She Lives!

GUESS WHAT?? I'm ALIVE!! After 18 hours of travelling across (ALONE) I'm still living and breathing and in actually pretty good health (despite the living off of trailmix for two days). Anyways here's how it went...

So Wednesday morning comes along, and seemingly for the first time it actually hits me: I'm going to SWITZERLAND! My first thought that morning was probably "What the heck did I get myself into this time??" So after pulling myself together a little bit I got up and got ready for the day, finished packing, and packed everything into the car. And of course Mom had to take my 'first day of school' pictures since I wouldn't be there for my actual first day of school.

We then proceeded to visit my grandma to say goodbye, then to the airport. Dad helped me with the whole checking my bags in thing, walked me to the line going to security (by then Mom had parked the car and joined us), and we said out goodbyes. And (here's the scary part!) then I was on my own! I'm not going to lie, even if I hadn't really admitted to it before, I was SCARED!!! But I made it ok, so it's all good.

My first experience of seeing a real, honest to goodness, 100% European boy was a pretty exciting experience. He was EXTREMELY tall (which is most definitely NOT a bad thing!), had kinda light-ish hair, pink cheeks like a little boy, and was wearing MAN CAPRIS!!! (Woot woot!) But he was also a Brit, so he doesn't really count because I'll be meeting the French ones. Anyways that was in the Chicago airport, so my next step was actually TALKING to one. That happened in the London airport. Once again, he really only half-way counts because he was not only a Brit, but college-age too. But he was really nice, and we talked for a while. The only reason I count this as my 'next step' in being exposed to the European culture (as a teenager at least) was when he was leaving to go to his gate. At first I wasn't quite sure what he was doing. But in the end I did figure it out. It was one of those European kiss things. I'm not quite sure how to spell it, so I won't even try. It was QUITE a shock though!

Of course now that I'm on my third day here I am getting pretty accustomed to everything. (Right...) Now that you've heard what happened on the way here, here's what I've been doing so far:

Yesterday I woke up at 2:00 (or here it would be 14:00). It was because of jetlag, but I still felt like a bum when I finally woke up. I spent most of the day on my own because the Vopicelli's are in Italy until Wednesday to take Bro. Vopicelli's mom to her home there or something like that. But then I got a call from President De Guzman (the branch president in my ward when I lived here before) wondering if I wanted to go to the stake dance that night! (I was saved!!) The international (or English-speaking) branch youth were in charge, so I helped a little there since I we got there early. I got to meet a whole bunch of American kids who were all there because of their parents' jobs, so I didn't get much French experience, but it was still a TON of fun! In that group I only knew one person, Soren (who was about 6'kazillion" I'm not kidding!!). We had a nice dinner, then we danced, then dessert, then went home. It was actually kinda small, but it was better than any dance we go to in Utah (at least it probably would be if I wasn't quite so out of it). I got home about midnight, and had an incredibly hard time falling asleep, but at least after a couple hours of just lying there I finally did.

The next morning (this morning) I got up, ate breakfast, and worked on my internet classes. Pretty exciting... But it's actually just enough to be here!! It's gorgeous, and I love it! Monday we're planning on getting a train pass, so then I'll be able to do a little bit of exloring which I am really excited for!

Love and miss you all!!!