geneva

[nibot]

First day in Geneva for real... a bunch of us took the bus down into Geneva (again, something like a half hour bus ride, for CHF 2.20) to go to the beach. That's right, the beach. Something like twenty meters of shoreline on Lake Geneva set aside from swimming, somewhat near that big squirter nozzle that puts Geneva on the map (a great use for five hundred kilowatts if there ever was one). Thing to do in Geneva: get in the lake and throw slimy balls of algae at each other.

Kenny₂, Michelle, and I got detached from the rest of the group, found a decent albeit smallish lunch for about ten francs ($7). I miss my $3.50 falafel-fries-drink combos in Lund!! Then we wandered off into some neighborhood where the preponderance of Lebanese restaurants really rescued my opinion of Geneva (but still, no $3.50 falafel combos). We strolled along the shore through a nifty park (complete with fountains sporting potable water — they must either have a superplentiful water supply, or they are incredibly wasteful). The botanical gardens are pretty but all the glass houses were closed. Now, if only the CERN people could get some landscaping advice from the botanical gardens people, things would be improved significantly. And they might as well talk to the Weizmann people about architecture (and gardening too, for that matter) while they're at it.

Tomorrow I should get settled in for real here, with a computer account, access to a van (!), and all sorts of other things. More importantly the grocery store will be open so I can acquire some less expensive food. Silly Swiss, no grocery stores open on a Sunday. No wonder the Swedes make fun of you. [Really, Switzerland is considered a corporatist regime when it comes to social welfare.]

The summer students from last year made a nifty website. Hopefully we'll do the same.

Comments

[krazyaces.livejournal.com]

There was a cheapish kebab place right across from the train station/H&M which had some pretty yummy felafels two years ago. Good for fueling pre- and post-transit . Also, Champion in St. Genis is about half as expensive as any of the Swiss grocery stores, though it is also closed on Sunday. By shopping there I think I spent about US$5/wk on food - not counting, of course, the once or twice a week we'd go out to eat, which inevitably could have fed me for a month on French supermarket food.

Did They supply you with bicycles? Makes the border crossing a swifter process.

Also (brain wracked) - best fondue place in town... in one of the suburbs... name has "sun" in there somewhere... yes, this is not very helpful, but if you ask around, the CERN folks know about it. Definitely worth one or two evenings across the course of the summer.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I wasn't familiar with that nozzle, but the pictures look familiar. I don't remember what the cost-of-living index was in Switzerland, but I think it was pretty high. (See my earlier post about Vancouver.) As far as water goes, they live on the side of probably the biggest lake in Europe (maybe not as big as that one in central Sweden, or Lake Balaton in Hungary, or the Bodensee or Lago Maggiore on other parts of Switzerland, but up there) and they probably don't have a very big population to water. And certainly they're not irrigating large amounts of desert. So water is not really an issue there the way it is in California. What are people doing trying to grow crops in the desert anyway?