A NON-EUROPEAN POST

As summer winds down, I have a few things to say to you:
1. I DON'T WANT TO BE A SENIOR!
2. I will be out of town starting on Friday evening, so I'm going to not be posting updates from the Europe Journal.
3. it's time for KnitterWriterBlogger's List of Why She Is Pumped For School.

KnitterWriterBlogger's List of Reasons Why She Is Pumped for School:
1. Friends! (I'll see them!)
2. Senior year! (this is both yay and boo - Senior-hood, but I'm LEAVING!)
3. seeing all the sixth graders and remembering when I was in their place. And laughing.
4. THEATRE!
5. College apps!!! (yeah... no)
6. I'm actually pumped for classes. I really hope AP Government doesn't turn out to be as monotonous as the summer book is (it's only slightly less dry than the average history textbook. This does not bode well.)
7. I'm also kind of pumped for senior projects. I know that's not until May or June, but still. I'm excited.
8. Decorating the school for the first day - I've seen it around for six years; now, in my seventh, I was the scribe for the Decoration Committee (we let out an hour ago. The senior class had an ice cream social/ First Day meeting this evening, and there was the Decoration Committee and the Senior Skit Committee... and, judging by what my informants/ friends have told me, there may be fewer Junior Girl jokes, if at all. FINALLY SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE HAS HAPPENED! RIDDING THE SCHOOL OF A SUPER-OLD JOKE!).
9. Meeting new people!

I also signed up to tour sixth graders and new students around the school tomorrow, which means... I should have started going to bed a while ago. I have to leave the house, fully awake, fed, prepped, and aware of what's going on at 8:30 AM tomorrow. Yeah, I need sleep.
Goodnight.

Entry # 24, Europe Journal

Hotel, Florence 8:30 PM 5 August, 2011
Yes, I know, I didn't write yesterday. Honestly, the only things I remember are that I thought Florence was a lot like New York (old buildings, very moving energy, lots of graffiti, lots of museums, drivers who will run you over if you're still in the road when they get to the intersection), that there were so many paintings of Jesus and Madonna in the Uffizi that they all started to look the same (same with all the sculptures we say), that I liked our hotel, and that the hostess at the restaurant we went to liked my Bernese trousers (the multi-colored patchwork ones that are really, REALLY nice for Italy weather). And that a random guy in the Uffizi gave me his map to write on instead of taking notes on my hand of people to look up (Ariadne and someone else). *I had forgotten my notebook*. And I got a book of DaVinci's notebooks. I'm jumping around and reading bits and pieces of it, since most of it is... well, typed-up notes that DaVinci did.
Anyway, notes of today:
- woke up
- changed
- ate
- continued getting ready
- made us all late to L'Accademia
- I didn't have my watch with me for most of the changing time
- Also, NOBODY TOLD ME we had to be there at nine fifteen. HAD I KNOWN, I would have RUSHED MORE.
- L'Accademia = really cool (museum)
- saw Michelangelo's "David"
- three times my height AT LEAST
- since he is HUGE and I am a TEENAGER and he is a CLASSICAL STATUE, "David" caused me to inquire into the accuracy of the proportions of David's anatomy
- I'M SORRY I'VE NEVER SEEN ONE.
- Afterwards, I saw even MORE paintings of Madonna and Jesus
- if there are any such paintings in Rome, I shall begin to boycott Italian Museums.
- I LOVE Jesus and I LOVE Mary, but I really do NOT like seeing fair too many paintings of them in the space of half an hour
- after museum, we went to lunch at the hotel
- went to market
- saw cool stuff
- didn't buy anything
- didn't really want to
- went to gardens south of river
- very boring
- passed by Athena/ Minerva
- no plaque saying it was her
- giveaway - the owl on her shield (that's her symbol)
- went to dinner
- ate pizza
- had good food
- returned to the hotel
- began journaling
- wrote some letters
- did some reading
- took a shower
- went to bed
- not exactly in that order
- whatever
- space-killing now
- goodnight
- will (maybe) write tomorrow

Entry # 23, Europe Journal

11:37 PM Wed, 3 August, 2011 Venice hotel
I shall try to make this short because I want to read before bed.
- woke up 7:30 ish?
- breakfast by 8:00 ish
- cool bread
- Nutella!!
- bowl of fruit
- accidentally put a LOT of SALT in coffee/ milk
- ew
- went to cool former palace/ art museum (Doge's Palace)
- palace art = museum
- super cool
- after a while, people started looking the same
- saw Allison from the Chalet (Boston group) + her family
- super awesome
- lost a contact lens
- was really annoying and kind of gave me a headache
- saw the dungeons
- felt like I was on "Cities of the Underworld" (it was a show on the History Channel a while ago. I'm not sure if it's still on, but it was about underground cities and the stories behind them).
- several centuries of graffiti still on the walls
- I was the only one fully interested in seeing the dungeons fully through
- Allison was a bit PO'd - not enough art in dungeons?
- deemed the dungeons very inappropriate and worthy of being closed off to the public
- I felt like a death-obsessed lunatic for being more interested in the dungeons, armory, and combat paintings than in sculptures/ paintings of God/ gods and paintings of Jesus (no offense to the Gods/ Jesus)
- they were numerous, so they began to run together
- after palace, we went to the line for San Marco
- really old and really awesome
- for 2 Euros, we looped around the front altar area, with more cool paintings and art and THE TOMB OF SAN MARCO!!! a;dkfj;awl ekjf!!!!!!!!!!
- for those of you unfamiliar with Christianity, San Marco (Saint Mark) was one of the authors of the Bible. He was one of the four Gospels, meaning he was one of the people who documented the life of Jesus.
- Saw his TOMB!!!
- went back to hotel
- chilled for about an hour
- went shopping
- saw lots of stores
- my favorite = yarn store
- got 2 self-patterning acrylic skeins
- in dollars, they were around 2.25
- the same weight yarn/ size skein at Michael's = around 2.50 - 3.00
- 2 cool bamboo skeins
- pretty sure Michael's doesn't stock 100% bamboo (or anything 100% non-synthetic)
- SCORE!
- went to dinner at same place as yesterday
- went to opera - "Barber of Seville"
- four performers + line less maid
- rather than stage hands budging sets in between scenes, the audience + four-person pit budge their butts to another room in place
- really good
- funny
- well performed
- goodnight

Entry # 22, Europe Journal

10:09 PM Hotel, Venice Tuesday, 2 August 2011
I shall do a brief summary of yesterday/ today. Hopefully it will meet page count.

yesterday:
(picking up where I left off)
- lunch
- woodcarver
- bought earrings + cow + pins + cross
- returned
- early dinner
- closing
- Swiss National day
- dancing
- bagpipes (surprise before dinner; they came up and played at the Chalet)
- we were in parade
- sang Chalet song
- returned
- finished packing
- had to sit on suitcase to zip it up properly
- then the month happened...
- all the stuff to deal with it = in the most inconvenient place possible
- dealt with it anyway

TODAY:
- woke up at six AM
- found last-minute stuff
- finished last-minute packing
- departure
- caught bus
- Allison = pessimistic about our likelihood of catching the train
- had three minutes between the bus stopping and the train leaving
- her fears proved false
- actually wound up with five minutes
- got train
- we had reserved seats
- turned out we boarded the wrong car
- had to move
- hard to navigate with suitcase and backpack on
- made it to car
- at first stop, got off, sprinted to end, got back on
- made it before train left again
- barely
- Allison declared it to be the worst train ride ever
- I pointed out that it wasn't because the car hadn't exploded yet
- read most of the way
- made it to Venice
- travelled by boat a lot
- discovered that the canals are similar to the streets at home
- there are SUV-type boats and sedan-type boats
- occasionally a limo/ gondola
- occasional vintage/ sports-vehicle/ convertible
- lots of traffic
- very hectic
- some trash that people are too lazy to put into cans, so they pitch it out during travel time
- lots of cool architecture
- mask stores EVERYWHERE
- hotel = awesome
- went to the top of the bell tower
- view = WHOA!
- you could see all of Venice
- ate dinner
- super good
- I had ravioli
- walked around
- looked at all the super-cool masks
- lots of masks with bits painted like sheet music
- lots of long-nosed ones
- some cool Phantom of the Opera masks/ sort-of-Phantom masks
- for example, half the face + the other eye would be covered
- returned
- wrote journal
- read more
- bed

Entry # 21, Europe Journal

1 August, 2011 Monday 11:43 AM above the gorge.
Well, we rappelled down into a gorge today. It was actually rather fun. Next time I rappel into a gorge, though, I'm bringing biking gloves. It's not that the rope gave me blisters or anything - it's that a lot of the ropes are really dirty and if the gorge is really deep, probably WILL give you blisters. I wasn't horrendously scared. It was kind of scary in the second go because you couldn't see over the edge so you basically had to go down blind. And the second bit was the longer of the two.
The most annoying part was when I got my foot stuck in a crevice at the beginning. It didn't hurt; I didn't pop, twist, or sprain anything; I just couldn't move anywhere for about a minute because I couldn't figure out where to push off from.

Anyway, I was distracted for a moment from writing f...
Mom is singing "The Sound of Music" in her 'opera' voice. It's crazy. And she can't remember all the words. It's apparently her dream to sing "Sound of Music" in the Alps, and then she got all fake-pissed when we told her that most of it's set in Austria, not Switzerland. It's kind of funny that she couldn't remember all the words and had to be spoon-fed them.
But she lived the dream.
In opera.

Entry # 20, Europe Journal

Sunday, July 31, 2011 Our room, Chalet 10:14 PM
Should stop kidding myself about doing consistent prose. Also, need to go QUICKLY. Side note: staffers LOVE tie-dye stuff.
Anyway, summary.
- wake up
- shower
- lunch
- breakfast
- stuff
- commence hike of Elsigen (ANOTHER mountain)
- I was map person
- it didn't work
- I was proud because I thought I found where we were
- time-wise, it worked
- the forks in the road = same as were on the map
- rivers = same
- I was wrong
- it sucked.
- continued hiking
- played Harry Potter 20 q's with Leila, Page, Emily, and Asia (staffer)
- wound up ditching the question cap as stuff got more obscure
- i.e. Nagini, Merlin's Beard, Ernie MacMillan's Patronus, diadem, Room of Requirement, Marauder's Map, Quaffle, etc.
- stopped for lunch at mad-made lake
- COLD water
- fully submerged myself for 5 seconds
- FROZEN
- hiked to other lake
- saw a baptism
- hiked back
- still playing HPQ's
- gondola back down
- bus back
- chore = sweeping
- dinner = awesome
- HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HARRY POTTER!
- Also, Chalet
- birthday campfire
- Montreal stole our song
- "Princess Pat"
- going crazy
- after cool stuff, delivered tie-dye socks/ bandannas/ glow sticks/ cookies to staff
- awesomeness
- now, listening to "tangled"
- awesome music!
- Alan Menken = AMAZING
- Beauty and the Beast
- Aladdin
- Enchanted
- most Disney classics
- I have an awkward sunburn on my legs now
- it's weird
- Leila won't stop singing
- not a bad thing but it's kind of annoying because I'm trying to listen to the actual music
- whatever
- goodnight

Entry # 19, Europe Journal

Sat, 30 July, 2011 T-bar 9:46 PM
Today is a notes day. I will do details and such at another time.
- wake up
- shower
- lunch pack
- b-fast
- Bethany (staff) was singing 'Newsies' this morning during cleanup. It made me very happy.
- bus ride
- met Molly from Ipswich (bus buddy mix up thing)
- she's going into high school
- she asked if everyone had pools in the back garden.
- I mentioned public pools
- went up Neisan (mountain) on a super-slow/ steep/ rickety train
- lots of clouds
- got licked by a cow and got a shot of video down its nose. Item off the bucket list.
- went back down in the train
- ate lunch
- boat to castle
- fairy tale castle + history = WIN!
- dining room was closed, and that's the most direct and legal route to the dungeon (which I wanted to see)
- no dungeon for me
- SAD FACE!
- went back to the Chalet on bus
- chore = bathrooms
- dinner = good
- dessert = AMAZING
- (also, pistachio ice cream is amazing)
- evening thing - live version of the board game 'clue'
- victim = Skippy the Cat
- committed by Reuben the Rafting Guide, using poisoned lemon cake, on the Kitchen Veranda
- now in T-bar working on Chalet Challenge
- should be writing letters
- going to do that now
- goodnight

Entry # 18, Europe Journal

29 July, 2011 Centennial Room 7:46 PM
I KNOW I didn't write yesterday, and I'm too tired from Bunderspitz *the peak we climbed* to do a proper prose entry, so... MORE NOTES!
yesterday:
- after chocolate - waterfalls
- super cool
- super powerful
- still I wish I could have done the rafting. Really. The falls were cool and all, and we CAN do rafting at home, but rafting is just that much cooler than watching water fall.
- then lunch
- went to Interlaken again
- did a scavenger hunt in the non touristy part of town
- went back to the Chalet
- I freaked out packing for Bunderspitz
- chores = I missed them (too late - didn't learn what the chore was until it was nearly done)
- dinner
- I was wait staff
- lots of freak out about Bunderspitz
- left a little early from dinner to finish packing
- arrived late and hassled to Meeting Point
- YOU try packing for an overnight hike with a messy corner in less than two hours
- began hike with rain and such
- all of our troop went; a total of 16 counting the staffers
- arrived at cheese maker's around 9:45?
- muddy + tired
- had the BEST HOT CHOCOLATE EVER!
- fresh milk FTW
- slept above barn
- one of my warmest cold nights ever (in a good way. Two wool blankets over sleeping bag liner = best. Bed. Ever.)
- two-ish hours of sleep
- bed at ten, sleep at 12:30
- woke up at 2:30 AM
- layered clothing, met outside
- COLD
- hiked very steeply
- glad that it was dark - if I had been able to see more than a meter ahead (headlamp), I would have chickened out
- I was at back... like usual
- before breakfast = hard
- breakfast = 4:30-ish AM
- didn't finish
- COLD
- after breakfast = REALLY hard
- steep but not as muddy
- really rocky
- by the time it got light, I had begun mentally swearing on every step
- muscles + uphill + 3 hour hike + 2 hours sleep = painful
- for some reason I didn't think to get ear worms
- last 1.5 miles (especially last half mile) = TORTURE
- would have had needed to sanitize my mouth if I had the breath to utter what was in my head
- tears of exhaustion = I had them
- not proud of them
- DO NOT TELL ME I DID WELL. I DIDN'T. IF YOU SAY I DID WELL I'LL FEEL WORSE.
- Allison did SO much better.
- I was THE WORST.
- Don't say otherwise. It's a LIE.
- summit = awesome
- made less awesome because I was tired and wanted to punch everyone in the face for Tired Rage
- More Lies of My Awesomeness
- only on the summit for half an hour
- mad that I couldn't sit longer
- hike down = HARD
- entire lower half = still hurting
- now 8:22 PM; finished 11:00 AM *I don't entirely understand this note*
- LONG hike home
- Mom got all nagging through the rest of the day because she's like that when she's tired
- it doesn't make it any more fun
- lunch 11:30
- sleep 12:30 - 3:30
- Mom still nagging about EVERYTHING
- trouser-washing
- shower
- tooth-brushing
- sleeping
- finding Allison's rain trousers
- mom insisting that I not being on FB when aforementioned things had to be done
- also, nagging for the sake of nagging
- NOT FUN AT ALL
- dinner
- chill
- write
- sardines with Suffolk (this didn't actually happen)
- now = leaving

Entry # 17, Europe Journal

11:48 AM The Bus, Interlaken 28 July 2011
We just got back on the bus on our first town day. We went to this chocolatier in Interlaken, and he showed us yow they make hollow chocolate cows and how the chocolate goes from the pod/ bean/ plant to the chocolate place:

1. grown
2. pods = harvested
3. pods split open
4. beans harvested
5. put under banana leaves for fermentation - 7-10 days
6. 7-10 days = drying
7. shipped/ sold
8. ground
9. fat from bean = removed
10. all = melted
11. mixed so it's smooth
12. sugar/ milk/ vanilla/ necessaries added
13. mixed
14. heated
15. coolness
16. stuff is done
17. eaten

yeah, that's basically it.
I think.
Anyway, the chocolate was DELICIOUS.
And white chocolate isn't actually chocolate because the cocoa powder isn't used.
No we're on the bus to go to a waterfall thing.
I still wish we were going to do the white water rafting thing.  I'm sure the waterfalls are super awesome and all, and we can always go class-four rafting in West Virginia, but I was just looking out the window ad part of the river, and there is NOTHING like that in West Virginia.

Swiss Facts (written on bus; part of Europe Journal)

So these notes are what I took on the bus on the way to Interlaken. They're actually sort of interesting (I think, at least), and they're in the notebook, so why not put them in?

FACTS (7/27/11)
- Adelboden is in a valley with a river that gives its name to the valley
- I can't spell it (river/ valley); I probably can't pronounce it, either.
- *now I don't remember it*
- Adelboden = 1356 meters above sea level, same height as Chalet, just on the other side of the valley
- woodcarver visits since 1945 (Chalet opened 1932)
- suspension bridge over a river = 180 meters high, 30 meters long, largest (one of) suspension bridge in Europe
- Elsegen hike *one of the peaks* = at peak = Edelweiss = Swiss national flower; endangered species *who knew flowers could be endangered*
- Frutegen *town* = 800 meters *above sea level? not sure - I just put the measurement*, more bricks b/c of a fire in 1724, had to rebuild
- Kandersteg (spelling?) valley *Kandersteg = another peak* - Boy Scout World Center? World center of something with huge chalet (WAGGGS chalet = 12 summer volunteers; theirs: 70)
- Neissan Mt - 2400? meters - longest staircase (11,632 steps) record climbing - 55 minutes 50 seconds
- Aeshi *not sure where this is* = Helen Storrow's Ideal Location for Chalet (Falk talked her down for more adventure and it got moved to Adelboden)
*Helen Storrow = founder of Our Chalet; Falk = her friend who helped in Location Scouting*
- Lake Thun (pronounced Tune) = huge = 500 meters?
- Interlaken - one of best-known adventure sites

Entry # 16, Europe Journal

bathroom, Chalet 10:30 PM July 27, 2011
MORE BULLETING! (Sleep = soon) (continued from before)

- abseiled *European term for rappelling* off bridge
- I went first
- ate lunch
- hiked
- climbed indoor rocks (kind of wet for outdoors)
- did indoor bouldering (no ropes)
- came back in rain
- did chores
- ate dinner (Risotto, salad, dessertiness)
- got pen and postcards at camp store
- did scavenger hunt type thing about WAGGGS (World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts) in small groups (not by troops)
- all centennial parties = on my birthday (100th year being celebrated on the 100th day of the year, which is my birthday - April 10th)
- I was the ONLY one in my mini group who knew about at least some of the UN MDGs (mission development goals) in reasonable detail
- gooo IYAG!
- won 'spirit' award (our little group)
- I was the only one in group who cheered about this
- came inside
- packed for hike tomorrow
- went on Facebook (mom got an Internet pass)
- finished packing
- changed clothes
- brushed teeth
- cleaned off my bed
- wrote a letter
- went to bathroom
- finished journal entry
- read a book
- went to sleep

Today's rating = AWESOME!

Soreness Level: 8/ 10

pumped-for-tomorrow level: 22/ 10

likelihood that I should be going to bed: 120%

Likelihood that I am procrastinating on this activity to lengthen this entry: 96%

my desire to actually read some stuff now: 20/ 18

tiredness level: 18/ 22

Okay, someone just almost walked in on me writing about the day while sitting on a toilet. Time to go to bed.
And I just thought that last paragraph in the sort of accents that the UK group has.
Okay, going now.

Entry # 15, Europe Journal

6:21 PM July 27, 2011 Our Room, Chalet
I only have ten minutes before dinner and I actually need to sleep tonight (and also write a LOT of letters for yesterday's makeup, today, and tomorrow *the dawn hike*), so it's going to be another day of bullet-noted Records of the Day.

- wake at 7
- shower
- make bag lunch
- breakfast
- pack for day
- group up
-walk to adventure place
- get harnesses/ helmets
- get zip line instruction
- zip lining
- over raging stream
- progressively higher off ground
- two rides each wire (eight rides plus three after the bridges)
- SO MUCH FUN!
- bridges
- one-board (in segments) airplane-wire bridge
- very wobbly
- airplane wire
- one strand for two feet
- wobblier
- longer
- tilty Bridge of Death
- one wire at top for holding/ beaners (the others had two)
- convinced I would fall (I didn't)
- Tarzan swing
- awesome
- altophobia = cured

Shall continue later. Now = DINNER! (I am bloody STARVING. I hate rain hiking.)