Overdue and Fondue

Coming abroad has been like some crazy crash course in living. Nearly every day is about dealing with the unexpected with all the excitement and unpleasantness that it entails. I have been hesitant to post recently because I'm not sure what it has all meant. But I think I'm about overdue now



My past weekend, I went hiking around Lac du Bourget with a group called HASH. It's a neat international group that does runs and walks together irreverent of everything but camaraderie. I was invited by Louise, my mentor, and her friend Deidre. True to Geneva form, it was a group of all kinds of characters and nationalities. Unfortunately the walk was a lot more strenuous than planned, and we ended up barely finishing the trail in time. Somewhere along the way I rolled my ankle, and I'm paying for it this week. The views were undisputably spectacular though. The trail followed the curve of the lake and every so often we would hit a clearing right on a cliff overlooking the lake. If it's possible to overdose on pretty scenery, that's what I did. After a while I was like..."Oh here's another nice view. It looks much like the last one."



Sunday I spent a lovely day with my co-worker and friend Nejma, husband Peter and their 4-year old son, Karim (an unending source of entertainment for me). Since my foot was out of action, the family took me on a train to see the alps and mountain animals. Switzerland has got this outdoor thing down pat. They've started building Mongolian-style tents on the top of mountains, so that families can stay the night in them bed & breakfast style. You go up to the top of the mountain and you see pregnant women, 4-month old babies, grandpas...everybody! My favorite thing to see on the green hills was a flock of sheep being kept in by sheepdogs. They were so far away that they looked like a bunch of white beads being repelled by the black magnet sheepdog. It was still hot when we got back down, so we went to cool off by swimming in the lake! There's something exciting about swimming in a big expanse of water...but I get scared after a while and don't swim out too far. ^^



Then it was back to the work week. Patrice, one of the guys from church, invited all the new visitors to experience fondue yesterday evening. After all the hype, I still found fondue really interesting. People say it stinks and you won't like it, but I didn't think it was bad at all. Basically fondue is a pot of melted cheese and Kirsch which you dip your bread in and eat. It's cool how the cheese cools off the minute you pull your bread out of the pot. I'm not big on cheese, and it's not the most healthy meal. But it's essentially bread and cheese; the same concept as pizza, nachos and a lot of sandwiches. Afterwards we had a bunch of fruits for dessert to feel healthy again.

The Day Off

Just thought I'd post about my day off on Swiss National Day.

After a run in the morning, I went to a BBQ held at Simon and Michelle's home across the border in France. They are the leaders of a Young Adult's Group (YAG) at a church I visited last Sunday. Simon bought a big house several years back to use for various ministry functions, and he often hosts events for the YAGs at this lovely home. I got to try out my new swimming suit (bought in Barcelona) at the pool and enjoy BBQ for the first time in Europe. Running a church group in Geneva seems very difficult to me because most people are there for the short term. I asked Michelle how they could be so inviting and generous with people like me who they will likely only see a few more times. She answered that once when she had been new, someone had been inviting and generous with her, and now she gets to be that person. For her, it's a joy getting to know so many people and seeing how God works in their lives.

I can't say enough what an answered prayer it was to be amongst such loving people. Their hospitality and friendship has taught me a lot about reaching out to others. I hope I can mirror even a little of the way they live with the love of God in their hearts.

After the BBQ, we returned to Geneva in the evening. It turns out the BIG fireworks will be in 2 weeks time for the Fete de Genève. However there was a fireworks show in the Park des Bastions for the national holiday. I went with some of the dormitory girls, and we ooh'ed and ahh'ed over the explosions set to music from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Mary Poppins and the Sound of Music. It was very Disney-esque. I went home happy and sentimental. =)

Favorite Movie Experience of All Time

At left is a picture of Port Noir on Lake Geneva. It is the beautiful site of the open air cinema that happens every evening in summer. Here Orange Cinema of Switzerland shows the summer blockbusters out on a big screen right on the lake.

I went for the first time yesterday, and OH MAN it was amazing! I was just in love with the whole experience. You can watch the sunset over the lake before the movie starts, and while the movie plays, the city lights twinkle on the lake and the jet d'eau is a bright fountain in the background.

Half the movies shown at Orange Cinema are in English and the other half are in French, so you don't have many choices. Ratatouille and a bunch of other blockbusters were being shown in French. Ocean's thirteen was playing yesterday in English, and I went to watch with the Young Adults Group at a church I visited recently. It was great fun, and I really appreciated such a nice diversion for the evening.

The ticket prices are a bit steep, but you get a bunch of goodies by the promoting companies. You also get a bright yellow poncho in case it rains. (They'd rather give you the poncho than cancel the movie.) This may come in handy for me if I go visit the waterfalls in Lauterbrunnen. =) score!

It's such a romantic experience. Europe seems to be chock full of romantic experiences. Especially in the touristy cities you see a lot of people in the act of gratuitous displays of public affection. Sometimes you want to gag, and sometimes it's just part of the city's charm.

I heard about open air movies in SF, and I wonder if they'll be any fun. One more thing to add to the to-do list when I get back!

Substitution for July 4th

Next year I expect to have a 4th of July in the states! But for the fireworks that I missed this year...there is August 1st in Switzerland.

Today is Swiss National Day celebrating the federal charter of 1921. What it means for me is that there is no work today and fireworks in the evening. It also marks the start of the Geneva festival. There's a fair set up along the lake and there will be cool events and concerts happening every day. All nice diversions for the next two weeks.

Last Sunday I attended an english-speaking church in Geneva. It was so refreshing to worship God in the fellowship of believers. There's a group of young adults from the church doing a barbeque today, so I'm grateful for not being left a loner on such a holiday.

The Swiss Kiss

3 if your Swiss
(I think it's 2 for the French and Italians.)

This week I learned about the European custom of kissing when you greet each other. I have breakfast with girls from Spain, France and Italy in my dorm. We were talking about how even between European countries, customs of greeting can be so different. Sego, a lovely and outgoing French girl had to work with this German boy for a project. She greeted him with the cheek pecks to be polite and he totally froze up and thought she was weird. I think she was put off by his cultural insensitivity. Haha...so I decided to try it out and "europeanize" myself. It was a little awkward at first, but it's a fun.

It's kind of amazing to realize what an international environment I am in. Geneva definitely attracts an international community because of organizations like the UN, WHO, WTO, ITC, ILO and many others. My dormitory alone houses girls from 43 different countries! This week my WHO Ageing group held a 3-day meeting with people from Japan, Jamaica, Turkey, the UK, Singapore and more. My overwhelming impression is that we are not all that different no matter where we come from. Although it's nice to see a fellow American (and there are many of us). The only challenge is the language barrier you run into sometimes. It's definitely a great investment when countries teach their students foreign language. I am able to talk to so many people because they took the time to learn english. Makes me wish I was able to speak to others in their language.

Crazy Ninja Monkey Grandma (Le Weekend: Part II)

I met a girl from my dorm last night, and she mentioned that she was going with a group that hikes Mount Saleve every Sunday. It was perfect because I had been looking to do a day trip of hiking to see some of Switzerland's natural beauty and was eager to go in a group.

Every Sunday a group of the Genevoise hikes up Mount Saleve for a beautiful view of Geneva and the Jura mountains on one side and the Alps on the other. There's old people and young people, but everyone is surprisingly spry and we moved at a good pace. The trail takes longer than expected, and three hours later we are greeted at the top by cows with real bells! Though Mount Saleve is a steep climb, the top flattens out to fields of grass, hence the cows. There is a restaurant at the top as well, and this is when I realize some people just drive up here or take a gondola up. Lol. I rest for a while, but the dorm girl I came with wants to do some more exploring at the top. (She walked 40 minutes to a mini-town with an amazing blueberry tarte last week and was eager to find it again.) I wanted to get home and shower and be online, so I said I'd take the cable car down. It was a 20 minute walk to the cable car station and that is when I got it into my crazy mind that going down on foot would not take much longer than waiting for the cable car.

I set out down the mountain with abandon. Eager to reach flat ground. I thought the steep descent meant surely I would get back in no time flat! Then the fear set in. My poor running shoes weren't much for grip, and the terrain was anything but sturdy. I am inching my way down a pebbly slope when I see a grandma boldly scaling the mountain by making her own trail amongst the trees! Sensing my anxiety, she smiles at me and says this is not an easy hill. She gives me some hiking tips, most of which I don't understand, but I am comforted to know that she's going down this hill with me. I am so impressed at the courage and agility of this little swiss lady. She tells me it's because she's done it many times, but I'm still really humbled. At one point, it gets so steep I am climbing down the trail and Ninja Grandma sits on her bottom and somehow gets down the rocks like a pro. It still took me 2 hours to go down that hill. And I eventually split off from Grandma and got lost for a little bit. I definitely won't be doing any hiking on my own...

I have to say the view from the top of the mountain was a little underwhelming. You could see rows of Alps mountains, but they didn't come out nicely in any of my pictures.
tiny view from the top

Mount Saleve
The rocky areas are so steep there is no vegetation. But anywhere that is horizontal enough is densely populated with trees. Oh my gosh...what was I thinking?!?!

blissful ignorance
At this point I am all happy thinking I am almost home free. Little did I know I had 1.5 more hours to go!

at the top
That california cheese commercial kept running through my head. Good cheese comes from happy cows. Happy cows come from California. (or in this case, Swizterland)

Le Weekend: Part I

Saturday farmer's market
(Apparently you can bargain with the vendors, but I didn't know any better.)

In what promises to be my cheapest weekend in Europe, this weekend I occupied myself with happenings around and about Geneva.

On Thursday I watched the Harry Potter movie with a dorm friend (a Californian) and Ehrine and Alvin. It was pretty nice to see a Hollywood movie, and be transported out of francophone territory for a good 2.5 hours. But on to the weekend.

My mentor at the WHO invited me to her town, Ferney-Voltaire, to see the market and have lunch . Louise, my mentor, first showed me where the discount grocery stores were so that I could know the ins and outs of how the swiss get around the expensive prices of Geneva. Then we walked around the Saturday morning market they have which almost identical to a farmers market. With all the fresh, beautiful fruits and veggies I over did it and ended up carrying a really heavy bag all the way back home. (stupid watermelon.) These strawberries were JUST mouth-watering though. Totally worth it.

strawberries from Ferney <3
A WHO co-worker and Louise's partner joined us for lunch at a lovely outside terrace. I got a cream-sauce pasta which ended up being too heavy for the hot day. But they also served bruschetta that looked amazing.
Ferney-Voltaire is right next to Geneva, just across the French border and is the town in which Voltaire lived the last 20 years of his life. Apparently he built a real town our of the marshy village that was Ferney, and he did a lot of good things for the inhabitants, so they made him the patron of their town. He was a very rich and very idealistic man. His mansion is still there, so that was a cool "touristy" thing to go see.

Later that evening, I discovered Geneva has a nightlife! In a town whose grocery stores don't open on Sunday and close at 7pm on regular days, I had assumed nightlife consisted of sitting in your room watching tv. I was astounded. I ventured out with a dorm friend to get some dinner around 10pm. We were worried nothing would be open, but felt secure in knowing there was a 24 hour shop at the train station. To our surprise, all kinds of people were out and about. We made our way through the winding streets of Old Town to find french hip-hop music pumping out of bar/cafes nonstop til midnight! Hurray! Tons of people were sitting outside over drinks and dessert. My friend and I ducked into a charming little restaurant for a pair of salads. Mine was Indian style curry chicken salad. Yum.

How to Open a Swiss Bank Account

I know you're curious too! I came to Switzerland with the secret hope that I would be able to open a bank account here (just a meager one mind you) so that I could say that I owned a Swiss bank account. No such luck.

Making international ATM withdrawals blows. I get slapped with a $5 fee everytime, so naturally I thought to get around that with a local bank account. I walk into the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS) all smiles and ask to open an account. First you need an appointment, says the teller. Okay.
Then, "do you have a salaried job with the WHO?"
Me: "Umm...no. I'm an intern though."
Teller (in thick french accent): "So you don't make any salary?"
Me: "No, but what are the requirements for opening an account?"
Teller (curtly): "It's not possible. You have to have a minimum 2 month contract with the WHO or 50,000 swiss francs."
Me: "Oh, I see. Merci beaucoup. Bonne journée."

So...you can either
a. get a job with some heavy-weight international organization
b. get a lot of money.

On the UBS website it has a link about the "fight against money laundering." Whatever, that's what they're paying you for, you swissies!

The big update (SF-Paris-Geneva)

A massive update of my chronicling my--Humble Beginnings in Geneva

The short of it: After a whirlwind move out of SF, a beautiful reunion with mom and the boys, I rush off to Geneva.

Friday: June 22, 2007
Finale in SF
Irene takes her final exam and finishes the first year of medical school at UCSF. It’s been a whirlwind year, and I always enjoyed it. Although I must say the rushedness of the last week made me quite unhappy.

I don’t want to dwell on the problems of the final days, but I do want to learn lessons from these trials. Perhaps a list will suffice, just to serve as a reminder to myself.

• Studying for the final – Irene is majorly behind
• Wrapping up plans to clean the apartment
• Final class activities: snacks & bagels
• Insecurities about friends
• Preparations for going to Europe – essentially none!
• Vascillating over whether to get an ISIC student card and Eurail pass. – In retrospect I’m glad I didn’t yet fall for these tourist traps!
• Moving! Definitely was not ready to do it…and it took me way longer than expected. Thank God I had help from my uncle, eastbay kids, elainers and debbie’s boxes.
• Dad does not come along for the trip. This was a huge disappointment, but at least I had a ride to the airport. I intend to go on a vacation with him using his flight credit!

I also fit in a final day of settlers with the Sonrise/Cupertino crew. Fun as always. I am gonna miss this group.

Sunday: June 24, 2007
The flight
Daddy drops me off at SFO at 5:30 am and I’m off for a 6-hour layover in Newark, NJ. It actually is not unpleasant. I am greeted by Au Bon Pain, the café chain of the east coast that the family enjoyed on our east coast trip more than 5 years ago. The bread is still delicious there. :) Healthy food makes me happy. I have both lunch and dinner there. I spend the interim shopping the Westfield shopping in the airport and reading Rick Steve’s Europe book in a Borders. America is good.

The continental flight sucks. Food is subpar and tiny, movies are old and suck, and the flight attendants are none too nice. There is an interesting Jewish family sitting in front of me. The dad appears young, but he’s got 4 kids! He apparently teaches part of a religion course taught at UC Berkeley, and I apparently look very familiar to him. Haha…too bad I never took his class. I think it would have been really interesting. He’s a rabbi in Oakland who trained at a rabbinic school on the east. He seems to be raising very intelligent, well-behaved children. (They played an animal naming game for some of the flight, and I joined in.)

All the stress of the past week must have caught up to me. I slept for most of the flight. Amazing! And quite a mercy as well.

Monday: June 25, 2007
Arrival in Paris
I arrive at CDG at 10 am. I navigate past customs and take the train into the main city without too much trouble. Then the panic sets in. I realize the Gare du Nord is not a great stop for getting to the hotel with mom, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to get a ticket from the machines. A middle-aged, balding man offers to help me, but I am suspicious and uneasy of pickpockets since I have all my luggage. Why would a man be just waiting around at a train station? It turns out he was waiting for his wife. Lol. Then another kind man sees my distress with the ticketing machine and just gives me his ticket and sends me on my way. I marvel at the kindness of the French!

I make it okay on the metro (which is very similar to Seoul’s subway). Another nice woman points me to the escalators to save me from lugging my bags upstairs. As I break onto the street, I am astounded to find the hotel is smack in front of the metro stop! Wow…does mom know how to pick ‘em or what? I enter into the hotel and a gentleman with a French accent greets me. Step aside man, my MOM is here. We are reunited, and my heart bursts with joy!!!

I find the room, put down my bags, rough up the boys and we head out for lunch. We buy baguette sandwiches (a staple of the Paris visit) and head to the War Museum and Napolean’s Tomb. Talk about hitting the ground running.

The War Museum is not my favorite, but really seems to intrigue Noah and Norman. Just goes to show how much I am not a boy.

Seine river tour









Versailles really put into context the luxurious grandeur of Louis XIV’s reign. You see it in movies, you read about it back in high school, but finally I saw it!
La Tour Eiffel – freezing on a windy night to ride an elevator up and then ride it back down. But what can one do when it is the quintessential thing to do in Paris?
Louvre – we lost Norman! Mona Lisa and all the other paintings were pretty awesome. I’m impressed at how much my mom knows about art. Really…I need to respect that woman for how intelligent she is. She knows way more than me…and she knows all eras too. She knew everything from the Renaissance works at the Louvre to the modern works at the Pompidou center.
Jardin des Tuileries
Orsay Museum
L’arc de Triomphe and the Champs Elysees

Picasso – saw some cool sculptures I never knew he did. More kids learning art here as well.


Pompidou – by this time I’m pooped and all “art museum-ed” out. Mom is a trooper and diligently chronicling the paintings she’s seen.

Upon arriving in France, I had to learn to let go and relax. After being so tense for an extended period of time, it was quite nice to unwind. It was also really comforting to be with family. Although I will say my brothers pestered my mom and me to no end. Mom and I got to do some of the best shopping in my life, but we had to fight to do it. It was definitely cut short and sour because those two adolescent humbugs.

Impressions of France: it truly is an art center. With its wealth of art (many stolen from other nations and peoples) the life of the city seems infused with an artsyness. At every museum there were groups of school children learning about the art from detailed instruction or involved activities. (Unlike the free for all that most American field trips tend to be.) The way people dress, eat, shop, live is all aesthetically pleasing. Mom and I reflect on how much this city reminds us of Ingee. Even at such a young age, she was an artist. I would have loved to have seen this city with her. Mom fancied that we would have sent Ingee for schooling here because the rich art education would have been perfect for her.

Friday: June 29, 2007
Au revoir to the family
I am sad to see them leave. Suddenly I am on my own, and I realize that I have not made a single plan as to what to do now. Do I stay in Paris with my things? The thought of lugging around my bags and finding and expensive hotel makes me shudder. I decide to make a break for Geneva and take the weekend easy.
Silly me. I have nowhere to stay once I get to Geneva! But I am counting on the English speaking population to get me there. I am also promising myself time to go shopping once my things are put away in Geneva. (This was wrong! There is no Comptoir des Cotonniers in Swizterland. Mon dieu!)

Anyway, first things first. I plan to buy a train ticket to Geneva and spend extra time if possible shopping in Paris. Boy was I wrong. I get to the gare station, and there is a long line for tickets. After debating between a railpass and just a one-way, I secure my ticket to Geneva since railpasses are not sold at the station. I then try to find the correct track to wait at when I find that I am at the wrong station! Trains bound for Geneva leave from Gare de Lyon not Gare de l’Est. Good thing I have the time to get there!

I make it to the station and get on the train with, what else, a Korean tourist group. One of the young girls is so sweet as to help me with my luggage. I am stressed from the lack of travel plans and decide to worry about housing in Geneva when I get there.

I sleep on almost the entire 4 hour trip, and am slightly taken aback by my arrival in Geneva. It’s all very green and all very rural. I guess I really have left Paris. In fact, if Paris reminded me of Seoul, Geneva reminds me of Incheon or some other suburb of Korea. I don’t find it particularly clean and it’s not very eye-catching. I get the sinking feeling that the shopping will not be as good…nor will the food.

That aside, it’s still all in French! What happened to the internationalism of it all?!?! I bungle around the gare station figuring out what I need to do. After letting a telephone machine eat 5 swiss franks (about $4.50), I am out of money for a pay phone. Thankfully the man in the cell phone store lets me use the house phone to call my foyer. The sister at the foyer was not expecting me until Monday, but by some miracle my room is open. I immediately head over there, and am pleased to find that it is an easy bus ride. Unfortunately the maps don’t label all the streets, and my map does not show me the foyer street. This will be a problem for the rest of the weekend.

The foyer is ghetto and in a ghetto neighborhood, but I am too desperate for housing to know or care. It is run by a group of nuns, a few of whom speak English. Sister Eliza calls me “my dear” in soothing tones, and I am reassured that all will be okay. Once again I’m reminded of Korea because I’m back in a ghetto dorm. But it’s all good baby…cuz I get internet! Being connected to the world is the most comforting feeling. I put out some feelers to walk around the neighborhood, but I’m kind of creeped out by the approaching evening. I buy some Evian water (we are very near the source) and head home for a dinner of nutrition bars I bought at Cupertino Whole Foods. (These have been instrumental on my trip so far.) I wrap up the night on the web…basking in my connectedness with the world.

Saturday: June 30, 2007
Strike out on my own
Things on the to do list today:
Get money from a bank
Go to tourism office – for a better map
Go grocery shopping
Tour Geneva – see the flower clock and water jet fountain thingy
Go running



Things done:
Everything except going running

The Geneva tourism thing was thoroughly underwhelming. Though now that I’m looking at pictures, the lake seems beautifully pristine. The watches in all the stores are indeed nice and expensive, but it’s all about presentation my dears. When it’s line after line of unceremonious window displays, the watches don’t seem special at all. If you’re really Phillippe Patek or Baume and Mercier, show me!!! It just seemed like a bunch of tourist trap shops mixed in with totally drab stores of shoes etc. Oh…and the drug stores? For some reason there is no such thing as inexpensive lotion in Europe.

Who knew I could spend such a long time in the grocery store? I must have spent 20 minutes looking for soap and another 20 looking for nonfat yogurt or cottage cheese. It was an unsuccessful quest. Freaking-a…I do not understand how the Europeans can only eat full-fat everything, pastries for breakfast, blah blah. I am seriously desperate for some good old Californian produce. The food is rich and flavorful here to be sure, even the produce. There was a farmers market-type stand in the middle of the shopping district today. The fruit was really expensive, but I bought a basket of raspberries for around $4. They were the sweetest most delicious raspberries I’ve ever had!!! But I am going out of my mind with guilt at what the saturated fat products will do to my arteries. I think I spent at least 1 hour online today looking up where I can get health foods in Geneva. So far my strategy is to stock of up fruits at the grocery and drink it with soymilk. I found nonfat milk, but I know my lactose intolerance will have none of that. My purchase of full fat yogurt this morning was really tasty though.