Genève: city of future dreams and careers

I'm getting way too stressed. Less than 2 more weeks til the semester is over. 加油！

Geneva (Feb 2011). My career dreams are within this city. I have been wanting to visit this city forever, in part, because I hear Switzerland is awesome and because the UN is there. So one day, my friend and I decided to make a quick day trip to Geneva. It's really close to Lyon and one round trip only costs 27 euros per person (via SNCF with our carte 12-25).

So, on a bright sunny weekend in Lyon, we took the 8am train to Geneva. Both of us were sleeping during the hour and half train ride. Sleeping on buses, trains, planes, has become a habit of mine --- it passes time, and I get energized to explore the city. We arrived to a quiet, but big city ready to begin our adventure. First matter of business --- changing Euros to Swiss Francs (CHF).

Just how clean is Geneva?: " I won't dirty the sidewalks!"

Upon getting to the metro station, we were a little confused at how to pay for the metro because it saying the zone we were going to was....FREE.  I think our initial impression was....FREE?! SINCE WHEN IS ANYTHING IN GENEVA FREE?! Hoping that we wouldn't be stopped by police or traffic controller, we hopped onto the metro to the Avenue de la Paix where all the things we wanted to see are there (including the Palais des Nations -- United Nations Building).

It was a cloudy day in Geneva, but we were hoping it would turn sunny later on. Walking along the Avenue de la Paix was quiet, clean and spacious. The first stop was the Broken Chair, a symbol to represent the handicapped people.

One of the leg is broken halfway

Right across from the Broken Chair is the United Nations. My friend and I started joking about how we should have made copies of our resumes, stand in front of the United Nations entrance and give it to every official looking person.

My future (I hope) workplace

We stopped by a statue of Mahatma Ghandi along the Avenue

The caption says: My life is my message

Although the sun wasn't out yet, the day wasn't too cold so I was perfectly comfortable in my light trench coat, scarf and flats. (which by the way, I hate wearing socks)

Musée Ariana ( Musée Suisse de la céramique et du verre) 

Our next stop brought us to the International Red Cross. We decided not to get tickets to go inside. The outside was interesting enough already.

Box where you can write your own definition of peace

Represents those who was/are repressed 

As we were walking along the Avenue de la Paix, we saw the Mission Permanente de la Russie (Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations). We were super excited -- being the nerds we are. Of course, there's no way of getting into the building. I remember we asked someone coming out -- the lady replied to in order to get in, we needed to be invited by a Russian citizen. @__@

Jet d'Eau!

After seeing the Jet d'Eau, we looked for a place to eat. We almost stepped into this Korean restaurant -- but it was TOO EXPENSIVE.

So, instead we went to McDonalds. It was cheaper but seriously they charge you for the sauce. I just remember paying for our meal with Katy Perry's "California Gurls" playing on the radio. Oh, we also bought postcards to mail to our friends.

If you're going to Geneva, be sure to go to Old Town Geneva! I love the beauty of old places so this is no exception for me.

Old town Geneva! (Cité de refuge)

St Pierre cathedral

Overall, the trip to Geneva was great!  I can't wait to go back.

venice dec 2010: welcome to the labyrinth of potential flooding?

I figure I should probably stop posting travel reposts -- just because I miss Europe so much. But then again, I know, I just know I'm going back there. GOSH-DARN-IT I'M GOING BACK. So....here's Venice.

From Rome, we took another ungodly hour flight (7am) to Venice. Getting up at 3:30am is not peachy at all. Good thing we got a taxi to get to the airport (easy and cheap). The hotel was a 10 min bus ride into the heart of Venice, which was pretty good for the price we paid. The room was super nice and it came with complimentary breakfast (which was awesome breakfast). After getting to the hotel, the 3 of us passed out for about 2 hours. Finally refreshed, we were prepared to get lost in Venice. We were stuffed from breakfast, so opted not to get lunch, instead stopping at a cafe in Venice to get something small. Our decision in Venice to get lost (because that's how you find your way) was a good choice. We hit probably 2 or 3 dead ends, meaning we hit a canal, or a wall. Otherwise, we were good. There were signs directing us to St. Mark's square...which was actually quite hard to follow. In the process of trying to find St. Mark's square, we stopped by a gelato place and decided to get some of that awfully good ice cream.

Entrance into Venezia

beautiful

By the gondolas

The port of St. Mark

Good thing it wasn't raining, but I did see that the planks at the Square were prepared. Just in case.

The bell tower at St. Marks

Along the way, there were many little delightful shops with plenty of masks (for the carnival) and other things. There also little markets, in which I had picked up a pair of owl earrings (can't resist them). At the square, there was a really old church (Basilica di San Marco) -- admission is free, but if you want to go upstairs and see the upstairs museum and what not, you'd have to pay 5 euros, I believe. After wandering around in the square, we stopped by another café to get some awesome cappuccino and some pastries.

How narrow some streets just are...

In an attempt to get back to the bus station, we got...lost. Yes, lost in the dark, with no sense of direction because everything looked the same. In our effort to try and find our way back, we stumbled into some navy training ground...

Starting that night we started to meticulously track flights--- because at the time we started hearing about the weather crisis going on in France, England...just about everywhere in Europe. We hoped that our flights weren't going to delayed or cancelled as well.

Flooding?

Wednesday and Thursday were pouring rain. Did I mention that I broke Minerv's bed in Venice? It's because she's the hardest person to wake up in the morning... so it was around 11am by then and Elliot and I looked at each other and we were like, yeah, we need to get going. She was still in bed. I said, Minerva get up, we need to go, she said 5 more mins! 10 mins later, I come back and she, of course, was still sleeping. So I yelled out her name and jumped on her bed. The problem was that I concentrated all my weight in one area and jumped fairly hard. There was a loud CRACK and she shot up from bed and was like, WHAT WAS THAT?! I started laughing and said, well, at least you're awake... 


Luckily for us, the hotel didn't notice....


We did go into Venice on Wednesday, but we left when it started to rain harder. The water level rose at an unbelievable rate. Water was already starting to creep into people’s doors, ones that border the canals. 

After meticously tracking our flights, due to the fact that many flights were interrupted, so many of our friends from the EAP program were cancelled and stranded at the Heathrow airport in England. Minervs’ flight from Venice to Paris was cancelled. Mine was ok, until boarding time. Turns out that my flight was delayed for 3 hours. Yay. After finally getting home, I went over to my neighbor’s house to give them Panettone, an Italian speciality. Because, I really don’t know what to give them that will fully express my gratitude towards them. 


What a trip to Italy. Short, but fun and I certainly hope to go there again. Next adventure, Trier and Luxembourg! 

on the battlefields of rome dec 2010

So, it's been just about a month into grad school and so far, everything is not as bad as I expected to be. Sure, I'm busy, but I don't really mind the busy-ness. While grad school is taking over my life, it's not kicking my butt. I can complain about how short the weekends are, but I can't complain that school is boring. At all. At least my 8 am class isn't bad at all. I mean, it's nothing like kickboxing class, but hey, what's more interesting than talking about weapons of mass destruction at 8am? (I'm supposed to be writing my 10 page paper as well as a 5 pg paper for French.)

Despite my...... busy-ness, I'm going to make some time to repost this traveling section to Rome, Italy in Dec 2010 just before Christmas (because I procrastinate like a pro.) 

So, after the first French final exams were over, I was eager to get back to traveling. My finals had ended on the 13th of Dec, and I was leaving for Italy on the 18th. During the first 2 weeks of December, it snowed in Lyon! Super exciting times. It was such a nice feeling to hear the snow crunch under your feet and feel the frosty air on your face. Definitely a feel of Christmas. I just remember eating a lot of chocolate and having mulled wine during those 5 days. 

So, on the 18th, I woke up at an ungodly hour of 3:30am, because our flight to Rome is at 7am. We flew easyjet, which closes their gate 40 minutes before taking off. Because Elliot and I lived really close to each other, and the center point for the 2 of us was the Hotel de ville metro station, we met there at 5am. After taking the metro to the train station at 5:30am, we found out the Rhone express (to get to the airport) wasn't working! Both of us were thinking, crap! We're going to miss our flight. 10 minutes later, some random Lebanese guy jumped up and said, "Hey! I've got a car and I need 3 more people." 

We sprinted after him, me with my large backpack and Elliot with his suitcase. Definitely an epic early morning workout. We were one of the last people to make it on the flight. Our other buddy who was supposed to go with us missed the flight and had to pay another fee to transfer her flight to Monday (giving her only one day in Rome). 

After getting to the airport in Rome, we took a 7 euro bus to get to the center of the city. Fortunately, right next to the bus stop, there was a hotel, so we went inside to ask for directions to our hotel. The hotel we stayed at is called Osimar Hotel. It was a little hard to find, but great rooms and free breakfast for a really good price. After taking a wrong turn, we finally managed to find our hotel, dropped off our stuff, went to lunch and passed out for 2 hours. By the time we felt fully recuperated enough to go out, it was 3pm.  Since it was a sunny day, I insisted on visiting the Vatican city. Metros in Rome are relatively cheap - 1 euro per ticket to be used within 75 minutes.

                                    

We were wondering if we'd see the pope that day:
- Would the Pope look out his window and think.."hmmm, should I grace the people with my presence?"  or
- Would he look out the window and think... " Ugh, those darn tourists!"

At the heart of the Vatican

Near St. Peter's Basilica

They had a gigantic Christmas tree in the middle of the Vatican! We were slightly too late to enter St Peter's Basilica, but we did go to the Vatican museum, which contained the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican museum was basically a maze, with continuous signs pointing to the direction of the Sistine Chapel. Just when we thought we were finally at the Sistine Chapel, the museum taunted us with another hall. Finally we got to the Chapel. Under the dim ceiling, we saw the famous painting of Michaelanglo. Of course, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but luckily for me, because I'm so short and flexible, I managed to take some shots of the ceiling. Unfortunately for Elliot, he wasn't able to get much because the moment he even tried to raise his cameras or adjust the lens, we were yelled at by the Italian security personel with his booming Italian-accented English " NO PHOTOS PLEASE." Needless to say, it was hilarious listening to that.

At the Vatican museum

Sistine Chapel

Christmas tree at the museum!

My first gelato of the trip

After leaving the museum, we just wandered the streets of Rome, found some gelato, and bought some roasted chestnuts and had the most delicious Italian food (not to mention it was cheap). This restaurant had the most peculiar translations on their menus. We were laughing so hard that the waitress started giving us weird looks.

Yes, this dish is called, I roar to the Oven.

(Photo courtesy of Elliot)

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by a Carrefour to stock up on snacks. Needless to say, we stopped by the wine section out of sheer habit and saw this huge bottle of wine for 2 euros. No hesitation to buy it! The whole entire night, we were watching TV (weird MTV music and film) and kept asking each other "More wine?"

Finally, at the Colosseum!

The second day, we set out to see the Colosseum. (FYI: the breakfast at our hotel was freeeee. And if you want to find cheap hotels, go to: priceline.com. That's how we found all our cheap, yet awesome hotels there.) It was pretty amazing to see it, after reading and learning about it for years. The structure represents Roman architeture and design and could hold up to 50,000 spectators. When I touched the stones, I felt like I was touching history (total nerd status).

This picture makes me look 12. ><

After spending about 2 hours there, it started to rain, so we had no choice but to go back and get our rain gear. I can't remember what we had for lunch, but after getting our umbrellas, we just wandered around the streets of Rome. We did see the Momument to Vittorio Emmanuele II and went on an epic search for the bathroom in a McDonald's. We saw a sign for that and followed it, but it JUST WASN'T THERE. Instead, we stumbled upon the Pantheon. It was a nice surprise but I still had to use the bathroom. So, Elliot was kind enough to tell me to just to go a gelato store near by and he'll buy gelato. Thank goodness for that. Following that we went to the Spanish steps to wait for 2 more friends who were also in France studying abroad. Glorious place to be, and just fantastic views.

Momument to Vittorio Emmanuele II

The Pantheon

The spanish steps

On our last day in Rome, our other buddy finally showed up. She went to the Colosseum, while we went to the park near by called Palestine Hill, where the original seat of government was. Now it is in ruins because it was ransacked by Christians (because there were Pagan temples) and robbers. We later wandered around Rome, went to the Trevi fountain, and had good Italian food once more. I just remember that everyday in Italy, I had a gelato and cappuccino. This whole entire time, for some ridiculous reason I couldn't stop laughing all the time. Maybe I was high from all the sweets and coffee? Who knows?

Palestine Hill

Next to the toilet, there was this

Trevi Fountain

So at the Trevi Fountain, it is said that if you throw a coin in there, you'll find your true love. We all thought we'd chuck a coin in there.

Attempting to drink water from the fountain

NOMNOM

More NOMNOM

Cappuccino

TIRMASU

On the metro of Rome

Rome was definitely an interesting place to be and December was probably the best time to be there (Because there weren't that many tourists). I wish we had more time to explore Rome but perhaps next time!  Next stop, Venice!