Climbing and Spinning and Cooking and Laughing: July 2016

July is almost over, which means I have just over 2 weeks left in Geneva. Wow!

Since Jeff left on Monday, I'm counting down even more than usual. Here are a few things I'm really looking forward to about being back in the States:

Almost never having to breathe cigarette smoke (especially in outdoor restaurant seating)
Cooking for more than one person, and having someone else to help clean as we go
Having enough time after work to actually decompress and take care of things around the house
Having Jeff around all the time. (this one counts way more than the others)
Having my whole wardrobe at my disposal (sounds shallow, but if you haven't worn the same 7 outfits over and over for 6 months, you probably don't know how tiresome it gets)
Free laundry!
Cheap food!
Cheap restaurants!
Not having to deal with other people on my commute to work

Of course, there are also a ton of things that I'll miss about being here in Geneva, but I'll get to those in a later post.

Jeff's visit was so nice! If you've seen either of our Facebook albums, you'll know how lovely it was already. His first night in Geneva, we went to the Old Town for dinner, to the same fondue place I went with friends several months ago. We got fondue and white wine and a tomato and mozzarella salad with flan for dessert. On Saturday we went to the market in my neighborhood, took a nice walk by the lake, and went to a "generic European party," as Jeff dubbed it (affectionately); eating bread and cheese and drinking wine by the river.

We went to the mountains and to Montreux, which is a lovely town.

We cooked and worked and walked and cuddled. We went to Prague and met up with our family friend, Michael, who has spent a lot of time there and knew all the great places to show us. We were reminded how much we enjoy spending hours on end together, rather than just 15-30 minutes per day on a video call. His last night here, we went to a restaurant called Wine and Beef, which is just what it sounds like, and had fantastic steak and even better conversation, and then had a romantic walk back by the lake, which was reflecting lights from the city...so lovely.

And then he left, and I went back to work, and I'm still generally happy, but I'm REALLY looking forward to going to California to see Jeff and my parents and my kitty. I have to remind myself that the days are long, but the weeks are short...

Things that are making me happy:

Coffee breaks with friends after lunch
Chatting with my department director, who is back from vacation
Learning through my work
Cooking successful recipes (this week was a farro salad with prosciutto and cauliflower)
Reading (21 books down now!)

It's been a while since I posted last, and somehow I'm down to 5 weeks left in Geneva. My life has become somewhat consumed by acroyoga, hanging out by lakes, and eating bread and cheese. Jeff will arrive on Friday (it seems so crazy that he'll be here, I have trouble even imagining what it will be like, but I can't wait to show him Geneva!!), and he'll leave the 25th of July. When he leaves, I'll only have 3 weeks left, and then I'll join him in California, where I'll get to hang out with my family and friends and cat there. Then I'll fly back to Michigan with Jeff and our kitty and get to work at the Evaluation Center at my university and work on my dissertation.

In the meantime, I've gained confidence with my spoken French, gotten closer to people both at/through work and outside of it. The weather is beautiful and summery, and I am generally very happy. If circumstances allow for it in the near future, I would love to come back here to live with Jeff for a while.

At the same time, I'm getting increasingly excited about going back. I miss my U.S. friends and routines, I miss feeling like I'm in control of my life, I miss cuddling and playing with my cat, I miss knowing where to get any ingredients I need for cooking/baking and being able to get them any time of day...

Jeff and I had originally planned for him to visit in April as well as summer, but I think I'm glad now that he's not coming until so late. I feel good that we've made it so long (it'll be about 5 months when he arrives) doing long-distance, and our relationship is that much stronger for it. From my experience of having my family visit when I lived in Senegal for 6 months, I anticipate that any loneliness or annoyances that I experience now will feel multiplied when Jeff leaves. I think it's a really nice thing that my time after that will be so short, so no matter how frustrated, lonely, or sad I get about being apart again will be very short-lived.

In my work life, things are going well. My work is better defined and I have more confidence in my understanding of the workings of the ILO than I expected to develop. Before I came to the ILO, I worked on a project for the Evaluation Office where I'm working now that allowed me to get well-acquainted with the type of work they produce. Now that I've spent 4.5 months working in the Evaluation Office, I better understand why the work looks the way it does and what challenges the Office faces in making any changes to the processes or rules governing these products. I feel really good about what I've learned and how it will help me later in my career.

A few random highlights since I posted last (about a month ago):

Attended International Day of Yoga at the UN with friends and got a free yoga mat out of it

Went on a longer-than-intended but very lovely walk down the river to Jonction, where the two Geneva rivers (the Rhone and the Arve) meet

Some guy hangs out on weekend mornings making huge bubbles for the children

Check out the brown water and the blue water mixing