Mark's Trek: Geneva, Switzerland

Made it to Geneva yesterday, and was easily able to meet up with my friend at the train station. We had originally planned to meet at the Tourism Office at the train station, but when I arrived in Geneva I found out that there was in fact no office of Tourism in the Geneva train station. So I just made sure to be sitting in a high traffic area and strategically stuck my legs out into the walkway so people would have to walk around me. This was intended to draw attention to myself, making it easier for me to find. It is the trick of panhandlers on the side of the road and they are hard to miss. With my strategy I was an easy target for my friend, Hannah to spot.

Hannah lives with three other girls in Geneva, two girls from St Louis, and one girl from Seattle. Once I was settled in and had a shower, we all went out to a local restaurant for some amazing hamburgers. After a fantastic dinner, we all made it to a Mexican bar/restaurant in Geneva. It was so much fun to go to a Tex Mex establishment in Switzerland, something that you don’t normally get to see, and definitely something that you don’t get from Lonely Planet.

Because of the big election, Webster had set up a viewing center in the large meeting room on the first floor of the dorms so that students could watch CNN live and get immediate updates on the polls. The festivities, which included free hotdogs and beer, started at 2 am GMT +1 and ended at 8 am. It was such a neat experience to literally stay up through the night trying to watch and see what is happening half a world away. There was definitely a huge sigh of relief when the West Coast polls closed and Obama was officially projected the winner of the presidential election. We got the news around 5 am and after that I was so tired I had to go to bed so I wasn’t able to hear the remarks from the two candidates until today. I read all of the facebook status changes that my friends posted through the evening. Most of the reactions I read on facebook were positive and hopeful, but a lot of people that I went to high school with surprised me with their disgustingly negative remarks on the outcome. Things like “I still believe God has a plan for us, and if it takes 4 years in hell for Americans to wake up, that is what we must suffer through.” WOW…. I nearly deleted this person as my friend because of the incredibly hateful words this person wrote. But then I had to stop myself and say, ‘If McCain had won, a lot of my liberal friends would have written similarly dreadful things.’ Just because someone’s opinions or beliefs are different then mine doesn’t make that person wrong. McCain was a strong candidate and a worthy opponent in the candidacy. I personally did not have that many problems with McCain himself, he has done many things for this country, and I look at what he did as a prisoner of war, and think of the position he would take in the economic crisis, leaving no one behind. But that is all politics.

I really am not the best person to discuss politics, though. I am a world away and am a real Maverick when it comes to a lot of my political and social views, and I will never be able to solve the economic crisis. I have come to accept the economic freefall of America as inevitability, and so I am not terribly afraid of it. Talk about a change. Obama has promised change in the U.S. and there is no change greater than people lining up on streets with soup bowls hoping that the food will last long enough for them to get some. That would be a huge change in society, but is that the change you want? Be specific, be open, and be respectful. Until we all master those things, the changes in America’s future are not going to be good ones. Well I have been allowed yet another rant.

I have been receiving messages from a lot of the people I have met along the way congratulating me on the Obama win which I think is a little weird, but I accept it in the way it was meant. Tomorrow I am heading to Tours, France, a bit of a divergence from my plan of heading to Lyon, but I couldn’t find a cheap place to stay in Lyon. The beauty of this trip is that plans change everyday and I have accepted that. Peace and Good Luck.

More Pictures from the Trip