Monday, August 10, 2009

A busy, busy weekend!

I thought this would be a slow weekend. I didn't have any plans when the weekend started, I just figured I'd go watch the fireworks Saturday night with whoever and play it cool this weekend... boy was I wrong!

Friday I got an email suggesting a road trip. One of my friends has a car for two weeks while a colleague of his is out of town, so on the spur of the moment we decided that Saturday had to be a day to travel. When I asked on Friday night what the plans were for Saturday I got a "plans for losers." At 1:30 pm on Saturday we decided to make our epic trip to .... wait for it... wait for it....

ITALY

That's right, on the spur of the moment I went to Italy. (My second time and both were very spontaneous trips). Armed with a small black and white map that showed the general route between Geneva and Aosta and a CD player the required a mysterious four digit code we began our trip. After a small detour in Geneva that involved following signs which were intended for bikes we finally made it to the highway. Luckily there were signs on the highway because our map was not very precise. The trip was a mix of our renditions of the Beatles and popular TV show theme songs from our childhood. Since the CD player didn't work we had to find some way to amuse ourselves. The trip through the tunnel de mont blanc only took thirty minutes.

After traversing two countries we finally made it to Aosta. In Aosta we attempted to drive down a pedestrian only street, which an Italian woman was nice enough to explain to us in French, because of our French license plates.

The highlight of the trip, for me, was the cappuccino. We found a small cafe hidden behind a busy shopping street. It was the definition of adorable. Everything was just so carefully put together and even the bathroom was impeccable. We ordered our cappuccinos and enjoyed the real italian coffee. I've always heard it said that Italians make the best coffee, but now I believe it.

Then we went to the Roman Ruins! They are probably from the 11th Century!

After spending just under two hours we decided to head back so we could catch the fireworks in Geneva. However, we did not realize that every other Italian also had this idea. So we waited... and waited... and waited.. to go through the Tunnel de mont blanc. It only took us an hour and a half. During this time we managed to play fun games like the "spelling game," "20 questions," and "movie names."

Saturday was very tiring. Sunday I helped build a labyrinth. It was a great success. We were just building the "practice" version, so I hope the real one is as good.

Then today it was back to class. I feel like I need another weekend just to recover from my weekend. I spent all weekend speaking English so it was difficult to get back into French today. I think it'll get easier.

1 comment: