Geneva
VISIT Chapel of the Macabees
christina
Visiting Geneva was like stepping into a time machine for me. As I said before, I studied abroad here when I was in college and got to live with a family on the outskirts of the city in a tiny village called Borex. The program was an international affairs field program put on by SIT and all of our classes were held throughout the city in the various NGO, UN and global organization headquarters that are here. It was a wild experience to be able to see and go into these places at such a young age and helped shape my understanding of the world and how I wanted to be in it. Years later I went on to continue my studies in this field and started to work in this field. I eventually ended up switching gears about a decade ago and shifted into the private sector. This switch wasn't necessarily something I chose but rather came through at a weird juncture point in my life. It gave me a whole new understanding of how the world of business works - almost like the flip side of the same coin. Now outside of both of these worlds, with no real attachments to either, I am here again at this junction point and at this place that represents that junction point given it's prominence as an international city of both business and international affairs. It's interesting to be here, now, with this perspective, and with this processing that I'm doing. Who was I when I was a young idealist and living here? Who am I now? Who am I becoming ultimately? I hope to never stop asking myself these questions as I know they hold the key to unending curiosity and fundamentally joy in this life. It's an exciting thing to be here again, but it's definitely funny to remember certain things about being 21 and how much life is different (yet the same!) at 38.
julio
We came to Geneva to visit family and found it a highly functional, modern and advanced European city. Although I felt it lacked the city character that seemed to prevail in Interlaken, the raclette, fondue and Fillet de Perche really made an impact. Geneva is a banking stronghold and home to countless government organizations and UN related groups. It is an elevated international city catering to the many groups of people from around the world that work there on behalf of their home countries. We enjoyed the nearby towns of Lausanne and Annecy with family, visited the Olympic museum(which was really cool), went to a sterling Swiss hospital for a nominal fee, and dined on fine French cuisine.
Christina with fab cousin Georgette
Christina with the ever distinguished cousin Gary