Monday, July 17, 2006
I'm Back
If you’re curious, no I did not fall off the face of the earth. I did however, spend the last week in class, hence my inability to write in my blog. I have lots of catching up to do, but I’ll start with two weekends ago.
On Friday night, a slew of people headed out to one of the best features of Geneva – free concerts in the park. Donavon Frankenreiter, of Jack Johnson’s label, was performing and I highly recommend checking him out. There was a little rain, but instead of dispersing the crowd, it sparked their enthusiasm, and the evening was full of good ol' hippie style dancing and fun. At one point, questing for a cigarette for Monica, we stumbled on a group of gypsies (or perhaps they were just dirty, grungy kids – but gypsies sounds better) sitting in a circle near the bathrooms. Why they chose to sit near the bathrooms was unclear, but they were very friendly, eager to speak what little English they could, and were thrilled to roll Monica a cigarette – I am officially a fan of gypsies/dirty teenagers.
After the concert, Joey and I slept at Monica and Chandler’s apartment – why you ask – so we could get an early start for Chandler’s chalet in the Swiss Alps! Yes that’s right, I’ve made friends with someone who has (well his parents have) a chalet in the Alps. We had grand plans to leave for the chalet at 7:00 AM, but didn’t actually get up and out of town until around 11:00 (shocking I know). At one point during the drive, Chandler claimed that the chalet was just a nice little house in the mountains, nothing too spectacular… but he was lying. The house was beautiful; everything in it - walls, floors, closets, cabinetry - was made of brand new pine. It smelled amazing. Everything about the house was elegant while at the same time homey and inviting - I loved it. Aside from the house itself, the fact that it was in the Alps added just a bit to the whole experience. The mountains are beautiful, there’s a stream that runs by, providing a constant soothing sound of water, and the air is so fresh and so clean, clean. The whole thing was so choice… if you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.
After a delicious lunch of bacon cheeseburgers (not sure when I last ate one of those) the boys and girls split up for different hikes. The girls opted for a nice little uphill jaunt to see the valley just on the other side of the mountain, while the boys decided that they would climb to the top of the mountain. Being boys, and consequently somewhat absurd, Joey and Chandler anticipated making it up the mountain in about an hour - that hour ended up being four. We (Monica and I) were quite happy that we had skipped the mountain climbing, and instead enjoyed some extra time for showering, naps, and a lively game of scrabble. After the boys finally resurfaced around nine we had a tasty dinner of steaks and fine wine courtesy of Chandler’s parents (they called and said we could have whatever we wanted, so we weren’t being terrible guests). All in all, it was a lovely day, and I wish I could have spent more time there. Sadly, I had to leave at 6:00 AM the next morning – reason for this to be explained in my next entry.
