First week in Geneva!!
I arrived in Geneva a little over a week ago last Saturday night. My flight was delayed and I arrived an hour late at 11:30pm. My Air B&B roommate, Cedric, was waiting for me at at baggage claim with his dog, we were able to find each other relatively easily and he showed me how to get to the apartment. Cedric’s English is much better than my French and he has been helping me learn a few words.
My first project at IBJ was to read year end board reports and feedback from various projects and summarize them to put in a grant proposal. IBJ is a legal non-profit that sets up pro-bono legal aid and education programs in areas that have corruption and unfair criminal practices. Summarizing the board reports was a great first project, by learning about the progress that IBJ has been able to accomplish over the past few years I got a much better understanding of the mission of the organization. I was very inspired, learning how simple legal training can make a very big impact, many of the stories and anecdotes I learned about were very touching.
Another project that Gabrielle and I started working on this week was compliance related work, making sure that there are standard practices for sub-grants that IBJ gives out. Gabrielle and I have to make sure that IBJ’s practices comply with both US and Swedish law, it was interesting seeing the overlap and coming up with language to satisfy all the requirements.
Despite being very jet lagged the first few days I was able to explore Geneva. On my first day my co-workers pointed me in the wrong direction to head home (apparently there was confusion about where I lived and they thought I lived somewhere else). This mix up turned out to be a blessing in disguise after wondering aimlessly for 20 minutes I was able to orient myself and find my way home. It was actually quite nice, Geneva is such a beautiful city.
Towards the end of the week the jet lag had completely worn off. On Thursday I took my co-worker’s advice and went on GLOCALS.com and found a meet up for interns in the area after work. I met a bunch of people who are interning at the UN for the summer and various non-profits. The best part, they all spoke English and could empathize with my struggles.
On Friday after work the office celebrated Gabrielle’s birthday. We got a couple bottles of wine and drank next to lake Geneva. On Saturday I attempted to conquer Saleve, a mountain right outside the boundaries of Geneva. I got to the mountain but struggled to find the entrance to the trail, I ended up going and walking around the mountain, instead of up it. The views, while not a mountain top were still beautiful and it was fun to explore. On Sunday I came back to the mountain, with better directions this time, and was able to find the trail and hike to the top. From the top of the mountain I was able to see the whole city, it was breath taking.