living with nuns

Aging, hesitant
To hold cars, streets of Old Town
Wind through misty dawn.


So my housing search may finally be at an end: I discovered the amazing Home St. Pierre, an all-women's residence in the heart of Genève's Vielle Ville (Old Town).  I would definitely recommend that any female (between 18 and 30, I think, is the criterion) investigate it for long-term stays, as it's pretty cheap for a double (around 500CHF/month, and includes breakfast!), with a single running to about 750CHF/month for the rooms that are big and have views.  That's cheaper than most places around here, and you can't beat a place that's furnished, has free internet, provides breakfast and cleaning, blah blah blah, in the middle of the most gorgeous part of Genève and right across from the famous Cathedral St. Pierre.

I have to flex my writer muscles here for a second, because I really love this part of the city.

So far on this trip, I've only seen the Old Town at night or in half-dawn; it seems like a magical place that doesn't, perhaps, exist in full light.  Lost last night as I searched for the Cathedral, I chanced upon an impossible playground.  I'd found the edge of the Old Town, but the large balcony I was on seemed to drop only onto blackness.  There were basketball backboards with psychedelic artwork, wooden rocking horses, and a contraption like nothing I'd ever seen: a circle of connected bicycles, child-sized, built to rotate like a munchkin merry-go-round.

I entered my room tonight, threw my things on the floor, put my llama in place, and set out to explore.  Just down the hall from my door is one leading to an attic staircase.  This staircase leads, rather unsurprisingly, to an attic, where it appears girls are to dry their clothes during winter months as it is strewn with drying racks and the like.  A door in the attic leads to a terrace overlooking the lake and the city... everything.  The bells of St. Pierre's towers ring out over the city as they chime the 23rd hour.  It's snowing lightly.  It's probably bedtime.