trek [trek]
to travel or migrate, esp. slowly or with difficulty
Synonyms include: journey, expedition, long haul

I'm supposed to be writing our family newsletter (which my mom has me do every Christmas), but of course I'm being all A.D.D. because I've been trying to go through 8 billion pictures from our trip. So, I thought that it might help get my writing juices flowing if I blogged (sure Anna, that's a great solution). So, since I can't blog about the entire trip with one entry (cuz it would be looooong), I thought I'd break it up. Here's the first installment:

Mission #1 - Getting across the Atlantic Ocean

Point of Origin - Los Angeles, CA, USA

Destination - Zurich, Switzerland

Aaaaw, look at these excited kids with their plane tickets and backpacks all ready to go to Europe and wreak havoc amongst the peaceful Swiss and Italians.

Look how galit ("angry" in tagalog) Cile looks cuz she had to hold all that crap. Hahaha! Her face cracks me up! I love how she had to hang her purse (where she had a camcorder) and camera bag (which held her big professional Canon) in a criss-cross fashion to achieve balance, plus had her jacket draped over her forearm so she could hold the ticket and passport in her hand.

Hey look who I found! My SAGE buddy, Jovi. She and her friends went to Italy too and we were on the same flight! Crazy coincidence!

We flew Swiss Air. Good experience, as far as I can tell. Randy, Cile, Pat and Kay got to sit together. Seong sat next to a lady with whom he was able to refresh his Spanish, and then switched seats (long story) where he ended up sitting next to a little girl who fell asleep on his arm. Haha! (Totally reminded me of something that happened to us at St. Patrick's Cathedral in NYC, but I'll save that for another entry). I sat on another side of the plane.

The 11 hour flight wasn't so bad since we had movies and music to keep us occupied. Pat stayed awake practically the entire flight, watching movies and sketching. Crazy! Seong and I got to kick it in the flight attendants' lounge for a little bit (where I totally ate it in front of these 2 flight attandants because I forgot that their seats back there are like movie theater seats. So I got up really quick and before I could sit back down, the seat retracted back into the wall and I hit the floor! Terrible, BUT ANYWAY...)

WE DID ARRIVE IN ZURICH SAFELY!

Wow, we're in Switzerland!!!

Mission #1 - ACCOMPLISHED!

*****

Mission #2 - Connecting flight

Point of Origin - Zurich, Switzerland

Destination - Lugano, Switzerland

Wait a minute - DOES THAT SAY LUGANO - CANCELLED?!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Okay, we won't panic...

Randy was like, "I don't know what the hell is going on. Where are we?!"

While Kay is trying to figure out how the hell we're going to get to Lugano, let's play, "Find the Korean in the crowd of Japanese tourists."

We found out that we have to take a 10-min train ride to Zurich Central Station, and then change trains to take a 3-hour train ride to Lugano. We found ourselves in an unexpected tour of Zurich International Airport trying to find our luggage. Please, we just want our bags!

We got on the first train and Nacho Libre made his debut appearance. We were all heaving from running around all over the place and just got on the first (train) car we saw. Jumping pictures were taken, there was laughter amidst the fatigue and we each took it upon ourselves to claim at least 2 seats each. It just felt nice to sit down.
Too bad we found ourselves in the "Quiet Car." Hahaha! Of all the cars we could've entered! All I have to say is, I'm glad that I wasn't on a trip with panickers, overreactors and short tempers. This little instance of our flight being cancelled was just one of many opportunities for 6 savvy travelers to turn into bickering tourists from hell. After this, I knew we'd be okay.

Lugano - HERE WE COME!