Study Abroad – Sidra Zaidi

Oh, Paris… how do I even start talking about you?

Following our excursion to Brussels, the SIT group and I went to Paris on Wednesday. Since SIT was only funding us until Friday afternoon, a lot of people (myself included) decided to stay the weekend on our own dime, which was really worth it to me, even though this was my third trip to France’s capitol city.

Academically, our trip included two lectures: one was at the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and the second one was at the Institut Relations Internationales et Stratégiques. The OECD was interesting because we got to meet a U.S. Foreign Service Officer and learn a little about his job. He’s been a diplomat for 10 years now and lived in Austria, Mexico and Afghanistan before coming to Paris (lucky him). While it was really interesting speaking with him, I still don’t think that I want to be a U.S. Foreign Service Officer. Yeah, you get the perks of traveling the world, staying in nice lodgings, and meeting cool people with the financial backing of the government, but having to pack up your belongings and move every two years doesn’t sound appealing to me. Anyway, back to Paris…

During the SIT portion, we got to stay in a really nice hotel. The only problem was that the hotel was in quite an interesting neighborhood (about two blocks from the Moulin Rouge, which was pretty cool but the Moulin Rouge district is basically the red-light district of Paris). There was sex shop after sex shop all over the neighborhood around the hotel, which made for awkward moments during group outings. I found out later that we were supposed to stay close to the Eiffel Tower but that hotel was booked. Given the travel alerts about possible terrorist attacks at the Tower, maybe it was a good thing we were housed next to all these adult stores.

Melinda, Sara and I had the good fortune of having the largest room. It had two beds, a bunk bed thing, a huge bathroom, a couch, and free Internet. Advice to future SIT-ers: pick the first room on the list.

The good thing about the hotel location was that it was in Montmartre, which is where the Sacré Coeur (Sacred Heart Chapel) is — one of my most favorite churches in Europe. I wish I could have taken pictures to show you but, sadly, it’s forbidden to take photos inside. Here are some shots of us in front of the chapel and the beautiful view that can be seen from the church steps (per usual, click on these pictures for a larger version):

Given the terror alerts that were in place, we saw lots and lots of armed soldiers all over Paris, particularly near the major sites. I snapped this shot of Maryn and the Cob (Maryn’s family’s version of the traveling gnome, except the Cob is actually an unused dog chew toy) with a guard.

(I enjoy taking photos of the Cob — seen here at Place de la Concorde.)

Maryn and I at Place de la Concorde. These structures are supposed to be the best examples of Louis XIV-era architecture but ironically enough, this square was where the king was executed by guillotine.

Of course no trip to Paris would be complete without a trip to Notre Dame.

More Paris sites that I got to see:

Arc de Triomphe, build by that one French emperor… what was his name? Oh yeah. NAPOLEON.

Musée D’Orsay. If you don’t have time for the Louvre, I recommend going here. The art is just as good (we saw the last paintings Van Gogh did before committing suicide — powerful stuff) and you don’t have to wait as long or be overwhelmed by tons of art. Also, this museum is housed in a former train station. Very cool.

And here’s some photos of some famous art I saw at the Louvre (which is so ginormous that it takes a two-week guided tour just to see the whole thing).

Venus de Milo.

Winged Victory of Samothrace (Greek sculpture of the goddess Nike).

Mona Lisa, who is so special she gets her own wall and glass frame.

The trip home from Paris was awful, though. All I have to say about that is that SNCF (French railway line) SUCKS and after having to deal with them, I was so happy to be in transport-efficient Switzerland. Traveler beware!

Before I tell you all about our wonderful five-day trip in Paris, I have to tell a little story about Brussels that I forgot to mention in my last post.

While our group was in Brussels, we witnessed some crazy hazing to freshmen college students. It was the most bizarre thing ever: there were older students who were wearing berets (signifying that they were 2nd year students) and these hats that looked like baseball caps with long bills (signifying that they were upperclassmen) who were parading first-year students around the Grand Place area of Brussels. A group of us decided to follow them around; when the hazing group finally got to the area in front of the Manneken Pis, we were given quite a show. One of the older students got in the fountain, took his pants off, and mooned the whole crowd. Then we saw what they were actually doing to the students: making them lick flour off the ground, spraying them with beer and yelling what I can only guess to be obscenities at them.

We went up to one of the older students (who was wearing not just the baseball hat thing but also a cape — he was obviously in charge) and asked him what was going on. He just explained that it was a sort of initiation and said that such a thing went on four days a week for two months at the beginning of the school year! My American counterparts and I were obviously very shocked. He responded to us by saying, “But you have this in the U.S. with your frats.”

We tried to explain that, yes, frats in the U.S. are known for hazing but a) we’d never heard of a hazing story as bad as this one, b) hazing in frats doesn’t last for TWO months, c) hazing is illegal and frats or other organizations could never pull this kind of stuff off in public and, d) people who join frats or other organizations have an idea of what they’re getting themselves into. These freshmen, however, were being hazed just for going to school!

It was quite an interesting experience and it makes me sad to think that around this time at night in Brussels, there’s 40 kids licking Belgian street pavement…

On a lighter note, expect a Paris post soon.

The SIT group and I went on our final excursions this past week: Brussels (Bruxelles en français) and Paris. I’ll debrief on the Brussels trip in this post.

The purpose of our visit to these two cities was to kick-start our session on European relations, the EU, European economics, etc. (The previous four weeks of the program primarily focused on international relations and security.) We started our trip in Brussels because this city serves as the capitol of the European Union. On the academic side of things, we received several interesting lectures — two of them were at the EU Economic and Social Commission where we received briefings by an economist and then an environmental specialist. The building we visited is pictured below:

The next day, my class and I ventured to the Institute for European Studies, which is partnered with the University of Brussels, and received two great lectures. The first one was by a Chief Economist  (Dr. Van den Spiegel) of the well-known European bank Fortis-BNP-Paribaswho gave us an excellent analysis of the current financial crisis. It was the first time I wholeheartedly listened to and enjoyed an economics lecture and all of my classmates agreed later that it was the best presentation we’ve had so far. Dr. Van den Spiegel was followed by Dr. Sven Biscop, a senior fellow at the Institute, who briefly went over the topic of European security. He made the valid point that the EU needs to come up with its own defense strategy different from that of NATO. What I liked best about his lecture was that he gave it without the use of any visual aids — he just spoke to us for 30 minutes Aristotle-style.

But receiving lectures wasn’t the entirety of our trip to Brussels. The first night, I convinced some of my friends to go to this amazing Greek restaurant right in the middle of Grand Place (Brussels’ beautiful city center) called El Greco. My parents go to Brussels frequently and I was fortunate enough to go with them in 2008. This is our family’s favorite restaurant in Europe! At first, many people were dissuaded from going because they didn’t want to spend 15 Euro on dinner; however, the waiter was so kind to us (maybe b/c he got to speak in Punjabi with me) that he gave us lots of free food to accompany our meals. I took this picture of our group at the restaurant:

The area around the restaurant is gorgeous and that’s where we spent most of our time during our four-day stay. There are plenty of cool shops, waffle stands and other “night time establishments” that made for a lively city center. Plus our hotel was only a 10-minute walk away. This is a photo of a small section of Grand Place (I could never capture it all in one photo — it’s too big!)

Another touristy thing we all made sure to do was visit the Manneken Pis (Dutch for little boy urinating), which is, well, a fountain of a little boy peeing. (You can assume where the water comes out.) The last time I was in Brussels, my dad offended a woman on the train by asking her where the pissing boy was. Needless to say, he didn’t find out and still hasn’t seen it to this day. Well, if you’re reading this, Dad, it’s literally right by Grand Place. Just read the signs…

My other favorite sight in Brussels was the Cathédrale Saints-Michel-et-Gudule. This was one of the most beautiful cathedrals that I have ever seen in Europe. I probably took 50 pictures inside but I’ll spare you the majority and just post these:

Like any good Belgian, we ate a traditional meal of moules-et-frites (mussels and fries) — I actually opted for a steak because mussels just aren’t filling enough but I tried them and they were delish!

On our last day, I visited the Royal Art and History Museum in Brussels. It wasn’t the best museum in the world (mostly a lot of Mary-Jesus paintings and those, in my opinion, get old really quickly) but we saw some pretty cool pieces of art nonetheless. The sculptures were particularly interesting.

Overall, we had a wonderful time in Brussels. I’ll talk a little bit about our Paris trip tomorrow. À plus!

I just got back from a five-day excursion to die Schweiz (the Swiss-German name for Switzerland, hence the Swiss-German part of the country). Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (until 4 p.m.) was spent in Bern and Friday night through Sunday in Luzern. Bern is Switzerland’s capitol and I was lucky to have this trip built into the SIT program itself. We spent most of the time seeing the city with only a few hours of actual seminars built in. Most of my fellow SIT students went back to French Switzerland on Friday but some of my friends and I decided to spend the next two nights in Luzern, which isn’t too far from Bern and is a beautiful city in its own right (probably my favorite Swiss city so far).

BERN

The Old City
We started our excursion in Bern on a guided walking tour of the city. Our guide Therese was born in Bern and showed us the different parts of the city, which was built in subsequent stages so the oldest parts dated back to the 1200s and the “newest” parts to the 1400s. The entire city of Bern can be called an “Old Town,” as opposed to just having some old neighborhoods versus modern neighborhoods, which is common in any other large metropolitan. That’s why the whole city is considered a UNESCO Cultural Heritage site.

Bern has 13 medieval fountains like this one with safe drinking water!

Our wonderful tour guide, Therese.

When Melinda and I saw this view of the Alps from behind the parliament building in Bern, we both yelled simultaneously: “OH MY GOD!”

Another fun thing I got to do in Bern (and that I had really been looking forward to) was seeing the Einstein Museum. Einstein was a Swiss citizen and he was in Bern when he came up with the Theory of Relativity. The museum had lots of cool artifacts, like his U.S. Certificate of Naturalization and his report cards from college. I also learned that Einstein’s feet were so sweaty that he got out of Swiss military conscription!

Some curious observations

Despite the fact that Bern does not look that modern, the shopping is very urban and posh. There were even some American stores thrown into the mix. For some reason, Claire’s (the tween jewelry store that one can find in any mall in the U.S.) seems to have a location in every train station or shopping district. I even saw a GameStop — my 14-year old sis would have been jealous. Finally, I saw Lush, which is a handmade cosmetics store that one can find at Water Tower Place in Chicago. Seeing it made me a little homesick.

We also came upon two “Pied Pipers” while in Bern. The first night we were there, we saw a man in Renaissance clothing playing a flute with a crowd of people following him. We decided to see what was going on and apparently he was a street performer/jester type character. But we didn’t understand a word of his Swiss-German so we left. The next day, I saw another Pied Piper leading a group of children, which struck me as odd. You can’t imagine how freaked out I was when I Googled “Pied Piper” and Wikipedia taught me this little bit of information:

“The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied (multicolored) clothing, leading the children away from the town never to return.”

Hope those children are ok!

Another curious observation occurred in a discothèque in Bern (a disco is what Americans would call a nightclub — we found out the hard way our first week in Geneva that “nightclub” in Switzerland actually means strip club…). I’m pretty sure that this disco was built into what used to be a bomb shelter since after the Cold War, the Swiss didn’t feel the need to have thousands of unused shelters anymore. In any case, it felt like a huge party in someone’s basement filled with Swiss-German people who obviously didn’t know much about Americans despite the fact that every song that played was an American one.

When the song “Jump Around” started playing, my friends and I did what anyone in the U.S. would do when hearing the chorus (“Jump up, jump up and get down, jump around”) — we started jumping. Pretty much everyone in the disco looked at us like we were lunatics. But we didn’t care and jumped anyway.

Finally, we were confounded with how German everything was. In the U.S., it’s not uncommon to find English and Spanish side-by-side but in die Schweiz, for the most part, all of the signs were JUST in German rather than both German and French. I think this scared a lot of us, even the people who don’t speak French at all, because French vocab is easier to make out than German. A hilarious incident involved a sign that said “Schuhe 29.90″ in H&M. The sign was next to a really cute purse so I just assumed that “schuhe” meant purse. Upon picking up the purse’s price tag (which read 25.90), my friend Melinda and I knew that that couldn’t be it. We looked at the other nearby items: belt? scarf? Finally, the answer hit us in the face and we felt über (<– haha) dumb.

What could this possibly mean?

Oh. Schuhe = shoe. Duh!

LUZERN

On Friday afternoon, a whole gang of us went to Luzern (some stayed one night, myself and three other girls stayed two). Lake Luzern was so gorgeous and the city had an amazing ambiance because it combined the old-town charm of Bern with a modern, urban flair much better than that of Geneva. I loved it and I will definitely go back one day.

Lake Luzern. That white building is actually a Jesuit church in honor of St. Xavier.

Saturday morning, we visited this huge market along the lake and picked up some baked goods for breakfast. But the market had much more than just pastries: there was so much fresh fruit, vegetables, homemade pasta, and more. There was also a cheese festival going on, so we took advantage of the free samples du fromage.

The rest of the day, we went to Mt. Pilatus. We only had to pay 51 CHF for a “Golden Roundtrip Package” that included: a 10 CHF voucher towards lunch on the mountain, a gondola ride to the peak, a train ride to the bottom (on the steepest cogwheel train in the world) and a 1.5 hour lake cruise (which we didn’t get to do because we missed the last one and had to take a regional train instead — next time!). The view from the top of the mountain was disappointing because it was completely surrounded by clouds. This was the only glimpse of the Alps I got to see from the top:

Steepest cogwheel train in the world at Mt. Pilatus.

Had we thoroughly checked the weather, we would have opted to go to the mountain on Sunday but most of our group was leaving on Saturday so we had to go then. It didn’t matter because we had so much fun in the restaurant. Everyone basically gathered there due to the terrible view and cold weather so we got to meet so many Swiss-German people who played traditional Swiss-German songs on the accordion for us. They also invited us to a game of cards that was exactly like Uno except instead of shouting “Uno!” when you have one card left, you say “Shoo!” It was so much fun.

On Sunday, the remaining four (Melinda, Sara, Claire and I) went to Fortress Fürigen, a previously used military fortress hidden in a cave in Switzerland. I’ll have to talk about this excursion on my next post since my Nikon’s battery died and I wasn’t able to take any good pictures. I’ll steal some from Claire and then get back to you.

It’s a good thing that our classes end mid-October or I might go crazy. As my SIT housemate Paul would say, “we go hard during the week” — meaning that we all pretty much get up at 6:30 a.m. and don’t get out of class until 5 p.m. (that’s 17:00 in military time — woo European efficiency!). Then, I myself usually take the 5:56 train to Nyon and then the 6:14 bus (and yes, their trains and buses are ALWAYS on time) to my village so I don’t get home until 6:30. Exactly twelve hours committed to school pretty much every Monday through Friday. By the time the weekend comes around, all I want to do is relax instead of travel. I never expected myself to turn into a homebody during study abroad. However, like I said, we only have our three seminars (Field Study, International Studies and French) until mid-October. At that time, we take our final exams and then are allowed six to eight weeks to work on our Independent Study Projects.

That being said, I can’t wait to have some freeeedom and travel in November. I’ve already bought plane tickets to Edinburgh to visit my cousin (who lives in Glasgow) and my best friend Michael (who goes to Duke University in NC but is studying abroad in St. Andrews). I’ll definitely be visiting my aunt, uncle and their two kids in Amsterdam in November as well. And then when I’m not studying or writing my 30-page term paper (yikesss) I’m going to see as much of Switzerland as possible.

Although I wasn’t expecting to put off my insatiable need to see the world, study abroad is only reinforcing in me the notion to expect the unexpected.

SHOCKING DISCOVERIES (SO FAR…)

1. As uptight as Americans think the Swiss are, I’ve seen more PDA here then a high-school parking lot.

2. Giussepina, my homestay mom, has only one rule: NO NUTELLA.

WHAT?! But I’m in Europe! And Nutella is from Italy. Mais, Giussepina, vous êtes Italienne!!! Her logic is that Nutella is terribly unhealthy for you and that you should eat her home-made jams and jellies instead, which are all delicious so I don’t complain. But I can’t help but salivate a little when I see the huge Nutella jars they sell here at the grocery stores…

3. I have to hang-dry my clothes. Yes, folks — my undies are drying on a clothesline as I type this.

4. My host parents have found the fountain of youth: Giussepina is 70 and Giani is 81. They both look at least fifteen years youngers. I guess having an active life pays off!

Mes parents d’accueil (homestay parents!)

5. My host parents don’t speak a word of English, but got married in Vegas. Haven’t heard the full story on this one yet. To be continued…

6. Giani’s secret collection. Yesterday after the weekly Sunday family lunch, Giani took Paul and I aside and with a really austere expression said, “I need to talk to you.” We both looked at each other like, “Oh *bleep*. What the *bleep* did we do?!” Paul even started apologizing for something or other. But Giani said, “No, this is for me…” Giani likes to act like a mob boss every now and then because it’s part of his sarcastic nature. We never know when he’s truly being serious. Then he opened a cabinet door and pulled out a cardboard folder thing. He said, “This is my U.S. state quarter collection!”

Paul and I couldn’t stop laughing. We were amazed at all of the quarters he had — one for each U.S. mint (Denver and Philadelphia). But his collection was incomplete and he asked that we help him find the ones he still needed. (I believe they included Kansas, North Carolina, Arkansas and New Jersey but I’ll double-check…) I can’t wait to start searching for him — he is the most adorable old man ever!

Today is a public holiday in Geneva — Jeûne genevois — so our classes were canceled! Some friends and I decided to spend the afternoon in Lausanne, probably the most beautiful city in French Switzerland. I remembered to actually bring my SLR this time so I could take some high-resolution pictures. Click on the thumbnails for a larger photo:

One thing I’ve learned about die Schweiz is to never take the weather reports seriously. The forecast for today was rain, rain, rain so many people were reluctant to go out but, once again, the weather man lied and my fellow daytrippers and I were fortunate enough to soak in some sun along the lake. Therefore, once we got off the train in Lausanne we decided to have some fun in a small playground:

After tending to our childishness, we went to the Olympic Museum, which was incredibly fascinating. The building was really well-designed (too bad I wasn’t allowed to take pictures inside) and the Olympic Park outside was great as well. Lausanne, Switzerland is the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee so the museum boasted several cool exhibits. My favorites showcased the actual sports uniforms and figure skating costumes of past Olympians. We also got to see all of the torches that were used in the Torch Relays of the Opening Ceremonies as well as all of the medals given since the games began in 1896. There’s also a video library where you can view videos from past events. We especially enjoyed (re)watching: Michael Phelps’ victory against Cavic — when he won by a tenth of a second, and Nadia Comaneci’s perfect ten on the uneven bars. I could have probably stayed in that video library forever watching every single sporting event but that would have cost 5 francs per 3 videos.

I really enjoyed having a day off, espeically since it feels like we’ve been going non-stop lately with school. I’m dreading this ten-page paper that’s due in less than two weeks. I only have two or three days to somehow land an interview with an expert on the opium trade in Afghanistan. Can’t wait to head to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime!

There was probably some really famous, intelligent person who once said that families are the greatest teachers. I don’t think I need to find a particular quote to prove such a thing. But whoever said it first was absolutely right.

In my short life, I’ve taken many classes but the majority of what I’ve learned can’t be found in any textbooks. And while a lot of my SIT friends have been going out and about (visiting the Chateau de Chillon or hiking in St. Cergue) I can’t get myself to leave the house. I’ve never been a homebody but I don’t want to leave because I love my homestay family so much.

While I spend a majority of my homestay time with Giussepina and Giani, there are SO many family members who live close by or in the same house as us. There’s Véronique, the granddaughter of Giussepina, who is 21 and so gorgeous and intelligent. I met her parents today — her mom Patricia is Giussepina’s daughter. Then there’s Roberto, who is Patricia’s brother and one of Giussepina’s sons. Of course Vito and Vita (the sister of Giussepina) live downstairs but their son Damian (who is 26) is also living with them for a few weeks. Then there are also cousins of Giussepina and Vita from Sicily and Milan who visit often. It’s funny because there are so many family members that Giussepina forgets who I have met and who I haven’t and there are always rounds of unnecessary introductions haha.

One thing that I’m convinced of is that everyone in Giussepina’s family is good-looking, smart, very active and fit, and also SO FUNNY. I keep telling them what a wonderful gene pool they have.

The food is also delicious. The Mulones (the main family name, even though everyone has a different one b/c of marriage, etc.) are all excellent cooks. They eat in the traditional European way: HUGE lunch and then small dinner. Today we had a three-course lunch, which is typical for them, but Paul and I are usually in Geneva during lunchtime so we hadn’t experienced these types of meals yet. This morning, I observed Giussepina’s cooking skills in the kitchen because I so desperately want to learn how to cook like her. Therefore, I knew what was on the menu. But poor Paul thought that the main course was just pasta with tomato sauce. Little did he know that there was plenty more food on the way: roasted chicken, green beans, salad, and pear pie (sounds strange, but so good!). The best part about eating with the Mulones is that I never feel guilty about stuffing my face since pretty much everything is grown from the garden, save for the meat. (Tomorrow we’re having lasagna and then later in the week homemade pesto — .)

I am so fortunate that I was placed with such a wonderful family. Never have I seen such a happy group of people. It’s not to say that they haven’t had their share of misfortune — I think that they have, but they’re all optimistic about life and karma has paid them well.

For example, I was talking to Giussepina this morning about her late husband. The story is remarkable. She married him at the age of 19 and then came to Switzerland with him. They were married for 35 years and had (I think) three children together. He died in the mid 90′s. She told me that his death was the reason she started inviting homestay students — despite the fact that she had always been surrounded by family, she was really lonely.

Giani is also a widow. His wife died in 2001 after 14 years of marriage. Giani and Giussepina found a common bond because they had both lost their spouses and surprisingly enough, the two couples (Giani and his late wife and Giussepina and her late husband) lived in the same village and were friends. Giussepina told me that she loves Giani (which she didn’t even need to say because of how affectionate they are towards each other) but she is always flooded with thoughts of her late husband. She explained that despite this, Giani was not jealous at all. He understands that Giussepina can never forget her first husband because, after all, they had been married for the majority of Giussepina’s life.

I’m still in awe over how interconnected all of their lives are. I think that if this same situation had happened in any other family, there would be so much animosity between everyone. But for some reason, the Mulones have taken the high road and been nothing but open-minded about everything. I am SO blessed to be able to experience a tiny portion of their lives.

Classes started this week (quelle horreur!). This is a rough idea of what my schedule is like:

M, W, F = International Studies seminar from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Tu, Th = Field Study seminar from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
M, T, Th = French from 2 to 5 p.m.

The seminars are basically supposed to help prepare us for the major research projects that are due later on in the semester. I feel like the bulk of our time will be spent on our independent study projects, which will be a new experience for me. And even though I tested into advanced French (don’t ask me how that happened), I don’t think the class is going to be very difficult. Our instructor Virginie even admitted that we have more important things to work on than French grammar haha.

School or no school, we’ve been trying to enjoy the pleasant weather as much as possible by doing some sightseeing. It has been a pleasant, sunny 72 degrees everyday. The advanced French class was cancelled yesterday because Virginie was sick so we all decided to make a day trip to Lausanne, a cute city in French Switzerland that’s about a 30 minute train ride from Geneva. I’m so glad we did —  Lausanne is honestly one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen in my life. I’m kicking myself for not bringing my Nikon SLR camera or at least my point-and-shoot Canon but my iPhone 4 surprisingly took some really pretty pictures:

Walking around Lausanne felt like going on a hiking trail because the entire city is built on some pretty steep land. It took only 10 minutes to walk downhill to Lake Geneva but when we wanted to go back up, the trek lasted at least an hour. Also, everything was SUPER expensive there (18 franc salads were the cheapest entrees on most menus). But the scenery was so worth it! I will definitely be back.

Today, after our International Studies Seminar with Dr. Lambert (the Academic Director at SIT Geneva, my classmates and I went to the UN at to get our library badges. We filled out some paperwork, showed our passports and then had ID pics taken before getting some nice laminated badges that permit us access to the UN Library. Being the IR (International Relations) nerds we are, we were so excited.

Tomorrow, half of the students and their homestay families are going to the SIT Welcome Dinner. It will take place at a fancy fondue restaurant in the mountains. Can’t wait!

Pictures say a thousand words and videos say a kajillion.

Watch a video tour of my homestay here.

Check out my Flickr pics here.

… how amazing this week has been. I almost didn’t want to open my laptop because I am currently living in a beautiful villa owned by the friendliest and most charming Sicilian family in the Swiss countryside. In fact, this has been the first time that I have even touched a computer since I left the States. So this is everything worth blabbing about:

What I’ve done so far:

I arrived in Geneva on Wednesday morning and met up with all of the SIT students at the airport. There are two programs in the same city — Global Health and International Studies. I am with the latter, of course. I found out that we’re not having any classes together (GH and IS, that is) so I don’t know how often I will see the Global Health folks. Since there is a girl from Loyola who is in GH, I might see them more often than the other IS people.

Wednesday through Friday was orientation. My classmates and I received an overwhelming amount of syllabi and instructions and outlines for the academic semester. I can already say that I’m pretty nervous about it. This is going to be a very challenging program! But I think that I will learn so much from it and I’m very excited about that.

Our orientation took place in the city of Geneva and all of us stayed at a youth hostel there. But today, we all moved into our separate homestays. Paul and I are in the same home and we couldn’t be luckier…

What my homestay is like:

My homestay is located in the village of Borex, which is a 40 minute train plus bus ride from Geneva. My classes will take place in Geneva and I will be commuting everyday. Borex is so beautiful (pictures coming soon, I promise). The entire area is surrounded by small mountains and all of the homes are so charming and quaint.

The villa that Paul and I live in is fairly large for a European house. There is a main level, a top level and a basement. I live on the top level with my host mom and dad (Guisepinna and Giani), who are in their late 60′s/early 70′s (yet are so active and lively that they seem 20 years younger!). The main level is occupied by my host mom’s younger sister (Vita) and Vita’s husband (Vito — same name, I know… haven’t gotten the story on that one yet!) Both levels are so cozy and well-kept. Giani and Vito are carpenters and they have made almost all of the wooden furniture and the cabinets and doors, all of which are gorgeous.

In addition to my host parents and host aunt and uncle, I have met plenty more family and will meet plenty more in the days and weeks ahead since just about every cousin/nephew/niece/sister/brother, etc. lives close by. This is no surprise to me since the family is Sicilian. They all immigrated to Switzerland in the 60′s, but they were all pretty young then (Guiseppina was only 20 and didn’t speak a word of French!).

My host parents and aunt and uncle do not speak any English, which is awesome! I can already feel my French getting much better. I’m still a little nervous to speak it but I can understand it pretty well. Paul and I are the same exact level of French (we both have studied it for six years and we even got the same exact score on the placement exam the other day) so we help each other out a lot. Sometimes I won’t understand what was said and he’ll translate for me and vice-versa. At first, I was terrified because Guiseppina and Giani speak their French with pretty heavy Italian accents but they LOVE to talk so it didn’t take long for me to get used to it. Paul joked that we would end up speaking French with Italian accents by November!

And keeping true to their Italian roots, my family fed Paul and I our weight in food today. Guiseppina and Vita are excellent chefs. There is not one thing I tried today (and believe me, I tried a lot…) that I didn’t like. What’s even better is that the family has a HUGE garden outside and all of the vegetables and herbs that were used to cook the food came straight from their backyard. And any food that is left on the plate (if any, since I am more than happy to finish everything) is thrown away into a special trash can that Giani uses later as compost. The Swiss really respect the earth and it’s no surprise since they enjoy nature so much.

I also lucked out that my family is Italian and Swiss. They are the perfect mixture because they are very laid-back (Italian stereotype) but still clean, organized and efficient (Swiss stereotype).

Speaking of mixtures… I presented my gift to Guiseppina and Giani today. We were advised by SIT to bring something that reflected the local culture of where we’re from. Since Joplin, Missouri (my hometown) doesn’t have much culture, I decided to get something from Chicago — the “Chicago Mix” from Garrett’s Popcorn. It was the biggest gamble ever because this particular mix has caramel popcorn kernels and cheese popcorn kernels in the same container. They are meant to be eaten together, which is very bizarre, I know. But it tastes SO good!

So I was holding my breath when I gave them the popcorn tin, which is fashioned with a panoramic view of the Chicago skyline at night. I thought to myself, At least the tin is pretty… I explained the strange mixture and how to eat it and the family was intrigued yet cautious. They all grabbed a few kernels and within seconds, everyone was grabbing seconds and thirds and fourths. They loved it!

Giani even joked and said, “Did my friend Al Capone recommend this to you?”

All in all, a wonderful day.