Lugano - Day 4

Our last day in Lugano was another rainy one! We had an early breakfast so that we could pack up and do all our cleaning. Because we stayed at a self-service place, we were responsible to clean our areas, including the kitchen, dining hall, game room, bedrooms, and bathrooms. I was assigned a team of girls to tackle the girls' areas. We were able to divide and conquer to get the rooms, bathrooms, and toilets sparkling clean in time for inspection. As a group, we did such a good job on the cleaning that the lady in charge only made us pay for 35 guests instead of 37!

At 10:16 we said farewell to Caprino and returned via ferry to Lugano, where we would meet up with our bus and begin the journey home. But before we went all the way home, we would first make a very important stop: at the Alprose Chocolate Factory in Caslano, Switzerland! This is also a Lugano tradition, because admission is free and there are unlimited free samples of chocolate after you tour the factory!! Yes, a girl's dream come true. Unfortunately we visited on Ascension Day (all the Catholic holidays are observed here) so the production line wasn't running but we still got to walk through and sniff the chocolate. There was also a little museum area and a video to watch (in German!), and finally we made our way into the gift shop where the students gorged themselves on the all-you-can-eat chocolate buffet.

We came across a rest stop in Switzerland that sold items 10 times larger than life. Exhibit A: Chupa Chups that would last 15 years. Exhibit B: A 5-kilo jar of Nutella retailing for 69 Swiss Francs (roughly $70).

We later stopped for dinner at McDonald's in Switzerland, where I am embarassed to say that I paid in Swiss Francs the equivalent of $14 for a nine-piece chicken mcnugget value meal. Switzerland holds the title for most expensive McDonald's!

Around 6:30 or so we rolled into the parking lot of BFA, unloaded the bus, and waited for parents to arrive. It was fun to see parents and their children reunited after four days apart. For some of the students this was one of their first "long" trips away from home and I know they missed their families. The parents clearly missed their kids too; many of the moms ran from their cars to hug their kids! I just love seeing happy reunions like that.

Once all the kids were gone I made my way home, where I changed into my pajamas and immediately began uploading pictures to Facebook. Speaking of which, make sure to visit my page and check out the Lugano album. Look at my recently uploaded videos as well, since I wasn't able to post them all on here.

Overall, I had a fantastic time in Lugano even though there were some things I wish had gone differently. It was refreshing to spend time with the students outside the classroom. I never get to simply hang and relax with them; at school there's always lessons and work and homework and business and detentions (gasp) ... in Lugano they found out that their teacher is a real person! :) Of course, I also learned a lot about my students and am so sad to think that our time together is almost over. I can handle them growing up and going to high school because I can still see them, but a handful are leaving BFA and I don't know when I will see them again, and so the season of saying goodbye has arrived once more.