I'm here to save your marriage

Hey everyone. Yes, I know, I didn't post yesterday. See what had happened was, I was going to write it up and post last night, but since a bunch of people were leaving this morning to start their break trips and some to leave for home, we all decided to go up to a place called the targets (it's just a scenic lookout spot) and hang out for a few hours. So, it was you or them. And, I chose them. But only for last night.

Today, as I write this post during my study time here at L'Abri, I am choosing you, my faithful readers. I am choosing all of you, that is, except for 'Anonymous' who commented that I'm "shit at updating this blog." You are not chosen, Anonymous. You are rejected.

I guess I should take this time to let you all know what I'll be doing on my 11-day break from L'Abri. I'm sure it is of great interest to you. I can picture you now, huddled around your dinner tables at night, speaking in hushed but excited whispers. "When is Chris going to tell us what he's doing over his break?" "I don't know, but if he doesn't I'm just going to kill myself, I swear I will, and don't you dare try to stop me Bill." "Just calm down, Darla, I'm sure . . ." "NO! I will not calm down! Do you know how hard it's been for me lately? You have no idea! You go off to work everyday, and I just sit here, hoping that Chris gets some spare moment to post an update when I'm not expecting it. Damn you and your career! You have no idea! . . . . I think I want a divorce."

Just hold on a second guys. Fear not. I'm here to save your marriage. Now grab a nice glass of vino, gather round the family PC, put your arms around each other, and live vicariously through me.

That last sentence kind of rhymes. Maybe I'll make it the new slogan of my blog.

Tomorrow morning Jon and I will leave L'Abri right after breakfast, probably sometime around 10 am. Before I go any further, I need to decide which is the best format for describing my plans to you. I think I'll go for an itinerary format with comments on different days. So, here we go:

Day 1 (Thurs Oct 11)- Jon and I wake up, eat breakfast at L'Abri and then head to the hitch spot outside of Huemoz to try to hitchhike to Turin, Italy where we'll get a train to Florence. By hitching to Turin (about 3 hours drive from here) we'll save around 40 euros on train tickets. That night we'll meet four girls from L'Abri at the train station in Florence and hopefully stay in their hotel with them until Sunday morning.

Day 2 (Fri Oct 12)- Today the six of us (me, Jon, Andrea, Carla, Faith, and Grace) will go to the Accademia Gallery (where Michaelangelo's David is) in the morning and then the Uffizi Gallery (where Raphael's David in bronze is, I think) in the afternoon. I've already been to both of these museums before (when I went to Italy for three weeks after my junior year in high school), but they are awesome enough to warrant another visit.

Day 3 (Sat Oct 13)- Still in Florence. No plans except maybe go check out the Pontevecchio which is the big famous bridge in Florence, and maybe go see the Duomo and the Baptistery in the city center as well.

Day 4 (Sun Oct 14)- Jon and I leave early from Florence to hitchhike to a little port city called Livorno. It's on the west coast of Italy, just west of Pisa. From Livorno we'll get a ferry to a tiny island near Corsica called Capraia. We don't know much about the island except that it's there and has some good hikes and beaches.

Day 5 (Mon Oct 15)- Capraia exploration. The island isn't very big at all, so I'm not sure what all there is to explore, but we're going to find out. Maybe we'll even try to get a boat ride to Corsica. Who knows.

Day 6 (Tues Oct 16)- Depending on how interesting Capraia is, we'll either spend the whole day here and leave the next morning, or we'll spend half the day here and catch the ferry back to Livorno that afternoon and hitchhike up to Cinque Terre (about an hour drive away).

Day 7 (Wed Oct 17)- See above. Either explore or get to Cinque Terre, Italy today. Cinque Terre is a series of five small villages on the coast that are apparently some of the most beautiful places in Italy. Classic Italy is what everyone says. So, we'll get there and find a place to stay (I have a list of hostels or cheap hotels for the places we're going but we don't have any reservations) and then we're going to meet three other girls (Erin, Amelia, Emily) from L'Abri in a town called Monterosso (one of the five towns in Cinque Terre). Hopefully we'll be able to stay in the same hostel so we can hang out while the five of us are all there at the same time.

Day 8 (Thurs Oct 18)- Hike around Cinque Terre. The surrounding area is a protected park so there are some good trails from village to village. I'm not quite sure what to expect in Cinque Terre either, but that's what's nice about not really having too much of a schedule; we can basically do whatever we want.

Day 9 (Fri Oct 19)- Spend the first half of the day in Cinque Terre, maybe go to the beach and read some. I don't know. Then, towards early afternoon Jon and I will get a train (7 hours, suck) to Locarno, Switzerland where we'll meet Faith (one of the girls who was in Florence with us) and get a hotel room somewhere so that we can wake up early the next morning and . . .

Day 10 (Sat Oct 20)- BUNGEE JUMP! At 2:30 in the afternoon, the three of us have a reservation to jump from the second highest bungee jump in the world (the first highest is in China and is less than 20 meters higher than this one) at 220 meters. Hopefully the weather will cooperate with us. We've heard stories from one of the workers at L'Abri of other students who went to do the jump but were thwarted by the weather. Keep your fingers crossed.

Day 11 (Sun Oct 21)- Maybe catch a train, maybe try to hitchhike, back to Huemoz where we will be reunited with the rest of the people who are here for the whole term.

So, there you go. I'm going to take as many pictures and videos as I can so that I can show you all of the people and places. The only thing I'm really worried about with the trip is, well, two things. One, I don't have a very big backpack (besides my huge one) to take my stuff in, so packing is going to be tight. And two, weather during the week and a half that we'll be on break. Really, it could rain every single day but be sunny on our bungee day and I'd be happy.

In other news, the weather here has been pretty great lately. They actually have a fall here, which is nice. It's around 65 or 70 during the day and chilly at night. About of the trees around here have leaves that change color so it makes the mountains around us look beautiful.

I really can't think of anything else to tell you. Is there anything in particular that you'd like to know that I haven't written about yet? Just let me know.

In conclusion, here's a picture of the white-out type of fog that we get around here. The picture below was taken on Sunday morning before chapel. The crazy thing is that only four hours later it was perfectly sunny and clear all around. I guess this is just something that happens when you live 3300 feet above sea level in the Swiss Alps.

Lata.

Oh yeah. I won't be posting for about a week probably. I'm not sure how much internet access I'll have while we're on the trip, but if I do get a chance I'll post a little update.



Well, it looks like Blogger isn't going to let me upload photos tonight. Just imagine a foggy scene with a tree and another tree and a bench and some grass and no mountains. If you can see mountains then your mental picture is a lie from the devil, so . . . . .