Of Waving Flags, Jets, and Cafeteria Trays

Saturday marked my arrival in Geneva, after two absolutely glorious and relaxing weeks in Munich. Alas, as is typical for me, the journey was not a smooth one. After packing and cleaning in a space of an hour, forgetting my passport at home, the most rushed taxi ride ever, getting to the airport 45 minutes prior to my flight, and a flight endured through a pounding headache, I arrived in Geneva only to find that my luggage had not in fact arrived. I do not know which was worse: filing the report and thinking the luggage was missing but having the prospect of it safely arriving later, or the actual situation, which featured me finding my luggage split open with my clothes lying around the bulky baggage area. Apparently overpacking is bad. Who knew? After dragging myself to my hotel (I can't move into my apartment until next week), I collapsed, and finally awoke on Sunday morning, ready to take Geneva by storm.

I must say, Geneva is quite picturesque, if not bustling. I walked around the jardin anglais, saw the flower clock, the national monument, the Neiton rocks, the famous jet, and the lake. I must say, the jet was my favorite part, namely standing under it and seeing how it drove the water on the lake apart through its force.

I then proceeded to the musee d'art et d'histoire, St.Pierre, the musee internationale de la reformation, and the Place de Neuve. Speaking of the Place de Neuve, an apparently busy area, it is shocking how few cars there are in Geneva. Honestly, I could walk on the middle of the road without fearing for my safety. Ironically enough though, they somehow enjoy driving motorcycles on the sidewalk. I have almost been hit twice now. Clearly, this is my own fault. I also discovered that my plan of starting over here is going to work, if only because I did not see a single bar in all my explorations yesterday. There is an abundance of grass to sleep on though. Truthfully, it's a calming and quiet city. The place with the most people was in fact the Place de Neuve, where there was a pro-Palestine rally going on. Who ever said the Swiss were a neutral people? Lastly, there is an abundance of flags in Geneva. No, this blog title is not only a homage to a fabulous song by K'naan, though I confess I did think of it, but rather the fact that one cannot walk anywhere in the old town without seeing the Swiss flag. There are flags on top of every building. There are flags hanging from windows, one particularly pretty one that's everywhere, I can only assume to be the flag of Geneva. I don't speak enough French to ask anyone, though on the plus side I have managed to successfully buy food, coffee, and an adapter, without having anyone mock my French or lack thereof. At least they haven't spoken to me in English yet. And I haven't almost gotten arrested as a terrorist due to my lack of French knowledge, a la Paris two years ago.

There are also many, many flags of the UN.

Which leads me to the part you've probably been reading all this for ... the United Nations. Because really, who wants to know about how many museums I go to? Yes, yes I know, my squeal of delight at finding a room full of Corot that worried the museum guard is a fascinating tale. And if nothing else, it felt good to finally love art again, starting over is really happening. But more to the point, I started interning at the UN Environment Programme this morning. I didn't really know what to expect going in, as for any new internship, I was terrified, spent ages trying to pick out an outfit, and had absolutely no idea what to expect. Thankfully, I needn't have worried. I haven't done a tremendous amount of work yet, just orientation and learning about the different thematic areas, the head of the unit comes back from China on Wednesday and will give me a ton of projects to do then apparently. So right now I'm just reading lots of material and other fun stuff of that nature. Everyone is really nice and welcoming. I must say, just the concept of the UN is amazing. They have the UN logo on their cafeteria trays, which was pretty epic. And they actually shockingly enough have good food, such a change from Leo's. Also having an email with the ending @unep.org makes my life. Now, in a jolly mood, and off to continue to try to get my life on track by researching fall internships (and yes, I will instead by researching the World Cup, of which there is alas little sign here in Switzerland), I bid you all au revoir et a bientot. And yes, I only know that from the cappuccino receipt.