Saturday, January 10, 2009

I cannot even begin to descibe the natural beauty of this place. My balcony looks out to the peaks of the Alps…a majestic thing to wake up to. We were all quite tired when we arrive last night. The resort has a tavern on site and that provided us with our dinner. It is always an interesting adventure attempting to read a menu in a foreign language – fortunately this time a fellow classmate spoke German. I almost felt bad for him because we were constantly asking, “Eddie, what is this…and this?” The food was delicious and the company even better. Shortly after we finished we headed back to our rooms – this would be our first attempt to climb the mountain. Wow…throw in a change in altitude and a mountain and it seems that everyone is out of shape. Sleep came quickly!

This morning we woke up at 9:15…and the only reason we rose that early was because breakfast ended at 10! We all threw on some clothes and headed down the mountain to the main lodge. Breakfast was not a disappointment – bread, cheese, juice, tea, fruit, chocolate (!), and yogurt. It felt gourmet and was well worth rising out of bed! Following breakfast most of us took a nap until the spa opened up.

The spa…have I mentioned how much I love spas? A bit of a culture shock however...nudity isn’t an issue here…thankfully I was aware of that previously and was prepared for it. Men and women are more than comfortable walking around completely nude and I spent much of the time averting my eyes. Fortunately the pool, where I spent the majority of my time, required a bathing suit – this is due to the fact that children are allowed to use the pool facility.

That said, the pool was an experience in itself. There were waterfalls, whirlpool jets, bubbles…you just had to move to a different side of the pool for a new feature. It was also warm…not lukewarm (I hate when a pool is lukewarm), but my kind of bath water warm…just below a hot tub. We also spent a little time in the sauna. This was a bathing suit optional location, but fortunately most people relax…and close their eyes…in Saunas, so it wasn’t awkward when we all closed our eyes at once!

During the morning while others were napping some people offered to go to the store to pick up some groceries for dinner. Our rooms all have full kitchens and dining rooms, so we thought it would be nice (and economical) to cook dinner as a group. Surprisingly, despite our protests of all pasta all the time, we decided to cook pasta! However, we were quite liberal with the vegetables…something that seems to be lacking in Fribourg. Following dinner we all relaxed in one of the rooms and just got to know each other a little bit better and a good time was had by all.