Beyond Cheese & Chocolate: My first week in Switzerland!

Zürich, Switzerland
26 Aug 2018

I have been in Switzerland for two weeks and I still cannot believe I am here. After landing in Zürich, meeting up with extended family, going on my first breathtaking hike in Switzerland, and beginning to acclimate to a new life here, orientation snuck up on me!

Nyon, Switzerland
28 Aug 2018

The program I am pursuing in Switzerland is the Global Health and Development Policy program through the School for International Training (SIT). There are about 30 students, myself included, who have left their families, friends, and universities behind to experience historically renowned diplomacy, study global governance in public health, hike in the Swiss Alps, and embrace Swiss culture through the homestay experience. What better way to break the ice with new classmates than to randomly room with 5 students for a few days. At the Nyon Hostel, I began to navigate whatever expectations I had about meeting new people, knowing with certainty that we had at least one similar interest: global health.

Although I have many, many years of Spanish in my back pocket, my proficiency in French is quite limited (but growing quickly!). And because our program is actually based in Nyon with many excursions to Geneva (a very international town), my new friends and I have been thrown into rather homogeneous French culture. I learned very quickly here that Switzerland is both land-locked and incredibly culturally diverse. With Austria, Germany, Italy, and France bordering this tiny country of around 8.4 million, the geopolitical boundaries crisply define language prevalence. The good news is that before arriving, this program provided access to and highly encouraged students to utilize the online self-learning language platform (Màngo Languages) for French to at least be able to engage minimally. With two weeks of Màngo at the tip of my tongue I was pleasantly surprised to be able to converse with the waiter at our first dinner as a group in Switzerland. With French as a required course here, I have no doubt the language barrier will be reduced (and so will my many faux pas…)

The first Saturday after our orientation each student received her/his homestay family. We all nervously awaited our host parent(s) arrival to the hostel to retrieve us. Little by little, the students went off to join new families and begin to settle in. The days leading up to this moment were filled with butterflies and excitement. Now, I’m two weeks in, quite settled into my new home. My current host mom has been with SIT for many years and has warmly welcomed yet another student. Isabelle is a loving, caring, inquisitive host mom and impeccable chef. As a vegan, I can safely say that being surrounded by some of the world’s finest cheese and chocolate gets quite tempting but Isabelle has graciously compensated for this. So far she has cooked me lovely meals with fresh bread, pasta, lentils, homemade crepes, and vegetables/fruits grown in her garden. In her two-bedroom flat, my room overlooks the sunsets over a vineyard and the Swiss Alps. It sounds like a fairytale and it looks like one too. I am very grateful for having been placed here! After settling in over the weekend, I gradually prepared for upcoming classes.

(View from my homestay bedroom)

The academic component of this program probably excites me most (next to living in the mountains, of course). The Independent Study Project (ISP), common to most if not all SIT study abroad programs, is a culmination of our work during the semester and will be serving as my senior thesis this school year as well. It is also in this capacity that students are able to develop a topic of interest, conduct primary qualitative research, and devise a significant paper that is entirely our own creation. With Geneva right in our backyard, we have been given access to the United Nations Library, Graduate Institute of Geneva, and a lengthy list of resources to explore what makes Switzerland the diplomatic, direct-democracy that it has been known to be for many centuries. The first two weeks of class have really been dedicated to (1) jumping right into our coursework and (2) the preliminary stages of research for our ISP. Given all the adjustments that come with studying abroad, getting a grip on the coursework has required more focused attention from me (many students here would agree on this too). I believe it is a natural process given how new our surroundings are and I have been ever-willing to embrace the thrill of being exposed to the great unknown here in Switzerland.

(Me at the UN Library in Geneva; the mural behind me is entitled “Dream of Peace”)

Of course there are challenges that come with studying abroad, particularly as a senior! With most of my college years behind me, so too is all that tuition. Switzerland is not exactly the most affordable country to live in, but we students have been navigating this financial challenge with increasing mastery. With a bit of budgeting and exploring the most economical means of spreading out costs for food and travel, my friends and I hope to maximize the Swiss experience and minimize our spending as much as possible. Beyond the necessary costs of a residency permit, visa paperwork, and other required payments, being pennywise has actually been a fun challenge to take on here because it has really pushed us to explore as many options as possible before deciding on one activity, restaurant, means of transportation and/or accommodation. In my humble opinion, he Swiss transit system is quite foolproof and so incredibly accessible. One of the biggest perks of this program is that we each receive a SwissPass that takes us on virtually all buses, trains, and boats within Switzerland (and even to our neighbor, France!). Recently introduced to the program, the SwissPass has definitely made my commute and Swiss explorations a breeze. In fact, the first two weekends of this semester you could find me hiking in the Alps without having to pay extra to get there from our homes. It really is a special treat.

Looking ahead, I have midterms this week and our excursion to Morocco for 8 days at the end of this month. There, we will be conducting field studies at rural health clinics and learning more about their infrastructure and development model. The directors of this program really have planned an incredible few months for us and I look forward to learning more about humanitarian aid, health as a human right, the role of global governance, and plenty more in the weeks/months to come. After a relaxing weekend trip to Interlaken and a spectacular hike I am ready to take on week 3!