Mont Blanc

I know I have written for awhile, though not too much has been going on. I am planning most of my trips for August--when I will hopefully be going to Spain and Italy for a bit.

This past weekend, John, a friend from home ( and Robs first year roommate at Lemoyne) came to visit as part of his Euro Summer 08 Trip. He got to see how incredibly expensive Geneva is (my British coworker thinks it is worse than London--and i think i agree--....which is ridiculous given the strength of the pound). John and I laid low most of the weekend, hanging out with my flatmates and going to some local bars...We also attended the lake parade which is a partially a Gay Parade and partially a 4th of July Parade (and completely lame compared to San Francisco I must add). Yes, thats how it was decribed to me...1) I know im in Switzerland but apparently this is always celebratory partially for America and 2) Yes I also think its great that they equate gay pride and america.

The best thing we did all weekend was visit Mont Blanc in Chamoux (Spelling). The town appeared to be really quaint...but we found after getting lost that it actually had quite a few stores and a "happening area". Unfortunately, being in a tourist trap we didnt get to escape the high prices found in Geneva.

Mont Blanc is the highest point in Europe (unless Georgia ever joins the European Union). There is a cable car ride that travels up to the peak and then you can take the cable car down into Italy. Once we arrived, it was pouring quite heavily. We marched onward though, and after getting lost and thrown out of a work zone arrived at the cable car just to find that it was closed due to weather. We found out about another hit spot in town, though, ---a glacier that you can walk on and check out, and decided to grab some brunch and go there. After brunch, the weather cleared up and we WERE able to get on the cable car. The cable car stopped at 3 different spots along the way to the top (and due to John and my stealthy-ness we had a great spot for picture taking on each car ride up). When we got to the peak we walked aruond. I made the great decision of wearing a sundress and sweater and was absolutely freezing...but the view was breathtaking and well worth the frostbite. We still got to hang out in a glacier and touch one...the photos of which Ill attach soon. Unfortunately, the weather wasnt great on the Italy side, so we werent able to head to Italy as planned and spent time in the town on the other side.

At the top of the pea, we found that a highschool acappella group was also visiting....though we had some fears of an avalanche..it was so great to be at such a beautiful spot hearing really beautiful music. We rode down with a group of five boys in the acapella group on the way back to the French side and they serendaded the cable car with an impromptu rap. It brought up the mood of the entire car.

Once we arrived in town, we realized we were both pretty tired after a long night of (yes) a shot bar with a few friends and waking up at 7am. We went back to the train station to see when we could grab the 2.5 hour train home and decided to grab a beer while waiting the hour before it arrived. Of course, the prices were ridiculous near the train station, so, upon remembering that McDonalds sells beer in Europe...decide to save ourselves some money and sell out to globalization.

John ordered two beers at McDonlads. The lady at the counter looked at us with horror and said...you cant...you must eat.. So John said...whats the cheapest thing you have...fries. well have friends...she looked at us in a perplexed "and" waiting...and he said...and beer. by then we were all laughing and once the fries came she reminded me to make sure that he eats while drinking. We ended up paying about 1 euro more for 2 fries and 2 beers there than we would have paid for one beer at the bar next door.

Otherwise, I took John around some of the Geneva site...unfortunately the weather didnt hold out for us most of the weekend...even when it wasnt raining it was overcast and rather miserable. Worst weather ive actually had here so far.

This weekend Im hoping to take a small trip to Lyon or somewhere in France just to get away for a bit. John wrote down a bunch of info on Barcelona and Rome and im really hoping to make those trips in August.

Otherwise, work is going well. This is Leannes last weekend...she hads out on Thursday. It is going to be incredibly weird without her at work and likely depressing...but hopefully i can secure a job for the fall and feel stable enough to go visit everyone at home.

Thats all for now. But I do want to attach an article that interested me today. Food for thought and a reminder that im blogging from europe and know that im incredibly interesting to keep up with...but that there are more important things going on in the world right now that we should all be aware of: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2008/07/20087166397881715.html

---

---