my birthday and Steph's visit!

Hey!  Sorry it's been so long since my last post.  I last checked in a few days before my birthday.  I had a GREAT birthday!  Wednesday night we had a bunch of people over at our apartment for a big birthday celebration/pre game.  A lot of my guy friends were leaving Thursday morning for the weekend but all made a point to stop by and hang out for a bit even though they weren't going out.  It was very nice.  My roomies and I hit the town in celebration.  It was a very fun night.  Thursday we went to a Czech hockey game.  Hockey is a HUGE sport here.  CEA planned the trip for us and there were about 40 kids from my program at the game.  It was a quarterfinals playoff game.  We had some pivo (beer) and cheered on the czech team.  Sadly, they lost in a shootout in double overtime.  Despite the loss the game was a lot of fun.  

Thursday night I went to dinner with my roommates and then to rap night at Radost.  We danced on stage for a while, met some random people who were in Prague on spring break from other programs and cities, schmoozed with the bartender until he gave us free birthday shots etc.  It was truly a great night (and yes I remember it!)

The weekend started off great and only got better as Steph Meyer and friends came on Friday!  A couple of girls studying in Prague and I met Steph and her friends at the airport.  It was pretty much a scene out of a movie when they got off the plane and we were standing with signs yelling and screaming.  The people in the airport were probably annoyed by our Americanness but oh well....you only live once!  We took the girls to Bohemian Bagel (an American style bagel/ sandwich restaurant) for lunch, explored the city, had a few beers, and headed out to dinner.  After a very late dinner, we didn't finish eating until about 1am, we went to 5 story club.  It was quite an experience!  We hit all of the floors, dancing and exploring on each one.  I somehow convinced everyone to dance on stage and have great pictures of all of us.  Steph and two of her friends, Dara, and Effie slept over that night and we had a huge sleepover/slumber party.  Believe it or not, this was the first time Steph and I have ever really slept in the same room...another thing for us to cross off the Steph and Sheridan list!

Saturday we hit up the Prague Castle, Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, and the Easter festival.  Old Town Square, Wenceslas Square, and some other places have been taken over by the Easter Festival.  There are stands everywhere with every type of food: grilled meats, vegies, corn, crepes, waffle cakes, beer, chocolate covered fruit, skewers, fresh cooked/ roasted nuts, and the list goes on...we pretty much ate our way around for a while before settling into food coma.  Saturday night Steph and some of her friends and I met up with my roommates at one of our favorite cafes by my house for dinner.  After we went to beer factory.  Beer factory is this neat underground bar where each table has its own tap.  You tap your own beer and the machine keeps a tab.  There's also a cool contraption on the table that lets you wash your glasses.  Beer factory was playing crazy old music that you just had to sing and dance to when it came on.  In true fashion we danced/ made fun of how some of the Europeans were dancing and pretty much went nuts.  There were about 15 of us there; we all looked liked idiots and completely loved every second of it.

Sunday morning we went to Radost for brunch.  It was one of the best meals I've had since I've been here.  It was honestly sooo good.  The restaurant is also very trendy.  All the seats are couches and big loungy chairs.  It's very retro and swanky.  I split from the group for a bit to go home and write a paper and do some work.  Steph and some of her friends went to the Jewish Quarter and walked around the festival a bit more.  We all met up later in the afternoon.  Steph and her roommate in Florence, Miriam spent the night at my place. We sat up talking for hours.  Miriam is from Deerfield and went to Camp Beber.  We know all of the same people.  It's a crazy small world.  We lost track of time and didn't go to bed for hours later.  

Monday morning I took Steph and friends to breakfast at Bohemian (they wanted American food one last time before they went back to eating all Italian) before they left for the airport. 

It was honestly a great weekend.  I'm so happy Steph was able to come and hang out and help me celebrate my birthday!  (speaking of she brought the most beautiful bracelet for my birthday.  it was the nicest thing!)  It's very cool to be able to travel with friends from home and meet up in foreign countries.  We took tons of pictures and can't wait to send them to the Camp Chi alumni network.  Jamie and Brad will laugh when they see Steph and Sheridan traveling the world together, though I don't think they'll be at all surprised.

This is long so I'm going to split this into a few different posts.  Pics to come later.  

Interlaken Photos

 You can see my Interlaken pics here:

http://gallery.mac.com/ldsheridan/100081

If you can't see them email me your email address at lsheridan@wisc.edu and I can email you the album.

Interlaken

Oh Interlaken, where to even begin...

Jess, Lizzy, Nina, and I left for Interlaken Wednesday afternoon.  The trip started great.  We made it to the airport and our plane took off on time.  We even landed in Geneva 20 minutes early.  As we were going through customs we started to talk to one of the security guards.  He was asking us a whole bunch of questions and joking with us.  He asked where we were going and we said Bern.  He looked at his watch and said the last train leaves in 1 minute you better run.  The four of us looked at each other and took off across the airport.  It was literally a scene out of a movie.  We ran downstairs as the train was about to leave.  We somehow talked our way onto the train as it was leaving.  We felt very lucky until we heard the next set of news...our train arrived in Bern at 1am and the next train for Interlaken didn't leave until 6am.  We had 5 hours to kill in an outdoor train station.  

After walking around the station to find that no stores, waiting rooms, or restaurants were open, we decided to explore town.  A cab driver told us of a restaurant that was open down the street.  We shlepped our luggage down the cobblestone roads and finally found the restaurant.  It was open until 3:30.  We sat for a bite to eat and laughed about our experiences and trip.  At 3:30 we were kicked out and went back to the train station.  We curled up in a corner trying to take turns sleeping.  A drunk man approached us and asked us where we were from.  Jess replied we're from Guam and we don't talk to strangers.  He mocked us for a minute and then stumbled away.  At 5am the waiting room opened and we were able to finally have a warm place to sit for a few minutes.

We boarded the train to Interlaken at 6 and arrived about 40 minutes later.  The train ride was beautiful.  On one side you could see the mountains and on the other the countryside.  We successfully arrived in Interlaken and made our way down the street to Balmers, the hostel we were staying at.  After checking in we crashed for a couple hours.  Thursday afternoon Lizzy and I went paragliding.  It was a very cool experience.  I was attached to an instructor and a parachute.  We started at the top of the mountain and ran off the edge of it until we were flying.  You can steer the parachute and the guy and I did a bunch of tricks.  We went zig zagging across the sky and did some spin moves and swirls.  The view was to die for.  There are two lakes on either side of the city and they are connected with various rivers.  All of this is surrounded by the mountains, some which were covered with snow and others that were vacant.  I have lots of pictures from the air so you can see what I'm talking about.  We spent some time exploring the town in the afternoon before getting ready to go out.  We spent the early part of the night in our hostel.  It was quite the place to be.  Everyone was around and hanging out and I met some very cool people.  Our hostel has one of the only night clubs in town so we went out there every night.  I ran into some Wisco people and a group of guys from our trip met us in Interlaken as well.  Thursday night was more low key but I did spend a good portion of the night dancing, which is always a good time in my book.

Friday morning Molly and Jordan arrived.  We spent the morning exploring the rest of town and went on a tour of a chocolate factory in the early afternoon.   The chocolate factory is known and has won awards for having the best chocolate in the world.  I have to say it was the best chocolate I've ever tasted.  We learned how the chocolate is harvested and how the candies are made.  We were even able to make some candy and were fed the entire time.  The room was filled with chocolate statues made for different events.  There was a dog, a ferris wheel, a ski mountain and a skier, a picture in a frame (both the picture and the frame are 100% chocolate) and some others.  You can see them in my pictures!  The tour lasted about an hour.  It rained most of the day Friday so most of the outdoor activities were cancelled but we still had a great time.

Saturday morning we woke up and went skiing.  We went to rent out skis and found out the mountain was closed due to the wind.  Not good news.  After breakfast we went back and heard that half the mountain was open.  We rented our skis and went.  You have to take a train to the mountain from Interlaken. The train ride was beautiful.  It let us off mid mountain and we took the ski lift up not realizing we were going straight to the top of the mountain.  We got off and were immediately hit by the wind.  It was very strong.  We started on our way down.  The middle and bottom of the mountain were far less windy and actually very enjoyable to ski.  We skied many runs and paths.  It was beautiful and so much fun.  I didn't realize how much I've missed skiing.  It felt great to be back out there.  We had signed up for an excursion to go night sledding and for fondue dinner for Saturday night.  There were about 50 college aged kids on the excursion and we met a bunch of people.  Sledding took place on the mountain.  It was very cool and a lot of fun.  I was exhausted by the end of the day and spent Saturday night chilling with the girls.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to enjoy our last day.  We had about half a day before the trip back.  There were a few places we wanted to go back to in town so we did that.  I bought some chocolate to bring back, and even bought some for mom and dad.  (I hope it's still here when you guys get here...don't worry I hid it!)

The trip back was very smooth.  It seemed luck was not on our side this weekend.  The weather was not great and Jess and Nina tried to skydive 3 times and were shut out by the weather each time.  Despite all of this I had truly an AMAZING weekend.  The mountains are breathtaking and I'll never forget the images and view from the city and mountaintop.  I feel very lucky to have gone to Interlaken and skied the Alps.  It was an unforgettable weekend.

My roommates have started the countdown to my birthday.  I feel old.  Yikes.

Hope all is well.  More to come later...

Lisa