I miss this blog. I’ve been away from it for only a few days now and I miss it. I’ve been pretty stressed out the past couple days because the wifi system in our house is quite terrible (to put it in the nicest way possible). Last semester, it would go in and out. Sometimes, at random times of the day and always after 9pm, it would turn off completely. It made it very hard to see what my homework was for the day since my teacher emails it to us, it made it very hard to work on research papers, it made it very hard to plan thoroughly for upcoming trips…it just made studying and life as a student really hard. This semester, it is completely nonexistent at all times of the day in my room. I study best in my room where people aren’t going in and out and talking to me and interrupting me, which is what happens when I study in the designated study rooms.

You take wifi for granted when you have it everyday all the time with hardly any hiccups. I know that I certainly did. Maybe that’s the whole reason why we have terrible wifi and why Pepperdine hasn’t been so eager to fix it – to teach all of us to appreciate it and not take it for granted. If that is the reason (cause I really can’t think of any other good reason as to why it hasn’t been fixed yet)…then I am publically proclaiming that I HAVE LEARNED MY LESSON. I do not take wifi for granted anymore. Okay, so now can it be fixed?

I’m currently sitting on the floor in the middle of the hallway because that’s where I have found the strongest wifi spot. It will most likely be here where I will be completing my research papers, blogging, checking my homework and emails from my professors, texting my family, calling my family. Well, at least until I can find a solution. I’m looking into buying a router for my room. And I am hoping with all of my heart and crossing all of my fingers and toes that this will be a solution.

I have been pretty bummed out about this and it is beyond frustrating. Almost to the point of tears, which sounds dramatic. But when it takes you about 5 hours to complete an assignment that would normally take you 2 hours or when you are trying to manage booking and planning an entire trip on top of all of the school work that you have to do or when you are completely inhibited from reaching your fullest potential as a student due to the wifi…it just gets to be so exhausting. And you just want to throw up your hands and give up. But, as Hannah and I were sitting next to each other on the floor in the middle of the hallway with our computers about to rip out our hair researching solutions to our wifi problems…we realized that we just needed to get out of the house before we went insane. Even though we weren’t in the best moods and we were feeling like just sitting around in our pajamas…we forced ourselves to shower and put on real clothes and just get outside. And I think this is applicable to not just when you have a wifi problem, but whenever you have a problem that is overwhelming. Sometimes, staying cooped up inside where you are constantly thinking about the problem and how to fix it is just not healthy after a certain point. You need to walk away from it for a little bit and take a breather. Then, you come back a little bit more refreshed or at least calmer. Maybe then, you’ll be ready to try tackling the problem again.

It wasn’t the prettiest day outside and it was a bit chilly. So, we just decided to wander over to the movie theatre that we found last semester that shows movies in ENGLISH. Hooray for that! We thought that a movie would cheer us up and take our minds off of our worries. We saw Philomena and Judy Dench did such a good job! I thought it was a really good story…a bit sad, but well done!

(Photo Credit: Philomena)

Then, we headed over to our favorite café with the sweetest owner in the entire world. We have made friends with her after going there several times and we just can’t help but smile when we are in there talking to her. We ordered some dinner and a glass of wine (just a little reminder…the drinking age is 16 in Switzerland for wine).

And by the time we got home, we were feeling much happier than when we left the house. Yay, for happy endings! And we are hopeful for an even happier ending of wifi in our near future. Keep your fingers and toes crossed for us please. (At least for the sake of our sanity. We would like to go home to our families and America in one piece.)