Sirens and Lights

Well, I have like zero time to write, but I just wanted to say good-bye from Geneva…this is the last “Geneva” entry…I’m still not quite sure where 3 months went (today is exactly my 3 month anniversary of leaving the States), but I know I’m leaving some of the best friends I’ve ever had and some of the best experiences of my life. In a bit of wrap-up, I’ve been spending the last few nights with WHO friends, but also with Heather, another Watson fellow who happened to be passing through Geneva. It’s been incredible having someone to rehash my experiences here with…and as my first quarterly report is due to the Watson Foundation (we have to submit a 2 page update every 3 months, and then a final paper at the end along with a presentation), that’s a good thing. I’m still working on figuring out how I’m feeling right now and everything, but I’ll get back to you soon! ;). the plan is to write the quarterly report on the way to India…I have no idea how I’m going to keep it to 2 pages. I’ll post it up here when I’m done.

Picture of me and Heather at one of my fav cafes, Cafe des Arts:

Picture from my last dinner in Geneva with Heather at Les Armures, a fondue restaurant in the old town that’s best known for having arguably the best fondue in the city (we went to its main competitor the day before for dinner…i think the other place, Cafe du Soleil, wins, though both were AMAZING) and for being where President Clinton ate dinner when he came here:

Parting shots…..this is from when I missed my train to Paris…had time to take one last picture:

!

Ok. Heading to Paris for a few days…yay! get to see my friend from Bryn Mawr, Emily, and a lot of my best friends from Geneva are coming to see the city and to send me off, which is incredibly sweet and making leaving Geneva a lot easier…. I’m flying to Bombay on the 15th.

See ya next time in France ;). Weird going back there…..but I’m so psyched!

A friend just sent me the title of this message in an IM….thought it was strangely appropriate.

Well, this past weekend was my last (and among the best) weekend in Geneva, though I’m feeling strangely unemotional about this fact considering that there are no less than about 10 people that I’m going to miss ridiculously for, oh, the rest of my life since they live all over the world… I spent Friday night hanging out with the friend who sent me the e-mail in my last post. Learned how to cook some Indian food and then just brainstormed on the trip to India and grant applications and jobs. I feel like there are just some people that you meet that you just know you can learn so much from if you just had the time to just chill with them…and not only about life or whatever, but about what it is that you’re really thinking and seeking. She is one of those people. Anyway, more on my ruminations about the future at another time…

Spent the rest of Friday hanging out with my girls (Alyson, Beth and Mel) at a lounge we love before calling it an early night because we were waking up early the next morning to…(dramatic pause)….go to a cow festival! yep, there’s a festival called Désalpes, where the cows come down from the alpine pastures and they march through the towns down the mountain. It was oddly like the Tour de France (except for it being cold and rainy….and with cows) in that you had to just kind of be there for the period of time when the cows come by…so we huddled in a cafe, warming ourselves with chocolat chaud and croissants and then ran out everytime we saw the cows march by the windows. It’s craziness! The cows wear elaborate headdresses of flowers and huuuuuge cow bells. They are accompanied by people dressed in “traditional” Swiss clothes and music plays. There are people with the long horns (à la the Ricola ads), and stands with typical Swiss foods….concerts go on and you just walk around and try to avoid the cow poo and just take it all in… it was a fantastic last “swiss” thing to do (when the tourists themselves are Swiss, I consider the event a Swiss one :P). Dawdled over vin chaud in a café before heading back to Geneva, where I spent the afternoon helping Alyson show her friend around Geneva…one last time at Parc la Grange, shopping for cute Pumas, getting falafels at Parfums de Beyrouth… not sure what’s crazier…this being my last Saturday or the cow festival :P.

Anyway…the rest of the weekend was just as fun….went to a posh little club with a bunch of intern friends on Saturday in honor of my last big night out…. beautiful place, beautiful people….it was a fantastic last night despite my almost dying in 4 inch heels (but, hey, i managed not to fall!!). Sunday brunch, a little yoga and dinner and a movie with my girls…Sex and the City curled up on a couch at a friends place. For all of the last minute worries for my trip to India, life in Geneva is kind of winding down. It’s in part due to the rainy weather that’s apparently here to stay until spring, but also just a little bit of my getting through what I came here to do. Started the round of good-byes last night, saying au revoir and bon chance to some Swiss friends. In an odd bit of coincidence, another Watson fellow is coming to Geneva just in time for my last nights here (tonight ’til Friday)…haven’t met any of the other fellows yet, so this should be an interesting experience.

There’s snow in the mountains….you can see it from the city. It’s time to move on.

January 8th, 2002. That was the date the morning that I returned back to the U.S. after 4 months in Paris. I don’t think that I’ve ever quite gotten over how I felt that day, leaving a life that felt more right to me than anything I had ever done before. At the time, I was convinced that it was Paris that had me so enamored: living en français, the crepes from the man near Jardin Luxembourg, the accessibility of amazing dance and theatre productions, studying art history and psychology and literature in the incredibly detailed fashion of French academia, the ridiculously independent attitude the Parisians maintain….even the overcast days that led to warm nights, even in October. I remember dragging my suitcases up Avenue de l’Opéra (I had budgetted myself to the point where I had just enough freshly minted Euros to get me to the airport and not even a cent more to take a cab to the bus stop!), heading for the bus to Roissy, and a man who had stopped to help me with my bags asked me why I was leaving Paris that day. He only asked because it was the first day of soldes, the semi-annual sales in Paris, but I couldn’t give him an answer because all I wanted to do was turn around and go back. It sounds so cheesy American-girl-abroad, but it was exactly how I felt at the time. It wasn’t until I arrived home that one of my friends asked me if it was really Paris that had gotten me or being on my own for the first time… and I started to wonder. Before I landed in Geneva, I have to admit that I was a little curious about how things would work out here…would I fall in love the way I did with Paris, and would it be with the city or with my independence? The answer: I don’t think that I’ll ever feel about any city the way I did about Paris, but there is more to being abroad than being on your own. Another Watson fellow forwarded me this article on Why We Travel by Pico Iyer…there is so much I agree with in here:

“For if every true love affair can feel like a journey to a foreign country, where you can’t quite speak the language, and you don’t know where you’re going, and you’re pulled ever deeper into the inviting darkness, every trip to a foreign country can be a love affair, where you’re left puzzling over who you are and whom you’ve fallen in love with. All the great travel books are love stories, by some reckoning — from the Odyssey and the Aeneid to the Divine Comedy and the New Testament — and all good trips are, like love, about being carried out of yourself and deposited in the midst of terror and wonder. “

“Thus travel spins us round in two ways at once: It shows us the sights and values and issues that we might ordinarily ignore; but it also, and more deeply, shows us all the parts of ourselves that might otherwise grow rusty. For in traveling to a truly foreign place, we inevitably travel to moods and states of mind and hidden inward passages that we’d otherwise seldom have cause to visit. “

“Few of us ever forget the connection between “travel” and “travail,” and I know that I travel in large part in search of hardship — both my own, which I want to feel, and others’, which I need to see. Travel in that sense guides us toward a better balance of wisdom and compassion — of seeing the world clearly, and yet feeling it truly. For seeing without feeling can obviously be uncaring; while feeling without seeing can be blind. “

When it comes down to it, I think that this is the part that I have fallen in love with….when you try to live elsewhere, even if you’re working every day, you take those baby steps (or flying leaps) in new directions. You, the scientist, become the art critic. You, the independent traveler, learn how to find people you can depend on. Every day, you make a million choices in limited time: where to go, what to do, how to navigate, what language to operate in…so you learn how to make quick decisions based only on what will make you happiest. It’s not that everything is different because, let’s face it, I’m still in Western Europe… but I love this feeling of being somewhere where daily life forces me to readjust and rethink and reconsider. I always picture myself, as I land in a new place, as hitting the ground running. Autopilot, you might say, but what never ceases to amaze me is the gradual slowing down until you’re at the point where you look around and all of a sudden, you blink and so much has happened and you, at the end ironically, don’t quite know where to begin or even quite where you began.

In any case, I’m leaving Geneva in 2 weeks from tomorrow. It seems so far away, but based on that fact I’ve apparently already been here for 11 weeks…. :P. I’ve been frantically making arrangements for India…bitter malaria pills, packing up, finding the cool clubs in Bombay to visit once I arrive ;), arranging hospital visits…. it’s endless. I love planning and I love the fact that I can do whatever I want once I arrive…my boss came into my office this morning insisting that I take a trip to Malaysia while I’m there. Love it.

I was just reading through my last couple of entries and realized how pretty devoid of non-guidebook content they are…so sorry about that. Honestly, I’ve barely had time to touch my real journal, either, so when I sit down to write on here, I don’t quite know what I want to focus on..and as you guys haven’t been traveling with me, I always think I should set up where I’m at in my plans and travels. Perhaps that’s not as good as it could be, as I always end up just never getting to the real reflections. I just moved apartments as a friend agreed to let me stay at her place while she’s out of the country (4th apartment in two months…and i thought changing dorm rooms 3 times sophomore year was bad), and as I’m closer to work, maybe it will give me some more time to write.

ok, as usual…gotta run. need to make a phone call and then heading out to ultimate frisbee practice.

Move over cute yellow mini cooper convertible….this is the new dream car:

it’s the smart roadster ….yes, i know, clearly i pick cars for non-superficial reasons ;)… it’s for the environment, i swear!!!!

Once again, despite sitting in front of a computer all day long for work (excepting the practically mandated coffee breaks and lunch breaks!), I haven’t really found the time to post on here. So…week in review:

This past week has been full of projects and travel and, honestly, seems to me to be a blur of work work work coffee coffee dancing learning moving exploring dancing learning thinking running working… I wish that I had a way to tie everything together that’s happened over the last week, but I can’t quite think of that fil rouge that has run through my experience….

In brief:

*Started volunteer training for Groupe SIDA Genève and was excited to see that I was not the only non-Swiss volunteer for the organization. After meeting the people I’ll be volunteering with and hearing about their work, I’m really excited to get started on helping this organization out!

*Started Portuguese (Brazilian) lessons last week!!! So excited about that, though I must admit that I am a little intimidated at being back at the beginning again with a language! I can barely remember what it was like when I first started learning French…it’s bizarre having your ability to verbally communicate being limited to the words and phrases that you’ve been taught…so little room for creativity and expression, let alone communication! However, after this past weekend in Berlin (I’ll probably write more on that tomorrow), I’m more determined than ever to make sure I at least have a solid foundation in the language before I show up in Brazil in April. Despite having been in Berlin with two Germans, I found it so frustrating to not be able to communicate even the littlest thing…I don’t think I could handle that in Brazil, especially since I’m there long enough to actually attain some proficiency in the language.

*Went to see a play called Encore Trois Soeurs in Genève that was going on as part of La Batie, a festival of plays and performances. A little hard to follow as it was based on a play I’ve never read, and parts were in Russian, but interesting, nonetheless!

*Rough plan for India travels: Bombay for 2 weeks, then Pune for a conference, then to Vellore to begin approximately 1 month of observations and work in various departments at the hospital there, one of the foremost hospitals in India. I’ll actually be spending 2 months with Vellore as my base, and taking time out to travel and observe in Bangalore for a few weeks and Kerala for a week, and weekend trips to Madras, etc. Christmas and New Years’ will hopefully be spent at a friend’s place in Goa, and then I’ll head back to Bombay for a few weeks before I fly off for the next part of my trip. We’ll see how much like this my schedule turns out, but these are my plans for now. I’ll be sure to update as they change.

This is kind of a dull post…I’ll write more later, especially about my trip this weekend to Berlin, which was really fun and actually pretty interesting to me. I need to get caught up on photos and stuff, as well, which is the plan for tonight. Just thought I’d put up a general update, especially since I haven’t talked to a lot of you in a while…. ok, heading home for a relaxing night at home.

hey, all! i can’t believe it’s already september, but the weather out here is certainly reminding me of that fact. Normally, this is my ideal weather…crisp, sunny, cool, but as I packed very few warm clothes, it’s a little less exciting this time around. In addition, they’re finally taking down the ferris wheel…a true sign of summer in Geneva. nevertheless, i’m still enjoying Geneva. You know, just when I think it couldn’t possibly get any more beautiful, it always does. This whole weekend was full of thunderstorms, but as I was walking across the bridge across the lake Friday afternoon just after a storm, I looked up and was greeted by two rainbows coloring the sky, one incredibly bright and the other just slightly glowing. When I looked over to my right, there were just the prettiest dark blue clouds against a backdrop of lighter blue skies. Of course below me, the water was just an angry blue, and very choppy. Of course, no camera that night of all nights, but it was just gorgeous. *sigh*

So…what I’ve been up to… spent the weekend in Geneva mostly just relaxing! Well deserved, if you ask me! Had a long, amazing dinner with friends Friday night and then played a little pool and did a lot of dancing. Saturday, was very American with pizza and watching DVDs and just a house party, but at least I did at the apartment of someone who is Scottish, and one of the DVDs was “ER.” That counts for something, right? ;). Sunday, just hung out in the Parc des Bastions, napping and reading and people watching. I’ve been kind of racing to get my project done for my supervisor at WHO, so relaxing is good.

And I’m learning that honesty in everything is best—being honest with
myself—what I expect from myself, what I am capable of, what is my nature… honesty that this year is as much about growing as a person, about immersing myself in new cultures, as it is about digital art and electronic music. And being honest in thinking and writing—because honestly, I am a semi-secretive person—I often don’t put in writing everything I am thinking because I don’t know how it will be received. But what I think is who I am, so I should put it forward for everyone to see. Publishing this on the internet, yanking it from the safety of my journal, is a step in that direction.

~Jen (another Watson fellow)

so, i’m not the only watson fellow with a weblog this year. as far as i know, there are about 6 of us who are blogging it up….i’ve been making an effort from time to time to keep updated on what everyone else is up to because, despite having never met one another, we’re all in this extremely amazing and bizarre situation together (we finally get to meet at the end of our Watson year next August…I’m ridiculously curious to meet the people with whom I’ve been sharing this incredible experience).

in reading jen’s blog yesterday, i came across this comment and just thought that it reminded me so much of how i’ve been feeling these days, as well as of who i am. i’ve been trying hard to push myself into being honest with myself about why i’m making the decisions i am. i’m out here to challenge myself in a respect that’s not academic… and it’s going to be a while before i ever have an opportunity like this again. so far, i’ve been filtering a lot of the emotions i’m feeling out of this blog, and i’ll probably continue to do it for the reasons jen listed above, but i just wanted to put out there a little of what i’ve learned. it’s an odd experience consciously putting yourself in situations you normally wouldn’t risk…being socially aggressive because otherwise you’re all alone, investing in people when you’re not sure how badly it might turn out or even having seen how badly it can turn out when it doesn’t work out. For as well as things are going for me in terms of traveling and good friends and pursuing my project, I’ve made so so so many mistakes thus far as well. Accepting those mistakes for what they were is probably one of the hardest things about being out here, because i know that a lot of the pain comes from situations I would normally have avoided had i been home. Being abroad is great in that I am relatively anonymous and i could just as well forget my mistakes and move on, and once this is all over, never have to be reminded of them again….but that would kind of defeat the point of what i’m trying to accomplish out here, and so I’ve been trying to be as honest with myself about the why and how of everything as well.

So, what have I learned so far? Well, fortunately, realization one is that of everything that has happened, my biggest regret about the risks I’ve taken is not having taken them in a bigger way (go hard or go home, right? :P). In fact, the best thing I’ve learned is that the consequences of my mistakes are all things that I can handle. Overall, still happy, healthy and feeling positive about my life, which is very good…I know that I’m not done yet.

ok. i think too much. gonna do some work before football practice.

From the WHO intranet news headlines:

*Obesity Goes Global;Children around the world are eating more like Americans– and getting dangerously fat as a result (Time Magazine)

what a fantastic title…. if you don’t think it’s funny, i’m sorry. i apologize in advance.

Ok, so this was the inevitable post… not to state the obvious, but, god, people have an incredible incredible dislike for us! While I’m sure the reasons for that and the fact that people feel that way are pretty evident, it’s just amazing when you actually experience it. This has been something I’ve been feeling particularly strongly these last few weeks based on interactions with a wide variety of people, ranging from professional contacts to good friends. More often than not, any extended discussion about my background leads to a discussion on recent American actions and Bush, specifically the stupidity of both of the above. The strength of “American arrogance” is something I’ve always hated about our culture because it is very true…the vast majority of people do have very little regard for the rest of the world, let alone awareness of the events that occur abroad. As most of you know, I’ve been studying French for a while now, but have never quite gotten to true fluency… I do use it very often here, but it’s funny that the inevitable comment by people is, ” You speak French extremely well (:))….for an American (:().” To me, this is a pretty accurate example of how the world sees us…Americans rarely are familiar enough with other cultures to have bothered to learn the language, something which is unheard of in most parts of the world (did you know that bilingualism is actually more common than only speaking one language? I remember being shocked at that fact when I learned in Human Neuropsych, but it’s true). Don’t know how accurate this website is, but these are numbers I found with a quick Google search:
“Percentage of the world’s children raised as bi-lingual speakers 66.0 percent
Percentage of U.S. residents who are bi-lingual 6.3 percent ” -http://www.worldwatch.org/pubs/mag/2001/143/mos/

that’s just raised in the world, not those who learn other languages on their own or through school, which is the more popular way…

As has been told to me several times in the last week or so, it’s not that people dislike individual Americans, just Americans as a whole…not sure if that makes me feel any better, though. On a personal level, it is very frustrating to have to prove my own awareness to people I meet, especially when it affects my contacts and research (i.e. people do not want an American walking in and criticizing their system when we leave so little room for criticism of our own…now, I’m not trying to criticize anything, but that was the impression someone I was talking to had before he got details from me). The other frustrating part is that I don’t know how much people realize that the American government is often very far from what the individual Americans thinks…now, we could criticize democracy in the U.S. (as I’m sure Christian will do when he returns ) or comment that Bush didn’t really win the election (debatable, but a favorite argument of people)…but regardless of the reason, it’s really interesting (and hard) to experience the world’s view on us…

ok, gotta go. i joined the WHO football (soccer) team ;). let’s see what happens….

whew! it’s been a long week, but everything is going well! set up more connections in switzerland and am moving along on all of my hopkins research stuff…the WHO internship is going well as well, and I’m officially training to volunteer for Groupe SIDA Genève! the heat wave is finally ending and i’ve made some new friends this week, which is great, as well as contacts for my research! also bought tickets to go to Barcelona for a week in September for a conference and for vacation… i am a happy girl…i have a lot more to post, but I’ll have to do it later as I’ve got to leave the office right now… just know that everything is good :). Hope you’re all doing as well where you are!! Please keep me updated (I got the cutest pics of one of my cousin’s babies on Monday…made my week to not only get real mail, but cute real mail!)!

A little India Arie to capture my mood at the moment. It’s been almost exactly a month since I flew out of PHL on my way to Geneva (2 days, 3 planes and a train later, i finally arrived :P)… It’s amazing to me that it’s both been so long and so short of a time. I feel like Geneva has become home surprisingly quickly…it’s always a “good sign” when your problems stop being the travel kind (delayed planes, visa issues, getting lost all of the time) and start becoming so much more mundane, like being charged too much for groceries because of incorrect signage or having drama with your friends. The cost, the lake, the language and even the transportation system (which is very efficient, as you might imagine a Swiss system to be, but also a little maddening in terms of how they structured the tram lines) all had me in awe when I first arrived…some of those things of course still do, but it’s nice to just feel relaxed and comfortable here. So, based on this entry, it might be a little surprising that I decided to title this entry about change instead of about settling in or something. Well, I think that part of my feeling more settled here is that I’m starting to get used to how much people here come and go…and also with the idea that I’m going to be doing a lot of meeting wonderful people and then having to say good-bye over the course of this year (small dilemma, huh, that the girl who loves to travel also hates saying good-bye?). Somehow, accepting that I won’t be able to keep things steady for an entire year is making it a little easier for me to think about how many (difficult) transitions I’m going to be making over the next 11 months, especially the parts of those transitions that I just can’t control.

Ok, for those of you I’m boring with my psych major introspective babble… here’s what I’ve been up to for the past weekend! Party at my place didn’t happen, but I had a great night out with my friends from here. Saturday was the last day of the Fêtes…I spent the morning actually at Salève taking the téléphérique down the mountain…basically just a tram car that goes up the side of the mountain…beautiful view of Genève, and some good conversation at the restaurant at the top. Then helped a friend show his friend around Genève…weird being the expert ;). Ended the day with the fireworks (biggest display in Europe…45 minutes of fireworks set to music..I’ll post some photos later, as one of my friends, Roxanna, took ammmazing photos). Yesterday, again hung out with the girl I met at the museum on Friday and her Swiss friend…took a boat ride up the lake all day, and then just relaxed at cafes afterwards. If it hadn’t been so hot, the boat ride would have been perfect…beautiful and all.

ok…off to lunch.. you can tell I’m very busy here on my first day at WHO.

pictures:

super sized chess at parc des bastions view from the téléphérique

I just got a call from another Swiss doctor…I’m heading to St Gallen at the end of the month to speak with some ED physicians and to spend time in the ED seeing how things work :).

In other news, met a nice Chinese girl at a museum today who apparently will be living like 5 buildings down from my sister in NYC…coincidentally, they already spent time studying at the same school back when Payal was in China two years ago at Peking University. Small world….

gotta run…we’re throwing a party tonight at my place. we’ll see how this goes

Bonjour! Well, I start my internship at the WHO on Monday, so today is my last day of working at my own pace…both good and bad since I like structure but also like being able to do work at my apartment in my PJ’s. Yesterday was a fun day… I decided that I needed to take advantage of having free time during the day and just walked all over Geneva…went to that cute used bookstore and bought a Rough Guide to South India for cheap cheap and the 3rd Harry Potter en français since that’s my favorite one…shopped along the water (the chocolate store I stopped in had a free taste-testing…life doesn’t get much better ;))and wandered through Vieille Ville…had a picnic dinner in Parc des Bastions (very cute park where they have giant chess and checkers games and little chaises lounges scattered across the grass for people to sit on) and then took a mouette (a boat that’s part of Geneva’s public transportation system) to cross the lake to get to an Around the World party type thing at Perle du Lac (lots of pretty flowers and stuff there)…everyone had to bring something from their home country, so it was definitely interesting. The mouettes are great in they’re relaxing, cool rides and it’s ridiculously hot here right now - nothing compared to Philly or D.C. humidity, but apparently bad enough that my mother heard about the heat on the news in the U.S. My night ended with catching the last few songs of the Tribute to Abba concert (;)) at Parc La Grange. Actually wasn’t bad, though I felt silly being one of apparently very few people who didn’t know all of the words (someone please tell me that this doesn’t make me weird….).

On the project front, I spent all morning working on the IRB (blech) stuff and :) setting up a time to go to Lausanne to shadow a trauma surgeon there and spend time in the Emergency Department observing and talking to people. It turns out that there was a doctor doing a trauma fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where I had been a research assistant in the ED for the last three sumers. One of the doctors I worked with at CHOP put me in touch with this surgeon, who so nicely agreed to help me out with my project. Very happy. Lausanne is a city near Geneva and is supposed to be a nice place to check out, so I’m excited about seeing more of Switzerland as well.

Ok, enough for now. You can check out the pictures below and I’m gonna go explore more of Geneva. Ciao!

Geneva at dusk… My apartment…

So far, it’s been great! We ended up going grocery shopping together this morning in France (it’s so much cheaper) and then I had a wonderful lunch cooked for me this afternoon…made a pact to teach each other about music in the other country (if anyone wants to send me a DMB CD so I can explain who that is, I’d appreciate it) and work on each other’s language. ..and I’m going to learn how to cook French food…yum! I’ve been trying desperately to speaking in French whenever possible, but as some of my friends here can tell you, I’ve been getting a little intimidated when I speak to people who speak English better than I speak French. So far, the flatmate has stuck to French, so I’m going to keep going with that. :).

Last night, I found the cutest used book store and will soon own a copy of the new Harry Potter in French (I need to go back there when the store is open..only the cafe was open when I was there) and sort of saw Yuri Buenaventura singing at the Fêtes (ha…my flatmate taught me how to make the circumflex above the e…so i can start typing that correctly. these keyboards are screwy)…it was waaaay hot under the tent he was singing in, so we ended up leaving after the first song…

Ok…going to go out and walk by the water for little (I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of the sunset…and the nice thing about the Fêtes going on is that everywhere you walk down there, there’s music playing…life with a soundtrack- I love it, even if it’s eurotechno stuff!) before I go salsa…tonight’s a little sad (and very Genevois) in that it’s the first time of what will be many I’m saying good-bye to a friend from here…people are always coming and going, which is both cool (i.e. “People” below) and rather depressing. C’est la vie, I suppose…

ciao!

So, I had written this a few days ago, but never got around to posting it…just an observation I’ve made over the past few weeks…

Over the past few weeks, I’ve noticed and subsequently alluded to a lot of things on here that I think are pretty specific to the cultures I’m immersed in these days…One of those is that, politically, the climate here is much more dramatic, in my opinion, than in the U.S. On a small level, when I was at the Festival d’Avignon, there was a strike (if you ever go to France, it is imperative that you learn the word “greve.” It means “strike” and I guarantee that you will at least at some point need to know it as there are always strikes) by the performers in the official part of the Festival. Basically, the government has decided to cut unemployment benefits for the performers for the parts of the year when they’re not working, so a strike developed to protest this decision. As a result, the entire official Festival was cancelled… of course, the entire issue became very politicized (politise), which was only to be expected. However, in the end, there were demonstrations all over the city, complete with people laying in the streets protesting the murder of Avignon and of culture, as this festival is an enormous source of income in the city. You can see
pictures here, as well as read the quote by the director, “The festival closes with death in the soul.” While I agree that these developments have extremely serious consequences both culturally and economically, the magnitude of the demonstrations really did impress me…. just a thought. I always wondered what makes the community here so much more political than in the U.S….or maybe this is just my little observation and is completely unfounded. any thoughts?

Not much has happened since yesterday, but I just wanted to post this pic from a little midnight swim at Bains des paquis by the lake. Beautiful night… I ended up talking to this guy about my trip and he, like about half of the people I discuss this with, asked me if I was scared to be out on this year abroad… you know, I was kind of freaked out before I left, as my family can tell you, but it’s one of those things…when you really think about it, there isn’t too much to be scared of, I suppose. I mean, if I was worried, I could certainly do things in a safer fashion than I’ve been doing them…and I don’t think I’m taking any risks really as it is… I think that maybe in India or Brazil it’ll be a little different as I’ll be moving around more and am less comfortable in terms of language, but for now, there really isn’t anything to be afraid of…I’m very lucky in having a lot of support on this trip…

ok… someone remind me of this post the next time I get worried about something.

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!!!

The idea of citizenship in Switzerland is something they take very seriously, which makes sense when you consider that Switzerland has long been an international hub and thus needs to protect its values. In order to become naturalized as a Swiss citizen, you need to have spent 12 years in the country, as well as pass federal, cantonal and municipal approval that you should be a citizen. In some communities, this municipal procedure involves a local population vote on whether or not you have sufficiently integrated yourself into the community/way of life. Not surprisingly, there have been several stories in Le Temps, a Genevois newspaper, about seemingly qualified individuals who have been denied citizenship. In fact, the Federal Tribunal recently declared this local population vote unconstitutional as it does not protect against discrimination. While I’m glad that, unlike France with its move towards Le Pen, the Swiss are moving away from a process that allows for discrimination/”purification” of a nation, there are two issues that are provocative: (1) how has this procedure even been in effect for as long as it has? and (2) do the people have a better sense of who might be sufficiently integrated into a community than the government? Putting standardization aside, who does have a better idea of community? I tend to think that the potential for discrimination is too great to allow the local votes, but it’s an interesting idea.

So, my mother finally read this weblog on Monday (though she didn’t comment ) and told me that she still doesn’t know what i do on a day to day basis, so i thought that maybe i should elaborate on that… everyday is pretty different, but this is the general idea of today:

I woke up at 8…checked e-mail and unsuccessfully tried to find airfare from India to China and Taiwan in the hopes of taking a trip with Payal and Kruti there over Christmas. I applied to volunteer for a group in Geneva that attempts to reduce the incidence of AIDS in Geneva… Groupe SIDA Geneve. I was walking by the train station last night and saw this bus that they have stationed around the city to hand out information and condoms and testing to anyone who stops by. I stopped to chat with the guy working there because it seemed like a great public health initiative…they’re an amazing group in that they do what they do for free (it’s a private organization) and started as a means of reducing AIDS specifically among the homeless population and drug users.

After that, played with the cats and watched some French game shows. Around 9, I had breakfast and decided to bike around the area and put in the laundry. Showered. Talked on the phone with the woman I’m working with at the WHO (Dr. C) …she invited me to dinner :). Played with the cats some more, read the Geneva newspaper and flipped through my “Teach Yourself Brazilian Portugeuse” book. Had some gruyere and bread, and a nectarine. Then, I headed out around 2 to search for a cell phone…like 7 stores later, i finally bought one (woohoo!!!), and as a reward for getting through the whole day without even once resorting to English, I bought myself a Lindt chocolate. Chatted with some Swiss guy who didn’t believe me when I said that I was American (insisted that I must have been born/grown up in India)….this is the second time someone has continued to ask me where I’m from even after I’ve said I’m American, but that my background is Indian…people have a hard time understanding that you can be Indian ethnically but have grown up in the U.S. The guy actually switched from talking in French to English just to make sure…I find that very interesting and also indicative of how “multiculturalism” works in much of Western Europe (based on my experiences and readings)…a melting pot/salad, it is not…unless it’s a salad how Meg Ryan would have ordered in it in “When Harry Met Sally” — with everything on the side…

Came back to the apartment around 6 and showered again…i meant to go to a picnic, but took too long getting dressed :(. Headed to dinner…Had a yummy Indian meal complete with mango and mango sorbet, and absolutely wonderful conversations with Dr. C and her family. I feel like they’re going to be a little family away from home for me, which is really nice, as they are just incredibly intelligent, interesting and sincere people. They’re from India and have me very excited about my upcoming trip there. Around 11, I finally ended up leaving and after having a hard time getting in touch with people, decided to walk around Geneva a little because it’s pretty at night by the water…then, headed home to curl up with the cats and figure out my new phone….i love that is greets me with “Be Inspired,” but i *hate* that feature where the phone tries to guess what you’re trying to write in your text-messages….try getting it to accept “sural” as a word…grrrrrr. Laughed at the fact that the phone came with four different manuals: one in French, one in German, one in Italian and one in English, because you never know what language the person using the phone will speak when you’re in Geneva/Switzerland.

….see? nothing too exciting here. it’s just regular life with interesting people and lots of French ;). i promise not to bore you with this much detail about any given day again :p