kmunoz’s Blog

No Sasha, not now, go away! I want to keep sleeping. It was 6:20 am when Sasha woke me up. She wasn’t going to leave my door until I stood up and opened the door so she would be sure that I was awake. She said that breakfast was at 7:30am and that we should all wear black and comfortable shoes because we were going to walk around the City. Right away I thought about my Gore-Tex. We are going to walk a lot so this was the perfect time to test drive my new shoes.

At breakfast (around 7:30am) we were told that we needed our i pods or mp3 players in order to upload the audio guide. We were going to walk around Chur while listening to the history and information of the main touristic points developed the Swiss School students and the Tourism office. Unfortunately some of our i pods and mp3 players could not hold all the information and others weren’t uploading at all, resulting in a delay of the days itinerary. Although we missed the 8:30AM bus we finally sorted out the technology and caught the bus an hour later.

Some of us were sharing ipods and mp3 player and others were listening to the speakers that Mark Villanueva brought along. The speakers were a good idea at the time, but the street noise drowned out the sound..and this did not really work. Sasha had a good idea..she listened to the tape and then repeated what she heard. This plan was much better.

The trip through Chur wasn’t what I had expected. We took the 10:49 bus and lost lost most of our morning. I wasn’t comfortable because I was hot and we were rushing through the entire the tour in order to stay on schedule. ..lunch at Paulaners Restaurant at 12:15 and there was no way to change it.

After lunch we had class until almost 4 PM. I asked if we had to stay at the School for dinner and the immediate response was ABSOLUTELY – since the reservations were in place. We need to give the School advance notice of any changes…This is a School and not a hotel. However, somehow changes were made and the group headed into Chur for shopping, exploring and eating.

We went to H&M to compare the prices with the H&M in New York – what a surprise – they were almost the same. We went looking for the mall – which we never found ..the good news is we found the supermarket – the bad news.. it was closed, Not only was the market closed..everything was closed. It turns out that the shops close between 6:30 and 7 PM – as 24/7 New Yorkers we were astonished.

Some of us found food at McDonald’s, and others wanted to eat real food (I was in-between). When we all walked into McDonald’s and checked the menu we thought prices were absurd. I was not going to pay 15 chf for a number 7 (equal to US$15).

we split into two groups and I went with the ones who wanted to eat real food. One block down we found a nice restaurant named Ice Cream. It was a really attractive name so we decided to check the menu and when I saw the dessert menu I decided to stay. I ordered a medium pizza for 13 chf and it was really delicious. There was so much food I could not finish it- but thank to my classmates my pizza wasn’t wasted. We ate it all. After the dinner I wanted to walk back to school so see how far the school is from Chur. I convinced the group and we walked up what looked like a hill but turned into a mountain (why should I be surprised..this is, after all, Switzerland).

Our walk up the mountain was very interesting because most of us didn’t know the exactly direction of the School, or where it was located. We tried to follow the bus direction back to the mountain trying to recognize signs or buildings. All of us had our maps open to figure out where to go, and others were trying to ask for information in English, Italian, and body language. (I did not think that trying to find my way up a mountain could be so much fun).

As soon we started to walk, we started to remember parts of our journey. We were walking in the right direction. We walked and walked for 20 minutes and we were not getting anywhere. We even thought that we walked up the wrong mountain. Finally we saw some sign and houses that we recognized and were not too far from the school. Finally the School came into sight..and we were so very happy.

That day we worked as a team and had a really good team spirit. We took care of each other, and helped the ones who were about to quit. We walked together and stopped together, we were really a family. As soon as we reached the school the other classmates were waiting for us, and they received us happily. They were very curious out our adventure and wanted to know about our journey up the mountain. Half of us were sharing our experiences and the others went to let the professors know that we were safely back at the School.

Climbing up the mountain was a unique experience, because I connected with nature and saw beautiful views of the town. I would like to do it again if i could, but I don’t think that some of my classmates would like to walk up again. Maybe going down the hill, but not up again.

Finally we went to our rooms to shower and change than we met downstairs to star blogging and uploading pictures our website.