The "Study" Part of "Study Abroad"

So I've officially survived my first week of "class!"

Well, I put class in quotations because we only had two days of actual sitting-in-a-desk-in-front-of-a-teacher classes. The rest has been spent taking tours of the UN Palais des Nations, attending international conferences, and wandering through the cities along Lake Geneva (or as they call it here, Lac Léman). So basically, I'm living the dream.

Prepare yourselves for a fairly long post, because I have a lot to catch you up on, hypothetical blog reader (aka Mom).

Monday and Tuesday followed a pretty typical classroom schedule. I took the little red train from my village in the mountains, Arzier, down to the small city of Nyon at precisely 8:12am - Swiss transportation is very punctual, as you might guess.

In the morning we have a 2-3 hour lecture, and every time it's a different speaker on a different topic. On Monday our program director, Dr. Viladent, gave an introductory lecture on public health and on Tuesday a psychologist who works with refugees spoke to us about Migration and Mental Health - much more up my alley. We have readings to do before class and occasionally there will be pop quizzes, but so far not too much to report. Our main homework is an essay response we have to write each week on that week's lecture theme.

After a leisurely two hour lunch break (I love European dining culture), we report back to the classrooms in Nyon for three hours of intensive French. It's a long stretch of class, but we only have French on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays for the first 5 weeks of the program (pretty short, when you think about it). I wound up in the highest level French class after last week's placement test and it's pretty nice. Instead of drilling grammar into our skulls, we have real discussions on issues like climate change - only in French. Plus, classes are pretty small; mine has only four other girls.

Aside from those first two days of classes though, I've basically been gallivanting around the region. On Wednesday, the whole program took a train out to Lausanne, another city along Lake Geneva, to get fingerprinted by the Swiss government and wrap up the visa process. But once we'd finished with the bureaucratic stuff in the morning, we were free to wander!

We toured the beautiful Cathedral of Notre Dame in Lausanne and climbed the tiny, treacherous stairs to the top. But it was worth it for the amazing view of the city. Plus we heard the cathedral bells go off at noon - right next to us - while we were up there!

Sorry for the explosion of pictures, but it was just so pretty!

Anyways, Lausanne was an amazing city. It's where the "young people" go, as opposed to Geneva which is more for international organizations and businesses. My classmates and I found a great tapas place with fantastic sangria for lunch and then meandered down to the waterfront on Lake Geneva to eat crepes. Unfortunately Lausanne's Olympics Museum was closed for renovations, but who knew Lausanne was the headquarters for the International Olympic Committee anyways? All in all, it was a great day. 

Thursday was UN day! And I geek-ed out hardcore. We took the bus into Geneva and spent an hour going through security, getting official clearance cards, and sorting things out at the Palais des Nations. But once all that was over, the impact of really being inside the UN hit. We took a guided tour through the building and it was amazing. They had so many more art exhibits, historical displays, and other attractions than I had ever imagined. And seeing the actual Assembly Hall was incredible. 

My official access card - I get to use the UN's library all semester long!

Exterior of the UN

That ceiling is even more beautiful in person

UN Assembly Hall

Then on Friday, the last day of the "school week," we attended the Webster 18th International Humanitarian Conference on Access to Health Care in Geneva. It was interesting for a while, especially when they talked about health care for refugees at the beginning. But after 5 hours, it started to get a little dull. By the time we got to the topic of access to water, I was fading. Thank goodness for free coffee and croissants - that stuff can save lives.

At least the conference was in a cool, official looking, UN hall

Anyways, this post is already absurdly long, so I'll stop here. I'll post more about my weekend escapades later on - hint, they involve excessive amounts of chocolate. À plus tard!