Settling Down

I realized today that it had been quite awhile since I last posted... probably the result of being in 4 countries in the last 3 days. A lot of exciting things have happened since I last posted. We spent 7 amazing days in Switzerland, enjoying the scenery, culture, and business environment. The first 3 days were in Lucerne (which I think I wrote about before). It was such a nice little town situated in the Alps on the edge of a beautiful lake.

While we were there, we visited Credit Suisse in Zurich and got to enjoy the town. My friend had a really nice balcony in his hotel room that overlooked the town and the mountains. One night, we sat on his balcony for a couple of hours as it rained and enjoyed the city.

On Tuesday, we travelled from Lucerne to Geneva. The trip was a really beautiful--it was through the Alps, and we stopped in a valley surrounded by mountains. Some friends and I celebrated a friends birthday by going up in a cable car to the top of a mountain. At the top, there was a charming little village that we walked around in before returning and making the rest of the trip to Geneva.

We arrived in Geneva on Tuesday, and stayed in a "challenging" dormitory. I can't really explain it, but it was not my favorite place to stay. Geneva, itself, was quite beautiful and we were able to visit the WTO and Nestle corporation. Geneva is located at the edge of the largest lake in Switzerland. On one side are the French Alps and on the other side are hundreds and hundreds of vineyards... its literally one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen.

Last Thursday, we visited Chamonix, at the base of the highest Mountain in Europe. I don't think that I can explain it in words... these pictures should suffice:

I discovered, at 13,000 feet, that I have a slight fear of heights. Nothing intolerable, but I did feel like a girl, not being able to get within 2 feet of the edge of the lookout tower.

We are now in the Netherlands. We are at a very comfortable conference center in a forested area near a small Dutch town. We will be here for about three weeks and will be taking classes for most of the time. I anticipate that it will be fairly intense, but also interesting. Today, we were given bikes to use for the duration of our stay, and we took a ride into town and around the area. It seems like a really nice area and I think we will have a lot of to do. I'll try to post later this week with an update of what we have been up to.