trying to catch up on blogspot

After postponing our trip to Lugano for a weekend, Kim decided to kickstart us into high gear and sorted out her ticket situation, reserved us some seats on a rather uninspiring leg of the Glacier Express (Italy was much cooler, according to Kim, but we'll get to that later), and committed us to a hostel near the train station in Lugano. Lugano is technically part of Switzerland, but geographically it's essentially in Italy (much like Geneva is essentially in France - check out a map), so it has its own character and is known for being a beautiful lakeside vacation town.

The train ride to Lugano was fine, but a little hellish because we had to transfer four different times or something ridiculous. Kim was well prepared, however, and brought lots of yummy snacks for us to munch on (I was very impressed). As an omen of what was to come, Kim and I accidentally did not get off at Lugano because we didn't see a sign (and misread one that said orarios, which is actually 'timetable' in Italian) and had to find our way back from the next town over, Paradiso. In any case, we eventually ended up at the hostel after getting directions on how to board a bus by a guy in a lakeside stall ('go stand near the choo-choo'…we figured out what he meant when we DID see a choo-choo, or small tourist train that runs through the town on the normal streets). After checking in, we threw down our stuff on some bunks, and went off to explore Lugano. We could not find this funicular that Kim's guidebook was talking about (yes, we later discovered it the day we were leaving - it's in the middle of the train station) and so took the bus into town, walked along the waterfront, and devoured some spaghetti. Later on, we walked through a park, window shopped, and noted that besides really expensive brands, Lugano was also really into selling lingerie/swimwear (sometimes hard to discern which was which), with many sets starting around 200 USD. Following some aimless wandering, we ended up at a café/bar where people were really excited about the Italy vs USA game. We each ordered what turned out to be really strong drinks, people watched (I was impressed that a single American dude was able to integrate himself in with a European couple and other single girl), and wondered why our waitress was dressed like a porn star (dyed red hair, pigtails, italy cropped t-shirt, skirt). Although we tried to crash early, we both didn't sleep very well because of annoying ass people coming into the hostel loud, late, and drunk. I was annoyed with two German girls in the bunks above us because they kept whispering and giggling until 4 am. Some dudes also came in and slept with their girlfriends and were smelly.


town square in lugano

Day 2:
We ended up booking it in the morning to escape such smelly peoples and caught a ferry to a neighboring seaside village, Gandria.


kim noticed this pic on our ferry, informing you that if you brought your dog on the ferry and it was little, it was free. however, if you had a big dog, you had to pay 50% of a normal fare. quote from kim: "i think all dogs aspire to be gratis dogs."

Gandria was totally cute and built into the mountain, so all the streets were narrow, made of cobblestone, and kept winding upwards. There were also a lot of cute restaurants where you could sit on a terrace overlooking the water (we ended up eating lunch at one of these), some small local galleries (kim bought a painted platter for her mom here), and a paved trail along the mountain detailing the path of how olive oil was made. Although Kim and I originally had grand plans of checking out a cathedral and a park, we ended up running into a place kinda similar to Bains des Paquis in Geneva, but smaller. Essentially, it's a deck where you pay an entrance fee and can rent beach chairs or beds with a roped off swimming area in the lake, a café, etc. Because it was really hot, we decided to spend the remainder of our time laying out, swimming, and talking. Kim reminded me to mention that we were joined by two elderly ladies, one of whom had a tremendous amount of plastic surgery done on her face and was really very unattractive, and another, who was some kind of vip since her chair was 'reserved' and she acted like the lifeguard was her slave by having her move around her umbrella. This aforementioned lady was also unattractive but was even moreso because she insisted on sunbathing topless and in a bottom that was uncannily close to a G-string. Most unfortunately, she was lying directly behind us with her legs facing towards us, giving us a most unwanted view of her crotch area. Needless to say, we tried to turn around as little as possible throughout.

The afternoon overall was super relaxing, but we had to rush back to get to our train. We had stored our stuff in the hostel and Kim got super pissed off when these little girls (maybe high school age?) tried to block us from coming in to get our stuff and did not help us get out (they had locked this door that was supposed to always remain open). We made our train, but ended up missing a connection later on as we didn't realize that the next train we were supposed to get on was in a different station. I was stressed since I had to get back to Geneva for the beginning of my weeklong seminar (Health Policy in a Globalizing World), so rushed back to Lugano on the train to see if I could catch the last train to Zurich. I ended up missing it by 5 minutes, so crashed at the same hostel near the train station (but in a private room). I ended up leaving around 6 am the next morning, arrived in Geneva at 12:30, and rushed home to change quickly before meeting up with my fellow fellows at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. The site visit was okay, but it was cool to meet the new arrivals in our group. At night, a few of us girls ended up going to Café Arts, where I got a yummilicous salad, but was annoyed about being attacked by one girl who said, "Why do I get the feeling that you don't want to hang out with me?about acting like I didn't want to hang out with her because I wasn't all gungho about waiting around for everyone and just suggested meeting up later after I got dinner. Actually, I was trying to be considerate because I knew I was going to a pricier place and she always talks about saving money, so I threw it back in her face by saying that I didn't want to impose an expensive place on people who might not want to pay that much for a meal. Anyway, it ended up working out, and dinner was followed by some informal chattiness with invited guest Thiru at Bains des Paquis. I bounced early because I was exhausted from travelling, but it was good start to the week.

The past week was a little crazy. We had site visits almost everyday and visited WIPO (the World Intellectual Property Organization), the US mission to the UN, the World Trade Organization, Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, UNAIDS, and others, while also being in class from around 8:30ish to 6ish everyday. Following class, we often had optional dinners, where invited speakers would informally talk to us about their careers, but this made for a very long day (we'd often get done around 9 or 10 pm). One session was held at the WHO, but most of our lectures were held at HEI, a local Geneva University that specializes in international affairs. In addition to the fellows, some WHO staff also joined us and I met a cool Swiss physician who worked in Cambodia for a number of years doing training and health systems work. It was interesting to be in class with older staff, but one woman ended up dominating a lot of the discussion and being very antagonistic to some of the presenters, which ate up a lot of time and wasn't that productive. Later on in the week, one of my classmates took me aside and said, "Tanya, I need to ask you a question." I was a little concerned that I might have done something, but she said, "Am I one of those people that asks too many questions? I'd trust you to give me an honest answer." I laughed and said she totally wasn’t, and she was relieved. It felt kinda good to know that people respect my opinion though, even on trivial matters.

My favorite parts of the course were the modules on trade and health. I realized that my knowledge on IP has increased markedly by just being here, reading stuff, and that I've had some good experiences (seeing the R&D treaty process at the World Health Assembly, for example) and met some fun, interesting, smart people. Even though I got off to a slow start, it's been nice to use other parts of my brain, share stories (mostly with Thiru and Kim), think about how different roles (scientists, policymakers, health care workers, public health practitioners) interact and work (for or against) each other, think about where I can fit in and contribute, and engage in discussion about issues that rarely, if ever, come up in medical school. More updates (on a weekend trip to Cinque Terre, with the director of the Fellows Program and two other fellows) to come.


me and kim (in geneva's old town)




Random postscript (added to interesting things about Geneva): The rage here is white pants…for both men and women. I see at least twenty people a day wearing all forms of white pants, some with their underwear showing. Also, nobody wraps their hoodies or sweaters around their waist here (everything is tied around the neck)…very preppy. I always feel like people are going to play tennis.

overdue entry on london

After being somewhat isolated in Geneva for a few weeks, Chris and I took a weekend jaunt to London. I never normally use the word jaunt, but it just popped into my head (and how often do you get a chance to use that word, anyway?) so somebody inform me if I’m using it incorrectly. I think it describes the whole experience though.

So, as my previous entry stated, we stayed with Chris’s high school friend and his girlfriend in the Earl’s Court area. Following a delayed flight, a train ride on London Gatwick’s express, and a go on the Tube (London’s Underground), we got in really late on Thurs night and grabbed dinner at a local restaurant in the area, Balard’s. I think the bill came out to over a hundred dollars for three people and we just had one entrée each and a beer. Intro to the pound, where the exchange rate was 1.8 USD to 1 British Pound. I tried to think of things in dollars so it wouldn’t seem so bad, but it was super expensive! Go with the flow, though.

On Friday, I made Chris attempt to show me around, so he took me to see Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. He didn’t really know the significance of either, so I read about them in one of many tourist guides we had along. We also attempted to go shopping in SoHo and ate fish and chips at a local pub. Other highlights of the day included getting passport pages added to my passport at the local US embassy (there is no embassy in Geneva, just a consulate) – they just tape pages labeled A-Z in), dragging Chris into a Dali/Picasso exhibit and being a little freaked out, but enjoying the sculptures with soft clocks and drawers coming out of people, meeting up with a college friend who’s studying at the London School of Economics for cheap Korean food (yum!), where our waiter refused to acknowledge our order unless we spoke to him in numbers (example conversation with Chris follows), seeing the streets overflow with people at local pubs (everyone just stands outside with their beer on the pavement), and riding in a British taxi. Also, missing our reservations at Kensington Roof Gardens with our hosts and standing in a ridiculous line to get in with no other people of color. I guess reservations and guest lists are rampant in London, but this is probably skewed since this hs friend was all into going to exclusive places. Back to the Korean waiter though:

Tanya: Let’s order another plate of bu gol gi (marinated Korean beef) and share it.
Chris: OK (calls waiter over). Hey, can we have another plate of bul gol gi? (points to plate that we already have on the table, which is shaped like a cow, in case you didn’t know what you were eating)
Waiter: Number 44?
Chris: Um yeah, bul gol gi. (We have no menu at the table)
Waiter: Bul go gi? Number 44? This? (points to plate of bul go gi on the table)
Chris: Yes, we’d like another order.
Waiter: Number 44?!

This goes on for a few minutes. My college friend Anna and I are like, what’s going on? It was hilarious, but we did end up getting another plate. Yummy. This was our cheapest meal in London, and I think plates went for between ten and twelve dollars. At dinner, we caught up, talked about her degree program and compared her educational experience to the US, shared some Swat gossip, and talked about social justice. Following that, we walked around and got dessert and coffee at a café. Good times, fun stuff.

On Saturday, we hung out with high school friend the whole day. His gf, who is German, stayed home because she had a toothache. We went to a food market reminiscent of Reading Terminal Market (but much bigger!) where Chris ate a turkey sandwich with cranberries and applesauce (year round Thanksgiving at this food stand), consumed many food samples, and walked along the River Thames. We visited the Tate Museum of Modern Art, which is housed in an old converted power plant, and high school friend made fun of most of the pieces, but I thought it was on the whole interesting and kinda wandered by myself. I also browsed an outdoor used book sale and Chris bought me a cute necklace at a little boutique while hs friend was getting a 15 minute Swedish chair massage. Later, we stumbled onto an outdoor fair that was talking about sustainable development and healthy eating choices (mostly for kids, but it was a family affair), enjoyed a view of the city from a balcony bar, ate some pasties at a pub where we noted three groups of annoying girls having hen parties (British bachelorette parties), and caught the night’s showing of STOMP (some really creative noisemaking and rhythm here). This was a busy day, and we ended it with some Belgian food (mussels, sausage, mashed potatoes, cheese, beer) at this industrial looking restaurant where you sit on benches (like in a ski lodge) in the basement. Chris had to leave to go back to the US early the next morning due to news of his grandfather’s passing, but I had a little time before my flight back to Geneva, so I explored Camden Market (a British Chatuchak, or a series of huge outdoor markets!) and ended up picking up a Punkyfish hoodie and grabbing some quick Thai food. All in all, it was a good time, and I think it would be fun to go to school in London…if Chris made money ;). Seriously though, salaries are generally commensurate with the cost of living (this is also true in Geneva, where UN employees get crazy benefits and make tons of cash)...unfortunately, there is still a huge poverty problem in London, many kids live below the poverty line, and homelessness/poor housing conditions are rampant (we met many street campaigners on these issues and saw billboards in the Tube trying to raise awareness :) ...see, it worked, since i still remember it a few weeks later! too bad med school didn't work like that for me ;) ).

shout out to everyone who is studying for Step 2!!

plainpalais, a cement park

In the big cement park known as Plainpalais near my house, they've set up a big screen TV, speakers, and a bunch of food stands for the month of the World Cup. I think most every game is played on it and Geneva peeps come to hang out, hook up, and watch football. Since there's a lack of food stands in general throughout the city (no cheesesteaks or breakfast sandwiches here), it's a pretty good (if expensive) place to pick up some limited menu items from a variety of vendors. Interestingly, there is no Swiss food stand, but there are Brazilian, Afghani, Turkish, and Thai people representing.

Since Plainpalais is so big, the World Cup setup only takes up part of the cement/rock area. Over the weekend, for example, there were two other events going on in Plainpalais, including a Sustainable Development Fair (a couple of tents with different NGO's and other orgs, and a playground for kids built out of cardboard boxes) and a Dog Obedience Fair. I happened on the Dog Obedience Fair when I was walking to meet my friend Kim at Café Remour. It was semi hilarious because the announcer was speaking in French and it didn't seem like the dogs were really obedient as their owners tried to run them around this makeshift ring. Also, a poster advertising the event showed a dog leading a human on a leash. I feel that more often than not that's what's true, especially in Geneva.

Other highlights of the end of last week/ this past weekend included:

Accidentally ordering this yummy drink at Café Remour with Kim, which consists of iced coffee, tea, and ginger. We think there's more tea than anything in it though because it looks just like iced tea, but it's pretty yummy.

Meeting my roommate's boyfriend whose philosophy on life can be boiled down to two words, which he says often, and states that it is an 'expression of energy'. These two words are fuck yeah! Also, hearing his views on how most criticism at a job is bs, and that most jobs are bs. Agreeing with him but not as energetically.

Late night conversation and dessert at this coffeehouse on Plainpalais, 'Central Perk' (straight out of the TV show Friends), with Kim. They have the font for Friends and everything on their sign..i wonder if this is a copyright or trademark infringement ;)

Going out for coffee with my roommate, her bf, and this other couple who are also b-school grads from this famous school in France. Quietly eating ice cream while listening to this one girl complain about how she works like 12 hr days as a consultant for McKinsey and has to travel all the time and doesn't get paid enough salary. Thinking in my head (but not saying out loud), residents work hella harder than you (30 hr shifts, hello) and probably get LESS THAN HALF your salary. Also thinking, when she stated that she LOVED selling stuff, and wished her whole career was in sales, that I wanted to barf. Later on, thinking that if she liked sales so much, maybe she should go into selling something that was useful, like condoms. A comment from one of Kim's acquintances comes to mind...this is a law student who told Kim (who is obviously going into public interest law) that people's worth to society is commensurate with their salary. Um, WHAT?! That means the whole Global South could just disappear because their earning power sucks compared to other people in the Global North, even if they work hella crazy hours. This is frustrating to me (obviously) just in terms of the lack of political will to address HIV/AIDS and saying we don't have enough money to support treatment even though first line ARV's can now cost as little as 135 USD a YEAR. Not treating people to me is like saying, your life is not worth even fifty cents a day, sorry.

Dancing and enjoying a free concert (this is Thurs night) by Olodum, a Brazilian drumming group with singers and some other instruments (like saxophone), also in Plainpalais. Meeting some new interns who attend pharmacy school. One girl from Canada was a little spaz and was like (this is a serious quote), "Wow, this is sooooooo fun and exciting!" "I didn't have friends before, but now I do (referring to us)." I was like…do I know you?. Another intern from Univ of Illinois Chicago who expressed frustration that everyone spat out their resume when they met her and admitted she felt intimidated because she didn't go to some East Coast Ivy League School. I was like, screw them, and be confident in yourself. At this same event, being disgusted when ppl greeted other ppl with saying such as, "Hel-looo Princeton!"

Eating mango jasmine sorbet from the bakery/sweet shop downstairs that my roomie bought for dinner over the weekend.

Having a long lunch with 'droptop' (this is his alias) at a yummy cafeteria near the WHO whose salad bar kicks WHO salad bar's ass. I had WHO salad bar today for lunch and was severely disappointed and upset. I think it set the tone for the rest of my day, where I spent like six or seven hours printing out patent documents and doing database work. Droptop is fun to talk to and text msg; he also offers interesting insights and knows many things.

Discussing mental health issues with a couple people this weekend. My friend Kim told me that George Washington Univ expelled a student after he went to the psych ER seeking help for depression (he was depressed after his close friend committed suicide while he was outside his dorm room trying to break in). They said he broke the code of student conduct by participating in self-injurious behaviour, or thinking about it, or something totally on crack. I'll put the link to the case (he's suing them now) up here later if I can find it again (actually, Liz put it in the comments, so go there if you want to read about it). This is TOTALLY frustrating to me since people are punished for seeking help. What the hell kind of supportive learning environment is it when colleges and universities expel students for seeking help for mental illness??

things that piss me off

Lunch yesterday

I had lunch with a few other interns yesterday. Two of the interns went to Princeton for undergrad, one went to Dartmouth, and I'm sure anyone who's reading this knows I'm a Swattie. Part of the conversation centered around the eating clubs at Princeton, which I didn't really know about before, but now, thanks to this conversation and an informative IM session with Bryan (where he read the wikipedia entry on it), I do.

From my understanding, you apply or join an eating club and that's where you eat. I asked about eating at other clubs, but you can apparently only do that if you switch with someone in that eating club. Sounds like a fraternity or some weird exclusive thing to me. The two Princeton people at my table tried to guess which eating club the other one was in (turns out they were in the same one, but they're different ages so didn't know each other before), talked about other people in their eating clubs, and explained to me that it's super difficult to have a social life without being in an eating club. Also, people who aren't in eating clubs are 'independent'. I noted that Swarthmore had one cafeteria to promote equality and socializing. There was an awkward silence and then they ignored me after that. The conversation continued with the 'name the famous people in your class' game. For some reason, I was totally unimpressed.

After lunch, one of the Princeton people talked about how her little brother went to Duke and was a frat boy and how she was totally not like that. Um, exclusive eating club?

I love Swarthmore and rave about it often but I don't feel the need to prove anything to anyone. At that table, all of us went to elite colleges, and we all knew it, and I had no understanding of why we needed to rehash about how hard school was or how elite we were or whatever. This experience made me not want to eat lunch with other people anymore.

After dinner drinks

The program I'm on organized another happy hour at Les 5 Portes for people to meet up. There were a lot of Global Health Fellows there this time and I met some new people, including some new med students, which was nice. While I was there, I saw a cute Asian dude with good style outside on the terrace and thought, he must be American. Later, I noticed my friend T. join him and waved at him through the window. Because of the glare, T. gave me a half wave and then looked away. I was slightly embarassed because I thought he might not remember me or not want to say hi, but remedied the situation when I walked outside and said hi to him and he invited me to sit down. His friend was American (and a Midwesterner to boot!) . We had an interesting conversation about intellectual property related things, Thailand, intense college tours in the states, high school students paying to go on crazy volunteerism tours, being an expat, my brother's crazy Watson fellowship, and more.

Later, I walked home with T. He relayed to me a conversation he had with another intern on my program, as a bunch of us were freezing our butts off at the lake after happy hour.

T (sarcastically): "So, (intern name here), have you eradicated polio since we last talked a few weeks ago?"

Intern: (in all seriousness) "Actually, yes, four or five countries have fallen off the map (meaning polio was eradicated there). We're going to eradicate polio in the next two or three years, and I would like to stay in Geneva to see it…."

T (tries very hard not to laugh).

Intern continues to tell T about the WHO and his or her (why doesn't English have a neutral gender term for people?) life plan. T has worked at the WHO before and feels sorry that this person is smart but has these grand feelings and believes that s/he is personally responsible for anything that is going on.

I feel old and jaded a little but am 25 and haven't really done so much but at least have somewhat of a clue of what it's like on the ground. I think people respect that a lot actually. T and I talked about how it's important to take some time off, get some perspective, do your own thing. I'm incredibly grateful to the opportunities I had on my Fulbright and felt like I really made the most of it…I miss my mentors but also those - many of the sex workers and IVDU's (IV drug users) who opened up their lives, and hearts to me, random Thai American med student.

Lunch today

I went to lunch a little late because I wanted to check in with Chris (he just got back from DC, where he attended his grandfather's funeral). Apparently I missed lunch with one of the 'big bosses' at WHO (again, trying to conceal identities here). I actually was supposed to meet him this morning since I'm working in his division but missed the meeting due to a prior commitment. Actually, it wasn't really a prior commitment, but it was the most exciting part of my day, where I had a long conversation with a Brazilian physician who is on the team that's writing the new WHO guidelines on ARV treatment. He basically gave me a personal lecture on the background of access, the new treatment guidelines, and other cool things that I'll talk about later. He also introduced me to this cool Brazilian pharmacist. Anyway, to get back to the theme of things that piss me off, I cut and pasted this googlechat I had with my friend Kim:

Me: I almost got in a fight with another intern (he's Indian) at lunch because he was saying how desi kids who dress in hip hop gear bother him
Kim: why, not everyone has to be a preppy med student type
me: and this other nepali girl, was like, "yeah, my cousins do that, and some of them even get their hair braided, and im like, i dont know you"
and then he was like, "two guys in my bhangra group at yale are like that, they freestyle and breakdance and then dress like all thuggish"
i was like, "What's wrong with that? I used to dress like a punk all the time in high school, not everyone has to be the same. You shouldn’t judge people by the way they dress."
Kim: plus that's kinda racist-y, is he suggesting that hip hop is only for black people?
me: and he was like, well, it's natural to
Kim: and bhangra i suppose is only for indians?
me: judge people if they're not conforming to the norm
and you know, we were raised a certain way
blah blah
Kim: ooh i don't like that at all
me: i was like, yeah, but just because you were raised a certain way doesnt mean it's right
and i waslike my brother dresses in a hip hop style i guess and
GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Kim: yeah really, get over yourself, the world would be really boring if everyone who happened to be the same color aspired to dress and dance and talk and eat exactly the same
1:25 PM me: anyway
then they stopped talking to me
Kim: i suppose i'm only supposed to be into country music or something?
that's icky
me: i dont get how ppl are like that and then have grand goals of saving the world. im like, you judge other yale students for dressing in baggy clothing
what the hell
what if your pt comes in with clothes you dont approve of
Kim: well it's like we were talking about how a lot of that 'saving the world' stuff is actually condescending, like people think they have SO much to offer, they're SO much smarter and more together than everyone else
me: sigh
i kinda wanna save some ppl
anyway, i dont know if im being a huge bitch
Kim: no, you're not, he's being immature and self-involved and probably insecure
me: i feel like i get pissed off talking to everyone except you

ok, enough pissiness. im not including an im conversation i had with sural here about a contentious post on the AMSA global health listserv re: calling your house reps to oppose continued funding of abstinence only education, but may touch on that later. However, one funny thing is that there is now drama between the interns and another intern is pissed off at LW (those of you reading this who know her can chuckle to themselves). Apparently, when LW and another intern went down to lunch today, they were approached by our 'big boss' while getting water, who asked if they wanted to have lunch with him. They agreed but then other intern who wasn't included approached LW and was like, "So, when are you going to invite other interns to your special lunch meetings?" and "When are you going to stop putting yourselves in these special situations?" Kinda hilarious in a way. I'm staying out of it though.

Next post, funny moments. Maybe some London related things as well.

patience is a virtue

Although I should be working, I just finished an outline of my proposed policy paper and started working on the next phase of this database project so I'm 'rewarding' myself by writing in my blog for about twenty minutes. There's a lot to update on as Chris and I took a four day weekend trip to London, so I'll just bring out some memorable moments below:

• Chris's horrible luck while travelling. As I said before, my good luck cannot cancel out Chris's bad bad luck. We were supposed to leave Geneva around 6 pm for London and get there around 7 or 8ish (there's a one hour time difference, with London being one hour behind). Notice the supposed to part. Turns out we didn't leave Geneva until almost 9 pm due to a bomb threat in London on the plane that was coming in. This necessitated them unloading both all passengers and all luggage in the plane, rescreening everything, searching the plane, and then flying to Geneva. Right. I was grumpy about this since we left downtown Geneva at around 4:30 pm and didn't get to where we were staying in London until past 11 pm.
  
  2. Housing in London. We ended up staying with Chris's high school friend. He will remain nameless but he is an investment banker who went to college in the South. His flat was very nice and I appreciate the time he took to show us around London, but due to my political views I thought he was a little intolerable after awhile. This dude is well intentioned but a little ignorant and sadly conservative. Choice remarks that I tried my best not to react to included:
  
• Regarding our high school experiences, where I talked about attending the All-American Midwestern high school that was ultra-conservative (I used the word 'not very open-minded' about different people) and Chris and him talked about attending a diverse high school close to LA.
• ''We didn't really go to basketball games and football games on Friday nights, but I would've loved to go to a high school like that. I don't mean to sound racist, and don't take this the wrong way, but Hispanics and other minorities don't really have the background in American sports to be successful at them. Like Hispanics and Koreans and stuff, they don't play football, and our football team just sucked.''

• I have no problem admitting that I grew up in a very privileged family but I think this was uncomfortable at first (I definitely figured this part out at Swarthmore) and I've also been confronted with really stark poverty both in the US and abroad. Chris and I used to fight a lot about how he didn't consider himself 'rich' even though he grew up in a 5 bedroom house or something while I pointed out that almost 3 billion people live on less than 2 USD a day. Anyway, Chris is better now and I've had discussions with him and lots of others people on how individuals gain perspective on wealth and status. Understandably, if you've never been exposed (or just deny that you've been exposed to) poverty or people who grew up with less than you (and called out on it) you probably just have the perspective that you're really poor because you don't drive a BMW or whatever. Unfortunately, Chris's friend probably has never thought about these things, and stated,
  
• ''My gf hates London. Part of what she hates about it is it's so expensive and she wants to move somewhere else in Europe. As an American, it would be hard for me to work somewhere else, and you know, in my industry, the financial center is London (everything is fine up to this point). You know, Chris, my family grew up with not a lot of money and we didn't go on all these trips and always had to watch what we spent (Chris informs me he grew up in a regular middle class 3 br house with both of his parents working). If we move and I take another job, we would have to downgrade our lifestyle and I don't think (my gf) has thought about that since she grew up in a kinda well-off family. You know, no more buying belts and purses (Prada was the bag she carried to brunch) whenever you want. Also, I can't imagine going back to a life where I have to balance my checkbook weekly and budget my money and stuff. I'm balling now.''

• When discussing a possible trip to Asia, where he has never travelled:
  "What is poverty like there? Is it all in your face all the time?"
  

While drunk, he also made fun of homeless people as we were walking past them on the way home. I was disgusted.

There were others as well but my twenty minutes just ran out. I will have to update on things we actually did in London later.

day trips with christopher

Chris and I in the ice palace

Bryan has bothered me to update my blog so I am. Actually, the only good thing about going into the office everyday was that I would generally start the workday by writing in my blog. Since I've been skipping out on work a lot, that hasn't been happening. However, I'm here now, so some updating on what's been up since Chris got here.

Chris arrived on Saturday sans luggage (as usual)…I was waiting for him to come out of the terminal, waited and waited, lots of people came out and I had a fleeting thought that he might have lost his luggage or not made his flight (this was unlikely, as I had checked his connection online). Lo and behold, his luggage was lost, which was somewhat hilarious considering he walked out with a backpack full of nothing. This happened in summer 2004 as well when he came to visit me in Bangkok and Korea Air lost his luggage in Seoul. For those of you who don't know, Chris generally has incredibly bad luck travelling. Luggage is lost, flights are delayed, unforeseen bad circumstances and stars align to make sure that he cannot get to his destination on time. In fact, last time he came to Bangkok he was rerouted on like three flights or something AND his luggage was lost. Similar events have happened when we have travelled together (unfortunately, my good luck does not cancel out his bad luck), including when we got stuck in Philadelphia on the way to Paris during Spring Break 2004.

In any case, we scrapped our plans to travel since we had to wait for his suitcase to be delivered and hung out in Geneva for the day. Over the next few days, we went on day trips with our Eurail passes. Highlights follow:


me on a glacier

1) Interlaken and Jungfrajoch , Switzerland (train rides through little mountain towns including Wengen, Lauterbrunnen, Grindenwald, etc)…and the 'Top of Europe', Jungfraujoch. This whole day was essentially spent riding a series of trains to the top of this mountain with hella lots of tourists. I got a little altitude sickness when I first got up to Jungfraujoch (11,333 feet) but sat down and felt better. While we were at Jungfraujoch, we walked on a glacier, slid in the ice palace (basically a series of underground tunnels carved into the glacier), and thought about getting on a dogsled but decided we weren't appropriately dressed. On our way down the mountain, we stopped for dinner at this swiss chalet and ate rösti, which is basically hash browns fried with bacon, onions, and other yummy things. Chris got the mountain style rösti with eggs, bacon, and cheese, and I got one with polish sausage and cabbage. Yummy. We also walked through Interlaken, where chris was fascinated by the Hooters he found there, and then caught the train back home to Geneva.


mmm ... hashed brown potatoes, bacon and eggs


Chris needed to take a picture of this

2) Avignon, France - we had originally planned to go to Marseilles but I was sick of being on the train so we just got off at Avignon. This is a super cute town with the largest Gothic castle in Europe that was built by two popes when the papacy had to flee Rome for awhile. There's also a famous bridge, Pont d'Avignon, that only goes like halfway across the river since it was bombed or damaged during different wars. In Avignon we wandered around the cobblestone streets for awhile and ate a decent set meal at this tourist place in the center square (everything else was closed by the time we got there…most European restauraunts are open a certain time for lunch and then close until dinnertime). After eating, we walked around the castle with our individual phoneguides (basically, you get this phone when you go in and punch in numbers in different rooms if you want to listen to the background of it), checked out the bridge, and then came home. Chris was grumpy because he was hot near the end of our journey but he denied it. By the time we got back to the train station, the ticket counter lady informed me that second class was sold out and I couldn't use my Eurail pass, so we had to buy a regular priced ticket. Grrr. Chris also had to sit in first class, which was sad. I sat by myself and listened to all of Chris's mp3's on the way home. Chris said he slept all the way home in first class.

3) Annecy, France - this is another cute little town that's only an hr away (about 35 km) from Geneva. We went there on the bus. Known as the Venice of France, there are a lot of little canals and gardens running throughout the vielle vieux (who knows if im spelling this right), which is like their 'old town'. Tons of cafés line these cobblestone streets with overflowing flower boxes, balconies, and bridges. Chris and I enjoyed local specialties of tartiflette and patiflette (potatoes and pasta, respectively) baked with cheese and onions and ham, but were disappointed to find out that all the local attractions were closed for some reason (two castles, one that served as a prison in WWII). We settled for admiring the outsides of them and took a long walk through the park on the cleanest lake in France (more see through water here) and then returned home for me to do some 'work' in preparation for a meeting with my supervisor. This 'work' never happened but we did hang out with Pan for awhile and had a talk about future, the soulless nature of business, and other fun things.


Annecy

Yesterday I was generally productive all day in preparation for my meeting with my supervisor, which was actually really good and is helping me think about how I want to spend the rest of my time here (too bad I didn't really do anything for the first few weeks, but this is inevitable whenever you're abroad I think). I'll write a little more on that when I figure out exactly what I'm doing, but right now I'm mainly figuring out how to get more extra pages in my passport so I can get visas to Thailand and also to wherever Chris and I decide to go on our honeymoon (Brazil is out now after the recent gang violence there). Any suggestions would be welcome. Chris's criteria is that it has to be outside of the US and warm.

Finally, Kim and I have been hanging out and trying to find cool cafés and not so expensive places to eat. We had more pasta at Manor yesterday and were totally unable to find intern happy hour and another café kim had read about in a nytimes article so ended up café willi's, which was filled with guys smoking a lot of cigarettes on WORLD NO TOBACCO DAY. What is up with all these people smoking in Europe? Seriously.


Kim and I

Chris and I are off to London for the weekend, and then he is going back to Michigan while I return to work at the WHO. More details on travels to come. Monday is some random holiday, which I didn't realize until after Chris had bought my ticket back to Geneva on Sunday. Oh well. I'm not sure if it's worth it to go anywhere since I assume all of Europe will be shut down for these very frequent 'holidays' that they have here.