This week was busy, but full of interesting stuff! I visited the World Trade Organization, International Center for Migration and Health, and the Red Cross Museum for my classes, explored Geneva and Yens on a few afternoons, and read some very interesting, fact-filled articles. I think the best way to recap would be to split my week into sections, so here goes...
International Organizations
World Trade Organization (WTO)
A member of the secretariat gave us a brief overview of the history, structure, and functions of the WTO which turned out to be much more interesting that I had anticipated. Learning about the structure helped me understand a lot of the processes that occur within the WTO. One of the most important things I learned about the WTO is that all decisions are made my consensus, meaning every member country must agree with a decision in order for it to be passed. This means that criticism that claims the WTO is "forcing" something on specific countries is incorrect because each country accepted the agreement. A lot of negotiating goes on prior to reaching an agreement, but each individual country ultimately agrees. I also learned an interesting tidbit during our briefing: the average cow in Switzerland earns $2 per day in subsidies!!! That's more than millions of people in earn each day.
International Center for Migration and Health (ICMH)
Dr. Manuel Carballo briefed us on the basics of migration and health, and emerging challenges in public health. Throughout his presentation, we learned that Dr. Carballo has worked in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Rwanda, among other places, and he also played a big role in organizing relief efforts after the Tsunami. He was wealth of information, but two statistics he mentioned really struck me: 1) 60% of the world's population has no access to clean running water, and 2) 65% of the world's population does not have access to education, particularly girls. He talked about several really interesting, but somewhat depressing, topics. I definitely think the ICMH is an organization I might be interested in working with for my research project at the end of the semester.
Red Cross Museum
The Red Cross Museum was also interesting but depressing. The first part of the museum focused on the history and founding of the Red Cross. They even had the original copy of the first Geneva Convention (the document that founded the Red Cross) on display! The rest of the museum, however, was dedicated to efforts of the Red Cross during times of war. The Red Cross was initially called the "International Committee for Relief of Wounded Soldiers" and, as you might imagine, they provided medical assistance for wounded soldiers, so a lot of their history entails assistance during the World Wars. Later Geneva Conventions (there have been four total) entrusted more groups to the care of the Red Cross -- the second GC added armed forces at sea, the third added prisoners of war, and the fourth added all civilians -- and eventually Federations of the Red Cross formed, which are basically domestic versions of the Red Cross (i.e. The American Red Cross).
Exploring
Geneva
We went to the Red Cross Museum on Friday morning and then we had the afternoon free. I walked around the city for a little with a girl named Alyssa who's in my program. We first went to the SIT office in Geneva to talk to Anne about some cultural-type events (mostly musical performances). After that we walked around near the train station for a while, and eventually ended up near the Old City again before heading home. The part of the city we walked around was really pretty, though. (Sidenote: Geneva is a pretty small city -- it's about 6 square miles and the population is around 185,000. As a reference, Winston-Salem is about 130 square miles and the population is around 227,000). Saturday I met Alyssa and another girl, Emily, in Geneva and we went to the Natural History Museum and a contemporary art museum. The Natural History Museum was pretty cool. There were LOTS of taxodermy animals, some of which were pretty creepy, such as the vampire bat, warthog, and owl in flight. The contemporary art museum (I can't remember which one we went to because there are several in the same area) was interesting. There was one exhibit that was basically a giant red platform with one seat and a recording device. You could go sit on it and record a message (the computer in the platform had enough disc space to record continuously for 6 years!), but none of us could think of anything to say so we didn't leave a message. There was another very creepy exhibit that involved going through two sets of heavy black curtains and walking blindly down a small pitch-black hallway until you saw what appeared to be a big stone with glittery sand. Just when you think the scary-ness of the whole ordeal is over, though, you walk around the stone to see a statue of a man with his back turned. It was not a fun exhibit, let me tell you.
Yens
I saw a little more of Yens and the surrounding area this week, which seems hard to believe considering how small Yens is. Thursday night after French class, I went out to dinner in Yens with Natasha, Orlando, and Anne (another student, not our Program Assistant). We went to one of the two restaurants in the village, which is apparently known for its good pizza. The restaurant is part of the one hotel in Yens, and seemed to be quite popular given the size of the village (under 1,000). We at outside in the courtyard because we've had wonderful weather all this week (it's been in the 70s every day!). We tried the pizza (which was pretty good) and also tried some "vin de commune," or wine made in Yens. After dinner we all walked around the village a little (we had to give Anne the grand tour because she was our first visitor!) and then we walked back to Natasha's house (because it was closest) and just hung out for a little while until it was time for Anne to leave for the train.
I also went running this week (finally!) and have seen some new parts of Yens that way. I've been running on the road we took to get to Patrick's fort and taking various other side roads from there. It's been great weather for running outside this week, and the views from the hills are amazing! You can see the whole village, the lake, and the Alps while running with cows grazing on one side of you and a corn field on the other.
This morning Iain, Josie, and I went for a walk in and around Aubonne, a village that's about a 10 minute drive from Yens. (Sidenote: Monday is a holiday in the canton of Vaud (where we all live), but not in Geneva (it's a crazy Swiss thing), which means most places in Vaud will be closed on Monday, including schools, but Geneva will still be functioning as normal. Since the kids don't have school Monday, Christina, Olivier, and Patrick are at a neighbor's house in the south of France on the Mediterranean for the weekend and Simon went home for the weekend for his sister's birthday. (Josie stayed home for a birthday party on Friday night.) Luckily for us SIT students, though, Earl managed to schedule our Monday classes in Geneva.) Aubonne was really pretty and it was nice to see another part of the canton. It was also a lot bigger than Yens and felt more suburban.
Interesting Facts
One of the articles I read for class this week was the UN Human Development Report 2005. The report was about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) put forth in 2000 with the aim of reducing world poverty. The deadline for reaching the goals is 2015. The report had tons of interesting and striking statistics in it, and last year when I read something I found really interesting I would tell Alex. However, Alex is in Cairo now and not in my room in Yens, so I'll share what I found interesting with all of you.
"In 2003, 18 countries with a combined population of 460 million people registered lower scores on the human development index than in 1990 -- an unprecedented reversal. In the midst of an increasingly prosperous global economy, 10.7 million children every year do not live to see their fifth birthday, and more than 1 billion people survive in abject poverty on less than $1 a day. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has inflicted the single greatest reversal in human development."
"One-fifth of humanity live in countries where many people think nothing of spending $2 a day on a cappuccino. Another fifth of humanity survive on less than $1 a day and live in countries where children die for want of a simple anti-mosquito bednet."
"Life expectancy gaps are among the most fundamental of all inequalities. Today, someone living in Zambia had less chance of reaching age 30 than someone born in England in 1840."
"Botswana is facing an HIV/AIDS-inflicted fall in life expectancy of 31 years."
"Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for a rising share of child deaths: the region represents 20% of births worldwide and 44% of child deaths."
"The world's richest 500 individuals have a combined income greater than that of the poorest 416 million. Beyond these extremes, the 2.5 billion people living on less than $2 a day--40% of the world's population--account for 5% of global income. The richest 10%, almost all of whom live in high-income countries, account for 54%."
"We estimate a cost of $300 billion for lifting 1 billion people living on less than $1 a day above the extreme poverty line threshold. That amount represents 1.6% of the income of the richest 10% of the world's population."
"The MDG for reducing child mortality will be missed by 4.4 million avoidable child deaths in 2015--a figure equivalent to three times the number of children under age 5 in London, New York, and Tokyo."
"The MDG target of universal primary education will be missed on current trends, with 47 million children still out of school in 2015." (To put 47 million children in perspective, consider the populations of Switzerland (7.4 million), Illinois (12.8 million), or North Carolina (8.8 million).)
"Gender is one of the world's strongest markers for disadvantage. This is especially the case in South Asia... In India the death rate for children ages 1-5 is 50% higher for girls than for boys. Expressed differently, 130,000 young lives are lost each year because of the disadvantage of being born with two X chromosomes. In Pakistan gender parity in school attendance would give 2 million more girls the chance of an education."
"Since 1990 increased prosperity in rich countries has done little to enhance generosity: per capita income has increased by $6,070, while per capita aid has fallen by $1."
"For every $1 that rich countries spend on aid they allocate another $10 to military budgets."
"Current spending on HIV/AIDS, a disease that claims 3 million lives a year, represents three day's worth of military spending."
"The $7 billion needed annually over the next decade to provide 2.6 billion people with access to clean water is less than Europeans spend on perfume and less than Americans spend on elective corrective surgery. This is for an investment that would save an estimated 4,000 lives each day."
"In the last round of world trade negotiations rich countries promised to cut agricultural subsidies. Since then, they have increased them. They now spend just over $1 billion a year on aid for agriculture in poor countries, and just under $1 billion a day subsidizing agricultural overproduction at home--a less appropriate ordering of priorities is difficult to imagine."
And one last thing from a publication by the International Organization for Migration:
"Malaria costs Africa $12 billion a year in production loss. Yet anti-malarial drugs, 95% effective, cost only $0.12 per dose, and insecticide treated bed nets, costing $4 a piece, can reduce child mortality by 25%. Malaria is said to lower economic growth by 1% or more per year in areas of high prevalence."
Well, I guess that's all for now... I'll try to keep other entries shorter :)
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Climb Time
Yesterday afternoon I walked over to Natasha's house and we walked around the village to do a little exploring. There wasn't really much going on, but there were some really beautiful buildings and equally beautiful views. Needless to say, we took tons of pictures. After we came back to her house, her "mom" told us that there are two restaurants and one bakery in the village, but that they were closed on Saturday afternoons. On our journey we also went into the one small convenience store in town and discovered approximately six different wines that are all made in the village. A lot of the other products in the shop were local -- there was cheese from a village a few kilometers away and yogurt from another nearby village. Back at Natasha's house, her "mom" (Christine) put out three different fruit pies for us to eat and served us some mint tea, which was a very interesting beverage. After unnecessarily stuffing my face at Natasha's, I went back to my house. The rest of the family had been out and about all day, but everyone was returning for dinner. We ate dinner outside again, which was really nice, and had some kind of white plum dessert afterwards while watching the Wales-Germany football game. About halfway through the game I called home and then went to bed because I was totally exhausted and knew I was going to be busy Sunday.
On Sunday morning Christina, Olivier, Patrick, and I left the house around 11:00 for what turned out to be quite the adventure. (Josie had left Saturday morning for a Scouts camping trip and Ian stayed home to pick her up later in the day Sunday. Simon was off exploring different parts of Switzerland with a friend because he has some kind of generic rail pass... I think they went to Zurich and Luzern.) Olivier had chosen a mountainous destination for us to go to for the afternoon and do some climbing. The road to our destination, however, turned out to be much steeper and narrower than he thought it would, so Christina was a little stressed while driving up there. We were in the canton of Valais which has many valleys and required us to drive past Montreux to get there (don't worry Dad... Christina said we'll go back to Montreux one weekend). We finally made it to the lake Olivier wanted to get to, which was just above 2,000 meters. It took us about two hours to drive there, so the first thing we did when we arrived was have our picnic lunch on a huge boulder overlooking the lake. After lunch, Olivier, Patrick, and I went rock climbing while Christina rested and de-stressed on the boulder. We had about an hour until we had to leave in order to make it back to swim before dinner, so we got in two pretty easy climbs. I really have no idea how high we went, but it wasn't very high... maybe about 10 meters. The mountains and rock faces near the lake are (apparently) pretty famous and were quite popular in the 1980's and 90's (according to Olivier). They weren't too hard to climb, which was good considering it was my first climbing experience. Coming down was a bit unnerving on the first climb because the technique basically goes against your natural instincts, but the boys were really helpful and encouraging. By the end of the second climb it was time to go, so we drove two hours back to Morges and went to the pool for one last time because it closed today. The weather was actually quite nice, which was a nice change from Thursday's swim. After swimming, we came home and had dinner (really good lemon chicken and homemade tiramisu for dessert!!), and now I'm updating this and will soon be going to bed because I'm tired. Luckily, I have a late start tomorrow (10:45) because we're split into two groups on certain days for advising and I'm in the later session, but I think I may leave early and do some reading before class. Overall, this weekend was really good and Christina and Olivier said they'll take me climbing again another weekend, so I'm pretty excited about that! Au revoir!
On Sunday morning Christina, Olivier, Patrick, and I left the house around 11:00 for what turned out to be quite the adventure. (Josie had left Saturday morning for a Scouts camping trip and Ian stayed home to pick her up later in the day Sunday. Simon was off exploring different parts of Switzerland with a friend because he has some kind of generic rail pass... I think they went to Zurich and Luzern.) Olivier had chosen a mountainous destination for us to go to for the afternoon and do some climbing. The road to our destination, however, turned out to be much steeper and narrower than he thought it would, so Christina was a little stressed while driving up there. We were in the canton of Valais which has many valleys and required us to drive past Montreux to get there (don't worry Dad... Christina said we'll go back to Montreux one weekend). We finally made it to the lake Olivier wanted to get to, which was just above 2,000 meters. It took us about two hours to drive there, so the first thing we did when we arrived was have our picnic lunch on a huge boulder overlooking the lake. After lunch, Olivier, Patrick, and I went rock climbing while Christina rested and de-stressed on the boulder. We had about an hour until we had to leave in order to make it back to swim before dinner, so we got in two pretty easy climbs. I really have no idea how high we went, but it wasn't very high... maybe about 10 meters. The mountains and rock faces near the lake are (apparently) pretty famous and were quite popular in the 1980's and 90's (according to Olivier). They weren't too hard to climb, which was good considering it was my first climbing experience. Coming down was a bit unnerving on the first climb because the technique basically goes against your natural instincts, but the boys were really helpful and encouraging. By the end of the second climb it was time to go, so we drove two hours back to Morges and went to the pool for one last time because it closed today. The weather was actually quite nice, which was a nice change from Thursday's swim. After swimming, we came home and had dinner (really good lemon chicken and homemade tiramisu for dessert!!), and now I'm updating this and will soon be going to bed because I'm tired. Luckily, I have a late start tomorrow (10:45) because we're split into two groups on certain days for advising and I'm in the later session, but I think I may leave early and do some reading before class. Overall, this weekend was really good and Christina and Olivier said they'll take me climbing again another weekend, so I'm pretty excited about that! Au revoir!
Friday, September 7, 2007
Bienvenue a Suisse!
I suppose I'm beginning this blog a little late into my journey, but better late than never, right? Switzerland has been amazing so far! So much has happened in the 11 days since I left home, yet there is still so much to come this semester. I can't believe it's been just over one week since we arrived in Switzerland and only six days since I moved in with my host family -- it seems like we've been here much longer. I guess a review of the past week or so is in order, but first I should probably explain the title of my blog since I would have no idea what it means if I wasn't living in Switzerland. The official abbreviation/country code for Switzerland is "CH" (a lot of people here have "CH" bumper stickers on their mini Euro cars). It stands for "Confoederatio Helvetica" which refers to the ancient Celtic Helvetii people who lived in the Alps. If for some strange reason you'd like to know more about the Helvetii people or their place in Swiss history, please consult Wikipedia. And hopefully you can all figure out the "16 weeks" part. So without any more ramblings, here are my past 11 days in a nutshell:
28 August, Tuesday
I flew from Chicago to JFK solo and then met up with most of my group at our gate at JFK. There are actually two SIT programs in Geneva this semester and we were both on the same flight. We also spent part of our first few days together in Geneva, but we haven't seen the other students much since moving in with our families. SIT (School for International Training) programs are rather untraditional in their structure. We're not enrolled in an actual university while here, but rather we have lectures and discussions with our Academic Directors and briefings with various experts in our fields of study. Each SIT program has a theme that the lectures and briefings relate to -- my program's theme is Development Studies and Public Health and the theme of the other SIT group in Geneva is International Relations, Organizations, and Social Justice (or something like that). Another unique feature of SIT programs is that our lectures and briefings only continue through October. We then spend the last four weeks of the program conducting an Independent Study Project which will result in a 30 page paper and a presentation to the rest of the group and various guests. But back to the flight to Geneva... So we flew from JFK to Paris and then connected to Geneva. We met our Program Assistant (Anne) at the airport and took a bus to a hostel in the city. The flights were pretty uneventful, however we did have an exciting five hour layover in Paris. After we made it to the hostel we had a short introduction and orientation with our group and our Director.
29 August, Wednesday
Our flight from JFK left at 6PM so it was technically Thursday when we landed in Paris and Geneva, so the last part of my description of Tuesday should really be down here, but the traveling felt like one day, so it's not :)
30 August, Thursday
On our first full day in Switzerland we traveled to a small city called Nyon which is about a 10 minute train ride from Geneva. Nyon is where most of our classes will be held. We went to a community center called Ecole Club-Migros (ECM) for orientation fun. The highlight of this day was probably filling out forms to receive our security badges at the Palais de Nations, better known as the UN. An exciting tidbit from Tuesday/Wednesday that I forgot until now was that on our way to the hostel we drove past the UN and the UNHCR (UN High Comission for Refugees)!! (I was pretty excited about that, but I guess maybe it's not that exciting). In the afternoon we had a French placement test which was rather frustrating, considering I speak and understand next to no French. The oral part of the test was especially annoying because I had four native French speakers asking me questions that I couldn't answer either a) because I didn't know what they were asking or b) when I did understand some of what they said because of knowing Spanish, I had no idea how to answer except to say "oui" which made for a pretty one-sided and boring conversation. We also met with our homestay coordinator that afternoon and had a group dinner at a really great Italian restaurant. Then we went back to the hostel and slept.
31 August, Friday
Friday morning we had one last bit of orientation at a center in Geneva where we will have more briefings during the semester. We then had lunch and took a tour of the Old City of Geneva. The Old City was really interesting and really scenic. There's such an awesome amount of history in Geneva: we visited St. Peter's Cathedral where John Calvin preached during the reformation, saw Jean Jacques Rosseau's home, and saw the oldest part of the Geneva city hall where the Geneva Convention was held!! (Although all of that sounds pretty lame compared to what Alex has seen in Egypt, like a well that Jesus drank out of.) After our tour we had free time and dinner on our own. I went to an Indian restaurant near our hostel with a few other people and then walked along the lake after dinner.
1 September, Saturday
Saturday was a big day! We met our host families at a hotel in Nyon in the late morning. I actually went home with another family who is from my village and hosting another SIT student (Natasha), because my host family was busy in the morning. Christine, Natasha's "mom", drove Natasha and me from Nyon to Yens, stopping in Morges along the way. Morges is the town where we switch trains every morning to get to class. She drove us through part of town and it was really pretty -- I'd like to go back and walk around one afternoon or weekend. She also showed us the train station in Morges so we would know where we had to go on Monday morning. After our stop in Morges, we continued on to Yens, our new "home." We went to Natasha's house first, which is a really fascinating house. It's a farmhouse that was built in the 1700's. I saw a bit of the inside of the house before leaving for my own homestay. My homestay family is wonderful!! They live in a newer house that is over the hill, on the back side of the village. My room is in the basement, next to the room of the Swiss German high school student (Simon) who is also living with my family for the semester. We share a bathroom downstairs. There's also a small rock climbing wall in the basement because my family's eldest son, Olivier, really enjoys climbing. My "mom," Christina, is super nice. When I first arrived only Christina and Josephine, their 9-year-old daughter, were home. They showed me my room and then we had lunch on the terrace outside their dining room that overlooks Lake Geneva and part of the French Alps on the opposite side of the lake. On a clear day you can even see the top of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe! The view is absolutely gorgeous. The whole idea of living in such a beautiful place and being surrounded by such great landscape and scenery all the time is a little unreal. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe I'm actually living here.
The rest of the family returned home later in the day -- my "dad" Ian had been at my "brother" Patrick's football match (aka soccer game) in the afternoon and Olivier and Simon had gone rock climbing. Josephine (aka Josie) had to go to Scouts later in the afternoon, so when it was time to pick her up Christina brought Patrick, Simon, and me along and the five of us went swimming for about an hour. After returning home we all helped to get dinner ready and ate outside on the terrace again, despite it being a bit chilly. The children all love apples and the family has a few apple trees in their yard, so Christina makes apple pies nearly every day during apple season. She has four or five different apple dessert recipes, so I tried my first one on Saturday night. It was delicious! (duh!) After dinner on Saturdays, the family usually watches a movie together. It came up at dinner that I had been to Vietnam this summer, so Ian decided we should watch Good Morning Vietnam. I had never seen it before, but I really enjoyed it. I should add that Christina is German and Ian is British, so their children are all trilingual (German, English, and French). Also, because they learned English from their dad, they have adorable British accents! So after the movie, we all went to bed. It was a great first day with my new family -- they were really warm and welcoming which helped put me at ease about living here for the next four months or so.
2 September, Sunday
Sunday morning I wandered upstairs probably around 9:30 or 10:00 and had some breakfast (bread and homemade jam from Natasha's host mom). I stayed in the kitchen for a while talking with Christina and the kids as they wandered in and out of the kitchen, just getting to know the family a little. Around noon all the kids had to go outside and help Ian in the garden for an hour, so I joined in. Josie and I weeded and did some raking. After gardening we ate lunch and then Josie had some activity (I can't remember what now) and the boys were going to the forest, so I decided to go with them. I thought we would be going hiking or something, but when we left the house Olivier was carrying a backpack and a large saw, Patrick was carrying a long metal pole, and Simon was carrying a stepladder, so I was a little confused/worried. First we walked along a gravel road behind the house for a short way, then we spent about five minutes walking through a corn field to get to the forest. Once we got to our destination Patrick explained to me that he and a friend had started to build a fort about two weeks ago and so we were now adding to it. We gathered wood for a while, then created a few walls and a tower. It's actually really cool, but definitely not something I ever would have thought to do when I was 13. (Sidenote: Olivier and Simon are 16, Patrick is 13, and Josie is 9).
After about an hour and a half at the fort, Ian picked us up (there was a road between the corn field and the forest) and took the boys to practice football. I went back to the house for a bit and later in the afternoon we all went swimming again. After swimming we came back home for dinner and more apple desserts. I also gave everyone their gifts after dinner. I brought Olivier, Simon, and Patrick Chicago sports teams baseball hats (Sox, Bears, and Bulls), an LWE t-shirt for Josie, and a piece of art glass for Ian and Christina that was made by someone from Frankfort. Apparently he has pieces of art glass in the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian, which I was completely unaware of until my mom bought the gift and brought home the card about it that came with it. Pretty cool, I guess. They all seemed to really like the gifts and the boys have been wearing the hats this week. We all went to bed relatively early on Sunday since Monday was a school day.
3 September, Monday
So Monday consisted of class in the morning with our Academic Director (Earl) and Program Assistant (Anne). Natasha and I commuted together from Yens to Nyon for class -- it took us about an hour to get there. First, I had a 15 minute walk downhill to the train station in Yens, where we took a train affectionately referred to as the BAM (its major stops are Biere, Apples, and Morges) into Morges. In Morges we changed trains to get to Nyon. There are a few other students who also take the train in Morges, one of whom we met up with Monday morning. We got to Nyon a little early so we went to a cafe for some coffee before class. Class was mostly more orientation-type stuff. We had a lunch break from about noon until 14:00 (which is 2:00pm for all you Americans), at which time we had French class. I was actually really excited to learn French, but the class has turned out to be a bit frustrating. I'm in the beginner class and we all have minimal to no knowledge of French, but we learn at very different rates. So it's not the actual learning that's frustrating, but the fact that I feel like I could be learning a lot more than I am. Overall, though, class was okay. After class, Natasha, Orlando (another student who lives in Yens), and I went to this electronics store called InterDiscount to try to get cell phones (more commonly called "mobiles" here), but there was some kind of problem with the computer system so our attempt was unsuccessful. We then took our two trains back to Yens and had to walk 15 minutes uphill. At least it's a good leg workout. Dinners at my house during the week are a little less structured because the kids have a bunch of different activities, so we just kind of eat with whoever's home. After dinner I did some reading for my classes (we got a HUGE box of readings in class that morning) and went to bed... nothing too exciting
4 September, Tuesday
Tuesday morning consisted of more class, this time in Geneva. We also had a lot more discussion on Tuesday which was a nice change from just listening for three hours. After class we had free time for lunch again and French class in Nyon in the afternoon. I went straight home after class with Natasha and Orlando. Well, we went straight back to Yens, but we walked around some vineyards and ate a few grapes before actually going home. After dinner I walked to Natasha's house to walk her back to my house (because she didn't know where it was). She stayed over for a while to use the internet since my family has wireless. We neglected to realize earlier in the evening, however, that if she were to leave at 10, which she did, it would be a very dark walk home, due to the lack of street lights. This obliviousness led to her ringing the doorbell about 30 seconds after she left. As luck would have it, Ian was out of town all week on business, Christina was at Parent's Night at Patrick's school until late, Olivier wasn't home yet (he'd been rock climbing all afternoon and evening in France), and the other three were in bed already. So we waited for Olivier to come home and he showed us where a flashlight was. We ended up talking to him, though, until Christina came home, at which point Olivier commented it would be the "proper thing" for Christina to give Natasha a ride home, rather than her walking home with the flashlight. So in the end, Natasha finally got a ride and then bought a Winnie the Pooh flashlight the next day. After she left, I went to bed because it was late, I was tired, and I'd had enough Swiss adventures for one day.
5 September, Wednesday
Wednesday turned out to be another adventurous day, in more than one way! We were told, more than once, to be sure to bring our passports with us on Wednesday morning. Sadly (and probably much to my father's dismay), I forgot mine. Luckily, I realized my idiocy before boarding the BAM train. My forgetfulness, however, resulted in me having to walk back uphill to my house (after Orlando's host mom had so nicely given me a ride halfway down the hill, which I was so grateful for because I was wearing really uncomfortable shoes that day!), get my passport from my room, walk back down the hill, and wait 20 minutes for the next BAM (they only run every hour). This whole process set me back an hour. The reason we needed our passports Wednesday morning was because we were going the the Palais de Nations and had to have our passports to get our security badges. Once I finally arrived by train in Geneva, over two hours after I left my house for the first time, I had to navigate my way to the UN (I had called Earl once I realized I'd be late and he told me how to get there since the rest of the group was traveling there together from the train station in Geneva). I finally made it to the UN and Earl met me just past the security check so I could get my badge. It turns out I didn't really miss anything because it took the rest of the group about an hour for them to all get their badges. I made it there just in time for our tour of the UN Library, which is amazing!! I pretty much decided while I was there that I'm never leaving the greater Geneva area.
Wednesday afternoon was kind of open for us. We were split into small groups and each group had to go to a different library in Geneva and do a little research on it. Our research culminated in short oral presentations on Friday morning that were essentially a tour of each library, without actually going to any of them. My group was assigned the library of the World Health Organization. We had quite the time figuring out how to get into the building, but once we did the project went pretty smoothly. The library was much smaller than I would have expected, but it definitely had any journal relating to health that you could ever possibly want to read. After finishing our research I made my way back to Yens, climbing uphill for the second time that day. Wednesday night was apparently rather uneventful because I can't remember what I did at home, other than eat dinner and go to bed.
6 September, Thursday
Thursday morning we had more class and discussion in Nyon with Earl. Normally, we would be in Geneva on Thursday mornings, but it was a holiday in the canton of Geneva so the city was basically shut down for the day. Thursday afternoon we had more French class, but all we really learned were numbers. I came back to Yens right after class because I was supposed to go with Christina to apply for my L Permit. We did not have to apply for a visa before coming to Switzerland, but we will be here for longer than the allowed 90 days so we have to apply for a permit to remain here past 90 days. Orlando and Natasha were also going that afternoon though, so we decided to go next week instead (because the commune was only open for 15 more minutes by the time our train got in). We went to the pool that afternoon and it was freezing! The outdoor pool here is still open (until this weekend) and it was really windy Thursday so we didn't stay for long. After coming home and taking a shower, I met Elaine who is a kind of friend of the family/former housekeeper/baby-sitter who comes to the house every other week now. She's from the Philippines and made a Thai soup with lemongrass (delicious!) and sushi for us for dinner. It was her birthday earlier in the week so we were celebrating that after dinner. Christina made two cakes for the occasion!! I was really excited because I love dessert (as I'm sure you all know!)! :) We had Pavlova, a very interesting Australian "cake" that is named for a Russian dancer, and a chocolate bundt cake. (Sidenote: Ian and Christina lived in Sydney for two years before the chidlren were born. Sometimes Christina seems to have a bit of an Australian accent when she speaks English). Dinner, dessert, and cleaning up took us up to about 1o:00, so I took a shower and went to bed right after.
7 September, Friday
Friday morning we were in Nyon and gave our short presentations about the libraries, had a short group discussion with Earl and Anne, and then had the afternoon free. I went to lunch with Natasha and Sara (another girl in our group who lives in Nyon) and we ended up eating at the same place as three (of the four) guys in our group (Pete, Paul, and Jeff). (Sidenote: There are 19 students in our program and only four of them are male.) We ate at a little creperie near the castle in Nyon (where we had lunch picnics earlier in the week) and then walked to a really good gelato shop down the street. After that Natasha and I started our trek back to Yens. The train we took from Nyon to Morges got us into Morges just in time to see the BAM leaving, which meant we had approximately 59 minutes to kill until the next train to Yens. So we walked down the street to a little mall with a Migros, which is basically the Swiss version of Wal-Mart. We then hopped on the BAM and stopped in the vineyards again on our way home. I also stopped at Natasha's house for a few minutes (it's between the train station and my house) and looked around her family's garden, where we discovered that they have strawberries (among several other fruits, but Natasha just found the strawberries yesterday), so I was pretty excited about that! I then walked back home, started (finally) to put some pictures online, and started this blog. I was interrupted for a bit by another attempt to go to the pool, but it was closed for what appeared to be a swim meet so we didn't actually get to swim. We then had dinner, dessert, and watched a little TV (which Christina really only allows on the weekends). We watched some French gameshow for a little while, then some kind of Track & Field games in Zurich, and part of the France-Argentina rugby game. Patrick was desperate to watch rugby, but apparently no one else in the family really likes it, so I watched with him for a little while and he taught me some of the rules of the game.
So over 12 hours after starting to recount the last 11 days of my life, I'm finally finishing. Surprising as it may be to you, there's a TON of stuff I left out, so I guess I'll just add random facts and comments to later entries as they occur to me. Sorry this turned out to be so obnoxiously long. I really doubt anyone (except maybe my mom) will read this entire entry. But if you have, then that's pretty impressive! I hope everyone at home and all of you who are abroad are doing well... I'd love to hear from you! They're keeping me pretty busy with classes and readings, so it might take me a little while to respond and I may not update this very regularaly, but I'll do my best!! Bonjournee!
P.S. When I get around to it, I'll be posting (and hopefully captioning) my pictures here!
28 August, Tuesday
I flew from Chicago to JFK solo and then met up with most of my group at our gate at JFK. There are actually two SIT programs in Geneva this semester and we were both on the same flight. We also spent part of our first few days together in Geneva, but we haven't seen the other students much since moving in with our families. SIT (School for International Training) programs are rather untraditional in their structure. We're not enrolled in an actual university while here, but rather we have lectures and discussions with our Academic Directors and briefings with various experts in our fields of study. Each SIT program has a theme that the lectures and briefings relate to -- my program's theme is Development Studies and Public Health and the theme of the other SIT group in Geneva is International Relations, Organizations, and Social Justice (or something like that). Another unique feature of SIT programs is that our lectures and briefings only continue through October. We then spend the last four weeks of the program conducting an Independent Study Project which will result in a 30 page paper and a presentation to the rest of the group and various guests. But back to the flight to Geneva... So we flew from JFK to Paris and then connected to Geneva. We met our Program Assistant (Anne) at the airport and took a bus to a hostel in the city. The flights were pretty uneventful, however we did have an exciting five hour layover in Paris. After we made it to the hostel we had a short introduction and orientation with our group and our Director.
29 August, Wednesday
Our flight from JFK left at 6PM so it was technically Thursday when we landed in Paris and Geneva, so the last part of my description of Tuesday should really be down here, but the traveling felt like one day, so it's not :)
30 August, Thursday
On our first full day in Switzerland we traveled to a small city called Nyon which is about a 10 minute train ride from Geneva. Nyon is where most of our classes will be held. We went to a community center called Ecole Club-Migros (ECM) for orientation fun. The highlight of this day was probably filling out forms to receive our security badges at the Palais de Nations, better known as the UN. An exciting tidbit from Tuesday/Wednesday that I forgot until now was that on our way to the hostel we drove past the UN and the UNHCR (UN High Comission for Refugees)!! (I was pretty excited about that, but I guess maybe it's not that exciting). In the afternoon we had a French placement test which was rather frustrating, considering I speak and understand next to no French. The oral part of the test was especially annoying because I had four native French speakers asking me questions that I couldn't answer either a) because I didn't know what they were asking or b) when I did understand some of what they said because of knowing Spanish, I had no idea how to answer except to say "oui" which made for a pretty one-sided and boring conversation. We also met with our homestay coordinator that afternoon and had a group dinner at a really great Italian restaurant. Then we went back to the hostel and slept.
31 August, Friday
Friday morning we had one last bit of orientation at a center in Geneva where we will have more briefings during the semester. We then had lunch and took a tour of the Old City of Geneva. The Old City was really interesting and really scenic. There's such an awesome amount of history in Geneva: we visited St. Peter's Cathedral where John Calvin preached during the reformation, saw Jean Jacques Rosseau's home, and saw the oldest part of the Geneva city hall where the Geneva Convention was held!! (Although all of that sounds pretty lame compared to what Alex has seen in Egypt, like a well that Jesus drank out of.) After our tour we had free time and dinner on our own. I went to an Indian restaurant near our hostel with a few other people and then walked along the lake after dinner.
1 September, Saturday
Saturday was a big day! We met our host families at a hotel in Nyon in the late morning. I actually went home with another family who is from my village and hosting another SIT student (Natasha), because my host family was busy in the morning. Christine, Natasha's "mom", drove Natasha and me from Nyon to Yens, stopping in Morges along the way. Morges is the town where we switch trains every morning to get to class. She drove us through part of town and it was really pretty -- I'd like to go back and walk around one afternoon or weekend. She also showed us the train station in Morges so we would know where we had to go on Monday morning. After our stop in Morges, we continued on to Yens, our new "home." We went to Natasha's house first, which is a really fascinating house. It's a farmhouse that was built in the 1700's. I saw a bit of the inside of the house before leaving for my own homestay. My homestay family is wonderful!! They live in a newer house that is over the hill, on the back side of the village. My room is in the basement, next to the room of the Swiss German high school student (Simon) who is also living with my family for the semester. We share a bathroom downstairs. There's also a small rock climbing wall in the basement because my family's eldest son, Olivier, really enjoys climbing. My "mom," Christina, is super nice. When I first arrived only Christina and Josephine, their 9-year-old daughter, were home. They showed me my room and then we had lunch on the terrace outside their dining room that overlooks Lake Geneva and part of the French Alps on the opposite side of the lake. On a clear day you can even see the top of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe! The view is absolutely gorgeous. The whole idea of living in such a beautiful place and being surrounded by such great landscape and scenery all the time is a little unreal. Sometimes it's hard for me to believe I'm actually living here.
The rest of the family returned home later in the day -- my "dad" Ian had been at my "brother" Patrick's football match (aka soccer game) in the afternoon and Olivier and Simon had gone rock climbing. Josephine (aka Josie) had to go to Scouts later in the afternoon, so when it was time to pick her up Christina brought Patrick, Simon, and me along and the five of us went swimming for about an hour. After returning home we all helped to get dinner ready and ate outside on the terrace again, despite it being a bit chilly. The children all love apples and the family has a few apple trees in their yard, so Christina makes apple pies nearly every day during apple season. She has four or five different apple dessert recipes, so I tried my first one on Saturday night. It was delicious! (duh!) After dinner on Saturdays, the family usually watches a movie together. It came up at dinner that I had been to Vietnam this summer, so Ian decided we should watch Good Morning Vietnam. I had never seen it before, but I really enjoyed it. I should add that Christina is German and Ian is British, so their children are all trilingual (German, English, and French). Also, because they learned English from their dad, they have adorable British accents! So after the movie, we all went to bed. It was a great first day with my new family -- they were really warm and welcoming which helped put me at ease about living here for the next four months or so.
2 September, Sunday
Sunday morning I wandered upstairs probably around 9:30 or 10:00 and had some breakfast (bread and homemade jam from Natasha's host mom). I stayed in the kitchen for a while talking with Christina and the kids as they wandered in and out of the kitchen, just getting to know the family a little. Around noon all the kids had to go outside and help Ian in the garden for an hour, so I joined in. Josie and I weeded and did some raking. After gardening we ate lunch and then Josie had some activity (I can't remember what now) and the boys were going to the forest, so I decided to go with them. I thought we would be going hiking or something, but when we left the house Olivier was carrying a backpack and a large saw, Patrick was carrying a long metal pole, and Simon was carrying a stepladder, so I was a little confused/worried. First we walked along a gravel road behind the house for a short way, then we spent about five minutes walking through a corn field to get to the forest. Once we got to our destination Patrick explained to me that he and a friend had started to build a fort about two weeks ago and so we were now adding to it. We gathered wood for a while, then created a few walls and a tower. It's actually really cool, but definitely not something I ever would have thought to do when I was 13. (Sidenote: Olivier and Simon are 16, Patrick is 13, and Josie is 9).
After about an hour and a half at the fort, Ian picked us up (there was a road between the corn field and the forest) and took the boys to practice football. I went back to the house for a bit and later in the afternoon we all went swimming again. After swimming we came back home for dinner and more apple desserts. I also gave everyone their gifts after dinner. I brought Olivier, Simon, and Patrick Chicago sports teams baseball hats (Sox, Bears, and Bulls), an LWE t-shirt for Josie, and a piece of art glass for Ian and Christina that was made by someone from Frankfort. Apparently he has pieces of art glass in the Art Institute of Chicago and the Smithsonian, which I was completely unaware of until my mom bought the gift and brought home the card about it that came with it. Pretty cool, I guess. They all seemed to really like the gifts and the boys have been wearing the hats this week. We all went to bed relatively early on Sunday since Monday was a school day.
3 September, Monday
So Monday consisted of class in the morning with our Academic Director (Earl) and Program Assistant (Anne). Natasha and I commuted together from Yens to Nyon for class -- it took us about an hour to get there. First, I had a 15 minute walk downhill to the train station in Yens, where we took a train affectionately referred to as the BAM (its major stops are Biere, Apples, and Morges) into Morges. In Morges we changed trains to get to Nyon. There are a few other students who also take the train in Morges, one of whom we met up with Monday morning. We got to Nyon a little early so we went to a cafe for some coffee before class. Class was mostly more orientation-type stuff. We had a lunch break from about noon until 14:00 (which is 2:00pm for all you Americans), at which time we had French class. I was actually really excited to learn French, but the class has turned out to be a bit frustrating. I'm in the beginner class and we all have minimal to no knowledge of French, but we learn at very different rates. So it's not the actual learning that's frustrating, but the fact that I feel like I could be learning a lot more than I am. Overall, though, class was okay. After class, Natasha, Orlando (another student who lives in Yens), and I went to this electronics store called InterDiscount to try to get cell phones (more commonly called "mobiles" here), but there was some kind of problem with the computer system so our attempt was unsuccessful. We then took our two trains back to Yens and had to walk 15 minutes uphill. At least it's a good leg workout. Dinners at my house during the week are a little less structured because the kids have a bunch of different activities, so we just kind of eat with whoever's home. After dinner I did some reading for my classes (we got a HUGE box of readings in class that morning) and went to bed... nothing too exciting
4 September, Tuesday
Tuesday morning consisted of more class, this time in Geneva. We also had a lot more discussion on Tuesday which was a nice change from just listening for three hours. After class we had free time for lunch again and French class in Nyon in the afternoon. I went straight home after class with Natasha and Orlando. Well, we went straight back to Yens, but we walked around some vineyards and ate a few grapes before actually going home. After dinner I walked to Natasha's house to walk her back to my house (because she didn't know where it was). She stayed over for a while to use the internet since my family has wireless. We neglected to realize earlier in the evening, however, that if she were to leave at 10, which she did, it would be a very dark walk home, due to the lack of street lights. This obliviousness led to her ringing the doorbell about 30 seconds after she left. As luck would have it, Ian was out of town all week on business, Christina was at Parent's Night at Patrick's school until late, Olivier wasn't home yet (he'd been rock climbing all afternoon and evening in France), and the other three were in bed already. So we waited for Olivier to come home and he showed us where a flashlight was. We ended up talking to him, though, until Christina came home, at which point Olivier commented it would be the "proper thing" for Christina to give Natasha a ride home, rather than her walking home with the flashlight. So in the end, Natasha finally got a ride and then bought a Winnie the Pooh flashlight the next day. After she left, I went to bed because it was late, I was tired, and I'd had enough Swiss adventures for one day.
5 September, Wednesday
Wednesday turned out to be another adventurous day, in more than one way! We were told, more than once, to be sure to bring our passports with us on Wednesday morning. Sadly (and probably much to my father's dismay), I forgot mine. Luckily, I realized my idiocy before boarding the BAM train. My forgetfulness, however, resulted in me having to walk back uphill to my house (after Orlando's host mom had so nicely given me a ride halfway down the hill, which I was so grateful for because I was wearing really uncomfortable shoes that day!), get my passport from my room, walk back down the hill, and wait 20 minutes for the next BAM (they only run every hour). This whole process set me back an hour. The reason we needed our passports Wednesday morning was because we were going the the Palais de Nations and had to have our passports to get our security badges. Once I finally arrived by train in Geneva, over two hours after I left my house for the first time, I had to navigate my way to the UN (I had called Earl once I realized I'd be late and he told me how to get there since the rest of the group was traveling there together from the train station in Geneva). I finally made it to the UN and Earl met me just past the security check so I could get my badge. It turns out I didn't really miss anything because it took the rest of the group about an hour for them to all get their badges. I made it there just in time for our tour of the UN Library, which is amazing!! I pretty much decided while I was there that I'm never leaving the greater Geneva area.
Wednesday afternoon was kind of open for us. We were split into small groups and each group had to go to a different library in Geneva and do a little research on it. Our research culminated in short oral presentations on Friday morning that were essentially a tour of each library, without actually going to any of them. My group was assigned the library of the World Health Organization. We had quite the time figuring out how to get into the building, but once we did the project went pretty smoothly. The library was much smaller than I would have expected, but it definitely had any journal relating to health that you could ever possibly want to read. After finishing our research I made my way back to Yens, climbing uphill for the second time that day. Wednesday night was apparently rather uneventful because I can't remember what I did at home, other than eat dinner and go to bed.
6 September, Thursday
Thursday morning we had more class and discussion in Nyon with Earl. Normally, we would be in Geneva on Thursday mornings, but it was a holiday in the canton of Geneva so the city was basically shut down for the day. Thursday afternoon we had more French class, but all we really learned were numbers. I came back to Yens right after class because I was supposed to go with Christina to apply for my L Permit. We did not have to apply for a visa before coming to Switzerland, but we will be here for longer than the allowed 90 days so we have to apply for a permit to remain here past 90 days. Orlando and Natasha were also going that afternoon though, so we decided to go next week instead (because the commune was only open for 15 more minutes by the time our train got in). We went to the pool that afternoon and it was freezing! The outdoor pool here is still open (until this weekend) and it was really windy Thursday so we didn't stay for long. After coming home and taking a shower, I met Elaine who is a kind of friend of the family/former housekeeper/baby-sitter who comes to the house every other week now. She's from the Philippines and made a Thai soup with lemongrass (delicious!) and sushi for us for dinner. It was her birthday earlier in the week so we were celebrating that after dinner. Christina made two cakes for the occasion!! I was really excited because I love dessert (as I'm sure you all know!)! :) We had Pavlova, a very interesting Australian "cake" that is named for a Russian dancer, and a chocolate bundt cake. (Sidenote: Ian and Christina lived in Sydney for two years before the chidlren were born. Sometimes Christina seems to have a bit of an Australian accent when she speaks English). Dinner, dessert, and cleaning up took us up to about 1o:00, so I took a shower and went to bed right after.
7 September, Friday
Friday morning we were in Nyon and gave our short presentations about the libraries, had a short group discussion with Earl and Anne, and then had the afternoon free. I went to lunch with Natasha and Sara (another girl in our group who lives in Nyon) and we ended up eating at the same place as three (of the four) guys in our group (Pete, Paul, and Jeff). (Sidenote: There are 19 students in our program and only four of them are male.) We ate at a little creperie near the castle in Nyon (where we had lunch picnics earlier in the week) and then walked to a really good gelato shop down the street. After that Natasha and I started our trek back to Yens. The train we took from Nyon to Morges got us into Morges just in time to see the BAM leaving, which meant we had approximately 59 minutes to kill until the next train to Yens. So we walked down the street to a little mall with a Migros, which is basically the Swiss version of Wal-Mart. We then hopped on the BAM and stopped in the vineyards again on our way home. I also stopped at Natasha's house for a few minutes (it's between the train station and my house) and looked around her family's garden, where we discovered that they have strawberries (among several other fruits, but Natasha just found the strawberries yesterday), so I was pretty excited about that! I then walked back home, started (finally) to put some pictures online, and started this blog. I was interrupted for a bit by another attempt to go to the pool, but it was closed for what appeared to be a swim meet so we didn't actually get to swim. We then had dinner, dessert, and watched a little TV (which Christina really only allows on the weekends). We watched some French gameshow for a little while, then some kind of Track & Field games in Zurich, and part of the France-Argentina rugby game. Patrick was desperate to watch rugby, but apparently no one else in the family really likes it, so I watched with him for a little while and he taught me some of the rules of the game.
So over 12 hours after starting to recount the last 11 days of my life, I'm finally finishing. Surprising as it may be to you, there's a TON of stuff I left out, so I guess I'll just add random facts and comments to later entries as they occur to me. Sorry this turned out to be so obnoxiously long. I really doubt anyone (except maybe my mom) will read this entire entry. But if you have, then that's pretty impressive! I hope everyone at home and all of you who are abroad are doing well... I'd love to hear from you! They're keeping me pretty busy with classes and readings, so it might take me a little while to respond and I may not update this very regularaly, but I'll do my best!! Bonjournee!
P.S. When I get around to it, I'll be posting (and hopefully captioning) my pictures here!
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