Study Abroad 2005...

Interlaken is the place to be if you want to do something extraordinary. With all the flooding from the rain and damn breaking, lots of the extreme sports Interlaken, Switzerland is know for have been closed down. But yesterday, the white water rafting was open and we took advantage of the chance to paddle, float, swim, and get tossed overboard on glacier run-off in the Simme river at the foot of the Swiss Alps. Needless to say, we had an awesome time! Not only was the rafting great, but the scenery up to the start of the trip and along the river bank was amazing. They suit you up in these ridiculous (but entirely necessary) wetsuits and send you down a river lined with waterfalls, green hillsides, cottages, cattle, and the Alps! As the trip ended they even let you "free float" down part of the rapids which basically means you get to bounce along the river bottom until you can swim out of the rapids...its surprisingly fun!

After that adventure we headed back to the hostel only to be warned of an oncoming flood from yet another broken damn, which, fortunately never came into town. But it was a great way to get the town all riled up and the weekend festivities off to a good start! Later that night, Nicole, I, and some of the other people at our hostel, who have turned out to be a really great crowd, headed to the club down the street to make the most out of the night, and early morning. Interlaken managed to keep me out until 4am thanks to some great dancing, even better company, and the fact that, how often do you get to have the time of your life in Switzerland.

This morning Nicole and I hopped the train to Basel to catch our flight to Nice where we are now. The hostel we are staying at is a converted monastery up on this hill in Nice. The bar here is called The Chapel, because, well, that is what it used to be! Its raining now but hopefully will clear up enought for us to head out to the beaches or at least to the nearby towns of Cannes and Monaco.

So far, things are awesome. We seem to meet really great people no matter where we go. Everyone is just here for a good time and that is what seems to be happening. Hope everything is going well at home(s), its only been a few days and i feel pretty out of the loop already, i am going to be ridiculously behind the times when I get back!

First off, zou will have to excuse the 'z' that is in everz space where a 'y' should go because the kezs are reversed on this swiss kezboard....that being said: Nicole and i finallz made it to Interlaken, Swityerland late last night. we checked into our hostel which is kinda like the Winchester Mzsterz house in that it seems that thez just kept building random stuff, new rooms, more doorwazs and stairs, extra patios all over the place. Despite the Dr. Suess-ness of the place we were stoked to finallz find a place to laz down and sleep. the plane ride was long and our lazover gave us just enough time in Madrid to tootle around the citz and see a few parks and a coulple reallz old statues.

Todaz we woke up to a gorgeous, but overcast, Interlaken. With all the recent flooding here (from too much rain and a broken damn that has caused such severe flooding that part of the citz and manz activities are closed) we decide to rent bikes and take on the foot of the Swiss alps on our own. We left Interlaken and made our waz through a bunch of cute little Swiss towns with little garden gnomes and red shutters and everzthing. It was beautiful and the alps were an amaying backdrop to the green countrzside spotted with cow wearing real cowbells and little swiss cottage-stzle houses. As we finished up our daz the rain started to come down so we headed back to the hostel and headed out to dinner.