geneva, v.2

it feels like i've been here for two days rather than two weeks. i'm sure part of that is due to jet-lag, and also from having a packed day today. in between meetings and hitting the gym and eating, i haven't had any time at all to tourist around the city. i really should have gone outside instead of napping (read: sleeping for 6 hours) yesterday after arriving. if only my wake-up call had come! if only i'd gotten more sleep on the plane! etc etc. nothing to be done now. since i don't have to leave for the airport until noon tomorrow, i'm going to do my best to get up at a reasonable hour (say, 9am) and finally check out the church next door. at least then i'll feel like i've seen something.

last night i went to a peruvian co-op restaurant with mark and his microfinance grantees. good food, neat place, complete with music videos playing against the wall. i think 15 languages were represented at our dinner table, with strange overlaps: i spoke with the couple in front of me in my broken spanish and their broken english. i learned that the swiss say "nonant" instead of "catre-van-dis" to mean 90 (or however you spell it in french). i also learned that while "bombilla" means straw in bolivia, it means lightbulb in spain; in mexico, by contrast, you'd say "popote" for straw. i learned how to say "mop" in four different languages--which i promptly forgot. so, dinner was a pretty good time, as is any time that involves hanging out with mark. the trip home was full of adventure too, as we hopped on a tram without tickets and then realized we were on the wrong line and had to follow a strange lady to the bus stop and talk to her the whole way home. jet lag caught up with me last night and kept me from sleeping, so i'm very tired now even though it's not yet 11pm.

i have a lot of music on my ipod that i haven't yet listened to--mostly things i've gotten off people's playlists at work. while packing for my trip on thursday night, i finally listened to "the bends" by radiohead, and i just can't say enough good things about it. i'm starting now to understand why people are obsessed with this band. i've listened to it in its entirety every single day since thursday; it's one of the greatest albums i've heard in a long, long time.

i could probably write more, but my brain is slowly turning into mush, so i think i'll call it a night. tomorrow afternoon i'm off to istanbul until saturday morning and should have less sleep disruption and more free time to sightsee, shop, and get bathed by old, fat turkish ladies.

until we meet again, adieu, ma cherie.