Week 9: November 8th

Mount Titlis Tour. Organ Donation Campaign. First Project Completed!

My most anticipated, and favourite part of the trip was the tour we attended on Thursday. "Titlis- Eternal Snow and Glacier" featuring the world's first revolving cable car to the top of the mountain (3020m), Ice Flyer, Glacier Cave, Cliff Walk, and free time in Lucerne. A small and diverse group, our tour guide Raymond gave us information in both English, and Spanish. Shortly after boarding the bus, a woman from a small town in Minnesota started chatting with us, telling us about her ranch. My mom asked her about Trump, and she said she thought he was wonderful, which I could have told you from the second she started talking. She was a lot of Trump supporter cliches. She asked us about how we felt about Trump, and I scoffed and rolled my eyes, which was quickly followed by an elbow from my mom, and she politely said "well he's very controversial". I fished in my backpack for some headphones, because I don't have the patience to listen to that. Ruth stayed by our side through the tour, and I just tried to ignore her, but she did mention things like "I don't believe in climate change", and "we must respect the office of the President no matter what", and I was really struggling to keep my mouth shut. Come lunch time, my mom and I were eating the lunch we had packed (frugal people that we are), and Ruth sat with us commenting on how she wish she had thought of that. My mom offered to share our lunch with her, and I shot her a death glare. I don't like sharing food period, but with a Trump supporter!? Some people might say I'm being dramatic but I think if you've chosen to cast a vote for a blatantly racist, misogynist, bully of a man then you've said that you value economic growth, and "safety" over the rights of women, minorities, the gays, the muslims, and whoever else Trump chooses to target. Moral of the story is, don't ever say I'm not tolerant, and respectful of different viewpoints because I shared my lunch with this lady.

The tour began at Mount Titlis where we took the cable car to the top to see the panoramic views of the Swiss Alps. 15 degrees in Zurich, but Mount Titlis was a chilly -1. No matter how many layers I wear, I'm never prepared for the cold. We started our free time at the top with the ice flyer. Which was just a chair lift. I'm sure it's exciting for people who have never been skiing before, but to me it was just sitting in a cold metal chair. Then we made our way over to the Cliff Walk, which is Europe's highest suspension bridge. My mom's afraid of heights, but she did so well crossing it, despite the wind swinging it just a little. It was really pretty, and much better than the suspension bridge we crossed near Belfast. No one was rushing us across, and we could take pictures, and enjoy the views. After the bridge, we checked out the Glacier Cave, which was all ice. There were some Australians on our tour, and watching them try to walk on the ice was pretty comical. We had our lunch at the top of the mountain, with Ruth as mentioned earlier. Then we headed down the mountain with two women from Argentina. They didn't speak English, but we were communicating them with actions and facial expressions. Finally, the one woman started using google translate to talk to us. She had been pointing to her teeth trying to tell us what she did for a living, and with the help of Google Translate, she told us she was a Dentist. Her son had installed the app for her so that she could communicate with English speakers while away. After Mount Titlis, we stopped in Lucerne for about an hour. Our first stop in Lucerne was Chocolate World for a hot chocolate after the chilly few hours atop the mountain. As a non coffee drinker, I drink a lot of hot chocolate, and that was by far the best one I've ever had. After that we went to check out the lion monument. It was way bigger than I expected, and was pretty neat. After that, we walked along the water and watched the sunset near the mountains which was pretty incredible. The bus ride back into Zurich, I put some headphones on (new Chris Brown album is fire in case you're wondering), and tried to stay awake since it was only 6:30pm. After the long day, I was ready for bed as soon as we got back into Zurich around 7pm. I might be 22, but I'm 60 at heart. I've been asleep before my mom every night of this trip.

Friday was a pretty low key day. After such a busy week, mom and I were both tired. She did some exploring in Zurich, but she wasn't feeling well. I got some school work done in the hotel, and went to have hot chocolate at Starbuck's. 9 Swiss Franc for a small hot chocolate in case you're wondering, how crazy!? I was thrilled though because the girl spelled my name right, and on a holiday cup (Christmas lovers rejoice!). I have talked a lot about my existential crisis and how I need to do something to make a difference in the world. Fourtunately, Canada is a great place and I don't have many complaints, but I am frequently giving people heck about not voting, and not registering to be an organ donor. The Trillium Gift of Life has a program where you can apply to run your own campaign, set a goal for yourself, and get people to register as donors. It's a great opportunity for me to make a difference, and it's a pretty ideal volunteer opportunity, as I can work away on this side project whenever it best suits me. My campaign was approved this week, so I'm starting my campaigning for that. Are you an Ontario resident reading this blog? Well, great news you can check your registration status through my campaign here.

Saturday, we flew back to Dublin, and arrived around 1pm. We headed to the hotel to drop off our things before going to the Guinness Tour. As a non-drinker, I wasn't too interested, but it was neat nonetheless. I had a bad migraine the entire day, which had worsened during our tour (people who are drinking aren't quiet, go figure). We left promptly, and headed back to the hotel, where I immediately went to sleep as I felt awful. Sunday morning we woke up and headed to the airport. I caught the bus back to Sligo, and mom left for Toronto. After the nearly four hour bus ride back to Sligo, I spent the evening with friends, Emma was very cuddly- a week apart felt like forever.

I expected Monday to be a horrible day, as it was our first day back at school after the break, but it went by surprisingly quickly. Emma, and I encountered a familiar face at school, Bryan Girard, who we knew from the 2015 OCMC team at St. Clair. Our professor invited him to watch our presentation the following day, which put even more pressure on us. We spent the evening working on the powerpoint, and coordinating our outfits with our group members (we're all wearing black or purple tops with grey pants in case you're wondering).

Tuesday, we met as a group and practiced our presentation once threw which went great! I felt a little worried going into the presentation, not because presenting is nerve racking, just because I'm not used to the way things are graded here, and wasn't sure what to expect. Everyone in our group presented well, and the prof said it was excellent, and I'm very happy to have one big project out of the way.

Wednesday, Emma and I hung out in the library and were pretty productive. One project done, but we still have five more to go. After we finished classes, we headed home to get ready to go out. We went for burgers with Bryan and his friends, who were all lovely, and very chatty. One of them happened to me a neighbour of ours, and said she will drop by sometime. It was great to chat up with Bryan while he was here.