Wednesday May 24

Today we had a morning to sleep in and relax. We went to buy some French chocolate and then went to a mid-morning brunch at a small cafe in Paris close to our hotel. After this, we returned and a few of our group members bought baguettes to eat on our train ride. We ordered Uber vans to take us and our luggage to the train station. The driving in Paris was very crazy, basically a free for all with bikes and motorcycles maneuvering through traffic. Once we got to the train station we grabbed a bite to eat for the train ride. Travel days tend to be rather hectic, especially when the restrooms are far apart and you have to pay to use them. We also can't do as many exciting lessons on travel days as it takes up a big chunk of our time, that aside we still got to have some more fun in Paris before hopping on the train to Switzerland. The train ride was very pretty view-wise we saw a lot of cows and it was very green. We also got to see Lake Geneva and the mountains of Switzerland which were so beautiful. To keep ourselves entertained on the train we played a lot of Uno. After the train ride, we hopped on a subway to get to our hotel in Switzerland. The hotel is right next to the subway stations which is so nice as we did not have to carry our bags very far. We attempted to do some laundry, however, the laundry mat was cash only and we could not find an ATM to get any, so we will have to go another day. We then went to dinner at The Lacustre where we got some amazing pizza. I had a Spilingo pizza with spicy tomato sauce, ricotta cheese, and pesto. The restaurant was right on the border of the lake and we ate at sunset so we had an amazing view. We also got to see the countdown clock for the 2024 Olympics as Lausanne is home to the International Olympic Committee. After this, we walked around the city which is much more peaceful than London and Paris were. The subways here seem to be a lot cleaner and are much less crowded which is a nice change from the other places we have been so far. We ended the night by heading back to our hotel and getting some rest as we have to be up early tomorrow for a day at the IOC. I am a big fan of Switzerland so far and it is a nice break from all the craziness of the other two cities. I am having so much fun on this trip seeing such beautiful places and learning so much about such a fun topic. Professor Ryan, unfortunately, had to end his trip in Paris, but I know he is hoping we have a great rest of our trip in Switzerland and Greece. I am very excited about these next two locations of the trip and am not ready for it to end. We miss you Professor Ryan and GM!