Bonjour, Geneve!

OK, so I have 11 minutes left on my  wifi card here at the hostel so this isn't going to be a long or truly insightful post.

My flight over was pretty uneventful... just a few bumps.  I got into the airport yesterday around 10:30 and met up with people from my group.  We all transferred to our hostel at 12:30 and have been undergoing orientation ever since then.  This mostly consists of signing a million papers (including applications for UN library cards and official UN badges for when we go in for lectures.  This may make me a nerd, but I'm super excited.) and then being set free to explore the city.

When we first got here, I was struck by how un-foreign it felt.  Sure, everyone is speaking a different language and it's greener than anything I know, but I didn't feel displaced.  I guess those trips to Argentina and China really got me acclimated...

In a similar vein, I was marveling about how few stares our group was garnering as we walked around the city.  However, this afternoon a ton of people from our group were saying that they were feeling a little disgruntled by the way everyone was looking at them.  Again, I guess it just doesn't compare to China that way!

But I'm not saying that's a bad thing.  In fact, it really makes me happy.  Because this means that when I'm moving through this city - which, by the way, I'm totally falling in love with - by myself, I will be free to experience it as a normal person, not as some tourist floating above it all.

Four minutes left of wifi!  Luckily I'll have internet at my host family's house.  I know this post was probably really scatterbrained, but the past couple days have been a major whirlwind.  I'll be sure to post again when I have the chance.

In short: everything here is incredible.  I miss a lot about home already, but hey, I had to leave summer behind sometime!  And really, the transition from the golden summer to fall semester could really be a lot worse.