Adieu Genève
A phase of my life just closed behind me. I skate out of town, with a pack on my back to thumb it slowly to Berlin. Moving out of town past neatly piled stacks of garbage, leaves me reflecting pensively on my experiences here.
I came to Geneva some two years ago. It was a novel effort on my part. I hadn't worked much for years to be honest, and felt it was time to top up the coffers. The reasons for coming to Geneva were many and complex, but involved the magic ingredients of money, language and a woman.
I spent some three months looking for a job, based variously in the beds and on the floors of my friends, and hitch-hiking to and from job interviews. I would hitch from my base of the moment to my interview in another town, change into nicer clothes, take an interview, change back and hitch back home. I was based in Bern for a month for the groundwork, Berlin for a month hoping and waiting and then in Lausanne for a month making things happen ... By Christmas of '97 I'd won two offers and accepted one for a January start.
The first months in Geneva were intriguing. I was captured by, enamoured of, the garbage. Sounds odd I guess. But it wasn't. The Genevois dump the contents of their houses on the streets for some odd reason.
There are collection days once a month, where large unwanted items are placed on the street and collected. This includes old furniture. And in a society as rich as Switzerland, old unwanted furniture is often in perfectly wonderful condition. It's just been superseded that's all. And the Genevois display little respect for allotted collection days. They just dump it as it comes, and these little mounds of household items collect on the footpaths at strategic points.
The good stuff doesn't last long, and midnight walkers carrying sofas, beds, tables, fridges, stoves, washers, and all are not an uncommon sight in Geneva. Hey, I furnished a room, with refrigerator, and various household appliances, lamps, toaster, great carpet you name it, all just from the 2 km run I'd walk from my home to work every day, and back. Sometimes I'd see something in the morning and intent on taking it home of an evening be disappointed that some one else had done so first.
I recycled 5 bicycles, all damaged and abandoned, gave three away. I delivered furniture to friends in need of it. And vice versa. On occasion a whole apartment would be laid out for the picking! Seriously. Friends of mine found fax machines, computers ... even.
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