As well as learning about these organizations, I have spent a lot of time exploring the city and learning about the history. Genevans are very proud of their city and their history, and it’s easier to integrate into a new place and a new way of living if you can understand the locals! Cathedral St. Pierre is in the center of the Old Town, and most of the holidays and traditions seem to involve the cathedral in some way. In the fall, I climbed the hundreds of spiral stairs to see Geneva from the the top of the catherdral towers. In November, the cathedral was filled with candles every night for a week, and there were musicians playing different kinds of music every night. In December, the Cathedral was at the center of a massive festival called Escalade, a weekend-long reenactment of a battle in Geneva in 1602. And now, during the quarantine, there are concerts on the bells of the cathedral every Friday night for everyone around the city to hear from their windows.
One very important part of Genevan history is the Reformation when the Catholic church was challenged, and a new form of Christianity called Protestantism began. Martin Luther and John Calvin were both based in Geneva. Calvin’s chair is in the cathedral, and the Reformation Wall is in the Parc des Bastions, just below the Old Town. The Wall has giant statues of all the most important leaders of the Reformation movement. Since Geneva is still officially Protestant, everywhere is closed on Sundays which was hard to get used to - if I need groceries on the weekend, I have to go on Saturdays or else go all the way to the train station for the one tiny store that is open on a Sunday! In the U.S., most cities are bustling and busy late into the night, and some stores are open 24/7.
