Italy and Switzerland...
After some time in Spain, I flew from Seville to Bergamo (just east of Milan) with RyanAir for only 26Euro which included all the taxes and fees. The flight itself was only 0.01Euro! I decided to spend the night in Bergamo and look around the city a bit, but I should've gone straight to Turin to visit my friend Carlotta, whom I met in Baoding the first semester I was teaching. It was great to see her again, and to finally meet her boyfriend who cooked up an amazing pasta dish (he's a chef at a restaurant). We spent time catching up, and going through photos and stories of China. The second day I was there she took me through the city, showing me the sites (including the church where the Shroud of Turin is) and taking me to the best gelato place in town. And all I can say is that the gelato was incredible! The best I've ever had anywhere. We also went out one evening for authentic Naples pizza which was also very good (though I should have tried it with the buffalo mozzarella cheese). Yummy Italian food!
Next stop was Geneva, to visit Conrad and Meghan. It was great to see both of them again and to enjoy Swiss chocolate and cheese. I've been to Geneva once or twice before, so I wasn't overly keen on running around and seeing all the sites, but I did wander around town and the lake for a day or two.

Back from Switzerland...
I'm back from Switzerland now, in Lille :( I had a great time there. It was great to visit my friend, and to see some mountains, and water, and green grass, and the sun in a blue sky! I actually got a bit of a tan. I fed the Swiss cows up in the mountains, drank water from little Swiss villages, rode the tram in Zurich, chilled out by the Lake of Geneva (Lac Leman), ate a lot of Swiss chocolate, and all in all had a great time.
I'm going to Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium tomorrow, then to Gent (Ghent, Gand) the next day. I really don't want to spend more time in Lille than I have to. And on top of that, it may be a while before I'm so close to Belgium for a while. Ypres should be interesting because there is a Flanders Field museum there (stuff about the Great War from 1914-1918). I'm sure that you've heard the poem 'In Flanders Fields' by McRae. I've heard that Gent is really nice- it's supposed to be as nice as Brugge, but with a lot less tourists (and it's closer to me, meaning that the train ticket is less).
Then I'm off to Stockholm on Friday. I'll be there for a day or two, then I'm going to visit Terry, a friend who was working as an English assistant in Lille, for a few days.

Hello from Switzerland!
Well, I made it to Switzerland safely. In otherwords, there were no bombs on the rails. I do not know if you have heard about the terrorist organisation in France that still has 10 bombs that they are going to put on the rails somewhere in France. It is a bit scary if you ask me.
Anyway, I went to Geneva the first day, and met up with my friend Conrad. On Thursday I went to the Chateau de Chillon , Montreux, and Vevey (the headquarters of Nestle). The Lake of Geneva is amazingly beautiful. It reminds me a lot of the Rocky mountains. It has been so long since I have seen green and water (there is hardly any green or water in Lille), that I was almost giddy when I saw the lake, mountains, and green parks, lol.
Today I went to Lausanne, and walked around for a few hours. I went by the home of the Olympic Organisation, and bought a lot of yummy Swiss chocoalte!
Ciao

Eurolines...
I thought that I'd write a bit about the adventures I had on the bus from northern France to Italy.
-When I got on the bus to Italy in Brussels, the Flemish driver looked at my passport (we had to prove that we could pass through Switzerland without needing a visa or whatever) and said, "ahhhh, KANADA!!!!"
-The bus rid from Brussels to Milan was awful. It was late at night, and we stopped every two hours or so. First it was French customs between Metz and Strasbourg. They checked the whole bus for drugs, since the bus started in Amsterdam. Then it was Swiss customs. We waited for half an hour for the customs guy to get on the bus and ask for one persons passport, then he got off. We then stopped in the middle of Switzerland for a pee-break at 4 in the morning. A little later we got stopped by Italian customs, and they took our passports off the bus. I was then dumped off in Milan around 6, to wait for a bus that left for Florence at 8. I didn't sleep much.
-There were English films playing all night long on the bus, but they all had Dutch subtitles. The adverts during the films (every 45 minutes or so) were also in Dutch.
-On the way back, there was a Chilean assistant (working in Cretail) on the bus. From him, I found out that my academie (school district) is ripping me off.
-We listened to Italian music, on a bus being driven by Dutch guys.
-On the bus from Brussels to Lille, we listened to Spanish music