First Day In Geneva City (In Which I Actually Have To Speak French Oh No)

So today was my first full day in Switzerland!
It's weird to say that. I feel like I've been here a lot longer than that?
I woke up later than planned (still exhausted from yesterday) and went out into town with my parents, to get to grips with the way the city is.
I'm staying on the edge of the district called Carouge, which is very artsy-looking. Lots of old buildings and cute little cafés and bars. Can't wait to explore this area properly with some friends! :)

On the river side of Carouge is a small-ish centre commercial, where there was an Orange shop, so we went in to go find a phone for me for the few months I'm here. This was the part where I ACTUALLY HAD TO SPEAK FRENCH and I was super nervous because a) I've not actually done any French since April which is when my exams were, b) it turns out I actually know very little practical French. I could conjugate a hundred verbs or have a debate on politics, but I doubt I could even order a taxi..... and c) there's a very big difference between speaking French in a classroom with your teachers and friends, and actually using it in real life with a total stranger...!!
But it actually went ok!! Yes, I made a few (extremely basic...) grammatical slip-ups, because it wasn't at all like writing an essay or having a debate in class. I just didn't have the time to think through exactly what I wanted to say and how I was going to say it in Absolutely Perfect Degree-Level French.
I mean, it was kind of complicated! I had to discuss with the shop guy about contracts vs pay-as-you-go (they call it 'prepay' here) and how I couldn't have a contract because I'm leaving in February, and it would be nice if I could get international calls too, and no I don't have my visa yet, and I'd like something as cheap as possible?
I must have done something right, because I now have a shiny little phone for 25 Swiss Francs  (about £17) with some credit on it to use, and cheap international calls and texts!
Super proud of myself :P
I've set it up, too, which I'm also proud of considering the instructions were also all in French, and I've never been good with phones. (I'm fighting the temptation to change the phone's menu language to English... but I know I should keep it in French. It's a good learning tool!)

After that we had lunch in a little Swiss-Italian restaurant. The food was FANTASTIC (best spaghetti carbonara I have had in my life) and extremely filling (they gave us second helpings, woah) but also rather expensive. That's normal for Geneva, though - everything is expensive, almost prohibitively so. My host family and I have come up with a new adjective - 'Geneva-cheap', which means expensive by global standards (particularly Welsh standards - trust me, I come from London, you guys have it good!) but as Geneva goes, pretty darn cheap.

The afternoon was spent working out the tram system and finding out where my university buildings were.
The Uni-Mail building, on Rue de Pont-d'Arve, is where the School of Translation is based, so all my lectures will probably be there.

The front of the Uni-Mail building

Some pictures from the inside of the building.... I'm actually loving the rainbow! 

Views from the top of the building (6th floor) - my department is on this floor! 

We were going to have dinner out in the evening, but we still hadn't really recovered from yesterday's LONG day, and walking about had made us all sleepy.
So we walked about a little more - discovered the main university building and found out that the University of Geneva is 450 YEARS OLD. Woah. There appeared to be some sort of equivalent to Freshers' Fair going on, with a band playing, and flyers for local clubs and events. I picked up LOADS - I want to check out as much as I can while I'm here :D The son of the family I'm staying with is about my age, and he's recommended a lot of good places to go, too. 

A lot of stuff to do...!

We then wandered over to the old town, which is old-fashioned, cobblestoned, and pretty - totally different from the flashy, modern, metropolitan city centre with its trams and glass-fronted buildings - to have some fruit juice and coffee, before I said goodbye to my parents for the next three months. 

Somehow saying goodbye here feels different to saying goodbye in Cardiff. I don't know why - here is an hour on a plane, Cardiff is three hours in a car - there isn't much difference between here and home. I'm away for the exact same amount of time. But, like everything I've experienced here so far, it's new. It's different. 

But I can see myself really loving it here. 

I'm excited all over again! 

I'll leave you with this lovely quote I found on a café sign in Carouge today - 

                                        Love yourself, and life will love you!