Genève, Genf, Ginevra

This weekend, five friends and I went to Geneva! We left after class on Friday so we had that afternoon, all of Saturday and the morning of Sunday to enjoy Genève. Without knowing a lot about the city except that it isn't really known for having many famous monuments or exciting things to do, we started off the trip by finding dinner in a little Italian restaurant with an Italian waiter who had a crazy low croaky voice. We spoke French to him and he responded about 90% of the time in Italian which made the meal very enjoyable... and educational, considering that I'm leaving for Rome on Thursday. We ate yummy spaghetti and then wandered around the streets, heading in the general direction of our hostel. There were a lot of swans just hanging around in the lake interacting with each other and the ducks that were also there. We studied them for probably a longer amount of time than is socially acceptable. They were so fun to watch though!

The weather was beautiful on Saturday! The sun was shining, the water was clean... THE WATER WAS CLEAN! It was literally the cleanest clearest water I have ever seen. You could see so deep in it, even in the boat harbors where there's usually seaweed and oil and grossness in the water, here was just crystal clean beauty. I could have taken a glass of it!

Crystal clear eau de Genève

We visited l'Organisation des Nations Unis, otherwise known as the UN, which was pretty cool to see; we intended to go on a tour but didn't realize until we got there that they weren't open on Saturday. So we didn't get to see the inside, but instead we explored around the building and the surrounding parks.

Countries' flags lined up at the entrance to the UN building

Autumn in Geneva! Sooo pretty.

We went to the botanical gardens, where there were little animal exhibits (animal parks? They seem relatively common in Europe and I had never heard of them before in the states). We saw deer, goats and about every kind of bird in one cage (seriously: flamingos, geese, all kinds of ducks, swans, chickens, peacocks... it was hilarious.)

After perusing the parks, we walked down on the edge of the water and saw the Jet d'Eau, Geneva's world renowned 140 meter-high water fountain. It is obviously very simple idea and design... about as simplistic a fountain as one could have, but it is breathtaking to see across the lake with the sun shining through it... especially if you catch a rainbow in it.  With a little breeze, the water sprays straight up and then drifts out a fair way and the effect is just gorgeous. We went to a grocery store to get food (Geneva is quite pricey) and had a picnic on the lake for lunch, watching the Jet d'Eau and listening to the Italian, German, French and some unrecognizable languages surrounding us. Later Saturday afternoon, some of us went on a boat tour of the city to see a lot of the landmarks and historical buildings on the edge of the water and the recording for each attraction spoke the information blurb in five (5!!) languages: French, English, German, Spanish, and finally Italian. It was crazy.

Five hundred liters (132 gallons) of water per second jetted to an altitude of 140 meters (459 feet) by two 500 kW pumps, operating at 2,400 V, consuming over one megawatt of electricity

Saturday night we made picnic bagel sandwiches and hung out for a bit, then went out for a glass of wine in a popular (but relaxing) restaurant/bar near the Cathédrale Saint-Pierre that we had visited earlier in the day.

Sunday we woke up bright and early to have breakfast and check out of our hostel, grabbed some swiss hot chocolate and mochas for the road, and headed to the airport. It was pouring down rain and significantly colder than the day before; either Geneva was bawling that we were leaving, or it had shaped up and been as beautiful as it could possibly have been for us on Saturday and just couldn't hold it up any longer. No matter, we loaded on our plane and waved goodbye, reflecting on yet another fantastic weekend away from home away from home (Nantes). Returning to Nantes felt like getting home after a long trip; it was so good to hear only french and be able to understand everything after not knowing half of what was being said over the weekend... funny to think that I was so clueless as to what was going on when I first got here and was so thirsty to hear English. I'm at the point now that I can only be half-listening to a conversation in french and understand everything that is said. It will be odd to get back to Idaho in December and not hear any french anymore. I may have to watch movies in french every once in a while to make sure I still got it.

Speaking of movies in french, I have another one to recommend. We watched it last week in theaters for a class. It's a phenomenal film about a woman researching the story of a girl from the holocaust. Very depressing and certainly thought-provoking as all holocaust movies are, but this has little or nothing to do with direct German influences, so it was very interesting to have a new viewpoint on things. I had studied the Vichy government in France in history classes, etc. but had never internalized it until seeing this movie. It's called Elle s'Appelait Sarah, which means "her name was Sarah". I'm not sure if they change the title in the United states or if they keep the french title, but either way everyone reading this should keep the title in mind and watch if they get a chance. Really breathtaking.

I'm looking forward to Rome on Thursday, but in the mean time am trying to make headway on my big class papers due the week after I get back and some the week after that. From here on out my weekends are all accounted for... I have a feeling the rest of this semester is going to fly by even faster than it already has been.