Monday, May 31st
As I am sitting here thinking how in the world am I going to begin to explain my adventure that I had this weekend I have come to conclusion that the easiest way is to do day by day or chapter by chapter. So here I go...
Chapter 1: Purple Pants
Friday. Like I have said previously we go on a field trip at least two days out of the week. So today our field trip was to the City of Clermont to the amusement park of Vulcania! Yes I was excited because I heard the words amusement park but trust me it was not really comparable to Six Flags. The greatest ride there was a 3D ride where you sit in one of those vibrating seats with 3D glasses. The age of visitors were at two opposite ends. You had the elementary field trippers and then you had the grandparents. We fit perfectly in the middle. The city of Clermont has a little over 200 volcanoes. So it was quite interesting.
After our adventure to Vulcania ended we headed to the train station in Clermont. (Instead of going all the way back to Vichy we were able to take a train, which was easier, out of Clermont). Now let the real adventure begin.
There are 21 people in the study abroad trip all together and 18 decided to go to Switzerland. Okay so really there were 8 of us that had our heart set on Switzerland and the others just followed because they did not know what they wanted to do. So with our bags packed we (all 18) of us stepped on the first train of the four that we would have to take. Personally I really enjoy the train rides. They are nice and relaxing and the scenery is great. The train rides were ranged from being 1 hour and 45 minutes, to one maybe being 2 hours, to the last one 45 minutes. So as a whole the trip was broken up and the all day event of traveling is really not as bad as it might sound especially when you have a good book to read. As the first train ended and we got on the second everyone was accounted for and we were like great this traveling with 18 people might not be so bad! So as we got on the second train I suppose our confidence was a little high. Before I go on I want to note that train stations can be a little crowded when everyone is trying to get on and two, I am okay. Saying that as everyone was getting on the second train a majority of people got on a car ahead of us and then some followed me and my new friend Rachel, or so we thought. (We later found out that they followed us but as soon as they walked in exited and went to a different car). So as the train started we got out our books and began just reading away. About 30 minutes or maybe an hour into the trip Rachel decided to get up and go look to see where our friends that "followed" us on to the train were sitting so that we would make sure and all get off at the right stop. She said she walked 4 cars back and never found them. I guess that should have been a hint that something might be wrong, but we did not think anything of it at the time, shrugged our shoulders and opened our books back up. We were having a great time. So as the time approached that we were suppose to arrive at our next stop, the time and the location just did not match. This was the right time but not the right stop, hmmm. I was sitting next to a french lady so I tried to use some of my "french language" but that did not work. I kept pointing to my ticket, is this the right stop or do you know if this is the right train? We have come to the conclusion that she was probably saying no you idiot tourists you are on the completely wrong train. So, here me and Rachel were not at the train station in Geneve where were suppose to be. As we stepped off the train onto the pebbles and rocks and turned around to the train station building itself, which was probably the size of my game room at home, we both said aloud where in the world are we? We also quickly realized and giggled at the fact that thank goodness it was us two and not anyone else because the world might have ended right then and there for them. So we walked into the train station, whipped out our Rick Steve's translation book and began to think how are we going to talk to the guichet about our problem.
We could bet that he probably did not speak english and we did not know how well Rick Steve would be able to pull through on this one. As we were standing there in line talking about what to do and wondering if our friends were worried about us this guy who apparently spoke english had been listening to our story. He piped in and told us that if we were to take a train it would be another 3 hours because there is not a train that goes straight to Geneve and our best bet would be to walk to the bus station. Meanwhile these two guys came into the train station. They began talking to our english speaking friend and he told us that they said that they could take us to the bus station, one at a time. Do not worry we told them no thank you. We did not want to end up like the movie Taken after all! So we hiked up our dresses, oh by the way I was wearing a long dress and sandals, put our Vera's around our body and began the trek through town. Now this town was not that big at least where we were. Picture the main road through your city. So let's say for us it would Denton Tap. Think if you saw two girls walking down the side of Denton Tap with luggage. You would be like what are they doing? Well that was kind of like us. We were just walking down the road in the Vera's. Not to mention that we were the only two that had Vera's and not back packs. I do not know it just sort of added to the humor of the situation, or at least we thought so. The man told us that it would be about 15 minutes. So we walked for 15 minutes following the signs toward Geneve Switzerland. Now when we got off at the train station we were in France and the bus station was in Switzerland. So what does that mean? Yes we walked across the border from France to Switzerland! How many people can say they have done that? Nope not many. So right after the border we saw it the bus station! Woohoo! Now the bus station was really just a corner where you wait for the bus. As we approached it we saw these two old ladies, one in her car and one waiting for the bus. We started to ask them if this would take us to the train station or if we were in the right place but, funny story, they did not speak english or, wait for it, french! So we began a good old fashioned game of charades for I would say about 15-20 minutes. (You just can not help but laugh at the situation we were in). They were so nice. Let's see we did the walking motion a lot, like can we walk to the train station from here. We discovered that was a no. They kept pointing to their watch and we were like yeah we know what time it is. Then they did it again and we were like yesss we know, but then we realized oh no they were telling us the bus was coming in 10 minutes. So we went to the machine where you can put money in and buy tickets and realized that well it only takes franks. We had literally just crossed the border we did not have any franks! So we motioned with our hands somehow that we would be back because we had to go get money. We started walking then looked at each other and decided that if we were going to make this bus we needed to run. So I hiked up my dress threw Vera over my shoulder and we began running down this gravel road towards the Shell station for a half mile. We stormed in the store sweating, grabbed water, and asked the cashier if she could please give us franks as change. She was laughing, but I mean I guess wouldn't you too? So I checked out and as I was waiting for Rachel she goes, you go on, don't worry I will catch up with you. (I laugh every time I think about her saying that line. Doesn't it sound like a dramatic line from a movie? Haha) Anyway away I went running back down the street. Now this when it gets good. As I was running from one way I see this bus driving from the other. Ohhhhhhh noooooo the busssssssss! As the bus pulls in the old lady is waving us on to hurry as she is standing in the doorway of the bus talking to the bus driver. Are you picturing this? Two girls sprinting down a gravel road as an old lady is ushering us to hurry with her hands as she is standing at the door of the bus? I get there buy my ticket and then Rachel realized that as she was running her franks fell out of her pocket! For a minute she freaked but then we realized that you can buy your ticket inside the bus and with euros! So we did all that running for nothing. Oh well I guess I got my exercise in for the day. We get on the bus sweating and immediately grab our water bottles and begin chugging. We do not even care that everyone is staring at us we are just relieved we made the bus! (I swear that I am not making any of this up). While on the bust we made another little Asian friend and she told us all about how she has a boyfriend in Georgia, yes we did not really care but we listened. Then both our Asian friend and Old Lady friend got off. As we are sitting on the bus we are hoping that we will get off at the right exit for the train station. We get up look at the map talk to the bust driver. As we are in the process of figuring out our plan of action this semi-young guy with tight tight bright purple pants, a fitted white shirt, and sunglasses asks us is we are going to the train station. He tells us to follow him. So we get off at the next bus stop, which is in I am guessing the downtown Switzerland area, and as I am trying to start talking to this guy he begins running. We have to get on a tram to take us the train station. So here we go again! Just as the tram doors were shutting he sticks his hand in them and tells us get off 2 stops from now. He was not even going to the train station, he was just helping us out! Let's just say the Swiss are some of our new favorite people. So of course even though he told us to get off at the next two stops we were kind of confused of what we were to do. So because it was necessary we asked a few people what we were to do. We finally got off the tram and made it to the train station. We decided to wait in line at the ticket counter to see if our tickets would be okay to catch the next train. (We knew that there was a train that followed our route an hour later than when we left Claremont so we were not worried if there would be trains to get to Switzerland). As we were standing in line we whipped out our Rick Steve book again and again began the process of what should we say to the ticket office. A lady behind us overheard our conversation and goes why don't yall just get on the train. It does not matter. We paused for a while and go, oh, that makes since. 
So from that point on we continued our train ride adventure without any hiccups the rest of the way to Switzerland. When we got to Switzerland it took us a little while to get to our hostel but we did not care because we were just excited to be there! I must say though that our friends were not too happy with us at the moment when we walked in. But it is one of those things that happened. How were we suppose to know that the train was going to split we though we were perfectly in the middle of everyone?
I am learning something new every day no matter how small it might be. Like Friday for example, even though it might have been a little scary at the beginning to have gotten all worked up about it and mad would not have helped. We made light of the situation and I think will always be one of my favorite memories of this trip. Also, the Swiss people are great.
Au Revoir!
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