geneve

or geneva as we call it. i had my first business trip to switzerland this week! i worked tuesday night until after 1 am, and the car came to take me to heathrow at 615 am, which meant i had to be showered and client ready by then. oy.

going on shear adrenaline, i piled into a leather-interiored mercedes (NOT typical for my car service) and enjoyed a 40-minute ride to the airport. at some point during the ride i realized that:

a) i don't really know what language they speak in switzerland
b) i didn't really have directions to the office, only loose instructions to "find the free train into geneva"

ah, whatever. after a two-hour plane ride, i arrived in...another country. i have to admit, the view out the british airways window was amazing - little chalets, the alps, lake geneva...breathtaking. geneva itself? eh. passport control was silly (where do you live? london? ok, go on.) - i had an apple in my bag! most countries don't like you bringing in foreign produce but it mattered not! the city was not really what i pictured, but maybe it's because i wandered through the red light district (who knew geneva had one)??

the free train was easy enough to find and really, everyone in geneva speaks english although i think their native language is french? don't quote me on that. they definitely have their own currency - the swiss franc. my wallet is confused by all the different crap in it - dollars, euros, sterling, francs. good lord.

the office itself was cool and i was excited to see three cincinnati expats who transferred to our little office in the alps! we were rushed getting ready for the big client presentation, which went really well, and which ended much sooner than expected. my creative director and i couldn't get an earlier flight back to london town, so he suggested we hit the bar. my kind of guy.

a bottle of white wine, some grappa, and a carafe of roset later, i was a bit drunk. in fact, when we boarded our flight i remember thinking "i have to wait until we hit 10,000 feet to lean my seat back and go to sleep. damn.". the next thing i knew, i woke up disoriented and 10 minutes flying time from heathrow. i slept through takeoff and most of a two-hour flight! i guess that's what happens after four hours of sleep and a lot of adrenaline + alchohol!

at any rate, it was well worth it to see my internal and external (read: client) teams happy. this is why i'm here. :-)