Milan, Milano, Mailand (English, Italian, German)

What has thick crowds, great shopping, and beautiful architecture? The answer is Milan, Italy. I would describe Milan as the Italian New York; it has the beautiful old buildings that Italy is known for as well as huge crowds, immense diversity, and the best shopping!
Milan has ethnic diversity. In most busy, pedestrian-only streets or town squares, people from Northern Africa and the Middle East sell cheesy toys. If one of these people were to run up to you asking if you want to buy something, I’d suggest you ignore them, or say no while walking away. If you start talking straight to them even just to say “No thank you” they will most likely follow you further down the street than if you ignore them. With so many people, Milan is known for the pickpockets. My advice is that you should zip your bags all the way, and never carry bags that don’t zip. If you have to put something in your pant’s pocket, put it in the front. Make sure to keep your bags on your body at all times. It would be horrible to get the boots or cute shirts you just bought stolen!

Milan’s shopping is jaw dropping! Big designer names like Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Dolce and Gabbana have their headquarters there. Because of that, it’s no problem finding the cute, but extremely expensive 8,000 Euro boots you’ve always dreamed of having. Via Della Spiga, a street in Milan, is probably the most expensive street in the world, meaning all of the shops on it are very high-priced. With every designer name you could think of, I guarantee you won’t find anything under 200 Euros. Although they are very fashionable, and the label is an added bonus, there are also just-as-cute stores in Milan that are cheaper. I found heels for 10 Euros, skinny jeans for 15 Euros, and boots for 30 Euros. While outlets in America usually have lower prices, the clothes from outlets in Milan are still very expensive. The cheapest shirt I found at any outlet was 55 Euros. However, no shopping trip is complete without food!
With every restaurant, bakery, and bar in the second biggest city in Italy, it’s hard to know if a restaurant is actually good. Ask the clerk at your hotel’s front desk to recommend specific restaurants, not just an area to go. A must-have food in Milan is Gelato. It doesn’t really matter where you go to get it; I got mine from a street vendor and it was delicious! Gelato originated in Italy, so why not have some real Italian gelato? However, the real question is how do you get there?
Milan is huge! Even if you don’t walk everywhere you go, it is very easy to walk at least eight miles a day. Do you really want to walk that many miles in heels? That does not sound fun. I suggest wearing comfortable shoes. They don’t have to be tennis shoes. I mean come on, you’re in Milan, the fashion capital of the world! Boots or flats are okay, but heels are probably not a good idea. You don’t have to walk everywhere, though. There are also taxis and the subway. I’ve never been in a taxi in Milan and I don’t want to. They seem dirty and unreliable. The subway, however, is nice to use. You will hear the people in Milan call it the metro. The metro can be crowed and a little dirty, but they’re easy to use, cheap, and can get you across town fast. I’ve been on the subway, and I like it, but I like walking better, because I can see the beauty of Milan.

The structures in Milan are mostly made of old stone. If you walk anywhere in town, look up and you can see how pretty the buildings are. The Duomo, also known as the Cathedral of Milan, is breath taking. With it being right in the center of Milan, it’s a large attraction, and I can understand why. My art history teacher said it looks like a giant, Gothic drip castle. A drip castle is when you mix sand with water and drip it from your fist above. With the very detailed exterior, pointed arches, and an interior the size of nine football fields (three by three), he was spot on. When looking at the Duomo, it feels like you’re looking at a postcard. The Duomo isn’t the only amazing space, though. Castello Sforzesco, the castle in Milan, is beautiful. It has long hallways around an enormous courtyard. The park next to it is also gigantic! It has beautiful big trees with leaves that change color, green grass, and Arco Della Pace. Arco Della Pace is the biggest arch I’ve ever seen! I love that its name means Peace Arch.




With all of the shopping streets, bakeries, castles, cathedrals, and everything else to explore in Milan, I could spend a whole week there without getting bored. The fashion capital of the world is my favorite city in Europe.

Cars, cars, and... wait those are cars?

"Be careful when walking through town. The cars are silent, and if you are in their way, they will run you over." KR, the headmaster at Swiss Semester, told us on the ride to Zermatt. When I first saw a Zermatt car, I thought, "He must have accidentally used the word car, because this looks nothing like one!" The cars in Zermatt are about half the size of the smallest car in the US. Besides Smart Cars. Zermatt cars are about two thirds the size of a Smart Car. Zermatt cars, or taxi's, fit eight, possibly ten, people. That sounds like a lot, but there are two people in the front, then two rows of seats facing each other in the back, and comfortably should only fit two people per row.

I have never seen a real car around town. The closet thing to what someone who's never been to Zermatt calls a car is a truck. The trucks seem huge, with the flat front, shiny white surface, and being the biggest thing in Zermatt. However, they are only about one third of a truck in America.

The cars are called taxi's because. truly, that's all they are. Only businesses have taxi's. Most people in Zermatt ride a bike or a scooter, or walk. The taxi's are for hotels, bars, some shops (only about two, though), and for transporting things like crates or food, animals (I've seriously seen a goat riding on the back of a flat-bed taxi once).

When KR said that the taxi's don't move out of the way, he wasn't kidding. The drivers are all very good drivers, but dangerous and impatient. The swerve a lot just for one person, the drive very fast down main street, and they do whatever they can to avoid stopping or slowing down. The Zermatt cars are silent, except for a little buzzing. My ears trained themselves to pick out the noise, even when it's very far away.

I actually like the transportation system through town in Zermatt a lot better than anywhere in America. Unless I stay at home all day, which is very, very rare, I get exercise just by walking though town. The taxi's are also run by electricity, so they don't use gas. The taxi's give off way less pollution than cars running on gasoline, and make it better for the Earth.
In America, cars are a representation of freedom. Kids grow up dreaming about their first car. Sixteen-year-olds count down the days until they get their drivers license. In Zermatt, cars are just something to dodge while walking through town, or exclusively used for business. For tourists, taxi's are targets for the pictures. Locals, or people used to the exercise, could care less if the cars were there. It would have no impact personally on their lives, unless their job has to use a car.
The businesses who own the cars decorate them how they want. The decorating includes seat covers, paint on the outside, objects on outside (I've seen deer antlers on the top of a car.) Some businesses are very creative with how they decorate it, while others just paint their name on the exterior and leave the rest plain.

Second day of hut trips

Goats up above the boys on their way back to Zermatt. Looks like there's a couple baby goats.









I <3 WORLD. This was on the side of the trail from Tasch to Zermatt.








Some of the boys on a glacier that they had to cross. I would have been scared to walk on the glacier, for some reason. It seems like you'd fall though.
















The girls had to hike for three straight hours in the pouring rain, with thunder and lightning. It was freezing! The trail had a lot on huge rocks and dirt, which turned to extremely slippery rocks and pure mud.









A waterfall on the way back to Zermatt. All of the girls got so excited and immediately stripped down to their sports bras, climbed up the slick rocks, and dunked their heads under the waterfall. The waterfall was so cold it seemed like it was from newly melted snow. Oh wait, it was!

The girls' hut trip to Trift

At Trift, our hotel, snuggling, and waiting to hear the story of the first man to climb the Matterhorn. The story was actually really good, and if I closed my eyes, I could imagine the mountaineers up on the face of the Matterhorn, have snow and wind blown in their face, slowly trekking up.




Dinner at Trift was delicious! It was homemade soup with little oats in it, then spaghetti and meat sauce. We helped clean up. Some people washed dishes, some people dried them, some put them away, and the rest cleaned the tables.





I was so happy when i turned the corner after a steep uphill and found this ahead. A long, fun downhill with Trift at the end. Great way to spend a painful, tiring, but super fun hike.









All of us girls at our mid-way stop. We got so hot we ended up only wearing our sports bras on the hike. We were a rainbow of colors.





Ms. Tori, one of the English teachers, resting on on my favorite part of the uphill. I just loved walking up a huge meadow, looking down on Zermatt below, and talking about all of the problems with the Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie with my sister-from-another-mister, Maggie.

The boys' hut trip to Tasch

My dad and brother on the hike! I love the valley that leads into the mountains!















One of the many rivers the boys had to cross. I heard it was very slippery.












The boys playing cards at Tasch, the hut they stayed in, waiting for dinner.










(Right to left) Andrew, Jakesy, Dj, Jordon, Chris, Hinkie (his rel name's Ben, but his last name is Hinkie, and it totally fits him, so that's what he's known as), Jack, and Max. Henry's kneeling. They're resting in a beautiful spot, on the way back.







It's hard, maybe even impossible, to find a place in Switzerland that's not beautiful. We keep getting told not to take advantage of the views we see everyday. It is easy to get used to the sights, and by the end, not see anything special. it is just as easy, however, to wake up everyday, look at the Matterhorn outside your window, and say "Wow, look at that!"

Hike to Eidelweiss

The path that we were on went through a mini farm. It had a couple huge cows! They were so cute. One was scratching it's head against the ground. I also saw a little baby cow in the barn! It was super fuzzy and had the funniest little moo.



The view of Zermatt from Eidelweiss, the restaurant at the top. I didn't realize how big Zermatt really is, or compared to what it looks like in town. I bet it's a fourth of the size of Colorado Springs, maybe even smaller.





Mother-daughter picture at Eidelweiss! The restaurant had the best carrot cake, peach tart, and apple tart. Yum! It also had a great view, although I haven't seen anywhere that doesn't.












Margret, Margret, Sarah, and I at a waterfall along the train. It was one of the many melted glacier waterfalls, so it was freezing! It felt so good, though, because we were so hot!

First Geology Lab

The lift we took up to the first part of the lab. It almost went straight up, it was so steep! It was really scary, but exciting.






"Woah! Sarah look behind you!" Those were the words out of my mouth when I saw the goat. I actually did a double-take. It ended up walking around me and practically tripping on my foot. Who gets to say a wild goat tripped over their foot?


Some of the students were standing on the rock when all of a sudden a different goat runs over and scares them off of it, claiming it as his. He was so proud when he had his rock, and people tired (it ended up they ran away screaming because the goat almost rammed them), but he would not give it up.


Me, Brandon, and Sarah working on the lab together. The view was magnificent! Look at the glacier right beneath us, slowly making it's way down the mountain.





We literally ran to the front of the lift, so we could look going down. It was, in one word, terrifying. Especially when another lift was coming right at us, both at the top speeds. Luckily, it switched tracks just before we crashed.