You cant judge the life I lead, because you don't live it.

So I am home now, at least temporarily. I cant even put words together without crying. The fact that I am a complete mess is no surprise, I have no idea how I kept it together on the flights home (I mean I didn't, I was a mess) but not as bad as I am now. I took a shower until the water went cold today. I just sat down in the shower and then laid on the floor snot covering my face. It hit me, that she is GONE, I will NEVER see her again. At the age of 20 I have lost the most important person in my life. My best friend, my shopping companion, my advice giver, my doctor appointment taker, my hand to hold, my "wow you two look so alike", my mom, my everything. She wont get to see my pictures of europe, she wont get to hear my crazy stories, she wont get to have my first legal drink with me, she wont be here when I graduate college, she wont see at my first job, she wont see me fall in love, she wont see me get married, she wont see me buy my first house, she wont see my children, she wont be there for any of the big things that are going to happen in my life.

Breakeven

Breakeven by The Script

Her best days will be some of my worst
She finally met a man that's gonna put her first
While I'm wide awake she's no trouble sleeping
'Cause when a heart breaks, no it don't breakeven, even, no

Alcohol Doesn't Get You Drunk, Bartenders Do!

Last Thursday was the school's Icebreaker party. Let me explain that in a country where you can drink at 18, icebreakers are MUCH MUCH more fun. Basically, that is how it should be done. The first part of the icebreaker was pretty formal in our dining room which they cleared out and put in buffet table and tall tables to stand around. Everyone dressed up in our lovely business professional outfits and spent three hours drinking free wine and eating AMAZING food. The director gave a little speech introducing people and everyone mingled for a couple of hours.

We headed back to the dorms and changed into party clothes (haha jeans and heels for me). A bunch of the WSU students started drinking in our rooms and then some headed to Chaos around ten, while a Eli, Lindsey, and I headed to a party of the 6th floor (rooms on the 6th floor are more expensive, much bigger, and have their own balconies). I ended up meeting

some great people and braving the cold night air. After that we headed downstairs where I proceeded to dance the night away and meet many many people (the point of the icebreaker right?). Also experienced my first B52 which is a layered shot that is on fire and that you take with a straw. Tastes like ice cream!

On Saturday was my bartending class in Montreux. I headed to the train station a little before eight and met up with the other students. The train ride is about and hour and half. I started getting a little trainsick (I think I made that word up?) when we hit Lake Geneva. But the lake was absolutely gorgeous and the town is picturesque! We walked from the train station to Pravda Vodka Bar. Funny that it is a Russian Bar owned by someone from Norway where everything is in English. The bar is closed during the day so the owner taught us about various alcohols and what they are made of and where they originate from. He believe in free pouring

which is training your employees to measure with their eye by counting. Only accurate with alot of practice, but in the long run a bartender can make many more drinks quickly without having to stop and measure everything. So we would count and pour and then measure what we poured to double check (just with water). After about an hour of so of this we took a lunch break.

I tagged along with Christin and her friend that is doing her internship in Montreux. We went to Kebab (pronounced K-Bob) which is a very popular fast food here known for doner sandwiches. Which is when the meet is on this rotating pole with the heat hitting it from the side (doesn't look appetizing, but it is). With our sandwiches in tow we walked down to the lake and chatted (while I gazed wide eyed at the amazing city).

When we got back to the bar, we each took turns actually getting behind the bar and making drinks! This was so fun each of us made a different drink and then passed it around for everyone to try the drink. We ended up spending two hours making drinks and trying them. After we were done I wanted to stick around to see the city a little bit, but instead I headed back to Brig with the group (didn't feel like getting lost in this city my first week in Switzerland). I am actually starting to understand the train system though.

Coca Cola Light and Fondue

Yesterday was my first day of school. My first class was really great about Spa Management. Seems to be really interesting and we actually get to go on two field trips to visit different spas. My other class of the day is actually taught by the WSU professor that came with us, which is most likely going to be very boring.

I caved about half way through the day yesterday and was dying for a diet coke. So I went down to the little cafe Cosmos downstairs and bought one. First of all it was 2.50! And it was in a glass bottle. Turns out if you bring back the glass bottle, that you get 50 cents back, which isnt too bad. In Europe they actually dont have Diet Coke, they have something called Coca Cola

Light which is their "version." This does not taste like Diet Coke as I am an avid drinker and can tell the slight differences (haha). So all in all while it did help fix my craving, it did not fufill my need for Diet Coke in the long run. This is leading me to believe that this will be a long 3 and half months without Diet Coke.....when I return to the States this will be my first purchase! Along with peanut butter, which they also don't have in Europe. I had no idea that peanut butter was American? Learning new things here everyday.

After our classes finished, Ash and I went in search of hair dryers. We had already gone to Migros (grocery store/everything store....note: most of their grocery stores have random household stuff too!) and they didn't have any their so we went to Coop, which was supposed to

one of the better stores. Well we found hair dryers, but they were 30 dollars, which is totally worth it because I really needed one. Most of the girls on the trip that brought theirs says theirs don't really work with the converters so I am pretty glad I didn't bother to bring mine. It makes me nervous to plug things into the converters because I don't really want to break anything.

We finally made it to the "square" area of town. It is so picturesque I feel like I live in a real life disneyworld (you know to pretty to be real). Their are cute little shops and pubs and restaurants. I can't wait to go into all the little clothing stores....Im pretty sure Im going to break down and buy and nice pair of boots (their are alot of shoe stores here too for such a small town). Besides the language barrier I really enjoy walking around Brig. The people are really nice. Some of our friends recommended a place to get fondue. I didn't realize that fondue is such a Switzerland thing, but I can definitely get used to it, FONDUE IS AMAZING! So yummy, we split fondue with bread and potatoes for 22.00 dollars, so it was quite an

inexpensive meal. Even with splitting it, there was no way we could have finished all of it. Definitely feel like fondue might become a weekend ritual! What is interesting is there are quite a few Pizzerias, which should not be surprising because we are a 20 minute train ride to the border of Italy. All in all, walking around town is going to be my favorite thing about being here.

Getting Here

Ashley and I flew into Zurich on Thursday and landed about 11am local time. Which was about 2am back home. After we got our bags, which thankfully were not lost, we headed to our hotel. From the directions we had, we thought we had to get to the main station. A really nice women helped us get from the airport to the main station. We were pretty much lost so this was a really good thing. At the main station is took us a while to figure out we had to get on the 3 and ride it pretty much across town. Our hotel the Mercure Stoller was really nice with a restaurant downstairs. The funny thing was that we planned on going out and checking out Zurich, but we ended up sleeping for 14 hours! The next morning we checked out went back to the main station to get the train to Brig.

Ash at Breakfast

Me at Breakfast

The train to Brig was really interesting seeing all the different towns and snow along the way. We followed the directions to the school, which isnt far, but it was good that Ashley was wearing her wazzu sweatshirt because one of the RA's found us and directed us to the dorm.

Today Ash and I walked around quite a bit of Brig, but almost everything is closed on Sunday. There is 4 different grocery stores in town, little clothing shops, shoe stores, and a bunch of restaurants. There is a pizza place, thai restaurant, bakeries, and local places too. We walked by a couple of bar and pubs as well and a really cool looking church. I cant wait to explore more when everything is actually open.

The grocery store is really different! However, I think im going to enjoy the entire isle of Swiss Chocolate. I have already accomplished eating my fair share of Toblerons, which are pretty amazing. The first milk I bought was accidently goats milk because everything is in German and I couldn't figure out which on to buy. At least I bought frosted flakes! It had Tony the Tiger so at least I could tell what it was. Since I have been here I have really been wanting fruit. This is weird because I don't really eat fruit. A group of us went to the grocery store the other day and we all bought apples (I found this ironic all being from Washington) and we got

laughed at because we didn't know we were supposed to weigh them ourselves and it prints out a little tag for them. Other than that it hasnt been too bad, the grocery store even sells alcohol there which is nice. Some of its not too bad, but the Jack Daniels was $40 for the bottle (swiss francs and the dollar are pretty much equal right now, which is nice not having to convert). But they had pink vodka, possibly going to have to try that one. One thing I didnt think about is that all the books and magazines here are in German, should have brought more with me. Whats funny is they have the same magazines here with Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, and Lady Gaga.

The dorms here are SO NICE! Downstairs there are kitchens, workout room, coffee bar, and a night club that is open on the weekends.