Arrival in Geneva

We have safely arrived in Geneva! So far we’re having a great time.

The trip got off to a rocky start—not all of the shuttles we requested arrived. So…we crammed as many people/suitcases into the vans that DID come. My van was the last to leave, and we still had at least 10 people standing on the sidewalk, waiting for the others to arrive…yikes. Well, our van ride didn’t go much better. We were all sitting in the van but had the doors open for some fresh air, while we waited for the others to board. All of a sudden, our driver jumped in the van and started it, so I leaned over to shut the doors right as he took off. I almost fell out of the van! A great omen, we all thought. Then, after driving about 10-15 minutes, our driver thought to ask us if we were going to Reagan or Dulles (we just assumed our teachers had given that instruction!). We still aren’t sure whether we were headed in the right direction, or if we drove several minutes out of the way. Finally, we arrived at the airport but none of the others from our group were in sight. It turns out we WERE the last ones to arrive (even behind the ones we left standing on the sidewalk). However, we still were there plenty early and got through security and boarded the plane without any difficulties.

The plane ride was uneventful. The flight to London was about 6.5 hours. I was lucky enough to get about 2 hours of sleep, more or less. I actually was trying to stay fairly awake, so that I would be exhausted when we arrived in Switzerland, could sleep a full night, and adjust to Europe time. We had about a 3 hour layover in London, and then a short (less than 2 hour) flight to Geneva. We finally arrived in Geneva around 10 am on Saturday in DC time, and around 4 pm on Saturday in Geneva time. All in all, our journey was about 12 hours of travel…exhausting.

We checked into our hotel and then were on our own out in the city. We wandered for a pretty long time in search of dinner but eventually found a really good pizza place. We are starting to discover that Swiss culture is really a mix of Italian, French, and German. So far we’ve had some good Italian food! I am really resentful of the fact that I speak NO French and wish that we had been given at least some survival preparation. I am lucky to have been hanging out in groups with at least one fluent French speaker, but it is quite embarrassing to not be able to communicate as well as I would like. However, I knew this would be a problem for me before I even came, I just didn’t realize I would be this uncomfortable with it. After a GREAT meal we walked around a bit more and got a feel for the city, but then turned in pretty early—we were exhausted!

Today we went to the International Red Cross Museum. I really enjoyed the museum and really learned a lot more about the history of the Red Cross. We were surprised to find just how NEUTRAL the Red Cross is. When covering the events of World War II, the museum would reference the genocide of World War II, but never mention the country that committed the genocide. The tour guide stated that it was not the position of the Red Cross to place blame. They also had a display of a prison cell that we could tell was from a pretty modern conflict. The cell was probably about the size of my bathroom at home and had no furniture and one solitary light. The museum stated that the cell held 17 prisoners! Once again, we were not told what country used this cell or during what conflict, but we were told that the prison was later shut down.

After the museum, we were free for the rest of the day to enjoy the city. We split off into smaller groups again. First we went down near Lake Geneva and took some really great pictures. The morning started out rainy, but it was starting to clear then and we could just begin to see the peaks of the Swiss Alps emerge from the clouds. We found another good Italian restaurant for lunch and then headed into “old town.” There we enjoyed some of the architecture, took a carousel ride, and walked around the Cathedral of St. Pierre which, when undergoing renovation in the 1970s became the site of many arachaelogical findings. The cathedral left a lot of the dig site preserved underneath the cathedral, so you could still see the findings. They had some little clay pots from the 1st and 2nd centuries, and the remains of a baptismal font from the 6th century. It was very cool. We then went into the present day cathedral and found a chair on display that was John Calvin’s. It’s so cool to be so up close to history! We also wandered back to a courtyard that we found last night, but that had really creeped us out in the dark. Back in daylight we discovered that the site was actually the place on which the First Geneva Convention was signed! Our international law professors would be so proud. ☺

We then had dinner at a British Pub and headed back to the hotel. It’s been a long, fun day but we have to get up early tomorrow. We are leaving for the UN at 8:00 am! We don’t have time any more to be jet lagged.

Hopefully I’ll find a place to get on the internet tomorrow and post this. I hope you are all doing well.

~Katie