Day 3- January 8th

Today I really started to feel like it wasn't just a dream that I'm living in Switzerland for 4 months. Last night was definitely a success. The 43 students from Virginia Tech took over the Coyote Ugly. Apparently, we found out the next morning it's a local bar, but there weren't too many locals there. The one's that were there found us very entertaining, since we were typical Americans: loud, screaming the songs at the top of our lungs, and dancing on bars (well that was only one girl who had a lot to drink, then the bartender joined us). A lot of the locals loved us, but then others seemed kinda pissed. The dj played a lot of American music and most of them knew all the words surprisingly. I had to watch what I spent last night, but being in one of the richest cities in the world it's pretty much impossible to be frugal. A beer was 5 francs which wasn't too bad but everything is high priced. Dollar menus, subways, dollar stores, walmart, etc. don't exist here. There is one McDonalds nearby which is called McCafe, but my friend said just a big mac was 14 francs. I am doing my best to try and not spend all my money, but it's hard when you only get dinner Monday through Friday. We got back from the bar around 12am and then I stayed up for another hour talking to my roommate. I live with two other girls in a room. Sarah, I knew as a friend of a friend before, but Caitlin I didn't. They're both really great and I'm excited to become even better friends throughout the year. Going to the bar last night helped a lot with getting to know more people since we kind of already starting breaking into our smaller groups. But the fact that everyone went out allowed me to make friends with people who I hadn't met yet already. We had to get up at 9am this morning since Brinberg informed us that we were taking a hike at 10am. I was not really informed that this hike would be a SIX hour hike up an entire mountain of the swiss alps. It was an amazing hike, the view at the top was absolutely gorgeous and well worth it, I just wish Brinberg prepared us a little more. I definitely lacked the proper clothing because it got really cold at the top, and we'd take stops to let the slower people catch up where the wind would just blow and my sweat would dry. But all in all it was a great experience that I would love to do again. We got back around 4:30 pm, and showered and went out to a pizza place for dinner. I have a feeling pizza and pasta is going to be our main food source here unfortunately (I hope I don't come back 15 lbs heavier). I guess I won't if I keep up those hikes. A lot of us our starting to think about/plan our breaks and weekend trips, I just wish we had a little more guidance on what to do. Brinberg pretty much is leaving us out to dry on that note. Well tomorrow is my first day of class. It's going to be a real reality check. I'm used to traveling and site seeing beautiful places I absolutely do not want to sit in class for 6 hours. Although, I really do think the italian class is going to help. Everyone had told me oh you'll be fine most people there speak English. Take that with a grain of salt, because I've felt ignorant many times where our waitress or cashier does not speak English and I don't know what to do or say. But most of the people have been very nice, I just feel rude for coming to their country and not knowing how to speak their language.