I Have Arrived in Saas-Fee

This is the view from my window in Saas-fee. It is very hard to describe what it is like. The mountains you see in this photo surround us.

I arrived yesterday after a beautiful train ride and a harrowing bus ride. After getting here... Well the social climate is as hard to put into words as the physical climate. I may have to attempt this in conversation with each one of you since there is so much to say and so many ways to express it. I like my classmates a lot, each one is incredibly unique.

It is lunch time on my first day and I can aleady tell you the structure of my days. I get up and swim in the pool, go to breakfast, read and write, go to the first class, eat lunch, talk with classmates, read and write and nap, go to second class, eat dinner, go to evening lecture. That is about it.

I will probably not be posting while I am here, but will continue when I finish. I will email personally from time to time (Wade, Peter and Louisa - you are overdue for one from me) and feel free to drop a line anytime. I will let you know when I continue traveling, but for now I am in the clouds!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Berit's New Motto: Not Fall & Crawl, Instead Fall & Ride a Hog

There are no photos for this one. And I'll explain the title of this post in a bit.

I wasn't planning on posting today since it was more of the same, studying and reading. I did meet up with one of my new classmates tonight for dinner and we hit it off great. He's from Madrid and already has a politcal science doctorate but wants to continue his studies. It was a good meal.

Then I got on the tram, the very last one of the evening to go the twenty minute ride to my far away hotel. Four stops in I realize that I don't recognize ANY stop names. I am on the wrong train yet again... This time in the middle of the night in Geneva. I get off fully prepared to walk but eyeing ATM possibilities to get a cab - very expensive. I fell.

Not literally, but it goes back to my mother's story about how I learned to walk. I'd start straight out across the middle of the room and fall but make it my crawling. Much of my life has followed suit, I go for where I need to get to and if I happen to fall, I'll crawl. Which is what I was prepared to do this evening.

So I found an ATM and a gentleman was just finishing. He asked me in French if the fireworks went off yet (it is like 4th of July tonight) but he had an English-American accent so I asked him if it was easy to get a cab or where to go. He said it was a pretty busy night and I told him I took the wrong train. We said where we were from, he's from New York. A couple full cabs passed as I tried to get more francs but he said he would give me a ride on his Harley Davidson. I wasn't sure but he gave me his card, he's worked for the UN for 13 years, so I trusted him and took a ride around Geneva on a very American bike! We even took a detour around old town Geneva with its winding tiny cobblestone streets! And of course I got home fine. And it was a lot better than crawling or walking or taking a cab.

It is such a strange story I had to relate it straight away. And now time for bed because I have to go to school tomorrow!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry