Noël à Genève

I can’t believe how quickly the holidays came this year. I was a little nervous about getting homesick over Christmas, but thankfully it wasn’t so bad. It just didn’t feel like a my usual Christmas this year, especially since I had a trip planned for the day after, but I put up a tree in my room and tried to do a little decorating to make it feel more like home.

My Christmas Tree

Early in December, Geneva puts on a festival called Fête de l'Escalade, to celebrate one of the city’s most memorable days.  One night in December 1602, the city was attacked by the Savoyards, but was successfully defended by the citizens of Geneva. It is said that a woman poured a cauldron of boiling vegetable soup over the men trying to scale the wall, thereby helping to save the city. The citizens of Geneva now break and eat giant chocolate cauldrons filled with marzipan vegetables, to remember this story. For the Escalade weekend, the Old Town is totally transformed. There are many people in period costumes selling hot spiced wine (vin chaud), roasted nuts, crepes, and other snacks.  I was able to go through a passageway that is only open once a year for Escalade, and to see the main celebration. After a long procession though town, a marching band and other actors gathered near the Cathedral Saint Pierre. There was a choir singing, ceremonial scroll reading, and a huge bonfire. Afterwards we grabbed a fondue, which is quickly becoming my favorite meal here. Nothing like melted cheese, bread, and wine on a cold winter’s night!

Escalade celebration in my village

Chocolate cauldron 

Old Town

Firing off muskets in old town

Passageway 

Marching band

Next to the cathedral

During the holiday season, Switzerland has many great Christmas markets that are worth taking a trip to. I went to Zurich, where the train station hosts a market with many booths selling crafts, wine, and treats. On the main shopping street there were more booths and a 'singing Christmas tree.' We visited Bern on the first Sunday of Advent, where there was a parade of Saint Nicholas and his almost alter ego, Schmutzli. Originally he was there to punish those that didn't behave well that year, but recently has changed into Santa's sidekick. He now hands out gingerbread and mandarins, which is much better than coal! Geneva was also covered with lights this year. It was so pretty to be downtown at night and see all the store windows and decorations. 

Zurich

Zurich Christmas market

Singing Christmas tree

Bahnhofstrasse Zurich

Bern

Bern

Me and Santa!

I was also lucky enough to spend some time in Gstaad before Shayna and I headed off on our vacation. Gstaad is a small Swiss-German speaking village in the mountains, very different from the busy downtown of Geneva. There are beautiful wooden chalets everywhere, with mountains surrounding the village. It’s pretty quiet during the non-winter months, but come ski season, it is flooded with people…Julie Andrews even lives up there. Our friend has an apartment in a chalet in Gstaad, that she was nice enough to let us use (THANK YOU A J), so we stayed up there for a few days, enjoying the views and kinda having our own Christmas. Baked brownies, had hot spiced cider, and even made our first fondue!

Gstaad

Central Gstaad

View from the chalet

View

Fondue!

After our stay in Gstaad, Shayna and I took the train back to Geneva on Christmas Eve. Many families in Geneva have their major celebrations on the Eve, which is the same with my host family. We had a first course of fois gras served on spice cake, and smoked salmon. I’m not really a fan of the former, but at least I can say I’ve tried it, and never have to eat it again!! Second course was a potato gratin, and a dish made with a vegetable only found in Geneva, kinda tastes like artichoke. We also had  green bean casserole, Challah, and turkey with a mushroom cream sauce. It wasn’t my typical Christmas meal, but I was celebrating Noel this year. After dinner we did our gift exchange, and then mass skype sessions with my family. My brother passed the computer around so I could see everyone open their gifts, and my dad even opened a few for me that I’ll see when I return home J . It was interesting to experience another culture’s Christmas, but I definitely missed home.

Our Christmas tree

Christmas dinner

Start of the meal

On the 26^th we took a flight to Edinburgh to tour Scotland and London, but I’ll write a separate post for that trip.

To update you guys on a little bit of my life in Geneva, I’ve joined the boy’s basketball team in Anieres. It has been an interesting experience, mainly due to my lack of skills, and well, struggle with the French language, but it has been really fun so far and a great way to get some practice! Plus, I missed being on a sports team. French class has improved greatly, I think I’m picking up a lot more now. I was even able to use a little on my London trip. Hopefully I can improve beacoup before I head home. Still deciding on when that will be, I’m thinking about looking into a way to stay in the UK maybe…I don’t know, I’ll keep you guys posted. I’m heading to Barcelona in a few weeks. I’m a little nervous about it because it’s my first solo trip here, but it should be fun! I also have an unexpected week off next month, so I may do a trip to Budapest, Vienna, and Rome. I think that’s about it for news. I may get around to posting about Scotland/ London this week, but we all know it takes me forever!

I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!!

~ Emer