Operation Genève Scavenger

Mission: Explore parts of Geneva we've never seen

Mission Master Planner: Remi Holden

Mission Agents: Ronda, Jennie, Sarah, Emily and Kira

Tasks were given by clue and tasks ensured that hilarity would ensue. Mission accomplished. Check out the slideshow powerpoint for a closer look at the shenanigans.

Geneva Scavenger Hunt Haiku:
Mission Accomplished
Geneva explored and loved
Dwight got to boogie

What I've learned about Danes...

I spent this weekend getting back to my roots - my Danish roots that is. I flew into Copenhagen on Friday evening and flew back on Sunday night. These are a few of my observations about the Danes, my ancestors from whence I come, that I gathered this weekend:

1. All Danes are beautiful. Even their "dog form" Great Danes are beautiful. Thus my point.


2. Danes love bikes. They have pictures of bikes all over Copenhagen. There are pictures of bikes on signs, pictures of bikes on the streets, and pictures of bikes that light up on traffic signals. Bikes. are. everywhere. Like I said, Danes love bikes.



3. A Dane must have started the convenience store 7-11 because there are as many 7-11s in Copenhagen as there are Starbucks in Seattle. Yeah.. it's a lot.


4. And since Carlsberg, THE Danish beer, claims to be "probably the best beer in the world," I therefore must assume that it is brewed by probably the best people in the world. The Danes.



All in all, we had a really good weekend... we even trained it over to Sweden for Saturday night! Because.. you know... why not?!?

Ice Cream means delicious in Esperanto

Ice cream in every language can be translated to mean delicious.

OK maybe that's not true, but couldn't it be true??

Yesterday it was so hot in the classroom that we decided to head downtown in commuter traffic to get an ice cream cone before dinner. Totally worth it. Totally delicious.

Thank you to the Romans and Chinese for first deciding to make cream and yummy flavors cold together.

The ice cream was delicious!


Ice Cream Haiku:
One-Hour ride on bus
Crammed in stinky tight spaces
The ice cream, worth it!

UMF Global - Week 1

This week in the Global Program: GRANT PROPOSALS!

We will be taking our research, the project and its data, to the next level by preparing ourselves for the next step – getting money to continue our work. My head is spinning with possibilities, so the task at hand is to sift through all of these to discover what it is I’m really interested in pursuing. This could turn into something that’s for real, or something that ends when I graduate the program. Who knows! Time will tell and that’s really what will be going on in the next 3 weeks!

On a lighter note, it appears as though Dwight’s operation was successful. If anything, I was successful in gluing my hand to Dwight for a moment and spilling the super glue all over my other hand. So there’s that. Dwight will remain in his bandages for 24 hours to ensure a secure hold. Plus.. I just kinda like his current look!

(Video coming soon!)

Sign Dwight's cast!

The UMF-Global crew has taken it upon themselves to begin signing Dwight's cast for his broken neck/decapitated head.

Please sign his cast virtually by leaving your note on-line.

Comments thus far have included: Stay head strong!, Don't jump head first!, Don't hang your head!, Keep your chin up!...

Please leave a message!

Yodel-lei-he-hoo!!

Since Dwight lost his head, I thought I would do the same in a symbolic way - take part in dangerous hijinks in a canyon in the Alps!

We went Canyoning on Saturday in Interlaken, Switzerland. This town is your picturesque Swiss town looking exactly the way you'd expect a Swiss town to look. The architecture, the random cows walking through the streets with huge cowbells on their necks and of course the mountains! Even though this is my 3rd time in Switzerland it was my first time getting up close and personal with the Alps.

If Dwight hadn't already lost his head, he would have on this trip! We rapelled down a 150-foot cliff face, jumped off several cliffs including a 30-foot high drop, slid down several rock faces, and took a zip line into a river pool of water that, being glacial water, was very chilly!!

It was intense but so much fun!

A bonus to the trip was that Sarah, Emily and I were in a smaller group with 3 siblings, Christina, Thomas and Alex, that we had gotten to know the night before at the hostel. They are an adventure sports family and were kicking my butt the entire canyoning trip - but then again who wouldn't be able to???

Check out the photos.. My helmet says "Shocker" mwahahaha!



Canyoning Haiku:
30-foot drop? Yes!
Sharp rocks, flowing water? Yes!!
Bruising? Butt of course!!!

Dwight K. Schrute - Bobblehead and travel companion

Dwight K. Schrute of Scranton, Pennsylvania lost his head on Friday July 16th while roaming the streets of Interloken, Switzerland.

While Dwight wanted us all to know that he spent his time selling paper for Dunder Mifflin and working on the beet farm with his cousin Mose, he also spent time traveling.

Since 2006 when Dwight left his position as a volunteer sheriff's department deputy, he has spent his time keeping the citizens of the world safe. In his words, "My talents were wasted in Scranton. I like to protect those abroad because that's where real crime can be found." He got his wish. Dwight was found in two pieces in his current protectee's purse, Kira Christensen. Dwight was last seen alive giving a karate demonstration to the hot-tempered Jolly Green Giant.

Regluing will take place in Geneva, Switzerland at the John Knox Center as soon as some glue can be found.

Any comments you'd like to leave for Dwight won't be noticed or appreciated by him, but you are welcome to do so anyway.

And the travels begin!

I had a classic airport moment today.. or yesterday, I guess.

Please take a moment to picture me, my backpack, my purse and Dwight running from one side of the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP) to the other in a frantic attempt to make the connecting flight to Amsterdam. (Are you picturing this??)

As I come running around the corner at my gate - in full sprint - I trip over my own feet and fall.. total spread eagle on the floor. Awesome. Then the flight attendant started yelling at me to run, pull out my boarding pass and my passport and get on the plane so I wouldn't miss it. They closed the door to the plane a minute later.

However, I feel like this victorious moment was not quite the beautiful and glorious victory it could have been. I won the most important battle, getting on the plane, however my totally sweaty look was not attractive nor comfortable and the whooping cough I got from the dead sprint through the Caribou Coffee country of MSP made me the most hated woman on the plane.

Classic. It's like I was in a movie or something (with Tina Fey playing me!)

Classic Airport Moment Haiku:
Busy airport halls
She runs like a maimed gazelle
And falls like a goat.

Dwight - Redux!

Hey all!

It's that time of year again... yes... it's time for Switzerland!! (insert groan that is as long as necessary depending on the number of times you've heard me mention this!)

After reading an entertaining (for South Dakotans anyway) article online on what distinguishing characteristics make us South Dakotans, I had an interesting idea. It's true! We South Dakotans do know our South Dakota trivial facts and we are proud, even anxious, to graciously gift you with our knowledge of anything that might connect the certain situation, person, joke, story, smell, sight, sound or awkward moment to something "South Dakota!"

Despite our passion, I still don't think people get it. (Or maybe it's the wind.)

So I thought I might appeal to a different sensibility. Since most of my cohort classmates (OK let's be honest, none of them) will ever make it out to South Dakota, let alone Sioux Falls, I thought I would bring the beauty of Sioux Falls to them... Dwight-style.

This is Part 1 of "Dwight around town" where Dwight visits some of my favorite spots in Sioux Falls. To all those native SuFu people, let me know what I missed and I will go take pics! Please do so quickly, though, because I leave on Wednesday.

Enjoy!
Kira

The finger

No... not that finger. The one just on the other side of it but still in the middle. No. not the all important left ring finger in Midwestern, Heartland-of-America culture. It's the one on the right hand. Yes. The ring finger on my right hand.. the unimportant and least valuable finger on my right hand is in a split. I've injured my finger, perplexing my doctor as to how to fix it and making her scratch her head more than I think she'd care to admit, and now it's in a splint.

As I've been typing this I am using my left hand in the proper form on the 'home row' and my pointer and middle finger is doing everything else on the right-hand side of the keyboard. To be honest, my right pointer and middle finger are pretty efficient at the key strokes. Maybe we don't even need 5 fingers. Maybe 3 OR EVEN 4 would suffice for everyday living as the characters of The Simpsons suggest... what... with their daring portrayal of yellow 4-fingered people! This is something to consider. I'm doing just fine with 4 fingers on my right hand... maybe evolution should consider the same.

I'm sooo not serious about this, but I must admit being a nine-fingered woman is much easier than I anticipated. :)

The Sickness

I will not bore you, disgust you or otherwise force you to skim, rather than read, this post by delving into the details of being sick the last few days. Instead, I thought I would enlighten the healthy folk with a few things I've discovered in case you too get the sickness.

Sick Tip:
#1) When others cover their mouth and nose in your presence or in general try to avoid any contact with you, that means you seem to be really sick. Go home.
#2) Don't buy the "Low Sodium Diet" Chicken Noodle Soup. I had no idea what I'd gotten myself into when I purchased this raunchy flavored water with chicken chunks.
#3) Cough Syrup still doesn't work. I've never felt like those syrupy renditions of "cherry" actually stopped a cough - they still don't.
#4) Ibuprofen, tylenol.. whatever works for you (or your doctor recommends) to break the fever - take it! The parts that really suck are the aches and chills that come with the high fever. Plus it's good for you not to be hanging out with a temp in the 100s.

That's it...Stay healthy!

The Exciting Daily Grind!

I have nothing exciting to say.

It's funny how even the mundane seems exciting when you're abroad, and how even the exciting seems mundane when you're back home. Let me illustrate what I mean by this:

Homework
Home: I was at school until 6 tonight correcting tests, and even when I think about it I get bored.
Abroad: I am still working on homework we started in July, and even when I tell other people about it they are excited to hear about it.
Winner - Abroad.

Eating Lunch
Home: A sandwich, some yogurt, and a beautiful view of my desk while correcting papers in the Math TPC.
Abroad: A sandwich, some yogurt, and a beautiful view of the Swiss scenery (you know.. mountains, hay fields, sunflower fields, trees etc..)
Winner: Abroad

Class
Home = In a room with no windows, air conditioning and 30 glorious TI-Nspire calculators.
Abroad = In a room with windows lining two walls, natural air conditioning and access to Facebook.
Winner: Abroad

Yogurt
Home = Comes in a plastic container and is still tasty despite having fewer calories.
Abroad = Comes in a delightful terracotta container and is the tastiest yogurt ever. (with many many calories)
Winner: Abroad

Hmmmm... I think abroad has it.

Although, despite the above evidence proving the superiority of travel, I was really excited when I got home - mundane and all.

Back in the U.S. of A.!

I'm back!

Whew! What a trip! The last 4 weeks have left a huge impression on me, and I hope I can work all of my new ideas into my classes for the fall. It will be an immense amount of work, but I'm really excited about it all!

Soooo... I didn't really write any haiku while I was away. So I figured since I started my trip with a haiku, I will end it with haiku as well. Here you go:


Switzerland haiku:

La Suisse impressions
Espresso, chocolate, yogurt
Eating is my sport


Post-Switzerland haiku:

La Suisse impressions
Espresso, chocolate, yogurt
Running's my new sport

Peace,
Kira

Riiiiiii-cco-laaaaa!!!

I think the subject line speaks for itself, but let me explain anyway.

I got to play an Alpine Horn!

There was no leiderhosen involved, but we were at a Swiss-German tourist trap of a restaurant called Edelweiss where the magic happened. And when I say tourist trap, collect all the ideas you have about tourist trap restaurants and that was Edelweiss Restaurant. Complete with ridiculous uniforms for staff, outrageous prices for a bucket of fondue cheese and giant hordes of tourists invading the restaurant (besides us). There were about 80 people that showed up right after us for dinner (3 bus loads of Japanese tourists), at the same time. It was like we were a poor sandbar on the river just waiting to be obliterated by the incoming flood - of tourists.

At the restaurant we ordered fondue, which was a first for me for two reasons: 1) I'd never had fondue before and 2) I'd never spent that much money on a bucket of cheese before! (It was still good though!)




The best parts about the restaurant? The wicked awesome musicians and their instruments. There were two gentlemen on the stage dressed in the appropriate Swiss-German garb playing the accordion plus some extras like the saw, the cow bells (about 24 cow bells hanging on a rod), the bowl (coins spinning in a bowl), the spoons, the flugel horn, and of course the ALPINE HORN! And yes, I got to play it.. not once but twice!

Who would have thought I'd actually get to check that item off my life-long To Do list?

Peace,
Kira

Take Action

Simple concept.

Organize, inspire and motivate youth to do something good and in turn be a part of something bigger than themselves... together.

We're calling it "Take Action" (for now), and it will run on a website with a new "action" to take each day. When you've completed the action you click "I've Acted" and you get added to the total number of people who have taken action. On the website, people will be able to share their thoughts and experiences via a forum, upload photos and upload videos. There will also be links to resources about why their actions are important (they are related to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals).



Check out the video for a little bit of what we envision this to be.

The Project...

Eureka!

On the list of "To Dos" for my classes here in Geneva, figuring out a project idea was basically THE most gratifying item to check off the list. My parter Ben and I were able to check it off on Wednesday!

Since then we've been busy working on video to present the idea, concept mapping for the web page, goals, a "one-pager" which we can give to potential partners (NGOs that would work with us on the project) and... lots of other things we haven't even thought of yet. However, we couldn't get started on any of this other stuff until we figured out our idea. So I'm thrilled that we have it worked out on paper and people seem excited about it when we tell them what we'll be doing! I'll post our video when it's finished so you can get a sense of what I'll be working on for the next year. It's going to be very cool.

And no... I'm not going to tell you the idea until we finish the video. I'm interested in everyone's opinions, and I think the video is a good way to get the basic idea of what the project is about!

Peace,
Kira

The return of Dwight!

Dwight is back!

Dwight was returned safely on a beautiful Friday night during a big group meal/BBQ! The culprits were my roommate and project partner. I guess it shows you can't trust anyone... when it comes to kidnapping bobbleheads!

(Despite the kidnapping, Dwight is in good spirits. He was enjoying some Nutella shortly after his return!)

Hungry? This is where I eat lunch...

I thought you might like to see my "campus" here in Geneva and where I eat lunch... since lunch is the best class of the day! :)



Or maybe there's another reason lunch is the best part of the day...

Dwightgate: Day 3

As I’ve told you before. Dwight has been kidnapped. Below you can see the media I’ve received as “proof” he’s OK and basically floating somewhere among my fellow cohort members. My investigatory skills have led me to discover some important information about one of the people involved.

More later...

Geneva - it's more than just the landscape

We’ve been really fortunate.

I’m not just saying that because I get to hang out in Geneva, Switzerland and stare out at some of the most beautiful landscape I’ve gotten the chance to gaze upon in my life. I’m talking about all of the people we’ve heard from the last week and a half. Leaders of all sorts of NGOs have come to talk with us, brainstorm with us and listen to us – about how to help affect some positive change in the world. This is pretty cool since a NGO is sort of like a non-profit organization working to better the world. Why are we in Geneva to listen to them? Since the UN Office in Geneva works with human rights, a lot of the NGOs are based here. This is important because what makes an NGO so special is that they have special permission to present documents (in a sense “lobby”) to the UN. So, it’s fairly powerful that we get to meet with these groups.

This program is pretty unique. I will hopefully finish the program completing a project for my Masters that will have made a difference in some small way, and without explaining what my project is right now, let me just say it’s going to be pretty awesome.

All my best to you! I hope you find my updates informational (sometimes) and characteristically “Kira-esque” (all the time) :)

Peace,
Kira