Secondary

I've never truly considered moving out of the US, but having stayed in Geneva for two weeks (though I must admit - had I been there for the G8 riots I MIGHT not be saying this) I could REALLY see myself moving to Switzerland. The city was GOREGOUS - imagine (if you can) NYC - but! spotlessly clean, no-one living under the poverty level, polite, and a disgusting low crime rate. Toss a lovely lake in the middle of the city and surround it by historail buildings, and voila! You've got a good idea of the general atmosphere of Ge.
The flights over were good - we tried to get an upgrade, but the dlight was overbooked, so we settled into coach. Luckily, both me and my coworker are short, so that didn't bother us too much - but the FOOD!! This is my first time taking a really long trip in any level other than first or business, and now I TRULY understand the comments I've always heard about airplane food. *gag*.
After getting settled in, the four of us who were on that flight met some of our other coworkers in the lobby and went out to dinner. Three of them became my hanging buddies - sadly enough I have to wonder if it was because we were the only young people of color there. Eh - there was Luis, Phil, Erika & me. We managed to close down the bat almost EVERY night that we were there - except the first Saturday night (we were busy doing other things) and in general had a really good time. *laugh* I think that I may have made some work/outside work accquaintences - I got the most EXCELLENT compliment of being referred to as a biatch the last night I was there, and that's REALLY saying a lot.
I truly enjoyed 8 out of the 9 days of work that I had there. I think I did more learning and gained a greater understanding of what the hell we are doing in those two weeks than I have in the past 2 YEARS. It's a shame that more people can't go to the AA's... they would learn so much. I like the Swiss work day as well - they come in between 8:30 and 9, take an hour lunch, and leave at 5 - like logical, normal people do when they work for a company that really respects the work/life balance. Our days tended to be longer than their's - we tried to be there by 8, and usually didn't leave until 6:30 - 7pm.
The evenings TOTALLY made up for the long days though. Ge. is about a spit over a hill away from France, and so the food is VERY french. However - the city is SO very cosmopolitian, I saw almost every ethinicity of food represented there was, and had some of the BEST Thai food ever the second week there.
As I was there, I realized something rather interesting - I'm a REALLY social person. I LIKE being out with people, talking, flirting, connecting & all that with new people. It's - FUN. But I still haven't figured out how to generate that same kind of energy without HAVING to be forced together....
The first week, while I wasn't taking notes or listening intensely, I was looking for things to do in the city. I kinew that I would be ableto take Wednesday 'off', and I figured that I should go out and see a little of the city on my own. I figured that I would be out WITH people for mostof the weekend, and I knew there were some places that I wanted to go that they might not have been interested in. I decided to got to the Plain Palais flea market, the Patak Phillpe museum and a Gallery of Contemporary Photography.
The day, I geared myself up, armed with dirctions, adresses, bus schedules, and a little Berlitz book on Switzerland I found in the Indy airport. I LOVE riding public transportation - and love it even more since I know how driving is! I was able to shameslessly gawk or simply withdraw into myself. It's a very nice abdication of responsibility. I made it to all three places - I'm such a touchy feely kinda girl! I was rubbing my hands over EVERYTHING in that flea market - I loved being able (and almost EXPECTED) to handle all the goods. It took me about 3 hours to get through the whole place, but all I left with was a small bag, two saris, 3 pearl bracelets, and a french-english dictionary. About 90% of the people I met spoke passable english - but I thought it would be a useful thing.
The Patek Phillpe museum was STUNNING. The top two floors of the museum were all historical watches - and MAN! If I could find watches like that NOW I would be overjoyed to have a collection. They were all (at least the small ones) more jewelry than watch. And the colors! Oh - the enamel glittered in blues and reds and greens and they wer eaccented by tiny delicate paintings and gold and diamonds. *sigh* SO beautiful. I rushed through the last floor - after seeing THOSE beauties, watch after watch on a plain band were rather dull.
The Gallery was cool - it was a VERY small one with a photographic library upsatirs. They only had two exhibits - one was a series of self portraits - one taken every day ofthe year. The other exhibit was a collection of images of shrines - the impromptu kind that pop up all over the US anywhere someone dies ina car accident or a shooting or something. Both of the exhibits really made me THINK about what I percieve to be art - I really enjoyed both of those exhibits, yet I know that if the idea had come to me to take either of those type of pictures - I would have immeadiately dismissed them as not being artistic enough. After looking at both of those, I went upstairs and browsed in the library - I was deeply regretful that I do not read french, otherwise I would have purchased several of the books there.
It was close to 7 by the time I left there, and I wanted to get back into the hotel in time to catch SOMEONE going out - after all of that time on my own, I was really looking forward to hanging out with people who understand my english. I can't even remember where we went - some resturant (I can only DEFINITELY remember where I went on the first Thursday and the second Wednesday) - and then we closed out the bar AGAIN. What is it about young people in a mixed group, iof you get enough time & alcohol in us we ALWAYS start talking about sex? I refuse to believe that it is just THAT much on our mind! Or maybe it's just ME! *laughs* I truly believe there are some things that you should NEVER know about people you have to work with. But - it was LOADS of fun.

Okay - I'm almost out of characters, and I neeed to go to bed - so I'm going to have to save the outrageous doings of the weekend (during which I lost all my postcards, and tickled a passed-out coworker) for tommorow's writing.