http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/alia142/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from alia142 en-us Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:10:14 BST Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:10:14 BST Last week after camp was over and after my night in Zuerich I spent 5 days with a really cool girl in Berlin. I had never met her before her mom volunteers in my mom's ESL class every Thursday. This past spring when I was at a potluck that my mom's students had I met Sarah's mom and she told me that her daughter lives in Berlin. I got her email address and wrote her to see if there was an http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-311726.html My last full day in Switzerland I spent an unexpected and great night in Zuerich about 4 hours north of Ftan. On Sunday morning I took the train with some fellow camp counselors who were also going to Zuerich 3 of them who were going to stay the night and one who flew out that night. My intent was to go with them on the train to Zuerich and once there buy an overnight train ticket to B http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/North-East/Z-rich/blog-311657.html Here are the rest of the pictures from my time in Ftan. I'll never forget the students and the beautiful surroundings. Hopefully I will do this again next summer. The pictures include A day trip during our offweekend that some of us counselors took to Schloss Tarasp across a valley from the camp. It took about 2 and a half hours to walk to the next village and then catch a bus to the castl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-East/Ftan/blog-311484.html We had one weekend off during camp and so a bunch of us counselors drove to a lake in the very northern part of Italy with a fascinating history. I was going to write some of it here but I will just take the shortcut and give the link to the Wikipedia article if you want some background on this cool place. httpen.wikipedia.orgwikiLakeResia http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Italy/Trentino-Alto-Adige/Bolzano/blog-310801.html Well I am home after a long and exciting month. The rest of camp was as usual crazy but fun. There were times I wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for a week but more often than not I shared the kids' energy and was really grateful for the time I had there. After the first two weeks that group of kids left and a second group came. We called the first two weeks the Italian session becau http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-East/Ftan/blog-310781.html The first week of having villagers has been crazy but fun. On Monday the students arrived and I was one of the three counselors who went to Zurich to pick up the arrivals at the airport. There were a few flights that came in later in the day so I waited for them and I brought them to the camp on the train. There were five trains we had to take and then 2 buses so it was crazy but I got t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-East/Ftan/blog-297705.html The village of Ftan Switzerland has approximately 500 people but that number goes up quite a bit when Concordia Language Village's English immersion summer camp is in session. The facility that we use is what is used as a boarding school during the school year. It is really high up in the Alps and on a hill overlooking the village.I along with a guy who flew in from Omaha and a girl from Swe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Switzerland/South-East/Ftan/blog-294770.html On May 12th through 15th Sara Fiona and I took the Megabus and explored Milwaukee Whitefish Bay a suburb of Milwaukee and Chicago. Peg and Dick were extremely kind and welcoming we stayed at their house in Whitefish Bay. It was a beautiful area with Lake Michigan and all. Monday May 12th we got to Milwaukee at about noon took the city bus and got off at the wrong stop about two mil http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Wisconsin/Milwaukee/blog-279875.html A couple weekends ago my sister Fiona my friend Nash Mom and I went to Duluth. It was very pretty as always. We stayed in this cute little cabin it was run like a motel but each room was its own cabin. My mom and I have stayed in those same ones before. It is right in front of Lake Superior. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Duluth/blog-278851.html Saturday I graduated from Augsburg with a BA in Music and a BA in German It is a very big relief and I had a lot of fun. The graduation was at 11 am and I had several friends there as well as my mom sister Sara and Fiona Sara's longtime friend who came with her from England to visit. Afterwards there were receptions for each department so I went to the humanities one first but missed http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Minneapolis/blog-272637.html Yesterday I got my contract from Concordia Language Villages so it's official I am working at the English language village called Hometown Europe in Ftan Switzerland this summer It is from June 30th to August 3rd. I applied for jobs at both that village and the German language village Waldsee where I work during the school year and decided that if I got offered jobs at both I would http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Minnesota/Minneapolis/blog-268086.html Indiana University located in Bloomington IN is one of the best music schools in the country or maybe even the world. It was really great to see it. I have a friend who is a piano performance major there who I met while in Vienna so I went to visit her for a few days during my spring break. I got to hear a lot of piano music of course while hanging out with her We went to a John Adams http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Indiana/Bloomington/blog-258607.html This weekend Mom John and I drove down to Iowa City so that we could meet up with Will Mom's first cousin Aunt Shirley Ann's son. John and I had never met him I'd been wanting to meet him for a long time and was excited to. I was also excited to see Iowa City which I consider one of my favorite homes. Even though we lived there for only two years I feel so connected to Iowa City and m http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Iowa/Iowa-City/blog-240162.html The alarm went off apparently... several times in fact. It's definitely a good thing I was at home with Mom last Saturday night who woke me up at 430 the next morning otherwise I might have missed my flight to Florida with the orchestra. So waking up in time for the flight was a good start to the week.We approximately 40 of us flew into Orlando and got there at about 1000 Florida time. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Florida/Fort-Myers/blog-235655.html Sorry it's taken awhile for me to do this. There is a blizzard outside we're expected to get ten inches between today and tomorrow so this is a good time to sit in front of the computer for half an hour or so.Last week was a lot of fun. Mom John and I flew to Colorado the night before Thanksgiving and stayed in Fort Collins until Sunday afternoon.The Thanksgiving dinner was at Rose and Jim' http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Colorado/Fort-Collins/blog-224281.html Okay so I don't know how many of you know this but last night I got home from Los Angeles after having spent almost four days Saturday night until yesterday afternoon with some of my first cousins from Saudi Arabia. I wasn't sure if I was going to do a blog about this trip because I was nervous about people's reaction. However my mom told my grandma and Uncle John and Aunt Dianne. They se http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/California/Los-Angeles/Beverly-Hills/blog-197576.html There's this great singer named Sufjan Stevens who sings about Chicago in a few of his songs. The song Come On Feel the Illinoise is where I got the title for this journal entry. I've been to Chicago three times now in the past year and a half and each time I fall more in love with it. The past two times I went back in March and this past weekend was to see some friends who I made in V http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Illinois/Chicago/blog-194274.html Well once again I'm a blog slacker. Sorry it's taken me so long to do these entries I think it's the fact that I have so much to say about everything that I feel like I need to take a couple hours to do this... so I keep putting it off until I have time. Hopefully I will finish this one tonight.So I left off in the last post talking about Chatterbox Falls. I also need to add that on the P http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Sunshine-Coast/blog-193943.html Wow is it raining ever hard... I hope our electricity stays intact It just came on again after having been out since Friday night after a storm.Anyway the electricity thing put my BC blog on hold. Here goes p.s. all last names will be just one letter... if anyone in the family has a question about what the name is just email meSunday 728 John Mom and I rented a car in Seattle and d http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Sunshine-Coast/blog-192253.html Bainbridge Island was Momrsquos Johnrsquos and my first stop before we went to the family reunion in British Columbia. We were there for two nights 726728. Uncle David Aunt Susan and Kaia went all out for ushellip it was an amazing weekend. On Friday we flew from Minneapolis to Seattle as we flew in we saw the Space Needle so that was fun and John got to take his first ferr http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Washington/Bainbridge-Island/blog-188979.html