First Weekend!

On Saturday the school split us up into four different excursions around the local area.  I got to go to Bellinzona to see castles along with my roommate and another Cal Poly student.  We took a train from Lugano to Bellinzona, I just love the train! We hiked up to two castles with gorgeous views! The weather was a lot cooler, which was so nice.  Afterwards we hiked back into town and had my first gelato of the trip, melon, delicious! Then we headed back to Lugano and had dinner with our orientation group at a great pizza place right on the lake.  After dinner we got a drink and then headed to the local concert called "Blues to Bop".  It was fun and interesting to see all the locals out!

On Sunday we did a day trip to a place called Valle Verzasca. I absolutely loved it! We took a bus up to a beautiful valley with the alps on all sides of us.  The bus drove us about 45 minutes up the valley where we stopped at an adorable little town and had lunch by the river.  Then we hiked 10 minutes to a waterfall.  It was absolutely freezing, I had my feet in the glacier water for 1 minute and it was painful, but some people actually swam! It is a homey feeling for me to be surrounded by lots of trees and beautiful mountains.  I realized that I am going to try to visit as many places in the alps as possible in the next 4 months. 

After the waterfall, we hiked back to the buses and took them 30 minutes down the valley to a swimming hole where people jumped off the rocks and it was a tad bit warmer.  I actually went in for like 30 seconds! The water was so soft and refreshing.  We hung out there for a couple hours and headed back to Lugano.  It was my favorite day so far!

Tomorrow I start classes, I am really interested to see what they are like.  Are they hard? Easy? It will be interesting to be on a semester system, seems like I will have much more time to study because my longest class is a hour and fifteen minutes and usually my shortest class at Cal Poly is 2 hours!

Well, I'm going to get some sleep so I can be up bright and early to walk up the hill for my first class at 8:30am. Yay for school again! 

XOXO

Getting To Know Lugano

First of all, it is soooo hot here! Hot and (h)umid, but it is a nice change from the cold summer California was having.  My apartment is 15 minutes from campus, so when we have to go to school we have to trek uphill to campus and by that time we are dripping sweat.  I think it will be interesting to live here when the weather is super hot one month and snowy and rainy two months later.  Should make for an interesting walk to campus, but I'm excited for it!

This is our campus! The palm trees are a bit weird 

The last couple days have been full of information about my college and the surrounding areas.  Yesterday we went on a walking tour of downtown Lugano.  It has so much character and a lot of Italian influences.  There is gelato and pizza around every corner.  One of the main grocery stores is called "Manor".  It is 6 stories tall, the first floor is grocery, the second is makeup, the third and fourth are clothes, the fifth is really expensive clothes, and the sixth is electronic stuff.  Downtown and the lake are a 7 minute walk from my apartment and the train station is right across the street which will be great for traveling! There is a pizzeria at the bottom floor of the apartment building and park around the corner I believe. There are 6 study abroad students in my dorm and the rest are juniors and seniors.  It is a perfect living situation so far!

The streets of Lugano!

Saturday I am going to Bellizona, Switzerland to visit Castles and Sunday we are hiking to waterfalls. I am looking forward to a fun weekend!

Pretty flowers!

Ciao!

XOXO

Arriving in Switzerland

Traveling is always so exhausting, but right now I am feeling pretty good!  I think it's the excitement of not really knowing what to expect that is keeping me awake at this point.  We will land at 10:51am in Zurich, which is 1:51am at home! My flights went well, the first one to Chicago was a bit weird, mostly because I was sitting next to a weird smelling guy with 3 inch long finger nails,  which was kinda creepy to say the least. But my flight to Zurich has been nice.  Empty seats on either side of me made for some nice sleeping and  a personal tv with tons of movies made the flight go by super fast! Swiss air is always great to fly! When I arrive at Zurich I am suppose to go through customs then to baggage claim,  where I should see people from my school in bright green t-shirts.  Hopefully I will find them, along with my several bags of luggage.  Well, we are gonna land in 25 mins, I better start practicing Italian!    XOXO