The ILR credit internship office lied to me — they told me that most Swiss residents could speak English and I would not have any trouble getting around. From the moment I landed in Geneva, Switzerland, I was surrounded by signs in German, Italian and French. While I do have a little background in French (okay more like seven years), I am nowhere near being fluent and one of my high school French teachers once remarked that I had the worst accent she had ever heard.

Gorges to gondolas: Foreign ­correspondent Elizabeth Manapsal (top center) is living it up in the E.U.