"Americans! Not here to kill anyone, I hope."

First off, I would like to make a point of clarification.  My mother seems to think I don't love her or don't miss her or something and thinks that the lyrics in the previous post were not directed at her.  They were PRIMARILY directed at her.  I hope you feel better now, Mama!

I have returned from the German-speaking part of Switzerland!  Let me be the first to express surprise about this, but I have NEVER been so happy to hear French in my life.  Swiss German is totally beyond me.  And when I say totally, I mean it: it's hard to be polite when  you don't know how to say hello or please or thank you or any of the words fundamental to the politesse.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed Bern greatly.  The capital of Switzerland, this town feels a lot smaller than Geneva and much more historic.  While there, we attended briefings (some interesting, some not so much), took a walking tour of the city, explored quite a bit, and generally tried to immerse ourselves in the culture.  In my opinion the best parts of the city were the bear park (no longer the bear pit, seeing as that was inhumane and all), the cathedral, and the view behind the parliament building.  See above, and you (like I!) will wonder how the Swiss parliament ever gets ANYTHING done.  The cathedral was great because I'm a sucker for a good pieta but I know not everyone else, so I'll spare you.  However, it would be cruel to omit a picture of the baby bears.  Inhumane, even.

See??  The best. (P.S. can you tell I'm excited that I learned how to insert pictures?)  Also the best were the incredible tortas we found at a Mexican food stand in the market.  Be still, my heart.

Not the best was being the recipient of much anti-American sentiment in Bern.  One of my good friends on this trip lived in Bern for a while so she is fluent in Swiss German (which is different from High German) and unfortunately for her was able to understand all the comments made about us as we walked around.  She passed some on in her anger, and most were just rude and petty and often concerned our appearances.  However, at one point we were walking around in a group of four and a man on the side of the road yelled out in English, "Americans!  Not here to kill anyone, I hope."  That one stung a little bit.  I understand its origin entirely; I've never been entirely proud of US military action and the more I learn about international relations the more I realize the US has done some really terrible things.  However, it was bizarre to be one of group of four colllege-aged girls walking down the street and to hear this.  As much as I try to distance myself from my cultural identity by clinging to my interest in international relations, I realize that I am affiliated with my government's actions.  I suppose it is this that I struggle with the most.  I can vote against a candidate or a proposition, but in the end, my international identity is determined by the masses.  It stings, especially since I would venture to guess that most people who were in support of the illicit military actions fueling this disdain would never be studying multilateral diplomacy in Geneva.  It was a rude awakening, but one that was inevitable.


Onto a happier subject!  After the excursion ended, a group of nine girls (including myself) chose to go to Lucerne/Luzerne/L____ (too many languages here!).  We got in on Friday afternoon and unpacked into our hostel which was surprisingly neat and spacious for the price.  We unpacked, relaxed, wandered around a little bit, had a great Italian dinner (hello, Risotto) and then had the true hostel experience.  Our door was open a crack, and guys kept poking their heads in to say hello.  At first it was pretty surprising, but we got used to it quickly and made the best of it.  Apparently a group of nine American girls in a hostel attracts some attention...(Don't worry, parents!  It's all ok!)  We met people from a variety of places, but ended up spending the evening with some Canadians from Montreal and some guys from California.  At one point we were in the lounge singing Beatles songs together...very campy but very fun!  It was nice to have some companionship from outside the program and definitely negated any chance of monotony.

We went to bed pretty late and had to wake up at 9 to check out of the hostel.  As my friend Fiona said upon opening the blinds, "It's a harsh, harsh world out there."  Well worth it, though.  We wandered around by the lake, got free samples of some awesome cheese at a cheese festival, got nostalgic for the Great Johnston European Adventure, and then headed up Mount Pilatus.  We took a gondola up and up and up and up, seeing what Switzerland is truly made of.  And let me tell you, it is beautiful.

After changing gondolas, we ascended into the clouds.  We had gained quite a bit of altitude, and suddenly everything around us was just white.  It was a little freaky and a lot awesome.  Once on top of the mountain, most members of the group instantly began whining about how cold it was and went into the gift shop.  I was having none of that and wandered outside, where I was gifted with the most incredible cloud break.  Ever.

It may be difficult to see on the pictures, but this is a purely white sky with a single break, revealing snowy mountains.  Is this real life??  We wandered around in caves and clouds for the afternoon.  After being serenaded over hot chocolate by about 40 Swiss frat-ish boys (accompanied by an accordion, no less), we took the steepest cogwheel in the world back down the mountain and from there headed back to Geneva.

All in all, it was an awesome time.  Today we had class at the UN, and I have a paper due on Wednesday (I won't even tell you how bad the procrastination is, lest my mother's heart stop) and then we leave for Brussels and Paris on Sunday.  This is the life.  No question.  ALSO I'm halfway done with classes!  Only four more weeks left of classes and then we enter the ISP Period, which is 6 weeks devoid of scheduled activity to work on our behemoth paper.  How is this possible?  How is it possible I've been here a month already?  This is passing way too quickly and making me think I'll never be ready to come home...