My life in pictures!

Hello all of my beautiful friends and family,

I'm proud to say that I've managed to make this photo editor thing work and can bring you the first images of my life in Geneva. From now on, I can regale you with charming & informative snippets complete with audio-visual aids. Aren't you all a lucky bunch!
















Okay, so here we have some pictures of Geneva, which is actually very similar to Vancouver in many ways, with all its trees, mountains and water. Only European. And exhorbitantly expensive. Apparently Geneva is the world's most expensive city after London but before New York- who knew? I did not.

I have confirmed this ranking through my own careful empirical research, being the responsible and intrepid traveller that I am. Yes folks, last night I paid 25 Swiss Francs (about $22 Cdn) for a cocktail. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.












Things generally range from a wee bit more expensive to "good god- you expect me to pay 450 francs for a one-speed used bicycle?" Fourtunately, some things are very affordable, namely cheese, bread, wine, beer and chocolate. A diet of champions, really.

The city has a really amazing transit system complete with fun electric buses and trams. This makes me happy because even though I live in a little village about 20 min outside Geneva, I can still get downtown and back very easily.

The transit pretty much operates on the honour system, with occasional random inspections from men in green outfits who fine you if you don't have a ticket. I've been told that it's easy to ride the buses for free all the time, but seeing as one of my co-workers was caught and fined last week, I think I'm going to stick with my transit pass, at least for now.

Anyway, on to more audio-visual aids.






























Here is a church in Vernier, where I live. There are a lot of very old and beautiful churches here, which is pretty much par for the course in Europe. Not very unique I know, but people always seem to like pictures of churches.
















Moving right along, this is the building where I live. My apartment is very bright and spacious, and I'm living with some great roomates, one French Swiss & one German Swiss. I also share the apartment with one crazy ankle biting cat named Zoe. I'm here until the end of September and then I have to find something else, hopefully closer to the city.

I still haven't heard whether I'm staying in Geneva for my whole six month contract or if I'll be going to Dakar, Senegal but my supervisor gets back from Africa tomorrow so hopefully she'll be able to give me some idea soon.

And finally, la piece de resistance, me with my beautiful new bicycle! I bought her in the market today & I think we're going to be very happy together. Isn't she beautiful?


And I think that's enough photoshopping for one day. Stay tuned for more to come!

xox
Liz