When I applied to write this blog, I had plans to do more themed posts. But, I’ve realized that the experiences and mental breakthroughs I’m having here are not at all congruent with each other. I’m much more confident in myself and in my abilities than I was before coming here. But I can’t pin one moment or week in which that change happened–it’s cumulative.
On one hand, my time in Switzerland has felt like a dream, and on the other, a plunge into the real world. I think it’s been difficult to be a foreigner and not be involved to a meaningful extent in the happenings of the country I inhabit. I lack a lot of contexts to understand the systems and issues at play. In a way, it makes life here feel like a dream since I’m untethered to any long-term, substantial, stakeholder positions within this place. I’m a visitor and I think that’s both a privilege and a challenge.
If it wasn’t for my internship where I happen to have a few other college student coworkers, I’m not frequently in spaces that feel familiar. I miss the feeling of a college campus and the spontaneous bursts of life that you fall into on a daily basis. I take for granted that at Whitman I get to be around an artistic, welcoming, and fun group of people 24/7. The French House, where I lived last semester, was the perfect balance of happy chaos and calm for me. I loved our little community and I hope they are getting on well. In some ways, I think I might have enjoyed a program where I would have been around more young people on a campus or in a student/college city. Since I live in a village that’s at least 45 minutes away from Geneva and has a limited bus schedule, I can feel a bit isolated. My program has people in villages all around Nyon so it takes some coordination to meet. I think an added difficulty is that in bad weather there aren’t many places to just hang out. Restaurants are expensive and cafes close around 6 or 7 pm. The libraries, mostly reserved for quiet space, are small and have infrequent hours. I realize I miss the communal spaces a campus provides and the venues for no-cost socialization. Another person from a sister SIT program recently moved to my village and it’s been really good to have a walking companion. The other day we walked to another village to see the baby cows.
The clear benefit of not being on a campus is that I’m closer to nature. There are plenty of walks and hikes to do on a whim that I can get to with public transit. Swiss people are also very athletically inclined and value regular healthy climbing up a mountain. Remember the Swiss orphan Heidi who lives in the hills with her grandfather? She’s the Swiss exemplar in the restorative nature of simple mountain life.
It’s typically to see families waiting for the train with serious hiking gear or balancing skis over their shoulders on the weekends. However, I think the concept of going in nature is more serious and technical than it is in the U.S.. Kids grow up here getting taught to ski in school and seem to have some “survival skill” knowledge from frequent mountain field trips. Many people seem to have a second place they retreat to for outdoor sports. Granted, the environment here can be brutal and does warrant some education. Dangerously steep cliffs, landslides, and avalanches come with the beauty of this dramatic landscape.
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- Grindelwald…
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- Postcard perfect
Back in Maine, I am used to families going on more casual meandering walks on the beach or on clearly marked nature preserve trails. These places are more controlled than the hikes I’ve seen here. Usually, there’s safety signage and educational placards about the local wildlife. Kids will be silly and people will take their time to sit on benches along the way. Plus, trails tend to be accessible for all age levels, comparatively short, and sometimes even paved. As long as you’ve got sneakers and a water bottle, I think most Americans would say you would be ready to go. That’s not so much the case here. In Switzerland, people have made comments on my sneakers (note they are Merrells and are super grippy) for not being true hiking boots. The fact that I like to wear athletic leggings and a sporty skirt while hiking has also been seen as weird. Despite saying that I am comfortable, the Swiss people I’ve met have considered me woefully unprepared for outdoor activity.
Despite that, I’ve still had plenty of good times exploring. My favorite activity is going somewhere new, walking around, and people-watching. This weekend I took the train to Grindelwald and did just that. Grindelwald is one of the mountain villages in the Bernese Alps along the Jungfrau Region. It’s a stunningly unreal place. I kept feeling like I had walked into a snow globe or diorama. The farmhouses could easily have been miniatures intended for dolls. Some are still functional farms but it appears most of the houses are ski vacation rentals.
To close this general theme of confidence, dream worlds, and unexpected differences, I want to mention my first truly solo trip ever to Florence. I was incredibly nervous, to begin with, but experienced a huge surge in self-confidence when I realized I had done something incredible for myself. As a historian and romantic, I love Florence wholeheartedly. I visited when I was eight and it felt full circle to come back as an adult and take myself on my own independent journey through the sights. I went to the Uffizi and the Boboli gardens Saturday. Then I walked the Oltrarno (meaning the other side of the Arno River), the Giardino delle Rose (Rose Garden), and the Piazzale Michelangelo on Sunday. Florence is dreamy in the sense that all sorts of historical happenings occurred within its preserved cobblestone streets. I felt like I could see hundreds of years taking place in front of my eyes, like a long-exposure photograph where rapid motions blur into streaks.
To say the least, my brain is buzzing with observations and reflections.
Hope all is well wherever in space/time this post finds you,
Genevieve
Finances (Wednesday 4/5-Sunday 4/17):
– 134 Groceries
– 164 Hostel in Florence (PLUS Hostel, good for the money! My big trip of study abroad $)
– 70 Eating out in Florence (SandwaChic and SimBIOsi Organiz Pizza)
– 41 One dinner in Geneva. Yikes!
– 9 Florence admission tickets with EU visa/student price
– 140 Hostel in Interlaken
= ~558 USD (food covered by SIT stipend)
*estimates, not exact figures.
