Alice in SUISSEland. And so I begin with a pun… I have to give credit to my host mom though – she came up with the title and is rather pleased with it. She actually used Alice in SWITZERland but alas that was taken. I'm studying International Politics in Geneva this fall. So excited!
Bonjour tout le mond! I haven’t even been in Switzerland for a week but I’m already starting to feel settled in. I am writing you from my homestay in a village outside of Geneva in the Canton de Vaud (Canton translates more or less to state though that doesn’t fully describe the word because cantons are more based on longstanding cultural than political divisions). When I started this sentence my “host-cat” Leo was cuddling with me, but my host mom has since come home and so he went to greet her.
This would be a great time to introduce my homestay family!!! I live with a woman in her late fifties who has two daughters in their twenties already out of the house and a boyfriend who is over all the time. She has two cats, Leo and BoomBoom. BoomBoom in French is really funny….imagine the “Oooo” in “Ooooo-la-la”…. I can see France from my house! I’m a lot like Sarah Palin in that way. Geneva and the surrounding Canton of Vaud is on a huge lake – people from Geneva call it Lac de Geneve but everybody else calls it Lac Leman and thinks that the Genevoise are a bit self-important J. The other side of the lake is France…and I can see massive and snowy Mont Blanc in the distance! In fact, the sun is currently setting and ther’s an amazing pink/purple/blue cast over the whole mountain-scape. Vraiment incroyableWe live in the ground floor of a small apartment complex - it’s very spacious and tastefully decorated. There’s a big apple and pear orchard across the little road and a bunch of vineyards right down the street. My host mom is a close friend of the farmers who own the orchards so I met them the other day and they said I should feel free to pick up any apples and pears that have fallen because they can’t be sold anyway! I just partook for the first time this afternoon….YUM.
My hostmom, Gudrun, is incredibly lively and active in every sort of way – she loves to exercise, has boundless social and emotional energy, and is driven in her own career. About eight years ago she decided to get her degree in psychology and become a therapist. She has completed all her internships and just opened her private practice this summer! I am DEFINITELY going to improve my French because Gudrun loves to talk. I mean seriously. She speaks German, French, and English fluently but has a rule that we’re only allowed to speak English is we’re have a deep conversation. And she really sticks to it! She is quite affectionate – but also quite precise! She was born in Germany but has been in Switzerland for decades and hasn’t even kept her German passport because this is so much home to her. Her boyfriend, Hermann, doesn’t speak English so my French is definitely improving with him! He is from a village right up the way from where I live, in the heart of the countryside of the Canton de Vaud, so he has a thick regional accent. Also good for improving my comprehension! It’s like going on a run with weights while training for the big race. In this case, French in cosmopolitan cities is the big race….ohhh that’s a pretty thin joke, I apologize!
I somehow managed to place into the most advanced French level… woooah! There was a written test and a conversational test….and I think they highly valued the oral portion because I certainly don’t know how else I made it! My French is already improving a LOT - I can speak a lot better than I knew! The Spanish does end up jumping in (particularly with the words trois/tres, depuis/despues, prêt de/cerca de….little words get me). Yesterday I even tossed in a Tamil phrase….THAT was certainly a curveball even for the incredibly multi-lingual Swiss!
I should talk a little bit about SWITZERLAND now! It’s a fantastic place. Such a tiny little country but utterly bursting with different cultures and oddities. Of course there’s the position of neutrality – I don’t yet know nearly enough about it to argue intelligently about it one way or another. But I can say that neutrality has it’s bizarre perks! Today I went on a little day trip to Lausanne – it’s about 35 minutes from Geneva by train – utterly gorgeous spot on the lake. It’s also, randomly, the headquarters of the Olympics. Because they had to choose somewhere neutral. Switzerland. Neutrality also explains the allure of the world-famous Swiss banks. By the way, the bank buildings are straight out of a James Bond movie. The famous fountain in the background, HUGE impressive and rich looking buildings along the river leading into the lake. I suppose James Bond probable HAS gone there in some movie or another. So Switzerland is neutral! Hey, I didn’t promise to have the MOST illuminating news!
I said this in a mass email I sent out but I think it warrants repeating: people in this part of Switzerland – I can’t speak to the whole country of course – LOVE RAZOR SCOOTERS. What is up? Seriously – I’ve seen angst ridden teen agers all clad in edgy black and red clothes scooting along…. and then five year olds… and then businesspeople. It is SO fabulous. How amazing would it be if I got one in order to fit in? Of course fitting in would be a big excuse to scoot.
I have quickly discovered that the stereotypical Swiss products really do abound. Cheese, chocolate, watches, Swiss army knives, wine, banks, lots of international organizations (ok that last one’s a little less racy)…. it’s all true! I have had some utterly incredible chocolate, there are watch shops ALL over the place, and they are dead serious about their cheese. When my homestay mom picked me up we went for a little walk around the town of Nyon where a market was taking place. We passed a cheese stand and the nice young man arming the stand offered to have me try half a dozen of his best cheeses! He explained the differences between them (age, where the cows were raised – my favorite was an aged Alpage…which comes from cows that live in the Alps, not surprisingly!) His sales pitch worked – we walked away with intense goat cheese, aged gruyere, and some brie. And WINE! I will be ready for Walla Walla this spring because I am learning a thing or two about good wine! Hermann has a tiny vineyard, so we have his wine for an aperitif (first celebratory glass) basically every night.
I don’t have time to talk about it now because I’m about to eat dinner but soon I will post about the local food here. Everyone who lives outside of Geneva eats very locally. As in – the eggs I eat in the morning were laid a couple doors down. You can tell the difference – the food is fresh and digests well. But that’s for another time.
A bien tot! Au revoir!
~Alice
