Rachel

01:01 pm: Less than 2 weeks....
Ok so a lot has happened since the last post.

Cristina and I went to Nice, France. While we were there, we met a girl named Megan from Idaho who happens to be studying in Italy. I helped her buy her ticket to Monaco and then we just ended up spending the day together. The next day the three of us went to Cannes together. We had a fantastic weekend, and Megan is supposed to be coming to visit us this weekend in Geneva.

Three weekends ago was BIRTHDAY WEEKEND! Three of my good friends here had birthdays. Thursday=private party at a bar for Fatima's birthday, Friday=party at our apartment, Saturday=BBQ at Alvaro's and VIP at a club, Sunday=sleeping in and dinner for Eric's birthday. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on after that weekend.

Two weekends ago we all went to Italy: me, Cristina, Eric, Carrie, and Ryan. It was the BEST TRIP EVER! We went to Rome and Pompeii, then a quick trip through Florence for a few hours, and then a night and day in Venice. We had the best weather, and I had the best company.

This past weekend Cristina and I decided to make one last chill trip. We went to Lourdes, France to see where St. Bernadette had her visions of the Virgin Mary. We wanted to go to Spain, but it would have been too much traveling. The worker at the ticket counter in Geneva said he could get us as far as Lourdes, so we just decided to stay there since Cristina wanted to see it anyway. We found a really nice and cheap hotel and spent the entire weekend relaxing outdoors. It was the perfect last trip.

This weekend my friend Megan, who I mentioned I met in Nice, is supposed to be coming to visit. I can't wait! Cristina and I have the whole weekend planned out. It's my last weekend :(

Next week is finals and then I fly home on that Friday.....

05:03 pm: It's been a minute...or a month
I've been lazy, or maybe I've just been busy with other things. Either way, here's a quick update.

My family came to visit over spring break. We hung around Geneva for a few days before heading off to Interlaken. It was an easy and quick train ride, and getting ourselves situated in town was a breeze. Interlaken was so cute. It had just enough to keep us entertained for a few days. We took a train to Jungraujoch, the highest point in Europe. We walked through a glacier and almost got blown off the side of the mountain! It was fun. Here is a picture of my brother John and I hanging on for dear life.



After bumming around Interlaken for a few days, we made our way back to Geneva via Montreux. We went to see the Chateau du Chillon, and being the Luecking/Davis family we are, we were thoroughly entertained by latrines. I expected no less from us.


It was nice to get back to Geneva, but that also meant I had to say goodbye to my family.  I didn't even have time to chill after they left because our apartment soon became swamped with visitors.  Thursday night Cristina's mom and two of my friends who are traveling through Europe stayed with us. Friday night Cristina's mom and boyfriend were here, and from Saturday to Wednesday Cristina's boyfriend and cousin were with us.  Not that they weren't pleasant people, but I was relieved to see them go and to get my apartment back.

I spent most of Easter weekend at Alvaro's house. His family was out of town and his mom left enough food to feed Alvaro, me, and Eric since she knew we would be there the whole time.  We didn't do ANYTHING, but sometimes that's nice.

This past weekend I spent the day in Lausanne and Montreux with Eric. Most of our friends went to Zurich, but Eric and I decided to save our money for other trips.  We hung around the lake, walked up and down the hilly streets, and went to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. After that, we went to Montreux where we saw the statue of Freddy Mercury of Queen. It was funny to see how much the town still loved him. There were flowers and people all around the statue. I could care less about Freddy Mercury.


This weekend I will be going to Nice, France with Cristina. From there we will probably go to Monaco and see the world famous aquarium (Cristina wants to be a marine biologist, so it only makes sense). I've been to Nice and Monaco but only briefly, and I'm glad I get to go back and actually spend some real time there.

I got together with some friends last night and we planned out our Italian trip. We're going in a few weeks and spending some time in Rome with a day trip to Pompeii. We'll also be traveling to Florence and Venice. It should be a lot of fun.

I leave here in 5 weeks and 3 days.....That's too soon! There's still so much I need to see and do!!!

08:14 pm: Another end of the week post
5 days until I get to see my parents!!!!!!!!!

and my brothers, sister-in-law, and aunt and uncle too.

woo pictures!



on the train home after a night out a few weeks ago


Cristina and me!!!

09:08 pm: I had a completely full weekend. After Thursday night's incident, Cristina and I went into town on Friday afternoon to file a police report. We were at the station for 45 minutes before they told us we had to go somewhere else. It took a while to find our way there, but we finally figured out the weird map the officer had drawn for us. We went in and I asked the receptionist if she spoke English. She didn't, but she spoke some Spanish, so we were pretty much able to communicate what had happened. They gave Cristina a form to fill out and told her to mail it in. That's all she has to do. I can't believe they couldn't just give us the form at the first place!!

We went straight from the second police station to Alvaro's house to eat some pizza, and then we headed home to get ready for a night out. The school sponsored an event called CARNAVAL! There was a DJ, then a samba band, and lots of Brazilian style food and drinks. It was a lot of fun. I stayed up all night with a few people and took the bus home at 8:30am. I slept for about 3 hours before getting up and going to get some food with some friends. That night a bunch of us made our way to May Lu's house for a party. May Lu's dad is some big executive for the Trolli Candy company, so her basement was FULL of deliciousness. It was crazy! Oh, we also found some old clothes and dressed up.

And a picture from Friday night's Carnaval party

Ricardo, Kael, Diego, me (w/ straight hair thanks to Sidrah!), Alvaro, and Luiza

That's about it....I'm going to be super busy this week working on a term paper and studying for finals. gross.

01:38 am: The Amsterdam update I promised isn't going to happen. Something more urgent came up.

Tonight around 12:40am, as my roommate was walking home from the train station, she was mugged. Four men came up behind her, one of them put his hand over her mouth, and held a knife out. They took her purse and left. She ran the rest of the way home. They took everything but her cell phone, which she had in her pocket. She has no money, but she's ok and that's what matters.

We have both walked home from the train station alone at night before. I've done it more times than I can remember. Not once have I felt vulnerable. Versoix has always been safe to us. I wouldn't be as surprised if this had happened in Paquis, the somewhat sketch area downtown.  But Versoix, really?  Now we won't walk home by ourselves if it's late. I had to promise her mom that when I told her what had happened. (Cristina was too shaken up to speak on the phone at first.)

The situation is full of if only's. If only Cristina had left the bar we were at downtown with me and had taken the bus. If only I had stayed later and left with her. If only, if only. If I had left with her, maybe no one would have been mugged but then again maybe both of us would have been mugged. Four grown men against two 20-year-old girls is an unfair match. If only everybody respected everybody else...

I know this post will worry my mother. I know she will want to fly here the very minute she reads this and make sure everyone is ok. We are ok. Cristina will be fine. She's more than capable of taking care of herself. We'll take every step possible to make sure something like this never happens again. Tomorrow we're going to file the police report and talk to the school about anything else we may need to do.

If you believe in God or some other being, please thank him/her for protecting my roommate, my best friend here. I can't imagine what I would have done in that situation. I can't imagine what I would do if Cristina wasn't now safely in her bed.