Alps, Bern, improving French, schoolwork, and more!

Hello all! It feels like ages since I last wrote though I don't think it's actually been that long...

Last Wednesday morning I left for Bern (Switzerland's capitol) with the program for a three day trip. My Aunt Mary told me this summer that Bern was one of h

er favorite Swiss spots and WOW I can see why. The old city is built on the peninsula formed by the river running through the city and ALL the buildings in the significantly larg

e old city date back hundreds of years. I climbed a huge Cathedral (Munster), ate some traditional Swiss-German food (Roschte... it's basically hash-browns with a special onion topping and amazing sausage so, AMAZING), and visited the apartment where Einstein lived while developing the Theory of Relativity (that's a picture of me at his actual desk on the right!), went to a really dorky combined Swiss and Einstein history museum with some dorky friends. Bern is infinitely more relaxed than Geneva. Swiss German really is a separate tongue from German... Germans usually can't understand Swiss Germans but Swiss Germans learn "high German" in school. I found the German part of Switzerland to be a little less pretentious than the French parts I've been to.... but of course it's easy to forget that Geneva doesn't truly belong in any category as it is just about the most international city in the world.

Here's Bern from the tower of the Cathedral!

Our speakers in Bern were the best we've had yet on the program, in my opinion. I had the opportunity to interview one of our speakers - a Major in the Swiss military - for a research paper on Swiss neutrality that I'm currently in the middle of. I was truly impressed with his eloquence and clear explanations... but I don't have enough time to really discuss neutrality just now - I want to do that right because I find it so, so fascinating. What I CAN say is that before we met he sent me...

the most official text message of my life:

Dear Alice, I just got back from a duty trip to Skopje, Macedonia and I'll be leaving on Friday for the next one to Ukarain and Belarus. Tomorrow at 14:00, I have to represent the defence ministry in a meeting at the foreign ministry. The only moment would be just after my lecture in the morning. Let's see tomorrow and good night. Major Thomas Schmidt, International Relations

WOW. That's all I can say.

LES ALPES!!!

This photo is from last Sunday (the 19th) - I'm looking at Eiger on my left and Monch on my right... Jungfrau (the tallest peak) is just out of the picture on the right. These colors are unreal! I didn't photoshop it, I swear!

After Bern I spent the weekend in Gimmelwald...which is a train, bus, and cable-car ride up the mountains from Interlaken in central Switzerland. I have never been so stunned by views in my life. I was hiking with a friend from the program who is incredibly fit (college varsity tennis player) - so we had a fantastic time! We ended up climbing to the top of Schilthorn on Saturday - a combined 4,332 foot elevation gain in a little over three hours. Schilthorn is where one of the James Bond movies takes place... and is right across the valley from Switzerland's three highest peaks: Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger. It was increidbly foggy when we woke up so we weren't sure we were even going to see ANYTHING but decided to go for the summit anyway. (don't worry mom; the Swiss are anal about marking the trails). After about an hour in solid straight uphill GREY we started breaking through the clouds! Alps! I won't try to describe it... See the post before for a short video I took the next day when it was sunny. From the summit we had 360 degree Alp views... I'm still a little in shock at the beauty. Here's a little piece of it...

I will be back! This was too incredible. As always nature brought me unbelievable joy and peace... Switzerland has so many of these corners to explore - the biggest challenge will be deciding which spots to see.

COWS. I am into the Swiss cows. Not only are they responsible for all this chocolate and cheese but they're just beautiful.

Now I have a big paper to write... and then next Sunday our group is headed to Brussels and Paris for a week! Oh, I was going to say something about my French. It's getting noticeably better. The big news yesterday is that my host dad made a sarcastic joke at dinner and not only did I understand but I responded with a sarcastic joke of my own! Ooohhh! Translated it's not all that funny... along the lines of:

Hermann: "Oh so you visited Einstein'

s home, was he in?"

Alice: "No but his secretary assured me he'd be back next weekend"

Hermann: "Oh good, send him my regards"

Okay so it's not THE funniest thing you've ever heard but it was a thrill for me.

Love you all! Thinking of you often,

~Alice