Delights and Disasters!

Hi everyone! I know, I know, I’m the WORST! I have just been having so much fun this semester that I forgot to update everyone on here… but I’m happy to report that I’m alive and well and my semester was incredible!

Since its been a while, I’m going to start from a couple months ago and catch you up on all of my activities for the semester starting with my trip to Scotland back in May!

Week of May 3rd:

I had 4 friends visiting from Utah and we all went to Scotland together. We had a wonderful time touring Edinburgh on our first day and ate some deep-fried haggis. Unfortunately for one of my friends, the haggis did not settle well in her stomach and she spent the night throwing up. Looking back I think that was actually a foreshadowing of what the rest of the trip would look like haha! The weather was absolutely freezing and the wind was blowing nonstop. We ended up having to cut our second day short while touring the castle because it was just too cold to enjoy it.

On the third day, we were driving to the Isle of Skye and were about 1.5hrs into the drive when a big truck decided to play a game of chicken with us on the super narrow and winding road. It was coming at us at about 60mph (meanwhile everyone else, including us, are going 25mph or less) my friend who was driving had no choice but to veer the car off the road or else we would be hit head on. This resulted in us driving into one of the biggest potholes I’ve ever seen in my LIFE. Luckily we were all fine and our driver did a great job considering the circumstances (it could have been a lot worse and we could have easily flipped the car). The moment our 2-second roller coaster ride came to a stop, we all knew we had a flat tire, but it actually turned out that we had 2 flat tires!

To make a very long story short- we ended up calling a tow truck and it took them about an hour to get to us in the middle of nowhere. We arrive at the auto shop and it then proceeds to take 7 hours for them to repair the huge dent in the rim and replace the two tires. Although it wasn’t what we were expecting, the day ended up being so much fun! The weather was much nicer than in Edinburgh and we were able to wander around and just have an amazing day entertaining ourselves on the side of the road. $600 and 8 hours later, we were back on the road to catch the sunset at a castle!

Sunday comes and it’s time for us to fly back to Geneva. This was going to happen in 2 flights. One from Inverness to Bristol (England) and then Bristol to Geneva. Jamie, Miki, and Jteil then had a flight the next day (Monday) at 7am back to SLC from Geneva, While Natalie was going to stay a few more days in Geneva with me.

Here is the catch- our flights were separate, which means we needed to go through security all over again in Bristol and they would have to check the bag again at the Bristol airport to get it back to Geneva, and the rest of their luggage was in my apartment in Geneva.

We get to the airport in Inverness and Jteil and Miki check their bag. We have 2 hours in between our flights, so I’m a little stressed. Our first flight is then delayed by 1.5 hours. By the time we are on our 1hour flight to Bristol we are ALL very stressed and came up with a plan of how to get on our next flight. On the airline app it showed that our next flight was delayed 30minutes, so we figured we would only have an hour to make it.

The plan was to have Jteil and Miki go wait for the bag at the belt from the first flight, Natalie would go to the baggage claim for the next flight and let them know there was one bag still coming, while Jamie and I ran to the gate to have them hold the flight if needed.

We land and while we are waiting to exit the plane we get an alert that our next flight is currently boarding and we have about 15 minutes until the gate closes. Jamie and I RUN off the plane and up to security. There are tons of people in line for security and we start frantically asking if we can cut people in line because our flight is boarding. We start going under the ropes to get in front of people and a TSA agent runs up to us and tells us its not allowed… um, duh dude, we know. We frantically say that our flight is boarding right now and he says “well you should have gotten here earlier, you’re supposed to be at the airport 3 hours in advance.” To which I responded with, “WE JUST GOT OFF A FLIGHT 3 MINUTES AGO! IT’S NOT OUR FAULT!” He then felt bad because he could see that we were both about to have a mental breakdown and let us go to the front of the line.

We get through security and we hear the final boarding call for our flight. We then have to run through this very big airport to get to our gate which was SO far from the security check. We finally get to the gate and there are exactly 4 people left in line to get their passports checked to board. We run up drenched in sweat and start telling them that our friends are coming.

I call Jteil and she tells me that they won’t let them check the bag, which makes sense because we are literally boarding the plane. So the gate agents just tell us to have them bring the bag. We are all hyperventilating and I tell Jteil to run up to security and tell them that the gate agents need you to skip the line. They hang up to go through security and Jamie and I are left there panting at the gate with these agents. They tell us that our friends have until the end of the line of people get on the plane to still be let on… which is about 5 minutes MAX, and the run from the security gate is at least that long.

Then Jamie and I have the most dramatic “movie moment” ever where she turns to me and says “what should I do?!” Jamie has work the next day and can’t miss her 7am flight out of Geneva, so I say “Go, just go without us” and grab the keys to my apartment and give them to her. At this point, we’re both on the verge of tears and she grabs my keys and runs for the plane (it was seriously straight out of a movie and very dramatic haha). The gate agents then tell me that they have to close the gate and ask me “are you getting on the plane love?" and I start crying and say no.

They close the gate. 2 seconds later Jteil texts me that they just made it past security. And then the gate agents get a voice on the radio telling them the flight will be delayed 30 minutes. So I turn to the agents and say “its delayed, so we can still get on right? My friends just got through security!” But they informed me that although the plane is delayed, since they closed the gate we will just have to sit and watch the plane for the next 30 minutes and will not be allowed on.

I go meet Jteil, Miki, and Natalie and I tell them that we missed the flight and there are no other flights to Geneva until tomorrow morning, so they will also miss their flight home to SLC.

The next couple of hours were very stressful because it was 11pm and the airport is basically closed, we learned that we couldn’t get a refund on our flight because there was only 2 hours in between them instead of the required 3 (even though they were the same airline), and Jteil and Miki would have to buy brand new tickets back to SLC and couldn’t change or get a refund on their other ones because it was now less than 24 hours of advance.

After a lot of phone calls with airlines Jteil and Miki were able to get new tickets for a flight to Amsterdam at 6am that would then have a connecting flight to SLC. Jamie (with the help of my friend Nea back in Geneva) was able to gather Jteil and Miki’s bags and take them to the airport at 4am so they would make it back to SLC. Then Natalie and I booked a hostel for the night and bought the only tickets back to Geneva, which were for the next day at 6pm.

Jteil and Miki decided to just sleep at the airport because it was already midnight at that point and they would have to do security for their 6am flight in 3 hours. Natalie and I caught the last bus out from the airport to our hostel which ended up being an hour away.

We get everything we need and I finally lay down to sleep at 1:30am… then at 2:30am the fire alarm goes off.

I woke up in a panic because the alarm was SO loud and I was exhausted from everything and was ready to just accept defeat haha. Natalie went down to the lobby and was informed that it was a false alarm and they were working on getting it turned off. It took about 10 minutes to get it shut off and I just sat on my bed just thinking about what a crazy trip it turned out to be!

We made it back safe and soud to Geneva, Jteil and Miki made it on their morning flight, and Jamie got on her flight in the morning as well (shout out again to Nea who went with her at 4am). But of course, when Jteil and Miki arrived in SLC with Jamie (they were on the same flight from Amsterdam) their luggage had been lost and they did receive it until 3 days later. Which felt like a very “on brand” ending to the whole saga. haha

Overall, even though so many things seemed to go wrong, I still had an amazing trip. It was my very first time missing a flight which I think might be a requirement to call yourself a real “world traveler” because it’s when things go wrong that you are able to see who you are.

I’m really grateful that I had Natalie with me and there were so many miracles that made it possible for us all to get where we needed to go, even if it was different than we originally planned.

The rest of May:

Not much to report that was out of the ordinary. I just hung out with my friends and worked on my research. My days were mostly filled with finding articles on programs from all over the world that are designed to help refugee children and writing up reports on the results of the programs. While my nights were filled with the “Eurovision Song Contest.”

This is something I only recently learned about after I watched the Netflix movie called “Eurovision Song Contest” which gave me a small idea of what the show would be like. Basically all these European countries hold their own song writing competitions to nominate a singer/song to represent their country and compete against everyone else. A lot of my European friends are VERY into this show so naturally I was along for the ride. It was a cultural experience that I have never had before! I will tell you right now that this show would NEVER work in the US. The songs aren’t always that good and the showmanship… its a bit “out there.” But it was so fun being able to learn about the history of it and get excited with my friends about their country’s songs.

For the finale episode, we had about 30 people come that represented 22 European countries and we had a big party! Finland and Sweden were the top 2 and unfortunately (because 2 of my friends are Finnish and we were rooting for Finland), Sweden won.

If you ever find yourself in Europe during the Eurovision Song Contest, I highly recommend watching it with fans of the show, because although it is very different from the singing competitions I like to watch, it was such a fun time!

On the weekends my friends and I took a couple of day trips around Switzerland to Fribourg and Bern and it was cool to go from the French-speaking side to the German side all in one day. I highly recommend doing both those cantons in one day because they are fairly close and can easily be toured in the space of a couple of hours. In Bern you also have the oldest European LDS temple! I went and walked the grounds with my friends and there was actually a wedding going on and my friends really enjoyed seeing the bride and groom taking pictures in front of the temple. I was able to share a little bit about what goes on inside the temple and take some pictures, so overall it was an amazing day!

At the end of May I had my friends Abby and Shelby come visit! We went to the botanical gardens which are a MUST if you are ever in Geneva, they are free and absolutely beautiful! We also went swimming in the lake which was a bit like a polar plunge but we had a good time. I also took an afternoon trip to a little French town called Yvoire which is only a 15 minute boat ride from Geneva. Its a little 3 block radius of a medieval town in France and I highly recommend it as a 2-hour activity!

Since it was coming up on the end of the semester it also meant there were all the end-of-the-semester concerts that we could attend for free. I was able to go to a choir concert, orchestra, and other fun events with my friends!

The last thing worth mentioning in May was going to the Red Cross museum. I am not a museum person but this one was really amazing. I had no idea how much the Red Cross does for people during wars and it was beautiful to hear stories from refugees, prisoners of war, and disaster survivors throughout the museum. It is very interactive and digital which made it very enjoyable. At the end, you have this huge round table that has a “disaster simulation” and you try and save as many people as possible from a tsunami. Its a bit hard to explain how it works, but just know that its very fun and going on my list of things to do in Geneva.

June 1st -16th:

June was full of a lot of studying for my friends. I luckily took my French finals at the end of May and my research program didn’t have any official “final” that I had to take. I just continued my research until my program ended on June 16th.

My friend Nicole was able to visit for a couple days on June 5th before she went on a 2week guided tour around Switzerland. It was such a treat because we have been friends since we were babies and I always love seeing her.

There was a summer food festival for 10 days in Geneva with over 45 food vendors that served all kinds of dishes. It was a blast going with my friends on their study breaks and trying different foods for the cheapest prices you’ll find in Geneva (which is still much more expensive than anywhere else haha).

On Sunday, June 11th I was able to speak in church. I think most people dread getting asked to speak, but I pretty much begged my bishopric member to let me haha. I had been telling my friends all semester long that one day I would get asked to speak to the congregation and that I would invite them. If you remember, quite a few of them had to miss mine and Nea’s Easter performance because they were out of town, but said they still wanted to come one day. So I told the missionaries for WEEKS that I wanted to be asked to speak but I guess they never passed the message along.

So the Sunday before, I went up to the Bishopric member that picks speakers and asked if I could give a talk before all my friends left to go back to their countries. He said yes and I took the spot of a missionary that was going to speak… haha sorry Elder!

I was asked to speak on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it ended up going really well. I was overjoyed to have 9 of my friends come to my talk! I have been so incredibly blessed here in Switzerland with some of the greatest friends in the world. I couldn’t believe that so many of them were willing to give up their precious study hours to come and support me. It just meant so much to me to be able to share such a big piece of myself with my friends. Because I think its cool I’ll tell you all the countries my friends are from: Luxembourg, Uzbekistan, Brazil, UK, Germany, Finland, Estonia, India, and USA! Talk about a worldwide congregation!

Being able to speak in front of them was the highlight of my semester and I’ll be forever grateful for the friendships I’ve made here in Switzerland!

June 17th- July 7th:

My family came to see me… well some of them did haha. I have 3 brothers, one older who is married with a 9month old baby (and he is the cutest thing you’ll ever see). As well as 2 younger brothers who are both married.

My parents and the brother Michael who is right under me (only 15months younger) and his wife all planned a trip to Austria. My dad served his mission there years ago and has always wanted to go back. Because Switzerland is so expensive they decided to go to Paris and Austria and skip Switzerland, so I just ended up meeting them in Austria.

I said goodbye to all my friends who were going back home to their own countries and spent 8 days with my family.

We had such a wonderful time traveling all around Austria. We started in Vienna and went to Klagenfurt, Salzberg, and Innsbruck, ending in Munich, Germany. We saw a lot of castles, ate a lot of great Austrian food, and enjoyed being together in another country!

Once I arrived back in Geneva I went on a one-day-one-night trip to Paris Disney. My friend’s mom works for a company that can get super cheap tickets and I had a blast going with Jteil and Miki back in May and wanted to go one more time before I left back home. So me and a couple of friends made it happen! We had a blast and I would recommend going if you are a Disney fan because the tickets are cheaper than you will EVER find in the US.

Once I got back home I had a couple of days to pack up all my stuff and move!

When I left for this fun adventure back in February, I knew that my housing contract ended on June 30th. I also knew that my housing contract in Utah wasn’t available for me until August. So I had this giant gap in the month of July where I had to figure out where I was going to live. To be honest, I wasn’t super worried about it. My mom was probably a lot more stressed about it than me. I just knew that something was going to happen to make it work out. Heavenly Father knew about it, so I was just trusting that this was going to be a great opportunity for me to exercise some faith. When my friends asked about it I would say “I don’t know, I think I’ll just make some friends and go stay with them or someone is going to ask me to live rent-free in their house or something.” The first part came true back in May when my bestie Nea told me I should come to visit her in Finland before I go home, and then I signed up for a YSA conference in Denmark called Festinord for the last week in July. This just left July 1st- July 20th with nowhere to go.

I started looking into what my options were and if I could maybe work for a hostel or something, when I received a text from a woman in my ward. She asked if I could live in her apartment and watch her cats for the month of July. BOOM! PRAYER ANSWERED! The only problem is, I’m super allergic to cats, but this was such a direct answer to my prayers that I figured that was a very small problem that could be fixed by Heavenly Father.

I am very happy to report that I’ve been living here for a week now and I haven’t had a single problem with my allergies. Which is one of the biggest miracles ever! Normally if I go into a house, even if it’s a super clean house, and they have one cat I will be sneezing, have itchy eyes, and have a hard time breathing after a couple of hours. I’ve taken allergy medicine before but it doesn’t help very much. I am allergic to all animals (yes, even hypoallergenic), but cats and horses are by far the worst for me. So the fact that I have been taking just Zertec and have had zero problems in an apartment with 3 cats… this is basically on the same level as the miracle of parting the red sea for me. Seemingly impossible but totally real because Heavenly Father is amazing!!

July 7th:

Now you are all caught up! Sorry about my long absence, time just got away from me! Just know that I’ve been having the time of my life, and am excited to spend my last month discovering more of Geneva, visiting Finland, and being spiritually filled in Denmark!

Hope you all are having a wonderful summer and I’ll see you in August!

Much love,

Nikki :)

P.S. this was a lot to write so I didn’t read back through it, so please ignore all grammar and spelling mistakes haha!