Geneva

Hey!

Sorry that I haven’t been able to write to you sooner but I haven’t had any internet connection the past couple days because we have been waiting for our user names and passwords.

So, everything went smoothly on the flight from JFK to Geneva. I slept for about 2 ½ hrs and then passed my time making small talk and flipping through random channels on the screen. When we landed, I discovered that there were actually a total of six people going to the program who had been on the same flight. Fortunately we were all together because finding the bus to get to Cite Universite was a little bit more complicated than we had anticipated. It took us about 45 min to get from the airport to the Cite and luckily we ran into two people from our program who were able to show us where to check in and how to find our rooms.

My room here is so much better than what we have at Duke. It has lots of storage space, my own personal sink, and a gorgeous view of the mountains from my window! I really lucked out because other people face the street or another building. Surprisingly, our rooms are spread out amongst several dorm-type buildings. Some people have students from Duke on their floor but I’m the only one living on my hall. I’m not really sure where the students who live here take classes because I haven’t seen any classrooms but maybe I’ll find that out tomorrow. Their school year ended about two weeks ago so many of the kids have moved out and now people from various international programs are using the facility- there’s a basketball camp, some other school from the states, and the Cite also functions as a hostel.

After checking in, a couple of us walked to the grocery store to pick up some sandwiches for lunch. Everything here is so expensive! It’s ridiculous- but I have to eat somehow. During the afternoon I took a short nap and un-packed my suitcases.

We took the city bus out to dinner in more of Geneva’s downtown area. Strangely, many of the restaurants close at 7pm on the weekend and the grocery stores around 5:30.- I don’t really get way because you would think the weekends would be the best time for business but I guess the culture is different. The bus stop was near a lake with a large fountain. I didn’t really have time to check it out today but I think that I’ll get to do that tomorrow on our walking tour of the city. Some of the people who got here a few days earlier said its gorgeous at night and last night they saw people salsa dancing nearby.

I really like the people here so far. For the most part, everyone seems really friendly and excited about what we’ll be doing while we are here. 21/25 of us went out to dinner together, and we definitely looked like a tourist mob walking through the streets. It’s interesting though because groups are already starting to form and they pretty much mirror the social scene at school. I think there are definitely several people here that I’ll click with so we’ll see how things sort themselves out as time passes.

It doesn’t get dark here until around 9:30-10pm. –It’s so weird. Haha I feel like my day is a lot longer than it really is. We finished dinner around 9 ish and it seemed like it was 7. After dinner people hung out in a couple rooms but I think most people are a little tired from traveling. Tomorrow our professors are taking us on a walking tour of the city and then we are going out to a really nice opening dinner.

Yesterday (Sunday) I was such a mess...
It was a day of embarrassing moments and bad first impressions.

So after hanging out with people on Saturday night, I decided to try to get some sleep while a few others went out. I went to bed around 1:30 am and woke up around 3 am. I was tossing and turning for several hours until finally falling back asleep around 6 am. The next thing I realize, I hear this loud knocking on my door. I figured it was probably someone coming back drunk so I tried to ignore the knocks at first. Well...I needed to be in the lobby at 1:00 pm to go on a walking tour and it was 1:15pm! (I don't understand!- You know me, I can NEVER sleep in!) I was still in my pjs so I threw on the first clothes I could find and ran downstairs. The group was getting onto the metro so fortunately I wasn't a second later...

So I had had no idea what the weather was like and I was wearing a tank top and jeans. As it turns out, it was raining- I had no umbrella and no jacket- looked like a complete idiot. One of my friends let me borrow her umbrella and then while one of the professors was talking, I accidentally hit the button on the umbrella and it flew close, soaking everyone... ugh...

The rest of the day actually turned out better. My group got together and finished up most of our project. Then we all dressed up and went out to a really nice opening dinner. I had delicious salmon and the best dessert ever. I also tried a couple sips of four different types of wine given to us by our professor. He is very enthusiastic about his wine... Haha After dinner, I hung out with a couple girls and then did my readings for today.

Today I woke up on time and got to class early-haha I figured it was the least I could do to try to get things off to a better start. Classes went from 9am-12. The business class seems like it will be pretty interesting but the philosophy course is a little more wishy-washy.

We went shopping for groceries today and planned our meals for the week. It should be interesting cooking for ourselves without having the supply of spices and dishes/pans I have at home.

Miss you guys!
Amy