parle le Francais”. My french was broken down(horrible) but he understood me a little and even though I dont speak fluent French I understood him perfectly, after he gave me directions I led the group into St.Louis, France. This part of France is 30 minutes past the Border of Switzerland and France. St.Louis is a quiet town with old country themed based houses, this town is mostly known for their high end opticals, chocolate shops and wine shops. Sarah, Marc, Adele, Asha, Gia and myself strolled around the little friendly town we also took plenty of pictures and visited Bernard Metz (chocolate shop) and Auberge (wine shop). We bought some mint chocolate, dark chocolate and white chocolate, we enjoyed our delicious chocolate outside the shop. We also visited Optik which is a local High designer eyewear shop with such creations by Prada, Giorgio Armani, Dior, Dolce & Gabanna, Cartier, Burberry and Fendi, my eyes went directly to the Giorgio Armani Frames which cost 300 euros I immediately walked out because I didn’t have the money to purchase the frame. As of right now I believe that I should keep my Burberry frames till I get enough money for new ones. Once we were done with hour one hour walk through St. Louis, France we took the train back to Basel.
At 5:00pm we arrived at the Basel train terminal we decided it was dinner time. The (terminale pizza shop) looked appealing. I was seated along with the others and ordered myself some salami pizza with green peppers. The pizza was savory and fresh out the oven I couldn’t be any happier. After eating Asha, Gia and Adele stayed in Basel, Sarah, Mark and myself took our train back to Chur. The train ride was a peaceful and quite one we all took turns to nap this helped because we all were able to get a little rest and kept our Itinerary intact. At 8:45pm the train arrived in Chur from there we took a ten minute ride cab ride to SSTH.
I was extremely happy and couldn’t wait to see my professor to tell them how exciting of a day it was. I am happy that Mark, Sarah and I made it back safely. At 10:00pm we ordered more pizza this time from the local pizzeria in Chur (10 Dieci). We ate hawaiian pizza with fruit punch and discussed what an entertaining day we had exploring new places. Today’s experience helped me bond alot more with my fellow class mates and locals. Thank you Dr. Garely for making such an experience possible.
I woke up somewhat late, I barely made it to our daily continental breakfast. Today Adrianne Kennick was our tour guide for the day and our destination was the city of Andermatt. We departed campus at 7:30am as we usually do and used our Swiss pass to reach the train station at our destination. A van came to pick us up at the Andermatt station and drove us to the La Claustra Hotel. I was sleeping when I woke up we had arrived at our destination - it was breathtaking the view, a lot of snow surrounding us. Upon entry I was skeptical , there was no receptionist and the pathway was almost pitch black.
Walking into the hotel was an experience. The hotel was built inside a cave. The entry of it looked like the movie Hostel (dark and creepy). It was more like a scene in a movie, with rocks that had water dripping on the sides. Candles through out the walking pathway. The bathrooms in this facility were “co-ed”. I had never seen a “co-ed” bathroom in my life. Some of the stations had stand up showers along with a sink and toilet. In the middle of the bathroom there were eight metallic and sliver sinks. Overall the bathroom was amazingly high end and decorated in a modern Asian style. At the restaurant/bar we were served by two servers who were very nice and pleasant. We were served coffee and tea while we waited for the hotel tour. The restaurant and bar looked nice and expensive however they could have added a little more styling to it to make it stand out and give it more of an identity.
Bernardo a guest speaker presented us with a power point presentation of three kinds of real state they going to develop (apartments, hotels and one single family villa vacation resort), that will open in 2014, however, the whole resort will be completed in the year 2020. This is an Eco-resort being built on top of a concrete podium, heating will come out of ground. This plan is going to include a nursery, skiing, ice hockey, sports center, pool, sauna and game room. The main investor is Samitt Sawiris born on January 28, 1957, in Cairo. Samitt is married with five children and he graduated from Berlin Technical University with a Bachelors degree in engineering. People in Andermatt will have free access to the amenities in the resort activities. Also many job opportunities will be available for people in Andermatt and the city will benefit finanically. In addition this will potentially attract new businesses and tourists to Andermatt.
We were given a brief tour of the La Claustra hotel after the power point presentation by Mr. Bernard. Our tour guide was the CEO of the hotel, Mr. Gean Oderamatt. He personally guided us through the hotel and we were able to see the guestrooms, which have an Asian theme, a view of a wine rum with some exclusive wine that cost up to a few hundred dollars. Mr. Oderamatt also informed us that there were no elevators in the hotel and that since there is no check in desk customers usually check in upon pick up. This hotel has seventeen guest rooms. The dynamics inside are incredible I have never viewed such an extraordinary creation like that before. Overall it was a good tour because walking through the dark cave was something that I have never experienced before.
The night fell on us and it was time to go out and explore night life in Chur. Sasha, Mark, Sarah and I went to a pool hall, there we played pool for a few hours and conversed about life in general. At 12am we became hungry and ate pizza at 10 Dieci right across the street from the pool hall. The pizza at 10 Dieci was expensive but it was worth the money, we had a Salami and a Margharetti pizza. After we were done eating the four of us walked around town for a few minutes and then took a cab home. Chur at night is completely different from the early hours of the day. At night more people come out and are nice and happy. I was amazed to see the streets were flooded with Chur’s youth.
Today was another pleasant day in spite of the rain and cold weather. I went on a fun excursion and had time to hangout with my friends a little at night. I am content that Saturday is coming up soon because we are going to be touring new places on our own without our professors. I hope that with all that our professors have thought us we could go out and be able to travel through this country on our own. Last but not least I want to thank Adrianne for being a very good and attentive tour guide today, kudos to her for bringing us back home earlier than planned.
Today our tour excursion to Tirano Italy was postponed. The decision was the correct one. We had breakfast early in the morning. I ate some croissant’s, cheese, ham and had iced tea as my drink. Class started right after the completion of our breakfast. Dr. Garely conducted a good lesson on the different kinds of tours and tour guides. Once morning class was completed my stomach was grumbling asking for food. Its lunch time and today the menu choice at Paulaners was good, we had some delicious Caesar salad, Curry chicken, rice and baked potatoes. Although I am not a Curry chicken fanatic I found it to be extremely savory.
Blogging is a great time for all of us as a group to bond. Not only did we get the opportunity to catch up on our blogs but also we had great laughs throughout out the entire afternoon. Blogging is good because it lets us express ourselves as students and comment on the great people who help us out daily. Once we completed our blogs we were given time to set up our weekend itineraries. I teamed up with Sarah and Mark, and the three of us created an itinerary for a travel research excursion on Saturday. In the itinerary we planned to visit Basel, Switzerland and St.Louis, France in one afternoon and then return back to Chur later that evening. On a day like this is when our Swiss travel pass came in handy because it allowed us to travel to two European countries in one day at no additional cost.
Overall today was an easy going day we were able to catch up on a lot of work and get some quality rest. This came in at the right time because for most of us Saturday and Sunday were going to be busy days. I am looking forward to tomorrow because I will have the opportunity, along with others to explore areas in the country that I have not been to - yet. The lesson I learned today was that when having differences as adults we must face them in a graceful, classy and respectful manner.
Today was great we had breakfast(bread, cheese, butter and ham) at 8:30am which allowed us to sleep in. At breakfast we were notified that from 9am to Noon we were going to have a cooking lesson. I was skeptical because I thought we were going to be cooking pork. Later on we were notified that on the menu there would be other dishes besides pork. At 9am we met Chef Schmidt who is the head chef in charge and the other two sous chefs (Stephan and Joseph). I was assigned to slicing, measuring and frying it. (I have grown to hate pork).
As the cooking class progressed I felt for the first time THAT all of us had chemistry with each other and worked together as one unit. The Chefs were really nice and allowed us to try all kinds of food in the kitchen (which was good). The menu included smoked salmon on a puff pastry pillow, sauteed steak with paprika cream sauce, steamed broccoli with Parmesan, Spatzli and dark chocolate mousse.
As we prepared lunch with our helpful chefs, Elliot and Sasha became the dishwashers for the day. I also gave them a hand at the end of the session. It was a great 3-hours (seeing them wash dishes was the highlight of my morning because I would not expect them to be that good at dish-washing).
The clock struck 12 Noon and we were served the delicious meal (which we created with our own hands) in the main dinning room. I ate a lot and could not even walk up the stairs to change my clothes when I was done. The dark chocolate mousse was the best part of the menu by far.
A student meeting was held after lunch. I conducted the meeting myself because I felt as a collective unit we weren’t working well together. Every student who made it abroad is excellent, our performance’s were good however in this industry to make it to the next level you must be excellent. Once the meeting was concluded I felt harmony and determination we all realized we must be positive to enrich each others energy.
(The meeting was held in the schools lobby therefore I walked upto everyones room and brought them downstairs with me.)
At 3 PM we arrived at the Chur tourism office, our guest speaker Michael Meier (Director of Chur Tourism) gave us a few facts on tourism in the region of Chur: a) June is the peak season (with more than 100 guided City tours) are accomplished, b) Chur is the oldest city in Switzerland, c) the minimum wage per month for service employees is 3000- 3300 Swiss Francs d) Heineken beer is made from mountain water near Chur, d) Public bus drivers do not wear seat belts, e) Drinking and smoking age in Switzerland is 16 years of age, and e) Chur is known as a shopping center although most shops are closed by 9pm and closed on Sundays. Mr Meier was a really good and informative speaker, his presentation of Chur was definitely a good one.
Overall today was a great day, the weather was nice and our spirits were extremely high. We were allowed an hour to shop at Migros (supermarket) for some goodies to take back to the dorm rooms. I learned some quality information on Chur tourism and also learned how a proper meal is cooked behind the scenes. Curtis was a funny tour guide hes definitely a comedian. Happy 21st Birthday ADELE.
