Field Trip: Brussels

Two weeks ago my classmates, professors, and I packed up and traveled through Brussels, Belgium, and Paris, France, for a rather magical five day field trip. We began in Brussels and spent the first afternoon walking around the city to orient ourselves. The tourist center of town seems to revolve around the Grand Place, a beautiful square surrounded by the town hall, city museum, beer museum, and shops.

After a dinner wherein most people got moules et frites but I stuck with what I know and got a croque madame (and a beer - gotta have the cultural experience), we made our way to the waffle shops. I’d been looking forward to these, and they did not disappoint: a warm liège waffle with Nutella, strawberries, and a mountain of whipped cream. I’m not posing for the photo below - it’s really how you had to eat it.

We spent the next morning at a briefing at the European Commission. It was really interesting, especially given the considerable background I have on the EU thanks to my economics class in London. I just had a problem with the mustachioed energy representative who refused to acknowledge the role of the environment in energy policy. News flash: they are inseparable issues and you should be able to speak to both of them regardless of your position as the energy and not environmental representative.

That afternoon we wandered some more and visited the Brussels Cathedral, formally known as the Ste Michael and Ste Gudula Cathedral (I've never heard of that saint either).

To be real, Belgian food is not that different from French or Swiss food, so we took advantage of the international flavour of the city (literally) and had Moroccan food for dinner. We followed that with raspberry beer, fruit beer being a Belgian speciality. It was basically juice aka my kind of beer.

On Tuesday we had a lecture on the history of Belgium and the language barrier that threatens to tear the country apart. Quick summary: Belgium has two language communities. Flanders is the largest and wealthiest in the North where Flemish, a cousin of Dutch, is spoken. Wallonia is in the South and is French speaking. Brussels is technically in Flanders and is officially bilingual but the vast majority of people speak French. Add in the six different governments that control the country and you can see how confusing the political, cultural, economic, and linguistic landscape is.

A few friends and I then visited the City Museum and the Chocolate Museum (sadly underwhelming) before meeting up with another group to explore the Royal Palace and the Maigrette surrealist museum.

Also, we had French fries for lunch. They were incredible.

The rest of our time in Brussels passed by in a blur of amazingly delicious Ethiopian food, another waffle, and the chance to see the Mannekin Pis (a tiny, peeing statue of a boy that is the symbol of Brussels) get dressed in an old timey lacrosse uniform. Then we hopped a train to Paris to continue our “studies” (read: continue to eat our way across Europe). x

It’s finally above freezing! And other exciting things

I keep putting off writing a blog post (even though my google stats shot up midweek - I apparently have a small but consistent readership in Russia...) until I have more material, thinking that I need photos and landmarks and cultural experiences in order to post something. False. I have a lot going on and it is all fascinating. It’s just not all fun and tourism like in London.

Rather than seeing famous landmarks and visiting important museums, I am going to lectures, briefings, and mountains. The Jura Mountains instead of Big Ben; the United Nations instead of the British Museum; an essay on water scarcity as a challenge to international security instead of letters back and forth between William and Mary.

Let’s be real. That essay took up a lot of my time. We had to find interviews for it which was a new challenge but it ended up adding a lot to my essay. I’m such a pacifist though; I actually argued counter to my professor because I prefer to see challenges to international security (such as water scarcity) as opportunities for cooperation and peace rather than inevitable war. So we’ll see how that gets graded.

On Sunday I took a break from homework to go to the mountains with my host mom. We went up into the Jura Mountains which are close to the French-Swiss border northeast of Geneva. The plan was to ride the cabines up to the top of the mountain where my host family goes skiing, but because of the stupid Russian wind the lifts were closed. So we drove through the mountains for a long time and it was gorgeous. I don’t have many photos because I was trying to make like John Mayer and stop trying to fit the world inside a picture frame.

We ended our mountain/road trip adventure with fondue. It was so good but my host mom said I am the first student they’ve had who loved fondue. It’s melted cheese that you eat with bread - how could it not be delicious?

Tip: always drink hot tea or white wine with fondue and other cheese dishes
to avoid having the cheese congeal in your stomach 

The most interesting thing we did this week was go to briefings at the United Nations. We heard from representatives from UN High Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, World Food Programme, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and UN Institute for Disarmament Research. The latter was a little boring, but the rest were so cool. I think we all left the UN very excited about the paths down which we are going.

Good news: I think we have finally seen the end of la bise and the below freezing temperatures! (I hope I don’t jinx it.) Today it was sunny and beautiful and I could finally wear my new TOMS and we’d turned in our essays and everything felt amazing. I cannot wait for spring.

view from school terrace

view from home terrace

This week I also got to skype with a lot of people back home; thanks for filing me with so much love and providing much needed study breaks! I can’t believe I’ve been in Switzerland for exactly a month. I’ve been cold, I’ve been full, I’ve been fascinated, I’ve been challenged, and I am happy. x

P.S. We’re going to Brussels and Paris for the next week...as a field trip. I know, I don’t think I can go back to normal school either.

Spa day

On Saturday, six friends and I took a train ride into the mountains to go to a hot springs, like you do. For CHF 22 we had three hours of access to the hot pools and to the spa facilities - it was pure luxury. I knew it was going to be amazing when we got off the train and this was our view:

I don’t have any photos of the facilities, but here are some of the outside pools courtesy of my friend Chris’ facebook (hey thanks).

In addition to the heated outside pools, there was a pool that played classical music underwater, a sauna series, a Turkish Bath, some light therapy rooms, and a repos room with a wood burning fire. Seriously, I’d never been to anything like it, and we plan on going back after we finish our major research paper. (Although I’m writing my paper on water scarcity, and if I already felt guilty about my water usage I don’t know how I’ll feel after four months of research.)

During the week, I generally spend my time indoors because Switzerland is incredibly cold right now. Yesterday morning my computer said it was 12 degrees F and that doesn’t include the windchill. The cold would be manageable (wear long underwear or two pairs of tights, wool socks) except that the wind will literally knock your socks off. I think it blew one of my favorite earrings out of my ear yesterday. No joke. I’ve braved the cold twice in the past few days and while I couldn’t feel my hands for quite a while afterwards, I got to see some very beautiful Swiss sights.

This is the old city of Geneva, Lake Geneva, and the mountains as seen from the bell tower of St. Peter’s Cathedral.

A beautiful chapel inside the cathedral

This is a phenomenon known as la bise noire. When the Geneva area gets super strong winds they blow the waves of Lake Geneva up onto the shore more than usual. These waves freeze almost immediately when they hit the freezing air, and so you get trees and benches and boats and even cars that are covered in a thick layer of ice. It is so unreal.

The best place to see it is in Versoix, a neighboring town of Mies, but because the wind is so strong by the water my friend and I could only stay for two minutes, maximum. People who were walking on the ice were being propelled along by the wind. I have literally never been colder. I guess that’s part of the Switzerland experience. x

Olympics-obsessed in Lausanne

Most of you know that I am obsessed with the Olympics. I nearly wrote my senior Honors College thesis on them, that’s how much they fascinate me. It’s not even funny anymore. (I’ve had the London 2012 event schedule saved to my computer for over a year. #fanaticstatus) Needless to say my weekend trip to Lausanne, Switerland, the capitale olympique, was pretty awesome.

All 28 American students went to Lausanne on Friday afternoon to get our fingerprints and photographs taken so that we could officially declare our residence in Switzerland. Then we went to the Olympics Museum because it closed for two years of renovations this Monday aka two days after we were in Lausanne. After round one at the museum, everyone else went home while four friends and I checked into our hostel and set about climbing the mountain that is Lausanne for dinner.

Dinner was basically cheese. One fondue, one baked ravioli dish, and three of us got croûtes which are bread with ham (usually) covered in cheese and broiled. Genius.

Saturday is market day in Lausanne and so we hiked into the old city to walk around the streets of fruit and veg stalls. My new favorite way to eat breakfast is to have a shared loaf of bread in one hand and fresh, crisp, incredibly delicious apples in the other.

literally hiking around

Afterward we went up tons of steps to the top of Lausanne where the cathedral and palace are. The cathedral is Switzerland’s longest at more than 300 feet long (fact courtesy of Rick Steves). It’s beautiful but rather plain because John Calvin destroyed nearly all religious symbols in the church. You can still see traces of the original paint but only one of the stained glass windows dates back to the 13th century.

On Saturdays there is also market up near the palace that is part flea market and part cheese/meat market. Anna and I had some leftover bread and fruit from breakfast so we bought some goat cheese and pastries to fill it out and we all took the tube down to the lakefront park to eat a tasty but freezing lunch.

And then we went to the Olympics Museum for round two.

(clockwise) Usain Bolt's 200m kit (2008), Jesse Owen's shoe (1936),
Michael Phelp's swimsuit (2004), Carl Lewis' shoe (1992)

We finished our time in Lausanne with a quick visit to a rather modern/avant-garde photography museum before catching the train home in time for dinner. Lausanne is a very short train ride from the Geneva area and I am sure we will go back again.

PS This morning I woke up to a winter wonderland! x

Week One in Switz

I made it to Switzerland! I got here a little over a week ago and, after living in a Geneva hostel for the first few days of orientation, moved into my host family's house on Saturday. I know that I am behind on my blog and so thanks to the not-so-subtle hints of my little sister, here is a quick update.

I was late in arriving to Geneva so I missed out on the tour of the vieille ville (old town) which is a major bummer because it is supposedly beautiful over there. In the area where our school building is, right near the main train station, it is very busy and crowded; not the beautiful Swiss city I expected to see. But I have found some spots of beauty including this plaza on the lake where we ate lunch the other day, and expect to find many, many more.

the famous jet d'eau

The real beauty of Switzerland comes through in the countryside. We all have homestays in a general area surrounding the village of Nyon, in the Geneva suburbs. I live in a tiny village called Mies (“me”) which is right on Lac Léman. I have to ride the train into Geneva for a paltry 20 minutes - such a short commute! I live with a family of four: a mom, a dad, a 13 year old champion fencer, and an 11 year old tennis player who has worn the same sweatshirt every day since I moved in. They are a darling family! I wish I could get to know them better but they are busy and I am busy and the language barrier is a lot more present than I was expecting.

these photos are from our neighboring, adorable town of Coppet

Speaking of French, we have three hours of French class, three days a week. You know how I talk fast in English? Imagine that in French, combined with a blunt personality, and some students who really only understand 60% of what she says (aka me) and you have my French teacher. It’s rough but I can already feel myself getting a little more comfortable with the language.

Academically, this term is going to be the polar opposite of London. We’ll have visiting lecturers on various aspects of international relations and will also go to briefings and conferences. We have three or four assignments including the major ISP (independent study project) which is not too bad except that every singe assignment includes five face-to-face interviews at a minimum. I’m sorry, what? I’m an introvert; it was hard enough for me to decide to spend a year abroad. So if anyone has some tips they’d like to share, please do!

My classmates are all very nice and it’s a great mix of people to spend four months with. I am the only one from Oregon but not, as I worried, the only West Coaster or even the only public school kid. I’ve already made some really good friends (there’s another pastor’s daughter! Tara in London and now Anna in Geneva...PKs are everywhere) and am traveling with some of them to Lausanne this weekend for a quick stay. The Olympics museum is closing for renovations on Monday so we are going to see it while we still can. As of today there are exactly six months to the Olympics! I’m so freakin excited.

Finally, before I end this “quick” update, let me tell you about the United Nations. It is so cool.

The end.

The chair is missing a leg, to symbolize the UN's work against land mines

We have library passes which allow us access not only to the books, journals, treaties, and full catalog of the UN but also to their cafeteria, ATM, and post office. We’re guessing about that last one, but one of the (two) guys on the program is a UN intern so we walk around with him to look more official. These library badges are pretty legit on their own though. Yesterday, after doing some research at the Red Cross library, my study group ate lunch at the UN and then walked down the row of flags in front of the Palace of Nations - my favorite way to exit the UN - pretending to be the future Ban Ki Moons of the world. Geneva is not like I imagined, but I’m loving it anyway! x