Under-the-Weather in Geneva

I can't believe it's Thursday. My travels began around 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning when we headed for the airport, and I was checking into my hostel around 3:30 a.m. EST (which was 9:30 a.m. in Switzerland) on Wednesday. Unfortunately Monday night I stayed up late doing all of the last minute things that occur to you before a long trip and only got about 4 hours of sleep. I also had a major allergy attack and sore throat and all of that not fun stuff.

Day #1: So when I finally arrived at my hostel in Geneva I was absolutely exhausted; my ears had still not unpopped or whatever from my flight; and I was constantly blowing my nose. So instead of exploring the city, I took it easy in a chair in the lounge here at the hostel and slept and read until my room was ready at 2:00. I felt sort of lame about that, but then I rationalized that this was my vacation and that I should do whatever I want even if it is lame:) Then I took a nice nap and felt good enough to do some wondering around. Unfortunately it started sprinkling when I set out and rained some off and on but not enough to really get me that wet. I walked across the Rhone River, checked out the Old City and several parks, and saw the Reformation Wall. Oh, I almost forgot to mention all of the wonderful chocolate shops. They're everywhere! I had a white chocolate truffle (just ok) and a ball shaped concoction, which appeared to be cornflakes dipped in milk chocolate. Oddly yummy. After my exploring I was hungry but never found a restaurant that looked that good and wasn't expensive. So I got a take-out mini-quiche from a place near the hostel, orange juice to help ward off this cold/allergy mess, and had a Luna bar. Then I finished The Partner by John Grisham. I know....really exciting!

I met my two roommmates as I was finishing up the book, and they were young German cousins traveling together. They informed me that today is a Swiss holiday--which ended up meaning I had to stay in Geneva tonight as I couldn't find a room anywhere else in Switzerland. I had hoped to hop over to Milan or Como, Italy, but the Italian railworkers are on strike and delays/cancellations are expected. So here I am in Geneva for another night; tomorrow hopefully it'll work out for me to go to some quaint Swiss town in the middle of the mountains. I guess I should have done a little more pre-trip planning.

Good news: Yesterday I received an e-mail from the PC USA offering me placement with the Young Adult Volunteer Program at the Nashville site. The position will begin in September and last for 11 months. I'm about to check out all of the information attached to the e-mail and expect that I'll accept, although I figure one more day of prayer can't hurt:)

p.s. I'm grateful for Zyrtec and Benadryl...and that my allergies are so much better now than they were when I was little--and received 4 allergy shots a week.