It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas..

If I could just end my internship with last night's Christmas party, by all means, I would do so in a heartbeat - not even because it's so challenging and I'm burnt out now that I'm very aware of how soon I get to home (A WEEK FROM TOMORROW!), not even because there's a BAJILLION things I want to re-visit (and sadly, so many things I want to visit for the first time still!) and I suddenly have come to the realization that despite counting down until when I go home, I haven't seen and done everything that I've had in mind just yet. Instead, it's because I'm not sure I could be anymore flattered by the compliments that I've been graced with this week, and I want to leave at the highest point I can reach.

So I should backtrack a bit first... Luckily (oh man, luckily) for myself, a new work experience student started this past week and will be there until I finish up this coming week. Which, although my first thought was of course (immaturely) "Aren't I enough?" Well, I wouldn't have been.. because as I'd expect no one in America should know (or even care to know) the Chancellor issued the pre-budget report this week... aka, this Wednesday (oh joy, I was lucky enough to work that day!) was CHAOTIC. We offered a 13-page feature on the section, and the editor sent us out to collect not 3, not 4, not even 5 interviews... BUT TWELVE. TWELVE?! Just to put in perspective, on a semi-controversial (moreso political than financial) question, it sometimes takes me a good two - two & a half hours to find someone appropriate for the slots. The PBR couldn't possibly be a more difficult question to ask individuals to comment on - adding the fact that we were sent out just an hour or so after the report was even announced. Unless everyone in the UK has SKYNEWS running 24/7 in their offices (which I doubt), I don't understand how the hell anyone would expect people to be experts on the issue just an hour after its release.

That being said, thank God I had a partner in crime this time... because after they had sent me out for a good hour, I had actually reached a point where I called my mom on the brink of crying. So, once I returned to the office exclaiming that it was more or less impossible - and after the other intern (a graduate student at a London university) returned with the same verdict - they sent us out together to see what would happen. We came back an hour or more later with six interviews, which to our extreme luck the editor had agreed on long before we had even collected six... and we left that night with lots of words of congratulations and gratitude from the entire newsroom staff. DEFINITELY an extremely difficult assignment. DEFINITELY.

So come Thursday, I was assigned two fairly challenging stories - both thankfully more politically and legally based - and the intern and I did the interviews together (in about an hour!) After submitting the second of my stories, my news editor turned around from a few desks over and said, "Alyssa! Excellent job on the **** story. Really nice work - very tight and crisp. Solid writing!" I felt so flattered and so humbled that the NEWS EDITOR was complimenting my writing.. I smiled and thanked him shyly and didn't think too too much about it, although it did send me home with an extra skip in my step.

Fast-forward to Friday where I worked in the features section - and even managed to goof up.. The office Christmas party was yesterday, but I assumed we weren't going since we technically work on Fridays. That being said, it was only about 3pm when (on an empty stomach) I shared a Christmas ale with the features editor and one of the reporters. Delicious stuff, but goodness did it hit me FAST. I barely had ANY but I suppose that's how it goes when you don't eat all day.

I didn't necessarily want to go to the party because I obviously don't know people as well as they know each other, not to mention there's the whole two papers, two projects and a final that I still have yet to accomplish. But I went, because I didn't want to come off as rude or uninterested... and I'm very glad that I did go (even if I was damn near drunk after just one strawberry daquiri). But while I was there, the deputy editor came up to me apologized for coming off as intimidating during my initial interview for the position - and proceeded to congratulate me and thank me, saying that had I not been willing "to dive in and put in the extra effort" it never would have worked out. I couldn't have been more flattered, even if I did try to play it off cooly.

Speaking of things that I tried to play off cooly... four $12 drinks later, I decided to head home before getting 45 minutes from the bar and realizing that my final exam notes were in a bag that I had left at the front of the bar. UGH.

Nevertheless, an awesome night.

Through the Years We All Will Be Together...

This post is going to be horribly written, despite the fact that the past week has absolutely been incredibly amazing - and a nice vacation from the reality that I have a nearly-impossible workload ahead of me in the next five days...

As most people know, whether from my bringing it up every 10 seconds in conversation or through various facebook statuses, Chris visited for the past 10 days or so... While the week saw him in bed sick for the first two or three days, my working shifts until 8pm at my internship and horrible, horrible weather... as always, I had an incredible time and cried when saying goodbye at the airport (thankfully, I was anxious over the fact that I was over half an hour late for class, otherwise I would've made a huge scene, as usual hahaa)

I had dreams of us getting fabulous pictures together at Big Ben, the Monument, Tower Bridge, etc. and none of that happened. In fact, dare I point out, I think we literally got one picture together - and even that was sort of a fail because we asked for a picture in front of St. Paul's and the tourist who took it failed to get any of St. Paul's Cathedral in the background.

It makes me feel terrible to think we missed out on enjoying London itself together, but then I realize it doesn't necessarily matter. There were hilarious moments, like freaking out in the Earls Court hostel because we were CONVINCED a murderer was in the building... watching A Muppet Christmas Carol together... and all of the incredibly delicious dinners - not to mention sneaking into and out of my building a dozen times.

It might not have been what I had in mind in the sense that I wanted so badly to show all of London to Chris myself, but sometimes things don't work out as scheduled... and sometimes, that's just fine with me.

Nevertheless, when we hopped on the 9-hour overnight bus to Scotland, I had very high expectations - and yet the entire trip exceeded them. We did a walking tour first thing in the morning after having coffee and hot chocolate with Justin at Cafe Nero on Princes Street... and despite the cold, POURING rain throughout the 3 1/2 hour tour, I'm pretty sure all three of us had an amazing time. And that night, we embarked on a pub crawl, which was absolutely hilarious - despite the fact the Mexican food + alcohol didn't fair too well with Justin. The next day brought beautiful sunshine and an incredible amount of pictures that will never do the day justice...

But, I think the highlight of my whole trip was when the three of us sat together in a pub for a good three hours and reminisced... about our trip, about our semesters abroad, about Christmastime, and about how despite our distances, despite the turn of events over the past couple years and despite where we may find ourselves in the future, we always seem to find ourselves back together. That in and of itself made the entire 10 days memorable... And with a toast, we vowed to future excursions which - without a doubt - I look forward to.

As miserable as Chris probably was on the National Express bus back to London, I don't think I could stop smiling.. and it absolutely crushed me (as usual) to see him leave today. And that? That had nothing to do with London, and that's totally okay.

Nevertheless, the only good thing Chris leaving symbolizes is the main thing keeping me determined to get work done (although I haven't actually done anything yet) - and that is the fact that in less than two weeks I will be back home decorating the Christmas tree, sleeping in my own bed, eating my parents' cooking, visiting Peddler's Village, seeing A Christmas Carol in Princeton and... oh yes, Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with the family. I've love, love LOVED London, but I can't help but have a one-track mind... only 12 days until I'm home again at the best time of the year...

Turkey for you, turkey for me - Can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry

I'd be lying if I ever made the claim that I've ever shaken my homesickness since first arriving in London almost three months ago - I haven't - but I'd also have to say that I have, in many ways, acclimated myself to the city, to the point where I often find myself forgetting that I’m an ocean’s width away from my hometown in central New Jersey.

That being said, today offered the blaring reminder that I am, in fact, a foreigner to this country. To say it was easy to get myself out of bed to go to work on Thanksgiving Day, only the greatest holiday ever invented, would be a flat-out lie. I moped the entire way to Gloucester Road tube station, and whenever Christmas songs dared to turn up on my iPod shuffle, a pang of instant homesickness would stab me out of the blue. It’s not so much the turkey dinner, or the American football games, or even the day off from work that I missed out on this year. It was just the fact that it served as another painstaking reminder of just how far away home really is… although, upon second glance at my calendar, I suppose it’s not very far at all.

Nevertheless, I was not in the happiest of moods when I stumbled into work, particularly when a full hour had passed before a single person (of a group of journalists!) remembered that it was Thanksgiving. They all turned to me and apologetically wished me a happy holiday, before stacking nine hours’ worth of work on my desk.

Needless to say, it was a challenging day. But my morning homesickness eventually faded into determination and false hope that I’d be sent home early for the day. I wasn’t, but the idea kept my attitude positive, even as I pursued a horribly challenging story covering a Japanese-based engineering company. The story itself wasn’t necessarily a difficult topic – I didn’t have to deal so much with pre-tax profits and adjusted earnings and everything that goes in one ear and comes out the other at the day’s end. It was the fact that there was no story – and, with just my luck, this was the one time that my editor asked me to write a longer feature. Seriously? Of all the times I dug up sources and picked up the phone and harassed analysts, with no understanding of what exactly it was I was harassing them about… of all those times, THIS was the time that they wanted me to write a full-fledge story? Oh boy, Happy Thanksgiving.

On another note – yesterday, halfway through the day, my other editor walked over to my desk with his usual quiet disposition and said to me: “Alyssa, I wanted to let you know… there’s an office Christmas party on December 11th, and you’re more than welcome to come.” Christmas party! Not only am I not fired, but I’m coming to the office Christmas party? Honestly, you’d think the captain of the high school football team had just asked me to my senior prom. I was so happy and so relieved that last week’s fiasco had not only failed to persuade them to fire me and thus destroy my grade-point average, but they were still considering me a part of the office! I caught myself before I replied, “You bet your bottom I’m going to be at the Christmas party!”

Aside from the overwhelming urge to climb to the top of the tallest building in London’s bank district and mull over my options a few times, I have to say that, bad moments aside, I do actually have a love for this internship. I don’t take back what I said about not wanting to become a financial reporter, but I don’t necessarily hate my job, and I do find parts of it to be very rewarding. Last Friday, while working the features desk, they entrusted me to not only write my own stories and edit their work, but they actually let me place a page using Quark, a program that I proudly list under the “skills” section of my resume, yet one that I also have hardly touched since my former position as senior editor on the high school newspaper staff. Nevertheless, I remembered enough to get by, and lo and behold, come Monday, there was my page, exactly as I had set it out with all of the edits that I had chosen to implement. Alas, a sense of accomplishment and a return of confidence!

Before I finish off this post, I also need to back-track as I failed to mention an important cultural experience I had a few weeks ago on Armistice Day. While I realize that the day is the same of the American equivalent, veteran’s day, there was a moment where I really earned a renewed sense of respect for British culture – and that was the moment of silence. Grant it, there have been a number of times during which I wish there had been a moment of silence in our newsroom (particularly when I’m on the phone), but it was absolutely impressive, not just how everyone quieted in time for the national reflection, but how everyone had actually prepared beforehand. In an office where phones are constantly ringing off the hook, every single reporter hung up from their phone conversations, no matter how important, and told those on the other line, “I apologize but I will have to call you back after the national moment of silence.” And, in return, not a single phone rang during the entire moment in which we gathered around the television for BBC’s coverage of the day of remembrance.

Being that I can still recall September 11, 2002, the first day in my 20-year memory during which our President implemented a national moment of silence - a tradition which, unfortunately, seemed to fall through within the next year or two to follow - I was absolutely moved by how dedicated every single individual in my office had been to commemorating an event that happened over 90 years ago.

Just what you want to be, you will be in the end

DISCLAIMER: Excuse the format, lameness and lack of contractions in this post... the truth is, we're required to write blog posts for class and being that I'm SO exhausted (and quite tired of looking at computer screens all day), I decided to be lazy and copy & paste my entry for class into this blog... I'll eventually go back and add photos and be really-super-obnoxious and re-publish all of the photoless posts later. But until then... enjoy (or don't, since this is a class assignment)... ALSO, I realized that I had the name of my organization in my original class entry - but being that I'm too lazy to reword things, I'm putting in asterisks where I named the paper. HAHA. Sorry =) Needless to say - not one of my better posts. Bear with me.

When I first walked through the doorway, towards the receptionist’s desk in front of the ******* newsroom, I was more nervous than I had probably ever been for an interview, let alone an interview for an unpaid position. Although I may have been through the routine before a number of times in attempts to brace myself for the real world of declining readership and the rise in online journalism, for whatever reasons, I was absolutely shaking in my boots as I sat on the couch waiting to meet my soon-to-be editors.

Despite all of the pep talk that I had heard from our advisors prior to my interview, I somehow knew in my gut that mine would hardly incorporate a laid-back environment or talks over tea and biscuits - let alone a trip to a nearby pub. Nevertheless, it came as very little surprise to me that I was greeted with an empty board room - and what could have served as interrogation lights in a penitentiary - and a one-on-one session with each of the two news editors. While they seemed very nice, they were anything but shy about their expectations for the intern position – nor did they cover up the startling statistic that two of their last five interns were fired.

Being that I still have much to learn about life in the United Kingdom, coupled with the fact that had I still been in the United States I would still know very little about financial news, I was completely certain – and still very much afraid – that I would become another statistic for them to tell their future applicants.

That being said, a lot has already changed. On day one of my internship, I walked in the door at 10a.m. sharp, which is what I was told to do, and yet editors and reporters were creeping through into the newsroom as late as half-past ten. I must have been there maybe six minutes before the head editor, **let's call him Bob**, turned to me and said, “Do you want the BTG story? You can take the BTG story” and walked back to his desk on the other room. The first thought that popped into my mind was, of course, “What in God's name is BTG?”

I am not exactly sure how I not only managed to get through that first day, but also, how exactly nine hours, with no lunch-break, managed to fly by so quickly. And, more importantly, I am not sure how it happened, but I not only wrote that BTG story, it gave me my first byline in their paper the next morning.

I tried to remain stealth about hunting down a copy of that Friday’s paper in a frantic search to see my name in print. I had written before for a national U.S. publication, with roughly the same circulation rates as *****, but there was something so rewarding about seeing my name in print… in a foreign newspaper… discussing a topic for which, just 24 hours earlier, I had known nothing.

As I’m writing this post after having finished only five days of my internship, I have already had several bylines in their paper, I have been sent out twice to collect a dozen interviews on financial and banking topics and – oh, yes – I have even been humbled with compliments by my editors. While each day has, thankfully, allowed for me to look back in retrospect with pride for my accomplishments, every single day has been a complete and utter challenge.

My internship has already taught – or at least reminded me of – several things. The first, being that I am an American, and while I have not ever really forgotten this, there have already been countless times where something t that would be common-knowledge for anyone and everyone in the newsroom remains something blatantly foreign to me. While everyone has been very helpful and understanding thus far of our cultural differences, there have been little moments that serve as a reminder that my lack of background knowledge in both the British financial world and British culture can be fairly humorous at times. It came as a bit of a reality-check for me when I walked into the office one day and proclaimed that I had stayed up the whole night to finally have the chance to see my favorite American baseball team had win the world championship, and yet about half of the people in the room had never even heard of the New York Yankees. That being said, I contributed nothing to the same reporters’ conversation about football a few hours later.

The second lesson that I have already learned from my internship is simple: I am not a kid anymore. Now, grant it, I have realized this a long time ago, but I have realized that, had I taken on an internship in a financial daily newspaper in America (which, by the way, would never happen because undergraduates very rarely receive placement with daily newspapers in the United States, let alone with newspapers that cover topics of which they have no familiarity) I would still be lauded for my successes, specifically because of my age. In other words, although I entered ***** knowing that I would not be “babied” through my endeavors, I have essentially been on my own throughout my first five days. While there are plenty of helpful and generous reporters in the office, everyone is too busy to assist me with however few questions I may limit myself to, and I find myself having to learn things through trial and error.

However, I have noticed, particularly today, that my efforts have not actually gone unnoticed. Just as I was growing more and more convinced that I was doing a poor job and that I was secretly becoming a burden rather than an asset to the organization, as I got up from my desk to leave work (at 7p.m., as usual) both the head editor and the news editor took the time to personally thank me for my work and congratulate me on my early accomplishments.

I still walk into work every day with the fear of failing – of completely blanking on the difference between pre-tax profits and adjusted profits, or confusing banks, or enduring plain-old writer’s block – but the challenges, thus far, have been nothing less than rewarding, In the past two days, I have taken on controversial topics and have actually successfully convinced nearby banking and investing professionals to comment – on the record – despite the fact that they were leery about expressing their opinions publicly. And, oh yeah, I accomplished this feats in the pouring rain.

Sell the kids for food, Weather changes moods..

I had to switch back to Nirvana for my title, otherwise all of my blogposts from here on out would be Christmas songs haha (I'm kind of a little addicted to Pandora's holiday selections.. thank you VPN.American.Edu for existing).

Nevertheless, I thought the opening lines to In Bloom pretty much sum up my weekend - out of money, out of food, and in a rut whenever it rains outside.

Anywho, I literally did nothing and I hate that I did nothing because weekends are prized possessions now that FIE so graciously forked over a very challenging IIC seminar (whatever IIC stands for I have no idea)... but basically for an hour and a half every Monday we discuss our feelings about our internships (aka, I will probably whine about the sheer terror I feel every Wednesday and Thursday) and oh yeah.. P.S. Students? You have a 3,000-word paper on top of finals and the 6,000 other powerpoint presentations due in that week's span. I imagine Dec 10th-Dec 15th are going to be some of the most anxious and challenging days you could really ever fathom abroad.

However, the build-up to Nov 28th, when Chris gets here, is pretty overwhelming, too. I talked his (eyes??) off today on gchat because in the few and precious hours when I don't have any obnoxious assignments to rush through (although I kind of did at the time) I can't help but sometimes stare at my calendar in anticipation of the few weekends of excitement and freedom that are remaining in the London program. Here's a depressing way of looking at it - not including the weekend we all leave, there's only 5 pairs of Friday & Saturday nights left. You mean to tell me that the maximum amount of weekends that I can lose my voice by screaming at mediocre (but when you're holding a drink or two - FABULOUS) rock bands and sweat off several pounds dancing at O'Neill's is FIVE? (Well, actually six. I could squeeze in a run before hopping on the plane back to Jersey).

Anyway, tomorrow is Tuesday.. with that comes one more opportunity to rush out of FIE's building in search for another Christmas lighting ceremony... but it's also the last remaining day before voyaging back to the office and putting my nose to the grindstone. It's satisfying work, let me tell you, but it's also my first taste of the real world. I miss when people were impressed at my accomplishments because of my age. Bye bye, teen years. Hello adulthood.

It's been a hard day's night, and I've been working like a dog..

So in the past week, I've overcome the first of two expected bouts of extreme homesickness (missing Halloween back home), seen my Yankees win the WORLD SERIES (at 5:30am.. 2 hrs before I had to get up), handed in a legitimately tough paper and completed the second of many obnoxious powerpoint presentations. Oh yeah, and I started a little thing called my internship...

For googling purposes, I won't name the organization that I'm working with on here, but if your facebook friends with me (or friends with me at all haha) you should probably know... anyway, I'm working with a daily financial newspaper, I'll give you that much.

And guess what. I don't know a THING about finance.

I literally was shaking in my heels as I walked to the tube on Wednesday for my first day. I know I've been nervous for every first day of work that I've ever had (yes, even Dairy Queen - which, believe it or not, the first day at DQ is really tough). But to be thrown in a scenario where you know in a matter of hours you're expected to have interviewed half a dozen people written half a dozen stories using terms and accounts of events that you've never even heard of - (particularly because all the banks and firms are UK BANKS AND FIRMS.) it's a terrifying thought. And oh yeah, these people are accountable for SIX CREDITS of my 15 credit GPA this semester. Talk about excruciating amounts of pressure.

But, I got through that first day - honestly, I said a prayer of gratitude before I even made it to the stairwell to leave the building. I was in absolute complete shock. I had turned in a story about God knows what - literally, I don't even remember, much less understand what it is I turned in - and interviewed half a dozen people on the streets about a topic which I understood very little. Oh, and I worked from quarter to 10am until quarter to 7pm with no breaks - thank you DQ for preparing me for that little facet in life.

But, the things these people turn out in such a limited amount of time on a DAILY basis - it's absolutely astonishing.. and what's even more crippling, is that I'm pretty sure one of the editors is about my age, if I understood her correctly. Talk about feeling humbled.

Thursday was a little better - particularly because I wrote a story that gave me my first byline in their paper!! So exciting, although I have SO MUCH to improve upon that it literally terrifies me.

Yesterday, alleluia, I worked for the features desk because the financial people don't report on Fridays.. whereas the office normally has close to 40-50 people in the newsroom alone M-TH, this time, there were maybe 8 people - and that was after it took a few hours for people to come in. It was so much more laid back, and I was much less terrified despite the fact that they had actually technically given me almost 3 times the amount of work that the finance desks have handed to me. Nevertheless, it was suchhhh a breath of relief to write about properties for sale and the latest in ski fashions rather than pre-tax profits and revenues and overweight ratings.

So this weekend? I spent last night sitting on my computer watching episodes of Boy Meets World because the thought of going out just sounded like waaay too much stress haha. It wasn't the same kind of staying-in as last week where I was absolutely depressed at the thought of lying in bed all weekend. I NEEDED to just sit there and allow braincells to commit suicide while watching hours upon hours of American sitcoms. It felt SO GOOD. Although, the damper is that I have a major paper due Tuesday and God help me, I have no clue how to write it.

It's also difficult because now I'm already seeing why so many people told me Christmas in London is phenomenal.. I thought they were just referring to shopping and pretty lights but OHMYGOSH there are SO MANY free events including more Christmas lightings, TWO PARADES, a pillow fight flash mob and (da da da DA!) SANTA CLAUS!!! Harrod's has NYC's Macy's beat by a good 3 weeks on that one.. it's so excting yet SO SO frustrating because my work load has quadrupled in the past 8 days.. but I'm sorry, I cannot keep turning down free CHRISTMAS events. And, thank you God for B101's online Christmas music feed... honestly, when I'm at work I crave Christmas music.. it's so calming and reassuring and, yes, it serves as a reminder that I'll be home in 6 weeks. Perry Como's (There's No Place Like) Home for the Holidays has ALWAYS been my favorite Christmas song since I was a little girl, but it takes on new meaning here... I hit the nail on the head when I said that starting work would help dull the homesickness because it keeps me busy (and stressed!) and it allows for less time for me to sit on my top bunk and stare at the ceiling and think about how I'm missing homecooked meals and Yankee parades and my 3rd favorite holiday (Halloween's over and I missed it, you blockheads!)...

Although while we're discussing things to be depressed about - I won't even go into detail about the status of my bank account. Ohmygoodness it's absolutely painful, I can't even describe. For a person as anal about finance as I am, to see my bank account officially dip into the triple digits literally makes me sick to my stomach. Then again, it happened after buying tickets to see U2 in NJ and booking a hostel for me and Christopher, so that really helps to alleviate the pain quite a bit. Spring semester is going to be TOUGH though because I HAVE HAVE HAVE to find a job with a lot of hours. There's no other alternative. Oh, and I may be taking 18 credits. OUCCCHH.

Speaking of Christopher, I'm stealing a page from his book and I've elected to get up early to walk to Kensington Gardens - not so much to take photos (although I'm sure I will) but just to enjoy it. It's a beautiful, cold day in London today with absolute clear bluer than blue skies and I have to start learning to make time to enjoy that. After all, with the status of my bank account, it may be a long, long time before I ever do again.

Lover, I'm on the street where the bright lights & the big city meet...

As I'm writing this, I'm still sitting in Chris's room at Le Cenacle in Geneva, Switzerland.. but my bags are all packed, he isn't here and I don't think I could be any sadder at the thought of leaving.. I've loved Switzerland, it's an absolutely gorgeous country with a backdrop of none other than the Swiss Alps and beautiful cobblestone walkways and fountains and fine dining and AH.. so much. But, I'd be just as sad leaving that infamous apartment in Columbus, Ohio as I am to leave Geneva.. and not to put down Ohio, but the only thing that Columbus, Ohio from a few months ago and present-day Geneva have in common is one thing - my boyfriend.

I've been here since last Thursday evening. On the train voyage here, during which I may have overreacted a bit (sorry!), I got lost and flustered being that French makes about as much sense to me as ancient hieroglyphics, and much to my surprise, I bumped into another American girl my age, who was looking for the same train, had just gotten in as part of her fall break from London and was meeting up with friends in Geneva as well. Sometimes, you just have to love globalization. Studying abroad makes you suddenly sympathize with any foreigner whom every American at some point or another was guilty of bashing for "not learning the language." Regardless, I eventually found my way to the main train station, and without a functioning phone, it felt so good to see him standing there. I wanted to throw my luggage aside and leap to hug him, but remembering that my new friend had more or less saved me from curling up into a ball and crying in the middle of the airport, I elected to put that on hold.

Anyway, the night was so much fun - even taking the tram and getting my first glimpse of the city and Jet D'Eau (which I've decided is so far one of my favorite sights that I've seen thus far in Europe) was so much fun. And I can't lie, even though Chris likes to relapse into Engrench on occasion, it was impressive to see him speak French to some of the passersby :) The rest of the night was awesome, except if I remember correctly, we went out to party and have a good time at Spring Brothers bar with a bunch of his friends, and within ten minutes I had horrible stomach pains to the point where Chris and I barely finished a beer before we headed back to Le Cenacle. Gotta hate that sometimes, but seeing as I had an exhausting day and barely slept the night before, it was probably best that we head back early. If I had to walk the mile and a half back (in heels, nonetheless) I don't know how I ever would have made it..

That Friday, I sat in on Chris's Swiss Life & Cultures class - which was absolutely comical. I realize my British Life & Cultures class is sort of a joke because we're barely actually ever IN a classroom, and my professor makes me giggle like an idiot because he reminds me of one of the main characters from Big Bang Theory on CBS, only he's ten times funnier solely because he has an insanely thick British accent. But regardless, their "professor"(??) more or less stood there for three hours and completely made up stuff about the Genevois as if she had done years of research... it was pretty hilarious, and what was even more hysterical was how EVERYONE was on their computers talking to each other. I suppose that means I should give prop to my BLC professor, because he at least disguises himself for being knowledgeable enough that less than half the class is on facebook when he talks. That's pretty impressive for an abroad class, I'd have to guess...

That night we went out to a classier bar (or two?) which was awesome because I'm not sure the two of us ever went alone to a bar before? (Being that I'm still only 20, that would be a legitimate reason why)... it was so much fun, and afterwards, we met up with the crew at Spring Brothers - and being a little ridiculous was just as fun as well. Not to mention it felt good to be in a sports bar, despite being 3,000 miles away from Yankee Stadium for the WS... but that's besides the point, I guess. Ugh :)

We DID take the walk all the way back at the point - which I should have been discomforted by, but I wasn't in the slightest. In fact, as Chris predicted, the walk more or less flew by haha.

On Saturday we hopped on a bus (without my having money, so of course, I was in fear of getting caughted and being fined $80 for the entire trip) to the Swiss/French border... halfway through the voyage, we realized we were supposed to have our passports. After realizing that passport authority was actually checking people for their credentials, we took a lesson learned from the US/Mexico border and put it to good use - we found a hole in the border fence, hopped it "discretely" and ran like hell.

HILARIOUS. I realize in our minds we probably exaggerated the severity of the situation - in fact, dare I say, we may have been able to walk past the passport authority without them even caring to ask what we were up to - but regardless, it was so hilarious (and SO badass, right?)

So we got kind of lost in a beautiful, more or less deserted French town, before finding our way over to the lifts to climb Mt. Saleve. It was sad that there was a layer of thick, low-lying clouds once we reached a certain altitude (despite it being beautiful, warm and absolutely sunny for our whole voyage to France), but the trip was still so incredible.. and despite what Chris may claim, the photographs are still impressive.

We hiked up the top of Mt. Saleve, plopped ourselves down in a grassy field by a herd of sheep, ate delicious sandwiches and Swiss chocolate and just lied there gazing at the Alps. Incredible... Never undestimate the potentials for study abroad experiences.

We came back to Le Cenacle exhausted, but ready to go out and have a good time. I think that was the night we ended up bar-hopping more or less? We were in search of a jazz club that we failed to find, but stumbled on another cute, overpriced bar, where we ordered pints of 1664 solely because it was the cheapest thing on the menu.. we left there and went to what was more or less an outdoor bar, where we had pints of the same drink for half the price, and somehow, eventually wobbled over to Spring Brothers where we met up with some of the gang again.

I had SUCH an incredibly fun time, even if there were no live bands or dancing or three levels of cheap drink service (I'm obviously describing O'Neills in London's Leicester Square)... it was SUCH a good feeling to not be the sketchball third-wheel at a dance club this time, because this time, I HAD my boyfriend with me. That made it a thousand times better than the best bar I've been to in London thus far.

And, the night ended with us begging a Dutch girl about our age for 40 cents because, as per usual, I was just short of getting bus passage. I've been here 8 days now and have yet to be checked on the public transporation system, but I KNOW that I have such bad luck with t hose things... I couldn't help but notice I'm about 60 cents short for the train from the main station to the airport, and that terrifies me because I KNOW I'd be THAT person who gets caught on my very last public transportation voyage before getting back to London. UGGH.

Anyway, Sunday we laid low despite the fact that we had wanted to visit another town or city in Switzerland.. For photos' sake, I wish we had been able to go somewhere outside of Geneva... but as I'm writing this now, I'm pretty sure I have a fever and my eyes feel like they want to close, despite the fact I slept plenty last night. But, I felt so lousy that I didn't even catch all of Game 2 of the WS last night... so you KNOW I must be under the weather...

Anywho, the rest of the week was fabulous, despite the fact that Chris interns during the week... if I had been more energetic, I'd have gotten my lazy rear-end out of bed when Chris left for work and would have voyaged through Geneva...part of me wishes I had done that more, but most of me realizes that I a.) would've gotten lost and b.) would've spent the whole time pretending I knew what I was doing, without every actually stumbling on anything picture-worthy or notorious. Hahaa. But, I enjoyed sharing all of the lunch breaks with Chris this past week.. and we made sure to try to get out to dinner a couple times at night... although cooking dinners were strangely enjoyable, and staying in with the one you love can never be underestimated.

On Wednesday, Chris came down with something so he ended up staying in from work.. which, although I felt bad, and although it meant we really couldn't go out, I was glad that he was "stuck" with me all day, and the same was true for Thursday.

It seems like I've been here for such a long time because I absolutely love all of his friends here, and I've gotten really good at finding my way through Geneva on my own with very little knowledge of French... but gosh, time always goes by so fast when we visit each other. Oktoberfest in Germany together was hilarious, but I enjoyed the week together in Switzerland so much more, just because it felt like "old" times but in a new, exciting city in Europe. My plane leaves in less than eight hours, which means I'll be at the airport in about 5 and a half.. and Chris won't get out of the GREs until about another five hours... it's always so hard to leave, regardless of "where" it is I'm leaving... so I'm sure I'll sob like I usually do and then, as soon as I get to my flat in London, I'll probably put on sweatpants, climb into bed and watch childrens' Halloween movies all night.. but gosh, this week was worth it so, so much...




P.S. -- I just wanted to point out that the U2 lyrics as a title are to celebrate the fact that summer 2010 tickets go on sale SO SOON!!! AHHHH!!! :)

P.P.S. -- I guess now would be the point to brag that the Yanks tied up the WS and it's still anybody's game now (and by anybody's, I mean anybody's on the Yankees... GO NEW YORK!)

Okay, that's all for now. hahaa