I have been on vacation these past 4 days. It started off with a long line of people in Newark airport before anyone could get to the Jet Air counter. Don't be fooled by the name, it's not a European carrier, it's Indian, which explains well the mass of Indians I was seeing around me. I thought, wow all these Indians going to Europe, they must be getting richer! Nope, they are going to Bombay. My check-in baggage was 27 kilos, 4 kilos overweight, but the lady was kind enough to let me go without and extra charge. No wonder my boyfriend was complaining when he was carrying the baggage, "Vid.. aku mau modar...(I'm dying)" :) The flight was good, except that the food was not. I got to watch Kungfu Panda 2! Sooo funny! Oh, Po, I'm sorry you are adopted. The connecting flight was from Brussels, which unfortunately I missed. But, it gave me time to sort of look around the airport stores and got a fridge magnet. I had to get an internet connection since I had to tell the person who was picking me up about the later flight. The whole airport section was supposed to have free wifi, which I could see being picked up by my laptop, but somehow it was not working. There was an HP work stations to use on a paid internet connection, which is confusing; if you have a free wifi, why would you have paid connection at the same time? But, the wifi was not working, so there's my answer. I paid 4 freaking Euros for a 20 minute internet access. That's like Rp. 65.000? That could get you a month subscription or something in Indo! I got to Geneva shortly after that. Sweet, that's all that matters.
Yay! Green stuff and mountains!
Mbak Rian picked me up and the plan was to stay at the extra room in her apartment. I had lunch in the apartment. She had kikil soup!!! I was eating kikil in Geneva!! If that is not surreal, I don't know what is. After settling in, I decided to see the city and travel by foot. I wanted to see how it took to walk from the apartment to the work place (45 minutes, Google said 30, but I'm tiny). I did not have the bus pass yet and did not know of any numbers to take. But I was told that 22 runs in front of the house. Depending myself on google maps and praying that I won't get lost, I went on to explore. Forty five minutes later, and after asking for some directions, I got to the UN headquarters.
This "Broken Chair" is right in front of the UN headquarters. It was installed by the Handicap International to support for the land mines ban.
Proof that I was there :) This is the UN headquarters in Geneva. I learnt that from now on, I have to develop the shameless social skill of asking help from strangers to take a picture of me. The skill would have to include picking up the right person who would understand that background that I want. The first person that I asked for help, took only left side of the whole UN writing (??). After that, I went on to business: finding my office. It was about 10 minutes walk from the headquarters. The office is inside WMO (World Meteorological Organization). I'll be working for IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). I better be used to acronyms now.
That's where I'll be going everyday starting Monday. Wish me luck! I had to Google what OMM was and it turns out to be Organisation Meteorologique Mondiale (I had to slow down typing that). After that, I went to the park right in front of the building and met a nanny from the Phillipines who was resting on the bench with me. She was with this 4 year old boy from England who flirted with me. She said he likes girls, how cute. She told me that the famous fountain and flower clock were just across the road from the park, so I went on search for these sights based on her directions. It turns out that that was NOT true!!! It was SO not true. They were on the other side of the LAKE, I kid you not. So, lesson number two, is not to trust people so much. Trust Google instead! But across the street I did see the lake, although it looks a lot like Cayuga lake in Ithaca from that side. After around 7 pm, I called it a day and went home.
The next day wasn't as exciting. I got a new number. The number is: 0123-456-789 (you seriously did not think I would put it up, did you?) But, it does start with a 0. Got my monthly bus pass, which costs CHF70. Transportation is expensive, but when you have a super efficient one like in Geneva, it's worth it. It's design so that you just can't really get lost. I also got my train ticket to Paris for next weekend!! Yay, excited!! Although that reminds me, I have not done the presentation yet. I got a little groceries, too, just for survival stuff when I'm hungry at night or something. After all that, I got home and apparently was jet lagged so I slept for 3 hours.
When I woke up, I randomly decided to contact Cindy, a person that was introduced to me through Vicky in Facebook and asked if the Catholic Youth group was gathering some time soon. Half an hour later I was told that they were indeed meeting up that afternoon! It was a fun gathering, there were 6 people and we discussed the reading for this weekend mass and went for dinner afterwards. I was initiated to the 3 times kiss that Europeans do. Apparently you have to make the kissing sound or else you are impolite. A little awkward, but I can brush on my skills soon.
And today, I continued the exploration to the Old Town side of Geneva, which looked a lot more European than all the UN side of the city. It had narrow streets with cobble stone buildings and stone pathways. Cute! The biggest attraction is St. Pierre Cathedral which was there since the 4th century. The building we see now it the more "modern" church and there is excavation work to obtain the remnants of the original church below it. I went to the archeological museum where they explain the possible theory and predictions on how that early church was. It was... a bit boring. But I was there and I tried to stick with the audio explanation.
St. Pierre Tower
There was also a huuuuuge flea market there which opens every Wednesday and Saturday. Seriously, my mom would have died happy there. They have EVERYTHING. From bikes, to clothes, to dolls, books, bags, etc. It took me more than an hour to just walk around it. There is stuff and stuff on your left and right. I made me feel like I wanted a pair of eyes like that of chicken, one eye on each side of the head, so I won't miss out anything.
Asterix figurines
Angry birds!!!
Then, finally I'm off to see the Jet d'Eau, the high spurts of water. That's some pumping power right there. It looks quite amazing but to think again, any country with enough money could have such attraction. Just like the giant ferris wheel in Singapore. If you have money, you get giant ferris wheel. I would appreciate natural things better than this, but I respect the effort.
Jet d'Eau
Me with pretty background :)
It took a lot of time and nyasar-nyasar to get to this flower clock. This is a symbol for how on time everything is in Switzerland.
Okay, that's it for now. I will leave you with this random attraction I stumble upon when walking around the Old Town of Geneva. Ah, how I love randomness :)
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