Thoughts on Geneva

I arrived here last night, having bid a heart-wrenching farewell to Ed, Clare and Kelly (my flatmate, sister and girlfriend respectively) at Gatwick. On the plane I was given a very welcome (and very strong) Bloody Mary which helped a little with the uprooting. On arrival in Geneva I was greeted by my colleague Dan who had my keys, and then invited me over to his for Sushi-making later in the evening - this was actually quite a lot of fun, and distracted me from missing home. I also managed to find somewhere that sold me some beers ("Nowhere is open on Sundays here, not even for beers!" said Dan and James) and watched Dr. Strangelove before bed.

So, today I have been to the coop supermarket, spent about £100 on stuff for my cupboards (which still look alarmingly bare) and wrestled with a woman from Royal Mail trying, unsuccessfully, to get my mail redirected to either (a) Kelly & Ed's house or (b) my new flat.

On the upside, it is a gorgeous sunny day, even though the temperature is apparently -1° outside. My flat, although small, has a wall of windows and an enormous bed, and could be a nice place to live once my stuff arrives. I have had some Ribena, a Bifi-roll and some sort of meaty oblong for lunch, and even managed to make a decent cup of tea, which is a good start.

I am now off to try and find my way to CERN for my first day - I'll get there around 3pm, I am meeting my friend Sarah for coffee at 4, I have a meeting at 5 with other people from my university, and then I'm meeting some others for beer at 6 - all in Restaurant 1, conveniently enough. Not the most strenuous of first days, granted.