Jetlag and Geneva

To start off here is a brief description of our global trip.
4 days in Geneva, Switzerland
2 weeks in Athens, Greece with 2 or 3 day excursions to various other cities
3 weeks in Istanbul, Turkey
4 weeks in Mumbai, Bangalore, and New Dehli, India
1 week in Thailand for fall break
4 weeks in Hong Kong
10 days in China
4 weeks in Seoul, South Korea

Global Semester Abroad is a program that takes college students from St. Olaf College around the world for one whole semester. (5 months) The college students take a total of 4 courses from different professors and colleges or Universities around the world.  Throughout this entire trip they are also taking a class called Traditional and Popular music: Global Perspectives taught by my dad, Marty Hodel (though i'm guessing you all know who that is). Since my dad is the field supervisor and my mom the assistant field supervisor for the trip, I get to come along! :) Here is some of what happened in Geneva Switzerland.


Day 1: Jetlag in Geneva
My global semester abroad all started when I got off the plane in Geneva, Switzerland. I was feeling tired (jetlag; I had been awake for almost 30 hours), excited and nervous. We got our bags at baggage claim and went outside where our tour guide was waiting for us with a sign that had our names on it. We got on the coach bus and started our tour of the city. Geneva is a beautiful city, but we weren't exactly looking great with dark circles and zombie-like appearances. During our tour we saw Lake Geneva, the biggest and clearest and bluest lake ever, the Jet d'Eau, a big fountain in the middle of the lake 460 ft. tall, and the coolest of all, the United Nations OG. When our bus tour was over, the tour guide took us to a very fancy restaurant in the south of France, called Yvoire, for lunch. It was a cute little town about a half an hour out of  town. The lunch was delicious with the entire menu in french so we had to get our tour guide to translate for the entire group. After the great food and service (we had all felt very underdressed) we went to the John Knox Center, a retreat center usually for church groups. The college students got rooms with two beds, but the family got to stay in the upper floor of the Petite Chalet, an apartment that had 3 bedrooms and a kitchen and a bath and living room, which was very nice for our first place to live. I am pretty sure I can say this for everyone that once you fell asleep, you didn't wake up for awhile.
     On the second day we had our free day, which we spent on the lovely Mt. Saleve, a mountain in
the swiss alps (although it was technically in France) Some people chose to take the gondola, a cable car up the  mountain and others chose to climb up but everyone took the gondola down the mountain. While we were over looking the beautiful view of Geneva, people with big backpacks came onto the hill we were on and started laying down what looked like a big tarp. We then realized that they were hangliders that were using the mountain as a take off point. It was very cool to see them run and jump off and start to fly. Overall, the mountain was amazing. There was a small cafe with killer ice cream that I will never forget.
     Once we took the bus back to John Knox, everybody crashed and ate dinner and went to bed. That was a great day. On the third and fourth days we went to the United Nations for briefings on different programs and associations like the WHO (World Health Organization) and many others. These lectures were extremely interesting and we got to tour the UN buildings and see the libraries and conference rooms and eat lunch at the cafeteria, which gave you large portions of super good food. It was very cool! I think the UNOG was my favorite part and even though everyone was very tired and jetlagged, it was very amazing and the lectures were just great! I think Geneva was overall a good experience and the best possible way to start off the 5 month long adventure.

I will post more soon!
Julia