Bienvenue a Suisse!

I suppose I'm beginning this blog a little late into my journey, but better late than never, right? Switzerland has been amazing so far! So much has happened in the 11 days since I left home, yet there is still so much to come this semester. I can't believe it's been just over one week since we arrived in Switzerland and only six days since I moved in with my host family -- it seems like we've been here much longer. I guess a review of the past week or so is in order, but first I should probably explain the title of my blog since I would have no idea what it means if I wasn't living in Switzerland. The official abbreviation/country code for Switzerland is "CH" (a lot of people here have "CH" bumper stickers on their mini Euro cars). It stands for "Confoederatio Helvetica" which refers to the ancient Celtic Helvetii people who lived in the Alps. If for some strange reason you'd like to know more about the Helvetii people or their place in Swiss history, please consult Wikipedia. And hopefully you can all figure out the "16 weeks" part. So without any more ramblings, here are my past 11 days in a nutshell:

28 August, Tuesday
I flew from Chicago to JFK solo and then met up with most of my group at our gate at JFK. There are actually two SIT programs in Geneva this semester and we were both on the same flight. We also spent part of our first few days together in Geneva, but we haven't seen the other students much since moving in with our families. SIT (School for International Training) programs are rather untraditional in their structure. We're not enrolled in an actual university while here, but rather we have lectures and discussions with our Academic Directors and briefings with various experts in our fields of study. Each SIT program has a theme that the lectures and briefings relate to -- my program's theme is Development Studies and Public Health and the theme of the other SIT group in Geneva is International Relations, Organizations, and Social Justice (or something like that). Another unique feature of SIT programs is that our lectures and briefings only continue through October. We then spend the last four weeks of the program conducting an Independent Study Project which will result in a 30 page paper and a presentation to the rest of the group and various guests. But back to the flight to Geneva... So we flew from JFK to Paris and then connected to Geneva. We met our Program Assistant (Anne) at the airport and took a bus to a hostel in the city. The flights were pretty uneventful, however we did have an exciting five hour layover in Paris. After we made it to the hostel we had a short introduction and orientation with our group and our Director.

29 August, Wednesday
Our flight from JFK left at 6PM so it was technically Thursday when we landed in Paris and Geneva, so the last part of my description of Tuesday should really be down here, but the traveling felt like one day, so it's not :)

30 August, Thursday
On our first full day in Switzerland we traveled to a small city called Nyon which is about a 10 minute train ride from Geneva. Nyon is where most of our classes will be held. We went to a community center called Ecole Club-Migros (ECM) for orientation fun. The highlight of this day was probably filling out forms to receive our security badges at the Palais de Nations, better known as the UN. An exciting tidbit from Tuesday/Wednesday that I forgot until now was that on our way to the hostel we drove past the UN and the UNHCR (UN High Comission for Refugees)!! (I was pretty excited about that, but I guess maybe it's not that exciting). In the afternoon we had a French placement test which was rather frustrating, considering I speak and understand next to no French. The oral part of the test was especially annoying because I had four native French speakers asking me questions that I couldn't answer either a) because I didn't know what they were asking or b) when I did understand some of what they said because of knowing Spanish, I had no idea how to answer except to say "oui" which made for a pretty one-sided and boring conversation. We also met with our homestay coordinator that afternoon and had a group dinner at a really great Italian restaurant. Then we went back to the hostel and slept.

31 August, Friday
Friday morning we had one last bit of orientation at a center in Geneva where we will have more briefings during the semester. We then had lunch and took a tour of the Old City of Geneva. The Old City was really interesting and really scenic. There's such an awesome amount of history in Geneva: we visited St. Peter's Cathedral where John Calvin preached during the reformation, saw Jean Jacques Rosseau's home, and saw the oldest part of the Geneva city hall where the Geneva Convention was held!! (Although all of that sounds pretty lame compared to what Alex has seen in Egypt, like a well that Jesus drank out of.) After our tour we had free time and dinner on our own. I went to an Indian restaurant near our hostel with a few other people and then walked along the lake after dinner.

1 September, Saturday
Saturday was a big day! We met our host families at a hotel in Nyon in the late morning. I actually went home with another family who is from my village and hosting another SIT student (Natasha), because my host family was busy in the morning. Christine, Natasha's "mom", drove Natasha and me from Nyon to Yens, stopping in Morges along the way. Morges is the town where we switch trains every morning to get to class. She drove us through part of town and it was really pretty -- I'd like to go back and walk around one afternoon or weekend. She also showed us the train station in Morges so we would know where we had to go on Monday morning. After our stop in Morges, we continued on to Yens, our new "home." We went to Natasha's house first, which is a really fascinating house. It's a farmhouse that was built in the 1700's. I saw a bit of the inside of the house before leaving for my own homestay. My homestay family is wonderful!! They live in a newer house that is over the hill, on the back side of the village. My room is in the basement, next to the room of the Swiss German high school student (Simon) who is also living with my family for the semester. We share a bathroom downstairs. There's also a small rock climbing wall in the basement because my family's eldest son, Olivier, really enjoys climbing. My "mom," Christina, is super nice. When I first arrived only Christina and Josephine, their 9-year-old daughter, were home. They showed me my room and then we had lunch on the terrace outside their dining room that overlooks Lake Geneva and part of the French Alps on the opposite side of the lake. On a clear day you can even see the top of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe! The view is absolutely gorgeous. The whole idea of living in such a beautiful place and being surrounded by such great landscape and scenery all the time is a little unreal. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe I'm actually living here.
The rest of the family returned home later in the day -- my "dad" Ian had been at my "brother" Patrick's football match (aka soccer game) in the afternoon and Olivier and Simon had gone rock climbing. Josephine (aka Josie) had to go to Scouts later in the afternoon, so when it was time to pick her up Christina brought Patrick, Simon, and me along and the five of us went swimming for about an hour. After returning home we all helped to get dinner ready and ate outside on the terrace again, despite it being a bit chilly. The children all love apples and the family has a few apple trees in their yard, so Christina makes apple pies nearly every day during apple season. She has four or five different apple dessert recipes, so I tried my first one on Saturday night. It was delicious! (duh!) After dinner on Saturdays, the family usually watches a movie together. It came up at dinner that I had been to Vietnam this summer, so Ian decided we should watch Good Morning Vietnam. I had never seen it before, but I really enjoyed it. I should add that Christina is German and Ian is British, so their children are all trilingual (German, English, and French). Also, because they learned English from their dad, they have adorable British accents! So after the movie, we all went to bed. It was a great first day with my new family -- they were really warm and welcoming which helped put me at ease about living here for the next four months or so.

2 September, Sunday
Sunday morning I wandered upstairs probably around 9:30 or 10:00 and had some breakfast (bread and homemade jam from Natasha's host mom). I stayed in the kitchen for a while talking with Christina and the kids as they wandered in and out of the kitchen, just getting to know the family a little. Around noon all the kids had to go outside and help Ian in the garden for an hour, so I joined in. Josie and I weeded and did some raking. After gardening we ate lunch and then Josie had some activity (I can't remember what now) and the boys were going to the forest, so I decided to go with them. I thought we would be going hiking or something, but when we left the house Olivier was carrying a backpack and a large saw, Patrick was carrying a long metal pole, and Simon was carrying a stepladder, so I was a little confused/worried. First we walked along a gravel road behind the house for a short way, then we spent about five minutes walking through a corn field to get to the forest. Once we got to our destination Patrick explained to me that he and a friend had started to build a fort about two weeks ago and so we were now adding to it. We gathered wood for a while, then created a few walls and a tower. It's actually really cool, but definitely not something I ever would have thought to do when I was 13. (Sidenote: Olivier and Simon are 16, Patrick is 13, and Josie is 9).
After about an hour and a half at the fort, Ian picked us up (there was a road between the corn field and the forest) and took the boys to practice football. I went back to the house for a bit and later in the afternoon we all went swimming again. After swimming we came back home for dinner and more apple desserts. I also gave everyone their gifts after dinner. I brought Olivier, Simon, and Patrick Chicago sports teams baseball hats (Sox, Bears, and Bulls), an LWE t-shirt for Josie, and a piece of art glass for Ian and Christina that was made by someone from Frankfort. Apparently he has pieces of art glass in the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian, which I was completely unaware of until my mom bought the gift and brought home the card about it that came with it. Pretty cool, I guess. They all seemed to really like the gifts and the boys have been wearing the hats this week. We all went to bed relatively early on Sunday since Monday was a school day.

3 September, Monday
So Monday consisted of class in the morning with our Academic Director (Earl) and Program Assistant (Anne). Natasha and I commuted together from Yens to Nyon for class -- it took us about an hour to get there. First, I had a 15 minute walk downhill to the train station in Yens, where we took a train affectionately referred to as the BAM (its major stops are Biere, Apples, and Morges) into Morges. In Morges we changed trains to get to Nyon. There are a few other students who also take the train in Morges, one of whom we met up with Monday morning. We got to Nyon a little early so we went to a cafe for some coffee before class. Class was mostly more orientation-type stuff. We had a lunch break from about noon until 14:00 (which is 2:00pm for all you Americans), at which time we had French class. I was actually really excited to learn French, but the class has turned out to be a bit frustrating. I'm in the beginner class and we all have minimal to no knowledge of French, but we learn at very different rates. So it's not the actual learning that's frustrating, but the fact that I feel like I could be learning a lot more than I am. Overall, though, class was okay. After class, Natasha, Orlando (another student who lives in Yens), and I went to this electronics store called InterDiscount to try to get cell phones (more commonly called "mobiles" here), but there was some kind of problem with the computer system so our attempt was unsuccessful. We then took our two trains back to Yens and had to walk 15 minutes uphill. At least it's a good leg workout. Dinners at my house during the week are a little less structured because the kids have a bunch of different activities, so we just kind of eat with whoever's home. After dinner I did some reading for my classes (we got a HUGE box of readings in class that morning) and went to bed... nothing too exciting

4 September, Tuesday
Tuesday morning consisted of more class, this time in Geneva. We also had a lot more discussion on Tuesday which was a nice change from just listening for three hours. After class we had free time for lunch again and French class in Nyon in the afternoon. I went straight home after class with Natasha and Orlando. Well, we went straight back to Yens, but we walked around some vineyards and ate a few grapes before actually going home. After dinner I walked to Natasha's house to walk her back to my house (because she didn't know where it was). She stayed over for a while to use the internet since my family has wireless. We neglected to realize earlier in the evening, however, that if she were to leave at 10, which she did, it would be a very dark walk home, due to the lack of street lights. This obliviousness led to her ringing the doorbell about 30 seconds after she left. As luck would have it, Ian was out of town all week on business, Christina was at Parent's Night at Patrick's school until late, Olivier wasn't home yet (he'd been rock climbing all afternoon and evening in France), and the other three were in bed already. So we waited for Olivier to come home and he showed us where a flashlight was. We ended up talking to him, though, until Christina came home, at which point Olivier commented it would be the "proper thing" for Christina to give Natasha a ride home, rather than her walking home with the flashlight. So in the end, Natasha finally got a ride and then bought a Winnie the Pooh flashlight the next day. After she left, I went to bed because it was late, I was tired, and I'd had enough Swiss adventures for one day.

5 September, Wednesday
Wednesday turned out to be another adventurous day, in more than one way! We were told, more than once, to be sure to bring our passports with us on Wednesday morning. Sadly (and probably much to my father's dismay), I forgot mine. Luckily, I realized my idiocy before boarding the BAM train. My forgetfulness, however, resulted in me having to walk back uphill to my house (after Orlando's host mom had so nicely given me a ride halfway down the hill, which I was so grateful for because I was wearing really uncomfortable shoes that day!), get my passport from my room, walk back down the hill, and wait 20 minutes for the next BAM (they only run every hour). This whole process set me back an hour. The reason we needed our passports Wednesday morning was because we were going the the Palais de Nations and had to have our passports to get our security badges. Once I finally arrived by train in Geneva, over two hours after I left my house for the first time, I had to navigate my way to the UN (I had called Earl once I realized I'd be late and he told me how to get there since the rest of the group was traveling there together from the train station in Geneva). I finally made it to the UN and Earl met me just past the security check so I could get my badge. It turns out I didn't really miss anything because it took the rest of the group about an hour for them to all get their badges. I made it there just in time for our tour of the UN Library, which is amazing!! I pretty much decided while I was there that I'm never leaving the greater Geneva area.
Wednesday afternoon was kind of open for us. We were split into small groups and each group had to go to a different library in Geneva and do a little research on it. Our research culminated in short oral presentations on Friday morning that were essentially a tour of each library, without actually going to any of them. My group was assigned the library of the World Health Organization. We had quite the time figuring out how to get into the building, but once we did the project went pretty smoothly. The library was much smaller than I would have expected, but it definitely had any journal relating to health that you could ever possibly want to read. After finishing our research I made my way back to Yens, climbing uphill for the second time that day. Wednesday night was apparently rather uneventful because I can't remember what I did at home, other than eat dinner and go to bed.

6 September, Thursday
Thursday morning we had more class and discussion in Nyon with Earl. Normally, we would be in Geneva on Thursday mornings, but it was a holiday in the canton of Geneva so the city was basically shut down for the day. Thursday afternoon we had more French class, but all we really learned were numbers. I came back to Yens right after class because I was supposed to go with Christina to apply for my L Permit. We did not have to apply for a visa before coming to Switzerland, but we will be here for longer than the allowed 90 days so we have to apply for a permit to remain here past 90 days. Orlando and Natasha were also going that afternoon though, so we decided to go next week instead (because the commune was only open for 15 more minutes by the time our train got in). We went to the pool that afternoon and it was freezing! The outdoor pool here is still open (until this weekend) and it was really windy Thursday so we didn't stay for long. After coming home and taking a shower, I met Elaine who is a kind of friend of the family/former housekeeper/baby-sitter who comes to the house every other week now. She's from the Philippines and made a Thai soup with lemongrass (delicious!) and sushi for us for dinner. It was her birthday earlier in the week so we were celebrating that after dinner. Christina made two cakes for the occasion!! I was really excited because I love dessert (as I'm sure you all know!)! :) We had Pavlova, a very interesting Australian "cake" that is named for a Russian dancer, and a chocolate bundt cake. (Sidenote: Ian and Christina lived in Sydney for two years before the chidlren were born. Sometimes Christina seems to have a bit of an Australian accent when she speaks English). Dinner, dessert, and cleaning up took us up to about 1o:00, so I took a shower and went to bed right after.

7 September, Friday
Friday morning we were in Nyon and gave our short presentations about the libraries, had a short group discussion with Earl and Anne, and then had the afternoon free. I went to lunch with Natasha and Sara (another girl in our group who lives in Nyon) and we ended up eating at the same place as three (of the four) guys in our group (Pete, Paul, and Jeff). (Sidenote: There are 19 students in our program and only four of them are male.) We ate at a little creperie near the castle in Nyon (where we had lunch picnics earlier in the week) and then walked to a really good gelato shop down the street. After that Natasha and I started our trek back to Yens. The train we took from Nyon to Morges got us into Morges just in time to see the BAM leaving, which meant we had approximately 59 minutes to kill until the next train to Yens. So we walked down the street to a little mall with a Migros, which is basically the Swiss version of Wal-Mart. We then hopped on the BAM and stopped in the vineyards again on our way home. I also stopped at Natasha's house for a few minutes (it's between the train station and my house) and looked around her family's garden, where we discovered that they have strawberries (among several other fruits, but Natasha just found the strawberries yesterday), so I was pretty excited about that! I then walked back home, started (finally) to put some pictures online, and started this blog. I was interrupted for a bit by another attempt to go to the pool, but it was closed for what appeared to be a swim meet so we didn't actually get to swim. We then had dinner, dessert, and watched a little TV (which Christina really only allows on the weekends). We watched some French gameshow for a little while, then some kind of Track & Field games in Zurich, and part of the France-Argentina rugby game. Patrick was desperate to watch rugby, but apparently no one else in the family really likes it, so I watched with him for a little while and he taught me some of the rules of the game.


So over 12 hours after starting to recount the last 11 days of my life, I'm finally finishing. Surprising as it may be to you, there's a TON of stuff I left out, so I guess I'll just add random facts and comments to later entries as they occur to me. Sorry this turned out to be so obnoxiously long. I really doubt anyone (except maybe my mom) will read this entire entry. But if you have, then that's pretty impressive! I hope everyone at home and all of you who are abroad are doing well... I'd love to hear from you! They're keeping me pretty busy with classes and readings, so it might take me a little while to respond and I may not update this very regularaly, but I'll do my best!! Bonjournee!

P.S. When I get around to it, I'll be posting (and hopefully captioning) my pictures here!