Seizing the Day
This weekend, our classes on Friday were cancelled so I had the opportunity to do a little bit extra. On Friday, I wandered around Geneva with a friend for the entire afternoon, with no agenda except for pure exploration. We started off with lunch at a place my friend's host mother recommended. From the website, I was unsure this place really did have food since it is a place on the lake where people can swim called Bains de Pâquis, but we decided to skip it out nonetheless. And boy were we pleasantly surprised! We had maybe the best meal we have found in Switzerland so far! In describing it or taking a photo, I really cannot convey how delicious it was but we had a wonderful time eating it, sitting on the lake, gazing at the jet d'eau and watching dramatic clouds pass by. Later, we ended up visiting Geneva's cathedral, St. Peter's (or, in French, St. Pierre's). If you dare climb the narrow, steep, winding spiral stair cases, you can reach two separate towers on either side of the cathedral that offer a breathtaking view of Geneva. I absolutely adore rooftops. I am not sure why - maybe it was my young love for Mary Poppins and the amazing rooftop scenes or perhaps my love for high up vista points and wishes to one day be able to fly - but Geneva and most European cities have a healthy supply of romantic rooftops to gaze upon. As you can see below, I took a fair share of photographs... For the rest of our day in Geneva, my friend and I ducked in and out of intriguing stores, got to know each other better, and did our best to get lost in the old city. One of my favorite stores we went into (besides the creperie, of course) was the Caran d'Ache, the high end writing utensil store. They had an incredible array of pens, colored pencils, water color pencils, felt tip markers, and pastels (and not enough tester paper, in my opinion) all arranged neatly by color. I was practically in heaven.
On Saturday I finally got to fulfill a dream that I have been imagining since I first learned to ski from a Swiss: Skiing in the Swiss Alps. While it was not exactly what I expected, it was truly an incredible experience that kept a huge grin on my face the whole day (even when my feet started to feel like they were going to fall off). Two friends and I got up at 6am to travel the 2.5 hours to Verbier, south of Lake Geneva. I had to take a bus to three trains to a cable car to get the mountain (and back home)! Skiing in Switzerland seems to be quite different from int the US; each mountain is not run from one company at one ski base but rather there are an array of lifts and gondolas throughout the mountain and ski runs interlinking them all. Not all ski runs lead to one lodge at the bottom, so I was a bit nervous about getting lost or skiing of into unknown territory (especially since not all the runs are so clearly marked). Luckily that did not happen - in fact the opposite happened; I felt like I hardly scratched the surface of all the runs the mountain had to offer. The sun was out, the sky was crystal clear, and it had just snowed the night before. Could we have asked for better conditions?!
One of my friends is a very advances skier why my other friend is a beginner, and as I am in the middle and have not been on skis in quite a while, I stuck with my friend on the beginner slopes. It seems as though here, the jump between beginner and intermediate is quite large, going from very shallow inclines to near drop-offs between the two. Just as I had always dreamed of, we stopped at a small cafe on the mountainside for lunch. The larger restaurant just next store had a DJ playing some dance music and just below the restaurant was the jumping off point for and the landing base for the para-gliders that frequented this mountain. So we ate, bathed in sunlight, paragliders splashing the sky with bright colors, dancing to some cheerful tunes. It was really, well, awesome. By the time the lifts started closing, I was a bit bummed I didn't get in as many runs as I had wanted to, so with 8 minutes left before the lift up closed, I ran (as fast as someone in ski boots can run) to the gondola to take one last run. On my way up, I passed the paraglider, and I could see a hawk peacefully gliding through the sky with them all. When I reached the top, I quickly put down my skis to grab an obligatory mountain-side hot cocoa. I relished in the views, sunshine, and warm chocolate. My last run was a beautiful run that wound across the mountain face, back and forth, on a tree-lined path with incredible views. Again, but words can hardly do it justice, but thus is the benefit of photography and modern technology. After we had all finished skiing and returned our rental gear, we wandered around the small (very touristy) quaint town and got some more snacks. Verbier certainly has the very classic Swiss ski-town atmosphere and architecture that I had imagined. Tired and sore, we left the town in the dark to start the long journey home after an incredible day of skiing.
This long weekend I have found myself much more independent, more go with the flow, and more allowing of myself to look out for my own wants and needs. I have often struggled to allow myself to be flexible with plans, I sometimes don't speak up about my own opinion out of fear of it differing from others', and I have almost always been afraid of doing things by myself in foreign situations. But this weekend, I think I have made a significant amount of progress on these personal flaws. In studying abroad, one effectively has a total fresh start to make an impression and reveal who they are. While not changing who I really am, I have tried to take this opportunity to work on some of my personality traits that can sometimes hold me back. Although it is cliché, just "saying yes" or "going for it," whatever "it" may be, has not only helped me overcome some of my personal barriers, but has aided me in making the most of each day that I am here. It makes me wonder, "Why don't people lead their lives like this more often?" It of course makes sense that on my study abroad, I would be extra ambitious in making the most out of each day, because I most likely will never find myself in a situation like I am in now for a long time. But the truth is, I didn't need a study abroad trip to start changing my mentality, it's only that it has been the perfect excuse... and I am ever so thankful for it. I really hope that I can continue on this path and that I can really stick with these positive changes in my mentality.
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