Boiling Pasta as the Italians Do and Other Lessons

Bon soir mes amis,


Again, I apologize for the delay in writing.  Things have been, as I'm sure you can imagine, a little crazy, in my world, lately, and I had trouble establishing a reliable internet connection, yet again.  The good news is, after 5 delicious and exciting days in Paris, we made it to Switzerland.  I'll have to write about Paris, later (I have notes on paper, so maybe I'll publish that, at some point), because I've been in Geneva for a week, already, and have much to tell you about that.


We, my new friends and travel companions and I, arrived in Geneva last Sunday and checked into the dorms, here.  We took a high speed train from Paris and, because I have a Eurail pass (which I will tell you about later, I have not been as impressed as others, but it has it's good points), I was able to sit in first class.  Let me tell you, I am not going back.  First class train travel is the way to go, if you can afford/swing it.  I had a window seat that didn't have any seats next to it and they served a little snack of fresh fruit and little, tiny slices of French toast.  It was delightful, particularly compared to the 2nd class travel we did on the way from Den Haag to Paris, which would have been truly miserable without my friends (I'm looking at you, Matt).


So, we arrived in Geneva and went looking for food.  The neighborhood where our dorms are is a strange place (as is much of the rest of this town, to be honest), it reminds me a little of Rogers Park, with it's serious melting pot character.  At any rate, we found a Mediterranean restaurant and, after the initial sticker shock, settled in to eat our meals of what was basically chicken tandoori.  Food is REALLY expensive, here, but the good news is that we have kitchenettes in the dorm, so there has been a lot of grocery shopping and pasta cooking (with wine, of course, lots of wine).  Tonight, I learned that my roommate is an Italian student working on her PhD in Literature.  She taught me how to make pasta, the Italian way, which just means putting one to two teaspoons of salt in the water.  She also told me that I should know how to prepare it like an Italian, because I bought good pasta (apparently, Italians really do eat Barilla, too), haha.  She's very nice and has been keeping me informed as to the way things work, here, at the dorm, because no one else has really filled us in about anything.  Apparently, tomorrow, we are to take our towels and sheets down to the laundry to be washed.  Good thing she told me, because mine need to be washed.


Despite my decidedly mixed feelings about Geneva, the class here has been really cool, so far, and the people are pretty awesome, too.  Last week, we had a German-Swiss International Public lawyer who is a professor at the University of Geneva (and arguing on behalf of Germany at the ICJ in a month, how cool is that?!?!) give us an amazingly thorough and easy-to-understand overview of International Public Law (how treaties are formed and what they mean for the parties, etc.) in just 12 hours.  It was pretty impressive.


Other than class, we've done some pretty cool stuff in Geneva.  It's relatively small, but it seems like there is always something going on.  On Thursday, we went to the World Health Organization and a medical expert gave us a lecture on WHO's efforts to contain and lessen the impact of HIV/AIDS throughout the world.  On Friday, I went to the History of Science museum with one of my new friends, had omelets for lunch at this charming little cafe on the south side of the river, and then, since it was raining and we were tired, stayed in watched movies while I worked on my paper for International Criminal Law.  I spent a decent amount of time, just hanging out and getting to know my classmates, because it was raining, on and off, all weekend, which was actually pretty great.  Last night, we had dinner in the dorm, accompanied with LOTS of wine, since that's the bulk of what I buy at the grocery store (not all that different from home, actually, haha), then went to a music festival in the Old City, which was very cool and super fun.  Today, I spent some time organizing my life, called my dad, and got to know my roommate, a little.  All in all, not a super touristy or busy weekend, but kind of normal in a much-needed way.  Things have been so up-in-air and foreign for the past 3 weeks, that it was really nice to just do some normal, fun, everyday things with people I really like.


Several of my classmates went to Monaco, for the weekend, and as much as I would have liked to add another notch to my belt of places I've been in Europe, I feel like there's plenty of time for that sort of thing, in my life, and I'm trying to just enjoy the moment where I am.  Like I said, there's a lot to see in Geneva.  For instance, another thing we are planning on doing is going to the CERN Large Hadron Collider.  http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/lhc/lhc-en.html


In other words, SO NERDY I'M GONNA DIE!!  ;{D  Geneva is one of the most delightful places for geeks like me that I have ever been.  All of the museums are free and easily accessible.  In fact, there's a whole lot to like about this town and I'm beginning to suspect that my dislikes for this town have much more to do with the fact that I don't have the nicest accommodations (although, they are okay) and we had some trouble with the internet access, here, when we first got here and I'm getting a little tired of living out of a suitcase and sleeping in a twin bed, none of which really have anything to do with the city, itself.  Admittedly, it's not as friendly and clean and cute as Den Haag, but there's actually something comforting in that, too.  I'm not used to friendly and clean and cute, so this place is probably more my speed.


An interesting development that has oddly occurred to me, since I've been in Europe and away from Chicago, is how much I have accepted Chicago as my home.  The first symptom of this was that the person with whom I have the most in common and with whom I feel the most comfortable also happens to be from Chicago, even if he doesn't live there, now, and the other guy that I became really good friends with is from Indianapolis.  The next thing I noticed was that it REALLY threw my sense of direction to have the large body of water (the North Sea) in The Netherlands to the northwest, not the northeast.  Since we got to Geneva and the lake is in the east, where it belongs, I have had no trouble getting my bearings.  Finally, the weather is been exactly what I expect it to be for this time of year.  So far, it hasn't been a problem that I don't have A/C, here.  Hopefully, that holds true, at least for the rest of the time I'm in Geneva.  It's supposedly going to be super hot in Strasbourg, but I'm trying to take things one day (or at least one city/country) at a time, so I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, I guess.


I suppose my Chicago friends will be pleased to hear that I am accepting that I belong there, as much as I belong anywhere, but I should probably temper that good news with the fact that I'm here, in Europe, making contacts in hopes of landing an internship either, here, in Geneva, or Den Haag, or Brussels, or some other European city with a large number of Intergovernmental Organizations.  So, it's probably about time to move on and find a new home, anyway.  Sorry, Champs.  :P


Anyway, it is now almost midnight, here, and I have to get up and be in class by 9AM, tomorrow, so I should get to bed.  Have a wonderful week, my friends!  I'll try to be more consistent with the posts, but I make no promises, at this point.  See my point above about taking it one day at a time, haha.  


Bisous!
Emily