Gotta have it, really need it to get by...

Nope, I'm not talking about the sugar high Renée Zellweger sings about in that iconic 1990s movie 'Empire Records'... I'm talking about decent, high-speed internet.

I really can't complain much about life in Geneva. The weather has been awesome, I get go to out and run through wonderful old houses and the huge gardens in Grand Saconnex and its surroundings, I've had friends come and I love going to the WHO everyday.

But there is always a 'but', I guess. With the really bad internet signal I have in the 'hell hole' (aka as the John Knox Center, which is where I live), I can barely log into Skype. I miss my regular Sunday chats with my mom, my e-beers with everyone and I have to say, it's really made me homesick.

Today, after more than two weeks of unsuccessful attempts at Skype I finally got to call my mom... for 1.45 minutes.

I should just go to the Parc des Nations with my Ipod and call her from there... seriously.

*sigh

'The illustrated guide to a PhD'

So does this mean my thesis is like a pimple in the face of knowledge?

That actually explains quite a lot.

Thanks for the link :)

http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

There's a small town in my mind

I've been homesick lately. I think I just move around too much. It's hard to pack up your life every three months and start again, even when you're coming and going from the same two places.

To add complexity to my nomadic circumstances, this summer I added Geneva to the mix and lately I've been feeling a little blue. Not for Guatemala though, I miss Umea. I miss my friends and my small-town life and I think I might just be tired of moving around.

So last night before going to bed I was listening to my Ipod and this song came on... and truly, there is a small town in my mind right now.

A Royale with cheese...

I just noticed that my usual shampoo has a different name in Francophone countries. Instead of it being 'Elvive' it's 'Elséve'. The funny thing is that I've had that bottle for over a week and I didn't even look ar it. I guess I'm too used to not understanding what's written on stuff from living in Sweden to even care anymore. I just get whatever looks like what I usually buy.

Have to admit, it was a total pulp fiction moment... although I'm not as cool as Samuel L Jackson (but almost).

Things you pick up along the way

It was exactly a week ago today that I came to Geneva and started living in the house of a nice family that puts up with my French and find my sock-knitting amusing. I really like it here and were it not for the fact that I can't seem to find a walking-distance supermarket, I would not mind staying for the rest of my three month stint.

But I digress. The real purpose of the blog is to say that in Switzerland, people keep their shoes on when they go into a house, which is not the custom in Scandinavia... and having my shoes on in the house feels weird (This despite the fact that the first time I went to Umea it took me forever to get used to it).

So while I'm home alone here, I'm instituting the 'no shoes indoors' rule... both to save me a little cleaning time and to make me feel a little more like home (away from home).

First impressions

I am now smack in the middle of my third day in Geneva and I more or less feel like I can go on a few random rants about my time here:

Rant 1: The city
Now, I might be setting myself up for disappointment, but I rather like it here. As soon as I got out of the train station I felt like I was going to have fun. I walked around for a few hours and even understood a map of Les Paquis (and everyone knows my map reading abilities resemble those of a poorly trained French Poodle).

Rant 2: Housing
For the next couple of weeks I am staying with a nice Swiss-French family that entertains my awfully rusty French. They live in a small, cozy house with a big garden that has apple trees (from which we get our apple juice). On my first night, there was a freshly baked pie and my bed has two down pillows (could life be any better?).

Rant 3: Buses
So I should totally get a fake ID... I mean, I have the looks for it, apparently. Turns out I almost got the child's buss pass (and would have it had I not shown my passport with my birth year). No, it was not my idea... the dude at the station did it that way and then realized I might not be underaged... I'm happy that continental Europeans are just as prone to giving me the child discount as Scandinavians. Nice to see they have stuff in common. I wonder how much longer I will be able to get away with it... maybe next year I can ask for a 'young person' discount seeing as how I'm going to be 30 and everything.

Rant 4: The WHO
So after 1.5 days at the WHO I can say that I like it. Sure, they don't fika (which is not a plus, let me tell you), but the building where I'm interning has huge windows overlooking some birches (that make me miss Umea a little less) and a lot of other trees. My supervisor is really nice and interested in my work and there are a lot of Spanish speakers around (sorry to say that no Chapines around... so no one's called me 'patoja' just yet).

Rant 5: French
Apparently, if you go six years without practicing your French... you lose it. My accent sucks and for the first few days of French (during the summer vacations with Magnus), I kept bumbling Swedish phrases (that I didn't know I knew). It's slowly coming back though... and I do plan on taking a couple of classes while I'm here.

Rant 6: Travel
Is there a grant place I can apply to for extra traveling? I'm just saying...

Maybe I've been here too long.

One thing that Sweden has that Norway doesn't is fika. That means that Sweden is light years ahead of its neighbor in the snacks issue. Normally, that doesn't matter since when I'm in Bergen its just to visit Magnus and not to have normal work activity. However, these last two weeks have been filled with classes, lectures and poor coffee brakes with lousy tea that don't get anywhere near normal Swedish fika.

So today we got a special treat: large plates of 'exotic' fruit (in Scandinavia everything that's not apples and Lingon berries are actually exotic). I found myself munching on slices of pineapple and watermelon. As I was enjoying my pale fruit I noticed it tasted 'great'... which got me to thinking: is the fruit better during summer or have I been here too long?

I'm still waiting for my taste buds to totally die so I can have some Scandinavian mango.