Switzerland: The Beginning

Let me just preface this blog by saying, I don't like blogging. I typically find the whole process incredibly forced and unnatural and I have had serious reservations about creating one of my own. That being said, I do realize the importance of online journaling and being able to share my experience with friends and family not lucky enough to be here with me, so I overcame my fears, and here I am, blogging about my time in Switzerland. So...here we go. Cut me some slack if it's not as insightful/funny/profound/whatever as you were hoping.

For those of you who don't know, I am studying Global Health and Development Policy in Geneva, Switzerland for the Spring 2011 semester, and so far I'm off to a great start! I have been here just about 10 days and I regret not starting this blog sooner because I am just about ready to burst with stories upon stories about my time here. So let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start (Sound of Music reference). I arrived in the Geneva International Airport on Wednesday January 25th after some tearful goodbyes and phone conversations with the Americans I left behind having no idea what to expect. Five hours later, with more or less the 26 students in the program, we finally left the airport for three days in the Geneva Youth Hostel before meeting with our host families on Saturday. During this time we had our program orientation, time to get to the know the other students, and a bit of exploration around Geneva and the smaller neighboring city of Nyon, where we take several of our classes. A few observations about Switzerland right off the bat:

1. It is very cold. (Although apparently not as cold as it is in the US right now...So I can't really complain).
2. It is very clean. The buildings, streets, and sidewalks are spotless. I think the Swiss would be shocked and appalled to walk down Bourbon Street and see the gutters lined with plastic cups and people dropping their trash on the ground before even looking for a trash can nearby.
3. It is very quiet. The Swiss value silence, we learned firsthand after being super-American and shouting across the street to some friends that we would meet them at the hostel and getting a handful of stares and dirty looks from the surrounding Swiss city-dwellers. Lesson learned. Apparently the Swiss even used to have a law against slamming your car door because it created too much noise. How the Swiss don't hate Americans, I truly don't know.
4. They too are on European time, as in no food is fast food and no timeline is set in stone. The Swiss will spend hours eating dinner and catching up and there is a never a rush to get the check and leave. And that is something I'm quite enjoying get used to.
5. The chocolate really is amazing. Imagine the best chocolate you've ever had. That chocolate is the "cheap" chocolate in Switzerland. Now take a moment to let that sink in. I imagine that the jealousy is kicking in right about now. My host mom left a bowl of a variety of Swiss chocolates in my room, a generous, but dangerous gift. Thank goodness we walk everywhere or a different Ali might be coming home in May...

Now, enough of those general observations and back to what I've been doing in Switzerland for the last ten days! After Orientation, we all piled into a bus with our luggage in tow to meet our host families at the Hôtel des Alpes in Nyon and the excitement of meeting our families suddenly turned into nervousness. We all had received an email from our host families with basic details, but anyone can sound good via email. Now it was the moment of truth. Luckily there was nothing for me to fear! I met my Swiss family which consists of two parents, an 18 year old daughter, Caroline, a 17 year old daughter, Nathalie, and a 14 year old son, Patrick (who definitely wore the same Hollister shirt for the first four days I saw him...but more on the Hollister phenomenon in another post), and two cats, one of which I am not especially fond of. C'est la vie. In the afternoon we returned to what will be my home for the next several months, a cute yellow house in the small village of Givrins a mere 20 second walk from the petit train station that I take to class everyday. And yes, you heard right, I said village. Imagine the Swiss countryside with endless rolling hills where large green fields only seem to end at the base of the mammoth Swiss Alps in the distance with a little red train cutting through it all. I live there.

 My house!

The view from my room-C'est magnifique!

I experienced a bit of culture shock switching from speaking English with the other American students to almost exclusively Français with my homestay family. Although my host mom is from Zürich, in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, she is now fluent in French and very good at English, which is nice for me as the rest of the family speaks mainly French and only un peu d'Anglais (a little English). Needless to say, my French has improved drastically in the last week I have spent with them and I could not be more excited. I even watched Mean Girls in French with my host sisters last night, and have to say, it's still funny in French. I'm glad the Swiss appreciate Tina Fey's humor as much as I do. I saw Titanic in their movie drawer, so you all know that it's only a matter of time before I'm quoting the movie in both English and French...Get excited for that. Tu sautes, je saute, tu te souviens? (You jump, I jump, remember?)

On Saturday night, I went to a party with Caroline and had some Swiss culture shock again when everyone kept kissing me hello. They kiss three times on the cheek in Switzerland, and with the first kiss on the left side. I made the mistake of thinking it was the right...That could've ended badly, but luckily disaster was averted. The party was similar to an American house party, only minus the drinking games. They wanted me to teach them beer pong, but alas, my host dad picked me up at midnight (back to feeling 13 years old again) and there was no time. La prochaine fois (Next time). On Sunday, my host dad and sister Caroline took me to Lac de Joux, the biggest frozen lake I've ever seen, for some ice skating. There were hundreds of people there, ice skating, skiing with parasails pulling them across the lake, and even sailboats that somehow glide across the ice. It was a sight unlike any other. We were going to stop in France on the way back home, but silly me, I had forgotten my passport in the house. Yep, France is that close.

There is so much more for me to add (I haven't even talked about this past week yet!) but it's time for dinner and I think this post is much too long already. I hope you all enjoyed reading about my first few days in Switzerland and stay tuned for updates on more exciting adventures to come! A bientôt!