Bonjour tout le monde! Today we had an orientation meeting at the Smith Center at 10 am. We all met and received our orientation schedules and schedule for the coming months with regard to our Smith group activities. Professor Rochat et Madame Piron served us breakfast of croissants, chocolat, jus de pomme, et du thé, and one of the girls in our group brought in Turkish Delight (my favorite... some of which is waiting for me at home!)
After this information session (in which we found out there is an oral test on Monday.. yikes!) Professor Rochat et Madame Piron took us to this BEAUTIFUL restaurant called Café Papon in l'ancienne ville, which is absolutely stunning... I'll be going back with one of my suite mates for a photo day. With the Alps has its background and its old Victorian styled buildings, it was right up my alley for things taht would steal my heart! Lunch was a kabob of some type of meat (my guess is duck) in a lemon sauce with these AMAZING potatoes and great veggies on top of a piece of baguette (I think). For dessert we had sorbet in peaches and sauce with an almond cookie garnished with berries. AMAZING.
After this wonderful meal, a group of us headed to Orange, the cell phones store. I was given a prepaid phone from Madame Piron to use here in the city to communicate with the other Smithies. She gave me 10 francs to put on the card, which I still haven't done because myself and another girl opted to run back to the Smith center in the pouring rain after voting to find a kiosk later because it was taking so long. This was only after one of our other groupmates got scolded by a very angry Swiss man because he "line jumped" him, and the woman who worked there had to go assuage him, as the guy in our group (none of us for that matter) understood that this man was angry! It was hilarious. From the Smith Center (in which I took a great deal of photos of our view) eight of us headed to Ikea and Coop, which is the grocery store, and bought some furnishings and some food to get us through the next couple days.
As we have nothing to do tomorrow, some of us have opted to get up (around 10, mercifully) and go for a run up the Rhône ending at le Lac Leman (Lake of Geneva) with its "jet d'eau" (geiser). Should be beautiful. I'll try to take photos.
In european custom, we have not made dinner yet (it's 8:30), so we will be doing that shortly, after which we'll be going to the Tiki bar which is attached directly under our dorm!
OH. ALSO. I bought my first legal bottle of wine today! It's called "Côtes du Rhône" in honor of where we are living, and we will be toasting "à nous" (to us) tonight with our dinner of pasta with sauce!
Bisous à tout le monde
Edie