Daffnee

I just returned from a shindig at a local bar (5 minutes away from where I live) where I bonded with ILO interns and drank German beer that tasted vaguely of bananas. And then found out that my roommate -- bless her -- is going to try to stay in this room and continue our good cohabitating relationship, rather than move out at the order of the ladies that run the house. And my mother called to tell me that disrespectful people are to be avoided like the plague -- especially in friends and potential spouses.

A good day, all in all, except for the work bit.

It's been deathly quiet around the office, with 2 of 3 supervisors out of the office, no Assembly reports to annotate and the fellow intern getting stuck in Lyon and all. I've been amusing myself by learning about the World Bank and IMF. And indigenous land rights. In Africa.

I went to Lausanne and the Olympic Museum this weekend (all on my own) as an attempt to escape Geneva's Sunday lethargy. Nice place, a little Italinate, quiet with a pretty waterfront.



There's talk of going to Lugano this weekend, in the Italian part of Switzerland. Switzerland's got something of a schizophrenic identity: neutral, efficient, and simultaneously French, Italian, and German. Does this mean they all cancel each other out?

I love the English, but Enetation finally died an unhappy death for me (it seems) so it's pure Bloggerness from here on out. So sorry for those who had any attachment to witticisms that were left on this site from before.

So I'm dashing off to Lausanne and the Olympic Museum in a bit having decided to make Sundays my museum days. Geneva is starting to get a bit warm; nothing unbearable, but skirt-and-sandal weather. I did end up sweating an unholy amount last night at the Festival de L'espoir, however, while penned up inside a sauna of a gym and listening to a French rapper called -- no kidding -- MC Solaar. I don't think I would've stuck it out were it not for the fantabulous crepes and wine immediately preceding:



Met a swath of new people too, which being an intern seems to be good for!

Some confusion on the housing front (as in who my roommate for the next two weeks shall be), but I think that between myself, Shamiso, and Sandra (the current roommate, at the right), we have enough brainpower to figure out a win-win-win situation.



Work goes ploddingly. I get research assignments tossed my way every now and then (e.g. how many countries have included the right to health in their national constitutions? Go!), but there's oodles of unstructured time that I'm not very good at structuring with my own dissertation topic. The topic currently stands at something to do with the impact of globalization on the heatlh of indigenous peoples, but I have a meeting next week that I hope will clarify things. Am craving structure. And class. Eeps.

The city is starting to grow on me, though, despite being unnervingly clean and having ridiculous hours available for commercial consumption. I'm told by Adam (far right, first picture) that I came at a great time -- the Genovese apparently hole up during the winter until the sun comes out. As a strange testament to this, I was just ambling (again, with interns) around the Bain de Paquis (kind of a public beach/bath/waterfront) on Thursday night, when we were treated to something very surprising:



We still don't know what they were for.

Spent Saturday at the Palais again, in the hopes that the Committee would get to the "Social Health Insurance" and "eHealth" resolutions -- which they didn't. I was treated to 4 hours on each country's stance on breastfeeding and powdered infant formual instead. More positively, much reading on the African Charter and writing of postcards was done.



L to R: Me in my office; my office's only redeeming feature; inside the Palais des Nations; and the Palais exterior.

I finally had a day off and slept in until 11 AM, after which I hung on at the Museum of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society. They were clever and put in the basement for appropriately gloomy effect.



L to R: Missing persons' files from WWI; moi; WWI-era postcard; courtyard; and some modern art commemorating some human tragedy or another. They also have Charles de Gaulle's POW record there, which I thought was kind of neat.

So, thoughts on Geneva so far: clean. Great transit. Clean. Europeans drink inadequate amounts of hard liquor and too much wine. Things closing at 6 PM still rather annoying. Lots of German interns. Weirdly large number of people from Canada (and Vancouver, especially). Expensive.

The next project, of course, is to get thoughts on other European cities in due time too. =)

I'm feeling slightly shafted out of the entire intern experience, and I blame the World Health Assembly. It's kind of hard to work up the energy to get out to a bar that's 20 minutes away (that's gasp-worthy for my New Yorked self) at 10 PM when you finished a 9 to 8 PM day. And then went grocery shopping, because Thursday is "shopping day" and the only day stores are open later than 6:30 PM. Most annoying.

On the other hand, I get to listen to great talks about international patent law and bond with supervisors outside of my department -- I hope I'm not giving away the fact that human rights isn't exactly my area of expertise too early in the game, but trade agreements are kind of interesting. Not to mention that human rights doesn't leave much to debate. I learned this on the bus this morning in conversation with an MPH/MSW masters student interning with the HIV/AIDS group. Whoops.

This is why people like this don't do so well at the UN:



This what I spend most of my day doing; hanging around conference rooms listening to health ministers and policy experts talk about issues. The guy in the middle, however, is a Merck representative that was sent to make a fuss about intellectual patent protections during yesterday's talk on TRIPS and IP trends. I'd have (silently) applauded him for his guts if he hadn't decided to be an utterly rude prick while doing so. (Silence would be necessary because I am but a lowly intern and have been told I am not to be heard from. I steal postcards and graph paper notepads in retribution.) There was a nicer Merck lady in the R&D talk today.

So, I typed up notes, e-mailed the NYU reference librarian for help researching the African charter, sat in on talks about a proposed R&D treaty and WHO's work in humanitarian crises, watched a pile of paper for 4 hours, bonded with a health & trade specialist and read a ton about tobacco and AIDS today.

Cool.

Anybody out there been on the UN tour in New York?

You might be interested to know, then, that Sri Lanka donated my elevator.

First day on the job. Probably the most stressful day of my life. But, first to the silver lining:



From left to right, we have: the view of Cathedral St-Pierre from my dormitory window, which is where Martin Luther apparently did his schtick in the 16th century (a la "I made Lutherans!" Simpsons fame); a drenched moi mugging for my security badge; and me with Luxme, a fellow intern that was similarly drenched and miserable on our meeting in the security office on our first day at the UN.

As proof that Geneva hates me, my alarm refused to go off this morning (roommate conscienciously woke me up at 730h even though she has work off today). I then failed to get on the right tram and ended up at the Palais de Nations -- where one would logically presume that WHO is, but is not. Then spent 30 minutes hiking around the Palais grounds before encountering a security checkpoint that told me to catch another bus up the hill. Spent 10 minutes trying to elbow through a tour group. Considered giving up. Caught bus. Found out that OMS equals WHO. (Go figure.) Got badge, met Luxme, and my nice supervisor briefed me over lattes.

Spent an hour alternately setting up my e-mail and reading the Human Rights & Health “bible”. Found out (through the “bible”) that I probably shouldn’t bring my weekly copy of the Economist into the office if I hope to keep being an intern.

The World Health Assembly decided to hold its annual meeting in the same two weeks as my first few weeks, so I get to run around with a clipboard and take notes of meetings in the hopes that something resembling a “rights-approach to health” pops up. I also got to listen to Bill Gates talk about health access issues in developing nations and lots about humanitarian crises. There was also a bit from the President of the Republic of the Maldvies, which is cool because I had no idea that the Maldives existed.

I managed to get on 2 wrong buses/trams on my way home, but managed to acquire shampoo and groceries on the way back -- no small feat, considering these darned Swiss still believe in religious holidays and even observe them (my god) by not opening shop. How non-opportunistic and anti-capitalist. Geez.

Hopefully Geneva will show its "thriving" side tomorrow, or I'm going to go nuts. I am mitigating that by nicking what UN swag I can, but all I managed today were 2 postcards and a "Stop TB" pin. Shall do better tomorrow.

So despite not really managing to finish clearing out my apartment, skirting within the British Airways luggage weight limits and being the least observant (and graceful) person on Earth, I managed to get myself and 60 kg of my personal goods from New York and Geneva.

Have I mentioned that I've never done this travelling-by-myself thing before? As in I've never had the experience of being stuck between two middle-aged businessmen on a trans-Atlantic flight, sticker shock ($3 USD for coffee? Wow. $7 USD for McD's burgers? Double wow), or having your opinion of what is supposed to be one of the world's most well-run countries plummet because everything is closed on a Sunday. (On an aside, how is possible to still have countries that shut down entirely on Sundays -- is it economically viable? Culturally relevant? Does the fact that Switzerland accepts no immigrants mean that it therefore does not have the capacity to have 24/7 operations?).

I'm also going crazy and keep hearing my cellphone ring, but that might just be fatigue or the bad plane food talking; and I need to find some way to entertain myself for another 6 hours instead of passing out and doing nothing for my jet lag. My new home seems to be a bit short on the communal cookware and space, but I figure it's dues paid for not having to share a room in first year of college. Genevian water is also a bit soft.

I spent two hours just wandering around the Old City, which was creepily deserted, super-clean and kind of depressing -- beautiful buildings and no one to appreciate it. I didn't even feel like I could take pictures because I'm afraid that the charger for my digital camera will fry if plugged in here. Must figure that out when cognizant.

Missing my family. Missing my boy. Missing friends and the comfort of school. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't travel well. Am also getting disoriented by the babble of French interspersed with music hits such as Lindsay Lohan's "Rumors" and Sinatra's "New York, New York". This is evidence both of American cultural imperialism and the fact that someone upstairs has a sense of humour.

But here I am, and work starts tomorrow. I even managed to track down bodywash at a cornerstore...and I just realised that I did pack bodywash, I just didn't bring shampoo. Well, one less thing to think about tomorrow.

I was woken up at 9:30 AM this morning (an ungodly hour during exams) by my mother, who called at 6:30 AM PST to let me know that "there's a bomb in Midtown." And only in New York is one's first thought to such information, "when is there not a bomb in Midtown?"

It turns out someone decided to blow up some innocuous British flower planters.

My 24-hour crim exam is tomorrow, and I feel like a terrible person but I can't make myself care about the moral purposes of the criminal law or why a necessity defense (US) is better or worse than diminished responsibility (UK) or coercion by the circumstances (Germany). Guys, it's not that lawyers and law students have no souls -- we're just very tired people.