Random thoughts about Geneva

I love the culture of yielding to pedestrians no matter how many are crossing in front of you in the middle of a city street.  Cars do not drive like they are in the Grand Prix here and always slow down and wave pedestrians across if the pedestrians do not take the initiative (like Americans who fear for their lives to step out in front of cars).

Hearing church bells chiming the hour is part of the charm of the old city and staying near the cathedral, although some of our group had trouble tuning them out at bed time. 

I haven't noticed as many dogs being walked as in Barcelona and Madrid, but dogs have it good here with water fountains that include a dish for dogs at their base.

This is not really a tourist city in the same way as Barcelona and Madrid, but still a large number of people from all over.  It's hard to know if they are visitors passing through, or related to diplomats who work here.

The group has not had to confront the reality of Trump too much, but I did strike up a conversation on the train with a Brit who asked what was up with Trump.  We had a good hour long conversation about foreign policy, trade, nuclear disarmament, and other political topics.  The group did find a kind of bizarre display in a window mocking Trump, and we also so a street artist who accurately captured Trump's cluelessness with a caricature portrait.  The word bubble above it could have easily read "duh?"

These and several other large ads were in the train station in Geneva (for Evian water).  I don't understand what the point of the ad was (with clothes too large on children), but I was bothered to find that the child dressed in a suit was a white male, and the child dressed as a rapper was a black male. If the point was to say that we become 'young' by drinking Evian water, these stereotypes could have easily be reversed to the same effect, but with different social implications.

United Nations Tour

It was a bit challenging to get into the UN today.  We tried to make the first 10:00 tour, but were told upon our arrival that morning tours were cancelled, to come back for the 2:00 tour, but to get there at 1;30 to buy tickets.  I arrived at 1:00 while the group went down to the main gate and flags to get pictures, but they would not let me in till 2:00 to buy tickets.  So we waited a long time in line.  We finally got in, went to the tour desk with our ticket and were told that the tour would start at 2:30, so the group went into the gift shops and to the bathroom.  At that moment, an announcement was made that the 2:00 tour was starting.  I tried to gather the group, but several were in the bathroom.  I tried to explain the problem to the guide, but she was short with me.  Eventually it got straightened out and we proceeded with a very good tour.  The guide apologized to me very thoroughly after the tour got underway, and again at the end.  It seemed pretty accurate of the whole UN experience.  Lots of confusion, changes of plans, misunderstandings and apologies.  

She was a great guide and had a ton of good information.  Nothing that was very new to me, but detailed enough to interest my pol Sci majors and leave the non-majors with some snippets of new info too.  

Lots of great posters at the entry to the building.  This was my favorite.

Looking out toward the lake from the Palais des Nations - the oldest part of the complex.  They have over 12,000 meetings/conferences at the Geneva headquarters every year.  The WTO, ILO, WIPO, UNESCO, and Human Rights Council all meet here and are headquartered here.  There was a largest ILO conference in progress while we were here, so for the third time I did not get to see the largest conference room in the complex.  Ah well. 

This was the meeting space for the League of Nations and has some beautiful symbolic paintings by Spanish artists on the walls representing war and peace and hope for the future. 

The UN has its own postal station where you can mail postcards with a UN stamp.  Sign of a new generation:  I had to teach all my students how to address a postcard, where to put the stamp, and how to open the mail drop box to send them!  Very funny to me.  

Red Cross Museum

Each time I visit the Red Cross museum, they have changed up the exhibits.  Some of the core remains, but there are often new displays.  I've been very impressed with how they work to make their work very human and not about numbers.  Throughout the museum there were close up (almost life sized) digital images of people who had experience trauma of some sort.  You would sit in front of them and they would start telling you there story in a simple, straightforward first hand account.  Very moving.

The exhibits were divided into three themed sections.  One was about disaster preparedness, and the work they do to try to improve preparedness for better and more effective response time to disasters.  There was an interactive game that everyone got into, getting ready before a hurricane hit an island.   It involved a lot of work with local actors and volunteers.  My students noted that for every 1 "expert" that was involved, 5 local workers were needed.  I thought it emphasized the partnership process of humanitarian relief work very well.

Another section was historical and talked about the roots of the organization in advocating for rights of combatants and POWs.  It had some of the millions of records on file from WWI and WWII.  These were all index cards for every POW reported captured, or every soldier listed MIA.  They worked to notify family members of the status of their loved one and make sure all prisoners were being treated according to the Geneva conventions.  They had a mock sets of documents that you could file through to learn more about particular soldiers with the prompting of the audio guide.  It was mind boggling to think of all the handwritten work that was done to track individuals.  To see each of the different handwriting on the cards, etc. 

This was one of the original flags used in the late 1800s after the organization was founded.

I've always known that the Red Crescent was used in Islamic countries to avoid offense with the Cross, but I had no idea that Iran had its own red lion, or that at new red diamond had been adopted (in 2002?) to be used in Israel.

Much of the work the Red Cross has done has been to visit prisoners to confirm their just treatment.  The organization has struggled to figure out where the line is with being neutral and not publicly shaming governments so that they can have access to prisoners, and calling out violators of int'l norms.  The museum had a display about the organization's "Moral Failure" in WWII, with documents that indicate that the organization was more aware of what was happening in the concentration camps than they admitted to at the time, and it chose not to speak up public ally.

All of these items are art work made by prisoners being held that were given to Red Cross workers.  They are mostly made of very simple materials.

Made of bottle caps

Made of milk cartons.

Carved from soap.

Arrival in Geneva

Arrival in Geneva (despite the train delays) went smoothly.  Everyone was able to get cash.  The tram ticket machine took my group credit card even though it didn't have a chip (not all machines have).  It was still rainy in the city, so we prepared to get wet on our hike from the bust stop to the hostel - rain coats on.  We got everyone on the bus, but three students couldn't get off at the right stop because of how crowded it was.  We saw them pressed against the door as the bus pulled away.  David waited for them as I started hiking the hill with the rest of the group. They were savvy enough to get off on the next stop and just follow the sidewalk back down the street.

Fortunately it was not raining very hard.  We got to the hostel.  The late check key box worked, and even provided us with a wifi password.  I looked up "burgers" because several people said they wanted burgers.  Google maps gave me a place just around the corner.  We walked there, got seated (they had a lot more room in the back to accommodate our group), and discovered it was a chicken place not a burger place (dumb Google).  Most of the group order rotisserie half chickens with fries and salad.  It was such great food after a day on the train with our grocery store snacks!

Since the rain let up after dinner, we walked down to the waterfront and got to see a pretty sunset.

St. Pierre's cathedral.

We all slept well at the end of the day.

Train traveling saga

We left Barcelona at 8:30 am, planning an arrival in Geneva by 4:30 with a train change in Lyon.  Instead, we arrived in Geneva at 7:30 having traveled on 4 different trains!

We pulled into a station on our way to Lyon, and sat, and sat, and sat.  I noticed people getting off the train and standing on the platform.  After some inquiries, I discovered that a train had derailed on the track ahead of us and we were being held at the station.  The conductor indicated that we would still catch our next train because we had 1 h 20 mins between trains.

After sitting for an hour, I began to get nervous.  Finally we pulled into Lyon, hopped off the train quickly, found our next platform and managed to board the next train in good time.  Shortly into the ride, the students came and found me and said the conductor needed to speak to me (he only spoke French).  He communicated to us that the train would not be traveling all the way to Geneva and that we would need to get off at the final stop which was Bourg en Bresse and would need to go to the ticket counter for new connections.  All of this was communicated in French and I understood enough to be ok, but if he told me the reason for the train not going through to Geneva, I missed it.

When we passed through one station, we did notice a bunch of heavily armed security personnel.  We have no idea why they were carrying machine guns, but we also saw this kind of arming at the Barcelona station. 

When we reached Bourg en Bresse, he came back through with a smile for me and made sure I knew I had to go to the ticket counter, then as we got off the train, he followed us into the small station, spoke to the ticket counter lady, and invited us forward (cutting in front of others in line) to get us rebooked.  I was very surprised and pleased by his special care of the group.  I don't know if this was his general character, or was merited in part because I spoke French with him, but either way it made a challenging trip more palatable.

Bourg en Bresse - no cafes open in the vicinity of the train station at 3 in the afternoon, had to settle for sandwiches from the station vendor.

Amberieu station

The ticket lady also spoked only French, but helpfully wrote all her instructions down.  She did not reprint new tickets for us, but wrote by hand that there was a problem from Lyon and our old tickets were good to Geneve still. Then she stamped them with lots of official date and station stamps.  Then she gave me the set of connections through Amberieu, a very small station with just 3 platforms.  We stepped off our train, walked to the other side of the platform and waited for the next train.

We finally made it to Geneva after zig zagging across southern France.  All of the transit people we interacted with throughout the day were quite helpful and pleasant, making it a decent but long journey.  

Train pictures - Barcelona > Geneve

A swim on the beach

On our free day we decided to head back to the beach and hopefully swim a little.  We were pleased to find the green flag up (safe swimming) and much smaller surf than the other day when we stopped by. 

Also, since it was a week day and schools are still in session here, there were very few people on the beach. 

There was a harbor by the beach with a lot of sailboats coming and going. 

We got to use our "blanket" (i.e. Colorful cotton fabric) that we purchased the other day.  Delaney coaxed me in to the cold water, then we sunned ourselves and read a little before heading back to the hostel.  Every few minutes vendors would walk by calling "Sangria, Mojitos" with a tray of drinks in their hands.  One of the group decided she was thirsty in the park when we first arrived in the city and got one of the "Mojitos".  I remarked that it looked like green Kool aid.  After a taste she confirmed that it tasted like green Kool aid with a sprig of mint in it.  One additional vendor on the beach was a lady offering "massage!"  I have to say I was slightly tempted by this one.  It sounded very relaxing.

Several people in the group thought seriously about parasailing (trips offered out of the harbor), but in the end it didn't happen.