Mary Meets Budapest: While in Geneva, Go to France!

We've arrived!

My travels have taken me several places since I have arrived in Budapest. First Vienna, then Prague, next was Amsterdam, and from Monday until Wednesday, to Geneva. What was special about this trip was that it was part of the program that I am studying abroad with, and the entire JSBP crew was along for the ride. All the students, the Dorseys (our professors), and Ildiko (our amazing Corvinus representative) made the trip to the land of chocolate and watches this week, and it’s my opinion that the trip was pretty fun, and scenic too—we flew over the beautiful Alps both ways.

Drooling.

4 Girls in an Elevator!

Shortly after settling in our hotel on Monday night, the girls and I roamed the city. Our hotel was pretty centrally located for easy access to pretty much anywhere we wanted to go, and because we didn’t really have an understanding of the public transportation, walking was our go-to here. We crossed the bridge into the fancy area of Geneva and got our first impressions of the city: it’s expensive. Let’s be real—we are college students on a budget, and this is one extra trip that we were lucky enough to take, but hadn’t budgeted for. After price shopping for a restaurant, we managed to find decently priced food, a task that is not easy in such a wealthy region. One delicious meal later and some great conversation later, and we decided that a nice dessert was in order, and found some absolutely delicious ice cream. Anyone who knows me is fully aware that I am always game for ice cream.

"Presentation on International
Environmental Law to the Students of
Corvinus University"
We were on the UNEP Schedule!

With an early morning wake-up on Tuesday, the group was off to have discussions with important people from the UN—the whole reason we had the chance to come in the first place! Our first stop was at the International Environment House, the home to UNEP (United Nations Environment Program). While there, we had the opportunity to speak with Angela Cropper (Special Advisor to the Executive Director of UNEP), Barbara Ruis (Legal Officer), Eva Duer (Legal Officer), and Mijke Hertoghs. Angela and Barbara opened the discussion by asking us about what we were interested so they had a basis on which to base their talks. I really appreciated this gesture in reaching out to our interests and us. From here we talked about the future of UNEP, negotiating international environmental treaties between countries with inherently different interests, the emergence of the green economy, the significance of the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and the Rio+20 Conference.

In speaking with Barbara and Angela, I really took away a sense of the struggles that UNEP has. Never before had I really understood the difficulty of establishing regulations and international environmental treaties. It makes sense to me for all countries to want to establish a good environmental policy because it is in their best interests in the long term. After this discussion, I understand that it is so much more than that. Barbara really emphasized that the environment so naturally links to different sectors of policy, and it is difficult to navigate and coordinate the global and national interests when there are so many factors that play into establishing regulation. Angela also discussed the fact that a country’s signature on a treaty means nothing, because it has to be ratified and implemented, and there is basically no enforcement for non-compliance. UNEP’s struggle for success became so clear to me during this discussion that I felt ignorant for so harshly judging their margin of success. These two speakers were definitely the highlight of the academic trip—they were knowledgeable and really tried to give us perspective. I didn’t really find the next two speakers, Eva and Mijke, interesting—probably because I don’t have a good grasp about current chemical and hazardous waste treaties, but they showed us a good website that shows national interest and treaty overlaps on the UN website. With the information overload and plethora of treaties that exist out there, I think it’s a good tool to have in the even that someone really wanted to see the positions of different countries and different policy gaps or overlaps that exist. The website can be accessed here.

Serious kids ready to do serious business at UNEP

....and then there's Courtney. I love you
just a little bit, hahaha.

UNHCR

One of the visuals that I couldn't stop
staring at.

The next part of the day led us to the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) where we met Mr. Simeh Bulbul who works in the Iraq Unit for the agency. I was extremely excited for this talk, walking into the visitors’ center we were surrounded by different visuals and objects that gave insight to the plight of a refugee, but Mr. Bulbul’s talk left something to be desired. Simeh discussed the mandate of UNHCR, which is to provide international protection for refugees and persons of concern and then durable solutions for them. He went into exhaustive detail about the definition of a refugee, and why they face persecution. With almost no time left, he briefly addressed the Iraq refugee situation, which is really haunting to say the least. The history of persecution began during Saddam Hussein’s regime, but the Iraq War has displaces millions of people into surrounding nations. There are currently 5 million Iraq refugees in the world, representing 17% of the country’s population. He briefly mentioned that he had been in Iraq at the turning point of the refugee situation, when a bombing catalyzed the displacement of people and families throughout the region. I think had he centralized his talk on the Iraq situation, the talk would have been more engaging and interesting. I would have loved to ask him a question, but there was no opportunity. One of my lasting impressions of Mr. Bulbul was that upon meeting us, he called us his future colleagues. The more I am overseas, the further my eyes are opened to the possibilities that life has to offer. Working for the UNHCR really appeals to me, and until we ventured there, I had no idea that it existed…more proof to the fact that this experience is paying off in some way.

Mary for world peace

In front of the UN building...not a great pic but still
pretty cool!

Iranian protesters in front of
the UN building

Our feet are in France!

After we were dismissed from UNHCR, we decided to go to France. It seems like a big decision to make but it really went more like this: stay in Geneva and spend a lot of money to do pretty much nothing, or take a free, 25 minute bus ride, to a small village in another country. What would you do? Our bus dropped us in the center of Ferney-Voltaire, which is actually named after the French writer and philosopher Voltaire. Back in the day he lived in Ferney, and hugely influenced the town—thus why they added his name to theirs. It was absolutely gorgeous there!

Ferney-Volaire! You can see the Alps
in the background.

French wine.

We walked on cobblestone streets; saw boutiques, shops, inns, and statues, while being treated to a view of the Alps as a backdrop to the whole sight. While there, I of course made it a priority to have a taste of French wine. It was absolutely delicious, and lived up to all my expectations. After this drink, somehow the group got separated, and Court and I roamed the streets until catching up with everyone for our bus as the sun set upon us. Overall, I am so happy that I had the chance to go to France, if even only for a while. France seemed to live up to the expectations I had of it. It was absolutely gorgeous and I am glad that I saw the countryside, because I feel like thought I spend less than two hours in France, I did gain an understanding to the French culture as it resonates so clearly among the people and places that I saw. I also gave witness to how disdainful the French are towards anyone who is not French or cannot speak the language. I apologize that I am only able to say “hello,” and “thank you” in your language, but give a girl a break! At least I smiled and tried?! Their condescending attitude is obvious—something I could not help but to notice in the small bar where we sat for a while.

Some homeless guy in France.

Old Town

Colorful mosaic on a church

The bus ride back to Geneva was especially entertaining. The boys treated the entire bus to a sing-a-long in which only they participated. Most of the Europeans were either horrified or a little annoyed by the cheery and loud Americans. Tuesday night, we joined Ildiko as a group for dinner. A delicious dinner it was, despite the whole it burned in my pocket. And although I did not experience this trickery, let the buyer beware: if you buy fondue to share, have only one person order it, or you will each pay about $30 for a single pot of fondue! After dinner, a bunch of us decided that the rest of the night should be dedicated to finding Old Town—we were told this was the “real Geneva.” The rest of the night turned out to involve lots of hoodrat activities and silly pictures. It was really fun.

For those of you who did not understand my use of "hoodrat," consider this the definition.

Ildiko and Nell...sisiters?

Wednesday, the girls woke up early with Ildiko to check out the flea market and see a couple other things in Geneva before we left. The flea market turned out to be a big garage sale that smelled like stale cigarette smoke. I saw a couple things I liked, but being that we were in Geneva, everything was overpriced. I’m glad I saved my money, because afterwards as it began to rain, we found our way to an amazing Chocolatiere where I got some delicious truffles! Swiss chocolate definitely lives up to its reputation. Before we rushed off to the train station to make our way to the plane, we went over to the harbor area to see the famous fountain that Geneva is known for. I wasn’t impressed, but we were also standing in the pouring rain looking at water being jetted into the sky, so that may have skewed my opinion a bit.

My lasting impression? Switzerland is worth a trip—I would love to explore the Alps, the other cities, or go to Interlaken to go bungee jumping, but only go to Geneva if you are a retiree with a lot of money to spend and no interest in doing anything stimulating.