10/03/08 Traveling, Working, and waking up in the middle of Switzerland

Envio muchas cartas en la computadora y en el poste. Es facil para mi escribir mi madre y mi hermana Emma. Es deficil escribir me padre y mis hermanas Paige y Madison. Es mas deficil escribir mis otras hermanas Madison y Paige porque me no quedo en la casa de mi padre (mi padre y yo no feliz con la otra persona).

This is the day we left wireless internet behind to find another Ibis Hotel in Switzerland.



The only thing I can truly say about this day is that we drove for hours and hours and hours, and that the entire time I was working on schoolwork. My fingers were flying across the keyboard most of the time and then when the battery started to get dangerously low I read AP US History. I was almost completely absorbed in my work. The only things I noticed beyond the print in front of me were the rolling plains outside, the smaller hills, and the many many traffic jams. Course, I didn't spend my entire day studying. I ate lunch, used the restroom, and recognized that the reason for the terrible traffic was that the day was a German Holiday (reunification of Germany). When I heard that we had arrived in Switzerland and that we needed to start looking for the Ibis Hotel I put my work down and raised my eyes to an incredible sight.

Beyond the rolling hills and the maze of concrete there rose a wall of rock. This wall of rock was the Alps. As we got closer and closer we ran into more and more lakes. These lakes only made the mountains appear all the more unreal because they managed to truly make the mountains look like they'd just sprung up out of thin air. At the top of the mountains we could occasionally make out snow. Most of the time though these sections were shielded by a thick layer of clouds.

We managed to tear ourselves away from the view of the mountains to find the Ibis hotel. We went in and were disheartened to hear that they were fully booked, but if one person didn't make it in at 7 then we could have their room. We went to the restaurant down the street while we waited for 7 to roll around. There we ate incredible food, for astonishingly high prices. The dinner cost us almost 100 francs. While we ate we all remarked at the high prices and we all wondered just how much we were spending, none of us knew what the franc was compared to the dollar.

We quickly went around this roadblock in the conversation by talking about the Swiss banks, how they were a part of the European Union but the reason why they didn't change to the euro was it would mess up their intricate and secretive banking system. Apparently people who don't want their wealth to be known bring their money to Switzerland and put it in their banks where they keep it pretty much a secret. Another something Switzerland is known for is for it's tourism. The many lakes and the Alps located within Switzerland made it ideal for tourists and thus also made the high prices ideal for the Swiss people. They could put their prices high for the tourists who came in needing food. Later we found out exactly what the franc is compared to the dollar. They're basically equal. We spent over 80 dollars on ONE meal.

After dinner we went in and were able to get into the room. We took our things up, set up camp and then tried to get the internet to work. We were unsuccessful and Poppy was very unhappy that it didn't work. He apologized to me several times and each time he did I told him that it was alright, I'd just work more on the things I needed to do without the internet. Each time I did he said that it wasn't ok, that the internet should work and that he was sorry it didn't.

It didn't take me too long to get exhausted here. All of the studying had worn me out yet again and I fell asleep within 5 minutes.

The next morning Ahmee told me again that I had not had a fun night and that I had sounded distressed again.