May 9

Wednesday, May 9, 2007
I was in Geneva all day today…(actually yesterday…but I’ll pretend that today is actually yesterday)
Getting to and from Grenoble worked out perfectly because my train left at 9:30 am returned at 9:00pm and because Christian works in the city at 9am and goes to the gym until 8:30pm, it didn’t cause any extra problems for the family, which was nice.
And, I don’t really know if I need to go over how much I love the train? It made me so happy (yet again)…and it was so simple this time because I didn’t have anything but my bag for the day. Yep, yep, yep. I don’t really think anything exciting happened on the train per se, but it was pretty much great overall!
When I got off the train in Geneva I was like a little kid in a candy shop – I had no idea which way I wanted to go and I really had no idea which way I was going! I was very giggly and quite lost. I made my way to the lake (walking right past the tourist info place that I ended up locating later in order to get a real map!) so that I could sit down. I was lost in the bustle of the people and the buildings – a slight shock compared to Grenoble and well, compared to Crolles, let’s just say there were a few more people walking around than what I’ve been used to since I got here!!
I kinda figured out where I was on my little walking-time map that I’d found yesterday (and that proved to be pretty much useless). I walked around on the opposite side of the lake for about 2 hours (until everything opened up again after lunch). I found a nice little boulangerie where I pulled a Paul and bought the random sandwich that the lady said she liked. Then I found this beautiful Church and sat down in the shade and ate away.
While on that side of the lake, I went into this museum that I came across and walked around for a bit because it was free. It wasn’t that exciting, but I am not one for museums – so at least this way I can now say I visited at least one while I was here!!
As I was taking pictures of the Jet d’eau, I asked some random Chinese lady to take a picture of me with it (I really don’t have many pictures with me in them – and I figure Chinese are always my best option when it comes to taking pictures since they pretty much are obsessed with cameras!). Anyway, I got a nice picture (after struggling to explain to her what I wanted – Really no other language other than Chinese to be spoken!) they decided that I needed to be in their pictures too…So I was in three random Chinese people’s picture in Geneva!! Kinda funny!!
I walked back to the other side of the lake and found a sign for the tourist info place and eventually found it and got a better map. It was sooo beautiful out (of course I brought my rain coat as well as my sweater thing, so I was sure to have good weather and no where to really put my coats!) which was nice for walking along the water all the way up to the United Nations.
It was a long walk, but I had lots of time so it wasn’t really an issue. I got lots and lots and lots of pictures too. We all know how much I get politics and all that good stuff, but it was still pretty cool to see the UN. I did the tour of the buildings too (Cost 8 CHF but it was worth it) – in French because that way it was more authentic, I figured! And it was really cool how much I remembered from Model UN that I did all throughout high school. I understood everything that our guide was explaining about how it worked because I actually already knew! Made me feel smart!!
So we got to sit in one of the salles de conseil (we couldn’t sit in the General Assembly because there was a meeting in there today) in the newer part of the building and then over in the old part (that was made before WWI, I think) we went and sat in the Security Counsil room. In the latter there are paintings done by some famous Italian guy (that, of course I don’t remember at all…and actually, he may not even be Italian, but it seems like a good guess!!) that represent technology, humanity (people being released from chains, etc), war, and 5 continents working together. It was pretty spectacular. We aren’t allowed to walk in the gardens anymore as they are closed to the public due to security reasons – but I took pictures through the windows J .
I figured I should buy something from there, just because it’s not every day that I am at the UN, but I didn’t know what to buy!! I ended up buying a pin (I figured I could add it to my "collection" that is in my peanut butter jar…) and a Canadian post card with "United Nations" on it…and those are actually the only things I bought at all in Switzerland!!
By the time I’d made it back down to the water past/through the Botanic Gardens, it was pretty much time to get the train! Out of my "tourist info" that I got off the computer yesterday, the UN, downtown, the jet d’eau, and the museum were all things that I was supposed to visit, so I figured I did pretty well in my seven hours of non-stop walking!!
I slept pretty much all the way back to Grenoble and went to bed without even eating dinner because my cold is pretty much killing me – and tomorrow (uhhh…today) we had to get up at 4am!!
Soooo…onto Thursday!!

I had a pretty cool day in Switzerland…Made me happy!!
-Allison