A French Lesson

Hello again, Friends. Greetings from my humble abode in Switzerland!

(imagine me laying in there)

Geneva is a very beautiful city. So far, I don't have many complaints here. As with most places I've lived, one of my favorite things to do is going to the grocery store. I enjoy grabbing my little shopping bags and strolling over to the Migros, which is the supermarket in this neighborhood. My French is still (and will always be) extremely shaky and spotty. This makes the shopping interesting, particularly since packaging looks weird and there are some foods that I simply do not recognize. So far, I've only made safe purchases, but I plan to get a little more adventurous the next time I go. (sorry, no pictures of the grocery store. I've been pretty obnoxiously touristy on this journey for you guys, but even I have to draw the line somewhere)

A second favorite activity is strolling around. Walking along the river (Rhone) and the lake shore (Lac Lemain/Lake Geneva) is gorgeous. The water is so blue! And the breezes off the water are very refreshing, especially in this city that does not air condition.

We've been trying to discover new places every night, so last night we visited Old Town. It is very charming.

And my third favorite activity is going out to dinner. Since Geneva is pretty pricey, I'm having to temper my dining out habit with my grocery store habit, so that works out nicely. Last night, we ate at the crib, but went out for dessert and wine.

I'm going out to dinner tonight with my friend Alex. Monday night, I dined out with my friend Lindsay. And this brings me to a French lesson that I'd like to share. Lindsay & I ate at a lovely little place on the way to our school. It has a nice little eating area on the sidewalk that is sort of protected by potted bushes, and a cute little awning. We ate outside, but it felt very cozy. I've been trying to be a bit adventurous with food here. I scanned the menu for things that I didn't recognize. A few caught my eye, including a word on the pasta menu that I didn't recognize from my days of French class many, many moons ago, or my days in Italian, fewer moons ago. Tagliatelle. I was disappointed to learn that tagliatelle is just flat noodles. Boring.

Warning: Casey Earls, skip this paragraph.

And there was a strange word on the meat menu, too. Cheval. At first, I thought it was goat, but goat is chevre, as I recalled when I saw goat cheese on the salad menu. I asked Lindsay if she knew what it was, because her husband is French and she speaks a bit of it, and also because she remembers to carry her little dictionary, and I never do. She didn't know and it wasn't in her small useful French phrases book. I am a little wary of taking chances in the meat department, so I ordered something else, and forgot about the cheval. And then yesterday, I was sitting at my desk, waiting on Rachel and Meghan to go to Old Town and happened to think about it. I grabbed my dictionary and looked it up. And boy, was I glad I stuck with the fish.*

Today, like always, we have class from 8:30 - 1:30 and then this afternoon, we're taking a tour of the UN. Next week, our professor who works at the UN will be taking us to an Expert Mechanism meeting. And this weekend, a couple of the other girls and I have two day trips planned, one to Chamonix, home of Mont Blanc, and another to a small town that is very close by that will be the finish line of the 9th stage (I think) of the Tour de France on Sunday.

I've sort of failed at writing as often as I planned to, but I haven't failed as much at taking and posting lots of pictures. I'll try to keep that up.

So here is an album of pictures from Annecy, Fr on Sunday: http://picasaweb.google.com/LDEarls/FieldTripAnnecyFrance#

And here are some pictures from around Geneva: http://picasaweb.google.com/LDEarls/GenevaJuly56#

And now it is time to start thinking about getting out of bed and getting ready for school.

Bisous,**

linzo

*In case the picture wasn't HINT enough, Cheval = horse. I'm not ready to be that culinarily adventurous, and am pretty grossed out by the idea.

** Because I couldn't just end on the horse meat. Bisous = smoooooooooches!

Paris, Je T'aime.

Bonjour friends!*

Greetings from Geneva! I intended to post while I was in Paris, but my internet connexions have been rather spotty. And I've been too busy looking at cool things; eating delicious foods; and nodding, smiling, and pretending to understand what the heck people are saying to me to actually write anything.

I'll hurry, because I understand today is some kind of American holiday where people blow things up and shoot Roman Candles under their Granny's lawn chair, catch pastures on fire, and eat copious amounts of food cooked over an open flame. Weird. Anyway, on to the observations portion of my programme.

One of the first things I learned about the French is that the rumors are true -- many of them are not as familiar with the business end of a stick of deodorant as they should be. I learned this when I got into my taxi at the airport. My driver was a nice man in his early 50s or so. He looked clean. He was wearing a starched shirt. And he smelled worse than a bikram studio in New Orleans in July.

From Day 2 in Paris

I did not verify other grooming stereotypes, however. In a misguided attempt to fit in (slash, I am incredibly lazy), I had eased up on my shaving routines. My first day in Paris, I was the hairiest woman on the Metro. Good thing I packed a razor.

And speaking of the Metro, it is awesome. Paris really gets the public transportation job done. I'd like to say that I navigated it like a champ because I am just naturally a genius of transportation, but many of you know that is not true. But it is very user friendly. I didn't get lost a single time (on the Metro. Walking around was another story). And my 2 day metro pass was probably my best investment in Paris. I went all over the place very efficiently and inexpensively.

From Day 2 in Paris

My Metro stop. When you're wandering around lost and see one of these, all becomes right with the world again.

More Metro stop

From Day 2 in Paris

Another misconception -- Bad French/no French does not necessarily equal a bad time. Maybe it's that French people like to show off their lingual superiority, which is fair, since many of them speak at least twice as many languages as I do, but they were usually quick to recognize that I didn't speak (much) French, and would switch to whatever English they had. I did find that a little Bonjour, Pardon (okay, so I bump into people A LOT), Merci and Je voudrais (I would like) go a long way.

I also apparently look French-ish.** Several people asked me for directions. In French. Talk about the blind leading the blind! But I felt very accomplished when I was able to help one guy.

Anyway, you guys aren't here to listen to me babble. You're here for the pictures!!!

So here are some highlights:

From Paris, Day 1 July 1, 2010

When the Eiffel Tower began to sparkle, it took my breath away. Everyone claps and cheers. It is the most wonderful sight!

From Paris, Day 1 July 1, 2010

These little markets are everywhere and I am obsessed with them! They're so cute!

From Day 2 in Paris

The Jardin des Tuileries was probably my favorite place in Paris, due in large part to these chairs. It is a beautiful formal garden, with wide, shady paths that are lined with these chairs. They recline just enough and are airy. Even though it was quite hot that day, I sat in one in the shade for a few hours and read my book and watched people and loved every minute of it. I would probably still be sitting there, if a chocolate crepe hadn't started calling my name.

I also visited the Notre Dame Cathedral. Since I'm not Catholic, I didn't feel compelled to go in, and instead spent more time exploring the island on which it is situated. But here it is. I wish I'd been better able to capture the gargoyles, because they were the best part.

From Day 2 in Paris

I ate all sorts of delicious things while I was there. The plan was to go out for a nice dinner on my last night in Paris. I got all dressed up and beautiful-ed for it and everything. Then it started to rain as I was figuring out which Metro stops I needed. So I went to a place close to my hotel, which was quite good. The waiter's English was about as good as my French, so I stuck to safe-ish things on the menu, but had a very good beef stew with turnips and potatoes and things. (Morsehead, I took a photo of my stew for you) The waiter was able to gesture at me until I figured out I was supposed to put the marrow from the soup bones on my toasted bread and then put the gray salt on and eat that. It was yummier than I dared to hope. Anyway, here's how glamorous I was looking. Since this is relatively unusual, I will share.

From Day 2 in Paris

Then the next day, I was on a train to Geneva. After hanging out for quite some time in this completely overwhelming train station.

From Last Day in Paris/Train to Geneva

And my train was late, so I was a little bit freaking out. I made a new friend, though. A very nice old guy, who used to live in Peoria, and who lives in Geneva but works in Paris, so he commutes to Geneva on the weekends. He showed me where to go and where to put my huge bags and made sure I didn't get off at the wrong station.

From Last Day in Paris/Train to Geneva

But all is well that ends well. I made it to Geneva last night. Just as my classmates were leaving for dinner. I loved Paris, but it was nice to be with people I know again. Not speaking the same language as everyone else is very isolating, particularly for someone as chatty as I am.

Anyway, you can visit my pictures here: http://picasaweb.google.com/LDEarls

And I posted a video of the Eiffel Tower sparkling here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st2Tt-5kNUE

And here I am, signing off.

Happy Independence Day!

love,

Lindsay

From Last Day in Paris/Train to Geneva

*sorry, I haven't learned to say "friends" in French yet.

** I think the trick is to NOT carry a backpack. It is TOO HOT, unless you want perpetual back-sweat, especially in the Metro. I put my Metro map, Lonely Planet book and bottle of eau in a little tote bag that I brought for grocery shopping, and had my important documents and euros and things in my little purse. And when I bought a baguette, I felt VERY French with it sticking out of my shopping bag.