Swiss adventures

I HAVE TO RETURN TO THIS BLOG.

Geneva's a great place. It's ranked 3rd for best quality of life in the world - Switzerland, unsurprisingly, has 3 cities in the top ten! There are fountains on every streetcorner with, I swear, pristine Evian water flowing out. It's a nice, clean proper, quiet place. They say the summer here is a bit more lively, and it has been. So far, the European Cup in June definitely kept the city going. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, and of course Switzerland had massive contingents here, and the Portugese and Spanish fans in particular would honk their car horns and scream and holler until 2am when their team won. Thanks to the games there was always something to do, and having the screening center 3 blocks from my apartement was VERY convenient.

The Fete de la Musique was great too! I don't think I will ever again see that many people in Geneva in one place. There was great music - everything from blues to aretha to jefferson airplane to screamo - and delicious food.

I've gone on several Swiss day trips. First, Montreux.

I went to Montreux the first weekend I was in Geneva, with an intern from work and a friend of his. Montreux is also on Lake Geneva and the view of the mountains is INCREDIBLE. Look!



Actually, I may have taken this picture in Vevey, but that's only 20 minutes away from Montreux. Same diff.

We went to Chateau de Chillon, a beautiful castle right on the lake which was once the home of the Counts of Savoy. It had a neat moat, some funny medieval toiles (just holes in a bench above the water), and a dark dungeon, where a monk, François de Bonivard, was kept, and about whom Lord Byron wrote a poem - The Prisoner of Chillon.


Me and Daniel, an intern from my NGO who left 2 weeks after I arrived.

Montreux has a very famous jazz festival every mid-July, and so when my mom was in town, we took the train to see what it was all about. The free jazz was ok - I'm sure Quincy Jones' 75th Birthday Celebration would have been far more impressive but we were not willing to dole out the 250 francs per person required to get in. Also, it was raining, and the whole shore of Lake Geneva was covered in a sort of fair, or market, with lots of delicious food and cool trinkets but way too many people. So unfortunately, I didn't get the best impression of beautiful Montreux the second time around.

Other things in Montreux - a statue of Freddie Mercury (Queen owned a house here and they recorded a lot of their music there), and gorgeous shutters and house facades. Like this.



My mom and I also went to Neuchatel, though on a Sunday when, as everywhere else in Switzerland, everything is DEAD. CLOSED. SHUT DOWN. I think people just resign themselves to laundry and reading on Sundays. However, even despite the yucky weather (it rained all weekend) the town was extremely cute, with lots of cobblestone streets, bizarre colorful fountains, red rooftops and one really neat flat painted street. Here are some pictures:


that weird flat street


At the chateau up at the top of the hill, overlooking the city.

Mom, in the old town.

I'll be blogging more! I have pictures to post and everything! Now that my parents have visited, I will have lots to write about. I've been so bad at this blog, tsk tsk.

the HRC

So I've been in Geneva for about 2 weeks and have just completed my first full week of work. I really like my job. Everyone in the office is so friendly and open and helpful. I never feel like an idiot for asking questions, since, of course, I just don't know how things work quite yet.

The 8th session of the Human Rights Council has been convening for the past 2 weeks, so what I've been doing is essentially attending all of the meetings, taking down, verbatim, what the delegates are saying, and reporting back to the organization with reviews of the day's discussions. It has been so interesting to observe the way that these diplomats speak to and about one another. There are so many careful subtleties that they use in order not to ruffle anyone's feathers. The delegate from Slovenia, who has been speaking on behalf of the European Union for this session, once said, in response to numerous interruptions by the delegate from Egypt during NGO speeches, "This is becoming a farce." A FARCE is extremely strong language when it comes to UN diplomacy. It's just interesting how careful the delegates have to be.

The languages used in the HRC are just as fascinating. The interpreters that work for the UN do simultaneous translating, which requires them to listen to what the delegates are saying and translate at the same time, while also listening to what the delegates say afterwards, while the interpreters are translating. It's incredible, to not only develop that kind of multi-tasking ability, but also to be able to have the kind of specific, technical, and also diplomatic vocabulary that the delegates use in their statements. The delegates themselves are so very articulate. Often, even when they are not reading their statements, it sounds as if they have already planned out what they have to say and are simply reciting it. No hesitations, no ums, no pauses, just perfect speeches. That's not to say that they always say something significant, but they can say nothing so beautifully.

I often listen to the French translation, or the Russian translation, just to hear the type of language that they are using. It's so technical. I find that I'm understanding more of the French than the Russian, simply because I never encounter that kind of sophisticated, technical, diplomatic language in Russian.

Here's a picture of one of the HRC sessions that I found online, which looks exactly like one of the rooms they have been convening in. I usually sit on the very far left, behind the divider.



I've also been working on several research projects, looking into human rights violations in Russia and analyzing the 2008-2009 members of the HRC in terms of their own human rights status. So many of them have terrible human rights records, so it's a shame they were voted in as members.

This weekend is the Fete de la Musique, a festival during which there is always some kind of band, orchestra, or group playing music all over the city. I'm actually going to leave soon to find some music to listen to! Maybe salsa? Or some blues. We'll see.

LISBON

In other news, Sarah (my friend from high school who has been spending a year in Geneva) and I just returned from a fabulous weekend in Lisbon. It is a beautiful city - very hilly, with tons of winding side-streets covered in streamers. My favorite street is below (I don't even remember its name!).

It's so steep! There were old ladies just sitting on their stoops with their small dogs all up and down this street. Old men were barbecuing, more old ladies leaning out of their shuttered windows. And the entire time, music was playing from every corner! Here's a video of the street - listen to the music. I'm pretty sure it's Amalia, whose voice I heard all through the secondhand market and very frequently being played from inside people's homes.



We visited the Tower of Belem, built in the early 16th century as part of a defense system. It was absolutely beautiful. The architecture iss very Moroccan, and was influenced by Moorish design. The tower is quite small, only about 35 meters, so it was hard to picture it as useful for defense. It was used for other things later on - a customs post, a prison, etc. Really cool place, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.



We also visited the castle in the old city, a second-hand market, the beach, numerous statue-filled plazas, a beautiful church, and we walked along the port. And we ate a LOT of seafood. Check out these snails! We ate them with toothpicks!

Also, the last night we were in Lisbon, Portugal won against Turkey in one of the Eurocup games, actually held in Geneva. WOW. People go nuts. Sarah and I were sitting in one of the plazas and heard hundreds of cars honking, people running around with the Portuguese flag waving in the air, people leaning out of car windows, through sunroofs, yelling...it was quite an experience. That night, a bar played only traditional Portuguese music and I danced with a very happy 55 yr old man wearing the Portuguese team's jersey, who then returned to his balcony above the bar, where he danced alone for everybody down below. He's the one facing the camera, dancing with someone facing away from the camera.

just got here

First impressions of Geneva plus things I forgot to check on:

1) Didn’t realize I wouldn’t be given towels here! Am going to have to air dry after showering until I find a towel tomorrow.

2) Didn’t realize I would need to buy my own laundry detergent! Must do this before doing laundry. Am in desperate need of doing laundry. Host family could not do laundry for past 3 weeks.

3) Geneva is a rather small, sleepy city that has been suddenly overtaken by football fans. Half of the Eurocup games are going to be held in Switzerland, and half in Austria. Two games were held in Geneva last night, when I was still in Lisbon. Everything is dead in Geneva on Sundays, and late at night, but this Eurocup has forced lots of places to remain open, which is great.

4) I swear, Europe has to complicate everything, even grocery stores. There are 3 different sizes of this one grocery store. The top level, the largest store, is located where? IN THE AIRPORT. The others are smaller and less cheap, apparently.

5) My roommates are nice but seem to be quite busy with their own stuff, and will likely be keeping to themselves for the most part, from how they’ve described their experience in the apartment.

6) Excellent designers, those Swiss. My room is very nice, simple, and sleek, as are the main rooms of the apartment. Here are some pictures of my room. I'll get pictures of the main rooms of the apartment up later.





I don’t currently have internet so I will probably post this tomorrow, when I will also hopefully have the following:
- Swiss SIM card
- Laundry card
- towel
- laundry detergent
- bus pass

Tomorrow is going to be one hell of a scary day. All I have on me (not online because I don’t have internet) when it comes to info about Geneva is a transportation map and a regular map. Where do I buy things? Where do I find bus passes? Where do I go grocery shopping in town? (I already bought some things at the airport grocery. THE AIRPORT. How bizarre).

The prices here are absolutely outrageous. A bottle of water at the airport was 6 Swiss Francs. A kebab in town was 12, and Sarah said that was one of the cheap places. Oyyyyy.

not an update

Oh, I'm no good at this blogging business. I will try to catch up soon, but that will probably happen once I'm in Geneva. We only have a week and a half left here, and I have a list of things I want to do in Paris before I leave, which trumps blogging.

However, lists make me feel like I'm accomplishing something, so here's a list of what I want to blog about, eventually:

1) Nice, Vence, Menton, Tourettes-sur-Loup, Monaco

2) Florence (subsections for: art museums, David (gets his own section), gelato, cat-calls)

3) The stress of doing research in Paris (lack of libraries)

4) The Barber of Seville at Opera Bastille

5) Our visit to a mosque

6) How much more I like French people nowadays

7) How my host family is always M.I.A.

8) This one puppy in Florence I almost stole (just kidding, that's the whole story)

I'll try harder this summer, I promise.

cultural events

So for this program, CUPA, the Center for University Programs Abroad, gives us 200 euros to spend as "cultural money". If we have any of those 200 euros left at the end of the trip, we have to give them back to CUPA. So far, I have used the money on dance classes, a tour of the Palais Garnier, the entrance into the Institut du Monde Arabe (Institute of the Arab World), the train ride to a cool museum in Reuil-Malmais, and the admission price for a French movie. My next 3 planned events sound fantastic.

1) Champagne tasting cruise on the Seine (in the evening! on a bateau-mouche) on Monday night with several other ladies from the program

2) Soccer game - the last of the regular season before World Cup qualifiers, between France and Colombia

3) To spend the last little bit of money, hopefully a 10-euro walking tour in Montmartre or the Marais district one of these coming weekends.

Can't wait!

Palais Garnier

After we got back from Barcelona, we had one day in Paris before leaving for Nice. So Megan and I went on a guided tour at the Palais Garnier.

The Palais Garnier holds the famous "Phantom of the Opera" Opera House which is no longer, in fact, used for operas due to lack of space (they simply can't accomodate the number of people who normally attend the opera, so now they are held at Opera Bastille). The Palais Garnier now hosts mostly ballet and modern dance performances.

The Palais is beautiful and extremely gilded. You can see the front of it on a post I made earlier, when we went to the ballet there. It was commissioned by Napoleon III, who had recently endured an attempted assassination at the Opera Bastille, the other Opera House. He decided he needed a safer place to view his operas, and had an architectural contest, which Charles Garnier won at the age of only 32. It was completed in 1874.

This looks a bit like the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles.


The tour guide explained the many different entrances into the Opera, which depended on the social status of the guest. Unfortunately, Napoleon III died before the Opera House was completed, so he never even got the chance to use his special kingly (emperor-ly?) entrance. As a result, they never built it! The walls are just covered with plain white plaster.

Another fun fact - because the chandelier was lit by candles and it was so difficult to lower and lift it (it weighs 6 tons!), it was impossible to turn out the lights during performances. So people didn't pay attention to the performance as much as they paid attention to EACH OTHER. That incredibly heavy chandelier fell once, killing one person. That accident was actually the inspiration for "Phantom of the Opera". Also, back in the day, the Opera took hours and hours, because the guests would have a huge dinner during intermission.

My favorite part of the Opera Garnier was the Chagall painting that surrounds the main chandelier. It was only put in place in 1964, and the installation was quite a scandal. People complained that it clashed with the rest of the Opera House, and I think they're right. But it clashes in a good way! It's so bright and colorful, and pays homage to many composers, musicians, dancers, works of art, and places in Paris. Take a look.




I think it's great. But then again, I love Chagall.