Jen: yesterday

So I decided to go to my office-mate’s conference today, which initially I thought was at UNESCO.  Turns out it was actually in the 13^th, but there wasn’t much for me to do today at UNESCO and I really didn’t feel like going to class, so I went to the conference.  Right now it is the lunch break.  I figured I would come because he would appreciate me showing up and it would add to the good working environment.  Some of the talks are pretty interesting- it is about heritage and memory of the past, anthropology, and globalization.  I am exhausted though from the Geneva trip so I have been kind of dozing off a little bit… and now that I ate a sandwich I can’t just peace… I will have to wait until after the next presentation.

So back to talking about Geneva.  Ok, so I was really nervous about flying alone, which I had to do because the others who flew down with me ended up switching their flights because it was too expensive to stay in Geneva (I went through a program, and they covered a lot of the costs).  But, it was really cool because the Belgian guy, Michael, went with me to the airport, helped me find where I could go to check my bag, etc.  The airport is split up basically into a section for all flights going to France and then all flights going everywhere else.  My gate was right next to the other flights section, but separated by a glass wall that went up ¾ of the height of the room, if that makes sense.  I texted him that I was near A11, the section that was on the other side of the glass.  About 10 min later he showed up and knocked on the glass wall to get my attention.  We chilled together for about an hour and a half until my flight boarded (and then his did shortly thereafter I think).  We were texting back and forth and throwing notes over the glass wall.  It was pretty funny- he was designing like paper aircrafts that would perfectly fly over the wall (he is an engineer)… and I was crumbling paper into a ball to toss over.  People were definitely looking.  I also chit chatted with the guy sitting next to me who flew back and forth to Geneva in one day for some business conference.  He couldn’t find his passport and thought he left it somewhere in Geneva, which was the main topic of our discussion.  In the end, he found it in his bag, it was a good moment.

The flight was really short- just 45 minutes.  I brought back swiss chocolates, swiss watches, and swiss army knives… typical tourist.  Oh ya, and francs, their currency.

There were tons of really cool people on the trip.  In case people from the trip actually read this, which I doubt they will, even if I don’t mention your name or write about you, I probably still thought you were cool and memorable, but I guess I am just picking a few things that come to my mind right now.

So there was this other guy, Yehuda, who was absolutely hysterical.  His family originally was from Soviet Union, then moved to Israel, and now he is studying in Vienna.  We… or really me and like 2 other people… decided that he fit the stereotype of an ‘ars’ which is a term used to describe basically Israeli guido types.  It’s like the kind of Israeli you would expect to see on the show ‘jersey shore’ if you can imagine that.  He was chill though.  I roomed with carol, who is from Belgium and apparently a part of a much larger family of ‘Dwecks.’  Half of the people on the trip knew at least one of her relatives.  She was really fun- we would wake up to music in the morning and sing and dance along... and have late night chats about random things. 

The brits were also a great time.  Oliver, Olly, I’m pretty sure didn’t even realize how funny he was.  Well I would say that Danny and Oliver were the super stereotypical jewish-humor duo.  For example, when we went to the kosher restaurant and Oliver got chicken that to him looked less than cooked.  He was acting like a supreme hypochondriac, asking everyone if they thought he would get sick from the pink chicken.  Danny’s response was quite typical.  He insisted that Oliver should call over a waiter and try to get a free meal out of it.   Between the two of them the scene was absolutely hysterical… and this is just one example.

The Italian girls were pretty adorable and sweet.  One of them was telling me how apparently common it is for Jewish Italian girls to get with Jewish Swiss guys, and then conduct all conversations in English.  I don’t know why I found this so funny.  Maybe because for one the main language is Italian, for the other French, and yet both end up using English. Her and her boyfriend were actually really cute.

Then there was Jona who was I think German… I’m not sure he and I exchanged more than a couple of words, but the occasional nod and smiles probably made my day.  It was just one of those things.

Raphael, the Swiss guy, was pretty adorable.  He had such a baby face.  Miriam and I shared a few conversations over our appreciation for Moroccan Jewry, she was pretty cool.

The Canadians were such a joke, they each had such distinct personalities.  There was one, Noah? who definitely was Andy from the Office.  Like, he is the same person.  There were so many other cool people and maybe I will write more about them later, but I am sitting in the conference… so not now.

It was also awesome that we got to meet with the French, Indian, and Nigerian human rights ambassadors to the UN.  The Indian one was really funny and I feel like he was probably really fun to hang out with back in the day.  The French guy was very politically correct and very careful with choosing his words…the Indian one much less so I think.

Oy, there is so much.

Also, there is so much I want to talk about that has happened in Paris, but I’m starting to think that won’t happen.  This weekend I think we are going on a trip to Normandy and maybe also to Paris’ Disney World.  Hopefully at some point I will be able to see Alexandra and Sharon again, because they are both super sweet.  They both came with me to the Purim party a couple of weeks ago.  I also wouldn’t mind seeing Zev and Jeff again… I don’t know where they were last Shabbat… I was kind of hoping to see them, honestly.  They are very amusing, especially when they try to say ‘thriller,’ tell me there are tons of shootings in paris, and call me their closest living friend.  Ah, so good.

Also, I have been sipping wine that I got from the lunch… it’s red and pretty strong and not very tasty… but I think people would look at me weird if I tossed it… so I will continue to sip it and cringe.

I have also gotten closer to Alicia, who is one of Aryana’s friends.  I told her about a possibly internship opening for UNESCO, which I knew she would be interested in.  I don’t know if it will go through, but she had an interview and I guess is waiting to hear back.  We are going to dinner tonight I think, along with some of her buds.  After that I think I am going with some UConners to an Erasmus party.  But I can’t be out too late because tomorrow is a big day.

So tomorrow is the first meeting for discussing the possibility of creating an international society for teaching ethics.  I think it is so cool how my internship director seems to really trust me with important things.  He took all of my edits and everything for the merging of the society’s constitution (there were different versions, with comments from various ethics experts).  The document I made will actually be used as the basis for the meeting tomorrow, and will be what everyone is looking at for reference.  I love my internship.  I’m going to help with taking minutes and I guess help with anything else (oh shoot this speaker is actually really good… he just totally stole my attention for a good minute… wow.  Sidenote haha) that is needed.  I will have to be there at 8:45, about an hour before I usually show up… I can’t sleep through.

So the speaker is talking about political philosophy… super interesting.. and he has one of those voices, with the rhythm, and diction… great speaker.  Slight English accent as well, the perfect speaker for philosophical dialogue.

Clearly I am coming off as a scatter-brain… but I got back late last night and didn’t get much sleep, so give me some leeway.  Also, I just checked, and this speaker is from UNESCO… no wonder he is so good. ; )

A bientot, je suis fatigue…