Thoughts

1. People in Geneva are very patient when you try to speak French, since they are used to everyone being foreign. I'm glad that I didn't go to Paris for this reason. I have successfully been able to grocery shop, buy tickets to a concert and ask about gym prices in broken French without anyone looking at me funny. At least to my face.

2. When I was on the bus today, a carriage with a baby in it toppled over and it was really scary! The mom ran to the baby, and immediately all the women on the bus reprimanded her for leaving the carriage standing and not holding the baby! I admit I thought the same thing eventually, but my first thoughts were for the well-being of the baby. I feel like if this happened in America, everyone would be concerned about the baby and not with what the woman did to make it happen. I hope the baby is okay :[. It cried a lot and then quieted down, but babies have such malleable little brains, I hope he wasn't hurt!

3. Today I had a revelation. Dogs have it so much easier when it comes to culture; they don't have a language! They could communicate with other dogs from countries all over the world without having to spend three weeks in orientation or worrying whether they look "American" or "Swiss." I'm not sure if this makes any sense, but it sounded good in my head today.

4. Cooking my own food and buying my own groceries has me thinking about food all the time! It takes so much time to plan when you are going to go food shopping, what you'll get, what will keep good leftovers, how long you have until the milk goes bad, etc.

5. Gyms here are so expensive! And they think they are being fancy when they give you a towel. Also everything here is so expensive.

6. People here I feel aren't as eager to express who they are to other people in forms other than conversation. For example, I put a pretty postcard on the outside of my door to show that I am friendly, but no one else has things on their doors, or leaves their doors open to show that people are welcome to walk in. People are mostly quiet and private, unless you initiate a conversation with them; they don't seek you out. I feel like Americans are so centered on the idea of "being an individual" and showing this with every opportunity they are given: dress, room decoration, speech, etc.