Category: 2019

Remember how I said we were well-equipped to host a little party in our little establishment? Today turned that wish into reality, in a way that turned my day from regular to extremely joyous. Friends, and their friends came with us after work to Cessy, and we spent the evening eating cookies, drinking juice, and singing songs in the garden as the sun set. It’s honestly as filmy as it sounds, and there are photos of my friends to back it up. I’ve never felt so quickly at ease with people the way I’ve gotten to being myself with these folk. I’m not sure why that is, especially given how much I enjoy being who I am – I guess it’s just something I’m a little conscious about with people for a while before I unleash some truly terrible jokes onto people.

But I quite like these folk.

I also cooked channa masala for dinner, which turned out pretty great. I guess cooking is one of those things that you can get comfortable with really quickly if you want to. It just takes some amount of effort after you have a long day. Showering really helps you feel fresh enough to take on the challenge though. And crying out your fears about bad food while cutting onions and pretending that it’s the onions that are making you cry is also a good past-time, I do believe.

Nonetheless, the food was delicious, we watched more FRIENDS episodes, and I’m a happy camper who has now spent more than 10 days in Europe.

I have done more grocery shopping. Which means there is a new vegetable apart from carrot and potato which will enter my system. I also found some really delicious cookies, at a very delicious price-point, and had a hilarious encounter with using my debit card in Europe. On the whole though, I think we’re well-equipped enough to host a few parties in our little household.

Which is quite nifty.

The start of week two has marked no adventures, which I’m comfortable with.

Mondays start only in the afternoons for us here, by which I mean that the actual Session only begins at 3pm. That doesn’t mean we get to go in late or anything, it just means that your ability to concentrate needs to kick up a gear only in the afternoon. I’d be okay with that, to be honest, given that it means a lesser amount of concentration time in general, except for the fact that it’s after lunch, which makes it a lot less fun and a lot tougher to manage.

My seniors from GNLU, who now study at the University of Oxford are in town for a moot court competition this week. That means Geneva will feel a lot like home for a while, which is a feeling I am more than happy to hold onto. It’s weird, but residential campuses burn people’s faces, routines, and wardrobes into your memory far more than anything else. Seeing these people in a different setting brings all those memories flooding back. I also get to meet new people – given that they’re obviously with other Oxford students. If that isn’t fun, I don’t know what is.

I’m just hoping to get some freebies out of the competition that they’re participating in. It’s one of the several things having seniors is good for.

After all of yesterday’s adventures, I think I really wanted a chill day at home. I got one. My flatmate (if you were to call my living space a flat) and I spent the day cooking and cleaning up, doing laundry, and generally just relaxing. What I really like about our friendship and our living situation is that we’re trying to give each other as much privacy as possible – through small acts like wearing earphones and chilling, or taking calls outside, just to ensure that we aren’t intrusive. This isn’t to say that we don’t talk – we’re doing that a lot more than we’ve probably spoken in the last four years of college. But honestly, it’s been so easy, I like that.

We made pasta, and she whipped up a really nice Oreo cheesecake which we devoured while watching FRIENDS. Both of us did have work due at the end of the evening, which we managed, just about. It was a late night only – by regular standards, but a regular night by our standards.

I feel ready for the week ahead. I’m really looking forward to going to Lyon at the end of the week, which should be a ton of fun, given that my family friends will be joining me there.

I did some research last night and found out there was a super famous jazz festival happening in Montreux: the Montreux Jazz Festival. So go there I did.

It’s been a really fun day.

My idea of traveling has sometimes been at odds with my family’s agendas of travels. While I’ve always come out feeling happy – their tours and travels have been meticulously planned and very, very fun, they’ve always been planned. I’ve always longed for some spontaneity, if nothing else, but to learn about where my spontaneity will take me, and what sort of decisions it’ll lead me to. Maybe it’s why I’ve always romanticized solo bagpacking trips, or traveling with smaller crowds and figuring stuff out as I go along. However, I don’t think that’s the life for me either. I think I’m a plan ahead broadly, and figure out minor specifics based on the mood (if need be) kinda person. Going alone today to Montreux, Lausanne and Nyon, gave me exactly that. I managed Nyon only because I just felt like going there after I heard the station being called out – and nothing else.

The Jazz Festival reminded me why I loved jazz, and why I wanted to learn how to play jazz music on the piano so badly.

These cities were all on the lakeside, all built on a slope. So many different perspectives were seen today.

I’m exhausted. But the travel, it was worth it. I want to make these kinds of things a part of my regular life too. I hope the next year allows me to learn how to do that.

How absolutely ridiculous is it that a whole week has passed already.

The sun sets on Cessy only around 9:30pm every evening. Although it’s super bright outside when I return from work around 7pm, I’m usually spent and I end up pretty much crashing after cooking/eating dinner and checking my e-mails/catching up on work. I guess it’s because I’m still slowly settling in, but I’ve found it difficult to do any of the personal work I had set aside for when I got to Europe. I do think that’ll get better next week. Or I’ll have to get up a little earlier to finish off work. Being at home, I had got into a very comfortable routine to get my stuff done. The change in location has made things a little tougher, I have to admit. That’s also likely because I’m doing work-work and personal-work. At home I just slept.

Today, work ended early, so I decided to use the opportunity to roam around old Geneva. The water here is actually aquamarine, which I find ridiculous. I wish I could paint what I saw, but all I can do is take photos – and I’m not fully willing to put up photos of mine on this blog just as yet. Maybe next year. I also finally visited the Allee des Nations, and the Broken Chair, and took my first trip in the tram.

Some real firsts were accomplished today.

My dad has thought of the most thoughtful thing for my time in Switzerland so I’m really hoping to execute what he’s thought of before I leave.

It’s the weekend too. What a delight.

Being here is pretty amazing.

Today I got to listen to the President of the International Court of Justice deliver a speech about the ICJ and it’s relationship with the Committee I’m working in. After which I got to meet him and take a photo with him. And the meeting wasn’t a hi-hello meeting. It was a proper conversation.

Sometimes I feel the need to pinch myself.

Also, I’ve found a show to get hooked onto – so this month is going to be really fun now.

Food is expensive here. I’m surprised at that, but I think maybe it’s not too expensive given the earning capacity here? Maybe I’ll only be able to tell if I ever earn in Euros or Swiss Francs.

Today, we had the opportunity to listen to someone cool in committee. I also began my agenda of networking with people and took the initiative to meet someone I fanboy hard about. These people are so normal, it’s amazing.

Today, work was fun.

What was more fun was the evening after work though. I got the chance to spend some time with my friends’ parents, whom I’ve not properly spent time with or interacted with – although we’re from the same city and I’ve had numerous invitations prior. I had a really, really fun evening, and I got to eat my first ice-cream of the European summer.

We also did grocery shopping, because in addition to what’s available closeby, I didn’t really pick up much else – and we’ve slowly started to settle in. That’s something that I’ve been quite pleasantly surprised by. This is my first time rooming with her, and we’ve gotten so comfortable with each others’ schedules and routines – and spaces. We’re able to give each other ample space to get things done, which I am very happy with.

Work is obviously a lot of fun. This internship is something I’ve been keen on doing since I heard about it in the first year of law school, and it’s a role I sort of want to think about pursuing in the long run. The opportunity to evaluate that possibility from up-close, without shouldering the burden of being the main person in charge is something I cherish today.

I’m actually at the United Nations. Holy moly.

See, I’m going to get over this feeling in a day. I know it. I’m not going to have a first day at the United Nations internship again. But that feeling of wow, this is where I’ve wanted to be since I was in Grade 9? That’s literally all I can think about.

I had to stand in a massive security-accreditation line to get my ID Card – something I’m hoping I don’t have to go through every day. That was something I was impressed by too, though. This place is literally so crazy that people might need to go through security every single day.

Anyway, I hung out at the library, got myself familiarized with the entire space, met the person under whom I’m working, sat through a session with an earpiece because translations might be needed. And met the people I’ll be working with for the next month.

Honestly, it sounds super duper drab. But I’ll contextualize this for you so you might get a sense of how I’m feeling.

You see, after I relocated to India from Dubai, I was a very whatever person. I got bullied a lot, I was smaller than most kids height-wise, but chubbier than them width-wise. I didn’t really have a great, fixed friends circle. I was a nerd. I enjoyed academic activities more than anything else. I liked reading, writing, and public speaking – all activities the social circles in school had placed at the bottom of the food chain. In Grade 9 though, these activities and skillsets appeared to come together when I was introduced to Model United Nations. My school wasn’t an old city school. We were one of those new breed, international schools.In Bangalore, this makes a massive difference to your interaction with the entire city – because the school you go to is an indicator of so much. (apparently).

So we didn’t really have anyone who was established in this whole Model United Nations business. I remember we had a teacher from another school come and take sessions for us on what the activity was and prepare us for what we ought to be doing and what we ought to avoid. My seniors at school were good – so they set up a conference to train us. But once they left, there was this void that rendered my batchmate and I the seniormost MUNners at school. Today, when we look back, people talk about how overrated MUNning was, and how thinking of MUNners as cool people was a false notion – because it merely tested your confidence in your speaking skills, rather than much else. But that’s what the circuit became. Being a MUNner was a lot of work. For our school, it meant we got developing countries which were not instantly in winnable positions – because of how global history has shaped today’s global order, and how the interschool MUN circuit was based on power rankings. We were also really bad and lost consistently. But I remember being so enamoured with the United Nations as an organization when I was younger. To think that I’m here now, and I have the opportunity to work with the organization?

I’m lucky.

My days of adventure have officially begun. I don’t mind counting yesterday, to be honest – because my only goal for this trip is to make the most of every single day I am given on this continent. I’m here for five weeks, but on the calendar it looks like a month. It’s super intriguing, but I’ll take all the time I’ve got.

This morning my AirBNB host told me that the stores shut at 12:30 on Sundays. I quickly had breakfast (yes, I’ll be cooking all my meals here, so I can eat pretty much only the things I have the capacity to make), and borrowed her cycle so I could go to the close by supermarket – the one away from our town, on the highway. So I genuinely cycled along the French countryside, on a proper racing-style cycle. Which was the closest I fell to being a Tour De France cyclist – and the closest I ever want to feel. I didn’t speed. My biggest challenge, honestly, was to stay on the correct side of the road. I did a pretty okay job of things, and got the shopping done.

I spent the rest of the day cooking lunch: I made dal!, and waiting for my friend to arrive. We unpacked, and to our contentment, we’ve discovered that we have enough space to ensure we don’t have to live out of our suitcase for the next five weeks, as we initially imagined we might have to do. The house is small, area wise, but storage wise, we’re all good. We spoke about routines and everything – which I imagine might be a challenge over the next few weeks, but only time will really tell.

I’m exhausted. Time to recharge for the most exciting first week ever.

So, I’m in France! I’ve made it! Je suis arrivé.

I’ve had the wildest 24 hours, honestly.

SwissAir is really, really good. I landed in Zurich without too much trouble at all. And the food was pretty yum: a nice little cheese quiche, and a pretty good breakfast platter. I had to clear passport control at Zurich itself, since it was my first entry point into Europe. That went through pretty smoothly, and then I had 3 hours to explore Zurich airport. The only big observation I had was how relaxed the Europeans are when they travel. They don’t hang out at the boarding gate an hour before departure. They come when they need to, and leave when they must.

That’s my first impression.

Landing in Geneva was something else entirely. I used my time at the airport to figure out what all free perks I was entitled to the minute I landed – internet, travel, and the like, and then figured out my monthly bus pass. That was my first use of French on this trip – very rusty, but pretty decent (per my assessment). It began raining as I waited for the bus, and I arrived in Cessy to a pretty bad storm.

Soon though, the skies cleared, and I set off to do some exploring and understand my bearings.

A little bit of background for all the readers of this blog. I’n doing an internship in Geneva, and I’m staying with one of my college friends in Cessy, a quaint little town in France. It’s right across the border, a 40 minute commute one-way, and it’s got a direct bus. More than much else, what attracted us to this lifestyle was that it was literally half the cost, accommodation-wise atleast. I shall now resume my narration of the day.

Cessy is ridiculously pretty. It’s the stereotypical French countryside town. There are fields, lots of agricultural property, cute, cozy villas and cottages, and a view of the mountains. The roads are narrow, and steep in some parts. There’s only one supermarket, one tabac, one boulangerie, one pharmacy in the town. The rest is a walk away, or a cycle ride away. There’s a separate cycling lane. Everyone in the town seems to know each other, and everyone is friendly.

I took two trips walking around town today. The first was to see what all I had access to and what timings were like. I got home, researched on things I needed: SIM card and the like, and then took a second trip to actually complete transactions I needed to complete. The first time I went, I was a little hesitant to speak French. I’m not sure why, but I felt a little bit of fear come over me. I think it’s because the only context in which I’ve spoken French fluently before is the examination context. I was horrible at speaking exams. I knew all the words, and I knew my answers, but something would come over me and I’d get nervous and whatnot. My French teacher, who is one of the kindest people I know, used to do all sorts of things to calm me down. I had pep talks, and anti-pep talks. I had the promise of rewards, high-fives after exams, and even comedy about how my exams had gone. It was nuts. But the second time I went around town, to actually buy stuff, I put to use what I knew. That was a proud feeling.

I can’t believe I’m getting a month of this. After studying French for what, 14 years almost. I still remember how I picked up the language. In Grade 1, we got a circular attached to our diary, which required our parents to tick a box next to the language we wished to learn. I asked a friend in class and I ticked French, getting the circular home for my parents to sign. They were a little shocked because they assumed I’d learn Hindi, but I went the other way and put up a bit of a fight to ensure they didn’t take the language away from me.

It’s given me some of my happiest, warmest memories in school. To be able to take those and apply them in the real world is something I’m privileged to have the opportunity to do when I’m still fairly young. Maybe one day I’ll have native level fluency.

For now, I’m happy with my pain au chocolat.