Pictures to go with "Two More Weeks of Fun!"

Hi all,

I switched to a new web-browser and it seems to be working a lot better for uploading pictures. Here are some that should have gone with the last post I put up. I'm back from my educational field trip and have tons of pictures (a whopping 275) on my photo website. I'll be posting later this week on the specifics of how the trip went!

-Laura

Pully, the cute town where the wine festival was held.

We shared a little bottle of wine from one of the local producers.

Alyssa took this one of me peaking out from the grape vines with my clippers in hand.

The bob-luge in Moleson.

Wheeeee!

One of the restored Biblical figures at the Lausanne Cathedral (Luke?)

Rachel and I were finally reunited!

At the watch museum in La Chaux de Fonds

A view of France from the restaurant where we ate lunch in La Chaux de Fonds, CH

That restaurant also happened to have the largest desert menu in the world?

After eating at Bella Italia on Friday night.

A very foggy day in Interlaken.

The plane we eventually jumped out of

Jeff and me in our jumpsuits and ready for action!

Landing!

The Florence and Lausanne girls in Broq after visiting the chocolate factory.

Some huge animals we ran into while taking the Florence gang around Lausanne.

Two More Weeks of Fun!

Okay. Wow. I'm still up packing for our upcoming Educational Field Trip (EFT). Every semester, our directors plan a Pepperdine-sponsored field trip for us to learn and have fun for a week with no classes!I'll be boarding the bus at 7:00 am, spending one day in Strasbourg, two days in Brussels and two days in Metz. Some highlights of the trip should be touring the Council of Europe, the European Commission and European Parliament.

These last two weeks have been amazing! (Sorry there aren't any pictures along with my descriptions. My laptop is acting up, but you can still see them if you click on the "Swiss Laura Photos" under the "More Pictures Here" heading on the right of this screen.) Here are some snippets of what I've been up to lately:

Saturday, 10/22... I went to Pully (a little town about ten minutes east of Lausanne) with Nichole to visit a bit of the wine festival, celebrating the grape harvest. The city was cute and tiny and we enjoyed tasting some of the local wine.

Sunday, 10/23... Grape-picking itself was fantastic! We got up super early to take the train back to Pully. It was hard (and not quite the "I Love Lucy" experience I was expecting), but so rewarding. We learned all about modern wine-making, got to know some locals, ate lots of good food courtesy of the wife of the wine producer and did some good ol' fashioned manual labor. I enjoy being outdoors and doing something that doesn't require a lot of concentration so I can just reflect on other things or get to know the people around me. Oh, and I also learned that spiders love living in grape-clusters. So scaredy-cats be warned!

Friday, 10/28... I slept in and did homework and chores for most of the day. Alyssa and I decided to go out for some window-shopping and hot chocolate that evening. No joke, it was the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted! You literally eat it with a spoon! It kind of reminded me of eating warm chocolate pudding from fresh off the stove. If you're ever in Lausanne, stop at the cafe on your way up the covered stairs to the Cathedral. It's so worth it!

Saturday, 10/29... We took a day trip to Moleson, the little town above Gruyere that was closing when we tried to visit the weekend before. We eventually got to Moleson, but only after three hours plus of waiting. It turns out that the trains and buses do not run as often on Saturdays. So instead of getting there in a reasonable hour and a half, it took us a really long time. Being the optimistic girls that we are, my friends and I made due by playing cards, picnicking on bread and cheese and playing on the playground near the bus stop. When we got to Moleson, we high-tailed it to the bob-luge. For four francs a person (about 3.50 USD), we had an inexpensive blast! I rode it twice with a few of the other girls before we waited for the bus to come back for us.

Thursday, 11/5... For over forty years, Lausanne's Cathedral has been under renovation, including the porch (one of the most ornate parts of the once Catholic church.) Some fellow Pepperdine students and I were blessed enough to witness the porch's unveiling at a huge spectacular event after dinner. Along with watching sketches, dancing, and singing, we were able to step onto the porch (which is now protected from the elements with clear glass walls) and see all of the renovated Biblical figures. I'm so lucky to have directors and professors here to point out some of the once-in-a-lifetime opportunities like that! And later that night, I took the train to pick Rachel up at the Geneva airport. I was so happy to see her!

Friday, 11/6... We went on a field trip to La Chaux de Fonds, a city nestled in the Jura mountains and on the boarder of France. It's mainly famous for its watchmakers during the boom in that industry. We visited their watch museum and also took a tour of the local architecture and how it evolved over the years. My favorite part was the lunch we shared overlooking the canyon between Switzerland and France, and being with all of these great people! When we got back to Lausanne, Rachel, Alyssa, Elle and I had a leisurely dinner at Bella Italia. I've learned that going out to dinner here is no small feat, one should plan on sticking around the restaurant for a couple of hours, talking and relaxing and that one always has to ask for the bill. I love it that people aren't in a rush to eat here--eating and talking are actually the entertainment rather than simply the means to fuel you for something else (like a movie).

Saturday, 11/7... Rachel and I got up even before the crack of dawn to catch the train to Interlaken--Rachel was going to go skydiving int he morning and she was going to join me for a canyoning trip that afternoon. Well, we got to Interlaken and it was completely foggy! So we had to push back Rachel's skydiving time slot and then cancel our plans to go canyoning. Long story short, Rachel and I both ended up jumping out of airplanes that day, only twelve hours after originally planned! Skydiving was one of the most invigorating things I've ever done, and I hope to get my license now that I've gotten a taste of it. I'm serious about this!

Sunday, 11/8... We went to the Church of Christ and stayed for an amazing lunch of salty and sweet crepes stuffed with whatever you can think of: spinach, meats, chocolate, jellies. We headed for the train station soon after, where I attempted to exchange Rachel's last franc to no avail. (It would have been a 5 franc fee to exchange even one franc.) I was sad to see Rachel head back to Pepperdine's London program, but I'll get to see her in a few weeks for the Michael Buble concert in Florence!

Monday, 11/9... I helped organize a cooking class for Pepperdine Lausanne students taught by part-owner/chef Olivier of St. Gery (the restaurant we have dinner at three nights a week.) In between classes, I went to the store and (using the list Olivier provided) bought the "kitchen essentials" like salt, pepper, mustard, flour, sugar that our kitchen was previously lacking. That afternoon, he took us back to the store to pick out things to make. He is a self-taught chef, so he encouraged us to be creative and make things simple and tasty-sounding. We ended up having tomato-mozzarella salad, Greek salad, pizza with tons of veggies and pepperoni, spaghetti al carbonara, sauteed chicken and apple cake for desert. It was so good! I realized, though, that I've already learned how to cook from Mom because I already knew how to do pretty much everything we went over. Thanks, Mom! (And Dad, and Mutti, and Nana...)

Friday, 11/12... My friends from Florence got in fairly late on Thursday night, so we slept in a bit. After waking up and having breakfast, we set off for the chocolate factory in Broq. Yes, I have been there once before, but I wanted to be with friends and share with them the joy that is all-you-can-eat free chocolate! On the way back to Lausanne, we decided to be adventurous and get off at a random train station to explore a bit. (I'm not sure where we were--somewhere between Broq and Bulles?) We heard music as we got off the train and went to figure out what we were hearing. It turned out that there was a little carnival in town complete with bumper cars! So we of course, all paid the four francs to ride them! (Although Alex and Michael's coins didn't work and the ticket lady was mean and wouldn't give them another so they couldn't go, too.) We ate a late lunch and then went into the empty church (with amazing acoustics) to have a time of a Capella worship! It was so great to be back with my friends and praising the Lord together! We all ate at Bella Italia when we got back to Lausanne, mostly because we had tons of hungry, poor college guys to feed.

Saturday, 11/13... We slept in. Again. But it was so nice and I think our visitors appreciated a laid-back weekend rather than a stressful one full of busy-body activities. We stayed in town and window-shopped, ate some chocolate, ate lunch on a terrace listening to a clarinet player on the street below, shopped some more, took them to hot chocolate up the covered stairs and then on a mini-tour of the Cathedral. I planned to cook everyone a traditional Swiss meal, so we shopped for all of the ingredients and went back to the hotel to cook. We made Aelplermagaronen (macaroni and cheese with potatoes in it), Ankestuckli (freshly cooked apples with cinnamon), and bratwurst. Everything went smoothly until the fire alarm went off and we were privileged enough to have a visit from the fire department. Apparently, the alarms here are quite a bit more sensitive than in the States. I promise you that none of the food was burnt. Lesson learned.

Let's see. What else is going on here with me?

Class: Class is going well. I had a couple of midterms this week and last week in humanities and geology. But I've kept up with the homework and the reading, so I think I did fine on them. French is going pretty well--we're reading a novel right now (Le Livre de Ma Mere by Albert Cohen). Let's just say I'm learning lots of vocabulary because I have to look up at least ten words a page!

Bible Study: It's still going great! About twenty people come each week to have a time of worship, study and prayer in the midst of our compacted week on Tuesday nights. We're even taking Bible study on the road with us tomorrow! (So we'll probably be having it in our hotel in Strasbourg?)

Convo: Keith, Alex and I have been leading a time of worship on Monday nights before the convocation speaker gives his/her presentation. Every week, the process gets a bit more smoothed out.

The Smiths: Brady and Stephanie are the ministers of the Church of Christ right here in Lausanne that I attend. They've basically adopted a bunch of us! Almost every Monday night, I'm over at their house to have a delectable supper. Tonight, for instance, Stephanie made a salad with homemade croutons, a flaky pastry filled with broccoli, chicken and cheese, and a chocolaty desert! They are so kind to us!

That's all I have for now. I'll try to update this week, but I'm not sure when I'll have Internet access since we'll be traveling from place to place for our EFT.

Two Weeks of Adventure

Sorry I didn't post this past week. Now that classes have begun, I've had to start portioning out my time between homework and everything else.

Last weekend, a lot of students traveled out of town for the first time. Instead of that, a few friends and I decided to get to know Lausanne a little better:

On Friday night after dinner, we walked down to the town square to see what was happening. We decided to check out this karaoke joint just for fun.

We had a great time, listening to francophones singing songs in English and listening to some of the popular French tunes belted out, too.

The girls convinced me to go up there and give it a shot. I sang a song by Kelly Clarkson and really enjoyed it! We may go back again soon.

On Saturday, we went to lac leman (aka Lake Geneva) to one of the beach areas. The lake was pretty cold, but it was really calm compared to my experiences in the waters of Malibu. There were also some very friendly swans there to great us. : )

My friend Elle had wanted to dye her hair a bit darker for a while, so I had a blast fixing her up. I even gave her a haircut afterwards. Don't worry, though. She likes it a lot!

On Sunday, we went back to the Church of Christ and stayed for an amazing pot luck afterwards. (We brought a couple trays of tomato-mozerella salad as our contribution.) I took a nap and also went to "house church" that evening, the mini-serivce hosted in the visiting professor's flat. Monday was a Canton holiday, so we didn't have class and I just caught up on homework and resting.

Yesterday, a dozen of us made a day-trip to the chocolate factory and the infamous Gruyere fromagerie as well.

The Nestle/Cailler factory is in Broq-Fabrique, a little town about an hour away by train. They give free tours and factory prices to visitors!

At the end of the tour, they lead you into a room filled with free chocolate samples. Guess what! It's all you can eat. Let's just say I walked away with a bit of a tummy ache.

Here are some of the molds they use for the chocolate during Christmas and Easter.

At the original Gruyere fromagerie (or cheese factory), the cheese is aged for 6 months to a year in the cellar behind me so it aquires its great tastes and textures.

Before that, though, the chese is pressed for about 24 hours and flipped to get the excess liquid out. Also, it's dipped in a salt bath for another 12 hours to give it its salt content and get all the water out.

Down in Gruyere, we noticed a sign pointing to Moleson Village and we headed over there to take a look. It's a cute little ski-resort town with summer activities like mini-golf.

Unfortunately, the town closes everything (inlcuding this HUGE bob-luge) at 4 p.m. on Friday afternoons--we arrived at 4:03. I hope we can go back there before winter kicks in because it looked like a great time.

Classes are going well. All of my professors definitely have Swiss standards for academic excellence, which is a really great thing.

• French is taught by M. Carrel, a language professor from the Univeristy of Lausanne. He makes class interesting, but he also challenges us at lot. This week we focused on proper pronunciation and he recored us reading a text as a test at the end of the week.
• Humanities is taught by Dr. Elizabeth Strebel, an American lady who has lived here for the past 25 years with her Swiss husband. Her class has a lot of requied reading, but the lectures are interesting and she points out things that we can do related to the course (like visit such-and-such museum to see this piece of art).
• Sociolgy is taught by Mme. Pulfrey, an English woman who has also lived in Switzerland for a while now. I love her class a lot and feel like it might be my favorite this semester.
• Geology is taught by Mme. Weber, a Swiss geologist. She really knows her stuff, but I think this may be one of my hardest classes. I really like what we've learned so far, though.

Today, I'm doing laundry and homework. The laundry machines here are a lot different than the American ones I'm used to, but the hotel staff has been really helpful in that area. Tomorrow, though, I'm going to go grape-picking! A Belgium lady named Laura from the restaurant we have our group dinners at arranged for a handful of us to go to a vineyard to help out. The wine producer provides breakfast and lunch, and trains us how to properly pick grapes. I'm really excited about it!

I'll try to post again soon!

Class Schedule, etc.

Monday: French, 8 am to 9 am
Geology, 12:30 to 2:30

Tuesday: French, 9:05 to 10:05
Humanities, 12:30 to 2:15

Wednesday: French, 8 am to 9 am
Sociology, 12:00 to 3:00
Geology, 3:15 to 6:45 (labs will take up half of class every other week)

Thursday: French, 9:05 to 10:05
Humanities, 11:30 to 1:15

Meals for us work like this:

Breakfast is served every morning (7 days a week) at our hotel. It's really great food and includes fruit, cheese, deli meat, boiled eggs, breads, jellies, peanut butter, Nutella, cereals, milk, coffee, hot cocoa, orange juice. It's buffet style, so I get plenty to eat!

Lunch is done on our own. Pepperdine got prepaid corporate cards set up for us with our name on them and everything. We can either withdraw cash or just pay with it. We have 12 francs five days of the week on there for that.

Dinner is a mix of two things: group dinner at a restaurant and the prepaid card thing. The group dinner is at Saint Gery, a little eclectic restaurant not too far from our hotel. On Tuesdays through Thursdays, we all eat the same dish there. For Sunday and Monday night, we have 16 francs to spend on food.

Weekends we're technically on our own, but food isn't all that expensive here so I'll use a lot of the leftover money for the weekend. For example, I can get a foot long sandwich for about 4.50 and I ate a great dinner tonight for 8.50 from the store. (We have a kitchen they let us use here!)

No cell phone yet, but I'm working on it! The grocery store sells prepaid ones fairly inexpensively so then I'll be able to call local numbers on it. Pepperdine is getting us some other phones, but they will just be to call other students here and the faculty within Switzerland. Therefore, I really need two phones. Ugh.

Church was great this morning! There is one Church of Christ in Switzerland and it happens to be 1.7 miles from our hotel on the bottom floor of the preacher's house. The sermon was all in French and they translated the prayers to English. Afterwards, the Smiths invited us up (all five of us) for some great taco salad and great fellowship. They've been in Switzerland for the past twenty years, but were raised in the US kind of. Also, there is a student church held in the building attached to our hotel that meets Sunday nights. They sing contemporary songs (like Hillsong's if you know them) in French and English and it looks neat. I didn't get to go tonight, but I want to next week.

That's all for now. I have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning!

Must Love Dogs

So dogs (very cute, pampered ones) are around every corner here in Lausanne. They make me miss Lacy a lot. But apparently if I get really desperate, I can actually rent a dog for the day down by the lake. Isn't that insane?!?

It was really hard to get a clear picture of this cross from inside Notre Dame because of the lack of light, so this was the clearest shot I could get without a tripod.

We took a boat around the lake to the city of Montreux. It was a gorgeous day out! After that we walked to an ancient chateau about fourty-five minutes further.

See why I'm being reminded of Lacy all the time? I'm pretty sure this is a French bulldog and not a Boston Terrier, but he looks like he could be her uncle.

My Room!

My desk is by the window that gives me great sunlight during the day. I've never had a roll-top desk before. How exciting!
I nicknamed this bed the "space-bed" because it looks like something out of Star Trek. It's a full bed (most people have twins) and I love it!
I have two pretty large closets. One stores my suitcases and three other peoples' as well; and one has my clothes in it. Oh, and that's Kim on her laptop sitting there. My room gets a good wireless signal so it's kind of the girls' headquarters for being online until we get everything working right.
Even though the main bathroom is just down the hall, I have my own sink in my room. It's so nice for getting ready in the morning!

La Croisee, our hotel-house!

Pepperdine has set up a student lounge (I think we're going to call it La Stange for short) for us to hang out in on a lower level of the hotel. Here's Jenna playing some pool.
We have a circle of couches in La Stange for meetings and just relaxing. Brittany and Morgan say "hi!"
Our visiting faculty, Dr. Sugimoto, and his family live with us here in the hotel. The two boys, Michael and Jack, even have a playground in our backyard!
Jo is our lovely assistant director. Here she is handing out keys for our rooms on the first night with JoAnne.

Pictures!

Hey y'all!

Here are a few of the pictures from the past two days.

-Laura

Mary, Pepperdine's Lausanne director. She picked us up at the airport and is so amazing already!
The view from the "backyard" of our hotel. How gorgeous is that?!?



Here I am in front of Lake Geneva. This is a park with fountains behind the courthouse right near our hotel.
It's already getting chilly out at night because of the wind so I got to break in my peacoat! We're on our way to dinner at Saint Gary's. We have dinner on our own four nights a week, but on Tuesdays through Thursdays we walk together to this restaurant for a "faimly meal."