Friday was the last day of school and we had this big assembly/6th Grade Graduation. Unlike, most schools in the states, the entire school sat through the graduation. Most places this would have been okay, but here many parents do not do much disciplining and this meant it was okay for kids to be running around the gym while people were speaking. Definitely, not kids in my class. It was nice to see the kids excited for school to be over and sad to say goodbye to some families and students. Even though, the job hasn't been everything I had hoped I still made some great friends and enjoyed getting to teach and get to know students from a variety of cultures. After the luncheon with faculty and families Sally and I went over to one of my student's family's homes. I've become good friends with some of the moms here and they've really made me feel more comfortable living away from home. They live right near the lake and had a great terrace with a magnificent view. Sally and I hung out with some of the moms there reminiscing about the year.
From there Sally and I went home and I took a little nap before Ali arrived from Parma. I tempted her with sunny weather and the LIDO. She arrived on Friday night and we had a bite to eat downtown in the Piazza at Tango. Then we went to the infamous Irish Pub or IP to meet my other friend Allie and her boyfriend Emmanuele for a drink. We called it a night pretty early since Ali was tired from her train ride and I was tired from the last week of school. It was raining, but we were looking forward to a nice clear and beautiful Saturday. On Saturday, when we woke up we realized our dreams had not come true and yes it was still raining. My famous quote the whole weekend, was "really I can't believe it can rain this much" and honestly I should be used to it by now. I suggested we take the train to Locarno, supposedly the sunniest place in Switzerland. I hadn't been before and I've heard great things about the town...plus it has some of the biggest music festivals in Switzerland. We couldn't really tell you what it had to offer, besides a great restaurant with the perfect wine for a rainy day. We were the only ones in the place, I guess everyone else decided to avoid the sunniest part of Switzerland. We watched the rain and lightning from the window and listened to the thunder wondering how we were ever going to convince ourselves to go back outside. The funniest part of our dining experience was that for some reason the waiter had one song on repeat, for pretty much the entire meal. I can't tell you what it was exactly, but something you might hear at the sock hop in the 60s...strange. After braving the storm and walking around town for a bit we ducked in the department store there called Globus to avoid the downpour. From there we headed back to the train station to get back to Lugano. As we rolled into the station, we realized that maybe we should have just stayed in Lugano, since the sun seemed to be peeking out. As we took our umptieth taxi ride of the weekend back to my apartment we witnessed the most picturesque rainbow over the lake. It literally crossed from one side to the other. I've definitely seen my fair share of rainbows this year. I tried to capture it, but our Mercedes taxi driver was not slowing down for the tourist.
Saturday night, after a lot more rain and thunder, we went to dinner at a place in a nearby town called Melide. The restaurant is called Dell Lago, fittingly, since it's right on the lake. It has more ambience than many of the other spots in Lugano. It's one of Lindsay's favorites, so she suggested it as a last weekend treat. After a great dinner with some new flavors, since it's more of an asian fusion restaurant we had a drink with some nice Swiss men sitting at a table nearby. They offered, so we accepted! From there we went to this really random bar that we always drive by and laugh because it's called Coyote Ugly. Some people that work at VF with Lindsay were going to see some special DJ. After a quick stop there, we went to the most talked about club in Lugano, UNDERGROUND. I've heard people talk about really liking it, and honestly, besides the good company, wasn't that impressed. It was definitely cozy though, because it's about the size of my family room. No different levels at this club! It was still a lot of fun and the music was good! We managed to get home by about 4am...
Sunday after a slow morning, we walked down to the Lido, or beach here. It's actually really cool and has about 3 outside pools, one indoor and then the lake of course. I'm assuming in the summertime more people are swimming, but right now it's pretty chilly and also pretty filled with algae on the outskirts. The weather had finally started cooperating and we wanted to enjoy it. It was nice until about 3pm when the thunder clouds started rolling in again. Ali left for Parma about 345pm and then I went with Lindsay and Kaveh (her new friend :)) to Morcote for a late lunch, early dinner for me. We ate at one of my favorite restaurants there, Posta, right out on the lake. It was a unique experience since we were the only ones there and the waiter got upset with Kaveh for not asking for a lemon and a coke at the same time. This required the waiter to walk inside the restaurant twice instead of being able to take one trip. As expected, this irritated Kaveh. Lindsay and I knew something was going on as the discussion became a bit heated, but we missed a lot of the details since they were speaking Italian. The conversation exchange was quite comical and added some excitement to our relaxing afternoon.
After that they were heading to a dinner that they graciously invited me to also, but I just needed to take a night off from drinking. I figured Greece will be filled ouzo! Praying for good weather to enjoy every last minute here in Lugano. I leave Thursday for Como for a night, then a night in Milan where I will meet Ashley and finally we are off to Greece on Saturday.
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