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

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

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...

So... Geneva? Why Geneva?

People have been asking me what I am doing in Geneva. Some of what I'm doing in class is easy to explain and some of it is hard, so I will try:

1) We're learning Ruby on Rails which is a web design programming language that we will use in the design of our projects during the next year.

2) Digital video. We've made a couple videos, but we haven't spent as much time on this as we have on #1 and #3.

Speaking of #3...

3) This is the big one. This is the time we spend researching and listening to people who are working on some sort of project that is trying to improve conditions in the world. My final project will have something to do with this Project conceptualizing/speakers/collaboration - this is a lot of why we are here in Geneva. We've spent time hearing from all sorts of people working to change the world for the better in their own ways. We've heard from a man from the UNA in Congo who is working to improve the lives of people in the Congo (trying to prevent malaria by getting people mosquito nets, for example), we heard from the Director of Projects at WFUNA (World Federation of United Nations Associations), the ILO (International Labor Organization), the Loi Gai Project (this refers to people in prisons in China... there are some really horrible things happening there), tomorrow we will hear from the International Red Cross, and we've heard from some others as well... anyway. We've spent a lot of our time here on this part, but that's because it's the hardest part. I'm not totally sure what my project is going to look like yet, but I'm getting there...

Does this clear up, ever so slightly, what I'm doing here? Basically. We're learning the skills we will need in order to use technology to educate/advocate others/students about global issues. Or maybe I'm just here to hang out in Switzerland for three weeks! :)

I hope you are all well! Let me know if you have questions..

Peace,
Kira