First Week in Geneva

'A man walks down the street and says why am I soft in the middle now?'

I think maybe because he lives in Switzerland.

Not 5 hours after touchdown in Switzerland, and mind you that was at 8 AM, I had broken into the Swiss chocolate and the Cafe Crema. I saw my old friend Moite Moite in the grocery store. I couldn't resist the Süssmost Apfelsaft at lunchtime. Let's not even talk about the fact that the cuisine is heavily French influenced in this part of Swtizerland. I already OD'd on crepes (both salty and sweet for good measure).

Yes, I am feeling a little soft in the middle after 2 and 1/2 days back in Switzerland. But it tastes sooo good!

On the first day I felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland. I had to get up at 4.45 AM to get the early flight to Geneva. I arrived at 8.30 AM and was at work until almost 8.30 PM. As there is a conference in Geneva this week we had to stay about 40 minutes away in France (Divonne-Les-Bains). By the time I reached the hotel I was starving and was thinking room service was in order. Ha!! There was an envelope stuck to the front door of the hotel with my name on it and the reception and lobby were dark and locked up for the night. Inside the envelope was a nice letter in French explaining that I should go to the night entrance, type in a code, my room was open and I could see myself in. !?!?

Hopes of dinner dwindling, I let myself in and frantically searched the room for something to eat but alas nothing. By now it was 10 PM and small town France is not catering to the late night crowd but I decided to go for a walk to the town center and see if there was any hope. I caught a crepe place just as the doors were shutting and the nice owner opened up the kitchen to make me something to eat. It was only the two of us, so I tried out my old French skills and came up with a hilarious blend of French and German. On the way back some of my colleagues saw me passing by a bar they were in and grabbed me for a bedtime cocktail. The drinks were served in fishbowls, giant hurricane glasses and flower pitchers and the walls were covered in red velvet. All that were missing were the Chesire cat and the Queen of Hearts. Fatigue was getting the best of me - at this point it had been a 19 hour first day after a short night's sleep - and I meandered back through the cute town. As tired as I was, when I got back to my room I was happy to hear from my new friend S. from Poland and we chatted for a bit before I finally had to call it a night.

Without saying too much about work, I can say that things are significantly better there than the last two projects. I will report directly to the program manager, who seems to be a real character and I don't think I will get bored even if it may be somewhat stressful. The project team made a good first impression and there are a handful of people around that I have worked with before. All in all a good start.

The area around Geneva looks absolutely beautiful and I will plan in a weekend to do some exploring and photographing sometime in the next month or so (ET, tips are welcome!). I finally picked up a flash for my camera and now I would say that my kit is complete - camera, wide angle lens, zoom lens, flash, and tripod. After one day I have no clue how I lived this long without a flash.

Happy Weekend!

Posted from Munich