Rome!

I left work at lunch today to head to the airport and catch an Easyjet flight to Rome!  I slept the whole way on the flight and made my way via shuttle and metro to my hostel.  The hostel is kind of out of the way and does not at all look like a hostel from the outside.  When I rang the doorbell, no one answered, which worried me a little, but I just went to a Gelato shop down the street and used their wifi to e-mail the hostel, it was no problem.  The fact that I was calm about this, I think was a big step for me.

The hostel kitchen.

Once I was able to get in, this place is pretty amazing.  It is decorated very eclectically and it feels very welcoming.  Fabio, the owner, gave each of the new guests a welcoming drink when we arrived and he made pasta for everyone for dinner.  I am upstairs in the "quieter" part of the hostel, and so far I even have a room to myself.

Some of the hostel guests were going out for a pub crawl tonight, but I am really exhausted, so I am just going to finish my INDEV603 paper and get a good night's rest so I can be fresh and ready to explore the city in the morning.  I am supposed to be meeting a couchsurfer to go on a bike tour of the city.  We'll see how that goes!

Trade School Opening and GIA drinks

Thursday was a pretty regular day of work.  I think I am finally getting out of my project rut and I'm starting to be able to get some actual writing done for the final paper.  It does feel kind of strange to be writing about a subject I knew little to nothing about only 10 weeks ago.

Spinning was quite intense after work.  It was Shannon and Marissa's last spin class of their internships, so Blair, the instructor gave us an extra "team sprint" at the end.  The team sprint consists of a 10 second sprint, then as soon as someone yells "Sprint", a 20 second sprint, and this repeats for the entire song.  Since we have some pretty competitive people in the group, the song ends up being pretty much four minutes of pure sprinting.  I got quite the sweat on, but now I have so much laundry to do!

They started decorating near the cafe with flags...

In the evening, I went to the launch of the Geneva Trade School.  When I first heard about the Trade School, I thought it was where people go to learn how to be pipefitters or plumbers or electricians, but that is not at all what the school is about.  The "trade" part refers to the fact that all courses are offered for free, or on a bartering basis.  An instructor offers to teach on a subject, and then makes requests for items or services from students.  The courses offered are incredibly varied, including: yoga, this history of Ukraine, active listening, Indian cooking, tango, project management and alternatives to banking.  The requests from students are often things like a home cooked meal, some tea, a poem, nothing too expensive. 

It's a really cool concept, and Trade Schools are starting up in cities around the world, including Toronto, Edmonton. Halifax and Vancouver.  Nicole, who I work closely with is on the organizing committee for the school.  I didn't know anyone else at the launch, but I spoke with some interesting course instructors and had some yummy snacks. 

After the launch, I went around the corner to GIA drinks for a while.  There is a German girl named Kristin who just started at WHO on Thursday and was at GIA drinks.  We had some entertainment introducing ourselves and Kristin and Kristin.  It was quite crowded at the bar, and I was sleepy so I headed home early to pack for Rome!

More fajitas with friends

Wednesday night, I had a group of interns over for fajitas again.  It's such a simple dinner to make, and I know how much I appreciate any food I don't have to buy or cook!  Ayako, Kellie and Daphne are leaving this week, so I especially wanted to be able to spend some time with them.  

The group in the common room. 

I learnt that you need to reserve the common room to have people over, Therese and Olga weren't too happy.  I also got scolded for trying to do laundry at 8pm without pre-booking.  They cheered up once I offered to share some ice cream and mango, but I will definitely not miss all of the little rules and procedures of the foyer!  I really shouldn't complain, it's a great space in an amazing location and at a good price... for Geneva.

Intern Hike

Tonight after work I led the interns on a hike along the Sentier du Rhone from Jonction to Vernier.  I didn't really know where I was going, and we got lost a few times, but we ended up in Vernier as intended.   It was a good little hike, I think I'll plan another for next week.

Along the trail. 

As the sun was setting.

After the hike, we stopped at a pub in Vernier for a pint, and upon discovering how cheap the beer was, had another.   Beer and fries for dinner, ahhh intern life.

The group post-hike in Vernier

Monday...

Picture Jonathan Goldstein saying "Monday...."

Not the best Monday, I'm having some hiccups on my project at work.  Hopefully when I look at it again with fresh eyes tomorrow, it will make more sense. I also went to a seminar on radiation and health at lunch and went to spinning after work, pretty normal.  

The day has been looking up since an early evening Skype with Pat and then a SUPER chat with Katie.  : )

Sunday hike

Sunday morning, I was up early again to go pick up the car at WHO and meet up with another group of interns for our road trip to a hike in the Areuse Gorge.  I was much more comfortable driving the car on day two, once I was used to the six gears and the reverse gear placement.

Making our way down the gorge.

The hike started in a small village called Noraigue at the train station.  The train station doubled as a cafe and emporium of all things absinthe-related.  Apparently, this region of Switzerland and into France is "the cradle of absinthe".  Some in our party were still recovering from earlier in the weekend, so we opted for coffees.

The weather was a bit hit and miss, we had rain, sleet and even some sunshine, but it wasn't bad weather for a hike.  We stopped along the way at a restaurant for another coffee, and then at a giant outdoor picnic table for lunch.  The gorge was pretty spectacular, it kind of reminded me of Elora, but a lot longer and steeper cliffs.  The water was roaring through the gorge and over waterfalls for most of the hike, but as we came to the end of the hike, the river widened out and it became so calm and quiet.

The gorge. 

We ended the hike at the town of Bulle and took the train back to Noraigue for the car.  If we'd really been thinking, I would have gone for the car by myself to save all of us the 6 CHF train fare.  The vending machine at the train station had some interesting offerings, including rolling papers, condoms and pregnancy tests.  I guess those are the kinds of products you don't really want to purchase in a small-town shop.  It seems quite bizarre, but it makes sense.

Condoms and pregnancy tests at the train station vending machine.

After the hike, we headed to the town of Neuchatel for a look around.  Neuchatel has a cute little old town and castle that we explored for a bit.  We stumbled upon a group of young Neuchatel-ians (?) using a sword to chop coke bottles.  I stopped to ask them what they were doing and where they got the sword, and ended up getting to give a try at coke bottle chopping myself.  I was able to slice the whole way through on the second try.  It may have been the strangest experience I've had in Switzerland so far.  I need to get a picture of the action from Ineke.

Chopping bottles with swords, naturally.

I vanquished the coke bottle!

Chamonix

Saturday was probably my last chance to go skiing this season, so I rented a car, filled it with WHO interns, and hit the road for Chamonix.   There were five of us, my friend Catherine who wanted to try skiing again and three interns from the ePortuguese program whom I hadn't met until Friday.  The Portuguese girls didn't want to ski, but wanted to see the mountains and the town.

The mountains are lurking...

We went to the Brevant Flegere station, since it had some more beginner/ intermediate runs for Catherine as well as some more advanced runs. The weather wasn't the greatest on Saturday, it was pretty wet and snowy all day.  It meant that the slopes weren't that busy, and there was some pretty good fresh snow by the end of the afternoon.  Catherine was great to spend the day with, we had some excellent conversations on lifts and over lunch. I am continually amazed at how intelligent and interesting the other interns here are.

On the cable care between Brevant and Flegere

The snow really picked up towards the end of the day, and the visibility got pretty bad.  We made our way all the way over to the opposite side of the ski station, where there was hardly anyone else skiing.  I love silence of the snow, and the silence really seemed to be amplified by the mountains.  It was kind of eerie.

Catherine on the lift behind me.

After returning to Geneva, I had the difficult task of finding a place to park the car.  I drove around paquis for a while, and had no success.  Eventually, I drove to work and parked in the employee parking lot.  I don't have a parking pass, so I had to ask the security guard very nicely.  He said it was OK, as long as I got the car by 8:00am.  By this time, it was pouring rain and I was drenched, so I think he felt sorry for me.

I walked over to meet some friends for dinner, and called it an early night to get some sleep to prepare for day trip # 2 on Sunday.

More farewells

Sorry, I've got behind again.  It has been a busy weekend!  Friday after work I went to another farewell dinner for Karin, who I have been working out with after work a few times a week.  We went to la buvette de paquis at the bains de paquis.  It was quite convenient for me, since it is right near my house.  I met some new people, even at the farewell dinner, there is always new people to meet!

The jet d'eau over Bains de Paquis

After dinner, we met back up with the rest of the WHO intern group for drinks at l'apothicaire cocktail in plains palais.  Some interns who are medical students in the US were celebrating matching for residencies, and some others were celebrating their last week at WHO.  We paid 15 CHF for fancy cocktails at apothicaire, and then made our way to a cheaper establishment.  I was a fun evening, and it really is nice be able to go out to an intern event and see so many familiar faces.  I am definitely feeling a part of a community here now.

Karin's farewell dinner group

70th post

I had a pretty unproductive day today.  Upon realizing that all I have left to do is write this paper, I suddenly became completely unable to write anything intelligent.

I went to a documentary screening at lunch of the the movie "Tapped" for World Water Day (which is Saturday).   It is a documentary about the bottled water industry.  While I completely agree with the main point, that water is a universal right and should not be commodified, and the bottled water is ridiculous, the documentary presented

During the scenes describing the perils of plastic bottles, including Pacific Ocean garbage patches, leaching of chemicals into the water, most of the waste ending in landfills, they played the song Fake Plastic Trees by Radiohead, which I thought was a bit too literal.    When I told this to my intern friends, they did not know what Radiohead was!  That made me feel really old.  Also, I am now having a bit of a 90s music listening binge.

I am planning a couple of trips for the weekend to Chamonix to ski and to the Jura for a hike.  It is quite complicated to coordinate 10 interns on two different trips!

Travel plans

I had a long day at work today, since I met with my supervisor at 3:00 and the meeting went right until 5:00. It was a good meeting, since I'm pretty sure I now know what direction to head with writing this paper. I hope I can get it drafted by early next week to have lots of time to make revisions and maybe work on some other projects before I leave.

Tonight, I did an "Insanity" workout with a friend at work and then came home to try and get some laundry and groceries done.  The laundry machines were full, so I am going to have to get creative on what to wear tomorrow.

I booked the first leg of our Spain trip for April.  It gets a bit tricky, because the trip is over Easter, which is a really busy time to travel in Europe.  I'm hoping that by renting a car, we can visit some places off the tourist track a bit.  It would also be nice to visit some of my intern friends who will be back in Spain , although most do not know exactly what they'll be up to when they finish at WHO.

Spring really must have arrived in Geneva, because my room is now full of little bugs.  My window screen has a hole in it, and they all seem to have made their way in towards the light.  Just like at home anytime you open the door in the summer while the inside light is on.

Frozen night

Tonight, I went over to Daphne's for dinner and a movie night with some other interns.  We had a delicious dinner of ratatouille and guacamole and then had ice cream and berries for dessert.   We watched the animated Disney musical frozen.  It was nice to have a nice relaxing evening with new friends.  Unfortunately, most of them leave at the end of March.

Walking home from work.

It was a gorgeous evening out tonight.  I went for a run with the interns running group after work and walked home in my running shorts.  Unfortunately, I left my pants in the gym  change room at work.  It was still warm enough to walk home at 11pm with shorts on!  There is hope yet to swim in the lake before I leave April 11th.

Sunset from Daphne's balcony

A long Monday

I had to wake up at 3:15am to catch a couple of London night buses to the Lutton airport shuttle station in order to make my 6:25am flight back to Geneva.  Hannah walked me to my first stop, which I really appreciated, since it was so early and it was a bit complicated to find.  Thanks for being such a great host! : )

I got to ride on a double decker bus to get to the airport shuttle.  The night bus was an interesting mix of people still up from parties the night before and people heading to work very early.   It made me think of this song by Lucy Rose.  (On a side note, youtube ads seem to think I'm German, I though youtube would be better able to target ads than that, I'm not even in the German part of Switzerland!)

I made it back to Geneva without any problems, and got to work by 9:30.  The airport is nice and close to the city in Geneva, it took me less than a hour from the plane landing to sitting at my desk at work.  

It was a pretty regular Monday at work, with a new weekly batch of interns starting.   I went to spin class tonight, and it was light out when I left work at 7:00, which made me really happy.  I was able to catch the tail-end of an after work St Patrick's Day drink with some other interns, before coming home to catch up on all these blog posts.  I now have over 2000 page views for this blog.  I'm not sure if that's a lot or not, but I do know that Dad sends me a message when I don't keep the blog up to date!

I spoke with Pat briefly on Skype as he was on his way out the door to go for a Beaton family St. Patrick's Day Kincardine pubcrawl.  We've had some pretty good St. Patrick's Day parties over the years.  I hope you get some more signatures on the jumpsuit!

Peel pub with Sherry, Anita and Praan, 2005 (post skating, tablecloth jumpsuit)

2006, upgraded to a fabric jumpsuit.  Before the keg party at 222 McCaul (I think)

Shaving the leprechaun beard at our stag and doe, 2010

Sunny London, Day 2

Sunday morning, we got up and took the tube out to Stratford to swim at the Olympic pool.  Hannah coaches the London University Swim Team, and some of her swimmers came out too.  The pool just opened to the public two weeks ago.  It was pretty cool to swim there, even though there were still your typical rec swimmers.  

Hannah and Kristin at the Olympic pool

The whole Olympic site out in Stratford was pretty impressive, especially considering there wasn't anything there before.  The organizers of the London Games seem to have done a really great job at thinking about the Games' legacy, and making sure that the venues and sites could be used for other purposes after the Games ended.  They also seemed to have done well at commercializing the venues, since you have to walk through a mall to get from the tube to the pool.

Greenwich observatory. 

 From the pool, we had brunch and then went back out exploring the city.  It was another sunny blue sky day.  It's always sunny in London, right?  Hannah's friend James joined us for the afternoon.  He had lots of great tidbits of London history to share.  We went to Greenwich to see the park and observatory.  We got off the tube at the O2 centre (the gymnastics venue from the Olympics) and walked over.  There was a Brad Paisley concert happening at the O2 centre on Sunday afternoon.  I hadn't seen any cowboy hats or boots in Europe until walking by that concert.

Top of the hill in Greenwich park, looking back at the city skyline.

We stopped for a drink and snack along the Thames (it still seems very strange to be able to walk around in public drinking beer), and then took a boat along the river back to the centre of the city.  The boats are a part of the London public transport system, and it was a great way to see the city from the river.  Hannah and James graciously let the tourist have the window seat, and I got some great pictures (and a terrible selfie) out the window.

Tower bridge from the Thames. 

We walked by the St Patrick's Day celebrations at Trafalgar Square at about 5pm, by which time there were thousands hammered people milling about, and beer bottles and cans everywhere.  They had the square quite well set up, with a stage of Irish music and dancing and tons of vendors of Irish-related things (mostly booze, by the looks of it).

Public Health nerd alert.

Hannah humored me by letting me find the broad street pump, and then we went out for some delicious Indian Tapas.  It was a short, but excellent weekend in London.  I will definitely have to go back sometime!

London!

Saturday morning, I was up relatively early to catch an Easyjet flight to London.  I met up with Hannah for lunch at the Borough market.  I was late to meet her, because I was caught in the total gridlock of pedestrian traffic that happens when the sun comes out in London.  I got so lucky with the weather, it was about 15 degrees and sunny the whole time I was in London! 

Tourist-ing

After lunch and many free samples from Borough market vendors, Hannah and I explored a large portion of the city on foot.  We crossed nearly every bridge on the Thames, going back and forth between the major sights of London.  Since it was such a short visit, I didn't have time to go inside any of the sights, but it was such a beautiful day, it was better to be outside anyways. 

Tower Bridge from the shore.

I couldn't get over how green everything was in London, and how many flowers were blooming.  Also, there were so many people out enjoying the great weather.  Every single piece of green space in the city seemed to be covered with people playing football (soccer), picnicking and relaxing.

Spring!

I've never been to England before, but somehow the city of London felt familiar.  Maybe it's that it's the first anglophone city I've been in for a while, or maybe that I've seen the city in so many movies and TV shows and the last Olympics, but it really didn't feel that foreign.  The city is very well set up for tourists, with lots of maps and signs on the streets, so you never really feel disoriented either.

Big Ben, blue skies.

There daffodils seemed to be just in bloom, and there were thousands of them in the parks.  I've got to say, a sunny spring day like this really goes a long way to lift the spirits.  (I'm sure spring is coming soon, Ontario!)

More spring!

Once we got too tired of walking and it was dark, we stopped for some mulled wine at an evening market, and went out for South American food with one of Hannah's friends. I thought of Pat, since they had his favourite: empanadas!  Afterwards, we took the tube back to Hannah's place in North London.  She lives right next to the Arsenal stadium in a really great apartment with two other room-mates.  We watched some hilariously terrible British reality TV and then called it a night.

(you gotta get down on) Friday

Friday was another beautiful spring day in Geneva.  I took the interns running group out for their first lunch-time run.  It was so nice to be out in the sunshine during the work day.  Some of the runners were just getting back into running, so we went at a nice slow pace and I didn't get too sweaty.  There are only 3 showers at in the change rooms and lots of people who exercise at lunch, so not having to shower to go back to work is a bonus.  Maybe I'll try to start a lunch running group at HCHU when I get back.

After work, I had to get home for a meeting with Dr. Garcia about our capstone group.  I Skyped in to the teleconference, and everyone complained that it sounded like a plane was landing.  I'm pretty sure that was my computer fan they could hear, so I spent most of the teleconference on mute.  We figured out some major details for the capstone, so now we can get to work.

I met up with the interns for the end of dinner and drinks at Clubhouse.  I really live in a great location, since it's so close to the main train station, a lot of events are really close by.  There really no excuse not to go say hello, when the bar is only 200m away!

Health and Humanities

On Thursday morning, I went to the Graduate Institute to a workshop on health and the humanities.  It didn't really have anything to do with my work at the WHO or back home, so I went purely for interest's sake. Most of the presentations delivered, with a presentation on the representations of Autism in literature and pop culture, a medical anthropologist comparing the use of medicines in developing nations and the UK and a sociological analysis of organ donation.

I continued my intern habit of binge eating any food that is free, and ate about 6 croissants at the workshop coffee break.   I went back to work after lunch, because I couldn't justify spending the whole day on workshop that has nothing to do with my project.

I had a meeting with my capstone group on Friday morning at 2am, so I intended to go to bed early and wake up for the meeting.  Instead, I started watching Season 3 of Homeland and ended up watching that until my meeting started at 2.  I really shouldn't watch that show in the middle of the night, by myself, because I end up getting freaked out.  The meeting went pretty well, or as well as a Skype meeting with six people and no agenda can go.

History, Running and Movies

Today was a pretty busy day, I went swimming in the morning, and had lots to work on this morning before meeting with Nicole at lunch.  I am happy to report that I will not have to go back another 3 years for my literature review, which would have more than doubled the amount of work I have to do.  I will be finishing up all my data entry this week and should be able to start writing next week, horray!

This afternoon, I went to a seminar on the history of the WHO.  One of the presentations was on an analysis of the photographs published in the WHO newsletter in the 50s, 60s and 70s and another was on the establishment of the WHO from the perspective of the newly emerging independent Indian state.  I learned a fair bit, since I know pretty much nothing about how the WHO was established and developed in the early years, and there was also the bonus of free sandwiches and coffee!  I feel like I may be developing some really terrible eating habits of stuffing myself whenever there is free food, and refusing to eat when there is nothing available that is a reasonable price.

This evening, I ran the first interns jogging group after work.  It conflicted with a film screening by the sustainability committee, so there wasn't a great turn out, but I got to meet a nice new kiwi intern and had some running company.  I tried to go to the Human Rights Film Festival tonight, but it was sold out, so I just bought some popcorn and walked home.  Now for some Spain trip planning and sleep!

Geneva sunrise (as taken by Daphne)

One month to go

Tuesday marked one month until the last day of my internship, and until Pat arrives in Geneva.  It was a fairly uneventful day, I had lunch at the Table Francaise and then went to a seminar at the Palais on UNAIDS' Zero Discrimination campaign.

Although it was interesting to hear from some of the panelists about discrimination towards trans people, undocumented and irregular migrants, and people living with a disability, the whole panel came across as very stifled.  Maybe I'm just not used to the way that discussions happen within UN organizations, but I felt like the speakers were trying so hard to be politically correct and to not say anything controversial, that their message was completely lost.  You really can't talk about an issue like the provision of health care to undocumented (and even documented) migrants without taking a political stance.  I felt like towards the end, with some of the questions asked from the audience, the discussion opened up a little bit and the panelists were able to be a bit more frank.  Unfortunately, the discussion was cut short to allow the next meeting to start. 

At the seminar, they were really pushing the #zerodiscrimination campaign, which seemed kind of strange and out of place.  They gave us all these little butterfly buttons and stickers that said things like "zero discrimination" and "keep calm and don't discriminate".  Personally, I kind of thought it was crap, since "raising awareness" of discrimination seems not only to be an ineffective intervention, given that most discrimination is institutionalized it also seemed to be poorly executed.  Why is UNAIDS running this campaign anyways?  Who are they trying to reach?  A bunch of interns in the UN system?   

I'm sure that I act in discriminatory ways from time to time, but I don't do it consciously, and someone telling me to "stop discrimination" doesn't exactly give any way to change the way I behave.  It also doesn't tell me how to advocate for unisex bathrooms, or accessibility or for access to healthcare and living wages for migrant workers.  Also, the butterflies are just kind of lame. End rant. 

Spring has arrived in Geneva

Spring has definitely arrived in Geneva, I walked to work in my t-shirt this morning and I needed to take a Reactine for my allergies.  The weather forecast is for temperatures above 15 degrees for the next week.  I just googled the weather back home, I hope spring comes there soon too!

I went into work late this morning, since I had to pay my rent and return my skis, and I couldn't do either until after 9am.  Over lunch today, there was a screening of the documentary MissRepresentation, in honour of International Women's Day (which was on Saturday).  The documentary was pretty interesting, but my favourite part of the event was the presentation of the WHO woman of the year award.  There were two winners, and the testimonials from those who had nominated the winners were pretty incredible.  I'd never met either one of them, but I definitely aspire to someday be described by my peers in the way that those women were. It was pretty inspiring.

Skiing at Crans Montana- Day 2

Morning over the Alps. 

Sunday was just as beautiful and warm as Saturday and I was up early for a snow shoe hike before the slopes opened.  I actually got a really good night's sleep, since everyone started eating and drinking when the lifts closed at 5pm so most were in bed by midnight.

Morning solo snowshoe. 

I have never actually snowshoed before, so I wanted to give it a try.  I hiked a bit down the mountain and through some forest.  I didn't go too far, because I didn't want to get lost.  I did lose a mitten and have to re-trace my steps to find it.  Luckily, that's easy to go when you leave snowshoe tracks!

The cabin from the outside.

After breakfast and coffee, we hit the slopes again.  The sky was so clear and sunny, that the mountains looked like they were painted on in the background.  It really was a breathtaking sight!

Another perfect day of skiing.

I tried to take a video while skiing down the top of Plaines Morts.  I was thinking about Christopher's wipeout on family fun weekend while video taping and biking, but I managed to stay on my feet (at least while taking this video).  I did have one huge wipeout on Sunday, where I bent the bindings on one of my skis.  With Anj's help, I was able to bend it back enough so that the skis were still ski-able.  I was lucky that it was not my knee or ankle that bent like that!  Also, the skis were rentals, so sorry to the next one who rents them!

When the lifts closed at 4:30, we headed to a bar at the bottom of the hill for a couple of drinks before the bus arrived to pick us up.  They take their apres ski quite seriously in Switzerland!

Sunset over Montana.

The bus driver took us home through the French Alps, and past Mont Blanc on our way home to avoid traffic.  It's too bad it was dark, because I'm sure it was a beautiful route.

Skiing at Crans Montana- Day 1

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to catch at 6am bus to Crans Montana for a weekend of skiing with the a group from the Graduate Institute.  There were 30 people on the trip, and I only knew one, so I got to meet lots of new people. 

When we arrived, it was a bit of a production before we were able to hit the slopes.  There were rentals and lift tickets to arrange, and we had to shuttle all of our food and gear up the gondola and then by ski halfway back down the mountain.  This was all complicated by the fact that the beginner skiers were not able to ski down to the cabin, and had to snowshoe up from the first gondola stop. I did not envy the girl doing all the organizing!  Skiing down to the cabin was a bit scary, I have never skied with a heavy backpack on before, let alone a backpack with a mini keg in it!

Skiing the gear down to the cabin.

The cabin itself was pretty rustic, but almost exactly what you'd expect from a Swiss mountain hut. The top floor was rows of bunk beds with military wool blankets, and the bottom floor was long wooden tables with benches.

Sleeping quarters.

Once we got settled into the cabin, we were finally able to hit the slopes.  There was not a cloud in the sky and it was HOT.  I have never skied in such warm weather, it was about 10 degrees at the top of the mountain and I saw the thermometer get up to 21 degrees at the bottom!  Quite the change from -35 at Tremblant in December!  The conditions near the bottom were pretty slushy, and there was a bit of mud coming through, but near the top, the snow was great.

View from the top.

That sign says 21 degrees Celsius! 

Sunbathing at the midway point of the mountain.

I skied with a couple snowboarders who were much more skilled than me, and ended up on a couple of slopes that were beyond my skill level.  I had a couple of good wipe outs, but luckily I didn't hurt myself! The snow was really soft, on account of the warm weather, great for falling on.

Sunset from the cabin.

After a full day on the slopes, we returned to the cabin for some apres ski and dinner.  The views from the cabin were incredible, especially once everyone else cleared out for the day and we were the only ones left on the mountain.  Some of the ski school instructors cooked raclette for us for dinner. Raclette consists of a giant wheel of cheese that is melted on the top and then the top melted layer is scraped off onto a plate.  You eat it with bread, potatoes and pickles (also some cured meats, but I skipped those).  It is a delicious meal for after a long day of skiing, but I do not want to know how much cheese I actually ate!

Raclette

After dark, some of the guys built a ski jump and decided it would be a good idea to build a campfire under it.  Luckily, they were all ski school instructors and were skilled enough to land the jumps without setting themselves on fire.  One guy did a backflip over the fire, in the dark and landed it.  It was terrifying to watch, I'm glad no one got hurt!

A campfire was also built nearer the cabin, where we could sit and enjoy it.  With the Alps and the stars in the background, it was a pretty amazing way to spend an evening.  All of my clothes now smell like fire!

The ski jump fire.

Food, food and more food

Today was a day of eating.  I promised Eleni that I would make some Nanaimo Bars before she left, so we started off with a nutritious breakfast of sugar, butter, cream and chocolate.  

The day continued with a 40th birthday party for my supervisor, Ahmad.  It was a surprise birthday celebration, since he thought he was going to a department meeting. Sneaky sneaky.  There was quite a spread, with cake, tarts, samosas, cheese, crackers and of course wine.   

Later in the afternoon was Eleni's going away party in the patient safety department.  So, that meant more cake, champagne, strawberries and Pringles (a classy combination). 

By this time, I was completely stuffed, but I had organised the intern dinner for tonight at Cafe Mosaique, an Ethiopian restaurant near my place in Paquis.  I was a bit worried when I arrived for our 6:00 reservation and the place was closed, but it turns out they don't open until 6:00, and the owner is basically the only employee, and he happened to be running late.  After a bit of confusion about the menu, we got our massive platters of food.  The one in the picture is meant to serve only two people.  I had never tried Ethiopian food before.  It was very tasty, and it's kind of a cool experience to eat only with your hands. 

After dinner, we went to Cafe des Arts for a drink, and I opted for coffee this time so that I would be able to come home and get some work done.  I met another bunch of new interns who have just arrived this week. The number of new people to meet all the time can be quite overwhelming!

Ethiopian food in Geneva

Now, I have to finish off a paper for my INDEV course and get to bed to catch at 6am bus to Crans Montana for a ski weekend!