High: I booked my trip to Rome for Easter! I am going with my friend Shannon, who is currently studying abroad in Bilbao, Spain. I cannot wait for not only our trip, but to see a friend from USC!
Low: My credit card company shut off my cards while I was booking my train to Rome due to unusual spending in Europe, even though I notified them that I would be in Europe...after most of an afternoon, and many phone calls later, my credit cards are thankfully working again.
High: I figured out how to use the gym! I went with my roommate Sim and our friend Giovanna. The gym is so small compared to Strom back at USC, but I guess it makes sense since this university is smaller than USC. I counted a total of 10 treadmills. Hopefully working out at this altitude (2,215 feet according to Wikipedia) will get me in tip top shape!
Low: I couldn't tell you how far I ran on the treadmill because the distance was in kilometers...well, I mean I ran 3 kilometers, but I had no concept of how far that was until I found a kilometer-to-mile converter on the internet (it's about 1.86 miles). Also, whenever I try to describe the weather in Fahrenheit, or the amount of snow Detroit is currently getting, in inches, nobody knows what I'm talking about. I'm getting better at the conversions, but it still throws me every time someone is excited that the weather is 10 degrees.
High: I have such a great group of friends here. As I'm typing this, I'm waiting on some girls to come home from class so we can watch the Bachelor season finale together. My building is pretty far from the center of town, and even farther from the university, but almost everyone in the building is friends with each other, which is pretty great.
Low: On my two week anniversary in St Gallen, I got on the wrong bus. As I noted above, my building is decently far from everything so we all have a bus pass. I have to take 2 buses to get to the university; one from the building to the train station, and another from the train station to the university. On my way home from class, I often stop at the grocery in town. On this particular day, I was absolutely famished, so I ran to the grocery to get food for the week, waited for the bus outside the store, and got on the bus going the opposite direction from my building (in my defense, the two bus lines are the same number). Thankfully, I realized that I was going the wrong way pretty quickly, but it still took me about 30 minutes to get home, as opposed to the five minute bus ride it should have been. Instead of being upset, like I would have been in the US, I decided to not worry about it. It was a nice day and I had food with me, so I just sat down on the sidewalk and made myself a sandwich. No shame.
High: The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Apparently there is typically tons of snow this time of year, but we're experiencing temperatures in the 50s, nearing 60. On Sunday, I walked up to the Three Ponds with Kelsey and Frankie from USC, Frankie's girlfriend who's visiting from UGA, Salim (a friend of mine from New Zealand), and two girls from Kelsey's building. There were tons of people laying out, and we all decided that once it warms up, we'll have to go back with our bathing suits and try to swim in the (hopefully not freezing) lakes. The lakes are up the hill (or mountain?) from town and we were awarded beautiful views after our hike up!
That's Lake Constance in the distance. Germany and Austria are on the other side!
This was our view of St. Gallen from the top of the hill!
Another side note: My friend David, the exchange student from USC who is an actual student here in St Gallen, asked me to play on his floorball team for a tournament in two weeks. And in case you were wondering, no, I have no idea how to play floorball. I made David promise to teach me how to play. This shall be interesting, but hey, when in Switzerland...Attached is a link to a promotional video for the university's floorball team. Wish me luck!
HSG Unihockey
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