Sorry sorry sorry! We have been so busy and literally have had no free time to do ANYTHING!
We went hiking last weekend in France. We are so close to the border though that we jsut took a bus and walked across the border. Some people did the first part of the hike that was SUPER intense I guess. The guy who was leading the trip was Kerry Brinkhart. He is a very important person if you know anything about landmines and he is besties with the Prince of Jordan. So jealous of his life. But anyways, he took like 8 people up this super steep hike that took like an hour or so, and the rest of us took the tram to the top of the mountain. It wasn't really a mountain, it just kinda looked like the flat tops but I guess that counts. When we got to the top, we met up with the other people in our group and it looked like they had poured water on themselves. I have never seen people that sweaty in my life. This old guy was totally kicking their butts. Like when I go hiking with my mom who hikes 4 days a week. After they took a bit of a break, we walked like 3 miles to this field place and ate lunch and could see the alps on one side and Geneva on the other. And there were herd of cows walking around, it was great. I felt so European.
That night, there was supposed to be this awesome party around the lake, that Genovians (This is what I have named everyone living in Geneva. And yes, it is like the Princess Diaries. Get over it) so cleverly called The Lake Party. We were all a bit tired, but decided to go anyways. It was on the other side of the lake, so we had to walk like 30 minutes to get there. Initially, this doesn't seem hard, but them imagine that you are in a group of 30, and things become a little more difficult. We somehow made it all the way to the party with the group intact, but as soon as we started getting into the crowd, the whole group immediately broke up. I ended up staying with my friend Laura, and we just meandered around for a bit and then decided that the party was lame, so we went home. It was SOOO crowded and we were basically just getting groped, so it only took a hot sec for us to make the decision. The rest of the weekend was very relaxed and we just all tried to catch up on things that we had been putting off.
But oh my goodness, this last weekend was even busier than last week! Monday, we had lectures starting at 8 in the morning, which was rough. They were not that exiting either. It was only a half day of lectures, but then we had a bunch of reading to do on Security Sector Reform (SSR) of Guinea Bissau. And lets be honest, who really cares about Guinea Bissau? It was a lot of reading and not that exciting but whatever. I went and did all my reading in the shade next to the lake. It was so pretty. I took a nap too and it made the boring lectures worth it. On Tuesday, we had lectures starting at 8:30 and they were a little better. In the afternoon, we met with a woman who is on the Board of Directors for the Conference on Disarmament, which is a BIG DEAL. Like BIG DEAL. There are roughly 11 members, 5 representatives from the permanent 5 (p5) of the UN security council (US, UK, France, China, and Russia) and then the rest of from other countries representing all the other regions of the world like South America, the Middle East, and Africa. We spoke with her under "Chatham House Rules" so we can't really say what she told us because it was very off the record but that was a super cool talk. If you are interested in the UN at all, there is lots of controversy going on right now with the Conference on Disarmament because they don't do anything and they are up for review in the fall. I am done nerding out now.
Wednesday, we had a group presentation about Guinea Bissau. It was kinda stupid, so I am not even going to talk about it. One thing that is interesting about this trip is that everyone is super type-a and overachievers so group projects are basically a nightmare because most people just fight the whole time since everyone has really strong opinions and is used to being the leader of their group. It isn't a terrible thing to actually have everyone want to participate is a group project, but it is just different because that never happens in normal classes. You always have those few people that have no opinions and don't even come to the meetings. We still have the people that don't always show up, but everyone is so strong and righteous in their opinions the group work becomes very challenging. Anyways, we got that done and nothing else happened that day until we had a speaker that talked about UN sanctions. It was so interesting! I though it was going to be really boring, but I ended up liking it the most out of all of our presentations so far. He basically explained the difference between certain type of sanctions and how they work in certain cases. He also talking a lot about how they are used right now against countries like Libya and members of Al-Qaeda. I was lovin it. I also got shwarma that night, and it was fantastic. I love shwarma with all my heart.
We had two research days in the library at the UN, and I basically got nothing done. I got a lot done the first day, but then changed my research paper topic, so that was all pointless. On Friday, we had a meeting with the Secretary General of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) so that was interesting. We talked a lot about stuff that we dealt with on my co-op at WAND (Women's Action for New Directions for those of you that didn't know where I was working in the Spring) so I felt smart haha. After that we went to the library and I was distracted the whole time and didn't get anything done. Oh well.
THEN I WENT TO SEE HARRY POTTER! I love Harry Potter. Everyone went out and me and 3 other girls went to go see HP instead. It was totally worth it. Voldemort gives the most awkward hugs ever. The whole movie was a bit ridiculous but I loved it anyways, obviously.
Today, we were supposed to go to a chocolate factory, but the train tickets didn't work out, so we rented a car and are going to go tomorrow. We somehow found a car that fits 9 people, so we will see how that goes. It is in Gruyere (WAND, it is the place that gives you tours of the cheese factory with the talking cow) and I am super excited to go see them make cheese, make chocolate, and walk around a castle! I will let you know how that goes.
I promise I will update my blog more regularly from now on.
XOX
Katie
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