Feel The Burn

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Today I woke up early. WAY early. It must have been at least 7 am. Let me just say that back home, unless I have school or work, I don’t wake up before noon, so this waking up early business is a culture shock in itself. We ate breakfast and met Arabella, who walked us to the local monastery. At the monastery, brother Thomas gave us a tour, and explained its amazing history. After the tour, we walked to a local cheese making facility and were given the opportunity to try several samples. The samples we ate were different from American Swiss-cheese. American Swiss-cheese has virtually no taste and is full of holes. Swiss Swiss-cheese is completely different, however, having no holes and being VERY strong. After that, myself, Ashley, Vanessa, Elizabeth, and Chris walked through the town to find a place to eat before our lecture. On our short walk, we found a herd of cattle walking through town, who had huge bells around their necks. The sound made by these cattle was quite surprising, and would probably be best compared to a freight train. After eating, we arrived at the hotel for our lecture, however, we learned the lecture had been canceled due to a family emergency. We were thus given a few more hours of free time, which myself, Jamie, Janet and Chris used to take a lift up the mountain. The view was completely amazing, but I unfortunately forgot two very important things. I forgot to charge my camera battery, and I forgot to bring sunscreen. To say I began to quickly burn would probably be an understatement. Let’s be honest, I was basically a vampire and I swear I think I may have been smoking and turning to ash. On the mountain there was a big pond, which several of the people were swimming in. Unfortunately, someone must have forgotten to tell the people that the pond was freezing cold, as I almost caught hypothermia just looking at it. On the mountain there were hiking nuns and llamas (or in Jamie’s case big dogs), but best of all, there were also piles of snow. Coming from Texas, this was very impressive, even if most of the snow was black and brown, it was still snow! Several children were very impressed by the snow as well, and didn’t let the fact that it was black and brown stop them from chowing down on it. We began running out of time, so we took the lift back down the mountain and got ready for casino night.

Upon arriving at the casino, I couldn’t help but notice that the casino was slightly different from casinos I’d been to in Shreveport and Vegas. The biggest difference was the fact that the casino was tiny. Upon arriving we were given lessons in blackjack and roulette, and then were set free to lose as much money as we wanted. The casino was kind of a flop, as only two people actually won any money. After leaving the casino, we drove back to Engleberg and prepared for a night out on the town. Almost everyone came out to the Yucatan, however, only a few of us stayed for the real party, which didn’t begin until later in the night. I don’t really remember much from the night other than a lot of beer, people asking me if I had swine flu, and some drunk guy mooning everyone on the bar. There were several other happenings that night, however, I will spare you the intricacies and just say that I went to bed shortly thereafter.

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