Hi!

I'm now in Basel, Switzerland. We were in Geneva for 3 nights. It was great! It was such a short time to be in such a great city. We tried to pack in as much as possible. We went to a bunch of UN agencies. I actually ended up meeting the Director-General of the WHO Margaret Chang! She is one of the most important people when it comes to health in the world. We also had lunch with the minister of health of India. We met so many more amazing people and learned so much about a lot of important UN agencies and NGOs in Geneva. We had some free time to explore the city as well. I met up with my friend from St. Mike's, Justin, who is studying in Geneva for the semester. It was so nice to get a little taste of home while I'm away. We have very limited access to internet. I'm at a starbucks right now. We have to pay money to get WiFi so I've been trying to use it whenever I can.

We started classes. They seem really interesting. It's neat because everyone in my group comes from such diverse backgrounds. We have a lot of pre-med students, so bio/chem majors, some public health majors, some international developments majors, some soc/anthro majors, and even a politcal science major. It makes the classes really interesting because everyone has a different perspective on the issues that we're talking about. In Basel we have been taking classes with my professors at a University here. We are here until next Saturday the 29th and then head to India. It's been a little hard to find a balance between classes, going out and hanging out with friends, and sleeping. Today was our first day off so I got to sleep in which felt sooooo nice.Last night was muesum night. All of the museums in the city were open until 2 am. It was really neat because all of the public transportation was open until 3 and the city was packed. Because we're such a big group it's really easy to just follow the crowd and not really pay attention to where you're going. I did that in Boston because a few of the girls on my program go to school in Boston. I hated the feeling of not knowing where I was going in Geneva though. I started paying attention and ended up falling into the role of directing everyone around the city. Last night I had to get us all around Basel, switching trams and everything. I don't know how the heck that happened because living in Readfield, Maine doesn't give me much experience in that, but it's kinda funny. Now wherever we go to group is asking me directions. Hopefully I won't get everyone lost...

Overall, the food has been good. We get two meals for free and have to pay for one meal during the day, usually lunch. Europe is so expensive though. I'm so glad that I'm not here the whole semester, I would be broke (sorry Jen, Jenny and Meg). They have a lot of meat to eat here which isn't really my style, but I've been sucking it up.

Yesterday we went to a non-traditional hopsital. They practice anthroposophic medicine. It's more of a holistic approach to medicine. The hospital only had 63 beds and felt more like a hotel than a hopsital. The philosophy behind this type of medicine is to take care of the whole person rather than just the one part of the body that isn't working. The doctors really stressed the importance of looking at each patient as an individual. Mar, there was even a place for Musictherapy! There was this big, open, gorgeous room that had all sorts of instruments. You would have loved it. The rooms all had windows with beautiful views. It was very relaxed. They had a room were they put people after they died for 3 days so that the could transition from the physical to spiritual world.  I agreed with parts of the way the hospital ran, but other parts were too much. It is the same cost as a regular hospital and covered by insurance. I can't imagine anything like this being in the U.S. They still practice traditonal medicine, but with more of an individualistic approach. Overall, Swiss helath care is really interesting. I think we can learn a lot from them.

They spoke French in Geneva, but here they speak Swiss-German (so much more difficult than regular German!) so I've been trying to remember some stuff from high school. It's been interesting to try and communicate with people, but a lot of people still speak English.

My time's running out, but I'll write again soon! Miss you all. Auntie - there's a 44 year old woman on my trip who is just like you. I think you two would be amazing friends. Happy birthday Mad! Wish that I was there to celebrate with you.