Week 2 in Switzerland

I can’t believe I’ve already been here for two weeks! It’s already gone by really fast, I can only imagine how quickly the rest of the semester will go by. Monday was a much less interesting day – I just had class and more class in Nyon. Tuesday we went to the World Trade Organization for a briefing. Someone talked to us about the basic workings of the WTO, which was helpful because I finally understand how negotiations and trade rounds work. At the end I think she said something about a 200 person long waiting list of applicants to intern there, but encouraged working there because there’s always something that needs to be done, and you get to do actual work, although it also sounds like a rather demanding internship. I had honestly thought that WTO had a location in DC, but apparently Geneva is there only one (I guess it’s IMF and World Bank that are in DC, but not WTO). Afterwards lunch and French class in Nyon.

It really feels like we’re in another world here and everyone else is frozen in time, even though I know that’s not the case. Tuesday was September 11, and I wouldn’t have realized it very much if not for the fact that we talked about it a little in French class. That night was Ethiopian New Year, and Beza’s Ethiopian so she wanted to do something to celebrate. I thought it was both weird and cool that we were going to find a millennium celebration party while the same day was also a very sad one for many people who lost loved ones. Anyway, turns out the guy who sold all of us our SIM cards (almost all of us bought the same ones, and the salesman was really nice) hooked Beza up with the number of someone throwing a party, and Beza asked me to call since my French was better than hers. Well finding the information in the first place was challenging, because my French is good but I’m certainly not fluent, and the location was at a restaurant in Lausanne (about a 30 min train ride away from here). I think it turns out the number I had been calling was the home phone of the man organizing the party, so at first the person who answered was like a little girl and she asked if I wanted to talk to her dad. Well, we finally got the information we wanted, including costs and times and directions. Beza and I went to Lausanne that night for the dinner, along with our friend Orlando. It was certainly an adventure, to say the least, since none of us had been there before, and we got lost even with directions (we probably ended up asking for directions at least 5 times, in multiple languages – Orlando is fluent in Spanish). Anyway, we finally got to the party and had delicious Ethiopian food, and it was more of a dinner with a broadcast of the New Year’s events in Ethiopia showing on a big screen, and people just kind of sitting and eating. Either way it was good food and a good experience.

Wednesday we had individual advising appointments scheduled to go over our Independent Study Project topics, so I went to Geneva and tried to get some work done at the UN library. I got lunch with Beza and Orlando, discovering again that everything is super expensive (lunch costs at least 24 francs at a restaurant… and francs do have a better conversion rate to the dollar but not by that much), then going to a buffet/cafeteria type lunch at the Coop (a grocery store with restaurant). For my project I’m kind of overwhelmed because I’m pretty much interested in everything we’re studying, but I’m leaning towards focusing on pro-poor growth. In a nutshell (I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible), economic growth is generally agreed upon to be a good thing for development, but it doesn’t always benefit everyone equally. I’d like to try and find methods of development/aid/trade that will stimulate growth equitably, distributing income more equally so that the poor get a portion of these benefits and poverty can be reduced (consequentially improving public health – the other aspect of my paper).

Today we went to the International Centre on Migration and Health, and heard from Manuel Carballo on migrants and public health. Well of course some of the things he talked about struck a chord with me, since I did a lot of research on immigrant populations this summer with ACE and was familiar with some of the demographics and characteristics important to their success. I sort of am thinking of changing my focus to something along those lines, but will probably stick with the original plan. Again, French class in Nyon in the afternoon… and dinner tonight was amazing! We had rosti again, which is one of my new favorite things in the world (yes, it’s just hash browns… but it’s so much better because it’s Swiss), along with zucchini and steak cooked in an herb margarine. It was delicious J I was hoping to explore Lausanne for the weekend, but people seem more eager to go to Geneva, so I don’t know what I will be doing. More to come… write me and let me know how everything’s going!!