One train ride, two layovers, & three flights later, I am back in my favourite place on earth…Vancouver, Canada!  Of course the first thing I did when I arrived was give my family huge “I haven’t seen you in three whole months” hugs, feed them some chocolate, & then go eat sushi.  If you have been around me in the Lausanne house for the past month, you would know how much I was missing sushi as well as anything else that’s not from “Holy Cow”, “Vapiano’s”, or “Bella Vita” (the three restaurants we ate at every week), so my dynamite roll definitely tasted more dynamite than usual.

However, the trip back to Vancouver, my family, & good eats was not an easy one.  I started out with a 2:30am wake up call after less than an hour of sleep.  The night before we had our final banquet & had to say goodbye to all the students that wouldn’t be coming back next semester.  After the banquet we decided to go out one last time & celebrate.  Of course I couldn’t say no to our last night in Lausanne so as a result, I got on the 3:51am train with 45 minutes of sleep.  Turned out a lot of people were in the same boat as there were about 10 of us on the crack of dawn train to Geneva.

At the airport I managed to check in & grab some breakfast with some other Lausanners who were headed off to London for a few days before heading home.  After some more goodbyes, I headed off to catch my 7:15am flight to Frankfurt.  Why Frankfurt you may ask?  Because of my U.S. visa (yes, I am an alien), I have to file a report with Pepperdine each time I enter & leave the country, plus there were a few other details I was unsure of & didn’t want to mess with so I took the hard road & flew 2 hours to Frankfurt…joy.

After landing in Frankfurt, I had only about an hour to catch my next flight, which was from Frankfurt to Calgary.  Everything was going smoothly until I got to the gate.  3/4 of our flight appeared to be Haitian refugees, which was fine except for the fact that they had to verify all their passports & papers before they got on the plane.  About an hour after we were supposed to, we took off.  At this point I was freaking out.  I only had a two hour layover in Calgary before my flight to Vancouver, so I started to calculate flight times as well as time differences, trying to figure out how close I would be cutting it & if I would have to be one of those people sprinting through the terminal or riding on one of those golf carts (which I’ve always kinda wanted to try anyways).  However, the flight from Frankfurt to Calgary is 10 hours, so unlike my lay over, I had a lot of time to kill.  Luckily, Air Canada has the luxury of a touch screen in the back of each seat that gives you a variety of movies, T.V. shows, music, & games.  So, over the next 10 hours, I watched four different movies.  So now it’s time for some movie reviews, so you know what movies are must sees & which you can wait to see on your next 10 hour flight.

Photo Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1723121/

The first selection was “We Are The Millers”, staring Jason Suedeikis & Jennifer Aniston.  The film is based around Jason who is a drug dealer.  After being mugged & losing both his drugs & his cash, his boss offers him the opportunity to redeem himself by transporting a large shipment of marijuana across the U.S./Mexican border.  In order to get the goods across undetected, he rents an R.V. & creates a fake family made up of his kid neighbour, a runaway, & a stripper.  This movie wasn’t horrible, but I guess my expectations were too high.  I thought I would be laughing out loud, but I didn’t even crack a smile…it could have been due to the fact I was on a 10 hour flight though.

Photo Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191701/

The next movie I watched was “Grown Ups 2”.  Although I kinda love the poster, this was arguably the worst movie I’ve ever seen.  Although the first movie, “Grown Ups”, wasn’t an Oscar winner, it had its moments.  The sequel, however, didn’t even have a plot, & therefore I can’t even summarize what happened nor do I want to because we would be wasting everyone’s time.  Watching it, I could easily imagine the writers sitting in a room writing random one-liners & somehow barely piecing them together into a feature length film…”Let’s put in that joke about Obama!” “What if everyone dressed up as icons from the 80’s?  Kevin James would make a hilarious Meatloaf!” “We definitely need an animal peeing into someone’s mouth…”  The entire movie I kept fighting with myself in my head trying to decide if I should turn it off.  In the end, I sadly watched till it hit the credits, partly because I hate not finishing movies & mostly because I had 10 hours to kill.  In any other situation I would have shut it off 30 minutes in.  Let’s just say it didn’t start off on the right foot when Adam Sandler woke up to an unexplained moose in his bedroom, peeing into his mouth.

Photo Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790736/

The third film on the chopping block was “R.I.P.D.”, starring Ryan Reynolds & Jeff Bridges.  Remembering the trailer for this movie, I could tell I wasn’t going to love it & had written it off as a potential rental.  However, I had nothing but time, so I reclined my seat the allotted inch & pressed play.  Ryan Reynolds plays a cop who is killed by his partner in the field.  Instead of going straight to Judgement Day, he is recruited by the “Rest in Peace Department”, a force of deceased police who fight the dead that have somehow remained on earth, causing trouble.  The whole thing kinda reminded me of “Ghostbusters”.  I’m not 100% sure how this one turned out as I kinda zoned out for the last 20ish minutes of the movie.  I must of either fell asleep or had the delicious in-flight service come by.  Either way, I obviously didn’t enjoy it enough to care how it ended…I’m going to assume it ended with the defeat of a giant monster scaling a building & Reynold getting the girl, because the motto seems to be if you can’t be original, be predictable.

Photo Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256415/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The final movie selection was a previous recommendation from my lovely roommate, Caroline.  After scrolling through all the quality films in “New Releases” that included my previous choices, I moved to the “Classics” section where I found “Sweet Home Alabama”.  I remembered Caroline telling me it was a “must-watch” & it turned out to be the best one on the flight!  Reese Witherspoon plays a fashion designer originally from Alabama who has made it big in New York.  However, after her boyfriend (Patrick Dempsey) proposes, she has to return to Alabama to sort out some unfinished business before tying the knot.  This one’s the perfect chick flick & was definitely a breath of fresh air after my previous choices.

Even though the movies weren’t that great, I hit Canadian soil safely in Calgary & somehow made my last flight to Vancouver with only an hour to pick up my luggage, go through customs, drop my luggage again, go through security, & make my way to the gate before getting on the plane.

De-icing the plane before take off!

After a short flight from Calgary (which was -15 degrees!), I made it home to my favourite city & into the arms of my family waiting in arrivals who brought me Tim Horton’s Timbits & took me for some long-awaited sushi.  I survived my longest solo trip & couldn’t be happier to finally be home!

But I do have an end of semester video for you all, courtesy of our videographer Danielle!