Settling in to Geneva

  Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
Sunday, January 18, 2009

I've been in Switzerland for a little over a week. I'm all unpacked and pretty much settled in. We are staying in Versoix. It is right on Lake Geneva (the lake is across the street) and is about a 20 minute train ride to Geneva. The town is really small, and I can't really imagine a bigger difference from London.

Last Saturday, we went on a sledding and fondue trip to the Jura mountains that the school arranged. We had a few train issues, so everyone in my group arrived to the hill late. The train ride was absolutely amazing, though. It was really cloudy in Versoix, but as the ride progressed we got up above the clouds and got to enjoy the sun! We got to sled for about 15 minutes. I'm really talented and managed to give myself 2 HUGE bruises in that short amount of time.

Sledding 2

Sledding 1

Afterward we went into town and enjoyed some delicious fondue! Man, I sure hate having to eat cheese and drink wine on a beautiful afternoon in the mountains ;)

Fondue

Loves me some wine

On Sunday we walked around the booming mecca that is Versoix. It was absolutely freezing, but we managed to walk pretty far. We discovered that there really isn't anything in Versoix. I'm just thankful that we have a grocery store in town ... some of the other students aren't as lucky.

Versoix dock

Bad idea bears

We had orientation and class on Monday. It made for a really long day. The staff at the school are really nice and helpful, which is also a drastic change from London. I have class on Monday and Wednesday nights and Tuesday (and some Thursday) mornings. This semester I'm taking War and Diplomacy, Humanitarian Issues, and Professional Seminar. We were all really excited, b/c the classes sounded really awesome. However, after the first week of class, I'm just thinking "7 more weeks of these classes!". Our professional seminar should be really good, though. Our professor has some great visits scheduled ... we're already going to the UN this week!

It was really beautiful on Thursday (our second day of sun since we've been here), so Kieffer and I went into Geneva and walked around a little bit. We went through the old city and scoped out Swiss army knives, watches, and chocolate. On our way back to the train station we saw that they had turned the giant fountain on. They only turn it on when it's a nice day, so we didn't think we would see it at all during winter. Personally, I think it looks like the same thing that they have in East St. Louis, but apparently this is the biggest one ...

Fountain

Geneva

That's about it for what I've been doing in Switzerland. If anyone wants to send me anything (::cough::birthday presents::cough::) my new address is:

Webster University
Rebecca Boyer/Global MA in IRL
15 Route de Collex
1293 Bellevue
Switzerland





P.S. Shara, this is for you ....

Bartholomew the duck choker