The Journey Begins

As my fingertips punch the keys on my laptop I can hear the clicking of bells hanging from cows' necks while they graze on the mountainside right outside my open window. A cool, but pleasant breeze soothes my weary body. I have arrived.

The journey though? Well, that wasn't quite as relaxing as what I am now experiencing. Here's how it went down:

I awoke Friday morning around 5:30 a.m. or so, hopped in the shower, dressed, ate breakfast and said goodbye to my beautiful Cambria and my parents and Hallie and I left for the airport. While checking in there was a problem-so they said-with the reservations. After getting that sorted out (thank heavens my professor was handling everything well), Hallie and I said goodbye at the security checkpoint. I don't want to talk about how hard that was for me, because the run down state I am in right now might turn me into a crybaby.

Right before passing through security-and after Hallie had left-I figured I'd double-check to make sure I had remembered my train pass. I opened my bag. I couldn't find it. I instantly broke into a pouring, nervous sweat. Until I found it a minute later that is. But heck, by that point I was already soaked and that was something of an omen for what was to come.

The flight from SLC to NJ wasn't too bad at all. It went by rather quick. But NJ was an entirely different experience. After exiting the plane I was punched in the face with heat and wet, sticky, humid air. The climate change was to be expected, however, what wasn't was that the airport didn't have any A/C going. Next, we waiting in line to get our boarding passed for our flight to London. Surprise, surprise, another glitch, if you will. I won't get into details, but it wasn't fun. After dealing with the rude employees from British Airways, we made our way through security again. Because of some construction, the line for security was in a narrow hallway from hell. It literally was hotter than hell. Everyone was dripping with sweat. And all I wanted was a crappy hamburger or something to eat. By the time we got through security, there was NOWHERE to get anything to eat without having to go back and go through security again. Ridiculous. And my can of Pringles just didn't cut it. Or my granola bar. I was starving. While waiting for the plane, we found out that security wouldn't let one of our people go through for some reason, but eventually did and only seconds before boarding. Good riddance NJ. Or so I thought.

After getting up in the air and having checked out my entertainment options for the flight, I was ready to watch some TV and sleep. Too bad for me though (and half the plane), this 7+ hour flight would be with no working TV's. And no real sleep either. Instead I listened to the old, dying couple next to me bicker with each other. And so I sat, with my sweaty NJ shirt, for the next 7 hours or so.

By the time we reached London, I hadn't slept and the tiny bit of plane food had made my stomach turn, so we got something to eat. Thank the heavens above. Then we waited about two hours or more for our next flight to Geneva.

That flight was a breeze. I fell asleep before taking off and woke up while landing (about a little over an hour). So by the time we had landed in Geneva, I'd slept about an hour out of the past 26 or so. We got our train passes validated and waited for our 1 1/2 hour bus ride to Leysin, which was over 30 minutes late and after finding out a few people had their luggage lost.

But finally, we made it! And it's beautiful! And now my inner-clock is screwed. I guess I'd better try sleeping or tomorrow will kill me.

My home away from home.