Bonjour (vraiment bonsoir) mes cheris! I want to tell you about my very eventful second day of orientation. Firstly, I woke up REALLY early. I had to be at the Smith Center at ten thirty for class with the Associate Director of my program. I woke up at 8:30. Fortunately, though,this gave me a very long and leisurely amount of time to make a french breakfast of a few slices of baguette, brie, raspberry jam, topped with raspberries, along with a cup of tea and a soft-boiled egg in a very cute, red polka-dot french egg cup. From here, I arrived (EARLY) to the Smith Center, where we began class at 10:30, which gave me enough time after arriving to have a nice hot cup of espresso.
Class was, en fait, really interesting. It is designed as a sort of culture class, where we improve on our oral, reading and auditory skills through learning about the city of Geneva as a diverse endroit. We began with introducing ourselves, and answering the questions of what is your name, where are you from, what do you like to do, what don't you like to do, what is your major, and what brought you to Geneva. I responded by saying I'm Edie from Franklin, MA, and I like to play SOFBALL (apparently in french, when you say english words it all sounds like gibberish, so it's necessary to A N N U N C I A T E clairement), and I don't like to watch organized sports on TV (except for the Red Sox with grandpa because a) I love grandpa and b) Stephen Drew is parfait....mais Ryan... vous êtes plus parfait), my major is "la science politique" and I came to Geneva because I've been taking French since I was five and really wanted to put it into practice.
After this, we broke into pairs (I was with the guy in our group) and we had to work on our speaking skills via skits. We opted to do one about an old lady, of whom a young person asks directions. The guy was the vieille dame and I opted to be a young tourist. Our skit was pretty good for being thrown together in about 4 minutes (aka coming up with a premise then winging the entire presentation) and we managed to use different tenses and (I think) the correct usage of "tu" et "vous" (les suisses sont très polis). We opted to do something along the lines of I, the American tourist, asked the vieille dame a question, and she would then go off into a tangent while answering it, talking about how she was allegedly a survivor of the prémier guerre mondial (WWI). After a time, I would cut her off and try to ask the location of something different, which she would also respond to in a tangent. It was, in fact, quite entertaining, and through each presentation we learned a small lesson in grammar. We got homework assignments of reading and writing. The writing I appreciate because our professor emphasizes the importance of rewriting, whicn, in my opinon, is how to really master the written language and familiarise oneself with the cultural idioms.
After this, we stopped for a lunch (I had a banana and some bread with chesnut spread on it at my friends CUP), and then we returned to the center to go to the Maison Tavel, which is a medieval house built in la Vieille Ville, and who is home to a great deal of history. We were taken on a tour and told much about the development of the city and the changes it went through through the ages. I have some photos, but I need to figure out how to hook my camera up to here before I post them! After this, we headed back to the Center to surprise one of my suite-mates (it's her 20th birthday) with a beautiful gâteau chocolat which had genache, a fancy chocolate design, and a multicolored white chocolate ball on top (I will post the pic). After this, I went back to do some homework and make quesadillas with my suitemates.
At around 9, some of our other friends came over to celebrate the birthday of my suite-mate, along with some of our hallway neighbors. We hung around drinking wine, beer and mixed drinks until about 12, when we decided to go jump in the Rhône. We've been wanting to do this for days before it got too cold, and finally got up the courage. We jumped off the bridge that passes over it. It was exhilirating and the water was extremely refreshing. It was a wonderful experience to share with the best suite-mates and some great friends. It was a very good ending to a very good day.
Bonsoir mes cheris,
Edie