I'm a Busy Slacker...I Know

So yah, I've been completely neglecting my blog. I've even been neglecting my Reader, which rarely happens. I don't THINK I've been so busy, but maybe I have been. I guess I just haven't been spending a lot of relaxing time on my computer recently, it has mostly been for crazy school project work, and going over things with people about stressy stuff. I'll provide a quick update and certain thoughts.

School

It is coming to an end and I am feeling the crunch of trying to get as many experiences out of the last few weeks as possible. Because I was new to this batch, Summer Batch, I did not KNOW many people, and by now, I have settled in and made some really good friends, who I will miss and also will wish I could have had the time to bond with more. But that is life and that is especially the life of someone in Hospitality. This week is full of projects and presentations that need finishing up as well as a couple exams. Do you remember that crazy big project, my IP, that was stressing me out before with my group and all? Well, we have to present tomorrow, and working together again to create a QUALITY presentation is certainly getting to me. I will be very glad when this week is finished.

Sports

I've been teaching Yoga classes every Mon and Tues and doing a bit of personal training for my regular Woman's Fitness girl. It's been good. I don't feel like I've been commiting myself as much as I like to, to working out consistantly and pushing myself. Actually I think Yoga is keeping my muscle tone and strength better than I expected because, though I haven't been doing much weight training at all, my pull ups have gotten BETTER! I was surprised. And Glad :) The boyf, Alan, said that I am being obsessive about wanting to work out MORE, but I am used to a much more active life than the one I am living right now. I mean I ENJOY working out often. I really love moving and pushing myself, so I just feel like something is missing from my life when I don't make time to workout. Anyway.

Work

I'm still waiting to hear back from any potential internships, but I'm confident about going home and finding a job pretty easily. I mean I'm happy with working as a waitress, or at the fornt desk of a hotel, so.....I would prefer to work in Manhatan and get my own Apt, but we'll see how things play out.

Life

Of course I've been enjoying things here on top of stressing about things. I did run the 10 k in Lausanne and FINALLY got the pictures off of the stagiere. SO here they are:


Warming up




































No pictures during the race, but here is my friend and trusty Yoga partner Sabrina who ran with us. She is an amazing runner and set the new record for women in her age group lastyear I believe.


























Here is a very tired me finishing. My time was 55.22.something, which I was very happy about. Especially since last year I ran it in 1 hour 23 minutes because I walked A LOT of it. I didn't walk once this time, I was amazed! But really, long distance runnng isn't my thing. I'm more of a hiker or sprinter.




















Here we are exhausted and happy waiting for the rest of the group to get in.



















Alan's time was 52 minutes and something, which was really cool sinceI literally convinced him to come the night before the race and he hadn't been running regularly, so I will admit my pleasant surprise at his accomplishment.


























Some more of my friends playing around on the pedestals




















And all together now. I'm in the middle with the boy in plaid shorts :)

Yay life

Soooo Sorry for being MIA recently. I've been distracted. But I have also been up to a lot of fun stuff!! I have more pictures! YAY! My exploits have kept me away from the blogging attention. Here are some recent things I have been up to.....

First off, after Barcelona, I cut Arjun's hair. He's from India. Before and after pictures supplied.




































What do you think? I just cleaned it up for him more or less.

I thought I would take some pictures in school for you to see. I'll take some more interesting ones later though of how our school functions. So these are two of my classmates/friends. On the left is Ludo form Mexico, and the right is my Jiu Jitzu buddy Arber from Albania. This is during break.



















Oh hey it's me, with terrible lighting....





















Now, last Friday, I went to Leukerbad to experience the hotspring! I was so excited and it was really quite perfect! 20 chf entrance for 3 hours of awesomeness. There were even water slides hahaha! That is the cost of one drink at our local club....which would I rather choose, clearly the spa :D

This is the indoor part, which has cool features like jets positioned at different heights to give you a full body massage as you walk along the wall. There is a little archway with an exit to the outer pools. Different pools have different temepratures so you can move between them as you see fit.




















I think this is a really weird looking picture, but it is Alan bobbing in the outside pool.




















The guys, from left to right, Richard (German I think), Alan (Mexican English), Filip (German as well). Sorry for the blurryness.




















I just love this picture of Filip! Hahahaha!




















Alan and I





















Me enjoying the water :)



















More relaxing with the steam in the dark looking at the mountain silouettes and stars.




















Next sequence is from RIGHT after I got back from the hotsprings. I had a class party and here we are. M6!

This is Illija, Russian Swedish, and me, Palestinian American.





















Some guys not in my class, except Jonas in the corner




















Here is Isabella, Latin America, and Ana Paola, Mexico I think




















More randomness, notice my glass does not have beer in it




















I donno what we were playing, some strange Swedish card game. The reason I pointed out the countries people were from is because I think it is awesome how we all come from everywhere, and wanted to show that. I love that spect of my school :)

And one last picture from class yesterday. Food and Beverage Management class is not the most fun thing, so I took pictures hahaha and tried to kill time some how. But here is a little glimpse of my class.

The End of Barcelona

The last bit of Barcelona is not as exciting since we mostly did a lot of relaxing in the form of a dance club, not featured here, a night at the bar enjoying the most amazing Sangria I've ever had, a shopping day (in which I bought a new winter coat, desperately needed), and exploring restaurants which I forgot my camera for.....I'm not the best blogger I know I'm sorry. We did go to a restaurant called Little Italy, which was a really nice Italian place. Great atmosphere, nice food, good lunch deal! I encourage anyone to go there if they check out Barcelona. The other food experience of yummyness was a small restaurant called Udon. It was a noodle place that really managed to take noodles to the next level of goodness. I'm reallllyyy not a noodle or pasta person, but I got the soba noodles with tofu in a broth. Yummmm, and they had lava cake with home made "ice cream". It was fresh raspberry puree in a sweet cream so that they were seperate layers but perfectly complimented in your mouth. Anywayyyy. Here are the last few pictures, no restaurants unfortunately!


I just liked this sign, we didn't actually eat here.



















We went to the stree Las Ramblas, a rather touristic area with the Mercat Boqueria! It is a famous market in Barcelona. We had just had a big lunch, so were not hungry enough to enjoy to bounty, though we did get Gelato there nummmm...







































Gelato!!! I got the Ferrero Rocher one!




















And so ended our adventures in Spain. It was definitely one of my favorite vactions, probably because it was just friends out having fun. No offense to the family, but there is a huge difference in a family vacation and a friends vacation. Perhaps I was just too young to really appreciate family vacations, or our tastes are just a bit different (campers vs pamperers; healthy eating vs indifference-though that has changed now-) Actually I think that since we have all seperated, going to college and such, we have somehow managed to become more similar than when we all lived together. The whole family has become increasingly aware of health and the state of our food. Now, we are ALL active and into exercise. We all enjoy cooking, some prefer bread, others raw desserts, and some game meats. It's kinda cool, actually, looking at it now. And we will all be back together in December, living under the same roof for potentially 6 months. It will be different than I remember, but I think we all "get each other" better now. Should be good. I'm actually really excited. Especially to share some of my new "uncooking" skills (I'll be able to afford regular produce purchases again when I get home....Barcelona made my budget vanish....we live and learn).

Back to the topic at hand. We drove back from Barcelona for something close to 13 hours.....11 of which was in my hands! So, daddy and mommy, you should have faith in my ability to drive for long stretches of time now, ok? ;) Our navigation system was helpful enough to lead us through the back roads and over mountains to get home, extending our road time, and irritability, as well as relief to be back in Bluche, something we were previously not looking forward to. The next morning, as always, I woke up bright and early to see a welcome sight:

Barcelona Part 3

Gaudi!!

Sorry for taking so long to post this part. School got distracting as did my awkward choices of internet locations that don't allow me to upload pictures to my blog... This part focuses on our day of experiencing Gaudi.

Who is Gaudi? Well, he was an architect in Barcelona, one of the most creative and, in my opinion, faerie-like. Born in 1852 and died in 1926 after being run over by a tram.... He designed the buildings in the pictures below, and I will give a bit of a description of them.

Below is Casa Batllo, built in 1877, also known as the House of Bones, for obvious reasons. Very nice to look at. Kinda creepy, skull-like situation, but awesome!

























Casa Mila, La Pedrera, built from 1906-1910. Built for a couple. Nice house.



























































We went inside for the tour and, though I didn't take pictures of on of the apartments simply because it wasn't that interesting, I did take pictures of some corridors that led to the roof.

























And the roof!! Sooo cool! Anyone?













































































We could see the Sagrada Familia, one of Gaudi's most famous projects, which I'll mention later.



















This is in the entrance. The ceiling is so cool, and how the pillars look like they are creating ripples...he was so clever.




















Here we are at the Sagrada Familia under construction starting in 1882 and should be done in 2026.....yahhh crazy eh? This is because Gaudi's plans were being developed while he was alive, and after he died, the most recent plans were destroyed, so the construction has been having some issues coming to a close. Not to mention how epic the plans are, taking a substantial amount of time in that respect alone. It's huge by the way

























Just look at the details in ONE part of it....




















I'm not really a religious person, but I love and appreciate the passion and effort that goes into these monuments to beliefs.
























When I see these kinds of places, I wonder where the passion went.





We were pretty well exhausted after the day of walking, so we had some Mojitos and nachos, more cliche college pictures hahaha




















The next day we went shoppin I think and happened upon more beauty randomly. Random beauty is the best :D

























Yah, Rohan and VJ chilling



















The next day, Tahir and I woke up "early," which means 8 which is late for me for some reason that does not go with my collegiate status, but whatever...We wanted to go to Park Guell, which was designed by Gaudi and it is a whole park, so it is quite the experience.

This was the way to get there....really now, REALLY! It got steeper too as you got closer. I love Europe for so many reasons.




















Welcome to Park Guell. This was the main open are where there were all these beautiful seats. In the open area were people selling necklaces and scarves. Tahir has a really nice picture of this, though I donno when he will post it.



















Those are pillars. They are awesome. He based a lot of his designs on nature if you can't tell.



















The mosaic cealing under the flat area. Pillars were holding it up and the whole ceiling is designed.




















This is the famous Salamander. A mosaic fountain.




















Here is the perspective shot. On top of the pillars is the flat area with the benches and below it is the mosaic ceiling. Then the Salamander and other fountains are in front. so nice. He knew what he was doing. I'd live here.




















We said goodbye to Park Guell.....
























We got back to the room at something close to 1.30 or 2 and they were just getting out of bed. :) I really loved this park, and I'm sorry, but Central Park can't compete. That was really the end of our Gaudi adventures. Until next time, which won't take as long I promise

Barcelona Par 2

And the journey continues! Through Spain and after hours of driving....




















We finally have signs for Barcelona!!! Wooohooo!! Though 200 km away...



















We entered the city all giddy....




















We were met by Tahir, who flew in free using his miles! Lucky him. He got to do some sightseeing before we arrived. He became our guide through the city.

























And we parked the car and walked to our somewhat sketchy location, which I completely forgot to take any pictures of for some reason. I must have been too relieved to get out of the car...






















Dinner was immediately necessary, and so I had my first taste of Spain in the form of the most delicious Paella ever. You see Mussels, Clams, Langoustines, and squid.





















And so the first day ended. It was 2 to a room hahaha, great college adventures. I, of course, woke up bright and early the next morning at 7 or something, before Tahir's "early" alarm went off, and promptly decided I could not be awake alone. Thus began our week long early morning trip to Starbucks (Yesss I DID!!!) and sightseeing.



























Nummmmm, I love me some Starbucks!

Checked out some Gothic buildings





















I wish I was a good tourist and remembered the names, but I'm not and I didn't. Tahir will probably label them on his site, but to me it was just beauty and history that I saw, not names. Good justification eh? That's how I get A's!

















































I need ot get my hands on a picture of me sitting on one of the bikes here. Really pretty picture though. I loved the alleys in the city.
























And we went to a park with tons of statues and parrots and random stuff. I fell in love with this one.
























We then rather unintentionally stumbled upon the Arc De Triomph. It was nice. I didn't know anything about it, so to be honest it didn't really intrigue me. It did, however, end up becoming our designated meeting spot whnever we tried to find a cheaper place to park the car and half our party was on foot getting lost.




















When everyone else woke up we headed out again for more walking adventures. And what is a touristic experience without the street musicians whose CD we bought and kept us company for the rest of our, otherwise radio dependant, trip? I donno what the drum thing is, but it made the msot amazing noise. Very tranquil. Then the Didgeridoos of course.



















And more sightseeing. After this building we did our Gaudi THANG. I will feature that in the next post.

Barcelona Part 1

Are You Ready For Barcelona Pictures? First of all, Tahir, will have much better pictures on his blog, though shown one by one, and I encourage you to check them out. He really captured the feeling and beauty of the place better than I did. This is going to happen over the course of a few days, so from the beginning:

We drove something like 10 or 11 hours to get there, through France. You can't really see too well on this tiny map, that I so professionally used, but we took the train from Sierre to Geneva, to pick up the rental car. Then we drove from Geneva through Lyon and Toulousse, and then finally to Barcelona.


























Some of our backseaters included Vj on the right and Mitali, the only other girl, on the left. Rohan was also there, but not featured in the picture. They slept a lot.





















That's me. Driving. Woooo



















The road, don't worry I won't post tooo many of these



















Below, if you can see, is our trust navigation system that really ended up not being too trusty. She pretty much failed us ont he way back, encouraging us to do things like drive off cliffs by taking right turns where none existed. She also decided to drive us through the backroads and over the mountains to get form France to Switz instead of taking the highway.....oooo goodness!

Arjun was the other driver.




































We saw windmills and were excited hahaha!




















And I got excited about this, but when we got close to Spain, the landscape changed so much, and the trees and shrubs were very different.





















The bell just rang, which means that I might be late for Spanish class. My Spanish confidence has grown a lot from the trip. Though we didn't use it a lot, we used it everyday. Tahir and I were the only ones who spoke Spanish, so I got to practice! More pictures and stories to come!

Mid Term Vaca

I´m out of town, aka in Barcelona with friends, and I have minimal access to an internet cafe....so, I hope everyone is doing well, and I´ll be posting pictures next week when I am home!