Random foreign thoughts

I’ve been here now for a little longer than two weeks. It definitely feels longer than that. But sometimes I still have to remind myself that I’m actually living by myself in a foreign country. Here are some of my thoughts and observations about Geneva, the lab and everything else around here:

French-speaking people really do use the phrase “super” a lot. Only they pronounce it “soup-pear” with a big exclamation mark at the end. When people are talking really fast it’s one of the only words I can pick out of the conversation.

It’s ATLAS week at CERN, which means that many of the international collaborators are here for the week. So far, I’ve run into a few people I knew or just recognized from Fermilab. It’s a really strange feeling to connect a face to somewhere thousands of miles away. And it makes it even more difficult to remember their names.

I went to a different grocery store last night and bought some veggie burgers, the first I’ve seen since I’ve been here. Veggie products aren’t nearly as popular as they are in the states and even more expensive. So this was quite a find!

There are four English-speaking channels on local TV: CNN World, BBC, BBC Prime and some sports channel that has been showing the Olympics with British commentary. Many of the other channels air American shows dubbed over in French. The funniest I’ve seen is “Friends.” Joey’s mouth moves and a second later comes a voice that is definitely not his.

It’s pretty much assumed that after you eat lunch, you sit back down and have a coffee or tea and some type of chocolate.

Lots of people ski (the mountains are everywhere). Therefore lots of people die skiing. The number of skiing fatalities in the Geneva area alone last weekend was five.

The standard of living is extremely high. Housing is expensive, food is expensive, movie tickets are expensive, you get the idea.

Despite the stereotype that Swiss people are really healthy, I beg to differ. It’s true that people here look healthy. Most are skinny or average weight, and I’m yet to see someone I’d label as obese. But so many people smoke, and they smoke everywhere, all the time.

People speak multiple languages here. French, German and Italian are spoken in different regions of the country and there are people who can speak some or all of those in addition to English. It makes me feel dumb and really jealous.