Geneva- Part I

Sorry it has taken so long to post this one. I had a big presentation to give, then my parents came and I got behind on my homework again.

I took the TGV from Angers to Lyons for about five hours- it was so fast, but France is pretty big. Lyons was large and confusing, but I found my way to the platform for the train to Geneve and secured my spot on the train. We wound through tall mountains I couldn't even see the tops of and there was this little kid who had just learned how to walk tottering up and down the aisles, nearly falling each time the train turned. We arrived in Geneva after dark and I was glad that I had booked a hotel the day before (as expensive as it was, this was my spring break and if I was gonna spend two nights on the streets, I could afford one night in a nice hotel). I quickly found out that even though my French is passable, if people get confused as to what I am asking, they all speak English anyway. I found my hotel, looked up a hostel, booked the rest of the time there, picked up a city map and a guide book from the tourist office, then settled down for a nice rest in a nice bed.

The next morning (Thursday) I moved out of the hotel and up the lake shore to my hostel. This was my first time seeing Geneva in daylight and it was fantastic. Such a beautiful city! The lake is clear, the air clean, the buildings tall and the weather perfect! The hostel was decent too, with lockers, clean beds and showers as well as included breakfast and a free pass to use Geneva's public transit system. And so I embarked on my spree of tourism. The guide book had lots of interesting places, so I just looked for the nearest ones and worked my way through the city. I saw monuments, museums, statues of Reformers, churches, parks, the Jet d'Eau and all sorts of sweet things.
As I was stopped at the Anglican Church, a man approached me and asked if I spoke English, which of course I do. He told me he was an Iranian professor from Tehran who was a UN refugee stuck in Geneva and he was writing a book and he wanted me to help correct his English grammar and such. At first, I was wondering how to get away from him, but then I realized that I had four days in this city and I was pretty lonely and bored already, so why not? Farad and I sat in the church and went over his papers for the next two hours- some pretty feisty stuff about Bush, then some anecdotes one about how far people will go to still have someone to talk to... I thought it was appropriate. It was nice to talk with someone for that long even if most of the conversation was confused and scattered.
The pictures will speak for themselves for the things I saw, but one of my favorite places was Parc des Bastions (where the Reformation Wall is) and where there are huge life size chess boards and pieces and bunches of old Swiss men huddling around, playing or watching the games, trash talking in French and making fun of each other. It was really amusing and I ended up watching lots of games and coming back for more.

That night, I settled back into the hostel after a long day of walking all over the city and learning my way around the tram and bus system. I met my roommates- Mahdi, a Lybian who had just met the girl of his dreams apparently because he couldn't stop talking about her and how he wanted to go visit "the Russia" where she lives. Later, Ejavet and Erga two Germans came in and settled down. There were a couple others (an awkwardly loud American and two students from Hong Kong who were studying in Britain) but the first three were ones I got to know later.

A lot happened in the next few days, so I'll break up the story for my homework's and your attention span's sake.