England & Switzerland

Greetings blog readers!

Work brings me to England and Switzerland in the last few days. My journey started last Tuesday when we landed in Heathrow and took a shuttle to Oxford. Oxford is absolutely beautiful. It almost made me regret not having the opportunity to study abroad here. Did you know that Oxford is actually made up of over 30 colleges in the area? If you knew that fact… well, you didn’t learn something new from reading this blog. A few things about Oxford:

• The dining hall from Harry Potter was filmed at Christ Church
• The Turf Tavern is where Bill Clinton claimed that he “did not inhale”
• All of the stores (except taverns) close at 6pm
• Has really good Chinese food!





I was in London over the weekend where Britain experienced their first hung parliament since 1974 – very big news. With less than 36 hours in the city, I took the Big Bus to hop on/ hop off all the major tourist sites. However, it was so cold! I was bundled in my coat and scarf and just took some less than average pictures from the double decker bus. What I learned in London:

• Big Ben is pretty big but not as huge as I thought it would be
• Travel in a different country that still speaks English is much simpler than traveling in a country like China or Japan
• If you go into a tavern and order faggots, you will get a plate of delicious sausages
• Although Heathrow only has 5 terminals, the airport is HUGE

Sunday night, I arrived in Geneva. Lucky for me, I decided to visit two European countries that does not take the Euro. I’m really amazed at how traveling to foreign places doesn’t cause me much anxiety (as long as it’s not in current civil war or anything). I wrote down a few key phrases in French (Hello, Good bye, Thank you, Please, I am lost and Do you speak English). My hotel room looks out directly to Lake Geneva and I’m currently eating the best chocolate ever. Learning for the day:

• You can refill your Evian bottle at the alps… which is a short train ride away
• If you buy 100 francs of chocolate, you luggage will get significantly heavier
• Mosquitoes are all over the place, will make you feel right at home (if that’s MN)