Geneva

Well, as promised, here is the account of my first trip to Geneva. We have a relatively short day of classes on Mondays, 9:00-12:00, so after class we hit the town. There was a huge group of us interested in going, but Sarah and I were ready before everyone else, and we are similar in that we really dislike large, loud, obnoxious groups. So we charted off on our own. We walked the ~15 to the border where we caught a bus for about 5-10 minutes, which took us to a town in between Collonge and Geneva, Carouge. We walked around Carouge for a bit, a quaint little town, where we caught the tram that after about 10 minutes takes us into Geneva. We really haven’t explored much of all the city has to offer. This first trip we basically stuck to one main street which has a ridiculous amount of shopping. Store after store after store of everything you can imagine. Shoes, clothes (and more clothes), and, well, basically everything you could possibly need. There was this huge mall-like store called Globus, which was like a fairly large department store, but the cool part was that in the bottom was a giant grocery store! They also have starbucks. Sad that it seems to be infiltrating all corners of the globe. But there were still many traditional little cafes, so I guess it's ok. So anyways, we walked for quite a bit, I got a new scarf, and then headed back.

The second time we went into Geneva, Thursday, we got a ride! Yea! There is some huge conference going on here, I think it’s with all the Dutch pastors, and a couple from Loma Linda is here speaking. Anyways, she doesn’t have a lot to do during the day, and had their rental car available and wanted to go into town, but didn’t really want to go alone. We wanted to go and of course were quite excited about a ride. So off the three of us went. And let me tell you, it was quite a process. Note to self and any readers: When in a large foreign city, do not attempt to park, maneuver, or even drive a car. It will only result in scared-for-your-life moments, wrong turns, crazy park jobs, driving towards oncoming traffic accidentally, and general chaos. (It did not help matters that she was a California driver…) Simplify your life and make use of public transportation. We eventually found a parking garage, quite a ways from where we intended to be walking, but undaunted we headed out for a day on the town. Sarah and I did yet more shopping, though it was fairly easy to restrain ourselves considering the prices and exchange rate. I was quite excited at purchasing a small sleeping bag to use during future weekend trips to various locations. We met up for dinner, after having moved the car from the parking garage to a curbside parking by the restaurant we planned on eating in. When I say curbside parking, I actually mean half curbside, half on the curb parking, also managing to back a bit into some construction zone tape, in a space that I’m sure was intended for an object about half our car’s size, though these European cars are of course much, much smaller than American ones. Still, there we were. The restaurant was amazing. It was a little pizzeria, of which there are many. Very traditional pizza- very thin, but lots of flavor. Not too much sauce or cheese (mine had no cheese, obviously), and amazing veggies. Mine had mushrooms, green and red peppers, olives, capers, tomatoes, and many other wonderful things. After dinner, we thought it would be a simple drive back to campus. No, that would be too easy and not nearly as much fun to tell in a story. Instead, her GPS decided to direct us to drive, literally, in circles. We didn’t realize it until quite a bit later, since it was very dark at this point. Suddenly we looked up from the GPS map and said, “I think we’ve been here before… Didn’t she already tell us to turn here like half an hour ago?” Needless to say, we switched off the GPS at that point and did some self-directing, and luckily made it back to campus without further incident about eight hours after our trip had begun. Quite the experience. This was after my run to Geneva.

Today was amazing. We had our usual short Fridays, class from 9:00-12:00, which included my first test, an oral one, which I was pretty pleased with. After class, I came down to get on the internet and the dean found me and said something, of which I didn’t fully understand (she only knows French. Period.) , but she said something about a big box and I jumped up from my chair and shouted “My package has arrived!!!” My mom and dad had very kindly mailed me a GIGANTIC box containing some warm clothes, dried fruit, MY QUILT! And many other wonderful, familiar things from home. It definitely made my week. So Sarah and I celebrated a bit. And then, we ran into a girl that lives on our hall who is going to turn into a great friend to have I think. She works in the administration building, is 23, and just moved here from Paris. So she was feeling a bit lonely, that no one would befriend her because of her position as staff rather than a student. But she is actually really fun and hospitable and hilarious. She invited us into her room and shared her malt balls and we talked for a long time and she offered to take us to Paris some weekend and do stuff together and help us practice our French.

And now? Now I am finally caught up on the major happenings of life in Collonge. Updates will probably become less frequent and trivial as life settles into more of a routine, but I will try to post when something terribly exciting happens that I must share.