All the German!!

So it's Wednesday and I am slowly inching my way toward having been here a week! Practical matters are slowly being taken care of- I went to the Dorigny Campus by the lake yesterday and got my UNIL student card, which was in an envelope with my name on it that was in the Erasmus office! Quite a good feeling to discover that they actually know I'm here. This trip required I take the Metro line 1 which meant actually finding said metro in the Lausanne-Flon area. To illustrate why this was not a simple task I need to describe this area a little more.

"Flon" (pronounced "FLA" by the Swiss- again, what is with the accents!?) is what you might define as the city centre of Lausanne. It is synonymous with "Place de l'Europe", and is at the bottom of a large number of hills. Above it is a massive bridge (there are about 3 of these bridges in Lausanne and I'm never sure exactly which one I'm on), and you can walk about 50 meters from it and there is a big church. Shopping streets branch out in all directions (including up and down). Why I find Lausanne so confusing is exactly this- everything is on a hill, but the hill is wavy, so houses are built at the bottoms of the created "valleys", as well as on top of the hills and on the sides and just everywhere! So everywhere you go you can find at least three levels of roads/bridges/metro lines. Trying desperately to orientate yourself according to "downward is toward the lake" doesn't always work either because of the silly "wavy" hill the city is on. So, Flon is at the bottom of a certain amount of roads, and is a major connecting point for public transport. It is the destination stop of my Bus 22 that I have now taken many times as it's the quickest if I want to get to university.

After you now get the picture a little better, I was very confused when having to find the metro 1 line, having only ever seen signs for the metro 2. Looking closer, however, I discovered that inside the building with the signs for metro 2 there were signs pointing back OUT of said building toward metro 1. Following these back outside I was immediately lost, but then, to my great surprise, I had to take an elevator UP one floor (as in the metro is one story above ground level), and lo and behold there it was, a white train waiting patiently at the station with a large sign for "Renens Gare". Who would expect me to go UP to find a metro? I figured the very definition implied underground... but hey I found it eventually!

Today I've been to Medical-Erasmus-Student orientation at the CHUV. It started at 12 and we weren't done before about 16:30. We were given all sorts of practical information, not extremely useful but the tour around campus managed to make all 30 of us that we were going to be genuinely lost the first few days. There are 43 medical exchange students here this year, all doing something from 3rd through 5th year training. Fun fact though, in the 30 that were there for orientation, there were 24 Germans! From all over Germany! Then there was one Italian, me, two Spanish, and two Swiss girls. So obviously the languange of the day has been German! Also fun was the fact that I spoke far better French than anyone there so everyone thought I was so much fun to talk to! They all seem really nice though, although nobody is doing quite the same combo of classes as me. It was nice to finally meet some people in my exact situation! We got chatting about living arrangements and phone companies and food and whatnot, so it was an overall very productive day! Tonight we're going out to a bar for drinks with the same people and our three UNIL "guides". Should be fun and it's nice to be social!

I am now really hungry and exhausted though after a day of information and walking, so I am making a chicken salad with avocado today! Nom nom. More updates coming as I close in on the start of my classes!