Sirens and Lights

Salut! So, I was thinking about how to begin my post on the tram ride over here and I realized for like the millionth time how messed up my perception of time has been since I left the U.S. I can’t believe it’s only been 4 days since I last posted! This weekend has pretty much been a blur of dancing, good conversations and just basically enjoying summer in Geneva. I moved apartments Thursday to Carouge (small town just outside of Geneva)…love the new place in that it’s big and clean and this is the first time I’ve been able to truly unpack since I left the U.S. almost a month ago. The guy I’m living with was away all weekend, so I really haven’t talked to him much yet…fingers crossed that this will go well! I’m just starting to get to know the area, so I’ll let you know more as it happens. I ended up meeting two really cool girls who are students at the University of Geneva this weekend, so they’re helping me figure out the area a little, too, which is nice, as well as giving me a good chance to work on my French. Maybe I’m just not used to people being so nice, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how great people have been about volunteering to show me around Geneva, especially since a lot of them are around my age and are a lot of fun to be around. For all of the dancing and just going out this weekend, the best part has been finally having the time to sit down and talk with some really interesting and fun people. As some of you have told me before (and have probably yelled at me about :P), I think that when I’m left alone I tend to overthink things, so it’s always nice to know people out here with whom i can just discuss ideas and feelings in a non-circular fashion. One thing about being in the new apartment is that I’m back to having a lot of introspective time since I only have my laptop, CDs and some books for entertainment. I love having the time to think and I definitely feel that it gives me a better grip on what I’m trying to accomplish..having internet and TV last week was fantastic, but also left me without the feeling I had the week before of being more than just an extended tourist here. That aside, I think that the specific people I’ve been talking to have been helping me build on my observations and experiences thus far :), which is definitely also contributing to my general sanity …side note….is it bad that I just told Ray J (one the beatboxers from Avignon) to download AIM so I can talk to him when I’m on-line? look at me contributing to globalization… oh, well…

As for Geneva, the Fetes de Geneve are currently going on… 10 days of concerts, food, carnival rides, parades, partying and just enjoying being outside. I’ve been doing a lot of salsa, watching fireworks and hanging out by the lake.

Vieille Ville (look, the fun area is called Old City/Town, just like in Philly :)) The first night of the Fetes…Along the Lake where the fireworks took place.

Watching the parade….after seeing the crazy floats, we decided to take part in the madness with a little hairspray…yep, I finally got to have purple hair!!! (don’t worry, it washed out)

There are carnival rides and food stands all along the lake…we sampled food, drinks and carnival rides along the way…and I took some photos.

For those of you commenting that my project has turned from “Sirens and Lights: Emergency Medicine Around the World” to “Salsa fever: Sural has fun in Geneva instead of doing research,” I do have great great great news on the project front… I’m officially collaborating with the Center for International Emergency, Disaster and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins on conducting a multi-modal assessment/comparison of the systems of EM (emergency medicine) in the four countries I’ve chosen. I’m working on e-mailing contacts at various hospitals around Switzerland and the IRB (getting approval from Hopkins to do the research) forms filled out at the moment. I’ve been working with this amazing MD/MPH student there to develop the specifics of this project for the last month of so, but I was just a little hesitant to post anything before I knew for sure that everything was pretty well set up. It’s my first project of this magnitude (I’ve done research of my own before, but never anything abroad or with so many components) so I’m very excited and a little nervous. Wish me luck!

ok….off to a barbeque. Ciao!!!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 4th, 2003 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Geneva. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.