Category Archives: Life in Geneva

Shopping in France

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Last Sunday, we went to church in Ferney-Voltaire, just over the border in France. We arrived 15 minutes early so went to check out the Carrefour as it was open on Sunday!!

We had never seen digital price tags (above photo) like this. I supposed its so they can change prices (in Euros) quickly with these. I thought about the sustainability aspect, but I am not sure how they are powered.

Also, we saw this :

For those reading this blog regularly, you will laugh as just a week ago, I had a post about how I almost cried over toothpicks This is an entire end cap dedicated to toothpicks, in the mixer aisle.

Funny how life can give you everything you need, if you are just patient!

Communication

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Everyone will be excited to know that our washer and dryer is arriving on Monday (hopefully). I anticipate that laundry will be a bit more pleasant, now that I can control all the little dials, # of minutes, and I have access to my own bathroom (which is where it goes, basically almost in the shower) vs. it being in a scary dungeon that is sometimes locked and sometimes not.

And, the reason I say hopefully is that you can’t really count on anything here until it happens.

For instance, last week we had an appointment for an electrician to put all our light fixtures up in our apartment (in Switzerland, when you rent an apartment, there are just wires hanging from the ceiling – you have to purchase and install all your fixtures yourself). He came last Friday at 2pm, and after 2 hours, at 4pm, he told me in French that he had to leave. It was quitting time. He still had half of them to go. He is supposed to come back today, as if it wasn’t today, he was booked and had vacation, so who knows how long this would take.

I prefer email tremendously to the phone to communicate with people here. It is a bit anti-social, yes, but the benefit is having Google Translate. I just type what I want, pop it in Google Translate, and then copy/paste. Done! I do the same with communication back to me.

So, I requested this with the washer and dryer delivery, and here are the bits of communication that I have to determine if it is coming or not and when. Bless this guys heart for trying English. He knows a ton more than I do. Without Google Translate, I’d be lost!

When the washing machine comes, I am planning to open the champagne we were given by Gabe’s co-workers. We have been waiting for a special occasion, and I cannot think of a better reason to celebrate!

Reason I Wish I Knew French #77

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Today at Globo-gym, we had an unpleasant surprise. Ironically, the class I was taking was named F.I.R.E. and I am not quite sure what those initials stand for in French, since the acronym doesn’t mean anything in that language. However, 20 minutes in, the F.I.R.E. alarm went off.

A french voice came on the loudspeaker and everyone started moving for the doors. Hmm. No clue what they said but I am pretty sure I should follow. We weaved down stairs and were in the basement of the large department store and we eventually found our way outside to find a huge crowd of people, also from other floors in the building.

They ushered us to the lakeside only a block away. Everyone looked down at their feet in dismay. Most of the shoes had never seen the light of day since they have to be brand new and squeaky clean to be worn within the facility.

Yes, that was the first thing that popped in my head too during a fire emergency as well.

A few minutes later, the suited employees came running out of the building with stacks of towels for everyone. Remember, Swiss people (or at least in Geneva) don’t like to be seen in gym clothes in public. Many of the people in the class with them took them and wrapped them around themselves. Not for warmth…it was 70 degrees out….but as the sweaty attire was not appropriate for the posh neighborhood we were in.

My American brain was thinking maybe the instructor should continue class outside – we were wasting precious work out time there!!! I am sure that would have been frowned upon though so I didn’t lead the movement.

You’ll be happy to know that it was a false alarm and we all returned in after 20 minutes.

Glad I hadn’t taken an earlier class and been in the shower – that could have been super unpleasant without being able to understand and follow the lead.

So, this week, I resolve that I will attempt to learn more about emergency words in French so I am better prepared.

Reason I Wish I Knew French #76

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Most every day, I have been going to my gym. I secretly call it Globo-Gym (you know, from Dodgeball) as it is just very “interesting”. Post on the word “interesting” and its different meaning in Europe to come in the following weeks.

Here are just a few reasons why its “interesting” (European meaning):
-Women wear full fledged make-up, hair perfectly done, and jewelry to work out – I am talking gold bangles, etc.
-Other than my husband, i have not seen a guy wear a tee shirt in that place yet – all spandex outfits
-I have seen several women in “couture” gym clothes, which I didn’t know existed!
-I am the only one who ever walks in or out of this gym in my gym clothes. Everyone else who comes in or out is in suits, formal business clothes, or totally put together.
-You aren’t allowed to wear shoes from the street, you must change into special gym shoes
-There are always more trainers than people working out in the gym (at least in the hours that I frequent it, i could only afford the “off-peak” pass)
-People sunbathe topless on the outdoor part of the gym. Really.
-They are obsessed with disco lights. I did a prior post about disco spinning, but since have discovered that during all the classes, the last 10 minutes they turn out the lights and on the disco ball for the finale of class. Why, I ask?
-Oh, and the men who check you in and give you towels are wearing suits.

Anyhow, it is because of these “interesting” things that I don’t feel so bad shelling out an obscene amount of money to have the pleasure of attending this facility during only certain specified hours. It’s worth it in entertainment value alone.

Also, I am learning French better by attending. Since I go to classes most of the time and the instruction is in French, I have learned a few more words. Here is a cheat sheet for those thinking of attending a French gym class anytime soon:

Left “Gauche”
Right “Droite”

Do it again “Encore” or “la meme chose”
Let’s go “Aller”
Poitrine “Chest” as in, we are moving on to that muscle group now. I only actually know this from buying chicken breasts at the store.

Today, the instructor kept saying the word “souffle” . After the tenth time, I started to guess what he was saying. My thought process went something like the below.

See if you can guess the meaning!

a) Souffle….served at the end of the meal, maybe he is telling us we are ending this set?

a) Souffle….a yummy treat. maybe he is saying that we deserve to eat lots of it after this super hard weight-lifting class. Maybe I’ll go see if I can find the ingredients at the Migros….chocolate…check…..

a) Souffle…maybe it is some sort of reverse psychology that if we actually ate souffle last night, we should work harder in this class.

OR

a) Souffle….a derivation of the verb souffler for “to breathe”

and the answer is…….

Wow, I am glad I learned this before my first French yoga class.

Thanks, Google Translate!!!

Fete de la Musique

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This weekend Geneva hosted the 20th annual Fete de la Musique in Old Town – three days of non-stop music, ranging from classical, to jazz, to reggae, to rock. It was only a 5 minute walk from our house, so really close.

We tried to go Saturday, but were rained out after about 45 minutes. We returned home rain drenched but happy as we got delicious “to-go” fair food from the Madagascar tent and sausage tent.

We returned Sunday in the better weather and enjoyed the different artists and venues they had set up in 30 different locations, all over Vielle Ville. Here are a few photos below.

What a great weekend! Those wanting to come visit next Summer, should definitely try to come for the Fete de la Musique.

A rainy regatta

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This weekend was the Bol d’Or Mirabaud on Lake Geneva. It is the largest regatta in Europe, and we had planned to go out, bright and early and picnic to watch the sailboats set off for their journey to the other side of the lake.

Mother Nature had other plans.

As we approached the shore from our 10 minute rain-soaked walk from home, we saw this scene:

At one point, the sun sneaked out a wee bit and we could see a more beautiful kaleidoscope of sails that was originally hidden by the grey sky. There were so many!

The ducks enjoyed watching the faint images of sails on the skyline as well.

Maybe next year we’ll get to enjoy this beautiful scene in the sunshine!

Nous avons des velos! (We have bikes!)

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So its official – we have moved into our new permament apartment. Since our stuff has been on an ocean liner for the past two months, every time I opened a box, it was like receiving treasure.

Some of my treasures were:
-food storage ( I had been saving tin foil & baggies and reusing them to Gabe’s disgust)
-our own silverware
-the rest of my clothes since I’d been wearing the same thing for 8 weeks solid

Some of Gabe’s treasures were:
-the Apple TV
-the wireless router (yes, a treasure for me too!)
-our bikes

In fact, when they pulled the bikes off the truck, he went for a ride before they could take into into our apartment. And, on Monday, it was a Swiss holiday for Pentacost, so his office was closed and he worked from home. We went on a bike ride mid-morning for a break.

One of the coolest things we saw was a windsurfer park his car, assemble his apparatus, and then set sail on Lake Geneva. It was pretty chilly this day although you can’t tell from Gabe’s attire.



We look forward to many great rides and me hopefully not getting hit by a car, since I am not the most graceful on a velo!

Swiss Made

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A few of our readers have been concerned about us getting e-coli poisoning from the recent scare with the produce in Germany. Have no fear fair readers….it is actually very hard to find produce from anywhere but Switzerland, here in the local markets and groceries.

One of the things we noticed off the bat was that all goods are labeled with their country of origin. Whether it be meat, produce or even cereal, its clearly marked where all ingredients were sourced. In the later case of cereal, it lists where every single grain came from. Same with menus…all meats have their country listed.

The Swiss take a ton of pride into buying local goods. In reading, one of their reasons is that they are less dependent on others, stemmed from the wars of this past century. Whether or not that is actually true, I find three personal benefits from having Swiss made items:

1- I think it is pretty awesome that they support their local agriculture to such a degree…their pride and commitment is a neat thing to see amongst a nationality.
2- the goods have to travel from shorter distances which is better for the environment and usually means they are fresher.
3- in most cases, their meat and produce is already organic. It’s top notch and of upmost quality and you don’t have to pay more for this feature. In fact, the best strawberries I have ever had in my life are the Swiss berries at our neighborhood Migros grocery.

I have to admit that most times, I had no clue where my food came from in the US. But, here I take more notice. Take a look at a kaleidoscope of Swiss goods from this week’s shopping basket, all clearly labeled with “product Suisse” or a flag:

A collection of Swiss items from a trip to the store

Reason I Wish I Knew French #23

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Today I am starting a new series entitled “Reasons why I wish I knew French,” in order to bring some humor to the language barrier.

We now have 4 large mattress/bed parts in our teeny shoebox of an apartment.

I think that they are renovating the apartment and this is part of it? Although I am not quite sure as the building guy (who I have seen before, so I do know I didn’t accept some random mattresses) only speaks a little English and I basically speak only a teeny amount of French. It would have been better if he asked me things about food or farmers markets, or ordering at a restaurant, as I am getting better at this part 🙂

Anyhow, I think they are coming back to do something with these in an hour and I am supposed to stay put until they return because they don’t have a key. If only I knew for sure….I kind of wanted to go to the gym today before it closes at 5pm so if my French were better, I would really understand!!!

On the bright side, Gabe got an email from the customs/moving people and we are supposed to move in to our new place on Saturday…..yippee!!!! I wish you could see my smile right now!

The Office

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Post by Gabe

It appears that my blog post count is just “slightly” behind Lauren’s…. I suspect that may always be the case though.

Regardless, I thought I would give you a look inside my new office. The company that I work for is in the process of establishing it’s EMEA headquarters in Geneva. It currently has many offices spread through out Europe but over the course of this year will consolidate many of them into one Geneva office. This consolidation is what created the opportunity for Lauren and I to live in Geneva. The new office is largely empty at this point and I would put myself in the first third of people to begin working here. Thus, most of the desks around me are empty. That won’t be the case after the summer though. Several new employees move to Geneva every week so it won’t take long to fill it up.

So as an American in Switzerland (Europe) here are my observations after two weeks of work:

1) Tram = Awesome – No more Atlanta traffic! All I do is walk a few blocks from our temp apartment. Get on the cool looking tram (see below). Then 25-30 mins later I am at work. It takes about the same amount of time is it would in a car but I just chill, read or use the time to catch up on emails. Brilliant.

1) Damn, the food is expensive – My average cafeteria lunch the first week cost around 13 Swiss Francs. ($15USD) I am little smarter and selective these days and can have a nice lunch for $9-$10 dollars. The $2 little cokes in the vending machine still get me every time though. (i need to kick that habit)

1) Energy Efficiency (Star Trek Style) – I knew before coming to Geneva that we Americans generally aren’t as conscious about the resources we use compared to many other parts of the world. (water, energy, etc) My new office is a perfect example of that…It doesn’t screw around when it comes to conservation. I am typically one of the first people into the office but luckily I don’t have to worry about turning on the lights. That’s because the building monitors movement in sections of every floor and then turns lights on or off based on activity. I feel like I am on Star Trek as I walk down the hallway to my desk and the lights turn on in anticipation of me walking into that area. Very cool.

1) Snow In June? – It got cold here on Tuesday and the Jura mountains near Geneva were topped with snow. Below is a picture of the snow on the mountain top I can see from my desk.