it's true what they say...

some people in france do smell.  switzerland too.  2 of those people are me and adam... europe is hot in the summer.  really hot.  i havent looked at a weather report since ive been here, and even if i did, me trying to convert celsius to fahrenheit would just be asking for trouble.  in my assessment, europe is approximately... a lot of degrees...

 

anyway.  right now we are in geneva, we left france this morning.  so far geneva is the city im finding most relatable- it's pretty and all, but it's not so provincial or pristinely beautiful that i cant wrap my brain around how it functions as a city, which has been my general feeling in every place we've visited thus far.  i get how this works as a city.  there's a lake, some mountains in the background, a lot of diplomacy, i think there was a big convention a few years back, and awkward giant fountain in the middle of the lake that is apparently 134 meters high and sprays a 12 ton plume of water...whatever that means.  it's not a picture-esque fountain, it literally looks like someone spraying a very large, very powerful hose up into the air... for no reason... this makes me love geneva...because it is not that impressive, and has a quirky and unnecessary giant fountain.  and as soon as we got here i could see how it functions as a city.  also, the hostel we're staying at here is awesome... it's unbelievably clean and well organized and they gave us free chocolate bars for filling out surveys... amazing.  it seems a lot like what an ordinary college freshman dorm would feel like (were i to have gone to a school with legitimate dorms instead of living in a hotel freshman year... ironic).  average sized rooms, communal bathrooms on the hall, internet downstairs, friendly front lobby... and a lot of orange, which i guess is neither here nor there.

 

so far in geneva, we arrived in the train station, made some arrangements and booked more trains for our next couple of stops, and made our way to the hostel.  we then realized the full magnitute of our sweatiness, and quickly remedied it by eating a lot of the aforementioned free chocoate bars... in looking at the guidebooks on the train here, guess what we discovered?  ANOTHER basilique notre dame.  i could not believe it. this was number five. obviously it was our first stop.  (ps theres apparently one in luxembourg too... i'm excited).  notre dame number 4, in nice, was closed when we went yesterday and didn't get to go inside, so it shall be famous for being the only basilique notre dame which adam and i did not successfully visit.  number 5, here in geneva, was yet another proof that geneva is a real functioning city...we got there just as evenign mass had started.  we sat in the back and observed respectfully, though it was hard not to take pictures of the stained glass (im a big sucker for stained glass).  notre dame number five shall be famous for acutally being functional.  word.

 

from there, we found our way to rue de la synagogue (not kidding). the books indicated that this street existed, but did not mention whether or not there was a synagogue on it.  we decided to investigate. in fact there was. and guess what? it too was functional.  after some creative begging and proving we were jewish and american (checked passports and everything), he let us into the synagogue, where they were in the middle of the evening service.  i went upstairs to the womens section and adam joined the men and we were able to catch most of mincha/maariv in a beautiful, albeit random, swiss synagogue.  cool huh?

 

after services, we had dinner at a moroccan restaurant nearby that came highly recommended.  for probably the 5th time so far this trip, my arabic came in quite handy.  obviously it would be helpful to speak, oh, i dont know, french, when travelling in europe, but apparently arabic is pretty helpful as well!  when a waiter or shopkeeper speaks no english, and you speak no french beyond 7th grade "je vais a la plage" (im going to the beach), apparently arabic is a handier fallback language than i thought!  the first time was in an internet cafe in lyon.  it was the only place open on sunday (because like us jews, the muslim arabs in lyon also did not particularly care that sunday is jesus's day) and the guy didn't speak english... apprehensive of my speaking ability in arabic, once english and french were knocked off the list of potential ways to communicate, in arabic i hesitantly said "i speak a little arabic...."  and his face lit up.  we were able to have a brief conversation and complete the whole transaction in arabic, and even got free soft drinks as we left!  sometimes being a random whitegirl who can speak arabi comes in handy... as we later learned again at a lebanese restaurant (ironic, eh? it was earlier in the week), another kebab stand somewhere, and again today at the moroccan place.  who knew i'd speak so much arabic in europe?  my professors would be so proud... hell, im really proud!  i didnt know how easily understandable my pathetic arabic would be, or how well id be to understand others, but i'm trying, and its really rewarding.  and it's the one thing i CAN do here, because apparently i am worthless when it comes to getting my bearings in these cities... so much for having a good sense of direction.  im constantly lost, and hot. did i mention hot? 

 

after dinner we walked around a bit, stumbled upon some sort of festival with lots of booths featuring all kinds of ethnic foods (geneva is a very international city, hello), different bars, and a concert in the middle.  one of my new favorite genres of music is outdated old euro-rocker.  it was our second free outdoor concert featuring outdated euro-rockers, the first was in paris on erev bastille day (erev meaning the night before- jewish holidays all start at sundown the evening before, so we figured we'd apply that idea to a french national holiday...obviously).  the bastille day concert featured a euro-rockers doing some english covers, which was suprising, since the french (especially on bastille day) are reportedly so anti-american influence.  covers included such memorable hits as "should i stay or should i go now" as well as some madonna... and in general a lot of unattractive grown-ups dancing drunkenly... and fanny packs.

 

europe features an absurd amount of fanny packs.  we were going to try to count them one day, but like our count of mapris (man-capris), it got out of hand.  the first night we were in paris we counted 93 pairs of man-pris.  93.  since then, our counts have gotten more creative, as counting euro-mullets, fanny packs, and socks-and-sandals become exhausting... our personal favorite is the euro-style of, what we like to call, the blanch-i-tard.  based on the concept of a jean-i-tard (which is when someone wears denim on denim, also called a denitard, stemming from the idea of a unitard or leotard), a blanch-i-tard is the rampant phenomena of white-on-white (blanche being french for white...or something, i dont actually know).  it is everywhere.  blanchitards with pants, skirts, capris, mapris... you name it.  the occasional jeanitard can be seen, as well as rare gems like lime green-i-tard, teal-itard, or azur-i-tard (blue, but, you know, frenchly).  anyway, the numbers are spiraling out of control, but i thought it my responsibility to educate you all on the fashion trends currently rampant in europe. ha. read that sentence again, and remember me...and the fact that my wardrobe consists of over 20 pairs of pajama pants... awesome.

 

i should probably get back to what im actually supposed to be doing...which is booking hostels for brussels and amsterdam, and flights from brussels to dublin and dublin to london for the last legs of our trip... im glad i got to update the other day, it makes me feel better to feel like im a little in touch... i wouldn't say i'm homesick, but i DEFINITELY miss my friends and family. im sure adam is tired about hearing me talk obsessively about a lot of you... he'll have to deal with it... at least my stories are funny (that statement should be funny to you if you are lucky enough to know adam. he is a wonderful person, but cannot tell a good story if his life depended on it)

 

more updates to come, hopefully ill get to fill you in on whats been going on for the past week, as opposed to just the past 2 days.  thanks for continuing to send your thoughts and concerns about haifa.  i will keep you posted as far as any decisions made on my part, but for now, there really aren't any decisions to make... i have to keep waiting to see how the situation progresses in the coming days and weeks...which is a really hard place to be in.  as of now, the university has relocated its current program to the campus of hebrew univeristy in jerusalem.  they have not made any decisions yet regarding my programs.  ill keep you posted.

 

tomorrow's mission: UN european headquarters and red cross museum, grocery store to buy provisions for our do-it-yourself shabbat, probably some more exploring before our train to interlaken tomorrow evening. note: apparently it is one of the most beautiful cities in switzerland, but i can't help but think of geeky music kids playing oboe/bassoon/clarinet in northern michigan. 

 

(early) shabbat shalom, miss you guys

-am

 

ps- within a 3 block radius, we passed three h&m's and two claire's... apparently one wasn't enough of either. i think h&m may be a swiss company, but claire's?  i guess crappy accessories are in high demand wherever you go travel...