It turns out that being pregnant is a great way to meet people. It also helps to be the wife of a physicist. Who'd have thought it? I'd always assumed that being the size of a blimp and spending too much time with science geeks would be a sure way to ward of new friends. But since arriving in France I've been lucky to meet lots of new folk. It helps that Geneva is only 50% populated by Swiss people - I've nothing against them at all, but it means that the other 50% that also live in the city have created a brilliant network for getting to know people. Making new friends since moving here has been a strange kind of chain reaction, leading me from one new set of people to the next, each overlapping slightly with the previous in one way or another.
Being pregnant helps. There are lots of networks for new mums and expectant mums in the area, and when I arrived in Geneva a friend from back in the UK, currently living in Geneva, recommended a great MeetUp network called Geneva Mums, Tots and Bumps which, as the name suggests, links up mums with babies and ladies with bumps for a whole range of useful things. Aside from the website, which has a really useful discussion forum for asking questions and sharing information, they also organise meetups, playdates, activities, nights out and lots more, as well as simply allowing mums to be in touch with each other to arrange their own activities if they wish. Not forgetting dads - who are also catered for with nights out. Every month the group organises a 'Sushi and Sucklings' event, so-named because its geared towards parents with babies under 6 months old and expectant mums, and we meet at a sushi restaurant in central Geneva. I went along to the lunch in September for the first time and although the location was a little puzzling - you're not recommended to eat sushi in pregnancy (but there are noodles and rice dishes on the menu too) - it was great to meet other ladies in the same position, to share worries, and to hear reassuring birth stories from those whose little bundles have already arrived. At CERN there is also a toddler group that meets on Tuesdays and Fridays, and although I got a few odd looks for turning up without a toddler (who knew there are entry requirements?), there are also a few mums among them who are expecting their second (or third) child soon, so it's been nice to meet other CERN wives in a similar position.
The toddler group is run as an off-shoot of the 'Cernoises', the wonderful name for the Women's Club at CERN, which is largely made up of CERN wives and which serves as an umbrella organisation for a whole range of other activities. My weekly French classes are run by the Women's Club, and they also run classes in embroidery, art, music, gymnastics and yoga - as well as running monthly coffee mornings. It sounds pretty old-fashioned - and it is - but it's brilliant having a network of people who are so welcoming of newbies. Somehow, I've been coerced into doing some baking and jam-making for the Christmas Fair in late November, so as you can see my career as a full-time lady of leisure and budding WI member is blossoming.
In fact, that's not all. I've also joined a knitting group. Strictly speaking it's a needlework group, because we're not all knitters - there are embroiderers, patchwork makers, people who crochet and so on - but we get together once a week to make our own things and have a chat over a cup of tea. Very 1950s. I've only been to one meeting so far but I took home-made shortbread (can you see my WI halo glowing?) which went down rather well, so I think I'll be welcomed back. The knitting group came about through another new acquaintance, albeit a slightly random one. I answered a query on the CERN Market - a kind of advertising board for people who want to announce flats to let, cars to sell, baby equipment to give away and all manner of other activities or opportunities - from someone looking to organise a Come and Sing Messiah at CERN. I emailed to say I'd like to take part and received a reply saying that as well as looking for singers they were also looking for people to help organise it... Despite my best intentions I revealed my former career as a Freelance Arts Manager. Needless to say, I'm now organising it. The lady who emailed originally also happens to live in my village, and goes along to the knitting group - and so another link in the chain was added...
But the people in the knitting group surpassed themselves. That night, after my first visit to the group, I received an email which had been sent out to 'the ladies of Logras'. It turns out that the lady who hosts the knitting group knows pretty much all the ex-pats in my village and took it upon herself to announce the arrival of Jo Buckley in the village. I felt a bit like royalty. 'Please get in touch with Jo and meet up with her, she'd love that', the email said. The very next morning, two emails arrived in my inbox inviting me to two separate parties within the next week. My social life is being coordinated for me! The shortbread must have been really good.
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