Francophile in the West

It is officially fall in Geneva. We had a nice span of amazing weather here for several weeks, and then some Seattle-style rain and cold, and now it looks like we'll be back to sunshine and crisp, cold days for the next week or so. I love fall! It is by far my favorite time of year, especially in the kinds of climates found in Washington, Colorado, France, and Switzerland. This year, I've been feeling quite nostaligic for the typical autumn rituals in the USA, and especially in the Pacific Northwest: pumpkin picking and pumpkin carving; traditional Thanksgiving dinners; lattes on lattes on lattes on...; drinking said lattes in a cozy coffee shop with a good book or an interesting project for school; snow that surprises you one morning with its sparkly presence, only to be gone by the end of the day; corn mazes and hot apple cider; wearing all of my favorite fall sweaters; crunching leaves on morning walks to class (Colorado) or sloshing through soggy leaves i...

Oh, the occasional perks of being a participant in a brand-new study abroad program! The Graduate Institute in Geneva decided to take the 10 of us Korbel in Geneva students on an excursion to a classic location in Switzerland. We had three options to choose from, and the majority of us picked a day-trip to Zermatt, so away we went! Not all of us were able to go on the same day, so four of us went on Saturday, 16 October, and the rest will go in early November. WOW. We had an absolutely perfect day!! Although the train ride from Geneva to Zermatt is slightly less than four hours, it went by very quickly, both coming and going.  Once we arrived in Zermatt, we were met by one of the Graduate Institute's liaisons for our exchange program, Eliane, who also happens to be from Zermatt originally and has a home there currently. Eliane was a fantastic tour guide and was very gracious in showing us around the town and hillsides of Zermatt. In addition, since the weather was absolute...