A few pictures from quarantine:

The doors in this building were a surprise: first of all, see the button on the knob? The first time I saw it, I assumed you pressed it to lock the door. Sadly, like they say, that just made an ass of me and umed. Pressing these buttons is actually the only way to open the doors.

I also had a moment of worrying I couldn’t get into the apartment. Putting the key in the keyhole and turning it to the left unlocks the front door, but turning it to the right engages a second lock—when I tried turning it to the right, then to the left, at first it seemed like neither way worked.

One thing I like from the kitchen here is this wooden paddle. The only things I’ve made so far are oatmeal and sandwiches, but the paddle works really well for stirring oatmeal in the pot.

I’ve been pretty obsessed with oatmeal lately (for the past couple weeks, I guess?). I found a nice recipe here.

The art in this apartment is eclectic, but most of it is fairly normal. This picture just scares me, though. (I guess it’s all a matter of taste!)

It reminds me of my first time in Japan: there was a scary statue that could sometimes be seen propping open a door on the street outside my dorm building. I couldn’t find a picture of that one, sadly.

I’ve been studying French (the main language spoken in Geneva) for about three weeks. It will take a while longer before I learn enough for it to really come in handy. However, there’s a lot of stuff here in German, too, which is the most common language in the rest of Switzerland. Even if I can get my French in shape, I’ll still have to use Google Translate for things like this washing machine.

Most Netflix shows I’ve checked come up in German, too, with no French available. Netflix might be missing out on Geneva-ite customers who only speak French.

Switzerland feels a lot more foreign to me than Japan did, so far—unless there is an English option, I still can’t understand much of anything.

The balcony here offers a pretty view of some mountains. This one has snow on top in the mornings and seems to melt throughout the day.