20070519

At the end of my last entry on Wednesday, I met a traveler from Spain known only as "Pollo," (Spanish for "Chicken") and had much opportunity to practice my Spanish, and inquire about the parts of Spain most interesting. I am told that Barcelona is a great place to go, ("much better than Madrid" is what everyone says), and that sleeping on the beach is popular. Also, I am told to visit Cadis.
Wednesday evening was amazing, as the guys from the fraternity took me to their weekly hang out and introduced me to their beer games. Cardinal is the local brand of beer, and it flows like water. After spending some time at their regular restaurant, which has a table inscribed with their names, we went to a couple local bars to enjoy the night life. The Rodensteiner have shown me the most amazing hospitality, and have been both hosts and guardians. I am told by the coordinators of the trip, and I believe, that I am the most fortunate of the exchange students for my living situation.
On Thursday, after waking a bit late, I walked about Fribourg, discovering parts of the city on my own, and happening upon some very pastoral scenes as well as some sublime moments. One of the most striking was the end of a walk down a long stairwell into the back-end of Basseville, the lower town, cradled among ancient homes and passing through capillary streets. I spent Thursday evening in a small tea room that reminds me of the movie Amelie, drinking my Earl Grey while trying to learn French from a book.
Yesterday, Friday, I spent with Chris Neff. In the morning, one of our hosts, Muri, took us to several stores to obtain pre-paid cell phones. After only several hours of waiting for the service people we had our phones. But they did not yet work. So we headed to the local hill to explore, and found a sign which read of some danger of d'eboulement for French or steinschlag gefahr for Germans. Whatever that means. Apparently their hills are bigger in the Alps. And much more treacherous. And there exists stinging nettle. Oh, and d'eboulement and steinschlag gefahr mean danger of falling rocks. Luckily we were neither French nor German, so we were at least safe from d'eboulement. And our cell phones still did not work. Later that night we went to the local Irish pub to listen to an English singer cover some English language songs, such as Johnny Be Good and Stupid American. It was sublime. We also met a couple Swiss girls who explained to us all of the places we should visit, and Chris led an engaging discussion with the singer about the current state of American politics. Only by both of our efforts did Chris and I manage to get our cell phones working by calling first the operator, who told us to dial a phone and "four hash," then us calling a pay phone and pressing 4#. Perhaps it was funnier at the time because it required both of us all day, and two calls to the operator, to understand enough of what was going on to complete our task.
Today we ride the train to Gstaad. We are passing beautiful Alpine mountains, which look like they have some amazing climbs, and a blue lake which sits below the Alps. The dock is littered with sail boats for a reason: this is the place to sail.