Hello All! I'm so sorry for the delay! I've been really busy and it's hard to find a few free moments to blog. But I've got a few minutes before I hit the hay for the night, so here is my update on the last few days.
Friday: My class had an assignment "en autonomie", and we had to go to a café and essentially observe and write about our surroundings. A friend of mine and I opted to go to this ADORABLE outdoor café called "La Terrasse" which is right on Lac Léman, on the Paquis (and less touristy) side. It was BEAUTIFUL and the bar (of which I have not yet ordered anything! I was working on homework, gee!) was much less expensive than most places. My friend and I lounged, observed and took in the incredible view. From what we wrote about and observed, we then had to write a 200 word essay, which I did not find out until AFTER I had spent the rest of the day walking around and not worried about anything! At lunch time, I bought a baguette from La Terrasse, and we headed back to the Smith Center for an afternoon tour of old town. I've been there quite a few times now, but this time, we were taken into places that we hadn't yet discovered, as well as learned the rich history of the Vieille Ville, including getting to see the stunning St. Pierre Cathédral. We learned a great deal on this trip, including where to find a REALLY cute Tea/Chocolate Room (omg!). After this, I went to the C&A on the Rue Marché (which is the street with tons of shops!) to get some much needed clothing that I failed to pack enough of. While on the Rue Marché, we went into an adorable bookstore, very reminiscent of a Barnes and Noble, but, of course, with all French books. Can't wait to go back! I leisurely headed back to the Smith Center to pick something up after this adventure, and this is when I discovered I had an essay due literally 26 minutes later. Needless to say it got in late, but not late enoughto matter (thank GOD), and then I prepared for an attempted night out, which entailed going out to a REALLY good dinner in nice dresses, then heading to a street full of bars with quite literally ten trillion people on it (for some reason hundreds of bikes had arrived in town that day.... not motorcycles...bikes....your guess is as good as mine as to why this is), and so the few of us that opted to venture out (WAY overdressed, apparently, may I add) retreated into our Smith shells, bought ice cream, and went home.
Saturday, though, was much better. I ran down the beautiful side of the lake in Paquis with my new running buddy, and then went to the Flee Market that happens on Saturdays in Plain Palais (the place with the Circus KNIE), and I bought four glasses (1 wine glass, one really nice shot glass, one whiskey tumbler and one beer glass) for two francs. NOT BAD. Then I also got a children's book about a hedgehog who loses his mittens in a snowstorm for two francs. This has been my greatest purchase so far... Anyway, after this, some of us went grocery shopping which is a HUGE to-do, but is worth it because, as I've said before, it's much cheaper, even though it takes a few hours. WIthout missing a beat, (and definitely missing a nap), we arrived back in time to immediately get ready to venture out. WE DID NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKE TWICE. Rather than dresses, we sported jeans and nice tops with heels and jewelry, and were prepped and ready for a night on the town. Which turned into two hours drinking wine in our kitchen. BT THEN WE WENT OUT! WHOOP! We went to the bar L'Elephant dans la Canette, and this was my FIRST BAR! In which I bought a Heineken. YAY!
Sunday I slept in, and then a group of us went to the ICRC, or the International Committee of the Red Cross. This building is never opened to the public, save for its museum which you need to pay a fee to enter, but today, Sunday, it was due to the fact that it was the organizations 150th anniversary. Now, each country has a Red Cross organization, but this Red Cross is the international Red Cross and deals more in humanitarian initiatives. We visited the archives which ARE NEVER EVER opened and we learned about the catalogues of prisoners of war beginning from the wars in 1812 (I think) through to recent closed-conflicts. We were so close to the history of it. We were shown examples of the types of documents that would have been used to keep track of prisoners, one of which was a German prisoner log from WWII. I couldn't, and still can't, really, believe I was so close to this history that I am so fascinated with. It was surreal. From here we went around to different exhibits that were set up outside, some of which were games to test how good you'd be working there (testing language skills and geography skills), one was recruitement, one was a horribly sad display of a medical tent that had been destroyed either by a bomb or a fire fight, this is a sad reality. These attacks against persons of health are NOT supposed to happen, yet they do anyway, in my opinion making things feel all the more hopeless knowing that even those who are tasked with saving( and not killing), can be so easily wiped out. Anyway, there were other tents too, one about reestablishing families (in which there were tremendously sad videos, but the work the Red Cross does is AMAZING. They can find people and put them into contact, if only briefly, with their families, so that they can express that they are okay. It's truly incredible and it almost brought me to tears. I sent my parents a post card from this station, an example of one of the type's of contact they initiate.), one about health, one about children, and one about women. Conferences were also open to attend. It was such an incredible experience. FOr those of you wondering, the Croix-Rouge was founded in Geneva...so it's kind of a big deal here! On the way home, I got a picture of the big chair monument just outside the U.N. which symbolizes the need to stop anti-personnel landmines. It is a chair with one of its legs broken off, symbolizing those who have suffered loss of limbs or life due to one of these mines, generally innocent people. After this long day, I went home and did a whole buncha homework.
Today was pretty noneventful compared to yesterday, I did another assignment en autonomie which entailed reading a journal article and taking notes so we can present on it tomorrow, having an exposition on the sports at the university, of which there are not many and the weight room has no free weights yet costs 60 francs to use, sat through two hours of history (which was actually really interesting because we discussed the development of Switzerland as one conglomerate country rather than being independently functioning cantos), and then sat through a really irritating "coping with the stresses of studying abroad" which just gave me more anxiety than I actually have, and made me realize that I would need to pay 206 francs for each session if I ever needed one. What. Anyway, that was my day and aside for trying and failing at doing laundry, this is all that happened!
Bonsoir tout le monde!
Edie