Oh Swiss Land...

What I LOVE about Switzerland & ISCM:
1) That its ok to eat chocolate for breakfast ie. Nutella...We have little packages of nutella in the morning just like we would have peanut butter at home. My favorite breakfast treat is nutella on banana mmmm.
2) I love waking up every morning to go out onto my balcony and see the beautiful Swiss Alps right infront of me. The weather changes so often here that it isn't always clear but knowing that I have the option of seeing this wonder still amazes me even though this is my third year. I think I actually appreciate the view much more throughout the years.
3) There is only one place in the world where only knowing 2 languages makes you feel irrelevant its at ISCM. I met two 9 year old girls yesterday who spoke 5 languages each (greek, russian, french, spanish and english) so I say to myself WOW I need to step it up and learn another language or two to even compare. There are many staff members and campers who have very unique backgrounds and will be born in France but grew up in America and are now living in Switzerland or Finland and have amazing adventures under their belt....it makes me jealous and want to be a nomad for the rest of my life knowing that there are so many people just like me all in one wonderful place.
4) Switzerland is a very chill country...it's not very Americanized and there isn't often any traffic or even very many people for that matter when you go to the bigger cities. In the main cities you will always find a McDonald's and Starbucks but other then that are hard pressed to see anything else that is similar to home...maybe a Nike store but that's about it. It's pretty amazing to be so seperated from all the clutter and the rush of big cities...it really makes you go outside your comfort zone (although I will admit that I've had McDonald's twice since I've been here...don't judge!) ISCM and Crans Montana are such little bubbles and we are so out of the loop it's crazy...the only channels we really get are music channels and then CNN for news so you can imagine how strange it is to not know what's happening in the world or at home.

What I miss about home:
1) Diet Pepsi....Europe loves Coca Light and I hate Coca Light so I've had to suck it up and drink it anyways. On a rare occasion a store will have Pepsi Light and I get way too excited....just like when I see a Starbucks here (I have only seen 2...one in Geneva and one in Lausanne)...but right now I have a delicious bottle of Pepsi Light in my fridge which makes me happy for now but I can't wait to be back home(for 2 days) and inhale as much Diet Pepsi as humanly possible.
2) Ethnic food....Crans Montana has a small selection of ethnic food including Chinese, Lebanese (which is yummy) and Thai(also yummy) but its REALLY expensive. I miss my O Sushi or Funky Thai when I can pay $10 and get a full lunch meal but here its atleast $25 for pad thai :( to me this is craziness!! There are far too many pizza and fondue places here but I'm not really complaining because they are delicious.
3) After bar food....I mean we go out to the bars quite a bit and when we all leave and go to our seperate living spaces ALL I want is a Wendy's or McDonald's or maybe even a pita...I mean its not too much to ask right! I would even settle for a kebab which they do have here but they aren't even open late enough. I realize that not eating after the bar is probably much better for me but sometimes to sober up that's all you need and I have to settle for papryka chips, croissants, pasta, bread and cheese which I don't really mind either.
4) There's a reason Switzerland is a neutral country and used as a holding place for money...everything is so damn expensive here. Y0u know you're rich when you have a swiss bank account because seriously, its just ridiculous. It's impossible to buy anything cheap...cheap doesn't exist here but I guess it makes me not shop which is a good thing since my suitcase was already overweight on the way over so I don't even want to talk about how much it will weigh on the way back.