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Published: April 1st 2007
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Alps on the way...
Woke up Sunday morning on the train to a beauitufl Swiss sun rising over the alps Hello all!
I've just returned from a week long stint in Geneva, Switzerland that was just a fantastic learning opportunity and a great getaway as well!
My journey began with a fairly uneventful 14 hour train ride. Let me tell you, 14 hours on a train is FAR too long. But it was cheaper than taking a plane even with discount airlines so I survived. That and if I were to have lost luggage at least it would be my own fault!
I arrived Sunday morning at the train station, and quickly found my hotel which was thankfully just around the corner. As I was checking in, I turned around to see Kim, Melissa and Caroline, 3 of the 9 people from home that I was meeting there!
It was such a great, great feeling to see and spend a decent amount of time with people from home! Really, new friends are amazing but old ones truely are golden...
Anyway, so I couldn't get into my room right away because they had to finish cleaning, so I threw my stuff in their room and took off to see Geneva right away, because I knew I
Wine Country...
Vineyards along the lake wouldn't have so much time during the rest of the week. Geneva, let me tell you, is a BEAUTIFUL city. Very clean, very international, clean air, and people are generally pretty friendly. Actually when I was walking along the lake I could almost forget that I was in Geneva and really almost thought I was back in Kelowna... that is until I heard foreign languages being spoken and I knew I couldn't be in Kelowna! haha...
That first day I just kind of wandered the streets of the old town, found a beautiful old cathedral and went up the tower to get a view, and then wandered back to our hotel which I quickly found out as night fell was definitly in the red light district of the city!!
The next day, Monday, it was time to get geared up for the Conference. Right, I should explain. The reason I was in Geneva was for the World Model United Nations conference. After such a great time in New York last year, UBC Okanagan decided this year to go big and send their delegation to Europe! So, 9 came from home, plus me already in Europe made 10. We
Church...
Never got the name, but it had a great tower... represented Ukraine on our various councils - I was in the Social Humanitarian and Cultural council (SOCHUM), discussing the issue of Women in Prison, which turned out to be very interesting!
Anyway, so Monday we had to register, which turned out to be quite a process that I'm glad I wasn't really involved in, and then get ready for the opening ceremonies. Luckily we showed up early for the opening ceremonies, and were able to sit together while watching for the first time ever a real life...
YODDLER!! The ceremonies started with this awesome, professional yoddler in leiderhosen backed up by four long horn players! How much more cultural can you get?? Really, the best thing I've heard yet I think... I mean, how many times in life do you get to hear a professional yoddler?? Unfortunately the yoddler was followed by a series of painfully long and fairly badly delivered speeches, but then the ceremony ended with an encore by the longhorn players backed up by Swiss flag throwers which was pretty cool.
After the ceremonies, it was back to the hotel to get gussied up for the Opening night party. Actually, I should say for
View out over lake Geneva
Beautiful beautiful view up there. I could have spent all day! the Opening night cultural drinking fest! We had heard that the Polish delegates had obtained cases of Polish vodka mickeys to hand out to everyone at the party, which we thought was pretty crazy, until we got there and EVERY DELEGATION had brought in their own country's respective liquors and beers and wines to give out free of charge to everyone! Let me tell you, mixing French wine with Egyptian mixers, add in a little German beer and some Venezuelan liquere, top it off with a shot of Canadian club and a mickey of Polish vodka to carry you home and you have yourself one heck of a good night (but one hell of a hangover too!).
After that crazy night, the next morning we had to get up bright and early for a full day of conference sessions. My committee went fairly well, however it was evident from the start that it was going to be pretty disorganized and just a lot of fighting back and forth over wording and language used in working papers and draft resolutions. Actually by the end of the 17 hours of sessions we were unable to pass a resolution, which made the
whole week kind of worthless in a way. It was good though because the issue being discussed was interesting and everyone stuck to their country policy really well. My favorite was the girl representing... i think Saudi Arabia or Egypt?? Anyway, a Muslim country... she got up on the mic after we had been talking about providing contraceptives in prisons and just went CRAZY about how that was an outrageous idea to even be considered. Pretty interesting...
What else can I say? Its hard because really it was just a myriad of committee sessions and random viewings of the city, mixed in with a couple parties (not very good ones however... I think we were all too stressed with the committees to really party!). There were some very nice moments though for sure, like spending one very awesome dinner on a beach with Jason eating a homemade vegetarian sandwhich, walking the old city again with Lynds and Melissa, discovering the botanical gardens, visiting the Red Cross museum, and random salsa dance lessons at the bus stop with Venezuelans!
The best moment of the whole trip came near to the end. After a hard week of conference, we got
Beautiful Organ...
My favorite thing to do in churches: turn around and check out the amazing organs that adorn the back! the immense honor of having the closing ceremonies inside the UN headquarters in Geneva. Picture this: 1700 students lined up outside, waiting to go through a long security process, when all of the sudden HUGE thunder clouds roll in, and the skies open up and just POUR on us... rain, sleet, hail, snow... everything you can imagine coming down in BUCKETS and reinforced by a fierce wind, on a completely unprepared mob of students dressed to their best for the closing ceremonies!! Needless to say it was a bit of pandemonium... people running for nearby shelters, people rushing the gates (Which i'm sure was an absolute security nightmare for the UN guards!), the croud breaking out in choruses of cheers at the thunder, a huge round of "OLE ole ole o-LE...", and once we got inside finally, the entire group... 1700 students... doing the wave inside the UN General Assembly Headquarters. Doesn't get much cooler than that!
So, that's it! Hope you enjoy the photos!
Love you all,
Mel.
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Mom
non-member comment
So fantastic
You've had the experience of a lifetime, I'm so glad. Love Mom