Hollandaze: July 2009

My week got off to an exciting start at the Palais des Nations.

On Monday, Ban Ki-Moon, the UN's Secretary-General came. This is me, with him to my immediate right. As you can see, we are good friends.

I also got to meet Cherie Blair, Tony Blair's wife, who had come to give a speech for her foundation. She was having trouble opening a window and guess who got to help?

That evening, the Swiss Delegation invited everybody to cruise on Lake Geneva. This is a picture of the police escort with the city in the background.

The American delegation lent some of its Robert Rauschenberg collection to the Palais for a retrospective. On Tuesday, we attended a reception for the opening. They set up a podium with none other than the American flag.

On Wednesday, I attended a Toastmasters meeting. I had been a member of La Voz de Oro Toastmasters in Phoenix, but had not attended regularly since the birth of the girls. It was a fun meeting and I would encourage anyone interested in public speaking to check it out.

Thursday night, I met Jessica and her friends at a place called MAD (moulin a dance = dance mill) for some salsa dancing. There were several excellent dancers, but this one had the most memorable outfit.

On Friday, I spotted this peacock out of a window. The City of Geneva has given the UN the land it has for as long as it exists. The City was bequeathed the land from a wealthy resident. One of the conditions put on the land is that peacocks should be allowed to roam freely upon it. I believe there are 7 peacocks on the premises.

Other random UN features - a worldwide clock and a rainbow over Lake Geneva from the bridge that links Palais buildings.

I am attempting to start blogging again. I had been quite confident back in February, but we know what happened there. We'll see...I make no promises...so here we go...

I am in Geneva and will be here for the month of July (it's almost over). I came here to do an internship with UNESCO's liaison office during the 2009 ECOSOC Conference.
To make it easier to manage the girls, I dropped them off with Dan's parents' after our trip to Illinois. They stayed there for about 10 days before Dan arrived. The three of them will return to Amsterdam this Wednesday. They've been having a fantastic time there.

Monday, June 29th - arrive in Amsterdam from the US, finish packing my bags, work on thesis all day

Tuesday, June 30th - arrive in Geneva at my new home, Centre St. Boniface. Luckily, they were able to take me in a day earlier than expected. Ephi, the coordinator here, is fabulous, helpful and nice. I have my own room, but share a bathroom and kitchen. It's located in the Plainpalais district, which is fun and is on three tram lines.

I was pretty tired on arrival, but got out a few times. The first thing I bought was an electric kettle. I bought a sandwich for dinner from a random place and learned a little known secret - although Swiss baguettes look identical to French ones, the dough is not as good.

Wednesday, July 1st - My first day at the internship. That morning, I was shocked to realize that my hairdryer's prongs are too big for Swiss outlets (they look the same). I let my hair air dry and then flatironed it, but it still looked not-so-great.

I went to my internship and met my bosses and my two fellow interns Jessica and Krit (who I know Amsterdam). My bosses really eased us in and it was exciting to get our UN badges. We had coffee and lunch and the other interns and I began to figure out how to divide up our work.

Friday, July 3rd - Dan had arranged to visit, so I was able to pick him up at the airport after my internship. After dropping his things off at my place, we went out to dinner at Les Armures, a fondue place in Old Town. Bill Clinton ate there when he was president and there is a plaque outside attesting to this. I enjoyed the spiced fondue while Dan had the mushroom fondue. He did not like it as much as I.

Krit met us there and we walked along the lake to Perle du Lac, a park along Lake Geneva (or Lake "Leman" as it's known here). CineTransat has been screening free movies this entire month, so we sat down, got beer and watched Four Weddings and a Funeral on a large screen. It was great! I'd forgotten how good it was and would advise anyone who hasn't seen it in a while to watch it again.

Saturday, July 4th - Dan and I strolled through the Plaine de Plainpalais Flea Market, where I bought a used hairdryer. After a mediocre breakfast at a random place, we headed into Old Town. We went to the top of Cathedral St. Pierre and took in great views of Geneva.

Geneva's famous fountain

the hostel I stayed at during undergrad with Jody

Random, Geneva chicken roaster

We then headed to the train station to head to the French town of Yvoire (train to Nyon, ferry across the lake). It was really picturesque and, indeed, deserves its official designation one of the most beautiful villages in France. Full of flowers and medieval architecture. We had anticipated spending the day there, but there was not a lot to actually do besides dine there. So, we took the ferry back to Nyon and hopped aboard the train to Montreux.

Yvoire

Montreux is at the other side of Lake Geneva and the Montreux Jazz Festival had just begun. We first stopped at the grocery store where we picked up wine and chocolate. There were several merchants set up along its promenade, so we just started walking. At the end of where everything that was set up, we came upon a memorial to Freddy Mercury, who died in Montreux. In Stonetown, Zanzibar, we had stopped by the home where Mercury was born, so it was one of those strange "full circle" occurrences.

Montreux is lovely and almost seems tropical. We took in a lot of food - raclette, merguez sausage, kofte - and music. There was breakdancing, a Central European rock, and a free concert. We had a wonderful time just sitting on rocks along the promenade and watching the amazing sunset. Eventually, we left to return for Geneva. Along the way, from the train, we saw fireworks over the lake. Dan has all of our pictures from Montreux.

Sunday, July 5th - Dan and I headed to the UN to go on the official UN tour. Our tour guide was funny and informative. I had been there before and had seen our offices, but I was really glad Dan got to see where I would be. After that, we went to the International Red Cross Museum. I liked it but found it somewhat hard to follow. The explanations about things were hard to read and see. I would recommend an audioguide to anyone who goes there and hope that it makes a difference (which I hadn't known were available until we were done).
Dan had stashed his things at the train station, so we headed there. We had a lunch and drank mint tea at a great Lebanese place while a hard rain came down. As we walked back to the station, we stopped at a Smurflike housing complex and found it quite whimsical. We shared an ice cream cone with Movenpick ice cream and then I bid Dan farewell.