First impressions..

Sooo I arrived safe and sound on Monday afternoon! After a nerve wracking and back breaking trek through the airport with my ridiculously illegal amounts of "hand-luggage", I made it on the plane, where admittedly I did take up rather more than my fair share of overhead bin space...However, oblivious to my disgruntled co-passengers, I made it to Geneva in one piece, got through a very strict customs - I guess they are Swiss after all, don't seem to trust anyone - grabbed a bite to eat and found the train ! They gave me my change in Swiss Francs too which was a first, they do look kinda cool, my first novelty souvenir!

Mistakenly got into First Class on the train to the City Centre, but luckily no scary Swiss people seemed to notice.. then I got my connection to Gcchhhunoblh. The journey was every bit as lovely as I'd imagined, no snow yet obviously but the views were unbelievable! (Pictures to come very shortly).
Got a taxi to the CROUS office at my Résidence, and then underwent several hours of queuing and French bureaucracy before finally being shown my room. I was less than impressed. I've since got onto them and hopefully the painter should be coming soon to freshen the place up a bit, fingers crossed! Found a McDonalds, which let's be honest, is always a good thing in a new place, and I've been benefiting unashamedly from their free WiFi for the last few days!

The town itself is lovely, with trams bringing everyone back and forth, with a lot of cyclists around too. The lack of cars really surprised me, but it's great because it means that people are milling about the streets, very relaxed, without the threat of traffic or fast motorists, it's really nice! The massively humongous looming mountains in the background can be quite scary in the evenings, but unbelievably spectacular during the day, can't wait until it starts to snow!! I went on a historic tour of the city organised by the welcome group last night, followed by an excellent soirée in one of the local haunts the "Montechristo".

The French is coming along nicely, frustrating at times when trying to express myself but the comprehension is good and I'm definitely getting by all right! It'll be a different story once lectures start I can imagine! Despite the French immersion so far, when I heard English voices at the tour it was impossible not to gravitate immediately towards them, giving me some slight relief from the constant bombardment of French language and culture for an evening, which, as I keep telling myself, I really needed!

Another tour on tonight, and I also need to find a supermarket as well as a cheap French phone - plenty to be getting on with!
I'll put up some pictures soon, à bientot! :)