Weekend #1

Hey all! Ok, first of all, Happy Baptism to my niece Cadee!!! Now that that’s out of the way, back to me…

So it’s currently 12:43pm, and I have no Internet (the signal keeps crashing in our building so I am typing this on Word and saving it till we are patched)…only the best at Franklin College! Oh! Speaking of Franklin College…we got some interesting news this past week. I am honored to say that this establishment will be renamed sometime in the near future (forecasted for spring) to Franklin University Switzerland. That’s right, I will be attending FU Switzerland!…no joke. The t-shirts, bumper stickers, and lanyards will be in the mail for you all to support FU! (Ok, that part’s a joke - I am a college student, I have no money…)

On a more labor intensive and annoying note, I think I will be looking for a new room in this upcoming week. Things are a little awkward between us – still really haven’t had a conversation – too much silence. Also, the 2:30am “could you find somewhere else to spend the night” request (after I was asleep for an hour or so) kinda sealed that decision.

My first college weekend’s almost over, and what an experience. Friday night was the Blues to Bop Festival in downtown Lugano. Lots of music (all in English…I find that interesting) and a lot of very drunk people (I was not one of those. Y’all would be so proud!). I, instead, offered myself as a DW – designated walker. My expertise, however, was not taken advantage of, since no one that I went with (Kadie, Thuli and Kristin – tho we now call her Kristi since she was the only one without the long E sound at the end of her name) drank. It was fun, but how un-college are we – we were back by like midnight. We did, however, get some delicious gelato – pistachio and tiramisu…yummo. Are we lame?

Oh, and before that on Friday, we had this convocation thingy – lame. I don’t really know what its purpose was, but whatever. There were some speeches, music that I think was completely inappropriate for the occasion (“The Entertainer” played at a graduation-esque ceremony…really people?), and a reception afterwards. Woot woot.

So yesterday, I finally got to exercise my culinary skills for others and make people breakfast – French toast and hash browns. It doesn’t sound that exciting, but if you saw the kitchen that I cooked, you’d be impressed. Oh, and I also stocked my personal food stash. I am getting used to this thing…except for the whole money spending aspect. And speaking of spending money, I made a pretty intense purchase yesterday – a cell phone. Now a few things on the phone - first of all, it was super cheap (like 49 francs – that’s like $40) and it’s a pay as you go. This place is awesome for that. You can either add credit onto that at the post office (where all bills get paid here) or there are these ports all around the city that you can enter your phone number in, and add credit that way. Now even though it is that way, there is no way on God’s green earth that I will be calling the US on it – sorry! That in itself is a feat, as well as mucho francs.

Well, its time for one of two events – either a student vs. faculty soccer game in some town too far to walk or reading my bounty of books for my classes…time to whip out the books, I guess! Ciao for now!