Ich spreche nicht Deutsch???

I arrived in Luzern, Switzerland, on Saturday for the first leg of my Toussaint break, and what an amazing place!!! The city is incredibly picturesque, with several covered wooden bridges adorned with flowers, lots of beautiful old buildings, and a beautiful view of the lake (when it's not foggy, that is, so today, being the first fog-free day (at least in the morning), was the first day that I could atually see the lake and the surrounding mountains. I spent my first afternoon here exploring the city- that is, after I found my hostel, which is about a half-hour walk from downtown. I knew what street I was looking for, but my map ended before I could see where exactly I needed to turn, so I was just slightly lost. So I waled into a grocery store and asked the cashier, ¨Sprechen Sie anglisch?¨ (Do you speak English?) She did not, but luckily there was a random guy in line who did speak English and was able to help me. That's when I realized that I ha booked my trip in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Damn it. Surprisingly, though, I have loved being here so much that it has made me want to give German another shot... and for those of you who listened to me whine about how much I hated German for the 6 weeks I was taking it will know that that's saying a lot. The one frustrating part has been when people try to talk to me in German and I just have no idea what they're saying. The language geek in me hates going into a country where I don't speak the language.

It was really frustrating: I was in a department store and was trying to pay for something. The cashier started speaking to me in German, and I said, ¨Ich spreche nicht Deutsch,¨ the other useful German phrase that I knew coming into this trip. So she started speaking to me in French, which was actually great, because she didn't automatically go to English. However, she went back to German, which left me being like, ¨What the hell? I just told you I didn't speak German!¨ I was talking to someone else in the hostel today, and she said that she had had the same experience.

Other than the long walk from downtown, thehostel hasbeen really nice so far- not anything extravagant, but clean, non-sketchy, and with lots of people around to meet. The interesting thing, though, is that, even though it is called a ¨youth hostel,¨ a guy andI were remarking that there are not a lotof youths here. There are a lot of people traveling with their families (as in young children), which I definitely wasn't expecting. So anyway, my first night here, I was downstairs the common area attempting to take a chunk out of the 700-page bear of a surrealist French book, called ¨Aurélien¨, that I have to read for one of my classes and would like tohave fiished by the end of break. This woman comes over to me and asks me something in German. I explained again that I don't speak German, and said that I did speak French. She asked me if the cute little children playing in the other room were mine. Yeah, no. So we were talking, and the more we talked, the more her freak flag went up. She's probably close to 50, and from the sounds of it, she has spent her entire adult life in academia. She was telling me how much she loves going learning and going back to school to get degree after degree, and I was just laughing inside. But even though I have no desire whatsoever to spend my entire adult life in a classroom, if that makes her happy, that's great... She was asking about the American education system- at this point, she was practicing her English on me- and when I told her that Georgetown costs somewhere around 40,000 euros a year, I seriously thought she was going to have a coronary. It was quite funny actually.

Last night, I met Henry and Bharat, two Aussies who are studying medicine in London for six weeks and who are also on break. They were playing cards at the only free table in the common area, and I asked if I could sit with them, since I wasn't ready to go to bed yet. I had the intention of reading mymonster book but instead stayed up playing cards and talking with them for like two-and-a-half hours. They were really nice guys, and they're actually going to be in Florence when I am, so we exchanged email addresses so maybe we can meet up. I also met two girls, one American and the other Norwegian, who are studying in Besancnon, France this semester (I know that that spelling is wrong, but I can't type on this stupid German keyboard!). Youthhostels are a really cool place to meet people, because they literally come from all over the world.

I think I will have to describe all of my many excursions in another entry, because this keyboard is giving me a headache. I hope all is well with you in whatever corner of the globeyou may be in, and, as always,

Sending you my love,
Kristen