I survived the Alps!

Did you know that Switzerland is 12 hours away from Rome? I had no idea, for some reason I just assumed that, it was close. I mean everyone always says how close all of the European countries are to each other and how easy and quick it is to get country to country. We went to Switzerland through AUR and so there were about 200 students crammed onto 2 Charter buses. We took off in the night on Thursday and started driving. 12 hours later at 8 am, we had finally reached our destination, Interlaken, Switzerland. As soon as we arrived, my crankiness of being smashed on a bus seemed to disappear.
As soon as we got to our hostel people seemed to run out off the bus and start getting ready for their day's adventure. Some were going sky diving, others paragliding, I was going skiing. I had never skied a day in my life and so the anticipation and excitement was what was keeping me wide-awake. I went two other girls; we went to the store and got our equipment. The guy asked me if I had ever skied before and if I wanted, lessons and I told him, "No, I think I'll wing it."
Switzerland was cold. Really cold. I had almost forgotten what winter felt like. We all had to bundle up and I could see my breath when I talked. I had gotten so used to 40 degrees being cold in Rome. At one point, it was -6 degrees Celsius, which is about 22 degrees Fahrenheit. It was freezing!
When we got to the slope, it was definitely intimidating. Never in my life have I seen mountains so gigantic. We had to take this little monorail to the top of the slope, and honestly, that was almost scarier than the idea of skiing. When we got to the top we put on our skis, and I fell. I hadn't even had them on for 5 minutes, I was already on the ground, and thinking maybe lessons would have been a good idea. But I managed to ski a little. I only went down the smallest slope with the little kids; seriously, those 5 year olds were way better skiers than I was. Skiing was scary. I didn't know how to stop and they go so fast, I was pretty sure I was going to die but I made it through the day. I am completely bruised from the knee down, but it was worth it. Just to be at the top of the mountains.
The world looks so small and insignificant from up there. The Alps were gorgeous and being up there made me think how much we take nature for granted. I mean we are destroying the wonders of our world and no one seems to care.When we got back to the hostel exhaustion finally hit, apparently being awake for over 24 hours causes someone to be tired.
The next day 6 of us went on a bus trip to Zurich. Honestly, Switzerland looks just the way I thought it would. While we were walking around, we stumbled across another Carnivale celebration. In the past two weekends, I have seen two different countries covered in people in costumes and confetti. It was really cool though. There were like 4 bands dressed in costumes in the parade and everyone could join in. Families were joining in on the parade and walking down the street. While we were watching the parade this little boy in a King Arthur costume decided, I wasn't festive enough and dumped his entire bag of confetti on me. Two days later and I'm still finding confetti in my purse and coat.
Also Zurich had a starbucks on almost every other corner. So of course I had to go in, they don't have starbucks in Italy. There is such a huge coffee culture in Italy that it is doubtful that a Starbucks will ever open. I'm loving the Italian coffee but I miss Starbucks.
On Sunday, everyone got back onto the buses for another 12-hour journey.