Weekend at Geneva

Once upon a time...

It was rainy on Saturday morning when I took the train to Geneva. It was around two hours of gorgeous, green, Swiss countryside and grape vines boardering lake Geneva. This is my favorite rout by far, especially with the cozy, grey sky and raindrops pattering against the windows. I arrived before our meeting time, so I went exploring around the station, climbing every staircase and peeking around every corner. The morning was pleasantly spent in a cute, little cafe with my exchange student friends Isabelle, who lives at Geneva and comes from Sweden, and Yash, who lives in Swiss Germany and comes from India. We laughed, caught up, drank tea, and looked at the photos that Isabelle took on her class trip to England.

After that the sun came out, so we took to parkouring all over Geneva to find touristic points and food. We were too distracted by being ridiculously silly to know exactly where we were going, but I don't think I have laughed so much in my life, and the other tourists certainly had no lack of entertainment. The fountain was being refurbished, but we visited the reformation wall, le parc des bastions, the UN building, and most of the city in the process. At noon we ate kebab, the Swiss favorite in exotic and inexpensive street food (which was delicious!), and then had the best ice cream ever at a fancy little restaurant next to the lake. The kebab man got to know us pretty well by the time our Kebabs were finished, and took to Switching between English, French for Isabelle and I, and German for Yash. The little park birds nearby our picnic spot benefited from my generosity with small fry morsels, but there came such a crowd that Yash started to get claustrophobic and we had to chase them off. The people-watching there on the parc bench was quite something, and I am sure we contributed to this a great deal! By the afternoon we were so worn out that we sat down on a bench in the shade with the martini-drinking couples of Geneva, and dozed until Yash had to go to the train station. (See our end-of-day selfie above!)

I spent the night at Isabelle's host home. The drive through the neighborhood was bordered by old, stone walls pouring with green plants, and overhung with the bows of trees. There were blooming lilacs and cute gardens everywhere! Her host family was very perfect and very chic, but her home felt more like a cage with it's speckles, white walls, hard, modern lines, and compete lack of individuality or personality. We Skyped with her family and Sweden and stayed up until midnight watching a recording of a performance by Gad Elmaleh, a French stand-up comedian who is absolutely hysterical!

It poured all day Sunday, so we visited the red cross museum! There was a lot of metaphoric art and many interactive exhibits that I loved. It showed what the red cross works to accomplish today and how that has evolved throughout history. Disaster relief, reconnecting and establishing communication lines between separated families, fighting for human dignity and rights, supporting abused people, finding justice for crimes against humanity, and general super-humanitarian efforts were given plausibility and evidence throughout the day. There was also an art gallery of impressive images that drew attention to cruelty and conflict in the world. They were both magnificent and devastating. Luckily, running and laughing to catch the tram in the rain lighted our hearts, and a hot chocolate and soup for lunch warmed my soul. The little boulangerie where we finished the day was so cozy and lovely, but the rainy train ride home through the spring countryside was calling. When Monika picked me up from the station at Romont, I really felt like I was going home, and I was so glad to find it as warm as ever as my entire host family and my host grandparents gathered around the table for dinner!

Sending love and hugs to all those back home!