Hey Friends interested in reading.

A few clarifications:
First hope you all very impressed by my technical internet skills- I actually set up a blog!! (Thanks Barry)

Second: the name- its code, unless you a school friend or I tell you about it I dont think anyone can possibly find this website and connect it to me...( I will become a mossad agent oneday) Feel bit silly writing a blog but want to remeber stuff Im doing here so feel free to read if you want an update of my life or ignore from now on. I do want to hear whats happening in all your lives though so please drop me a line when get a chance and I will respond saving all boring details for blog for those interested. ie my mom


Week 1 in Geneva

I’m sitting in my room looking at snow covered mountains in front of me, my ‘slightly disorderly’ room is behind me with my very vocal drain making its usual gurgling sounds that kept me awake my first night here and trying to put down how I feel after a week in Geneva.
On one hand I feel so independent, I get up each morning board a bus to the station and then take another tram to work. After living here a week I now have a bus card, know where to buy my groceries and other necessities, have had one attempt at laundry. (My clothes are a bit sandpapery but will do). On the other hand I realise how much growing up I still have to do. I have done numerous blond things, ranging from taking the wrong bus and then waiting half an hour to get back to where I started to leaving my keys in the door and having to get off the bus and turn back making myself late for my first day. But I guess its all part of the experience.

The city itself is magnificent, the lake is magnificent, walking around it you feel such a dichotomy of harmony and awe (I feel I have to start using big words to compete with the people I’ve been hanging out with). The old city is lovely and the parks are beautiful. It’s such a novelty coming from SA seeing parks full of people walking their dogs or families picnicking and of course the ever-present snow capped mountains in the background.

As for the people I’ve met, I am totally awed and humbled, everyone is so, worldly, cultural and knowledgeable. I’ve realised getting good marks at school and reading a newspaper now and then definetly does not qualify you as an intellectual. As most of you know I usually have something to say about most things and am pretty vocal in my opinions yet with the people I’ve met here I found myself wanting to keep quiet and listen a lot more than usual. So many of the people I’ve met have these ivy league background, have studied the most diverse topics and are just overflowing with knowledge, they know so much about culture history, current affairs I feel like there isn’t a subject I could bring up that they would be able to discuss in depth. I guess Geneva being such an international city as well as a centre for banking and commerce attracts quite a diverse and interesting bunch of people. Even the bankers are not you’re your typical grey suite accountants but have backgrounds in topics ranging from oriental literature to Middle East studies. Everyone just seems so competent and knowledgeable. I’m trying to just listen and sponge in as much knowledge from everyone as I can absorb. I definitely have taken some humble pills being here for only a week.

I’ve also realised how lucky I am to have the opportunity to travel and just be here. In SA we are so comfortable in our comfortable little bubbles of mediocrity its so easy to get caught up, you think you know a little about most things and never challenge yourself to leave your comfort zones or experience knew things.
As for work its been very interesting, being an intern you do get a bit of the skivy work, I spent a day listening to audio tapes of the previous UNHRC sessions just to pick up the word ‘Palestinian refugees’ which they are using to make a video where they contrast the treatment of Palestinian refugees to the lack of attention given to all the Jewish refugees in the ME, a lot of table and chart making and with my computer skills that is no easy task, but I guess its good for me to become a bit more technical! Next week should be interesting the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) where they will be reviewing the Human Rights records of 16 states begins on Monday. The work I have done on that has been fascinating, I know for one thing that of all the places I intend travelling as a Jew and a woman Bahrain, is not top of the list and I’m not keen to get involved with Indonesian authorities either with their records of torture and other abuses. It was also fascinating being at the final preparatory meeting on Friday where Egypt at the last minute threw in a skew ball and announced that the OIC, Arab and African group were releasing a paper and that if not approved, they would not participate in the UPR, a process that the Council has been working on for months. It reminded me very much of my dealings with the MSA when they found all sort of technical reasons not to work with us on ‘cook for peace’ last year. (Guess they were just being good Muslim diplomats!)-Oy vey Im turning into a racist ignore that!
Anyway in a nut shell that my life at the moment, for those of you bored on uninterested feel free to ignore. Would really like to hear from you all, keep me updated as to happenings in Joberg, I plan to start travelling soon (Flights are really cheep already booked for Rome!!) So that should be bit more interesting. STAY IN TOUCH!