Geneva

Switzerland. Geneva is an international city of students and banks, but it also can feel very Swiss. For example, on my first day, Francesca and I went for a walk along Lake Geneva, known to the French as Lac Leman. The water was so clear that even in the middle of the bridge you could see the kelp growing up from the bottom. There were a lot of cute ducks and swans. The main tourist site in Geneva is the Jet d’Eau, a 140m fountain of water shooting up from the Lake.

Francesca and I made a lot of jokes about the coolness of the Jet d’Eau, and the general coolness of the Swiss. On the Paquis, we ran into her friends Alex and Stefano. Stefano invited us to have fondue with him and two older strangers who I later figured out were his parents. I love Italian parents, the moms are so sweet and try to practice their English, and the dads always want to know where you are from and give you advice about what to see in Europe (Italy, I guess.)

On Monday I walked around Geneva, marveled at the beautiful shops that I can’t even afford to go into, and ate some delicious chicken at Chez Ma Cousine. I got lost and was late to meet Fra in front of her university, but we still made it to a lecture on war tribunals (in French, je suis désolé). Afterward we went to a wine bar with her friends from the program and I talked to her Austrian friend Suzanne who invited me to stay with her in Graz in November. Tuesday I went to the Red Cross Museum only to find it was closed. I also saw the United Nations building. Francesca and I went to Carouge, a small town that was incorporated into Geneva. We had tea and talked about science and feminism and Iran.

La Fra