Lac Leman

I had the privilege of going on a field trip a couple of days ago with Ana's Mom's class. She is a teacher at a nearby preschool, so I was appointed one of four chaperones for the 16 3-year-old children. We went to Lac Leman, the lake in the heart of Geneva. Sixty percent of the lake lies in Switzerland, and the remaining 40% is in French territory. The Chablais Alps and the Bernese Alps border the lake. It is really nice to walk around the lake and admire the mountains and all of the boats. The commercial center is right there as well.

Here are some pictures of the lake. The first is a picture of me with the jet d'eau (jet of water) to the left. It is one of the most well-recognized landmarks here in Geneva.

When we arrived, we hopped into a little white touristic train that runs along the border of the lake for a couple of miles. There was some audio to listen to describing exactly what we were passing by, but it was pretty tough to hear over the screams of the 3-year-old kids. We got out at the end and walked through some gardens to enjoy the weather. Weather in Geneva is....difficult. It will be 80 F and sunny one day, and then 50 F and rainy the next day; I have been told that the weather I am experiencing is actually far and away the best that Geneva has to offer. It is not Miami weather, but I guess I will get used to it.

Last night I went to an outdoor viewing area with a big projector showing the Swiss soccer match against Honduras. It was full of Swiss hopefuls wanting to see their team advance to the knockout round of the World Cup. Unfortunately for the Swiss, they tied, and a tie was not good enough to send them through to the next round. Spain and Chile advanced ahead of them in their group. Consequently, the streets were packed with proud Spanish people waving their flags in the faces of all of the Swiss fans. They were celebrating as if they had won the World Cup; I wanted to remind them that they were supposed to win, and they still have four more games to go before becoming champions. I am going to the same place tonight to watch the USA match vs. Ghana.

Jetting Off to Granada

I just got back from a 4 night vacation to Granada, Spain. I lived in Granada for 5 months in the Spring of 2009; it was an unforgettable and truly life changing experience. So as can be expected, it was pretty fun to go back and visit my favorite places and be a bit nostalgic about my time there.

The first day there Ana and I went to the mercadillo, a huge outdoor market with a bunch of knockoff brand name merchandise and inexpensive food and souvenirs. In the afternoon, we went to visit the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a large palace and fortress built in the 14th century by Moorish rulers. The word "Alhambra" literally means red fortress. It is massive, and it sits high atop a hill.

The Alhambra was surrendered to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel (Los Reyes Catolicos) in 1492 when the Christian forces proved too overwhelming for the Moors. I have heard that the mother of the Moorish ruler saw her son crying and said to him, "Do not cry like a woman for what you could not defend like a man." It was later in that same year, 1492, that Christopher Columbus came to the Alhambra to propose his trip to the Americas to Isabel and Ferdinand.

Here is a view of the Alhambra from the Mirador, a site that Bill Clinton considers to be the best sunset he has ever seen.
Moorish poets wrote of the Alhambra that it is a "pearl set in emeralds." Washington Irving actually lived in the Alhambra for some time while he completed some of his most famous works, notably Tales of the Alhambra. It was thanks in large part to this collection of stories and sketches that the Alhambra was reintroduced to the Western world in the 19th century and has become a huge tourist attraction today. It really is an amazing place. I actually lived at the bottom of the hill to the right, and I could run to the Alhambra in no more than 10 minutes from my apartment.

Ana and I also enjoyed plenty of Granada's second-largest tourist attraction: tapas. I know many people who have eaten at tapas bars in the US, and they think it is neat, but are not overwhelmingly impressed by the experience. However, in Granada and only in Granada, when a person orders a drink, he receives a plate of small food for free with his drink. It is only necessary to pay for the drink, not the food that accompanies the drink. If you know where to go to avoid the touristic tapas bars in Granada, you can have a hearty dinner for the price of two beers (about 3.20 Euro). Trust me... I know where to go.

The food ranges from a full plate of shrimp and calamari to enormous meatballs and loaded baked potatoes. There are also plenty of ham-related dishes. Note: Ham is everywhere in southern Spain; do not go to southern Spain unless you are prepared to see cured ham hanging from the walls of bars and restaurants. Some of the best drinks are sangria, tinto de verano, and Alhambra Reserva 1925.

The trip to Spain was great and sunny, but my summer fun is coming to an end as my French course begins on Monday.

United Nations Visit

Yesterday Ana and I went on the tour of the United Nations headquarters here in Geneva. I could not believe it was her first time to visit after living in Geneva for 17 years.

The office in Geneva is the second largest office of the four major UN offices in the world. It is second in size to New York`s office, and third and fourth are Vienna and Nairobi. After WW1, the League of Nations was established to prevent another worldwide catastrophe. Since that did not work out so well, the League of Nations was replaced by the United Nations following WW2 in 1946. As it was signed into incipience, Lord Robert Cecil proclaimed, ``The League is dead, long live the United Nations!``

We were only able to visit one conference room during our visit. In this room, diplomats from each country meet to discuss international rules and regulations. There are clear glass booths wrapping around the top of the room; this is where the interpreters sit in order to rapidly translate the conversation into one of the six official languages of the UN. English, Spanish, French, Russian, Chinese, and Arabic are the six languages allowed to be spoken at any time in any conference of the UN. However, heads of state are allowed to speak in their own native language if they so choose. They bring their personal interpreters along with them so their message can carefully and diplomatically be translated into an official UN language.

This is the room we visited. I forgot my camera, so these are pics taken from the internet.


The mission statement of the UN is as follows.

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom

I really enjoyed the visit, even though it was cut short because three of the four rooms usually visited were being occupied by conferences. Maybe in the coming years I will attempt for an internship at the UN in Geneva or New York, who knows.

Here is a pic of the front of the UN.

Two Weeks In

Hey everyone, I am creating this blog for all of my friends and family who want to keep up with me while in Geneva for the next 2-3 years.

Just to catch you all up, I graduated from the University of Miami (FL) in December, 2009. I took the following semester to decide exactly what I wanted to do with my life post-college. After much introspection and valuable discussion (thanks to everyone who listened to me and gave advice), I decided that I was not prepared to put away the textbooks forever. Instead, I decided that I wanted to pursue an international professional career, thanks in large part to my incredible study abroad experience in Granada, Spain in Spring 2009, and staying in school to complete a Master's degree seemed the best option.

I sent a last minute application off to the University of Geneva's Master's in Political Science with an International Relations track, and after anxiously waiting for 3 months, I was admitted to the program in May. However, I will have to complete an intensive French language course this summer and display a level B2 proficiency in French at the end of August (see http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/?M=/main_pages/levels.html for further description). After the presumed passage of that exam, I will have to complete the Annee Passerelle, or preparatory year, to be admitted to the Master's in Fall 2011. This is because I do not have an undergraduate degree in International Relations. All in all, my time at the University of Geneva should amount to 5 (least) to 6 (most) semesters of study.

So, there is work to be done.

For the past 3 months, I have been studying with the French Rosetta Stone about an hour a day, and I took an 8-week beginner's French course at L'Alliance Francaise in Miami.

I arrived in Geneva on June 2, 2010. For the first 12 days, I stayed with Ana and her family at their apartment. I recently moved into a student-shared apartment a little south of the city center (see http://maps.google.ch/maps?hl=de&client=firefox-a&hs=JrL&rlz=1R1MOZA_enUS376US376&q=rue+de+tambourine+geneve&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=Rue+de+la+Tambourine,+CH-1227+Carouge+%28GE%29&gl=ch&ei=Q34aTNeKE8ibOJvNhL4K&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ8gEwAA).

I will be living here until the first of September, at which time I will hopefully have a positive answer from the university housing for which I applied. Note: There is a terrible housing crunch in Geneva, and it is very difficult to find inexpensive student housing.

I have tried out a little bit of my French. I have stumbled my way through conversations with Ana's Dad and Grandma, both of whom do not speak English or Spanish, so our only means of communication is French. I have been told I speak like a 2-year-old, but be that as it may, speaking is speaking. I'll have to wait for my intensive summer course to start before I can really make any serious strides in the language.

I want to leave myself material for my next post, so that is all for now. Bonne nuit a tout le monde!