First Day of School!

This week has been an interesting one....nothing too unexpected, but with a cloud of gloom over the city for the past 3 or 4 days, things have not seemed as lovely as they might if the sun were out. :( Oh, well, new things, new people, new places, and new lessons.
The picture above is my first time walking into my flat. It is small, or shall we say cozy, on the 5th floor, and very simple. Though, I have to say one of my favorite parts is the yellow bathroom with a red
toilet seat! :)

Here is my room and luggage....I'm pretty proud of my packing job. You will be surprised all that comes out of these two checked and two carry-on bags. For example...note this lovely small looking package that I mailed to myself....out of it comes two suites, 3 hangers, my winter coat, and my blue light! God gives us each special gifts. :)
 





I spent Saturday morning moving into my place and did a quick grocery run. As many of you know I'm sure, European groceries are NOT open all the time and surely never on Sunday! Saturday afternoon, I headed back to familiar Nyon, a 15minute train ride to catch up with friends from 3 years ago. We spent a wonderful afternoon and evening catching up and having our first fondue of the winter. I'm sure many more will follow.

The room is evolving as I get myself organized....but I there's enough space for my things and I have a wonderful window facing South, which means that any time there is sun it is shining on me. :) So I plugged my SURGE PROTECTOR, with nothing else into the outlet and it...ummm....didn't smell good. No sparks or lightning.....or power to anything else I tried to plug in to the outlet afterwards. oops. I've tried twice now and the second time screwed up the power in our whole flat. double oops. But it got fixed and now I'll use the European adapter--though less convenient for me. 

So after moving in and hanging out, it was time to start school on Monday. It was a real tough day, we went to the Uni, got ipads, and student IDs and introduced ourselves. ;) There were a grand total of 12 of us, but there are a few more coming who are doing the full time program. There are also another 2 groups of people who are doing the same program, but over the course of 2 or 3 years. We also got more details about the program. It sounds like all I had hoped for.....we tour the UN tomorrow morning and then we will be going back at some point to get our badges!!! Yes, we get IDs so we are free to go hang out at the UNITED NATIONS whenever we want, or eat in the cafeteria, etc.

They do a lot of work to keep the full-time group of students very small so that we can really engage with the people who come in. Each of the 24 'modules' is taught by  a different practitioner, so they just kinda come in as experts in their fields and work us through things. I mentioned that I was hoping to work with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and was informed that it just happens to be one of the places that actually pays their interns. Amen. I'm so there. Side note, my residence is next to the Hosteling International Hostel and I'm sooo tempted to go in and see if they need workers. I've always wanted to work in a hostel.....but think I'll wait until the semester actually starts. :) Still need to fit in French classes.  Anyway, I had to take a picture of my first day of school self, which is above. Then, walking to the intro session I saw this great car. Just somethin' fun. :)

 The last few days have been moving slowly with only minimal IOMBA activities and then gathering random items to build a life here, while getting a grip on the time change, phone usage, speaking French again, and getting to know what to expect from the program in the coming months. It's nice to have a bit of down time, but I"m so unaccustomed to having loads of time that I'm floundering with how to spend it. Anyway, tomorrow we have our UN tour and then there ain't anything until next Monday! Soooooooooooooo anyone want to chat over the next 4 days give me a heads up. Otherwise I will be partying it up as much as I can before classes REALLY start on Monday. Or maybe I'll just be hangout by Lake Geneva people watching. :) Blessings and joy to you my reader.