Sweet Geneva

JFK is a large international airport right? So it should have an extensive international terminal correct? Well, that's what I thought, but when John and I arrived a few hours early for our 7:30 PM flight to Geneva, I was immediately disappointed. I really don't usually care too much about airport terminals, but this being my first international flight (excusing my flight to Canada last summer), I wanted to arrive early, eat a good meal, drink a little wine, get on the plane and promptly pass out. After passing through security, (which by the way, took forever as usual) John and I looked for someplace to eat. Our options were panda express, and a somewhat sketchy looking take out pizza place. There were two bars as well, but no place served both wine and hot food. This ended up being my last meal in the states for three weeks:


But enough complaining! Nevermind that the Samuel Adams brewery had only one Sam Adams beer on tap (cherry wheat)! Nevermind that our glasses of wine cost $11 a piece! We arrived in Geneva safely, and "Yes, I would like a morning chocolate, thank you... pardon, Merci!"


After arriving, while waiting for our baggage, John and I discussed at length what we should tell the customs agent we were doing in Switzerland. John thought we should simply state that we were visiting the particle accelerator (CERN), and staying at the address he had in his pocket. Now I, (always the honest one) insisted that we divulge our entire travel plan, no matter how loose (Geneva, Paris, Prague... and then whatever else we have time for). I eventually won. This was probably because John hadn't slept a wink on the flight. We went up to the customs agent, he said "Hello," (knowing we were American) then stamped our passports and let us through. John turned to me and said, "Well, I think we handled the intense interrogation quite well." I had to agree.

Jorge and his wife Edith picked us up from the airport and vowed not to let us sleep the whole day in order to help us avoid jet-lag. Their first task, making us espresso. Delicious. They completely succeeded because 12 hours later it is 9:09 PM and we are wide awake and about to have some amazing dinner. I'll tell you more about our day in Geneva later, but right now I want to sit on the veranda and drink some wine with my friends.

I will however leave you with one image. What do you think our first meal in Switzerland was this morning? Remember, I'm staying with Jorge.























In his defense... this is exactly the meal I asked for.