Salut du Geneve
Dont worry that is as far as I will be going with the French. Starting from where I left off last night I did not end up going down town to the bar where they were having an electric strawberry event and instead slept for 12 hours beginning at 10:30. I now feel somewhat more awake.
My First Day in Geneva
I arrived in Geneva at about 9 in the morning local time, not having slept at all on the airplane, and came straight to the hotel to see if they had a room available for me. Initially I was told that I would have to wait until 2 but they somehow changed their minds within about 5 mnutes so I was able to go up and slept in a rather comfortable bed for 2.5 hours. Upon waking up I called my mom upon having some technical difficulties with my computer and let here know I was still alive. I then decided to venture out for some lunch and sight seeing.
My first stop was at a shopping mall called Blaxert where I picked up a crepe for lunch. The crepe would have been good had the tomatoes on it not been from a can but you win some you lose some. Next I went on a mission to find a plug to make mzy computer compatible with the electrical system here. I had bought a universal adapter in Mississauga but discovered upon mz arrival that it was only compatible with appliances that used 2 prongs rather than the 3 my computer had. So I went to the 3 eletronic stores which were in the mall and fumbled my way through explaining in French what exactly it was that I needed. At the last store I went into, the man helping me must have been psychic because he did not find me the universal converter I was searching for but instead a plug which was compatible with my computer so I no longer need the adapter at all, and the best part was the cord was a lot cheaper than the adapter.
I then decided to purchase a cell phone so I went to a number of stores looking for a quadriband pay as you go phone without a locked sim card which also proved challengin. In any case I wound up back at the store where I bought the cord for my computer and was explained to by the sales girl in french, who tried to get me to speak to someone who spoke english but I insisted I try it in French, that the cellphone I wanted was onlz available at a lower price with a different company, and while I didn´t understand why this was a problem I went and looked somewhere else. Deciding that the cheaper phone was the best option I returned to the original store where the attendant insisted I speak to someone in English who told me the same thing the girl did, but also that the sim card was locked for 24 months under the cheaper plan, so I asked for the more expensive one and he said this to the girl who had been helping me who then explained that they did not have any of the more expensive version at which point the male attendant started giving the female one a hard time and pointing at a phone and asking "and do we have this one?" and when she would say no he would rip the price off the wall. It was quite humorous. In any case I went and bought the same phone from another store. The phone has a 1.3 mega pixel camera and an fm radio. Ive never had a cell phone with these capabilities before.
I then tried Swiss icecream (which is so excellent by the way that I may never eat icecream ever again anywhere else) and went on my way. At this point I decided to walk around a little and so I walked and walked and walked until eventuallz I found myself along a riverbed and then in a large sports park. I thought I was walking toward lake Geneva but when I eventually hit country side and had been walking for about 3 hours I decided to turn back. It took me another 45 minutes to find myself in an area which remotely resembled the part of Geneva I had started in and then I tried to find a place for dinner. Well that was a complete disaster as first I found myself in a residential area with no restaurants which took me a half hour to get out of and then the first 3 restaurants I tried to eat at said they only served food at lunch time. I dont know what that whole business is about but I didnt like it.
I eventually settled on a thai place where the server, who may also have been the owner seemed to be angry with me for not having purchased a drink with my meal. oh well. I then returned to the hotel where I discovered internet costs 9 CHF an hour or 24 CHF for 24 hours (irritating!) and went to sleep.
Day 2
Day two was somewhat less eventful. I woke up early and payed my first of two visits to the small arms survey. The lady who I met with was very helpful at answering my questions and showed me to their resource room where I spent an additional hour and a half. I then got lunch and proceeded to buy 90 CHF (aka dollars) worth of chocolate which I promptly mailed back to Canada. So please, if you receive some chocolate as a gift when I get back, consider yourself well liked.
By the time I got in last night jet lag had thoroughly set in and so I didnt do much beyond having a rediculously expensive salad at the hotel restaurant. (for a mid priced hotel they are very snobby here) I then slept for 12 hours and here I am now.
Todayand Tomorrow
Today is a holiday and everything is supposedly closed which I plan to investigate in a little while. Tomorrow I am taking a train to visit Lukas in Germany
Speaking French All Day Long
Although I have taken to speaking french here quite easily Im finding that I dont always have the words to express myself (although I bought I French English dictionary yesterday too help in the matter). I imagine what the greatest problem is is that everytime Im unsure of a word or grammar I end up mumbling it into my sleeve so the person Im talking to cant actually hear me. The strange thing is that after 2.5 days of doing this Im beginning to find it more difficult to speak in English.
Anyway thats all for now. I dont imagine I will be blogging much in Germany so expect an update sometime Monday.
Cheers!
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