no joke. I'm dead serious.
So. On Friday, the 19th, some friends went into Genève and found this little outdoor weekend concert at the university that was honor of International Peace Day. They loved it and on Saturday morning they told the rest of us how awesome it had been, and that the concert was Saturday night as well. So we all decided to go in that evening.
A group of about 10 of us meet up at five and headed in towards Genève, with another group of about 5 following in about another hour. The first group of us hiked down the hill/mountain to the village of Collonges-sous-Salève and crossed the border to the bus stop, only to find that we had missed the bus by 3 minutes and the next bus, because it was the weekend, wasn't coming for another hour. So we looked at the distance to Carouge (a suburb where we catch the tram) which was about 4-5 Kilometers away, and determined that it would probably take us about 45 minutes to walk there, thus saving us about 20 minutes. So we started walking.
The walk seemed alot longer, but we did end up getting there in 45 minutes. We hopped on the tram and headed to the university. We ended up taking one tram too soon though, and ended up walking a couple blocks to the university. When we got there a group was already up on stage playing some world music, kindof a reggae/blues infused folk... They were pretty chill and we sat and listened to them. After they were done the next band came on. They were the favorite bqnd of the people that had been there the night before and they had ended up meeting them and becoming friends with them, so they came and said hi to us.
We stood up and got up to the front of the stage while more people gathered, but for a while it was mostmy our group that was rocking out to the music. Soon the rest of our group showed up and we danced around to the band - called The Danglers. They have members from Cali, Britain, turkey, and vietnam, and they rocked it. So they finished and our group gets the sound guys to put on some salsa and samba while one of the girls tries to teach everyone to salsa. Four of us left them to go get a bite to eat at the surrounding little food stands. The boys ended up getting tacos, Leah had a candy apple, and I had a chocolate crêpe. is was delicious. Oh and a Fanta.
After we finished our food we headed back to the stage where another group was starting. This group was from Iraq and they were basically a boy band. It was hilarious, and awesome all at the same time. Oh and all of us girls fell in love with the guy who stood in the middle. But yeah they were awesome, and taught us how to dance. By this time the crowd had gotten quite big and everyone was rockin out and dancin to the music, it was really tiring. Once they were done we all went and got our picture with them and then they concert organizers handed out all these balloons, symbolizing peace, and we all let them fly into the air.
Then the last group came on. This group was the group of Emmanuel Fol who was a child soldier in Africa (Sudan) until he was thirteen, and then he was rescued, and now he sings about it and tries to raise awareness. His story was awesome and his music was pretty good. It was kindof a reggae/hip hop thing. We all really liked him, and the crowd by then had gotten huge. Oh and we were still dancing. So he finally finishes and we looked at our watches and realize that it is 11:15.
The last bus from Carouge to the border leaves at 11:32.
We got on the tram and got off in Carouge, only to find out that we had missed the last bus by 2 minutes.
2 minutes.
So we decide that if we're going to have to walk, then we might as well get something to eat firs, because we are all starving.
But nothing was open.
So, at 12:15 we started walking back. All 6-7 kilometers uphill to the campus.
We walked for what seemed forever, but finally got to the border and through Collonges. As we walked up the final part to the campus, we passed a corn field. At this point all of us are starving, because the last real meal we had had been 12 hours before. So we saw that the corn was ripe and the guys decide to pick some, so I did too. I ate one of mine raw, because I was soooo parched, I don't think I've ever been thirstier.
We got to the campus at around 1:15 and decide to go to the guys dorm and have a cornfeed. So we did. THe corn was amazing.
Oh and the biggest part of the story - I was wearing flats... and had been wearin them for 12 hours of which about 10 minutes were spent sitting on the grass, about 20 minutes were spent standing still. The rest of those twelve hours were spent walking, jumping, or dancing...
So I literally could almost not walk. I walked part of the way back barefoot... and my feet still hurt.
I finally crawled in bed about 2:30 and didn't wake up until 11 the next morning.
It was an awesome night.
Oh I was totally going to start posting pictures with these, but I have yet to coordinate that... so we'll see..
Monday, September 22, 2008
Friday, September 12, 2008
VOILA!!
So, I am in France!
I’M IN FRANCE!
I’m pretty excited. About my trip here; Well I took of from Dulles Intl. on Sunday the 7th on a airplane bound for Munich. The flight lasted for 8 hours. I didn’t sleep at all, but that was okay because it wasn’t too boring of a flight. The meal was surprisingly good, and the seats were pretty comfy. The coolest part was the guy sitting next to me though. At first I really didn’t notice him because he was just some middle age businessman sitting next to me, but then he opened his computer. I glanced over a little while later to find that he was working on a presentation for NATO. Well that was pretty cool, but I kinda forgot about it for a while. Anyway he put his computer away (I think for supper) and then he got it back out a while later and turned it on. Only then did I notice that to log in he actually had to scan his finger on this little scanner thingy on the laptop! The top of his screen did say unclassified, but I was still pretty intrigued, because by stealing glances at his screen I learned that he worked for NATO in their health department and he was a Doctor (the MD kind).
So we got to Munich at 5:30 am local time, and unloaded, at which point I had to walk from one end of the terminal to the other end, go through security again, and go down to the lower level. And then I sat. And sat. And sat, for six hours, none of which I slept. I was pretty much alone for quite awhile, but ever hour and a half or so a lot of people would show up, sit down, and then leave 15-20 minutes later. I mad four assumptions during that time. One; they are very clean. Two; they are very quite and organized. Three; they are all businessmen. Four; they apparently become businessmen when they are 15, because about half of the business people I saw were under thirty.
I then got on a plane for Geneva, and the flight only took one hour. It is probably my second favorite flight of all time. The whole time it was pretty clean, and we were flying low enough to see all the little houses in all the little towns! I arrived in Geneva, and the rest was pretty simple (baggage claim and customs… they didn’t care).
We drove up to the campus and unload all of our stuff up three flights of stairs to our rooms. After a little bit of unpacking a group of us went back down into the little town of Collonges-sous-Saleve which is about a 5-10 minute walk away… well downhill at least. It is pretty much one of the steepest hills I’ve seen a road on (going stratight) Anyway Collonges is the cutest, most bucolic town I have ever seen. It is a perfect little French town with it’s old buildings full of shuttered windows with overflowing flower boxes and tiny little stores and bakeries. Il est tres mignon! But the only downside of going into town (be it Collonges or Geneve) is that you have to walk back up the hill of death. It is exhausting and strenuous after a whole day of walking!
The next two days were spent going to meetings, taking entrance placement exams, and registering. The exam was pretty hard, but it went okay. The registration however, took about four hours. The longest part was when we had to fill out an application form for a residency permit and then make sure we had every document we needed for it. Awesome. It was confusing, and almost everone was missing a “correct” document from their bank.
The campus is pretty amazing… gorgeous. It is literally right up against this huge rock face of the Saleve, and all the buildings are really cool, and the grounds are kept up really nicely. The view from our room is stunning. We look directly at the rock face of the Saleve. Oh and my roommate is Leah Robinson, who is from Walla Walla, and whom I share a mutual friend with. She’s pretty awesome.
Well I am going to go nap now, because we have the whole afternoon off and it’s cloudy.
And I’m tired.
I’M IN FRANCE!
I’m pretty excited. About my trip here; Well I took of from Dulles Intl. on Sunday the 7th on a airplane bound for Munich. The flight lasted for 8 hours. I didn’t sleep at all, but that was okay because it wasn’t too boring of a flight. The meal was surprisingly good, and the seats were pretty comfy. The coolest part was the guy sitting next to me though. At first I really didn’t notice him because he was just some middle age businessman sitting next to me, but then he opened his computer. I glanced over a little while later to find that he was working on a presentation for NATO. Well that was pretty cool, but I kinda forgot about it for a while. Anyway he put his computer away (I think for supper) and then he got it back out a while later and turned it on. Only then did I notice that to log in he actually had to scan his finger on this little scanner thingy on the laptop! The top of his screen did say unclassified, but I was still pretty intrigued, because by stealing glances at his screen I learned that he worked for NATO in their health department and he was a Doctor (the MD kind).
So we got to Munich at 5:30 am local time, and unloaded, at which point I had to walk from one end of the terminal to the other end, go through security again, and go down to the lower level. And then I sat. And sat. And sat, for six hours, none of which I slept. I was pretty much alone for quite awhile, but ever hour and a half or so a lot of people would show up, sit down, and then leave 15-20 minutes later. I mad four assumptions during that time. One; they are very clean. Two; they are very quite and organized. Three; they are all businessmen. Four; they apparently become businessmen when they are 15, because about half of the business people I saw were under thirty.
I then got on a plane for Geneva, and the flight only took one hour. It is probably my second favorite flight of all time. The whole time it was pretty clean, and we were flying low enough to see all the little houses in all the little towns! I arrived in Geneva, and the rest was pretty simple (baggage claim and customs… they didn’t care).
We drove up to the campus and unload all of our stuff up three flights of stairs to our rooms. After a little bit of unpacking a group of us went back down into the little town of Collonges-sous-Saleve which is about a 5-10 minute walk away… well downhill at least. It is pretty much one of the steepest hills I’ve seen a road on (going stratight) Anyway Collonges is the cutest, most bucolic town I have ever seen. It is a perfect little French town with it’s old buildings full of shuttered windows with overflowing flower boxes and tiny little stores and bakeries. Il est tres mignon! But the only downside of going into town (be it Collonges or Geneve) is that you have to walk back up the hill of death. It is exhausting and strenuous after a whole day of walking!
The next two days were spent going to meetings, taking entrance placement exams, and registering. The exam was pretty hard, but it went okay. The registration however, took about four hours. The longest part was when we had to fill out an application form for a residency permit and then make sure we had every document we needed for it. Awesome. It was confusing, and almost everone was missing a “correct” document from their bank.
The campus is pretty amazing… gorgeous. It is literally right up against this huge rock face of the Saleve, and all the buildings are really cool, and the grounds are kept up really nicely. The view from our room is stunning. We look directly at the rock face of the Saleve. Oh and my roommate is Leah Robinson, who is from Walla Walla, and whom I share a mutual friend with. She’s pretty awesome.
Well I am going to go nap now, because we have the whole afternoon off and it’s cloudy.
And I’m tired.
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