Saturday, 30 June 2012
Accounting
Castles in the Air 17:42 l 0 Coconut(s)
- 60 fr. room key deposit 28 June
- 21 fr. water and drinks 28 June
- 14 fr. food 29 June
- 14 fr. groceries 30 June
- 6.50 lunch 30 June
Total till 30 June: 55.5fr + 60 fr recoupable = 115.5fr
At this rate...
55fr. in 3 days.
I'm staying in Geneva for a total of 30 days (6 weeks excluding traveling on weekends). Which means I'll spend about 550 fr. on food alone x.x
Thursday, 28 June 2012
Duke in Geneva - Day 1
So. After 1.5 months in Singapore and 12 days in China, I'm finally finally in Geneva where I'll be spending a large part of my remaining summer days.
The last day in Singapore was spent in a frenzy of shopping for last minute stuff, exchanging USD to pay the fees for fall term, last minute bank trips and of course, frantic packing. Had dinner with mom and dad at Ding Tai Fung just before I flew.
The Flight
The packing evidently failed when checking in at Changi showed that both my luggages were overweight x.x The big one was 25 kg while the small one was 14kg. Qatar was nice enough to let me check both in even though technically I was only allowed one check-in baggage.
Qatar also wins the cutest airline award, hands down. Seriously this is the first airline I've come across that gives out stickers.
In terms of service it doesn't lose out to Singapore Airlines in any way, but it's way cheaper (about SGD$700 for a 17 hour flight to Geneva).
The flight was pleasant enough. The plane was pretty empty, so after watching a couple of movies I left my seat, found an empty row of 3 seats, lifted by the hand rests, hogged 5 pillows to myself and slept. Awesomeness :D
Transited at Doha, and on this flight I ended up sitting to a kindly old man who was Canadian but lived in Doha. He was working in the petroleum industry, and we talked a little about traveling, high costs in Singapore versus in Geneva (Geneva wins by a far measure) etc.
Soon enough we were flying over the Alps, which looked pretty stunning from the sky. Geneva looks beautiful from the plane, especially when we flew low during the plane's descent. Green, neat without being too meticulous, modern but retaining the freshness of nature.
Getting to Cité Universitaire
I must admit I was rather apprehensive. I was obviously not going to spend 60 francs (about SGD$90) on a taxi to the Cité Universitaire, but lugging 2 heavy luggages up the bus with a bus change in between did not strike me as very fun either.
It didn't turn out to be that bad. Granted, I was cursing a lot the entire way. But all in all everything went pretty smoothly.
From experience, things usually work out whether or not you worry too much about it. So I walked out with a heavy luggage in either hand, knowing that I'm supposed to get a free bus ticket in the airport somewhere (but no idea where). But then the ticket machine appears about 3 seconds after I wonder about it, so I got my ticket.
Next I wandered around following the signs to the buses. It was easy enough to get to a bus, but I needed to get on Bus 10. I hopped on the first bus I saw and asked the driver in very shaky French if the bus was "numéro dix". The driver said no, and pointed me to somewhere ahead in rapid French.
T.T
So I wandered off again in that direction with my two stupid luggages...and didn't find the bus stop. Decided to ask the nearby ticketing vendor, once again in broken French how to get to bus 10.
Finally found the bus stop. A minute later the bus arrived.
Geneva buses are really nice, and people just board without having to show their tickets. Integrity system I suppose. And there's an additional stop button, blue in color with a picture of a baby pram, that you press to get the driver's attention so he could take note and not close the door on you.
Took bus 10 to Coutance (which was easy enough since they announce every stop), then dropped off to transfer to bus 3 to get to the last stop - Crets de Champel, right at the Cité Universitaire.
Got my keys at the reception, left a deposit of 50 francs, and lugged everything to Bâtiment B, where my room B5.26 was located.
I am proud to say that at this point, I have not spoken a word English to anyone. After more than 6 years of French, I still find it painful to converse with a native French speaker in French.
Failure x over 9000.
My Room...
...is pretty nice. If it wasn't so damn hot and yet unadorned with aircon.
Study area
Bed
Totally unnecessary girly stuff...that no choice have to bring back to Duke.
Wardrobe
Door view...water basin behind at the right
Window view
Was wondering why the moon is out...until I realized this is what the sky looks like at 9.26pm.
Costs
So I was dying of thirst, but this place does not seem to have a water fountain.
Bought two 2-litre bottles, an 8-pack of iced peach tea. Guess how much everything cost?
21 swiss francs. 28 SGD. oh yeah.
I foresee very uncomfortable financial times ahead T.T
To do:
- Read the first 100 pages of Martin Wolf.
- Read Globalization and its Contents
- Blog everyday at night or early in the morning. Max 1 hour.
- Take lots of pictures.
Super tired. Shall do a little bit of reading now and sleep early for tonight.
I cannot believe it's 9.34pm outside and the sky is still a clear blue. This is so weird.