Second week in Geneva
The second week in Geneva passed quickly. I spent most of my time on summarizing IBJ’s work in China. It went more slowly than I expected, especially I found I have to re-read materials in more detail, so that I could have a solid information base to build on other stuff. Thus, I put aside the slide draft I had already made, downloaded all IBJ’s quarterly reports from 2004 to 2014, and started getting really familiar with its work in China. It is a frustrating work, especially because this is my first time summarizing an organization’s work from its management level. I had done summarizing work before, but they were about summarizing data and statistics. Whereas this time, I feel like being a manager. It’s a new and challenging experience that I’m very pleasant to take.
Another new thing is Geneva has been super-hot since Monday. Every day the temperature exceeded 35 degrees Celsius, which is about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. I’m a person who likes staying very warm, but even me started to feel very bothered by the hotness. Particularly, residential buildings in Geneva usually do not have air conditioning, because the whole Switzerland’s temperature constantly stays below 83 throughout the year. However, I luckily came at the “special time” of Switzerland. Under the threatening of this short, once-in-a-year but the strongest wave of hotness in Geneva, two friends and I decided to flee to Zermatt—a mountain area three-hours-driving from Geneva-to avoid the hotness. Zermatt and Matterhorn are gorgeous. The town is like coming from fairy tales. I had only seen flowers as big and beautiful as those in the town in pictures drawn for fairy tales! People can still ski on the top of the mountain, which is unbelievably pleasing--think about a life of 95-degrees is only three hours from us! The mountain is gorgeous. I cannot find the proper word to describe its amazingness. We only climbed a very short part of the mountain area and took a short path out of the many.
