Buon Giorno!

Sono a Lugano, Svitzerra! I write to you now from Lugano, Switzerland, in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino. We arrived here on Monday after a most beautiful train ride through the heart of Switzerland, finally seeing the amazing mountains and scenery you might think of when you think of Switzerland (given, half the time we didn’t see anything since we were going through those mountains). From the train station, we walked through what felt like the entire town to get to our hotel, which isn’t really that long given the size of Lugano. It’s very small, and by a lake of course, and très charmante, very charming. Pretty much like everywhere else in Switzerland, I think. Apparently it’s a big vacation spot for the rest of Switzerland, but I’m not sure what they would come here for since there isn’t much to do here other than eat, enjoy the lake, and maybe shop in overpriced stores that close at 6pm. I guess it would be very relaxing though, if you’re not looking for touristy stuff to do.

Anyway, after checking into our hotel, we were free for the rest of the day, so I went with Ria and Erin to just walk around and explore the city. We got some gelato which was wonderful of course, then headed back to the hotel so I could get my jacket for the night. A big group of people were about to head out for dinner, so I went with them, even though we ended up splitting up since it’s pretty much impossible to try and seat 14 people for dinner. I went with Catherine, Jeff, Pete, Sara, Beza, and Tash, and we found a restaurant where I had some delicious carbonara with white wine (btw, I’m now addicted to wine.. it’s so delicious. I probably already said that before, which just reconfirms my addiction). Walked towards the lake and met up with everyone again, then we tried to find something to do but there isn’t really much in Lugano on a Monday night at 9pm, so it ended in us sitting at a café for a bit then heading back to the hotel. Since it was still early even then we just kind of chilled and played cards for a bit, I learned how to play Rummy (it requires a lot of card counting/memorizing, I realized). That was the day.

It’s amazing how cultural the tiny country of Switzerland is – when we switched trains in Zurich there was German everywhere and my universe was thrown off track… now we’re in the Italian speaking part and not everyone speaks French anymore! I’m trying my best to learn some Italian in the one week that we’re here, but it’s hard. On the one hand a lot of the words are the same as Spanish, or not really the same but similar. I know it’s even harder for the other students because they’re used to reverting to the few words they know in French in a foreign place, but now it’s Italian that everyone speaks, so we all say “Oui” and “Merci” to the waiters instead of “Si” and “Grazi.” I have lots of fun with it though, Italian is such a fun language. Not to mention the delicious Italian food we get, and I am in love with Italian food. That’s not really saying much though since I’m in love with pretty much all food. I guess though since I have so much Italian food I’m familiar with what things are in Italian – the first night we went out to dinner people didn’t know half the things on the menu, like gnocchi and polpettes… Either way, the food’s delicious, the view is beautiful, and I wake up to the sound of bells ringing every morning. I think I’ll have bells in my house when I get one.