The Leaving Geneva Blues.

A good friend called me (or I called her...I can't remember) right before my first flight towards Geneva took off in early September. As I sat in the Detroit airport trying not to have multiple panic attacks at once, this friend assured me that while getting to Geneva and being there for the first few days would be scary, the scariest part would be leaving Geneva. She said I would surely make friends and have the time of my life and all of my worries would wash away, but she warned me to watch out because the end of the trip would come far too soon and that's when the really scary part happens. The part where you don't know if you'll ever be back in Geneva, the part where you don't know when or if you'll ever see your study abroad friends again, and most importantly the part where you KNOW things will never again be like they were for that beautiful three months during the fall of 2009. I knew she was right when she told me that, but I didn't realize just how scary it would be to leave Geneva.

We spent our last week in Geneva working and packing, and promising to not talk about how on Saturday we would all be leaving. On Thursday night we had a family thanksgiving, potluck style, that was honestly one of the best thanksgivings I've ever had, then most of the group headed to our favorite pub, Spring Brothers, that we frequented every Thursday (and sometimes Friday & Saturday) night to say goodbye to the pub that brought many of us together. We bought t-shirts and posed for numerous photos before leaving Spring Brothers and that dreaded hill that we climbed weekly to get to the pub, one last time. Friday brought even more packing, the halls were filled with trash and people trying to shove more things into already full bags. Friday also brought my mom and grandparents to Geneva, I picked up them early on Friday morning and after taking a nap we walked around a bit seeing the UN, where I worked and eventually where I lived. After the grandparents & my mom headed back to the hotel for the evening, the group got ready to go out to a fondue dinner put on by my program. The restaurant was right on the lake and was made even more special by the fact that everyone dressed up for the dinner. As dinner slowly came to an end, the goodbyes started. First to leave was Bryan, the only Ohio Stater to live on our floor and someone who I looked forward to having pop into my room nightly to chat. It was decided the week earlier that the last night in Geneva would be spent celebrating, so after the first initial goodbye, we headed back to Le Cenacle to celebrate our study abroad with an "America" party. Everything had an American theme, from the music to the dress code and the night was spent reliving memories, posing for photos and saying even more goodbyes.

I was never good at goodbyes, I'm always the overly sensitive one who acts irrationally and embarrasses herself by crying, the last night in Geneva was no different. I just couldn't, and still can't, believe that three months went by so quickly. In the past three months I've learned more about myself than I ever thought possible. Part of it was from myself and my experiences, part of it was Geneva but the biggest part of it was because of my beautiful and dysfunctional study abroad family. I'll never forget all of the good times we've had, or the bad ones, and for that I am forever grateful. The past 3 months created a bond between all of us that will last forever. I'm not sure if the people on the trip knew just how much they meant to me, but it has become evident that even if we all lose touch and never see each other again I'll always carry a part of them with me because it was my study abroad family who helped me in realizing who I am and who I want to be.

Just a quick update....

I haven't been able to update my blog because I've been busy traveling with my mom and grandparents, we are currently in Paris and I'm LOVING it. I left Geneva on Saturday, which was really a sad thing to do. Geneva, my last week there and everything I felt when I left really deserve its own blog, so I'll try to do that when I have more time, but needless to say the last few days were filled with celebrations and some tears. I'll ALWAYS have a special place in my heart for Geneva and all the amazing people I met there. Anyways, this is just a quick update to let everyone know that I'm still alive and well....actually I'm more than well, I'm in Paris so I'm freaking fantastic. I'll try to get some time away later this week from drinking espresso, staring at the Eiffel Tower and eating escargots to update. Updates may be even more sporadic than before because of upcoming travel plans but I'll try to keep you all updated. The rest of my time in Europe looks like this:

November 28th-December 4th: Paris

December 4th-December 8th: Rome

December 8th-December 11th: London

December 11th-December 14th: Dublin

December 14th-December 18th: Barcelona

It makes me tired just typing it. I'll be back in the States on December 18th and then in Oregon on the 19th! Can't believe 4 months in Europe is almost over. Anyways, I'll be updating soon, hope all is well with everyone!

Prague, Czech Republic

Jack & I trying Pilsner

The castle

Old town

The Castle

Me on the Charles Bridge

From the boat tour

On the boat tour

Wenceslas Square

If you know me, then you know how much I love to watch travel shows, anything from Anthony Bourdain to Samantha Brown, I love them all. A couple of years ago when I was in high school I was watching an episode of Rick Steve's Europe and he was in Prague, immediately I fell in love with the place (as did Rick during the episode) and knew that the next time I went to Europe that I wanted to go to Prague. After weeks of being in Geneva is looked like the trip wouldn't happen, and then one day my friend Jack and I talked about it and decided that Prague was a must, bought some plane tickets and booked a hostel and before we knew it we were off to Ceske Repbubliky.

We left on Friday afternoon with plenty of time to get to the airport, but like I've said before, and like I'll say forever, it's not traveling if something doesn't go terribly wrong at some point. That being said we hopped on the wrong train (I'll take responsibility for it) and ended up going in the opposite direction of the airport. Thank the lord that we had left in more than enough time and knew the tram and bus systems fairly well in Geneva, after running around the city and basically starting back at square one we finally got to the Geneva airport and were just in time for our flight. The first flight was just to Zurich and was fairly quick and then we caught a connecting flight to Praha and got in around 7pm at night. After taking out some Czech Kourna we found a taxi to the hostel, checked in and got settled before heading to a restaurant down the street (which would quickly become our favorite restaurant in the city) called Spirit Bar. After spending almost 3 months in Geneva where we cannot afford much other than pasta and vegetables, being able to afford eating out and eating good food was a real treat. The dinner was really different than our usual Genevan meals, it was based mostly on meat and of course we tried the Czech beer. After dinner we ended up meeting up with some fellow hostelers in the hostel's bar and then headed out to a 5 story club. One thing that I've learned so far from my travels is that if a country was under dictator control (like Spain) or in the Eastern block (like the Czech Republic) the nightlife tends to be more wild, needless to say after a few hours at the 5 story club we were pretty worn out and headed back to the hostel to catch some sleep.

The next morning we woke up bright and early to try to get tickets to an AC Sparta (Prague's main soccer team), after realizing that maybe we had been mistaken and there wasn't actually a game that day, we headed back to Wenceslas square to go on a 6 hour tour of the entire city. Our tour guide was a little Czech lady who had a, lets say, strange sense of humor, but knew a ton about Prague. We went through old town, Josefov, the castle, on a boat tour and had an included lunch all for about 1200 Koruna, around 70 dollars, more than worth it. Being able to see buildings that had been around for hundreds of years and had so much history with WWI, WWII and the Cold War was amazing. After touring the whole city we went back to Spirit bar for dinner and then headed back to the hostel to change and meet up with some people and ended up going to a Czech bar where we hung out, chatted with other travelers and drank Pilsner.

The next morning was our last day in Prague and we spent it revisiting sites like Josefov and the Charles Bridge, searching for souvenirs and drinking hot chocolate on the top of a hotel that overlooked all of old town square. We caught an early dinner at Spirit bar and then headed back to the airport to go home.

Prague was literally one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to, I'd say it's tied with Paris for my favorite place I've ever been. It was filled with amazing people, food, history, beautiful architecture and language. I fell in love with the city instantly and cannot wait to go back one day, and hopefully stay for much longer than a weekend. I am so lucky to be able to go to such an amazing place and experience such a beautiful city. I think I can easily say my trip to Praha was the best trip yet.

Lakes, Alps & the Matterhorn

The group in Annecy

Vin chaud avec orange

The bridge of love

Once again I'm behind on my travel updates, so here it goes...

Last weekend Heidi, Sam, Chris & I decided to take a day trip to Annecy, France. I had been to Annecy once before on my first trip to France in high school and loved it, so I was really excited to go back. Annecy is a smaller town located just an

hour and a half bus ride outside of Geneva at the base of the French Alps. Most of the town is really modern, but a section of it is all cobble stone streets, canals and winding streets, needless to say we stayed on that side. After leaving fairly early in the morning and enjoying the hour and a half scenic bus ride, we were greeted with a street market and were able to walk around and look at all the produce and local goods. After walking through the city for a couple of hours we found a crêperie and proceeded to have an amazing lunch followed by killer dessert crêpes, mine was a carmel (with a homemade carmel sauce) and lemon crêpe, pretty perfect. After lunch we walked up to the huge château that over looked all of Annecy and is now an art museum. We toured through the museum for a bit and took pictures of all of the city. Once we were done looking around it had started raining and we were getting cold so we found a restaurant, bought some hot wine and discussed how perfect the little town really was. Once we were all warmed up again we ventured back out into the rain and cold to walk along the lake and take in the sights. When I was in Annecy in high school I remember there being a really creepy prison museum, and luckily we ran into it in our walks throughout the city. While most of the exhibits were in French, and for the most part lost on us, the creepiness of the prison and opportunities for creepy photos were not. Once we were done touring the prison we found a cute restaurant for dinner, which ended up being the best part of the day. Because we had to catch a bus back at 7pm, we had to eat dinner early (for the French) and luckily found a cute restaurant and were the only ones in it. The owner of the restaurant was so excited to show tourists the traditional food of the French Alps region and throughly explained each dish, but she didn't speak English, and being the most well versed French speaker in our group (which isn't really saying much) she explained to me all the local dishes and what was in everything, while I did my best to explain to the others about the meals. It was good practice for my language skills (or lack there of). After ordering all the traditional dishes, the owner of the restaurant was so excited about it that she offered us free apéritifs, which are always welcome. The delicious dinner was a perfect end to the wonderful day trip that we had.

Train ride there

The Matterhorn

Please come out of the clouds Matterhorn!

For reals.

After a wonderful trip to Annecy, this past week I was able to take Thursday off of work to go on my first trip into Switzerland to a small town in the Alps called Zermatt so I could see the Matterhorn. My friend Jack & I went, and left early in the morning to catch an early train to the town of Visp. The ride there was absolutely beautiful, filled with small towns, chalets and the alps. Once in Visp we had some time to walk around and window shop before catching the matterhorn express train to Zermatt. The second train was much shorter and took us up into the mountains, passing little groups of chalets and fields filled with goats. Once in Zermatt we walked around the town and took a plethora of Matterhorn pictures before finding a cute little pub to get lunch in. On our way back to the station to catch the train back to Geneva we experienced our first snow of the season, I thought it was pretty dreamy that my first snow this fall was in the Alps in Switzerland. It was also fun to be in the German part of Switzerland, I haven't been able to experience the Swiss-German culture (minus the few times I've been in the Zurich airport) and was happy to have that experience.

This past weekend I went to Prague with Jack and had an amazing time, that deserves its own blog post, so you'll have to wait for that. I can't believe we only have two weeks left on the trip. The time has literally flown and I think everyone is realizing that we only have a handful of days left together, and its getting kind of sad. I'm glad Heidi will be back in East Lansing with me, but it just doesn't seem fair to us that all the Ohio State kids will be able to see each other, but we won't be able to get together as easily. I guess we'll be making some trips down to Columbus this spring. The next two weeks will be spent enjoying Geneva, exploring parts of the city I have some how seemed to neglect, trying to speak as much French as possible and spending time with all the amazing people I've met here.

Resolutions, Halloween & Sprained Ankles

Annecy, France

Getting ready for the soccer game.
Mouse & Cat <3
The halloween group
Geneva in the Fall

So a lot has happened in the past couple of weeks, and per usual I am terrible at updating my blog, so I'll try to catch you up.

A couple of weekends ago was the NGO forum for the upcoming UNECE (United Nations Economic Commission of Europe) meetings, it was also a forum to prepare for the upcoming Beijing +15 meetings which will update the status of women's rights around the world. My organization was leading a caucus event and so Heidi and I worked the whole weekend at the forum. Our caucus was meant to create a brainstorming session within various NGOs to discuss the role of responsibilities within human rights. While so many groups and meetings are focused on human rights (and justly so) there if very little talk about the responsibilities that go along with those rights, because who really wants to be responsible for things? No one, especially not governments. My boss decided Heidi and I were going to be the special rapporteurs for the session which involved taking notes on who said what and essentially what happened during the meeting, and then drafting those notes after the meeting. Sitting in a room with 20 + women and having to catch all their comments wasn't the easiest thing ever, but Heidi and I made it through and were able to finalize our notes that night. The next day at the forum a group of women from the meeting got together to draft a resolution statement that would be read aloud at the UN, Heidi and I were also involved in the meeting and created the resolution. It was so interesting to sit in on a brainstorming session like this and learn about all the little specifics that have to be just right for something to be read and taken seriously at the UN, every word has to be so precise and they truly use a different language. After the NGO forum, the next Monday and Tuesday were the actual UNECE meetings where our boss read aloud the statement we wrote to all the delegates and the secretariat and such, it was an amazing feeling and definitely something to add to the resume.

After working hard all weekend it was time to celebrate Halloween (or at least try to). A few weeks into our study abroad when we realized that Halloween isn't really celebrated in Switzerland Heidi and I went on a mission to make our own Halloween. While there was no carving of pumpkins (a pumpkin here goes for around 11 us dollars), and no trick or treating, we did find a party to attend. A local group called "glocals", which is basically a group for expats living in Geneva, throw a party every year at a club called Palledum. We dressed up (Heidi was a mouse and I was a cat) and convinced some of the boys (Jack, HCL & Chris) to come along and headed to the biggest halloween party I've ever witnessed. There were about 1,200 people dressed in all sorts of costumes and dancing the night away, it was a perfect way to celebrate. It was actually really fun to notice cultural differences just by costumes, they LOVE dressing up as Napoleon and most guys just dress up in drag. After a long work week dancing to Thriller surrounded by 1,200 people from all over the world dressed up for Halloween was a perfect way to relax.

After Halloween everything has pretty much been the normal, working and waiting for the weekend. On Wednesday a group of us got together to play soccer (or football as they call it here) outside which was a bunch of fun until I hurt myself...a couple of times. Per usual I was the one who got beat up, I'm sure partly because I had no idea what I was doing and am clumsy and partly because I get kind of competitive and throw myself out there, either way at the end of the game I couldn't really walk and was in some pain. On Sunday my ankle was HUGE and blue, all kinds of gross so yesterday I went to the doctor and through his limited English skills learned that I have some deep bruising and a sprained ankle, 100 dollars later I have a cream for my sprain and some gel pads to put on it, Swiss medicine isn't exactly as effective as the states. I was also told to stay off of it for 10 days but seeing as I have some trips coming up, that probably won't be happening, either way I just hope it heals quickly.

Speaking of trips I went on a day trip to Annecy, France on Sunday (which did not help my swollen foot) and had a blast. Heidi, Sam, Chris and I all went and spent the day walking around and eating delicious crepes and drinking hot wine with orange slices, it was rough. I had been to Annecy once before in high school and remembered it to be one of my favorite places, going back only confirmed that. I'll put up a separate blog with photos and more info about Annecy. As for other trips, on Thursday I'll be heading to Zermatt, Switzerland to see the Matterhorn and then on Friday-Sunday I'll be in Prague which I keep hearing will be my favorite place, I really can't wait. Expect lots of pictures and updates soon!

Nice, France & the Principality of Monaco

The fruit & flower market
Some of the group at lunch (Chris, me, HCL, Jack)
The group before swimming
It actually looked like this.
Amazing.

A couple of weekends ago Jack, Chris S. (from here on known as HCL), Stephen, Chris C. and I went to Nice, France for the weekend (per usual it was Cait & the boys). It was Jack's birthday weekend and we decided that the best way to celebrate was to head to the Mediterranean to soak up the sun and swim. We left after they got out of their class on Friday afternoon, and after stopping to get some lunch, candy and necessary supplies for the 6 hour train ride, we arrived at the train station and loaded on to the TGV (French speed train). The train ride started smoothly, as we left Switzerland and were venturing into France we passed the time by playing M.A.S.H. and telling stories. All was well until about 4 hours into our trip when the train broke down. We stopped in the middle of the tracks and after finding a conductor who spoke English, were explained that someone had messed with the track's electrical system and that all trains were down. Eventually we were up and running and then it broke down again, what we didn't know is that this would happen various times throughout the rest of the ride. We ended up passing the time in the food and drink car of the train easing our pain with sandwiches and a couple of well needed beers, and after sitting on the tracks for 6 hours, we were back on our way. What was supposed to be a 6 hour ride arriving at 7 pm turned into a 12 hour epic journey, and we got into Nice at 1 AM on Saturday morning. Luckily our hostel (which was a ways away) was still picking people up and taking them back to the hostel, so we got a ride and settled in for the night.

In true hostel style, once we got settled and were ready to go to bed we were awoken by the most intense snoring I have ever heard (it even beat you dad). This was not normal snoring, there honestly had to be something wrong with the guy, needless to say it kept us up all night and a couple of times throughout the night caused people to yell out in anger. Besides the bad roomie, the hostel we were staying in was awesome, it was this old villa and the original owner was the author of Le Petit Prince (if you've taken 3 or more years of French, I can assure you that you've read this book, its hugely famous in Francophone countries). Everything had Petit Prince decor and the hostel had its own gardens, lots of rooms and a really awesome bar. It was a ways from downtown but the hostel was nice enough to pick people up and drop them off at the closest tram stop. If anyone ever goes to Nice, Villa Saint Exupery is the place to stay.

Anyways, on Saturday morning we got up bright and early, got some breakfast and headed into town. Our first stop was the fruit and flower market in the center of town where Stephen and I bought some of the best fruit we have ever had, and then we all grabbed lunch at a local cafe where we had a 3 course meal of seafood for 16 Euro each. After eating, and stopping at a local tourist shop to get bathing suits (HCL and Chris were brave and opted for the euro suit), we took our first dip in the Mediterranean. The sea was a perfect blend of green and blue -just what I had remembered from being there 5 years earlier-, I tried to take a ton of pictures of it, but no matter how many I took it couldn't capture the beauty of it all. After a couple of hours of swimming and laying on the pebble beach we headed back to the hostel to get ready for a night of luxury and gambling at the world famous Monte Carlo Casino in the principality of Monaco.

We showered and got ultra dressed up and then headed to the train station to catch a train to Monaco. The ride there was amazing, the sun was setting and we passed through multiple cliff filled coves with beautiful villas up in the hills, the French Riveria really is perfect. Once we got to Monaco is started raining, but even through the bad weather you could tell that this city (or country?) was one of the nicest places I've ever been to. The streets were beautiful and lined with amazing shops and restaurants and it all was up on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean. It was truly filled with luxury and beauty. We found our way to the Monte Carlo and after hearing and reading about the strict dress code (and then dressing up in suits and a cute dress) found that it was a little more relaxed than we had anticipated. Either way we had a great time. The building (which doesn't allow photos) was amazing, everything is gold plated and decorated like I imagine the royal palace was. We gambled for a bit, Chris C. even won 100 Euros on the slot machine, I won 10 cents and decided to keep the slip for a scrap book rather than cashing in. Once we got our fill of gambling we headed back to Nice and hung out at the hostel bar for the rest of the night. Thanks to some collective creativity, we came up with a story for why we were all so dressed up and told people that is was HCL's bachelor party and we were the wedding party, and I was the best man....for some reason everyone believed this, and we spent the rest of the night cheers-ing to the wedding and trying to keep our stories straight.

Sunday we woke up early again got some breakfast (tried to avoid people we had been lying to the whole night before) and headed back to our usual beach to go swimming one last time before it was time to head back to Geneva. After swimming for a while and then drying off in the Provencal sun we got another amazing meal of fish, mussels... and all the things we would NEVER be able to afford in Switzerland, and headed back to the train station to hop a train to Geneva. This time the train ride was only 6 hours long (thank god, another 12 hour train ride could have been the end of us) and we arrived back in Geneva at around 11 pm. What was a random weekend trip, ended up being a jaunt to one of the most beautiful places any of us have ever been and a great bonding experience. I don't know when I'll be able to get back to Nice, but I do know it needs to happen sometime soon.

Studying abroad....forever.

(Some of the Genève family...read on for details)

I have yet to update my blog about my trip to Nice, France & Monaco but I promise, it is coming!

Things have been great in Switzerland and the time has been flying by, I can't believe my internship is 2/3rds of the way over and that my time is Europe is already half over, it isn't a good feeling. I'm sure I'll be happy to see family and friends and get back to school, but I have this nagging suspicion that I'll be wishing I was in Genève the whole time. I realized how sad I'm going to be to have this trip end this weekend, most of the interns went out of town (off to Zermatt or Zurich for the weekend) so I was left with the usual group (or family as we like to call ourselves), and I wouldn't have had it any other way. The weekend was filled with all things ordinary: watching movies and tv shows in Jack's room, walking the streets of Genève, markets in France and going to the Natural History Museum, and it was perfect. As we were enjoying our lazy weekend, Heidi and I realized that we had just a little over a month left of our study abroad, after discussing this at some length we then realized that not only will we be leaving Europe, but we will be leaving all of our new Ohio State and U. of Washington friends as well. While I may have only known this group of people for 5 weeks, I feel like they've always been apart of my life...I think there's something about study abroad that makes you connect with people faster than in any other situation. Heidi and I began questioning what our lives will be like when we won't have someone around to refer to as Zambo, or Jack to make us laugh or Chris to look like he just walked out of a GQ ad, and we decided that it won't be good. So the question for now is, how to study abroad forever...if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Besides thinking way too much about the end of the trip, I've been making more travel plans and am so excited for the upcoming weeks! Jack and I bought tickets to go to Prague, which is the one place I REALLY wanted to see, and I cannot wait, and a group of us will be heading to Zermatt, Switzerland to see the Matterhorn and tromp around the Alps, I can't wait. Things are also in the process of being planned for my family's trip out to Europe, we have the hotels in Genève and Paris picked out and are starting to look for a place in Rome. Daniel and I have been discussing our travel plans as well and have been looking up islands off the coast of France and Spain to go to. Part of me doesn't want the internship to end and part of me wants it to speed up just so I can go to all of these wonderful places. I can't wait!

Work has been good, Heidi and I are both building new websites for our organization and are prepping for the UNECE (UN Economic Commission of Europe) meeting this weekend and early next week. Our organization is having a side event at the meetings where Heidi and I will be special rapporteurs and will have to write a report that will be presented to the office of the UNECE, it is all very exciting, slightly stressful and extremely terrifying. It is nice that things are picking up again at the office, time goes way faster when you have things to do that don't revolve around facebook, checking your email every five minutes, or....updating your blog. Alright back to work.