So I just got back from an amazingly delicious and filling dinner of fondue!! Tonight was the group dinner with all our host families, and we ate at a chalet up in the Jura mountains, with wine and cheese fondue and all sorts of deliciousness. The cheese was a mix of I guess different kinds of cheeses, as well as white wine and garlic. We just ate bread with the cheese, but it’s super filling anyway because you’re dipping these chunks of bread in melted, fatty, delicious cheese. I learned that when having fondue one should not eat ice cream or orange juice (for digestion purposes), and that wine and tea are good for digestion. I had white wine with my dinner and actually liked it. It was quite the enjoyable experience, as our entire group plus families took over pretty much the entire chalet restaurant and just socialized all night with each other and with each other’s families. I realized how much I love being tight with a big group of people, being close with a lot of people or at least close enough that I’d be comfortable hanging out with any of them.
Earlier this week we mostly just had classes. Monday was hardly exciting, then Tuesday we had someone come talk to us from Médecins Sans Frontières, Switzerland. He mostly talked to us about the organization of the group, so it was an okay lecture but not super exciting. For French class we visited a little shop that our teacher likes to go for homemade yogurt. The guy there explained to our little class of 5 “advanced” French students how they make the cheese, but I most certainly didn’t understand everything he was saying (I’m also realizing how short 3 months is, and am not so sure I’ll be able to reach the fluency I had hoped for, although I know I will definitely improve in my French… btw to those of you that speak French we are so speaking it all the time when we get home. I’m also loving how we give each other cheek kisses as greetings…). Then he let us sample like 5 different kinds of cheese, which were kind of strong but pretty delicious. I don’t think they were pasteurized, since we asked about his thoughts on American cheese, and he didn’t know but our teacher said that it’s different in the US because our cheeses are pasteurized and it takes a certain je ne sais quoi away from the taste. Then he gave us 3 things of caramel yogurt to try, free of charge, and it was pretty damn delicious.
That night I met up with Alyssa, Emily, one of Emily’s friends, Pete, and Paul. We just went to Nyon and chilled at a couple of bars, it was fun. Wednesday was far from an exciting day. I had another advising meeting with Earl, and spent the rest of the day doing research, which sucked a lot since I was in Geneva and wanted to go out and explore but we just have so much work to do. I went to the Graduate Library for International Development, and found a giant shelf of books on development and development economics, which kind of overwhelmed me since my topic has to do with that subject, and I haven’t taken any Development Econ classes yet, so I just couldn’t believe how much information is out there. Anyway, today we had a lecture from someone from Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World, MDM), which was probably more disappointing than Tuesday’s. He had a pretty strong French accent, and I was able to understand him pretty well but the lecture didn’t really have any organization, not to mention he barely talked about MDM, which I had kind of expected. Then I went back to the cheese place and bought some delicious yogurt to go with my lunch, as well as some “expensive” truffles – and by that I mean most candy bars at the grocery store are about 1.50 CHF, and my little box of truffles was 5.60 CHF (think Lindt-quality, though… so it’s really not that bad). I got some Ferrero Roche too because that stuff is delicious. Anyway the chocolates were amazing, I’m really going to miss the quality of chocolate when I go back to the US. Beza and I had our little sandwich picnic lunches at the castle in Nyon, which overlooked the lake and mountains and was absolutely beautiful, except maybe for the fact that everyone else there was a teenager making out with each other, and that bees seem to have a thing for me so our lunch was somewhat interrupted. Anyway, more French again in the afternoon, then tonight’s dinner. That’s all for now, but I’m hoping to make it out to Lausanne this weekend as well as do some grape-picking at one of my friend’s family’s vineyards. We go to PARIS on Tuesday!!
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