Geneva: Day 1

Soooo....clearly I am not the best blogger in the world....after my fantastic adventure in Kenya I have left you all hanging...but I have some journal articles to draw from that I will use (eventually) to write retrospective blog posts about all the thing that happened there.

Now on to a new journey!! Today marks the very first day that I have been in Switzerland AS A STUDENT of the University of Geneva and Boston University's collaborative study abroad program. The journey so far has been intense and amazing. I left my house at 8:30am on Sunday, January 15, 2012 to head to DCA- Washington Reagan International Airport. From there I flew to Newark New Jersey's Liberty International Airport and waited, and waited, and talked on my cell phone (to my parents...I'm so popular) and waited. Finally at around 2:00pm I met my future roommate Sandra and her friend Dan from Cornell. We spend the next few hours gathering an obnoxiously large group of Americans together and bonding in the Group Lounge. The chitchat all seemed to go pretty well (if you ask me) and someone even offered to lend me their nook so that I could finish the Game of Thrones series that I have been so enchanted by...how nerdy. Finally we boarded the nearly empty plane and said our goodbyes to the good ole' USofA.

The ride was turbulent but I was in great company so I had no complaints...When we finally landed the long journey to 18 rue Muzy began....and when I say long I mean really short + over 100lbs of seemingly excessive quantities of only god knows what....But alas we arrived and were greeted with a the all too welcome doors of an elevator to take our bags to our 4th floor room. We spent the day getting settled in and taking care of some basic errands. When we went to buy our phones from Swisscom, however, Sarah, one of my fellow BU-er's and I were told that there were no phones left! So, after much hesitation, we decided to put our newly purchased Swiss bus tickets to use and to venture out into to the city alone in search of another Swisscom where we could get what we needed. After many awkward and confusing fr-english conversations and directions we finally made it AND we managed to buy groceries before stumbling back to Muzy under the weight of even more bags. A successful day to say the least and I am especially proud that I put my french to use on the very first day. I cant wait for what this program has in store and it seems that some of the more pleasant surprises are coming sooner than expected, as I was just informed that I have an interview "in the coming weeks" (whatever that means...) with the HIV/AIDS section of the WHO (as in the WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION...omggg im shakin' in my boots literally and figuratively). I'll keep you updated!

Bonne nuit! xxx

PS. Here is the only picture I managed to snap on my adventure to the Swisscom!...it's no Mona Lisa but hey, it's not too bad for a walking pic.

A little more about the trip...

Here is a link with more information about the trip. It is a documentary about the program we will be working with in Kenya with footage of the trip from last year. The Professor I am going with is a fantastic Spanish woman named Araceli Alonso (she is in the documentary). Ara is a specialist on women's issues internationally including but definitely not limited to women's human rights, Female Genital Mutilation, and sex trafficking. There will be lots of changes in the trip this year but I am not sure about all of them. One of the changes will be working at an HIV clinic in Kibera, a huge slum in Nairobi (and the second biggest slum in Africa). It is illegal for foreigners to go there without permission from the government but lucky for us, we will be working with the Kenyan Ministry for Health! Also, we will be distributing mosquito nets to menopausal women (a demographic most at risk of malaria) at a Somali refugee camp.

In Lunga Lunga, a village outside of Mombassa, we will be working with the Swedish NGO "Project Africa." Here is a link to more information on Project Africa.




I will post the Itinerary soon. Stay tuned!

The middle is but a new beginning.

This is the blog of a travel addict. It is meant to chronicle my experiences abroad, which is something I should have started a long time ago (hence the obnoxious title). My story begins in the middle because I have quite a bit of travel under my belt already but I hope that this is only the beginning of my international experience.

I have begun this blog today in preparation for my next trip. I am headed to rural Kenya on May 17th (a mere 34 days away--panic!) with a professor of mine and nine other students. I will try to keep you posted about my preparations and experiences.

I don't know how to end a blog post.... So I will close with a travel quote I'm fond of:

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only a page." -St. Augustine