In some ways, I feel like I have been here a long time. I am comfortable with my daily and weekly routines, and I hardly ever get homesick (though of course I miss people from home quite a bit). In other ways, I still feel like I just arrived. Because I spend most of every day working, I still have not explored much of Geneva or the surrounding area, I've barely traveled, and I am constantly learning things that are obvious to locals or people who have been here longer (I think it was just last week that I learned some stores are open "late" on Thursdays, rather than closing at 7 as usual).
Last weekend I finally found myself a yoga mat and a hair dryer, which are two luxuries I had been missing quite a lot. The weather was rainy and chilly on Sunday, which is usually when my intern friends do fun things (generally outdoors), and I was complaining to my flatmate that I wanted to bake cookies or something but didn't have the ingredients and all the stores were closed because it was a Sunday. He said that crappy days like this, the French generally make banana pancakes. I was sort of baffled by this until I realized that he meant crepes. But anyways, he inspired himself with this idea, which led to him putting on a Jack Johnson playlist (you know the Jack Johnson song "Banana Pancakes"?) and making us crepes. I contributed eggs to the effort, but otherwise was completely useless--our kitchen is too small for two people to be in at the same time. It was pretty delightful overall, and after it was all done and cleaned up, I went to a classical concert in a beautiful hall right next door to where acro was happening immediately afterwards.
Since last Thursday, I have (temporarily) been the sole president of the Intern Board, which is more work that I would have expected and more than I would really like at the moment. Since we have consultant #2 in town this week, my time to deal with intern things is somewhat limited and also segmented into little pieces since I accompany the consultant to meetings occasionally throughout the day.
On Tuesday evening, I went to an Intern Congress thing hosted by the Geneva Interns Association. There were about 20-25 people there representing interns from different organizations. We shared information about how our intern boards/associations operate and I learned that I'm quite lucky to have inherited an intern board that is so well supported by its HR department and that has been so well organized in the past. The structures are all in place, and my co-president and other officers and I just have to keep it going in order for it to be successful. Other groups battle their HR departments just to find out when new interns are coming and who they are.
I've still been going to AcroYoga every Sunday and Wednesday, and it's generally a highlight of my week. Tonight it was outdoors, and there was only a small group of people, but it was nice to move around and be outside and I learned a new sequence that I really like.
Jeff's birthday was last weekend, and some awesome friends in Kalamazoo helped me plan and execute a birthday party/surprise for him. We had decided before I came here that it would be nice for him to have an engagement ring as well as me (after all, we're both engaged, not just me), but we ran out of time to find one. My friends invited Jeff and some of our other friends out for a birthday dinner and drinks, and I got an engagement ring shipped to their house so they could give it to him at dinner. While he was opening it, they video called me so I could be "there" when he opened it. He loves the ring, and it was a nice surprise.
It's just about bedtime for me, and I think those are all the interesting things I have done recently, so I'll wrap this up.
Things that are making me happy:
- Having responsibilities and being able to take care of them
- Small luxuries
- Living with someone I enjoy spending time with (even if I'm still hardly ever home)
