Here are the remainder of the pictures. The first few are our last day in Rome. We went to the Capitol Hill museum (oldest museum on the planet) and to the Pantheon as well as this one really pretty square. There’s also one with me at the Trevi again, when some friends from the Switzerland program came into town.

Then come the pictures from Barcelona. It is obvious I focused on Gaudi and nothing else. First it’s Parc Gruell, then La Pedrera, and then Sangrada Familia. Absolutely incredible.

And that’s my trip! I’ve been home since Sunday afternoon, jetlagged as hell the whole time and still trying to get used to it. The first couple days I slept 12 hours, and I’m finally sleeping less than that, but I still wake up around 5am every day. Oh well.

Europe was absolutely amazing. I don’t know when I will be going back, but hopefully soon! I’d love to see more of Germany as well as revisit Barcelona for the Picasso Museum among other things.

Hope everyone enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures! Let me know if you ever keep a travel blog and I’ll be sure to check it out just like you did while I was away.

I am two days from Seattle. We arrived in Barcelona late last night. We were planning on going straight to bed, but, very randomly, it turned out that this awesome DJ who originated in Seattle who I have been wanting to see for a long time who I more or less have many mutual friends with (description long enough?) was playing at a club down the street. In Barcelona the party doesn’t start until 2am–and that’s early–so I ended up going out.

Surprisingly, I woke up more refreshed than the other girls, who had a couple more hours sleep than me, and we headed out to see all that is Gaudi in Barcelona.

We saw Parc GÜell, La Pedrara, and Sangrada Familia. They were all absolutely incredible and I am in love with Gaudi. He is amazing and a complete genius. The complexity in his work is mindblowing.

I, unfortunately, can’t upload photos from the last couple days in Rome and my day in Barcelona right now. I’m planning on posting them all to the blog on Monday afternoon (Seattle time) once I am home.

So don’t forget about the blog just because my trip is almost done! There are still pictures and stories to come.

Here are the Rome pictures from the past 2 days.

Hi everyone! I seems like it has been awhile. I’m in Italy now–this is my 4th day, I think.

First we went to Florence and spent a day and a half there. I really liked the city. We saw the David and spent the rest of the day walking around. The second day we went up to a hill at the edge of the city that has a gorgeous view of all of Florence. Absolutely amazing.

Then we headed down to Rome, where we are in the middle of our 4 day stay here. The girls and I got a nice (but small) hotel room last night and tonight, but have to move into a hostel dorm tomorrow.

Last night, the first night we were here, we did a night walk and saw Piazza de Fiorno, the Pantheon, the Trevi Fountain, and the Spanish Steps. It was absolutely beautiful and it really hit us that we were in Rome. Things here are incredible.

Today we did the ‘old part’ of Rome, with the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, the Forum, and Capitol Hill. I’ve never seen anything like the ruins they have here in Rome. It has been nice to know tons of the history here, though, for background. That way I don’t have to spend money on the tours and can connect a lot of what I see to historical events.

Tomorrow is the Roman Museum and Vatican City. Wednesday is Capitol Hill museum (it was closed today), and Borghese Museum, with a possible stop at the Modern Art Museum. Thursday is making up anything we didn’t get to see, and that evening we fly to Barcelona.

I have to take off and get some gelato (did I mention everything edible here is amazing?), but here are some photos of Florence. Rome soon.

One of the USP’s (Unique Selling Points) of Interlaken is its ‘extreme/adventure sports,’ and it is kind of hard not tot ake advantage of that when you see so many other people doing crazy things everday; so I went paragliding on Tuesday.

It was SO much fun, and a lot less scary than bungie jumping or skydiving, because you never freefall. Basically you are attached to a pilot with a parachute and you just run off a huge cliff 2600 feet above the city. It takes about 25 minutes to get down and you just sail around over the beautiful city between the mountains and lakes taking it all in. It was just awesome.

And of course I got pictures! They ran out of digital cameras for taking really cool shots over your head so you can see the landscape and the person flying at the same time, so I just used my own camera and took pictures of the scenery and a couple shots of myself.

Here they are!

 

That pretty much marks the end of my stay in Switerland. In about an hour I head out to take a train to Florence, then I visit Rome and Barcelona before I head back to Seattle. I’m really excited!

I know that I will have internet in Barcelona, but I’m not sure about Florence and Rome yet, so you may not see another post for 6 days or so. But I will try to update before then, even if there aren’t any pictures.

I just wanted to make a post to say thank you to everyone who reads the blog! I’ve had almost 1000 hits so far, which means I’m averaging about 40 views a day. It is obvious that a blog doesn’t need to have a thousand comments to have tons of readers. I don’t usually have a lot of time to respond to comments, so I apologize if I don’t reply to you. Know that I’m definitely reading all of them.

Also, I would encourage you to take a look at the class blog. There you will find some information about the trip, short overviews of each assignment we’ve had so far, and more. I realized the link I had put up for it was wrong, but it is fixed now and you can find it in the top right corner of the page in the toolbar; it says Exploration Seminar Course Blog.

Last week we took a trip to Lugano, which is in Southern Switzerland in the Italian-speaking and Italian-influenced part. It was absolutely gorgeous–just like what I imagine Italy will be except the trains run on time, people speak Swiss German in case you don’t know Italian and it wasn’t TOO hot, haha.

I can definitely see myself vacationing here in the future.

Some of the pictures below have a gnome in them. We’re not sure where this gnome came from, but he decided to terrorize our room.

The first picture in the gallery isn’t actually from Lugano (not sure how it got thrown in), it is from these awesome caves just outside of Interlaken. These are the only caves in Switzerland that are still accessible where water from the melted glaciers pours down through them and out into the river. 20,000 liters per second! It was incredible to see.

On Wednesday the class went to the Top of Europe–Jungfraujoch. It is an absolutely beautiful, snowy mountain that you can see in Interlaken between two other very green mountains. It takes about 2 hours to get up to the top, and then they have viewing points inside and outside, and they also offer very burly things like hiking up the ice or ice climbing. Other options include overpriced hot cocoa, visiting the ‘ice palace’ and buying little Swiss flasks on keychains or other souvenirs to prove that you have been to the Top of Europe, haha.

Here are some pictures.

 

I have been here for about 3 weeks, and only have about 2 1/2 weeks left. Switzerland is awesome, as are the places I’ve visited outside Switzerland, and I am sure the the rest to come will be awesome too. Nevertheless, I am a bit ready to be back in my comfty sheets at home. It isn’t the easiest thing in the world to be around 15 people you haven’t met before for a whole month. I am beginning to really miss my friends and family. However, that isn’t to say that I’m not enjoying myself, and I completely think that I could live in Switzerland one day. This won’t be my last time here. Stay tuned for when I get the Lugano pictures resized and make a post about my last couple days there!

If you are not familiar with Dachau, here is some basic information:

Dachau was a Nazi German concentration camp, and the first one opened in Germany, located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions factory near the medieval town of Dachau, about 16 km (10 miles) northwest of Munich in the state of Bavaria which is located in southern Germany.

Opened in March 1933, it was the first regular concentration camp established by the coalition government of National Socialist (Nazi) NSDAP party and the Catholic Zentrum party (dissolved on 6 July 1933). Heinrich Himmler, Chief of Police of Munich, officially described the camp as “the first concentration camp for political prisoners.”

Dachau served as a prototype and model for the other Nazi concentration camps that followed. Its basic organization, camp layout as well as the plan for the buildings were developed by Kommandant Theodor Eicke and were applied to all later camps. He had a separate secure camp near the command center, which consisted of living quarters, administration, and army camps. Eicke himself became the chief inspector for all concentration camps, responsible for molding the others according to his model.

In total, over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau of whom two-thirds were political prisoners and nearly one-third were Jews. 25,613 prisoners are believed to have died in the camp and almost another 10,000 in its subcamps, primarily from disease, malnutrition and suicide. In early 1945, there was a typhus epidemic in the camp followed by an evacuation, in which large numbers of the weaker prisoners died.

Together with the much larger Auschwitz, Dachau has come to symbolize the Nazi concentration camps to many people. Konzentrationslager (KZ) Dachau holds a significant place in public memory because it was the second camp to be liberated by British or American forces. Therefore, it was one of the first places where the West was exposed to the reality of Nazi brutality through firsthand journalist accounts and through newsreels.

 

I had a very connective, emotional experience here. I have not been able to explain it in person, and am not ready to write about it either. But maybe you can get some idea by looking at the pictures.

Germany was great. I really like the country. Munich was a lot of fun, but I felt like we needed more time to really experience the city. I think that the next time I travel out of the country it will be around Germany (probably with a visit to Switzerland as well). Both nights we were there we went to ‘traditional’ German restaurants and ate sausages and drank liters of beer. Susan is right about how big the jugs of beer are, and that the waitresses can carry about 6-10 at a time. We didn’t see tons of the city because we spent a full day at Dachau, but we did walk through the English Garden, which was beautiful.

Munich (minus all the pictures on other people’s cameras):

Jordan, Emily, Shayna, and Me on the first night; Clock tower at Marienplatz; Random street in Munich; Stream at the English Garden.

This weekend I went to Munich, Germany. I really enjoyed it. Once I get the 200 pictures I took resized I’ll post an entry about it.

Hope everyone’s 4th of July was great! I went swimming during the day and then to a BBQ at my professor’s place in the evening.

Last night the class went to see an open-air theater production of the story of William Tell. Most people know William Tell as the gy who shot the apple off of someone’s head, but in Switzerland there is a whole narrative around it about how William Tell started the revolution that eventually founded Switzerland, so he is a hero.

Basically the (brief) story is: Austria invades Switzerland and takes over William Tell’s village. The leader of the army puts his hat on a pole in the middle of the town square and everyone must bow before it when they walk by. William Tell does not and his punishment is to shoot an apple off his son’s head from some ridiculous distance. So William Tell grabs 2 arrows, shoots, and hits the apple straight on (what they didn’t know was that he was an expert marksman). When the commander asks why Tell brought 2 arrows, Tell says it was to shoot the commander if he accidentally killed his son. Outraged, the commander puts him on a ship to an Austrian jail, but Tell escapes and when the commander comes looking for him, Tell shoots him dead with the second arrow. This act of rebellion inspires the country to rise up an form the nation of Switzerland.

It’s all fictional, of course, but apparently there is a good part of Switzerland who refuses to believe that and still hails William Tell as the real founder of the country.

Anyway, the play was amazing, even though I couldn’t understand it as it was all in Swiss German. Just the open-air theater was great, with the reconstructed buildings and the hundreds of actors using this huge set. It was also notable that the entire time the play was going on, it was POURING rain outside. And they still did the whole thing like it was a clear, warm day.

I have some pictures, although since flash photography was a no-no, they are all blurry. Here are the best few:

This last weekend I traveled to Lyon, France. It wasn’t quite the experience I was looking for, but I think it was mainly because I underestimated how large the city was, and since we were only there for 24 hours it was a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.

We spent the first afternoon wandering around a neighborhood of Lyon that is known for it’s silk weaving. While beautiful, it was impossible to find any of the silk places we were looking for. Nothing was labeled, maps weren’t that helpful (nor were the locals), and the neighborhood was actually just a regular neighborhood that just so happened to have these silk places in it. We also found out later that the places are really spread out–about 20-50 blocks between each one. So that ended up explaining why we weren’t finding ANYTHING. We eventually found one place, but arrived 5 minutes after it closed. It was really a shame because the silk they sold there looked absolutely wonderful. I’m sad that I missed out getting some for people back home (and for myself).

I would have loved to go on the night bus tour around Lyon, as the city is also famous for how it lights up its buildings in the night. But we ended up having a very, very long dinner instead and missing it, which was okay. It was nice to have a 3 hour dinner with great food and wine, just talking and sitting outside next to a GORGEOUS fountain.

The next morning we went to the old city and saw a couple of amazing cathedrals as well as the Roman ruins (Lyon was once the capitals of the Gauls).

Here are some of my favorite pictures. They are of what caught my eye–not really the “touristy” pictures you’d expect.

Post about Lyon coming tomorrow, here’s why:

Switzerland has the craziest weather. You can have an entire day of hot, beautiful, sunny, clear skies and in literally 5 minutes black clouds will roll in and cover the whole valley. This is what began to happen right as I finished my last post. Give it another 5 minutes and huge claps of thunder and lightning will start up, and the wind will go nuts.  And then in another 5 minutes it’ll be POURING rain.

However, the best part of Interlaken is that even when you are in the middle of it and live in the next village over (Bönigen), you can still hop on your bike and make it home before the rain! Which is exactly what I did.

And now I am going to have a relaxing night of balancing my checkbook and watching The Notebook in German. Tomorrow is a hike way up the mountain, but it’ll only take a couple hours so I’ll have plenty of time to post about Lyon.

 

PS: It’s very confusing typing on a German keyboard. So many extra keys…

I can’t believe that I haven´t posted in a bit. I have been busy though. We have over 675 pages of reading for the month we are here, so it is hard to forget that it is an academic program.

So far while in Switzerland I have visited 4 cantons (Glarus, Geneva, Bern, and Zurich). It is interesting to see the differences in the cantons and the cities that I visit. Geneva is almost entirely French speaking, Glarus is entirely Swiss German speaking, and Bern and Zurich are mixed, but definitely have a good English base. I find myself really wishing I knew a lot more German. I can get along great without it, but I feel like such a tourist just looking at things instead of really interacting. I really love Switzerland and since we are here so long it would be nice if I could feel less like a foreigner, haha.

I can see myself coming back to Switzerland many many times in my life, especially Bern. It is just large and small enough at the same time–the same feel as Portland, size-wise.

I am also really enjoying the academic part of the program. Everything is very fascinating and exploring the ins, outs, exposed, and hidden parts of tourism is really exciting me. I am definitely enthused to continue research in the same area once I am back home.

Also, you really do not know EuroCup until you are in Europe for it. I’ve spent every game either in the town square or plastered to a TV screen with locals, hollering and cheering and screaming NO NO NO when the other team gets too close.

It just so happens that the girl sitting next to me in the internet cafe is from UW so I am going to chat with her for a bit and post about my weekend in Lyon. My camera reformatted over the weekend, so I unfortunatey have no more Switzerland pictures yet. More soon!

1. Dessert w/ dinner tonight: Swiss Flag, and the placemat is a map of Interlaken and surrounding attractions (80% of the economy here is based on tourism)

All the rest of views of the River Aare

 

They are all out of order, but here are the descriptions (click on a photo to view the large image).

1. Street art on the side of the Tate Modern
2. Westminster Abbey
3. Arch of Westminster Abbey
4. Big Ben, part of Parliment, London Eye in background
5. Phone booth with Big Ben in the background
6. Favorite thing at the British Museum
7. Me and Emily at the fountain in front of Buckingham Palace
8. Human Statue
9. Buckingham Palace (it is pretty drab and unattractive, if you ask me)
10. The three of us in front of St. Paul`s Cathedral
11. Closer view of the cathedral
12. Cute cottage in St. James`s Park

I left early in the morning from Geneva to catch the train for Interlaken. I felt bad, because there was another girl in the room with me at the hostel and I was up at 5:30 in the morning putting my stuff together so that I could get to the train on time.

I met my host family at the train station: Herr Baumgartner (Marcel), Frou Baumgartner (Ala), and their daughter Sofia. Marcel speaks some English–enough to communicate fairly well, although he still searches for words sometimes. Ala knows very little English, but knows Ukrainian, Russian, and German fluently. Ala also has a daughter who is 16 named Anna who lives here and speaks English, so it is not impossible to communicate with them. And as for Sofia, at age 2 she knows Ukrainian, Russian, German, Swiss German, and can understand some Japanese (Ala has a Japanese friend who visits often). Not only does she know them all, but she speaks them all (minus Japanese) VERY well! She is a little chatter box and is already having full conversations, making up stories, singing along to songs, and memorizing Russian poems! I work with preschoolers and I have never seen a 2 year old so chatty. She is very cute.

My host family is very nice. I have my own room and bathroom (he is the medical doctor of town and they have a very large house), and they feed me all the time. All the homestays have been told that we will get our own lunches and dinners, and yet she has prepared me picnics and meals the entire time I have been here, as well as bringing me lots of snacks like bowls of fruit and (right now) cookies. It is very nice of them (although I fear losing weight will be a struggle).

They also loaned me a bike to use for the entire time I am here. We are actually in Bonigen (pronounced sort of like Ba-na-ga), which is just next to Interlaken–about a 5 minute drive, a 10 minute bike ride, and a 20 minute walk. So I bike in and back ever day along the lake and the river. It is absolutely gorgeous (did I mention we are 2 steps from the lake?)!

Today was the first day of class. In between academic times some of us walked along the river and up on a train bridge to look at the view. The whole group also had dinner together tonight, which was nice.

Iäm just uploading pictures now, so I will post them in a couple minutes.

I was going to start at the beginning (getting off the plane), but I realized I already posted about that, so I’ll continue.

After the girls I’m travelling with arrived we headed out to find our way to Wimbledon–yes, Wimbledon. One of the girls’ friend’s friend lives there and had asked us to stay with him while we were in town, to save money. He literally lives less than a 2 minute walk away from the courts, and works as a player escort during the tournament. Very cool. So the first night we were there (we didn’t end up arriving until around 4 because of plan delays, getting through border control, grabbing our bags, and figuring out the tube) we got a tour of the Wimbledon grounds and were then taken out for some fish ‘n’ chips and a pint.

The next day we got out the door fairly early (alright, early for being jetlagged and waking up at 4:30am randomly) to have a relaxing day around the city. We started at Parliament, walked through St. James’s Park, saw Buckingham Palace, then walked to Harrod’s (by far the most fun part of the day) where we explored the ridiculous department store and I bought the girls their first Turkish Delights (results were so-so). I bought some tea: Morrocan Mint, Lemongrass, Desert Lime, Tropical Mango, and Blood Orange. Yum! Last we had a picnic and strolled through Hyde Park, which was beautiful and relaxing. The weather was great that day.

Best advice we had for London, especially that first day: eat a a Pret! Pret a Manger is a chain of sandwich shops that have very tasty sandwiches, salads, soups, etc–all freshly made and ‘without the nasties.’ They have their own brand of sodas too–all without high fructose corn syrup, which is awesome. Best part: a very filling, tasty, healthy lunch costs 5 pounds or less.

That night we had a BBQ in Wimbledon with the guy hosting us and the night was full of interesting conversation with his friends about the differencesin Uni(versity) in the States v England, American and British TV, and all sorts of other things.

The next day was museum day. The Tate Modern was absolutely amazing. So great. I adore a lot of modern art, especially Surrealism. Very interesting work. Plus they have a fantastic street art exhibit. Other things we saw: Globe Theater, St. Paul’s Cathedral, British Museum, National Gallery, and we also walked around Soho. Very busy day, but we managed to get through it, still have a good dinner around Sloane Square/South Kensington, and go out to the pub before they closed at 11pm.

This morning we took the train from King’s Cross to the Lutin airport, and it was beautiful to see the British countryside. We all conked out on the flight to Geneva, and then hit the beach straight away after arriving. This city is also amazing. So many different people and languages, and the lake is clear and cold and right up against beautiful mountains.

It’s only a short stop, however, as two of us head to Interlaken tomorrow morning at 7am to start the Seminar!

Homework time! Pictures of London either tonight or within the next couple days.

Arrived in London about an hour and a half ago. I’m waiting in the airport for the girls I’m travelling with. Everyone said Heathrow is huge and confusing, but I’ve found it to be quite simple. Which is nice when you have to meet up with people in a completely different terminal an hour after you get in.

The plane ride wasn’t so bad either and it actually feels like noon (it’s around 3am Seattle time).

No SIGG sightings yet.

Next step is to get to Emily’s friend’s flat, where we’re staying. Then figure out what to do with the remainder of the day.

I have spent the last few days trying to teach myself some Swiss German before I take off to Switzerland. I can now say things like, “My name is Taylor, John Taylor,” and “My name is not Jones,” (where I’ll use this one, I’m not sure), and “The weather is awful,” (this is a particularly harsh and growly statement). I think I’m pretty much set! Haha.

My 65-liter travel backpack is now packed… which was hell to accomplish. There really is no such thing as too many skirts and shoes in my mind. But I finally narrowed things down and managed to get it closed (having also filled a small backpack and a tote bag).

And now I have a little over 10 hours before my flight begins to leave Seattle. With the 8 hour time difference, I’ll be in London by 10:30am tomorrow. I’m not sure exactly what I want to see, but here are some ideas so far:

• Westminister Abbey
• British Library
• Tate Modern
• London Eye
• Globe Theater
• Buckingham Palace
• Parliament Hill
• Hyde Park & Speaker’s Corner
• Regent’s Park
• Soho
• Brick Lane
• Chislehurst Caves?

I hear the tours are the way to go, but they’re expensive and I’m not sure I’d be interested in seeing everything on the tour anyway. I’m really interested in the parks, and in Tate Modern. We’re also (hopefully) going to a concert Thursday night at a venue called The Fly.

If you have any other suggestions of places we shouldn’t miss, throw them in the comments–I’d love to hear them.

I’m sure I’ll update in London with pictures! Stay tuned.

Here’s a layout of my schedule for the 6 weeks I’m away.

June 18th: Depart for London

June 19th-21st: London, England

June 22nd-July 18th: Switzerland

June 28th-29th: Lyon, France

July 4th-6th: Munich, Germany

July  12th-14th: Cinque Terre, Italy

July 19th-20th: Florence, Italy

July 21st-24th: Rome, Italy

July 25th-26th: Barcelona, Spain

July 27th: Return to Seattle

Hello all!

I’m going to Europe! And obviously the first thing to do after deciding to go to Europe is to create a blog so that any- and everyone can keep up with where I’m going and what I’m doing. So here it is, RedinSwitz!

Important Details to Note:

• I’ll be in Europe for 40 days, 39 nights
• I depart Seattle the evening of June 18th, and arrive back here the afternoon of July 27th
• I’ll mainly be in Switzerland, but I’ll also be visiting: England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain
• If you want a gift, let me know now! Haha

Here is where I tell you why I am going to Europe.
“Not for fun” you ask?
Well, it will be tons of fun, but there is definitely a purpose for all this travelling.

I am heading to Switzerland with the UW Department of Communication; more specifically, Crispin Thurlow, a professor in the Communication Dept who focuses on Critical Cultural Studies. The program is officially called an “Exploration Seminar,” so I may refer to it as such at some points in the blog.

The Seminar’s official title is Making Place: Tourism, Culture and Global Communication. As you can probably infer from the title, we (the group of about 15 students going) will be studying how “place” is constructed through/by/because of tourism, how this impacts culture, and what this says about global communication. Keep in mind, this is all a “Communication” study (as opposed to anthropology, linguistics, etc), and communication encompasses spoken language, actions and nonverbals, pictures or other constructed images, how space is constructed, media and marketing, and much, much, much more. Yea, it can be overwhelming at times. But interesting as all heck.

I also hope to begin some individual research (at this point mostly data collection) of my own while I’m there. I will be beginning a meta-communication study, specifically, how tourists talk about their host-tourist interactions/communication. How exciting! A lot of this study will be conducted after the seminar, but the basis will be formed during the program (hopefully).

My schedule will be in the next post, most likely along with some more commentary and explanation. If you have anything you’re curious about and want to ask at this point, feel free to leave a comment.

Take care!
-Red