My Red Carpet Arrival

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It has been several days since I've been in Geneva but my settling down has been time consuming and tumultuous, and hence it is not until now that I have the opportunity to scribble some of my experiences down. So, I guess I should go through it in a pragmatic chronological sequence.

June 8th - I arrived in London 4 hours behind because of mechanical difficulties with the Air Canada plane. I was sweating bullets on touchdown as I feared missing my EasyJet connection at Gatwick airport. Thankfully, buses run regularly between Heathrow and Gatwick, and I was able to get there with a full 40 minutes to spare. On the bus between the airports, I met a medical physicist from Ottawa who was quite the world traveller. I perhaps made the mistake of adding fuel to his conversational fire in offering my own educational background -- a medical student with a physics degree -- which appeared to elevate my stature significantly and set off a detailed 45 minute tirade about his work in computer programming for cancer research. In another time and place, perhaps I may have been interested; now, I was perilously close to nodding off on his shoulder.

Night, June 8th - Reached Geneva and was met by Chris at the airport. He was a nice guy who amusingly reminds me of a physics professor back at X named Carl. We made it to his apartment downtown where I subsequently met his wife and two small cute infant children, and diligently set to work trying to find a place to stay for the night. It did not look good, and so I had to resign myself to a hostel room shared by 6 people, 4 of whom came in drunk at 2:00a.m.

June 9th - I got about 3 hours sleep last night, and did not want to end up in the same sleeping situation tonight. I called every single apartment/sublet that I could find, and the only place available was a bachelor apartment for 2000 Fr. ($CAN 2000)! This town is ridiculously expensive. To add salt to the wound, the grocery store was closed when I moved in so I decided to experience the local cuisine and found a local family-owned establishment named MacDonald's -- the BigMac meal rung up 13 Fr.

Weekend, June 10th + 11th - Spent the weekend touring around in an emasculating 'town-bike': this beast even had a rather large basket in which to carry such essentials as baguettes and speedos. I went to the beach on Lake Geneva Sunday afternoon which was quite nice - although I did not spend too much time in the water because I noticed it was only the small children who were brave enough to tread these waters.

Present Day, June 14th - I am busy preparing for my presentation on 'Globalization and Health' at a conference in the Netherlands. I will be leaving tomorrow morning at 0600 hr, and will be returning Monday morning. The conference is in a university town called Groningen and I will be staying in a 5 bedroom frathouse - hopefully I will be the inebriated one disturbing THEIR residents at 2:00 in the morning. A fellow from Dalhousie medicine will also be presenting, and we plan on touring Amsterdam this weekend. So long, and thanks for all the fish, Geneva.

I will take the time when I return to decribe Geneva...no time now.

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