So, had my first day. Just arrived at the residence in Lausanne. Rooms not ready yet, so I'm wasting time here. Don't feel like elaborating yet.

Also, I'm wondering who's reading these (aside from Mom and who I'm presuming is Joelle). Post a comment letting me know who's listening. 

Lausanne

Wi-fi in my room was really expensive, so Im on a computer where the y and z have switched places and I cant find the apostrophe button.

I didnt lose my adaptor. Turns out I just suck at looking for things. But you already knew that.

Ill write more when Im not being charged for the time.

uh...

I'm having a hard time finding my adaptor. I was sure I saw it on the plane, so I'm sure I didn't forget it at home. It either fell out of my bag when I was taking out the plastic baggy full of liquids to pass through security at Heathrow or it's somewhere in my room and I'm not looking hard enough.

Let's hope the latter (I only have 1hr 20mins worth of battery life left).

Geneva

Just got in Geneva. As I stepped out of the plane I had a sense of "holy shit I'm alone in a country where I don't really know the language, haven't thought or spoken in this language for months".

The panic is gone now, though. Still haven't spoken much in French. Also, Geneva reminds me a lot of Rio, which is the last place I thought Switzerland would remind me of.

YVR - Heathrow Flight

The level of service here is ridiculously over the top. We got the little boxes of toiletries (as all classes of travel used to get), but on top of that they also give you PJs, slippers, an aroma therapy spray to put on your pillow to help you sleep.

Every twenty seconds someone comes around to offer you something really classy. Even as I wrote this, I got a plate of hoere d'ouvres (sp?).

My reaction to the absurd levels of extravagance switches back and forth between amusement and indignance, wondering if they can have this much luxury here, why not a little more comfort for economy.

(Slightly interrupted there, ordering dinner:
Starters: smoked salmon, grilled asparagus, mustard and dill sauce
Main: Pan-seared halibut with morel and whole-grain mustard sauce
Dessert: Warm cranberry and maple bread pudding with ice-cream

... there 4 classy sounding options for each one. dude, seriously? ridiculousness.)

(Also to Marcia in particular: each seat comes with an extra seat for visitors, hopefully on the flight back, they'll let the lowly economy passenger come visit you in your swanky first class).

In other news, it's a gorgeous day to fly. (Again particularly addressed to MC: remember when we were flying to Rio and we kept taking all those pictures as we identified features geo taught us? It was another amazing day for that....although i didn't take pictures; my bag was stored away while we were taking off) We first flew heading west then turned around, with my side of the plane angling towards Vancouver for an amazing view. This is the first time I saw Vancouver from the air since becoming familiar with its geography, and god, how I love it. I was able to identify Stanley Park, downtown, UBC, note the average building height in different areas it was all pretty interesting.

And then there were the mountains. There was one point where there were about 7 or 8 u-shaped valleys running parallel to each other, so all you could see was several knife edge ridges, each one a slightly different shade of blue, as they recede into the horizon. It was one of those moments (which I've been getting quite frequently in the past year) where I think Vancouver/B.C./nature/the universe/life is gorgeous and amazing and wonderful. I don't know which one to attribute it to. I often attribute it to Vancouver: have a moment of wonder and amazement at the beauty of the mountains or the trees, and say to myself how much I love Vancouver. I don't know whether that's really fair. It's likely that it's just a recent determination with being decidedly happy and exuberant about things, and keep an eye out for moments like this, and it only happens to coincide with that now I live in Vancouver. but that's all a tangent (but then again my next topic was going to be one as well (I was going to talk about how I love it when background scientific knowledge about something adds to the enjoyment of the beauty and wonder of it (in this case, the formation of knife edge ridges, tarns, cirques, etc).

(Dinner now).

Also, watched The Science of Sleep. It's a strange movie, I believe it's French. It's about this guy who grew up in Mexico but is now living with his mom in Paris, but his English is better than his French, so there's a mixture of the three languages throughout the film. It's really whimsical, as it shows dreams, depictions of his consciousness, all mixed in with reality, but I found the narrative somewhat unsatisfying, particularly given where it ends.

Anywho, the reason I was describing it was because I was wondering if anyone felt like watching it (e.g. Marcia, S + J, Jacob) or if I should delete it off my laptop.

Also, I just realized I'm stupid and should've been sleeping. (No wonder everyone else is). The flight is landing in 3 hours, and I haven't slept yet.

Ok, (this is 40 mins later) i give up on sleep. Not gonna happen. It's 10:40pm Vancouver time, 7:45am London time. Yesterday, I went to sleep around 4am. You see how this could be problematic.

Considering how the first class cabin is designed so that the seats fold flat like a full bed, I got very little sleep. Much less than I usually do.

We'll see how the next flight goes. I'm going to go explore the swanky business lounge filled with free food (and a guy at the door who also treated me like an impostor up until i gave him my boarding class... I quickly turned from a "you" to a "madam").

At the Airport

There's nothing quite as thrilling as finding out your flight leaves 3 hours earlier than you expected 2 hours before the flight is actually supposed to leave and encountering some traffic on the way to the airport.

That was an adventure.

Anywho, it wasn't too bad. We ended up getting at the terminal about 90 minutes before the flight.

Now I'm in the pretentious first class lounge with soft jazz music playing in the background, with free wine, champagne, and pastries (which would be exciting if i actually drank or wasn't already full). I feel like an impostor. The lady at the first class check-in counter treated me like an impostor up till I showed her my ticket.

I suppose with good reason. There probably isn't a lot of backpackers who fly first class, but ironically, that was the cheapest way to get to Europe. (Since I'm flying at a peak time, they don't have economy seats for people flying with air miles).

Perhaps I should get a pretentious pastry.

I'll post once again I land if I get internets at Heathrow (as per mom's request). I should have some 5 hours to explore the airport until my flight to Geneva comes, I'm sure I'l find some corner with it within that time.

The Rationale

So, Mom asked me to send her a daily e-mail whilst traveling to let her know that I'm ok. I figured I might as well start a blog assuring her, and any friends who are interested, that I'm not dead yet.

I'll probably have pretty good internet access in all the places I go except for Santiago, so I'll try to update regularly (don't expect it to be particularly interesting though, it'll decrease the probability I'll write anything at all). 

Oh, and Marcia will also be writing here once she leaves (or whilst she's preparing to).

Anywho, I should probably go pack now...