Biosciences Bonn: enmodes & Easter

This school week wasn’t as eventful as past weeks had been. It was a 4-day week, and all I could think of was the Easter weekend. I had a device design test on Monday, which wasn’t too bad at all. On Tuesday, I got currywurst for lunch; as I was walking back to the AIB, it really hit me. After Spring Break, I knew that we had about a month or so before the program was ending. All of a sudden, I had 2.5 weeks left in Europe, which consisted of a crazy week of enmodes medical device planning and presentation preparations, exam week, and 5 days, before I would finally be back in Texas. It was a bittersweet feeling; half of me wanted to be home and half of me didn’t want to leave Europe. This semester just felt like it had gone by so fast (of course, I had done a lot in these past 4 months), and I just wasn’t ready to close this chapter of my life. I had made so many great friends this semester that I got to see on a daily basis; I couldn’t imagine saying bye to them! Many other students also realized that our days in Europe were limited; some were ready to finish the semester, and others weren’t at all. Regardless of my emotions about this semester coming to an end, life went on. Before I knew it, Thursday had come. There were several different trips occurring this Easter weekend: Rome, Amsterdam, Bruges/Brussels, Hamburg, London, Croatia, Dublin, and Geneva (ß das my group!). On Thursday night, after classes, a group of us went out to a bar after class; we returned to the AIB and watched The Notebook (…ya….thank Stephenie for the movie selection..) while we waited for 3AM to come around. I had seen The Notebook several years ago, and honestly, it’s not too bad! When 3AM came around, we caught our train to Düsseldorf and flew out from there to Geneva, Switzerland. Disclaimer: the entire weekend was filled with high levels of tension, stress, and drama between most of the members of our group. Guess who had to try and keep everyone happy? This guy! Aside from that though, the weekend was amazing! We arrived in Geneva at 9 in the morning. On our way to the AirBnB, we saw a lot of Geneva, and it’s true what they say: Switzerland is beautiful! I guess you think I’m kidding at this point because I say this about every country I go to, but it’s true! Europe just holds too much natural beauty! On another note, for the sake of my wallet, let’s hope that the other rumor (Switzerland is outrageously expensive) is not so true! Amran had to register for classes, so we napped at the AirBnB until about 12:30. Lunch time! ….so yea the other rumor is completely true. For lunch, we got pizza/pasta, and each of our meals cost about 25 Francs (1 to 1 with the USD). YEP. This was going to be a rough weekend for the bank balance! We took photos with the Jet d’Eau, which is one of Geneva’s most famous landmarks. It translates to ‘water jet,’ and it is one of the tallest fountains in the world! It was built in 1886 to control and release the excess pressure of a hydraulic plant. It is a symbol of strength now and pumps 500 liters of water per second to a height of 140 meters! We found a lake tour by Swiss Boats that took us around Lake Geneva for about an hour. Lake Geneva was so pretty! The water was clean, blue, and clear! We could see the mountains in the surrounding areas very clearly, and the weather was perfect. I couldn’t have asked for much more; oh wait, I could use some gelato. Guess what? I did! It also costed a buttload! 7 Euros for 2 scoops. OMG. I get a scoop for a Euro back in Germany! We walked along the lake for a little while and visited the World Trade Organization, Botanical Garden, and Broken Chair Sculpture. The Broken Chair symbolizes opposition to land mines and cluster bombs. On Saturday, we took a day trip to Chamonix, France! It was one of the top tourist attractions to travel to from Geneva. The moment we hopped off the bus, we saw all of the beautiful snow-capped mountains that surrounded Chamonix. Among these mountains is Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe! In addition to the mountains, we saw numerous people paragliding! Stephenie had been talking about paragliding the entire past week, so she was determined to do it! We all decided to tag along cus why not? I truly hate heights, so I don’t know what made me say yes. Maybe the peer pressure? Maybe just the desire to try something new! An hour later, I found myself riding up the cable car mountain about 4500 feet above sea level. I met my paragliding guide. Soon after, he clipped me on, and we ran off of the mountain. It was the craziest thing I’d ever done haha! And boom. We were paragliding! Looking at Chamonix and Mont Blanc at this elevation was just incredible! Below was the resort itself and to my left/right were all of the mountains! 10/10 would recommend paragliding in Chamonix! We went to visit the Ice Cave after this, which was not as extensive as we had imagined. It took us 5 minutes to walk through it all, but the ice sculptures were very well designed! We headed back to Geneva afterwards, studied a little bit, and called it a night. On Easter Sunday, we traveled to Annecy, France! I brought some homework with me and tried to do as much as I could on the bus there. Annecy was a unique, little French town! There were canals throughout the city, and a beautiful little park next to Lake Annecy. We found the Pont des Amours; legend has it that if two lovers kiss in the middle of the bridge, they will be together forever! Very similar to the Century Tree in College Station hmmm? A few of us decided to rent a boat before lunch; we each paid 12 Euros to rent a boat for 30 minutes. The three of us took turns steering the boat. It was just so peaceful to be riding around Lake Annecy! We got lunch in Annecy before heading back; I ordered one of my favorite French meals, the Croque-Madame, which is a baked ham and cheese sandwich with a fried egg on top. We returned to Geneva afterwards; because of the high tension levels within the group, we just called it a day and stayed at the AirBnB.. Last day in Geneva; the group woke up with just as much tension as when the night ended (great), and I was so done with it. Sometimes it’s just troublesome to have to deal with drama between people when this weekend is supposed to be one for relaxation. The first stop of the morning was the Red Cross Museum, but it was closed on Mondays! SAD FACE :\ Across the street from the Red Cross Museum was the United Nations Building. They gave tours to visitors on every couple of hours; we caught the first one they offered. This was such a neat place to visit; they have meetings there everyday of the week regarding various topics such as human rights, disarmament, and counterterrorism. We finished the rest of our day with visits to the Flower Clock (which was under construction!! UGH), the Jet d’Eau, St. Peter’s Cathedral, and the Reformation Wall before finally flying back to Germany. All in all, visiting Switzerland and parts of France were a great experience and place to spend my Easter weekend; the countries were just beautiful and the experiences/activities I participated in on this trip could not be found elsewhere. As advice to anyone planning on traveling to Switzerland, I would HIGHLY recommend “carbing” up before you go and just forget about food in its entirety while in Switzerland. It’ll save you a ton of money haha! Until next time, Switzerland!