Nice Fourth of July
This week started with a meeting reviewing all of the policy and procedures documents that I had been working on all summer. The meeting was with the director of grants administration. She wanted to make sure that all of our documents were consistent with one another. She put me on the spot, asking for reasoning for certain decisions that I had made regarding the procedures and the thresholds for different actions. Through talking to her I understood a new aspect of the importance of these documents. IBJ needs to standardize their policies and procedures, my discussions with her contradicted some of the previous talks I’ve had with other employees. These documents are going to prove to be very helpful in making sure that everyone is on the same page.
Wednesday was the fourth of July and I made sure that the office celebrated. We decorated the entire office with American flags. Everyone got off work at 5 and we left for Lake Geneva where we had a picnic. At the lake we grilled burgers and hotdog's. For nearly everyone at the office it was their first Fourth of July celebration. The park was filled with ex pats. Everyone was playing American music, classic rock, country, anything patriotic. For the most part my time in Geneva has been slightly hostile towards Americans. Given the controversial nature of the Trump administrations many people here have made me feel cautious to announce my nationality. However, for a couple hours on independence day I was able to be amongst fellow Americans and it was a great feeling, definitely a Fourth to remember.
I took off Friday from work and went with 7 of my friends to Nice, France. Nice is a city on the Mediterranean coast. The whole weekend was filled with Nice to meet you puns. We spent the first day in nice on the beach. The beach was a stone beach, much different from the sand beaches back in the US, but very reminiscent of Croatia. On our second day we took a day trip to Monaco. Monaco is an incredibly gorgeous beach city state. We visited the casino where James Bond was filmed and we went to the beach there too. There was a floating dock a couple hundred meters into the Mediterranean that we swam out to and hung out at. After we returned to Nice we wanted to go out, however the bars didn’t open until 11pm. This is a stark contrast to the US where bars close earlier. Over the trip was a great adventure and it was wonderful to be able to go with so many people I knew.
