Update From Geneva

Hello friends, collegues, and family! I apologize for taking the summer off from the blog. My only excuse is that I have been too busy and haven't had any pictures to put up. Please check back again in a few weeks if you want to see great pics of friends and fun in Europe.

The summer in Geneva started off fast. I arrived on a Thursday, started the internship (at South Centre) on Friday, and then began an intense 7 day course the following Thursday. Yep, I've been busy and haven't slowed down since then.

The course was on International Trade and was timed really well in retrospect, as the Doha Round talks collapsed just a week or so afterward. Being in the course and hearing the many points of view made me realize how unfair the global trading system is for many of the poorest countries in the world. I found myself completely engaged in the high quality lectures and my brain saturated with new information that it has taken much of the summer to process and apply to my own research and thoughts.

The internship has been a great experience working with amazing people from all corners of the planet in the South Centre's Global Governance for Development Program. I wrote two papers; one was submitted to the UN Internet Governance Forum taking place at the end of October. This means it will be translated into all UN languages and is on the forum and South Centre's website. The article is called "Internet Governance for Development". I just finished the other paper, on Political Integration in ASEAN, which may be published as a research paper, which means I'd have my name on it, cool huh?

I spent my month here exploring Geneva and its environs before venturing out of town and out of the country. There are so many great day trips, and its also easy to bike! On a bike ride to Yvoire (France) there was a magical field of sunflowers that I took a pic of, I hope to post it soon! While in Switzerland I had a rainy weekend in Zurich with friends, a lovely day in Bern, and a 3 day wknd in the Interlaken area with my sis Anne. We went to Jungfraujoch, which has the highest train station in Europe! I also found out there are more Japanese people in Interlaken than anywhere else in Europe, even many of the signs are in Japanese which is good because I could understand those far better than the German ;-)

During my 2.5 months I also had a great weekend in Roma where I saw my dear friend Francesco, and a fabulous long weekend in Paris and London last week. In Paris bachelorette partying was on the agenda. It was great to see dear girlfriends Eve, Gwen, Cecile, Michelle and have some quality time with them eating, at the hamam, and dancing! Thanks for a great weekend ladies. It was also great to visit w/Ian and Fred, and to see how fast David and Venise are growing up!

London was also great! I made it out to Cambridge, a lovely town (Carys I can see why you love it!) and then met up with Ryan, a former Rotary Peace Fellow who I met last spring. Ryan and I had a fab night out dining on England's best cuisine, Indian - yum! The next day we had delicious lunch and conversation with Carys before Carys headed off to Tokyo and I headed off back to Geneva.

All in all its been a great summer. Geneva is a wonderful town, beautiful, and full of so many inspiring, bright, and motivated people wanting to do good on our planet. It seems with so much bad stuff going on these days, wars, oppression, and injustice around every corner that it is easy to be discouraged. The bureaucracy of the UN doesn't give one much hope in some ways either. But we can choose to see the glass as half full or half empty. I don't know about you but I am choosing HALF FULL.