Wireless In the Park

for the longest time i could not figure out why public internet was oddly absent in this town. it's home to major international organizations w/hundreds of visitors every wk, and yet it's impossible to find a cafe w/wireless internet. what the hell?! the only explanation i got was that everyone has it at home or in hotels, so there's no need to put it anywhere else. THEY LIED! on sunday i went wandering thru the Eaux-Vives area of geneva and found it.

apparently wireless internet is available in most of the major parks around town. tho why that's the case, i'm not sure. still, it was pretty cool to be sitting outside w/a picnic, my french language dvd, and high speed internet.
walked along the lake to Parc des Eaux-Vives, which has a big mansion and cafe at the top of the hill.

besides all the grass (where lots of people were playing REAL football) there were also little spots like this one -->

after a bit, i got some signals that it was time to go: 1)my sesame-street-for-adults french dvd had attracted the attention of a 2 yr old and 2)a thunderstorm was approaching. instead of heading towards the bus, i decided to walk home. went thru to Parc de La Grange, which has an awesome rose garden that puts Lake Harriet to shame. 1200 roses, 200+ varieties. Val, i can see you trying to dig some up so you could plant them at home...

it's also home to an 18th century roman villa that's open to the public 1 hr on weds (i obviously didn't make it). in the summer 2 theatres perform in this park: the Théâtre de l'Orangerie puts on various plays and adaptations behind the villa and the Théâtre de Verdure puts on music concerts.

in other news, switzerland just lost to the ukraine in a shootout. while i feel for the nice swiss folks, i have to admit a little bit of satisfaction since they kicked korea's butt on friday night... tmrw night will be watching brazil hopefully beat ghana and spain hopefully beat france!