Orientation etc.

Two primary items on the agenda (and then I'll go chronologically): 

1) I AM IN HOMESTAY HEAVEN. 

2) Change in mailing address: 

         Adela Griswold

         chez Raimondi

         route de Burtigny 12

         1268 Begnins

         Switzerland

   *anything sent to the address given previously WILL reach me, but it will take much longer and will make Earl unhappy. More about Earl later. 

Ok, now that's off my chest, I'll start at the beginning. Be warned: this may be quite long, so I won't be offended if you skim. ;) 

Given that leaving DC on Inauguration Day was on a wing and a prayer, everything went startlingly smoothly. At JFK I met up with the SIT (my program- School for International Training) peeps who were GREAT and proceeded to make lots of friends. Unbeknownst to all, SIT had 2 different programs (both technically based in Geneva) traveling on the same group flight, and it took me until we were in Lyon, France to realize that all the friends I had met and made preliminary travel plans with, etc. were with the other program. As they say here, aie! c'est la vie. From Lyon I was shepherded onto a bus (avec mes deux valises enormes), along with the 22 people whom I hadn't met, to make our way to Geneva. We arrived at the youth hostel and spent nearly an hour trying to get all our bags up to the 4th floor (actually the 5th- the '1st floor' counts as 0 here) which was for SURE a bonding experience. Next challenge: fitting 6 girls + 18 suitcases into a TINY room that already contained 3 bunkbeds. Whew. At this point I was no longer concerned about getting to know people on my program. Should also mention: although the drive from Lyon to Genève was beeeeautiful, the area of the city surrounding the hostel was considerably less so. Omitting details, the hostel was directly across the street from Geneva's prostitution and drug dealing hub, and my first venture out into the city began with being surrounded by somewhat unsavory characters all of whom were spitting "CHÉ! CHÉ!" at me. Managed to remove myself from that situation, and found out later that 'ché' is the codeword/sound for people who either have drugs to sell or are in the market. Great. Other cultural discoveries of note: hooka here = GREAT and techno clubs = HUGE. One night out was highlighted by a very interesting encounter with a group of Macedonian men claiming to be 22 but who were clearly approaching 40. Again, I'll spare the details. However, while on the topic of Macedonia, a fun fact about Geneva: according to Earl, there are just over 200 ethnicities registered with the UN, and of those 200+, 184 (ish) can be found in Geneva. Diversity, anyone? 

Orientation officially commenced with a meeting with Earl, our Academic Director. The only word that comes to mind immediately is 'character.' Earl is a character. Time will tell whether this is a good or a bad thing, but I have never met anyone with such distinctive (and excessive) mannerisms that are exhibited SO consistently! When he speaks I feel as if I'm watching a performance. Incredible, really. After two days of overcoming jet-lag and attempting not to giggle when Earl speaks, the our group (the majority of whom, at this point, I was quite enamored with) spent the day in Nyon, a midsize town about 20 minutes from Geneva by train. We got off the train and let out a collective sigh of relief- Nyon is ADORABLE.  Its got all sorts of shops, cafés, etc., as well as the École-Club Migros which is where I'll be taking French classes (for 9 hours per week- I had BETTER be fluent by the end of this...) We had the chance to explore a bit, take a French placement test, etc. etc., followed by a fabulous big group dinner (wooot woot for gnocci in vodka sauce AND vino paid for by school!)! Il a été fantastique! 

Saturday was the BIG DAY, and was approached with much anxiety and anticipation. A second hour was spent moving all the luggage DOWN from the 4th floor of the Geneva Youth Hostel, and into a bus to take us all to Nyon to meet our host families. SUCH nerves!! I had known from an email my host-mom (Catherine) had sent that she would be working that day so her husband/my host-dad (Pierre) would come alone to pick me up. I knew as soon as he didn't complain about how much luggage I had that he was a keeper. :) Seriously, sweetest man ever. He speaks beautiful English but is patient and helpful with corrections while I bumble along in French. He is a doctor (a GP) in the little town of Begnins (pop. 1200) which is also the home of Phil Collins (!!!- I took a photo of his gate) as well as (according to Pierre) Formula 1 racecar driver Jackie Stewart. It is on a hill overlooking Lake Geneva and the Alps and is surrounded by vineyards, and no, I don't think I'll ever come home (sorry, Zamba). Their house is BIG (especially by European standards) and my room is on the 3rd floor. And is huge. And has a view of Lake Geneva. And of the Alps. Oh- and did I forget to mention? I have a climbing wall in my room. Yes, a climbing wall. And no, not going home. The promised 3 cats and 5 gerbils are also present, and one of the cats, Plume, sleeps with me. Shortly after Pierre and arrived at La Maison Raimondi the girls arrived home after their riding lesson (!!!!!). Aude (pronounced 'ode'- not 'odd') is 14 and Marina is 12 and they are wonderful. Aude is virtually fluent in English and loves practicing with me (which is great for her) and Marina speaks not a word of English and loves when I make mistakes in French so that she can correct me (which is great for me). As soon as Aude had changed out of her britches she invited me to go see 'Twilight' with her and her friends. (For the record, I had neither read the book nor seen the movie). I (obviously) accepted as she was excited for me to go and I thought it would be good for my French. The film was dubbed, and I had a great time observing the theater full of Swiss 8th grade girls gasping and giggling and clutching each other whenever Edward Cullen (the 'hot' vampire) was onscreen. Aude informed all of her friends that my brother's name is Edward and they spent all of Intermission (which occurs EXACTLY in the middle-- I'm talking mid-line-- of movies in Swiss theaters) trying to say 'Edward' without a french accent. HILARIOUS. By the end of the film I couldn't decide whether I was more shocked that I had understood much of the movie in French or that I actually enjoyed it. Or that I just admitted that I enjoyed it. Oh, man... Catherine (who is a midwife- SO cool) got home from work for a delicious duck and spatzli dinner that Pierre made. I was SUPER proud as I was able to follow and participate in dinner conversation, and we discovered that they had previously hosted another Duke student with SIT, a girl named Rita. The coincidence part: I had met Rita for lunch over a year ago to ask her about SIT and I remember her saying that she had the most incredible homestay experience- SCORE!! 

Day 2 of living with the Raimondis couldn't have been better: we spent the day skiing at a place called La Dôle in the Jura mountains on a BEAUTIFUL sunny day with fresh powder. I do realize that I'm spoiled. For not skiing in 3 years I did pretty well- after a 'warm-up' run I was doing the moguls and through-the-forest runs with the best of them! Wow, I love Switzerland. 

Today was the first day of 'school,' but you can hardly call it that. I completed my first morning commute which I LOVE- I walk 3 minutes from home to the Begnins bus stop where I take the 8am bus to Nyon (~20 mins) and then switch over to the train in Nyon which goes straight to Geneva (~25 mins) where I meet Earl and the rest of the group. It's dark when I leave Begnins in the morning, but its all good because by the time I'm on the train I get to see the sun rise over the Alps and reflect off of Lake Geneva. Life is rough, huh? "School" today consisted of a walking tour of La Vieille Ville (old city) of Geneva which is absolutely breathtaking. After the tour we thawed at an adorable cafe with some chocolate chaud and then played chess (or, in my case, checkers) in the park on the massive boards (TOTALLY like Harry Potter). In the afternoon we visited the Musée de la Croix Rouge (Red Cross Museum) which was so interesting and extremely powerful-- in particular there was a room in which the walls were covered floor to ceiling with little 4x4 photos of Rwandan children holding numbers that were taken after the genocide in an effort to identify the kids and reunite them with their families. Then it was time for the commute back home (and sunset!), dinner with the fam, and lots of reading! Also got to see Kait and Jordan's beautiful faces on skype (LOVE you both!) and can't wait to talk to the rest of you! 

Tomorrow is the first day of real class, with both my Development Studies and Public Health seminar and French in the afternoon... we'll see if the honeymoon lasts... :)