lausanne is only a short drive away from geneva, so myself and four of my friends went to visit. we really should have been a bit more organized in making plans to see certain things, but it's a pretty small city so we were able to cover it in an afternoon. lausanne is right along lake geneva, but has some amazing scenery and views of the mountains that are much different. the road to get to lausanne is lined with vineyards and rows of apple trees and houses and farms along the country side. it really was beautiful.
we spent about 5 hours walking the city before grabbing something to eat and trying to avoid the rain.
the small white flag in the top left corner says I <3 switzerland (which we do) me with my friends zuzana and pavel, from slovakia and russia
we toured another cathedral, i believe it was the cathedral of notre dame. it looked almost the same as the one in geneva. i made a quick lap through there and was kind of spacing off and waiting when i saw a guy wearing a wisconsin badgers shirt standing by me. so, being the friendly midwesterner that i am (being friendly and outgoing definitely doesn't seem to be as common here) i went up to him and asked if they were from wisconsin. long story short, they were with a few other couples, and were touring switzerland, italy, and germany. i talked with them for a few minutes and gave them a few suggestions for visiting geneva because they said that was their next stop. small things like this are extremely comforting when you're so far away from home.
by the time i was done chatting with my "new friends" zuzana, phillipe, pavel, and kate were waiting for me and ready to go to the next stop. one of them said, "its funny how when americans see other americans they always want to talk, when russians see other russians they try to get away." there are so many things you learn about your own culture when you're not surrounded by it anymore.
sweet panorama, huh?
i am really hoping to make it back to lausanne to walk through the wineries before the fall weather gets colder and we get more rain.
my french class starts tomorrow and i'm really excited to be able to learn more about the language. sports classes also start tomorrow, i honestly had the hardest time choosing. the list was so long and included everything: wakeboarding, self defense, womens rugby, yogalates, hip-hop dance workout, anything you could ever want. i think i decided on the physical conditioning which sounds a lot like high intensity interval training. i'll let you all know how it goes :) have a happy monday, everyone!