Where to begin…well technically I just finished my first week-even though I’ve been here for a month! It feels like I’ve only been here for a few days although I feel pretty settled. I finally received the hard copy of my resident permit as well as my demi-tarif (a card that allows you to travel anywhere in Switzerland for half the price- amazing!) which makes me feel more legitimate. I’ve been to the 5 major grocery stores, one of which is located in France.
Yes, I crossed the border to buy chicken.
A smooth 15 minute tram/bus ride away, with no border checkpoints, Carrefour provides Genevans with a wide variety of food and name brand products at a lesser price…particularly their meat….no, I was not joking about the chicken. Despite their cheap poultry, I have declared Migros the best (conveniently located about 4 minutes from my apartment although that didn’t factor too much in my decision ;])
On a more academic note, I have finally started my two French classes. I am taking an Oral French class that meets once a week for two and a half hours and a Writing and Grammar class that meets once a week as well for an hour and a half.
Uni Bastions- The beautiful building where I learn French
Both of these classes are entirely in French and are made up of students from all around the world. Hopefully my French will start to improve as I am finding not as many people speak English as I had thought. Yes, I know, how ethnocentric of me- I’m learning!
I also started a tandem; initially facilitated by the university, tandems offer students the opportunity to be paired with another student who would like to practice and improve their language of choice. I set up a request on the tandem website that said I would like to practice my French and in turn could offer English. I was readily matched with a girl who wanted to practice her English and could offer French. We met yesterday at this Swiss cafe and it went quite well. She’s from Geneva, and although her English is better than my French, we had a fruitful conversation. We’re planning on meeting once a week for an hour which should be nice.
I have also started my research project! I met my supervisor who is a Professor at the University of Geneva researching Gender and Emotion under CISA (Le Centre Interfacultaire en Sciences Affectives aka the Affective Sciences program). CISA is the program that I am researching under but not with the aforementioned professor (she mainly oversees my work in Geneva) but with a professor from the University of Neuchâtel. I met with the latter professor and other members of the faculty at the University of Neuchâtel which is about an hour train ride from Geneva the Thursday before last.
Neuchâtel! -->
It was a great experience as they all took my opinions seriously and treated me as more of a fellow researcher than as a student. Which reminds me to show you this …
My office -->
Back in Geneva I have been given an office in UniMail (one of the main University buildings) to share with another post-doc who is working in CISA as well. The whole setup is quite intimidating. I find that I have A LOT of freedom in terms of when and how I do my research. Essentially, I must complete around 24 hours a week of research. As of late I have been assigning myself “homework” and assignments to complete and try to keep a regimented 5 hour workday. I keep in touch with my professor in Neuchâtel through e-mail (we plan to use Skype soon as well) and update her on the work that I am doing.
What work am I doing, you may ask? Currently I am researching maternity, paternity and parental leave policies in various countries around the world. I have been researching various articles and studies, reading them, and figuring out how to incorporate them into our project. I am also reviewing data and questions from the World Values Survey (WVS) which we plan to use in our final analysis. Fortunately my work has kept my interest and I am learning a lot each day.
This whole process is quite different than what I’m used to at Clark. Aside from my two French classes, the lack of set class times, homework assignments, tests and essays is a bit jarring. It would almost seem that I am not in school although I can assure you that is definitely not the case. The work I do for my research project is essentially up to me and whether or not it gets done depends on me setting a schedule for myself and doing it. I’ve been enjoying this freedom and independence although sitting in an office by myself on a sunny day in Geneva reading about the lack of paternity policies in Germany isn’t too tempting when you have friends who want to go to a café and a work schedule that is up to you.
Which leads me to the ever important social life. I truly have been meeting some wonderful people. I am amazed at how many languages my friends can speak and am humbled and shocked at the mass influence American culture has on some parts of the world. I had a good 20 minute conversation with my friend from northern Spain about prom and her dream of attending one and felt ashamed that I did not know of an equivalent event of “importance” in her culture. Along those lines, my friends from Australia can carry on an intelligent, knowledgeable conversation about American politics while I haven’t the slightest idea what their political situation is (I have been learning though- the recent Bob Carr business is pretty interesting). I find myself overwhelmed at the sheer massiveness of the world and how much there is to learn. My one month here is already putting the world into greater perspective and I really am loving each day.
Alors, until next time... À tout à l’heure!
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