Hello everyone, this post should have been written a little while ago, but I'm having trouble coming to terms with the fact that I leave England and the University of Exeter in a matter of 2 weeks. I'll save the goodbyes for another post, I have a lot to catch you up on!
I went to Geneva, Switzerland a week ago and it was an unexpected city. Geneva is actually kind of small for a city and it was surprisingly diverse. It is surrounded by mountains and beautifully situated on Lake Geneva. I traveled with my flatmate, Madeleine, and we had a really good time. We walked around the lake, visited the Reformation wall, the Reformation museum, the church where John Calvin preached, and went iceskating. I did fall while iceskating and bruised my knee kind of badly, but it was still really fun! However, something to keep in mind for anyone wishing to visit Switzerland in the future, is that it's very expensive! The swiss franc is actually tied to the dollar so there's no exchange rate to worry about, but there might as well be because a normal tall cup of coffee at Starbucks was about $5.60!
I went to Geneva, Switzerland a week ago and it was an unexpected city. Geneva is actually kind of small for a city and it was surprisingly diverse. It is surrounded by mountains and beautifully situated on Lake Geneva. I traveled with my flatmate, Madeleine, and we had a really good time. We walked around the lake, visited the Reformation wall, the Reformation museum, the church where John Calvin preached, and went iceskating. I did fall while iceskating and bruised my knee kind of badly, but it was still really fun! However, something to keep in mind for anyone wishing to visit Switzerland in the future, is that it's very expensive! The swiss franc is actually tied to the dollar so there's no exchange rate to worry about, but there might as well be because a normal tall cup of coffee at Starbucks was about $5.60!
Following my visit to Geneva was Thanksgiving week! Madeleine and I had planned a big feast for about 15 of our British friends, so we had to get cracking. Madeleine prepared the turkey, green bean casserole, pecan pie, and pralines. I made sweet potato casserole, cream corn, and smashed potatoes. We made about half of the food the night before so the oven would be free for the huge amount of turkey we were cooking. The whole meal ended up being a great success! I was really nervous because I'm not exactly the cooking type and I was cooking for a large number of people who had never had American home cooking before. My guests seemed to enjoy the meal and I did as well. There were very few leftovers at the end of the meal. The day in and of itself was successful as well. We watched the parade, colored in turkeys, played football, listened to Christmas music, and sang the national anthem. I missed my family on Thanksgiving, but this was definitely the next best thing!
I promise the post is almost done! It's my own fault for waiting so long to post. Anyway, just a few days ago I traveled to Amsterdam with Madeleine for my last big trip before the term ends. I met some of the squad there as well. Sara (Barcelona), Casey (Cardiff), Emily (Dublin), and Jessica (Florence) were all there. It was such an incredible weekend. While we were there we celebrated Sara and Jessica's 21st birthday. We took a canal cruise, ate Dutch pancakes, visited the Anne Frank house, saw the red light district, sampled some unique cheese, went iceskating (I was much more successful this time), and had the best fries in Amsterdam. The Anne Frank house remains as one of the most important and most moving things to see in Amsterdam. Theres just something special about Amsterdam thats hard to describe. The city has such a unique personality, character, and vibrancy that it will forever be one of my favorite places to visit.
Alright guys, thanks for sticking with me! I'll be back soon with more as I'm going to Bath on Saturday for the Christmas market and I have Christmas dinner coming up for rifle club.
Cheers everyone!
Cheers everyone!