This past week has been exhausting. Between studying for midterms, planning trips, a day in Geneva, a day of wine touring, teaching myself economics, taking midterms and running a lot of overdue errands, I'm beat. However, as of 11 AM yesterday I have no conventional responsibilities until November- that's pretty nice. I even have some extra time to fit in a blog entry about my weekend. If it turns out to be boring, we'll blame it on my lack of sleep.

Friday night our new study abroad advisor from Northeastern was in town to visit CEFAM and she offered to take us out on the company credit card. Naturally, since I help pay the bill for that card anyway I wasn't going to turn down some "free" food and drinks. Danielle took over as our advisor a few short weeks before we left so none of us had much time to get to know her, it turns out she's young and a lot of fun. We went to the bar in our school building for about 2 hours and spoke about our experiences so far. After we got all that bureaucratic stuff out of the way we found a pretty good restaurant and ate for a few hours. The thing about the French is that their food is excellent and they know it, so when you don't act like your life revolves around French food people get offended. I say this because our waitress clearly rolled her eyes when we asked for the check a mere hour after our meals were gone (including dessert).

James and I went to Geneva on Saturday, a trip that began with spending half of the train ride sitting on the floor of the vestibule. Since the transit union decided to strike last week our train was 30 minutes late and well overbooked; I ended up with a cozy spot between the bathroom and a door until we ambushed first class at the next stop and stole some newly vacated seats. Once we got to Geneva, we spent more time than I'd like to admit trying to figure out how to exchange Euros to Swiss Francs and buy a bus ticket. We finally succeeded. The day began at the United Nations but we had an hour to kill before the next tour- the Red Cross museum was right across the street and, according to my incredibly reliable European guidebook, this was listed as a "Don't Miss" for Geneva. It was a really nice museum- lots of interesting information, a good temporary exhibit on recent natural disasters, all of those things a good museum should have. The subsequent UN tour was interesting as well. The rest of the day was less educational, but delicious- we had Swiss chocolates, fondue, and Starbucks all afternoon while taking in some excellent views of the Alps. Also, I have to say, I never used to be a huge Starbucks fan but I get excited whenever I find one here because they still use big cups. Geneva was cold and incredibly windy, and it turns out being able to hold a cup of tea that actually fits in both of my hands was one of those things I never knew I appreciated. So, the day went well; Geneva is a cute little city with a beautiful backdrop- I look forward to going back in a few weeks to pick up Chris

Sunday we went on a wine tour in the Beaujolais region of France- CEFAM organized it for us and all of our advisors came along too. We went to the Georges Deboeuf winery first where they had a pretty elaborate tour complete with an animatronic wine show about picking grapes and a 3-D movie about their wine. After the tour we had a wine tasting and then we had lunch (with much more wine, of course). I'm told that Georges Deboeuf is sold in the US, so if you are curious about what wine from the Beaujolais tastes like you can try one of his. We also went to two small wine cellars in the region; I bought a bottle from one because I look forward to treating my mom to some good local French wine when she comes to Lyon in a few days. I have to admit, I gave up on the actual wine tasting part of the day after a few glasses (I'm not a huge fan) but the trip was worth it just for the scenery. France is really a beautiful country- sometimes I wish I had a car so that I could see more of the countryside that I can't see from a train.

So, that was my weekend, followed by some stressful tests and lots of errands. Friday I'm off to Italy for a week and then meeting up with my mom right after that. I'm so excited! I even bought new shoes in preparation for my trip... and jeans... and a few shirts... Viva le France.