On Wednesday it was glorious sunshine as it has been since I arrived on Sunday. It is quite strange for me not to worry about bringing a jacket to work - in London I personally think you must be quite mad not to take a jacket wherever you go, as the weather can be both changeable and unforgiving. Instead, I strolled along the footpath from my hotel into Ferney-Voltaire for my third and final time (at least for now). Imagine butterflies, birds singing, wheat stalks gently waving in the summer breeze. A delightful way to start the day!
Today I submitted the necessary items to my workplace for my carte de legitimation. I will be applying for permit E, which is for non-permanent non-EU nationals residing in Switzerland (it took me several internet searches to work that out!). It looks to be a rather similar concept to the foreign nationals card I was given when I applied for leave to remain in the United Kingdom. This card is what will give me the right to live and work in Switzerland. As far as I understand it, I will be able to maintain ownership of this card as long as I am working here, not the other way around. So it's nice to know my residential status is not something I need to worry about.
It sounds as if I will need this card to do things like get a mobile through Orange or Swisscom, so I'll be putting those off until it arrives. I think the main things are bank account, residency permit, and ideally accommodation, although it has become evident that the latter may not be so easy to arrange as it is in other cities (at least not cheaply). Thankfully I have now arranged a short sublet of an apartment in Thonex, which is in the southern area of Geneva. It will take two trams for me to get to work, but it will still take less time than my commute in London, so I'm not too worried. I'm just glad that I have somewhere to go to when my stay at the Home St Pierre is up! The owner of the apartment in Thonex goes away for two months' holiday (July and August) and rents the apartment out for that time. It is a bright sunny studio with a nice balcony looking out at the mountains, so I think it will be a very pleasant place to live.
In general I am finding Geneva rather lovely. The weather has been great, although I understand it can get a lot hotter and more humid than it has been in the last week. I'm fine with a bit of sunshine though - I think I have even started developing the slightest hint of tan, which is exciting after five years of looking translucent year-round in London. My freckles have started showing up, at least!
Yesterday it did start raining in the afternoon, which meant a walk home from the Bel-Air tram stop through the downpour, although thankfully most of the footpaths are covered. It didn't stop one gentleman from merrily pounding away at the keys of the free outdoor piano next to Place du Molard, however, with just a plastic sheet to keep him (or more likely, the piano) protected from the deluge.
There is a lot of greenery, and the city seems quite peaceful. The downside of this is that the shops all close by 7pm most weekngihts, and after that there seems to be no option for buying food at all except for restaurants (which are quite often exceptionally pricey, particularly for a newcomer like me), After 11pm I don't think you have any option s at all. There are no off-licences like you would find in the UK (where at the very least you can buy bread/ milk/ cereal/etc). I have seen a few tabacs which are similar to these, but smaller, as far as I can tell. They don't have the same kind of opening hours either. And the smaller versions of the supermarkets (i.e. Sainsbury's Local, Tesco Metro) close early as well. So I'd recommend to any new inhabitants to make sure you have plenty of food in your cupboard so to avoid ending up hungry, particularly when coming home from a few drinks when you really want something to soak up the booze before you go to bed.
I found myself in this particular predicament on Wednesday, after the Glocals newcomers' drinks. I enoyed a few glasses of wine at the Mandarin Oriental (10 CHF per glass, not very large glassees either), met some fun people, had some entertaining conversation, and then headed home at around 10.45pm. On my way I realised I was quite hungry and decided to stop at a McDonalds or a kebab shop. Sadly the McDonalds I passed had been closed for some hours by the look of it, and there was not a kebab shop or the like to be found. The first couple of restaurants I passed could not serve me anything either as their kitchens were closed. Finally, I came across one restaurant which agreed to sell me a cheeseboard for an unsurprisingly exorbitant price. If only I had a tin of Heinz baked beans waiting for me at home! I learnt my lesson.
(A word to the wise: although ready meals can be found at stores like Migros or Carrefour for a reasonable price, don't be fooled by the image on the packet, because it seems to be even less accurate here than those back in England. I bought what looked like a rather nice cottage pie on Thursday only to discover strangely watery mashed "potato" paired with unappealing grey mince. However, on Tuesday I had a surprisingly delicious pork rissole with rice meal from the same company, so the jury is still out on whether such meals veer towards inedible or conveniently appetizing.)
However, it was a very pleasant and safe walk back to my hostel (the Home St Pierre, where I relocated to on Wednesday evening before the drinks). Plenty of street lights, a few people around, a very convivial atmosphere indeed. As I understand it there are a number of local laws forbidding noise in the streets at night, which is probably wonderful for any local residents, but certainly puts a stopper into any concept of a raucous night out. I haven't yet attempted such a thing however so I'll keep you updated on whether it is actually possible!
There is some excitement in the city though, to be fair. On Wednesday I was lucky enough to see an extensive motorcade racing through the streets. It included as many as twelve motorbikes, five or six minivans, a number of police cars and an ambulance. One minivan had its sliding door open with security men leaning out looking for any signs of trouble. Directly behind that van was of course the car with tinted windows for whomever the entirety of this motorcade was for. After a little research, it seems that the whole showing was for Vladimir Putin himself, currently visiting Geneva and apparently causing severe traffic delays with his motorcade!
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