Bienvenue Geneve!

All of us were pretty much zombies when we got in, since we’d been traveling all night and then some. We had a short orientation, then we free to rest or wander the city as we pleased. Going around in a large group – we’re about 20 altogether – isn’t very fruitful in Switzerland, as most restaurants are very small, and people usually go out in pairs or threes here. I walked around with Sara (who also goes to GW, and was coincidentally in my International Econ class last semester), Tasha, Peter, and Paul (there are a total of 4 guys in our group of 20). We found a Lebanese restaurant for dinner. It was cool because they have these giant slabs of meat there. Imagine getting sliced deli ham and piling it about 2 feet high, with a diameter of maybe one foot. The whole thing rotates and there’s a warming element against the wall to keep it hot. Then they basically shave the sides to get meat for you – let me just say it was delicious. Geneva is a very international city – 40% of its population is foreign. As a result, if you ask someone in the rest of Switzerland they will say that Geneva is not really Swiss, that is, not a good example of Swiss culture. We found few Swiss restaurants there, but instead many Lebanese, Asian, Italian, and more. There are cafés and crepes and gelato everywhere, which I think is really exciting. We got gelato after dinner, then walked by the lake – in which there are tons of swans (again, very pretty!). People swim in the lake, and in September there’s something called the Sauna des Bains I think, and I guess you go to a sauna then bathe in the lake to cool off. We’ll see, I plan to check it out J Afterwards we searched for a night time place to hang out, IE a bar. There were mostly locals everywhere, and they’re old locals, but it was also 10:00 on a Wednesday night (and nightlife doesn’t start until midnight, and certainly not until the weekend). Anyway, we sat down at some place and the owner came and started talking to us, just chatting and drinking with us and it was a pretty cool experience for our first night in Geneva. Paul and Peter were pretty good at French, so we were trying our best to understand him.

Thursday – More orientation stuff, I think. We went to Nyon, a small town nearby where our French classes and discussions take place during the week. It’s much more quaint and beautiful, and we had a little bit of time to explore as well. That night a larger group went out to a bar, which then closed and we split up to smaller groups. About 6 or 7 of us found a small café/bar and I tried the hard cider (cidre), which is like wine except apple-y. It was okay. While walking around we also some of the prostitutes which are legal in the Paquis district of Geneva (where we were staying). It was interesting, to say the least.

Friday more orientation stuff in the morning. We take lots of breaks for “refreshments,” which basically means going and sitting at a café for tea or coffee or espresso. I’m pretty much in love with how chill it is. During the afternoon we took a tour of Vielle Ville, Old Town, which is how most of us had pictured Geneva – quaint, cobblestone, beautiful. After the two-hour tour (interesting at first, but mostly just boring historical stuff, you know how tours get), everyone went back to the Auberge, but I stayed with Erin to explore some more. We had dinner at a pizza place and tried a curry chicken pizza, which wasn’t bad. Afterwards we walked back to the Auberge and I found a party in my room, as Peter, Paul, Sara, and Tasha had gotten some wine and things to drink. We went back to Vielle Ville for the night since Earl, the Academic Director, had recommended a bar (if you’re wondering, the policy is that they can’t really stop us from drinking, as long as we obey the law, and they just can’t actually buy us drinks), but it was two stops further down on the tram and a longer walk back, so instead we found a Brassiere du Bière, beer bar, where you could come with a group of people and order this tall cylinder with a tap on it and they filled it with up to 5 litres of beer. We met a group of students who attend Webster, a private university in Geneva, who had studied abroad here before and loved it so much they transferred here. Then we walked across the bridge and in the middle of where the lake turns into the river is Île Rousseau, a small island with a restaurant on it. There was sort of a party and music there, and it was really cool because everything was outside. We stayed there for a bit, then called it a night.