Week Eight: The Olympics, Grindelwald, and Glacial Rivers
Hello, once again, from Lyon!
Yep, I’m back in Lyon this weekend. I’ll say more about that in just a moment, but first, here’s what I got up to at work this week! At IBJ this week, I continued my legal project on the criminalization of queer identities. I finished reading the Fox Odoi case, and I’ve been working on an “Advisement of Rights” for LGBTQ+ individuals who are arrested in Uganda. These Advisements of Rights are crucial tools that IBJ uses to inform accused and detained individuals of their rights under each country’s legal system. Through collaboration with local stakeholders in the criminal justice system, IBJ helps to advise the accused of their rights. For example, the Chinese Advisement of Rights from IBJ is posted in prisons and detention centers throughout China. A lot of the basic civil and human rights we promote are legally provided to citizens in countries where IBJ operates. However, the laws on the books and the reality of criminal justice systems can be very different. Often detained and accused individuals are ill-informed about their rights and don’t know that they can contact attorneys and receive pro bono legal aid. IBJ helps to bridge the divide between the rights on the books and the true implementation of them.
Outside of work this week, my friend Acadia was still in town! On Friday, Acadia came up to Geneva and we went out for dinner at a local Italian restaurant with my friend John from IBJ. Unfortunately, John had to leave the internship early so this was his last week with us in Geneva. We were able to spend the last night all hanging out in my very small, very hot dorm room at the Foyer and watching the Olympics Opening Ceremony! It was really fun to watch the Opening Ceremony with my friends, both old and new, and I particularly enjoyed Lady Gaga’s opening number. I was rather confused about the Assassin’s Creed nod in the torch bearer, but I learned that when the Notre Dame burned down in 2019, Assassin’s Creed had an amazing database of the exact architecture of the Notre Dame that they gave to France to assist in rebuilding the cathedral. It’s so interesting how a video game was used to help rebuild such an important piece of human history and French culture!
On Saturday, Acadia and I got a train pass to travel to another part of Switzerland – the Bernese Oberland! We wanted to get in some mountain time while Acadia was in town because she’s originally from Colorado but has been living in mountainless Cameroon for more than a year. We took the train up through Bern, down to Interlaken, and then hopped off once we reached Grindelwald. Grindelwald is a beautiful alpine town, and I can only imagine how beautiful it would be during the winter season. Surrounded by mountains on all sides, Grindelwald sits in the perfect location for skiing, hiking, and so much more. Acadia and I decided to take advantage of the mountains and go for a hike up one of the local trails. We hiked more than 90 floors of elevation and walked across a bridge over a massive gorge. At the top of one of the mountains in Grindelwald, a massive glacier sits year-round. At this time of year, the glacial melt is intense and there is a massive river that runs through the gorge and towards Grindelwald. After our hike, Acadia and I had lunch by the river and dipped our toes in – it was freezing! We finished our day with a quick pop into Interlaken and then took the train back to Geneva. All around, it was a fantastic day and we were exhausted by the time we got back!
Today, Acadia and I had quite the adventure! We got up early to get a coffee and breakfast at Pages and Sips – my favorite cafe in Geneva. Everything was going to plan until we realized it was getting a bit late and we had to catch a train at 11:30am. Unfortunately, we were on the wrong side of the city and it was already 11am. We ran to try to catch a tram back to the Foyer, but we missed it by just a few seconds. So, tragically, we had to run all the way from Old Town Geneva all the way back to the Foyer, which we made in record time. Somehow we were able to sprint from the Foyer to the train station just in time to make our next train of the weekend back to Lyon!
It was imperative that we made the 11:30am train to Lyon because we had tickets to the Olympics this evening! Once we got into Lyon, we barely had any time to put our bags down at Acadia’s aunt’s apartment before we had to dash out to make another train to the Olympic stadium in Lyon! Luckily, we made it to the game with time to spare and watched a fantastic soccer game between New Zealand and Columbia’s women’s national teams. Columbia won 2-0, and there was fantastic energy at the game! I was so glad we had the opportunity to watch an Olympic match in-person, and I absolutely had a blast at the game.
This week was so much fun, and I definitely checked some items off of my bucket list! It’s crazy that my time in Switzerland is already wrapping up, but I’m excited to see what else this summer has in store.
Kristen