Switzerland: Day 2

So, this place is pretty nuts. I know going into the trip, whenever anybody asked me about the Olympic Odyssey, I always responded by saying "Oh, I'll be in London, Paris, Athens/Olympia and some place in Switzerland." But, after two days in Lausanne, I can say that this is my favorite place so far.

The hotel is right on Lake Geneva, with the unreal scene of the mountains right behind it. After seeing the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the International Olympic Committee yesterday, today is a lighter day. We have just gotten back from the Olympic Research Library which is located in the Olympic Museum just down the road from the hotel.

One thing I found that kept me very occupied was the proposal for Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics. The proposal detailed all the funding and preparation the city had already put forth in anticipation of the games and even had a map laying out the new arenas and areas which would be used during the games. As we all know, Chicago did not win the bid, but it was cool to see some of the things that were introduced to help Chicago's chances continuing to be used even though the Olympics won't be there.

I'd  like to take this time to introduce a new portion of the blog that I'm going to call 'Plaut-isms'. A Plautism is a trademarked expression that has either brought great joy to the group through its hilarity, or great pain through its absurd redundancy. Here we go:

- 'Bold' (Example: Jordan barely made it onto the train, Plaut cackled and yelled 'BOLD!')
- 'Poor' (Example: James dropped his glasses, Plaut yelled 'POOR!')
- 'Special' (Example: At the Eiffel Tower, Plaut said 'That might be a little special')
- 'You think so?' (Example: Plaut's response to anyone saying anything is cool)
- Bringing up a concierge named Abbun
- Following up any sneeze with 'ah' (Example: "achu-ah"
- Preempting the buzzer announcing the closing of train doors with a last second sports call.

And what many of us might consider the best line of the trip thus far:

- "Is this umbrella waterproof?"

That's all I've got for Plautisms, I'm sure there are and will be more as the trip continues. That's all for me this afternoon, now it's beach time.

-- Tyler