More from Geneva!!!

Was planning to wait until I got home to update you all on Geneva, but I have a few free minutes here so thought I may as well get to it!

My stay here has been so awesome so far. Those of you who know Jac know that she's so fun and we've had a great time. Let's see if i can do it justice!

Thursday: I arrived in Geneva after a stopover in Frankfurt. Frankfurt airport was pretty good, from what I saw of it. Actually, there was one weird thing.... so i deplane from my inbound flight from Denver, i walk around for a little to stretch my legs, then i camp out in the Lufthansa Gold lounge for an hour or so. Then i try to find a water fountain (with no luck), so i buy a huge bottle of water. (those of you who know me will remember that idrink an obscene amount of water.....what can i say?? my body requires a lot of fluid i guess??). anyway - it's huge. so i walk to my gate and notice there is a security check directly in front of my gate. JUST my gate...no other gates. the woman sees my huge water and tells me i can't take it in...so i step back and drink the whole thing. i was pretty dehydrated after my long flight and just chugged the whole thing. actually, it kind of hurt. haha. but....the real qustion is....WHY was there an additional security check in front of my gate? I was still in the secure terminal? the gates on either side of me weren't being checked? it was very odd. Anyway - on my Frankfurt-Geneva flight, we were served a little cheese sandwich and a mini-twix, both of which i basically swallowed whole. i guess i was hungrier than i thought? arrived in Geneva and claimed luggage, then walked to Jac's office (approx 5 mins walking from the airport - the airport is litearlly right in the middle of an office park...weird!!!). then jac luckily was able to take the rest of the day off and we took the bus home together!!! great start to the trip! we then went to drop off her laundry at the laundromat, and visited the grocery store. i dont know about you, but i think it's totally fascinating to grocery shop in other countries. like....i can't stop looking at all the options. the produce is way fresher looking than in the US, for one thing. the cheese department (karee...i'm talking to you!!!) is like.....the size of china. i swear, it's enormous. and they have a Weight Watchers variety for EVERY cheese. they have WW brie. i'm not kidding. i think i want to move here. any country where WW can see fit to sponsor a triple cream cheese is a-ok with me!!!

ANyway - we made raclette (i took pics and will post when i arrive home tomorrow) and drank wine and it was fab!

Friday - jac worked all day and i worked on my B School apps. 2 submitted friday so that was exciting!!! then around....6pm, she came home, we went to go feed her friend's cats (jac was cat-sitting this weekend) around the corner, then stopped at a cute bar by their house for happy hour. had 2 drinks then went back home bc Allison was arriving!!! Allison went to college with us also and was coming down from Strasbourg, France, where she's lived for the past 5+ years since college. me and Jac took train to airport to meet her and her dog (Belle) and we all came home and had fondue and drank wine and chatted and had lots of fun.

Saturday - went wine tasting in Dardegny (i hope i spelled that right), a small town outside of Geneva. Jac has blogged about it before so you can read about that on her site. Had lots of delicious swiss wines and met up with Jac's friends. Had a delicious lunch at a tiny little cute restaurant, then came home and took a much-needed power nap. Then we went to a little neighborhood pizza place where we were seated next to a lunatic family. Really. Crazy people. the woman was kissing everyone in the restaurant and i was terrified she was coming to me next. allison kept translating everything for me though, so i was relatively safe. in any case, very eventful. apparently (thank you Jac) the waiters in Switz get really offended if you dont eat all your food. YET they make you order an entire pizza all for yourself. since i couldn't finish mine, the waiter didn't come to clear our table for like.....an hour. literally. that was interesting......how is everyone here not WAY fatter??

Sunday - we toured around Geneva, went to see the Jet d'eau, (sp?), went to starbucks (allison was in need since they dont have them in strasbourg), then went to the big cathedral. jac & i thought it would be fun to 'climb the tower'. which......yes, it was fun. but let's just say it's several days later and my dogs are still barking. our legs were like jelly when we finished that, but i got some great pics!!! stay tuned for those!! Allison had to leave sunday late afternoon, so me & jac came home and cooked dinner, had some wine, and sat on her porch and people watched.

Monday - decided to take a little day trip to Yveron Les Baines, a small town about 50 minutes away (via train) from Geneva. THey're known for their thermal springs, and we decided to go for the Thermal Hot Springs Spa there, which sounded Super fun. Anyway - since it's freezing, i obviously didn't pack a bathing suit. and i def wont fit into Jac's, so we debated whether i should 1) buy one, 2) wear a black bra/undies and pretend it was a suit, 3) acclimate to euro and join the nudefest. we were both pretty nervous about this, since we're shy americans and dont really want to prance around in our birthday suits often. ANyway - as luck would have it, there was a sporting goods store right in town when we arrived and i bought a suit. phew. and Oh my god thankfully, because there was NO nudity at this place, so i would have stood out pretttttttttttttttttty obviously. hahah. the thermal spa was really cool, and we somehow managed to go upstairs and enjoy the japanese baths and the really really hot tub (most of the 'hot' tubs weren't really all that hot). when we were leaving we discovered we were supposed to have paid more for that, but didn't. oooooooooops. anyway - we took the train back, then both worked for a little, then went to dinner at this cute little place in the old town. we sat next to a couple speaking english and jac & i played the "are they on a date? if so, what # date?" game about them. we determined it mush have NOT been a great date since at 1 point they were both on their cell phones. didn't their mothers ever teach them it's rude to talk on the phone at the table? apparently not. we also spent about 10 mins trying to guess her accent. we decided she was from a non-english speaking country, but had been taught english by a south african. her accent was so weird!

anyway - now i'm at jac's apartment, about to run out then she & i are meeting for dinner in a few hours. i leave tomorrow morning. i'm so sad to leave her - i've had such a great time, and geneva is such a cute, charming city. its' pretty easy to get around and navigate, which is another bonus.

also - i've now spoken to 8 french people on my own. EIGHT!! huge accomplishment. please, just indulge me here :)

ok more to come later. bye!

Some thoughts on my Flight to Switz

1. bring your star alliance card wherever you go - they give you major perks. hahaha. i had to like....beg the guy at the lufthansa lounge to let me in.....he didn't believe me when i said i was qualified. he eventually called united to verify. and WOOO HOO thank god he did....there is a smorgasbord of free stuff. beer/wine/cocktails/snacks/etc.

2. drinks in econ are free on lufthansa (damn you united.....i'm so breaking up with you)

3. there were major issues with my ticket. like, there was no ticket #, they kept asking me where my hard copy was....which i obvs didn't have, bc WHAT YEAR IS THIS??? E-TICKETS baby.

4. the woman on the plane next to me brought MCDONALDS on board with her - before a transatlantic flight. do you know how badly that smells? yes, you do. like total ass. it was gross. GROSS.

5. there was a cute guy in the middle section of seats next to me. he made eyes at me a few times, then i noticed he was laughing hysterically at the movie....which was Mr. Bean's Holiday.....so my crush was instantly over.

6. did i mention...the movie was MR BEANS HOLIDAY. ugh.

7. there are no water fountains in the frankfurt airport. none. i even asked. so i had to buy water :(

more to come!!!!

Puro San Antonio!!!

So there is a bumper sticker that a lot of cars in SA have that says "Puro San Antonio" and it always makes me laugh. Anytime me or one of my friends from SA does something worth getting excited about, we scream that at eachother. It's fun.

Anyway - I was in San Antonio this weekend for a wedding. My friend Carrie from High School got hitched to her now-hubby, Alex, and it was so fun! We had a blast and stayed up way too late with all the other guests, but it was worth it.

I also ate (i'm not exaggerating) like 15 tacos over the course of 4 days. this is unacceptable. but those of you who are familiar with Taco Cabana, Taco House, and Las Palapas will understand that it's not gluttony, just me wisely storing up until my next trip home :)

Ok - SA Airport. I've posted about this one before, but here is some more info. They are currently doing an etensive renovation and building a brand new terminal, which is quite exciting. Here is a brochure for those of you who are curious. I think everyone who reads this has either been there or will go at some point (like to visit me!) - http://www.sanantonio.gov/aviation/images/SAAIRBiz-Journ-half-pg-ad_f.jpg

So flight in was fairly uneventful. I managed to make an earlier standby flight from DEN and katy nicely picked me up and drove me home. Nothing eventful on this flight, except that my bag was the VERY FIRST one off the baggage claim (simple pleasures, i know...)

Flight out on Sunday was more painful. As mentioned above, we stayed up WAY too late at the wedding, so Sunday was pretty rough. My momma took me to the airport and when i arrived...i learned my flight was already 2 hours delayed (i should have checked status....my bad). Anyway - the lines were totally insane at the United Check in (while at SWA, Delta, etc...there is litearlly multiple workers and not a single passenger...come on United get with the program!!!). Anyway - i check in, go through security, then go sit at the airport Las Palapas (the only one in SA open on Sundays...bonus!!!), where i had tacos #14 & #15, a diet coke, and my bill was only $4.00....gotta love that! I sat and read my book for 2 hours, then wandered down to my gate, where i run into 5 guys who I'd met at the wedding. Their flight was already several hours late, and there was no end in sight. Therefore, my flight was also delayed. So the 6 of us sat there and chatted for the next hour or so...United only has 2 gates at SAT, and there were 5 flights of people waiting....so it wasn't looking good. The guys were all on a flight to Dulles, and the story with their flight was this....The pilot realized his manual was out of date, so another airport was FAXING a 200+ page manual to the SAT airport so their flight could take off. i'm not kidding. we all thought this was 1) totally ridiculuos...have they not heard of, email, pulling it off some central server, taking the manual off another plane in SAT and photocopying it....or worst case, continuing to fly with the old one as he's obviously been doing for years??? we thought this was so bizarre. 2) pretty embarassing that they're announcing this to the terminal. i mean, this makes united look pretty ridiculous, right??

anyway - we thought that was very odd.

so then their flight left, then mine boarded about 10 minutes later, so i didn't have to hang out alone too long.

but...when i arrived in DEN....my bag was the VERY FIRST ONE on the baggage claim again. this is incredibly exciting. i think my impending breakup with United airlines has just been delayed a little... i mean if they keep treating me like a VIP with the baggage, i can't very well dump them, can i? however, if they keep dragging me along with their ridiculous delays, charges, and schedule changes...i might dump them anyway. they're like a boyfriend who treats me really bad but i can't leave because i'm way too invested in the relationship. can i transfer my status & miles elsewhere without losing them??? although - who would i transfer to? is the grass just greener? I think so - the amount i fly would cause me to be disenchanted with any airline, right? someone...please tell me i'm right here.... :)

ok bye!!! Next up - i fly to Switzerland tomorrow!!!!!!!!

Ohare & the pleasure of flying with United......

so i have lots of updates. since my last post, i've flown from Detroit-Chicago, then CHicago-Denver.

First, Ohare. I have flown in and out of Ohare a ton of times, so i have lots of thoughts. First, it's extremely inconvenient to get there from the city (probably no more than in SF or Denver, but there was WAY more traffic). I hear you can take the El, but that it's super slow and pretty ghetto....AND it takes you to a part of the airport that's not terribly close to any of the terminals. although i haven't ever tried that way...maybe next time?

Security: Hit or miss. this time, it was super fast. i go through the priority lines 99% of the time, so they're usually much shorter. but this was exceptionally fast. like.....5 minutes total. although the woman ahead of me (god knows how she got in the 'fast' line bc she had NO idea how to go through security) - she didn't take off her shoes, jacket, jewels, or really prepare at all. she tries to walk through fully decked out in all her clothes & carying her yappy dog. so the security guard says 'maam, take off your shoes, your jacket, your jewels, etc'. so she sets down the dog, takes off shoes. picks up the dog to cuddle it, then sets down the dog again, takes off jacket. etc. it took....awhile. it was irrirtating.

Bathrooms; 2 good things about the bathrooms. the doors go all the way down to the floor. this is great, bc you can put your purse down o nthe gruond and not be afraid it will get snatched up. very convenient. second good thing about the bathroom is they have the auto seat-cover dispenser. you know....the plastic cover that swirls around to make sure your bum has a nice clean surface to sit on! this is great.

Electrical outlets: OMG don't get me started. there is an outlet ROUGHLY every 2-3 gates. and there are people fighting over them. it's totally uncceptable. my mother has also expressed her frustration wtih this at ohare, so i know it's not me being picky (unless that's an inherited trait...)

Internet access: not free. bad.

Delays: bad. very bad.


So those were my preliminary thoughts on ohare. note that this was ohare generically, not United. I am very very very mad at united right now.....so this is biased. i just think they're terrible. i can't get into it right now so maybe next time.

until then, adios!!!

Detroit!

So i flew into Detroit a few days ago......although i'm sad to say I dont have much intel on the airport, since i was in a remote terminal. i HEAR the northwest terminal is awesome, but i didn't see that one. just the United Terminal. My thoughts include:
1. I dont understand the concept of wearing sunglasses at midnight. Inside. When you're not a celebrity. Anyone??
2. The Detroit passengers were more aggressive at the baggage claim than in other airports? Significantly more aggressive.
3. The bathroom was extremely small. I dont understand airports where the bathroom has like.....3 stalls.
4. They were't super strict with the parking rules. Eugene was able to sit outside in his car for like 20 minutes and they never asked him to move. Compare this to my experiences at DEN when i pick up friends. man...they're all over you after about 10 seconds. I guess they dont really care if someone blows up the Detroit Airport? What's the deal here?

OK that's all - flyign to Ohare in a few hours, and i dont think i've ever posted about that one....so i'll take notes.

Bye!