Hi All! So sorry to have kept you waiting, but I've now got a TON to report back on!
So as you know, I started class this past week. Unfortunately, my class on Wednesday did NOT go as smashingly as planned, and I nearly cried the entire way through it. It was a political history class, and first off, the professor mumbled. The class is in French, and the guy was standing at the lecturn muttering away. THEN I discovered there is both a written AND an oral exam for the class, and on top of that a 30 MINUTE PRESENTATION IN FRENCH ON SOME SORT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS TOPIC. No. Just no. Couldn't even figure out what was due next week..ugh. I promise I was going to blog Thursday, but I was too emotional and stuffing my face with chocolate along with some other friends whose classes were shattering to bits around them to be able to be coherent enough to update you! Anyway, I then realized that my friend is taking a class called Politique Comparee I and it's in french with a professor who is an AMHERST ALUMN. DO YOU KNOW HOW UNBELIEVEABLY LUCKY THAT IS? I e-mailed him and asked when his exam was and he said not to worry! He has had Smith students before and said I could take my exam early, before I leave in December. Now this is great, except for the fact that I've taken the exact same class at Smith, so I need to make sure that taking the course is OK with the department as long as my PhD tutor has me do something more narrow within the field. It should be okay... I've already started the readings and they are covering much different things than what we covered in that class. I'm going to write a VERY compelling argument as to why this course is different. And include the fact that this is literally my last option. Whoops.
Thursday was supposed to be my UN day, but I had to finish up some reading for my Grad Institute class that I had failed to do the night before because I was chatting too long at dinner, and then I ended up napping... a lot. On the plus side, I cooked a pretty nifty dinner of rice and sauteed veggies with some vinaigrette and some pork. Nice.
Friday I went to Paris. Sorry was that casual? I. WENT. TO. PARIS. Like wut. I've been dreaming of going to Paris since I was five years old. And I got there. Friday. With my parents. We took a TGV out of Geneva at 11:42 after we ate breakfast at a cute cafe in the train station. The country side was breathtaking, flying by us at 200 miles per hour. I was dead set on being productive but accidentally nodded off through the ride while listening Tchaicovsky's Nutcracker because I am SO sick of all of the other music on my iPod. We got to the beautiful Paris Gare Lyon and hopped in a cab to the 17th arrondissement to the place where dad found the AirBandB. We got there and thought it was a total scam. The room was on the fifth etage, and so dad had to get into the TINY elevator (he actually wore it because it was so small), and we were told by the woman that she'd had to run out and that the key would be under the green mat. There was no key. Then the shady cousin comes out of nowhere and tries to get us to get in the elevator and to the first floor. Mom and I naturally thought we were all about to get murdered. So we grabbed all of our stuff and carried it down the stairs cause we were not getting in the elevator with that guy, not no way, not no how. Not that two of us could have fit in that thing anyway. So we get to the first floor which is a small little austere room that looks half finished. The cousin is trying to call the lady who owns the flat and for some reason gets her and then she needs to call back, gets her, she needs to call back. Mom and I are like... omg we're either dying or we lost all our money. The woman FINALLY talks to my dad and she's like OH yes leave all of your luggage there go have fun and we'll move all of it to the fifth floor. Of course we can't give this lady the benefit of the doubt, so I pack all of my important stuff in a day pack and carry it with us. We have to leave at this point, because it's cutting close to the time when we need to get to the place for the cheesy bus and boat tour. Well, we ended up making it on time, and I met my friend from high school and she came with us, which was amazing and so much fun (she is studying abroad in Paris). We got to catch up and chat about Paris and school and everything in between. We saw buildings from the Seine river, all lit up with spotlights including the Musee d'Orsay, the Pont Neuf, Notre Dame, and the Eiffel Tower (which was lit up and we even saw it SPARKLE!). Then we went on the bus tour and saw the arc du triomphe, the champs elysees, the Louvre, the Opera, and the egyptian obilisk amongst many other things. It was really and truly stunning, and so, so surreal. I was in PARIS. The REAL THING! I still can't believe it, and I'm so so thankful that I got the chance to see it with my parents.
After the tour, we got dinner at around 11 at this adorable restaurant called L'Entracte, which was right across the street from the Opera. The Opera is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen, with extravagent architecture and guilded details. I was completely enamored. There were golden busts of Beethoven, Mozart, and other incredible composers. I am going to try to find something to see there the next time I go back when I conduct my interviews for my thesis.
I got sick and had to stop party way done with this post... but now I shall continue!
I turned 21 on Sunday, WOOP, but I celebrated Saturday with my friends. We went out to this great (and cheap) sushi place, and went back and got ready to go out to this "club"called Usine. This is allegedly the "shady part" that none of the pretentious rich kids go to and all hate even though none of them have ever been there. They spent the night trying to talk us out of going. It was like going to avicii. It was SO MUCH FUN. Everyone just danced and did their own thing, and were fine dancing like idiots to the great mixes and HUGE drops in the music. Totally unlike the clubs that cost 30 CHF to get in with everyone wearing Louis Vuitton and Prada and Louboutin shoes..... but I won't judge too harshly before I try it, unlike everyone else. It ended up being great and we danced until 4:30 am.
Sunday my parents came to Geneva, and I went to their adorable hotel Palais les Nations. It had sweet, vintage architecture and was very beautiful. We got ready, and tried to decide on a place to meet tante Nikki and Anne for dinner. After much debate, we ended up going to auntie and anne's hotel, which could not have been a better choice. All I had wanted was filets des perches to eat (delicate fish from the Lac Leman), but I had resigned myself to the fact that their hotel had just run out. (The place I'd wanted to go had had it, but I could tell they kind of wanted to stay so I opted to go anyway... the inside looked really pretty from the pictures so I was fine with it.) We got there, though, and the table had champagne and a candelabra and flowers, and the waiter, Romain, came over to us and told me he had a surprise. Apparently he knew a fisherman, and found just enough perch to make ONE SPECIAL BIRTHDAY SERVING. OMG WHAT?!?!?! THat literally made my life I was so happy at his thoughtfulness I honestly could have cried. Not only that, but he was an incredible waiter, really kind and funny, and he made it into our family photos! (Dad and Anne should hopefully put those on FB soon!) The night was filled with conversations about school and the places we'd traveled to, and most of all family. I got my perch and a wonderful salad, and then Romain totally talked me into getting a chocolate fudge cake so they could all sing to me. He then brought us free Rosé champagne at the end. He was amazing. The dinner was amazing. The conversation was amazing. I was also wrong about there being no ketchup in Switzerland,...... sorry dad. Hahaha. I stayed at the hotel that night, and went to class Monday, not really anything to report on about that, except that translation is hard, haha. Mom took me grocery shopping Monday night and I STOCKED up on food.... THANK YOU haha. It was much needed. We went pretty late though, and were terrified the store in France wasgoing to close so we were running to the store, and then trotted around adn finished about two weeks worth of grocery shopping in about 25 minutes. We met up with the guy in my group there, too, and took the bus back with him. Fortunately, we found the store okay even after thinking with horror that we'd missed the stop..... see my instinctive sense of direction isn't SO horrible.
I stayed that night again with them, and enjoyed breakfast at the CRACK of dawn with them in the beautiful dining room before they headed back state side. I also got sick that morning, am still sick, and now my dad's sick. Apparently it's going around because EVERYONE I know has the same symptoms. Ugh,
After they left, I had my first lit class, which was okay, and then had my favorite class, which is the one at the grad institute. It is just so fascinating, and I really enjoy the readings. I'm planning on doing some of them tomorrow morning if I get up at an OK time... I haven't slept in days and I think that's why I feel 10x worse than I normally would with a head cold. Today also not much to report on, I and about 5 other Smithies had Politique Comparée today with a professor who is an Amherst alumn, and then we had our translation course at the SMith center.
TOMORROW I will be off to the UN after my Seminar which I now need to take on Thursday... so much for my four day weekend... jk I still technically have one cause class isn't til 12 so I can sleep in and still travel in the afternoon.
That's all for now!
Bisous,
xx Edie