Oriented

I have really lost any sense of time here. In some ways, I feel like I've entered an alternate life. But I'm starting to find my niche in it, to be familiar with many of the street names and bus and tram lines, to know my way to the most important places I'll need to go... I suppose it's good I feel oriented, considering that I just finished orientation.

The conclusion of orientation was a delicious dinner, choice of fondu or raclette. I chose fondue, reasoning that it's not just a meal - it's an activity too - an experience. Every time I plunged my pronged spear into the vat of gently bubbling cheese, I thought "I made the right decision." The fondue pot is mesmerizing like watching a fireplace, or else watching a gentle volcano... and fondue is pretty much heaven on a stick. Apparently it goes with white wine but I broke the rules and picked red. Supposedly also, wine and tea are acceptable but you're not supposed to drink water with fondue? Odd, but I'll trust the experts.

So, backing up...

The past couple of weeks have been very packed. One of my favorite days was our trip to Chateau de Chillon on the train. I was enthousiastically snapping pictures out the window when the local sitting next to me said "you might want to wait to take pictures... there's something better coming.

She was right:

This is our whole group. most everyone in the program has a shot almost identical to this because our director was patiently taking pictures with everyone's cameras while passerbys were patiently... well waiting to pass by!

The castle was gorgeous inside and out, but our tour guide didn't want us to take pictures during the tour and there wasn't time afterwards... It was a fascinating tour, in french. The most striking detail I learned was that long ago, people slept sitting up because it was a religious superstition that lying down at night could result in death! Then, a witch walked by and I thought "well that's odd." Apparently, children can have themed birthday parties at this Chateau led by the witch (who is actually Professor McGonagal), the architect, or the page. So I know what I'm doing on May 15th lol.

As Kayla said "Silly Switzerland, thinking they could fool us into believing these mountains are real." It's sort of an elaborate hologram I guess - only explanation for this much beauty. It's working apparently - attracts a lot of tourists.

So that was last saturday. Sunday, I had a lazy day and then met the family I'll be working for as a tutor. It seems like it will be a lot of fun so far, and seeing family life here makes me feel more connected to the city.

The next week, in addition to my orientation class (3 hours of french every day), we had a few outings. One to the United Nations.

I love the symbol of the UN - the image of the earth from the north pole, which is essentially as neutral as they could be, embraced by olive branches.

And here is a painting in a UN building that is an optical illusion, designed to look as if the road is facing you no matter what angle you're standing at:

To me, this serves as another insight into the ideas at the foundation of the UN - a kind of pluralism that leaves room for many perspectives in peaceful co-existence... No matter where you stand, there is a path to the same goal.

Also, the UN grounds are full of peacocks, oddly enough:

LOVELY!!!

In addition to the UN, last week, we went to the Patek Philippe Museum, which is a museum of swiss watches. Aka, purgatory - soft classical music, a very nice guide, nothing truly terrible... but a sense that I would be looking at watches in glass cases for all eternity. Every time I thought we'd reached the end, we came into a new room or level and I felt like Sisyphus pushing his stone to the top of the hill only to start at the beginning again... Some people in our group enjoyed that museum, but somehow for me, it was too much like being in a historical department store.

Anyways, this weekend, I went hiking two days in a row!

Friday, I went to this mountain, just over the border, a short bus ride into France with one of my roommates, Katie, and some other girls from the program. There was a lovely town with some little fruitstands and quaint houses and cafes, and a really nice trail.

Then, on saturday, I went with my french roommate, Laurena (right), Kayla, and 2 of her friends, on another hiking venture, more of a woodsy walking trail, and some parts by a lake... Lots of fun.

So from my first days here

To this last weekend before classes and my internship start,

I have had a great time. And I am officially ORIENTED. !!

First week in Geneva

From my window, I can see a Catholic church, a skate park, streets, buildings, some very odd looking trees someone told me recently are Chestnut... and behind it all, on days when it’s not foggy, a mountain.



The second evening I was here I noticed what I thought was the silhouette of a mountain around dusk, but the next morning, it had disappeared and I was sure I had somehow hallucinated it because I WANT a mountain view out my window. The next few days were perpetually gray and I had no way of knowing, but finally, the sun broke through and my mountain is back.

So I am sitting at this sunny kitchen table, staring at it in a grateful stupor for the second sunny day in a row, eating my “pain perdu” and listening to the noises of birds and street traffic and distant voices.

My first week in Geneva has been many things, but mostly like my confusion over the existence of this mountain. Nothing is the way I had pictured it – it is dangerous to create mental pictures, but also impossible – but I am starting to really appreciate the place that I’m in. There are moments when I am overjoyed to be here, and moments when I have doubts. But if the first week is always the hardest, and my first week has had so much good in it, then I am sure the semester will be unforgettable; there's so much to discover that is sometimes concealed behind fog at first glance.

The weather in this city has such a drastic effect… when it’s gloomy, no mountains are visible, the color of the nicer stone buildings sort of washes out, and I swear people look less friendly. But yesterday, on our tour of “le vieille ville” I was thrilled to get to see some absolutely beautiful parts of this city – older stone alleyways and cathedrals…







Probably the most amusing thing was a sign pointing down to “Parking & Archeological Site":

apparently, when Geneva's fortifications became useless, they were converted into a parking garage haha

So some general and personal, good and bad and neutral (this is Switzerland after all) things I've experienced/noted so far:

1. Everyone here has a scooter. I have seen 50 year old men with briefcases and scooters. Not the motorized kind - the kind kids ride on sidewalks with helmets and knee pads...

2. it is definitely expensive to eat out. the conversion rate isn't bad, but a veggie burger on my street is advertised outside as being "only 20 francs" Still, if you buy food at "Migros" and cook for yourself, it's not bad at all.

3. The sirens here are almost quasi musical. But sound like sort of a deranged carnival, or a mangled ice cream truck… plus little more incessant… and also they either go flat or it’s the Doppler effect and my musical sensibilities are sort of going haywire. But earplugs solve everything, I’ve found.

4. It's sort of exciting to know I can take the bus to France. I plan to also get a Eurorail pass and try not to have classes on Fridays so I can travel a lot of weekends... and hike!

5. There is a french religious holiday that is celebrated by making crepes. No one I asked seemed to know why, but apparently the higher you toss the crepe when you flip it the more prosperous your year will be? or fertile? I wasn't clear on which...

6. Last night, I met a distant non blood relative who is very nice and lives here in Geneva with his wife and 3 kids. He was at a nearby cafe with a group from his "student society" which sounds a lot like a fraternity... but as he called it a "vertical friendship" where there are people of all ages, all disciplines, etc, that come together to socialize. I also learned a german/ french drinking song. There was a lot of elbow and fist banging on the table. And Kayla looked souped for the singing haha. So I learned about a student society in Geneva called "Stella."

6. The culture is very interesting here because while Geneva is an "international city" in the sense that there are lots of foreigners studying here, I have heard less English on the streets etc than I expected to. French is the primary language, but no one is monolingual and everyone seems to know a different combination of languages... so it creates a really fascinating cultural dynamic. I had known that ahead of time, but not quite how it would look because I've never been to a country with more than one national language.

The people in my apartment for instance, have quite a mix of languages. There are two girls from france, one who has spent a lot of time with us and been extremely welcoming... and both are wonderful, another girl with the smith program from Swarthmore who's fantastic. and vegan, which makes it easier for me to be vegetarian, though this isn't a hard place to be vegetarian at all. I think that would only really be an issue if I were living with a family. Anyways, so there are 4 girls and 3 guys - one from Senegal, one from Italy, and one from Vietnam. I haven't seen as much of the guys, but everyone who lives here is really pleasant and I hope I'll get to know

7. also, this probably is just exciting to me, but a girl from the fall or a previous year left a guitar at the smith center to be passed on!! And no one else wanted it or else everyone was just being nice... so now I have a guitar to play! Which is wonderful because that's been the way I de-stress and the sort of filler activity in my life for a long time and I felt pretty naked without one. But when my program director, Jonathon Gosnell, entered the room with a guitar, I really though it was going to be a Julie Andrews moment and he was going to sing us a song, maybe about the history of Geneva or something... too bad it wasn't both haha

Well it's getting time for me to stop writing and go exploring. Today I'm going to take a long walk to a park, and try to pass my probably internship on the way to be sure I can get there alone!

Now that the sun is back - in more ways than one - I'll try to write somewhat often.