Zurück zu Genf dann weg zu Thon

Took an exhausting flight back to Geneva on Sunday morning at 6 am. Made a vow with the roommate never to schedule morning flights again! Since actually getting to Amsterdam was quite the struggle... After arriving back to the city I got directly on a train and headed to Basel to see the Pop! Together we drove to Thon a city right near Interlacken, with a beautiful lake and mountains surrounding us. Had lunch by a gorgeous castle next to the lake. Thon is apparently where all the Swiss military men go to train for battles that they will never fight...

48 hrs in AMSTERDAM

Took a weekend trip to Amsterdam with my roomie, Nicki. It had been several years since I had been there, so it was nice to have a weekend to catch back up on my Dutch and see the city!
Saturday we took a very long bike ride through the city, and saw all of the city's famous sights. Including a beautiful park where we stopped to have lunch with random people dressed up in red suits performing strange alternative dances and a man dressed up in a pirate costume picking up sticks. Quite entertaining to say the least. Amsterdam has to be the perfect city for people watching.We ended every night back at our hotel, which not only had bugs, but also mice... Yep, won't being going anywhere near that place again! Pretty disgusting!

Le Cactus Club

I apologize for not having written in a while. My classes are very accelerated, so this week it caught up to me when I had to prepare a case study on the principle of non-intervention in domestic affairs of States in the Case Concerning Military and Paramilitary Activities in and Against Nicaragua.

So basically all my roommate and I did this weekend was stay in Geneva and write our papers, which probably should have only taken us eight hours, but instead took us two full days… Although we still had some fun going out to the only Mexican restaurant in Geneva, Cactus Club, for our guacamole and margarita fix.

We promised each other that this next weekend will be a lot more fun! Dublin, Amsterdam, or Munich perhaps???

University of Geneva

I have officially registered as a student at the University of Geneva today. Classes are in session for the Swiss students, so there has already been a lot of action on campus. Hope to play some Swiss basketball and also do some Swiss yoga in the upcoming weeks. Yoga taught in French… that should be interesting. I am taking both my French class and international law class at the university. The photograph is our first visit to the university.

Interlaken/Lauterbrunnen

We woke up the next morning TOO EARLY… To go hiking. Much of the group did the extreme sports, Interlaken is known for its skydiving, cannoning, bungee jumping and ice climbing, but my group took the cheaper option of just a hike through the mountains. Someday I’ll try those, but most likely when I can actually afford a 400 dollar jump out of an airplane. We went on two separate hikes one to a castle ruin that to our surprise ended up being a bunch of little red rocks trapped in cages. This is not a joke.

The second hike we went on we took a train to Lauterbrunnen, a beautiful small village up in the mountains. There, we hiked to a waterfall that ended up costing 11 francs to see, so after about an hour of walking to find the waterfall, we turned around and hiked back without seeing the expensive waterfall. I honestly do not understand how they are able to charge us for seeing a natural piece of our earth, but the Swiss found a way…

We got back to the Hostel after a long day of hiking completely exhausted. So instead of staying another night on flimsy cots with 9 other people in the room, Nicki , Michael and I took a train back to Geneva, for a more restful night of sleep!

The photographs are of our hike, the group shot is at the castle ruins… Also the house is my other house in Switzerland it is in Lauterbrunnen. I will try to post a video clip of the cows and the sounds of their bells. Sorry about the quality of the video, I promise I will get better.

BERN

BERN. The smallest capital city in Europe. What can I tell you about Bern. First of all I loved it although, I have loved every city in Switzerland. My classmates and I took a tour through the city with our tour guide, ate lots of chocolate, had ein café und kuchen at a local café, and walked around the city for a couple hours. What’s not to love! I did learn about all the different dialects of German that are spoken throughout Switzerland. It was very interesting to be in a city where the German language is spoken and written much differently than I am used to.


I took a hike with Nicki, my roommate, up to the top of this hill to a rose garden and were able to look over all of the city. The photograph is taken at the rose garden.


After our tour of Bern half of the group took a train to Zurich and the other half headed for Interlaken. My group got to Interlaken around 8, walked to our hostel only to find that there would be nine of us girls rooming with one poor Australian guy. We were quite the intimidating crowd. Although I think he enjoyed our company.

Jeûne Genevois

Today was a cantonal holiday in Geneva called the Jeûne Genevois. Which meant everything in Geneva was closed, and everyone was outside, taking advantage of the exceptional day on the lake. I never actually found out which holiday it was, but I didn’t feel too bad when not even my longtime friend whose lived in Geneva for four years now knew. I did try to Wikipedia it but it was all written in French, which didn’t help. It was quite the relaxing day. I woke up and walked down to French class which our teacher had moved to our building for the morning, because the university was closed. She brought us seven different bars of chocolate that the class devoured in no time. My favorite of the morning was most definitely the cappuccino chocolate bar, apparently we will also be tasting cheeses, can’t wait! After class My roommate and another friend of ours that lives next door rented some free McDonald's sponsored bicycles and explored Geneva’s waterfront. The photos are of our bike ride. It was the perfect weather for a bike ride, everyone was outside picnicking in the park. I ended my night meeting up for a meal with my longtime friend, Tamara, who surprisingly only lives about 15 minutes away on the bus. We had a great time catching up at a charming little Italian restaurant over some margarita pizza and red wine.

I should be doing homework, but I’m not READY for school quite yet!!! So I’ll JUST BLOG!

Took a BOAT TRIP around Lake Geneva to a little old town without cars… I’ll let you know what the name of the place was when I remember. When I heard boat trip around Lake Geneva I was honestly expecting a private yacht cruise with a catered lunch. This was not the case. The entire ship was filled with tourists, most of whom were over the age of sixty. It was still a lot of fun being out on a boat with the Boston U crew, but it was more like a ferry ride than a cruise. I guess I’m just too spoiled being able to take the Bainbridge Island ferry all the time back home… The photo will give you a little taste of who we were riding with. I am also putting up a picture of my future house in Geneva just to let you know! ☺ As well as a photo of me enjoying a not as expensive chicken panini sandwich.

Unintentionally walked to France today and climbed a mountain... what a day...

So the group finally had a free day today to do whatever we wanted, which may have been a mistake. Much of group wanted to hike up Mont-Salève, so 22 of us left and took a bus intending to be at the bottom of the mountain by 10:30 am. We took the bus until the end stop and that is when twenty-two college educated students got lost for three and a half hours. We were in the middle of a residential community walking around for an hour with all our hiking gear. We walked on and eventually reached the border between Switzerland and France… After crossing into France all of us very frustrated and confused about where to go we took a bus that was meant to take us there but only took us half way because it didn’t run the full way on Saturdays. So as a group we made the intelligent decision to walk on the European freeway all the way to the bottom of the mountain, which was about 2.5 miles. Thankfully non of us were hit by a car on our way! We made it to the bottom of the mountain very tired already. Then it was time to actually hike and we weren’t so prepared for that either. We were warned ahead of time that the Swiss are very strong and dangerous hikers, but non of us actually acknowledged that this might be the case… After two hours of VERY steep hiking we made it to the top! The views were absolutely stunning! I have say its wonderful to have
so many adventurous people on this trip, because every single one of us was determined to climb a mountain and so we did without any broken bones! All the sourness and pains melted away when we found ourselves looking directly over all of Geneva and having a perfect view of Mont Blanc!
But that is not the end of the story… So when got back down the mountain with the cable car, we took the number 8 bus which literally only took 13 minutes to get directly back to our apartment, so how our group managed to get lost for three and a half hours… nobody knows… When we finally reached our apartment I passed out on the bed!

I took A VERY long nap today and it felt INCREDIBLE

Woke up at the crack of dawn… Not really but it felt that way. Our group left at 8:15 am for Geneva’s very own US Mission to the UN. We were served coffee and snacks as we listened to Diplomats speaking representing the WTO, Conference on Disarmament, Refugee and Migration affairs, and the list goes on. It was beyond exciting to be in a conference hall where the day before the Mission had hosted the Russians and where negotiating issues dealing with Russia’s nuclear disarmament. Although, I must admit I had a lot of skepticism on how issues actually get resolved at the US Mission. We were told it literally takes five to fifteen years for a single negotiation to be resolved and of course the term for a diplomat is only about 3 years, and the term for everyone else is as long as each US administration… I still respect what is trying to be accomplished. After our meeting I took a walk through the center of Geneva, which is a two minutes from our place and was able to visit stores that I haven’t been to in a long while! The photograph I took the following day, I wasn't allowed to bring any electronics to the Mission so I do not have any to post.

Premier jour de classe

The First Day of classes! It felt as though I was in Kindergarten again. Thirty of us kids were walking to class together basically all holding hands. (not really, but it looked like we should have been…) We met our teacher at the University of Geneva where we got a tour of the library. Honestly if I spoke French I would want to transfer, the Swiss know how to educate their youth. The school is very difficult and intense, but once the students graduate, some of the best jobs in the world are at their doorstep. After our tour we walked down to a different building where the classrooms were actually underground. Honestly sitting in that classroom felt like a prison; brick walls, no windows and very hot, but once I got used to the atmosphere the lecture was very interesting! My professor is originally from Madagascar where he studied law and English is his fourth language. It will most definitely be an interesting semester, and I hope that I will soon be able to understand him fully… After class my roommate and I were exhausted, three hour lectures are not easy. We took the bus back to the apartment, where we sat in bed for four hours, before ending up at an Irish bar with a large group of naïve American college students.

Mon Appartement et Roommate!

Let me give you a bit of insight on where I will be living for the next few months. My apartment is located right in heart of Geneva about a minute walk from the lake. The first day we arrived our program director informed the group that in fact before this apartment complex became residential housing for Boston University students it was in fact a brothel… All the women in my group were warned about hanging out the windows half naked with a cigarette. This of course came as a big surprise to all of us, now lets hope their won’t be any strange men at our doorstep. Although we were also told that there are security cameras on every floor and the building is always securely locked. So don’t you worry Mom and Dad! My bedroom is really nice, in fact a lot larger than I expected. I am sharing a room with a roommate, who has turned out to be an awesome human being! We share many of the same qualities when it comes to cleanliness and musical tastes. I’m sure we will get along very well! The picture with me and another girl is Nicki, my roommate, and I together outside the United Nations building.

DAY II in that land of the SWISS

Some of my Scavenger Hunt Team/Floor Mates

Another playful day in the city. Started off the morning with a scavenger hunt around the city. The main point of this excursion was to orient ourselves in the city, which ended in walking around the city aimlessly for an hour, and finally giving up on finishing the hunt after finding our way back to the apartment. After our long day walking around the city, our program director had a barbeque for everyone. Definitely the healthiest BBQ I have ever been to, with delicious salads, chicken, and Swiss burgers. I should have taken a picture now that I think about it… My roommate and I and another friend ended our night by taking a run outside in the pouring rain, and stopping on the side of the road to do our push-ups and sit-ups. We may have gotten some stares from that but it was a great exercise before another night of restful sleep.