Au Revoir, Geneve!

There really is a God. I may have to revisit my atheist ways of the last years and acknowledge that there is indeed a higher being looking out for us. No, I have not had any near death experiences. Rather, today, my last day in Geneva, has made me realize how truly blessed I am. I've never believed in fate, but sometimes there's just coincidences in life that make you realize that maybe someone does want you to be happy. There's a range of these: tiny coincidences that end up shaping your life. Slight coincidences that end up helping you as a person to overcome demons. And the larger parts of life that you never fully appreciate until they hit you in the face.
The tiny ones: I can't imagine what the last seven weeks would have been like without my friends. And I never would have met them if I had decided to take one tram later or earlier that day of the Germany-Australia match. I imagine it would have been a lonely seven weeks. Sure, I may have made other friends, but these people are irreplaceable. Little miracles do happen.
The medium ones: getting that one cigarette break with Glenny (yes, I will stop smoking once I get back to Munich, and not only because my darling roomie said she'd kick me out) and bonding immensely. Deciding to get that one drink at that tent at pre-fetes de Geneve and not another one, meeting my summer fling of the last week and hence helping me overcome personal demons. The somewhat coincidences that don't entirely alter your life but are welcome changes.
The huge ones: I may still not know what I want to do in life, but I have a family who supports me unconditionally. Despite my being a wretch of a daughter and never calling home. I never realize that or appreciate it as much as I should. Honestly, my family rocks. Despite the insane love of opera.

Other conclusions from my time:
1. I'm apparently good at making friends with cute bartenders and bouncers. This is all a very happy concept, especially the free drinks bit, but it does cause slight problems in the staying sober department.
2. Geneva public transportation sucks. If you're going to fine me 80 francs for not having a bus ticket which only happened because the stupid ticket machines don't accept bills or cards only coins, please use those 80 francs in investing in better machines.
3. I'm apparently able to roll out of bed slightly hungover, wash my hair, get dressed, pack my intern stuff, pack a separate set of clothes for the evening, and run out of my apartment in 7 minutes flat.
4. Mango is the most delicious fruit ever, I will sorely miss it's existence as here they have it everywhere. In general, I will just miss Bircher Muesli, fresh food, and all the things one cannot acquire at Vital Vittels.
5. The UN, much like any organization, ranges from exciting to mundane and is not nearly as glamorous as it sounds. I mean you know that they are about tiny details, but you never really realize it until you are there.
6. The UN is filled with awesome people that leave you in awe at their knowledge and drive.
7. I'm reverting to my introvert ways. Now, if you have only met me in the last two years, you are probably reading this and thinking 'Laura is an introvert? What?!?'. But yes, I am in fact a major introvert, at least according to all those tests. Now, I've changed, and sure I put on an extroverted face, but ultimately I've realized the last eight weeks that I truly love living alone. I love people and being around friends, but I truly get my strength from solitude. I'll miss having my own schedule, being responsible for myself completely, and being able to do what I want entirely.
8. I miss the World Cup so much it hurts. And yes I do still read football blogs, message boards, and of course have goal.com open 24/7, but it's just not the same. The offseason sucks. And Xabi Alonso is still my God (and yes I know I just cited a return to religion earlier. It doesn't matter. They can be double deities).
9. I want to move back to Europe. Stat. Maybe not Geneva, which is truly not a thrilling city, but the weekend trips to Berlin and Amsterdam were amazing. And not just because of the space cake. I truly miss being able to travel freely, and I just honestly am so much happier here. It's intangible. Grad school in Europe it is.
10. I may not be ready to grow up, and in many ways I'm further away than ever, but in others I'm closer too.

I will miss Geneva. I will miss my friends. I will miss the UN and the amazing people at UNEPFI. I will truly, truly miss it. No, I may not know what I want to do later. This summer hasn't made me find my calling completely. But I'm firmer in my belief in myself, in my independence. And if nothing else I know what I don't want. I'm scared of the future, but I think I'm more ready to face it. And I've realized that while I'm an extremist, either living life to the fullest or being overly organized, I need to find a happy medium. That's something to still work on. I guess one is never done growing.

Final Reflections on the World Cup

As the World Cup has drawn to a close, there is a gaping hole left in my life. I'm not quite sure what to do with those hours of watching, reading about it, mentally preparing, sweating to death in Les Vernets during the England and Argentina matches, watching videos, and of course talking about it, per day that I've put in over the last month. And so here are my parting thoughts on the past month (even if they can never compare to these: http://www.goal.com/en-india/news/3102/opinion/2010/07/13/2023081/the-best-worst-of-the-2010-world-cup):

1. My new soccer loves. I thought I was over the period in my life where I pick favorite athletes for their looks. I've never had a celebrity crush on anyone other than an athlete, but when I get them it's bad. And since that first one (Sven Hannawald, 2002-2005, probably the only German athlete I've ever supported to that extent, all the other ones somehow are not German), none have been so bad, I at least can claim that I love them for the sport. But with each major soccer tournament, new ones arise (what can I say, every girl has a type and for me its soccer players). This one: Xabi Alonso and Iker Casillas. I've somehow reverted to my teenage self and have spent hours watching youtube videos of them recently. At least I like Spain, they both play for Real along with my first soccer love, Kaka (World Cup 2006 began that craze), and thus I can support them on both teams. And damn they look good with that World Cup trophy. If it couldn't be Germany...

2. If Jogi leaves, I will be utterly, utterly heartbroken. Best thing to happen to German soccer in a long time. And I love him. So much. And why yes, I do in fact check google news about every 3 minutes to see if he's made a decision yet. They really need some sort of liveticker for this suspense.

3. Injuries suck. Still upset about my fave German soccer player, Miro Klose (World Cup 2002, yes I go back that far, though admittedly then it had nothing to do with looks) not being able to at least have the chance to beat Ronaldo's record. I've hated Ronaldo since that 2002 final.

4. How on earth do they pick these referees? 9 yellow cards for the Netherlands, but only one red? De Jong deserved a red card so badly, and I'm not just saying that because of my love for Xabi. On the other hand, some cards were a bit harsh. And there was definitely a corner for the Netherlands there at the end. Honestly, it's just the cap of a horrific tournament of reffing decisions, including the goal that wasn't of Bloemfontein. Honestly, are there no standards anymore? Instant replay technology now please.

5. Diego Maradona may have been a great player, but he's no tactician. A team needs to play together, it doesn't help having world class players if the defense, midfield, and offense don't communicate or play together. Then not even Messi helps.

6. France never ceases to amuse. Does this World Cup top the whole 'French military victories' on google trick? Yes, yes it does. It really should be added to that list. 'World Cup 2010: The French national team fails to win a match, star player curses out utterly insane coach, team stands behind player who is sent home by utterly insane coach, refuse to show up to practice, almost forfeit match. French president, desperately trying to regain some importance in world politics, intervenes. FIFA threatens French president. French president stands down.'

7. Diego Forlan deserves the golden ball for singlehandedly being a team (even if I really would have liked Basti to win it). Really, where there other players on the Uruguay team (other than the ridiculous Suarez of course)?

8. Ok, so we managed to lose to Serbia but at least our Eurovision songs produce good knockoffs.
I don't actually like Lena, but this is good:
Serbia has this guy:
Please note that this is not my actual great take away from the World Cup, but once upon a time we did lose to Serbia, barely beat Ghana, and everyone was predicting our demise. It's hard to imagine now that before the World Cup, everyone was writing off Germany.
My true point to this one is though that against Serbia we were not particularly well organized or effective. Organization and effectivity is key. Unless of course you're Spain and no player has a set position and you create tons of goal chances and then score once per game and still manage to win the Cup.

9. Paul the Octopus is still silly. Yes, it may have picked everything right, but all it has to do is eat a mussel and for that it's a global sensation. It only had a 70% success rate at the Euro Cup, it's not magic. That being said, I really hope Paul picks Germany to win all it's games next time around...oh, I see he's retired. Damn it. Quit while you're ahead, Paul, quit while you're ahead.

10. I'm super excited to see what the future of German soccer holds, this team is dynamic, fun, efficient, has spirit, and is no longer the team of old. Let's hope it lasts. And for that I firmly believe we need Jogi.


With that being said, I can't forget the World Cup, and I will continue to play soccer songs on my ipod for at least the next week. Having watched almost every game, and the ones that I didn't viewed on live ticker, it's hard to give something up. There's a strong reason for why I have such an emotional connection to this tournament. The World Cup is much more than a sporting event for me, it's a way of life.

Why? Well, other than the soccer, the last World Cup in Germany is what made me fall in love with my country and my city. Before that, I didn't really know Munich well, and it is through those many tours we gave that I really got to know it and love it. It's also what convinced my parents that we should own a home there again. My heart now belongs to Munich so much that it's hard to remember life before then, even if it was only four short years ago. Before that World Cup, I honestly didn't identify myself with Germany that much. I loved it, and it was my home, sure, but it was more a place I came on vacations, and I had almost started accepting that I was practically an American. I wasn't proud to be German before then either. That World Cup gave me a sense of belonging, the face that Germany showed the world made me proud to be German, and for the first time since I'd moved to the US I knew that that was where my heart belonged. Now, four years later, it's still the height of patriotism for me, and having that revitalized makes me realize that it wasn't just a spell. With that, it's been an amazing four weeks in South Africa. Can't wait for Euro 2012!

Of the Normal and the Insane

So apparently I actually have a readership that needs to be appeased with another post (honestly, I didn't know people actually read this). I'm writing this on a coffee break at work, since I can't really quit my habit of drinking coffee. I feel I deserve it. This morning the tram broke down, or rather it collided with a car I believe, leaving me to walk five stops before I could get on another line. This would not ordinarily be a problem except I was carrying my laptop because the desktop at work really hates me as all technology does - witness the computer fiasco of fall 09 - and this made my bag more unbearably heavy than usual. To make a long story short, I felt I deserved the two cups of coffee I've had so far this morning. Life in Geneva is a mixture of expected and crazy, and somehow it usually vacilates between these two extremes. The expected- coming in to work, sitting at a desk, doing research and other normal internship work (honestly, it may be the UN, but it's rather normal, not that glamorous), stopping by the grocery store on the way home (my money all goes to food and drink, and yes by drink I do not mean water), settling onto the couch and watching How I Met Your Mother, something I have finally been convinced to do at the insistence of my darling roommate and now I'm hooked, alas I'm almost out of episodes. Honestly, there isn't that much to do in Geneva. And everything closes so early. Even places that claim to be open 24/7 (is it wrong of me to assume that Aperto 24 means Open 24) close at midnight. When one is that poor wretch whose train gets in at 12:08, it's kind of depressing. The crazy, well maybe I should make a list.
1. The World Cup. I'm writing this today because there's a good chance I won't want to tomorrow. Let's just say it's been a fun three weeks. And granted I do spend every breathing second on soccer sites from Germany, the UK, America, etc, but people are still amazed when they hear me talk about it. Apparently I'm an encyclopedia?
2. My friends. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywRcx_jus8Q. Enough said.
3. The people here. Yesterday, I was visiting my darling friend Sara (yes, I'm writing this post at your insistence!) in Lausanne for what else but semis watching, and on the train ride home I was talking with this seemingly nice elderly couple. They had kept staring at me and looking at each other and then finally talked to me, and you know I had run out of episodes on my ipod to watch so I acquiesced. This is all normal (old people tend to like me for some reason) until when we finally got to Geneva, at which point they asked me if I would join them in a threesome. Needless to say I hurried away. Honestly, why are even old people creepy here?
With that fun story, I'll leave you for now. Let's hope for success tonight against Spain so that I'll be cheerful enough to write again soon. I'm going to Berlin this weekend for soccer (what else?), I figure either way I'll see the Germans play and in Geneva a max of 500 people or so watch the game in this outdoor stadium, it's no comparison to the Fanmeile on any level, and I want to let all my fanaticism loose. And I truly hope that's on Sunday, not Saturday night.

GO GERMANY!

This may well be my last post before I go bury myself crying if Germany loses today, so I've decided to make this soccer-themed. Also, because I was asked to blog about soccer, since it's essentially my existence...

me: I want to destroy all vuvuzelas

Cooper: yes.

me: they have these annoying horns here too that the people outside insists on blowing every time

theres a goal scored

outside the office that is

Cooper: ha

ha

it's interesting

how this is so much bigger than the olymics

me: I m

ean at least you know when to check the score

Cooper: in terms of fandom

me: duh

people care

its hard to get people excited when its a different sport every day and the only thing uniting them is

your country

soccer is the worlds most popular sport, most people watch it already outside of the tournament, no

one really watches the olympic sports normally

most of them anyway

and sin

ce the athletes change every event its hard to keep track and root for them, so you just root

for your country

but in soccer you get really attached to a team of 11 players, you learn their names and how they

play and really care, and they are human, not just people dressed in your country's colors, which is

how I often feel with the olympics

Cooper:

haha

so passionate laura :-)

me: also

in the olympics, yeah you can say you won the most medals at the end, but really there's

so many gold medals given out that the end prize doesn't seem that great. like when the olympics

are over, does anyone care who won the most that much, no you forget. soccer everyone

cherishes the hope of winning at the end, and losing is horrible, in the olympics you can say oh well

there'll be an

other event tomorrow. soccer is more dramatic and a roller coaster ride.

Co

oper: haha

you should blog about this :P

And hence begins this post. I love this sport so much because the passion it unleashes. Unlike any other sport, despite how much I love tennis and winter sports, there's nothing like cheering at a goal. There's raw excitement, people coming together, people all sharing a love for something, something that everyone can understand. Soccer is not always beautiful, but it is always exciting. And being in Europe during a World Cup is all-consuming. Yesterday, as I was reading the many facebook status updates about the US losing and all I could think was that now people can go back to not pretending to truly care about soccer. It's not about just cheering for your country like in any other sport, it's not like the Olympics. It's not a patriotic thing. There's something ineffable about soccer, something I can't explain why I love it so much.

I suppose the simplest way to explain how much soccer has consumed my existence lately is outside of the matches. Reading the papers daily, even the English ones to prepare for today, the songs playing on my ipod 24/7, the jumping out of my desk at work ("so, are you following the World Cup?"- random person we met. "oh God, don't get her started or this will take hours"- fellow intern), and any one who's had even a five minute conversation with me about it leaving it saying 'wow, you're a REAL fan'. I wish I could write more, but I must get decked out in my German flag outfit (ok, so this time I'll actually wear shorts underneath I think), so I'll leave you with my favorite Go Germany! songs...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1e5DyjAIU9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeF-qzxdl0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXYXYvHPkGU&feature=related

and of course...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gosJRIPbw7k

GO GERMANY!!!! BEAT ENGLAND!!!!!!!!

If nothing else, my little brother is optimistic...

And of course the psychic octopus is optimistic too.

Daily Life

Life in Geneva has taken on a certain rhythm, and suddenly time is passing extraordinarily quickly. The weeks somehow disappear and the weekends, which I live for, pass even more quickly. I have a solid group of friends, bizarre though it is since none of them are fellow interns, which is lovely. I can only be truly thankful that we were all waiting for the same tram that day. I'm starting to pass as being Swiss, people talk to me in French and I can occasionally carry on a somewhat broken but intelligible conversation, and people have asked me for directions multiple times and I can actually give them. It's finally sunny, so I spent the day at the beach (ok, so its a large park with a pool, but it's called la plage). I'm realizing that living without carbs isn't so bad. I actually managed to cook myself a full three course meal made only of fruit and vegetables and mozzarella. Success. I suppose I have no particularly sketchy incidents to report (ok, so some creepy French dude kept trying to get me to come to his house while I passed a horrific half an hour waiting for a bus, I have learned that pretending to have phone conversations is a valuable skill). I've also learned that apparently going jogging and then going to a soccer game in said workout clothes is not a particularly bright idea in the avoidance of sketchiness. My job is still interesting, though it doesn't particularly feel like we are saving the world on a daily basis. But then I suppose, more so than any other organization, the UN moves slowly and works from the ground up. Anyway, new post entirely about the thing I truly have been dedicating all my time to, the World Cup, coming tomorrow.

World Cup Delights

This comes on the heels of Germany's fantastic 4-0 thrashing of Australia, so my energy levels are quite high. Leave it to me to find the group of fanatic German guys from Munich in Geneva. And I made friends on the tram ride there to watch the other matches and party with, so maybe my great resolutions will go downhill. But all this proves that soccer bonds like nothing else. And despite nearly getting the cops called on us on the tram ride back (so apparently the Swiss also don't celebrate much), it was the funnest night in a while. Much better than last night, which was stereotypical Genevan.

I can break Geneva down simply: it's quiet. Last night, I decided, having heard from all that Geneva is a safe city, that walking around by myself around 10 to 11 would be fine. I was right, it is a safe city. I found a total of three bars in which there were actually people. In general, the streets were deserted. Now, I give the Genevans credit- there's more happening here than in Basel. But that's not saying much. As a whole, I do not recommend this as a place to come to party. Or sightsee for that matter, as this afternoon as I decided to go out sightseeing and looked up top sights in Geneva online, I found that I had in fact seen them all in my 4 hour excursion last Sunday. So yes, last night was calm. I also discovered that while never really feeling physically unsafe, the guys in Geneva can be broken down into several categories.

1. Guys who attempt to give you things. Coffee. Ice cream. Alcohol. Money.

Yes, you read that last one correctly. Apparently being a girl by yourself makes you a prostitute. Never mind that I was wearing jeans and a long sleeved shirt. I still do not know if I should feel flattered or offended by this incident.

2. Guys who creepishly stare at you and yell things at you in French. This is 90% of them.

3. Guys who are not actually Swiss. You will be confused as to why they are not being as creepy as the ones in the first two categories. You will then see them pull out a map or speak a language that is not French, and it will make sense.

There is also the fact that as a rule, Swiss guys are unattractive. This may just be my opinion. There is also a complete dearth of attractive interns at the UN. This all sounds horrid, right?

Well, on the plus side, that's where soccer comes in an changes things. Thank God for being a girl who loves soccer, and sports in general, which is apparently a rarity, but enables me to bond with others who share my passion. And celebrate. So let's hope Germany keeps on winning!

Finance?

In many ways right now I feel like Becky Bloomwood in Confessions of a Shopaholic (the book, not the movie), where she's on that tv show giving financial advice to people and her bank manager sees it and says 'Rebecca Bloomwood is advising people on how to handle money?!?'. Truthfully, in the book it is an ironic situation, and it is equally here. Now why do I feel this way you ask?

A month, or even a week ago, if you'd asked me about finance I'd have said that it's a topic that I avoid at all costs. Inflation is about the extent of vocabulary I understand in the field. In fact, the economics requirement is the primary reason I did not transfer into the SFS, a decision I've regretted many times. Now, whoever has decided that I am qualified to write a paper for publication by the UN on human rights, government, and finance in Africa or something of that nature, must be off their rocker right? Those of you who know me, and I assume all my readers do (if you do not, that's kind of creepy that you're reading this, actually), will know that money and I don't mix particularly well. Sure, I understand that it exists and that I am a spendthrift, at least according to my parents, I don't believe I shop that much, but economics, investments, mutual funds, asset management, etc are all things that exist in some vague parallel universe for me. However, I am now going to be spending tomorrow locked up in my room eagerly awaiting Germany's start into the World Cup and researching years worth of financial information that I never bothered to learn. Should be interesting, right?

Let's start with how I got to this place. I intern at the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. Essentially, they study how climate change, biodiversity, and human rights are affected by financial institutions and make recommendations to them on how to better apply environmental, social, and governance principles. I thought it sounded really interesting, as the UN is often not effective because it doesn't take the private sector into account, and the private sector drives the public sector in many ways. And yes, finance is a large part of that. On the whole, it's really interesting. They also do things like the green economy initiative and so on. Actually fascinating stuff. So for the first few days, I had lots of meetings and read a lot of material and learned about the workings of the initiative and did little actual work, and then on Friday I finally met with the human rights person who decided to revamp the section and do all these webinars and stuff that I would help her in setting up. Enter the head of the unit.

Shortly after this, I had coffee with my incredibly busy boss, the head of the whole initiative, (why he decided he had to time for coffee with me is still up in the air), who decided that since I was only here for seven weeks, he was going to help me get the most of my internship, do something really substantive, and improve my resume all in one. So now my project for the next six weeks is researching, calling a lot of financial institutions presumably, and writing a paper for publication on a topic to be decided, but something about human rights, either Africa or Asia, and financial institutions. Daunting, yes, but also really, really cool. In short, I adore my boss, who's probably the most amusing character I've ever met. And used to be a journalist, so we bonded. Overall, I'm pretty excited, not only because I get to have this thing published and not do menial tasks for six more weeks, but because I actually feel like I'll learn a great deal from it. So here's to researching finance. Two words I thought I'd never say.