Lion and Rhino Park

So yesterday was a public Holiday in South Africa called Heritage Day. This meant that everyone was at home so we went to a game reserve called Lion and Rhino Park. At the lion and rhino park we saw a number of animals in their natural habitats including Zebras, Wildebeests, Springbucks and other antelope related animals. We also saw a number of rhinos including a few babies, which are extremely cute. We also had the opportunity to go and pet and play with 2 sets of baby lions and one grown Cheetah named Eddie. The first set of lions were quite small and I had no problem stroking them. We then saw Eddie who I was a little bit hesitant to touch but it was okay. We then saw an older set of lion cubs. I only gently touched one of these cubs as they were much more boisterous and scratching. We also watched a tiger show. Unfortunately when the trainer started the show the male Siberian tiger was in an aggressive mood and jumped on the trainer knocking him down. Luckily he was able to get up but he canceled the show and seemed very upset. He also must have been injured but there was no blood which I guess was good. All in all it was a great day. In the evening we made dinner and went out dancing which was also fun although today I am feeling about my dancing skills which are of course as most of you know, lacking.

Till next time, enjoy the pictures.

The First Couple of Days

So I have almost been here for forty-eight hours and a lot has happened so here is an update.
My House
The house where I am staying is very nice. It is surrounded by a wall and you enter by a gate. It is described in South Africa as being a commune. This means there are about 7 other international young people living in it and we all do things together including people living from the other two communal houses nearby. This includes meals, fieldtrips and sitting in the front yard of the house. While I do like my privacy sometimes I really appreciate having all of the people around as it has certainly staved off homesickness and culture shock at the bottom of the World. All of the other students living here are from Europe, except for one South African young person named Mzi who works here and is very sweet.

First Day
So as soon as I arrived to my house there were things to do almost immediately. The land lords took me and an Italian girl who had already just arrived out for lunch and gave us a brief tour of the surrounding area. We spent the rest of the afternoon talking in the front yard and napping. At dinner a South African dish was prepared again by the landlords. We then sat in the front yard and played card games while most of the guests went to see District 9 which of course I have already seen and didn't like. Went to bed early to get over the jet lag.

Second Day
For my second day here I enjoyed communal breakfast and lunch, doing some school work in the morning as my laptop battery had died and I needed to buy a new power cord. In the afternoon myself, Mzi, and 4 girls went to a mall where I picked up a power cord and a sim card for my cellphone so I am now more connected. I also got some flipflops and a couple of the other girls picked up clothes and groceries.
In the evening I had a double invitation out for dinner, one with the people I live with and one from the ISS. I decided to go out with the ISS to acquaint myself with some of the people who I would be working with. We had a really good time starting with drinks at a place called TriBeCa and then dinner at a pizza place (pizza seems to be a popular dish here) The young people who I was out with from the ISS were all very nice, many of them talking to me about South Africa and Canada although I did get a good legal conversation with a guy from Kenya. At the end of the evening most everyone there gave me a hug which was a bit of a surprise but I think was a good sign.
On the way out of the restaurant something kind of funny happened. As we passed the wait staff one of the waiters made a phone to his ear and said "Call me". The people standing close by to me burst out laughing as apparently this is a commonly used pick up line. Very funny, I of course dont have his phone number and don't know him so that won't be happening.
I was driven home by one of the girls from the ISS Dom and I experienced my first scary moments. We got a bit turned around on the way home and we ended up having to do a U-turn in front of my house. There was a car directly in front of us which had stopped and followed us in our U-turn so Dom pulled the car over so he could pass but he didnt. Eventually he inched by at which point Dom said she was getting a bit freaked out and I agreed (didnt mention I was a lot freaked out) eventually the guy got far enough down the street that we turned into my driveway and Dom stood with me while I went inside, Unfortunately no one else was home when I got here except for one of the landlords dogs who was freaking out. This added to me a level of anxiety and after being inside for a while I decided to return to the yard where I found somebody standing at the gate, At this point I really freaked out although the guy said he was looking for Mzi. I told him he wasnt there. I then went and locked myself in my room and called the landlord to find out when they were going to return. Luckily they were there within 10 minutes so my anxiety didnt last and then everything was fine. I think Im going to try to avoid being home alone from now on.

But except for that one half hour everything has been great! The weather is a bit cold and I havent taken any pictures yet but that should change today as today is a holiday and we are going to Cradle of Humanity and to play with baby lions.

Cheers!

My Warm Welcome to South Africa

Greetings from South Africa!

Getting Here
Yesterday I caught a 6:15 flight from Geneva to Zurich and the Zurich to South Africa. While the shorter flight was relatively uneventful, the 10 hour flight to South Africa was a little bit hectic. When I arrived at the airport in Geneva I collected my boarding passes and noticed that rather than a seat on the flight to SA it said Standby. When I asked why that was there they explained to me they had overbooked the flight but there would be room for me. There was, unfortunately it was the worst possible seat on the plane, the very back row, where there were no windows and I was next to both of the lavatories. This meant of course that I barely slept, which was quite unfortunate. There was also fairly frequent "Light" turbulence not fun. But other than that it was relatively uneventful, although I did have a bit of trouble explaining in French that I wanted to have my bags wrapped in plastic.

Arriving
When we touched down in SA I felt a bit of trepidation getting off the plane as I had heard that the OR Tambo airport could be hard to navigate and was rife with pickpockets. As opposed to a confusing mess I found a recently refurbished airport which is actually the equivalent if not nicer than Pearson Airport in Toronto, although the arrivals gate was more awash with people.
When I arrived I was meant to be picked up by a cab driver who had been recommended me by the ISS. Unfortunately, he did not call when he was meant to. Fortunately I had made friends with a fellow from England who recently made the life changing decision to drop everything he was doing and pick up a safari guiding course in a remote area of South Africa. He had told me he would be driving through Pretoria to get to where he was going so upon realizing things were not going to work with Victor I conferred with Rob and after some hmming and haaing he decided it was still possible. This was also a lucky find as it cost me significantly less than taking a cab which was great! Then came the first of one of many coincidences today which was that while driving he and I discovered that we share a Birthday, although he is 4 years older than me. In any case it was a very nice drive.
When we pulled up on Mackenzie street, we were met by one of the people who work at Friends Accomodations where I was staying who informed me I was at the wrong house, which was no problem since the right house was just 3 houses down. So he showed me to my room and then we sat down and talked. He asked what I was doing here and I explained my research and that I would be working with the ISS. When I said this he told me that his sister worked at the ISS and when I inquired who she was turned out that her name was Gugu who was mentioned to me by an intern at the Small Arms Survey from the ISS who had told me all about the staff of the arms management unit I will be working with who is apparently a lovely person. So then imagine my surprise when I logged on to my dalhousie email account and found two emails from the ladies who were mentioned to me by the intern at SAS including Mzi's sister Gugu welcoming me to the country and inviting me to spend time with them.
the people Im living with are also very friendly and international. There are two dutch interns, a Spanish grad student and apparently a french intern who is also at the ISS. For lunch I was taken out by the couple who own the house along with Mzi and Sylvia, the Italian student which was very lovely.

So now I have a problem as I have 2 invitations out tomorrow night, one from the people I live with and one from my new friends at the ISS. Hard decision.

What Pleasant Surprise! the weather is nice, people are friendly and the landscape is beautiful. I like it!

Germany (Finally)

So I have had a computer since Friday but this has been my first real chance to sit down and write in my blog since then as I was too busy having an awesome time in Geneva to write in my blog.

As anyone who has me on facebook knows, I took over 150 pictures on this trip and since blogger only allows me to upload 5 pictures at a time this is only a small sampling of the visit.

Friday
On Friday September 11, I caught a 9 am train from Geneva to Basel. I quite enjoyed this leg of the journey as it took me through the Swiss mountains which are very beautiful and I saw some additional Swiss cities. At Basel I transferred to a train which took me to Mannheim. Unfortunately this train was running very late due to someone who jumped in front of another train. Most everyone in Basel appeared only to speak German so I had to find someone to translate. Eventually I paired up with a Swiss woman who was talented in many languages who was on the same train. They told us to take a different train, however the woman remained very wound up for most of the trip, sure that we were going to be thrown off the train. I was fine though. The most exciting part of this trip was ordering a sandwich in German which I apparently did correctly and I attribute to my knowledge of Dutch.
Upon arriving in Manheim I was greeted by my friend Lukas who I met on exchange in Rotterdam. We drover back to His home in Leimen where he proceeded to get an impossible number of phone calls related to his job. He was very distressed as the situation took 1.5 hours to sort out but again I was quite fine, just happy to be in Germany.
That evening Lukas showed me around his town Leimen where apparently 12000 people live, although he is quite convinced there couldn't possibly be more than 2000. It is a very picturesque little town.
We then went to Heidelberg for a traditional German dinner, a little bit of sight seeing and then had a couple of drinks at one of Heidelberg's many bars. It was a very good night.

My Traditional German Dinner with Egg and 3 kinds of meat.

Saturday
Saturday morning Lukas got up early to go out and pickup breakfast for us. He was most distressed when he tried to wake me before he left and I slept right through that attempt, in addition to his shower and I was barely drawn out of sleep on his third much louder attempt. I must have been quite tired because sleeping this soundly is extremely unusual for me.
After breakfast Lukas and I headed back to Heidelberg for some sight seeing which involved more hills and steps then I ever want to see again! First we climbed halfway up a hill (although it looks more like a mountain) along a path called philosopher's way where a number of German Philosophers reportedly used to go to think. From the top one could see why as you got an excellent view of the city of Heidelberg and you are surrounded by beautiful wildlife.

Lukas on Philosopher's Way pointing to Heidelberg Below

Heidelberg

We then descended the hill and had lunch after which we climbed ANOTHER hill to get to Heidelberg Castle. Although parts of the castle are in ruins most of it continues to function as a tourist attraction in addition to the office of some private businesses. This also offered an excellent vantage point of Heidelberg and the Neckar river which runs through it. The castle itself is quite amazing both in size and its appearance. Again it was worth the climb.
The trip to the castle was followed up by a shopping excursion. We then retired to Lukas' house where he fed me another traditional German dish of pasta shells filled with meat and potatoes in a broth and we consumed a bottle of wine from one of the local wine yards.

The view of Heidelberg from the Castle
Heidelberg Castle

Heidelberg Castle

Sunday

On Sunday Lukas took me to see his place of work, a technology solution company called SAP. The company is multinational but at this location 12,000 people come to work daily. It is quite large has full service cafeterias, tennis courts and exercise rooms. It also has beautiful gardens.
Following our visit to SAP Lukas and I went to Schwetzingen castle which also boasts beautiful gardens. Exploring the gardens and then eating lunch took up all of our time for Sunday and then I had to get on a train and head back to Geneva. Your already know the sad story of what followed with me missing my train. However I really had a wonderful time in Germany and can't thank Lukas enough! Below are pictures of SAP, Schwetzingen and the gardens that surround it.

This afternoon I am getting on a plane and going to South Africa. Im not going to lie, I am extremely nervous, but the next time you hear from me I will be in South Africa!

Cheers!

Just a Thought

So I e-mailed my contact at the ISS last night inquiring as to whether there was anything I should know about my upcoming trip and whether they had decided to take me up on the offer of me doing some volunteer work while I was there to which he replied "The head of our unit will speak with you about that when you get here. We look forward to your arrival." Very ominous.

Optimism and Networking

So after all of my whining about a lack of a computer I felt a positive post was in order. I have finally started to meet some people here and make valuable connections! This evening I went to dinner with an Austraillian raised in Hong Kong and had 3 hours of conversation on life, international development and everything. This was the first time that I've eaten a meal with anyone in Geneva which was quite refreshing. We had chinese food for dinner and then had movenpick icecream for dessert (note that despite my consumption of icecream everyday I seem to have lost weight, I guess its also worth noting the icecream has a lot less fat in it here) Prior to dinner we went over and saw an exhibit by the International Committee for the Red Cross along the shore of Lake Geneve, which included several installation on the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the work the ICRC had been doing there. It was very refreshing to see a public display which might actually raise some awareness about whats going on there. This made for a fantastic evening and it was nice to meet someone who was also interested in international development staying at the same hostel in Geneva.
My luck continued when I struck up a conversation with someone who I had seen several times in the computer room with long dreadlocks. I found out that he's taking an advanced masters degree in international humanitarian law and human rights, a program which is offered in Geneva and in English which you don't need formal law school training for. When held up to the possibility of 4 more years in law school or 5 more years doing a PhD this program seems like a very inticing prospect for the future considering I that I find Geneva quite charming, although a bit expensive. In the course of our conversation I talked about my thesis and discovered that Tom had encountered a Norwegian man staying in the hostel who has worked in the DRC for 3 years and gave me his room number. When I went up and knocked (mind you not very loudly at this hour) I received no response so I left a note indicating who I was and my e-mail. I would very much appreciate the opportunity to speak with this fellow. All in all this evening has left me feeling much more optimistic. I have 2 new facebook friends and am planning to go to the ICRC museum tomorrow and possibly for a tour of the UN.

Cheers!

Computer Conundrum

Sigh! How frustrating.
Today I went yet again to the computer store which is working on my facewash soaked laptop only to discover that they got it working last night... and that today it won't turn on. Not knowing whethere they'd be able to get it to work again we started talking about the option of purchasing a new one. However they don't keep any laptops with 15 inch screens on site so he informed me if I wanted one he'd have to order it. On top of that the selection was rediculously small and so I will try to locate an alternative store tomorrow. On the plus side my hard drive wasn't damaged so I can at least keep that.
In other news today I had another meeting at the Small Arms Survey which was much more helpful than the first. The girl who I met with discussed my research methods with me and pointed out some gaps or potential short comings in my methods which if dealt with effectively may make for a more cohesive thesis. She also reassured me that the ISS was very helpful with its visiting students and gave me a little bit of a boost which kept me from completely sinking into the depths of despair about my laptop. (Its not that I'm sad about needing a new laptop its more the extra expense which I hadn't anticipated. Le sigh)
In other news I have a hot date tonight... well not really. But I did convince an Austraillian who I met in the lobby of my hostel to do some exploring with me tonight. He's shooting a documentary here. Could be interesting. I also met a friendly Columbian man today on the street today who was some kind of socialworker or something along those lines. Looks like I'm finally starting to make progress in the area of meeting people. Hooray!

Still no pictures, but cheers anyway!

P.S. Obviously my french is improving as I'm beginning to find it more difficult to communicate in English. Mind the typos.

Shopping Day

So I didn't have any scheduled meetings today and the weather wasn't particularly nice so I decided to pick up some groceries and do some shopping. Groceries were fairly uneventful although hopefully I will be able to spend slightly less money on food now that I don't have to eat out constantly... actually I spent the same amount I would have spent on one meal out on 6 meals worth of food plus some yoghurt, apples and 9 litres of water (the water was onsale for about $4 CDN). so that probably will get me a bit ahead.
I then went to check on my computer which I was informed was not ready but I feel as if something got lost in translation because when i asked if they thought it would be totally fixed the man behind the counter replied "normalement" which translates to normally which didn't really match up with my question, but oh well we will see. Needless to say I would really like my laptop back so I could stop using these damned ones I have to pay for ergh.
After recieving no news about my laptop I was feeling rather desolate so I decided to look around the University building where the computer repair shop is located. I decided that I might have a chance of actually meeting someone. As it happened it worked! After sitting down alone an exchange student from England asked if she could sit down and we had a nice conversation. So good.

Parc Basstion
On the way to the shopping area the tram I was on stopped in front of a park which had these giant chess boards in it which I had seen pictures of on the internet. At the last minute I leapt off the tram getting my foot caught in the door which was closing behind me. This was fine at the time although now my ankle is kind of hurting. In any case I explored the park for quite sometime watching men play life sized games of chess. The park is really amazing it had several religious monuments in it in addition to jugglers and a very old University building containing the school of theology which I guess was consistent with the religious monuments. And then I moved on.

Shopping
Upon arriving in the shopping area on the left bank of Lake Geneva I headed straight for the Franz Carl Weber toy store, which is three floors of amuzing goodness. I went partially out of pure curiosity and partially out of a desire to add to my Jolly Mah collection of sheep and other products with sheep on them which I started in the Netherlands. (Jolly Mah of course being a specific line by Nici) In any case I was in luck as the store carried the entire Nici line so I indulged in a Jolly Mah keychain where the sheep was wearing a t-shirt with the Swiss Flag on it and a new mug to replace one of the three that have broken since 2006. I also bought a hello kitty mug for my cousin's wife as that is her thing.
I then moved on to a cappucino at a rather interesting location called Globus which is sort of like the Richtree Cafe but the food is actually made right in front of you. It was very good and a possibility for dinner tonight or later.
After my coffee I moved on to look at some clothes and found this store called Pimkie which carries a variety of European brands and is quite large. I tried on a number of things all but one of which I liked although I eventually settled on a short sleeved brown cardigan with orange undertones and an orange cotton shirt and necklace to go with it. I could definitely see myself developing a serious shopping problem here. Good thing I'm leaving in a week.

Movenpick
Movenpick is the brand of Swiss icecream which I keep raving about. There is a small booth along the River Rhone in the shopping area which I mentioned above which is operated by quite a kindly gentleman, who I've now met on three occasions who is quite the conversationalist. So I will keep returning to the location both for the ice cream and the conversation. (I've now tried 4 flavours, and I think either the Pear or the Carmelita were my favorite.... Canada needs more Movenpick).

Details on Germany to follow (I swear as soon as I get my laptop back it will happen.

Cheers!

P.S. I also plan to post some pictures from today when I have a working laptop. Arg.

My visit to QUNO and other tales

So I know I promised an entry on Germany today but as I had to bring my laptop in to the shop today in an attempt to save it from the trash heap the entry will have to wait until I'm not using a public computer as I really want to upload some of my 150 photos to share with you.

So a little about today. First thing in the morning I brought my laptop to a computer shop where they told me that my computer might be salvageable if my motherboard wasn't destroyed by the soap and my attempts to turn the computer on after this occured. If it is not I will have to buy a new one which is a little disappointing as my laptop was only a year old and this will be a huge expense. What did we learn from this? don't put your laptop in the same compartment of your bag as any liquids.
I got through most of my conversation at the computer shop in French and later in the day I got through my first full conversation without reverting to English at all which I must say is a huge improvement to last week. I can only hope this will help improve my french and lead to French dreams which I used to have periodically and are kind of cool.
Later in the day I went to the Quaker United Nations Office to meet with an expert on the demand for Small Arms and Light Weapons which is of course the central issue of my thesis (well I guess one of the two but whatever). In any case I felt like the meeting was really successful and although he is not an expert on the DRC he gave me some information which I should be able to use in my thesis and pointed me in the right direction to find additional print resources which was great.
I'm now sitting here using a pay computer in my hostel waiting for an appropriate time to go and eat dinner. I still haven't really met anyone here socially although a sign on the wall here says the swiss tend to be very private and somewhat unfriendly (those are the sign's words not mine). So anyway hopefully I will soon meet some very interesting people who I will also be able to write about in my blog. I guess of note Switzerland seems to be abound with friendly one and two year olds who love playing peekaboo and just generally smiling at people. Obviously much different from their adult counterparts :P.

Disasterous 6 hours

After a delightful 3 days in Germany disaster struck me twice in the 6 hours it took me to get from Mannheim to Geneva.
First after a relatively uneventful traintrip between Mannheim and Basel where I was supposed to transfer in an 8 minute period, the announcer called Basel out over the intercom and I gathered my things and got off the train. When I got off the train my surroundings seemed unfamiliar so I asked another passenger who got off the train whether I was infact in Basel, they said yes so I walked down towards the station and I thought to myself "this really doesnt look like the Basel I was in before" so I rushed back up the platform and asked the conductor whether I was at Basel and again she said yes, and called all aboard. The train lurched away. At this point I was left standing alone on the platform, looking around trying to find out where gate 14 was when I could only see gates up to 11. At this point there is 15 minutes until my next train is supposed to leave. I then ask a train employee where I can make the connection and he informs me that I am not at the correct Basel station and that I should have gotten off at Basel SBB and that the onlz way to get there is a 20 minute tram ride. At this point I have 12 minutes. I then descend into the main station on the brink of tears and notice a taxi stand so I ask the taxi driver how long it will take to get to Basel SBB and he said 5 minutes, so I hopped in and we proceeded to hit every single red light possible. I arrived at the station at 7 00 with my train leaving in 3 minutes I went running accross the station, to my gate, down the stairs... only to see my train pulling out of the station at which point I collapsed on the stairs of the station in a combination of breathlessness and utter despair. Trembling I walk up to an information booth where I am told fortunately that I can just take the next train which will get me there half an hour later. This was reasonable and although it left me upset it ended up being okay as this random two year old decided to come and sit next to me and make faces at me and such, which I of course was more than happy to indulge in. Very funny kid, look into a comedian named Louis from france in 18 years.

So I eventually arrived in Geneva and made it to my hostel (which is very nice and clean and such) without issue. I went to my room and went to unpack my bag when I discovered my facewash had exploded and leaked all into my backpack which contained my one year old laptop which now wont turn on. On the plus side the hostel staff was helpful enough to give me the name of a computer repair shop. Lets all hope my lap top will just turn on tomorrow morning after drying out.

At least my tragedy makes for a good story.

I took 150 pictures this weekend look for them soon on a facebook page near you.

One last little update before the weekend.

So today I spent a lot of my time walking around lake Geneva and taking pictures. I also found myself in a shopping district with a lot of designer stores which weren't necessarily of interest but some of which I think I might visit in the near future. Hoping to meet someone, anyone really I ate dinner and had a drink at 3 separate locations, only to find no conversation. Then as I waited for a bus someone decided to be creepy and give me the 9th degree asking too many questions including what bus I was taking. Feeling a bit threatened both times I responded that I was waiting for someone and he finally got the message (this reinforced my belief that taking the bus alone at night here is not a good idea, I won't be doing that again) Then within 2 minutes of getting back to my hotel room someone (not me) tried to enter my room, which also scared me but fortunately he was just lost and I helped him get into his hotel room. I finally found some good conversation among some French (from France) airforce mechanics/engineers on mission here in the hotel lobby who made quite the first impression when they got on the elevator with me and started groping eachother (jokingly of course) this eventually made for the longest conversation I've had since I've been here other than with the lady from the Small Arms Survey, and it was almost entirely in french which was good. (I keep being told my accent is too hard to understand... sigh).

On another random/somewhat negative note, as a whole the adolescent population here seems to be very poorly behaved. Why? No one knows?

Write to you soon!

Mes Premiere Deux Jours en Geneve

Salut du Geneve

Dont worry that is as far as I will be going with the French. Starting from where I left off last night I did not end up going down town to the bar where they were having an electric strawberry event and instead slept for 12 hours beginning at 10:30. I now feel somewhat more awake.

My First Day in Geneva
I arrived in Geneva at about 9 in the morning local time, not having slept at all on the airplane, and came straight to the hotel to see if they had a room available for me. Initially I was told that I would have to wait until 2 but they somehow changed their minds within about 5 mnutes so I was able to go up and slept in a rather comfortable bed for 2.5 hours. Upon waking up I called my mom upon having some technical difficulties with my computer and let here know I was still alive. I then decided to venture out for some lunch and sight seeing.
My first stop was at a shopping mall called Blaxert where I picked up a crepe for lunch. The crepe would have been good had the tomatoes on it not been from a can but you win some you lose some. Next I went on a mission to find a plug to make mzy computer compatible with the electrical system here. I had bought a universal adapter in Mississauga but discovered upon mz arrival that it was only compatible with appliances that used 2 prongs rather than the 3 my computer had. So I went to the 3 eletronic stores which were in the mall and fumbled my way through explaining in French what exactly it was that I needed. At the last store I went into, the man helping me must have been psychic because he did not find me the universal converter I was searching for but instead a plug which was compatible with my computer so I no longer need the adapter at all, and the best part was the cord was a lot cheaper than the adapter.
I then decided to purchase a cell phone so I went to a number of stores looking for a quadriband pay as you go phone without a locked sim card which also proved challengin. In any case I wound up back at the store where I bought the cord for my computer and was explained to by the sales girl in french, who tried to get me to speak to someone who spoke english but I insisted I try it in French, that the cellphone I wanted was onlz available at a lower price with a different company, and while I didn´t understand why this was a problem I went and looked somewhere else. Deciding that the cheaper phone was the best option I returned to the original store where the attendant insisted I speak to someone in English who told me the same thing the girl did, but also that the sim card was locked for 24 months under the cheaper plan, so I asked for the more expensive one and he said this to the girl who had been helping me who then explained that they did not have any of the more expensive version at which point the male attendant started giving the female one a hard time and pointing at a phone and asking "and do we have this one?" and when she would say no he would rip the price off the wall. It was quite humorous. In any case I went and bought the same phone from another store. The phone has a 1.3 mega pixel camera and an fm radio. Ive never had a cell phone with these capabilities before.
I then tried Swiss icecream (which is so excellent by the way that I may never eat icecream ever again anywhere else) and went on my way. At this point I decided to walk around a little and so I walked and walked and walked until eventuallz I found myself along a riverbed and then in a large sports park. I thought I was walking toward lake Geneva but when I eventually hit country side and had been walking for about 3 hours I decided to turn back. It took me another 45 minutes to find myself in an area which remotely resembled the part of Geneva I had started in and then I tried to find a place for dinner. Well that was a complete disaster as first I found myself in a residential area with no restaurants which took me a half hour to get out of and then the first 3 restaurants I tried to eat at said they only served food at lunch time. I dont know what that whole business is about but I didnt like it.
I eventually settled on a thai place where the server, who may also have been the owner seemed to be angry with me for not having purchased a drink with my meal. oh well. I then returned to the hotel where I discovered internet costs 9 CHF an hour or 24 CHF for 24 hours (irritating!) and went to sleep.

Day 2
Day two was somewhat less eventful. I woke up early and payed my first of two visits to the small arms survey. The lady who I met with was very helpful at answering my questions and showed me to their resource room where I spent an additional hour and a half. I then got lunch and proceeded to buy 90 CHF (aka dollars) worth of chocolate which I promptly mailed back to Canada. So please, if you receive some chocolate as a gift when I get back, consider yourself well liked.
By the time I got in last night jet lag had thoroughly set in and so I didnt do much beyond having a rediculously expensive salad at the hotel restaurant. (for a mid priced hotel they are very snobby here) I then slept for 12 hours and here I am now.

Todayand Tomorrow
Today is a holiday and everything is supposedly closed which I plan to investigate in a little while. Tomorrow I am taking a train to visit Lukas in Germany

Speaking French All Day Long
Although I have taken to speaking french here quite easily Im finding that I dont always have the words to express myself (although I bought I French English dictionary yesterday too help in the matter). I imagine what the greatest problem is is that everytime Im unsure of a word or grammar I end up mumbling it into my sleeve so the person Im talking to cant actually hear me. The strange thing is that after 2.5 days of doing this Im beginning to find it more difficult to speak in English.

Anyway thats all for now. I dont imagine I will be blogging much in Germany so expect an update sometime Monday.

Cheers!

Update coming just not yet

Unfortunately I'm going to have to push the update back another 12- 18 hours as I'm still feeling the jetlag a bit and am not feeling the writing today.

Revenir demain s.v.p.

Je croix que j'ai aussi fatigue a car de parle francais toute la journee (note I'm using a laptop which makes e's with accents difficult)

In other news, a restraunt owner gave me a wrist band to received 2 for 1 drinks tonight. Will I go despite being this tired? find out tomorrow... and now some picturestures.

Take off from Mississauga and Arriving in Geneva

Pearson International Airport
I was quite pleased to be joined by my two friends Kristen and Chrystal at the airport in addition to my mom to bid me fairwell. As you might notice from my facebook pictures we drank some coffee, did some walking and I attempted to relieve the tension with comic relief. Pretty normal stuff.
I'm not going to lie though the stakes in this trip are pretty high and I definitely started crying after I walked through security. However after that minor hickup I managed to stay relatively calm throughout the rest of the trip, except when I got to Trudeau airport in Montreal and security refused to let me go into the international departures section because I didn't have my boarding pass, which in Toronto they told me I could pick up at the gate. On top of that when I got to the check-in counter the flight attendant who was servicing me insisted she couldn't issue a boarding pass because I had already signed in online (which was true but it wouldn't let me print my boarding pass) and that I'd have to go and buy another ticket. When I protested quite adamantly (read loudly) she then asked if I had my receipt which I did and then she decided it was okay (good) grief.
An interesting side note is that on the plane between Montreal and Zurich a fellow graduate student sat next to me who was at the University of Quebec in Electrical engineering who was coming to Switzerland to research wind turbines.

Switzerland
One of the first things which struck me when I got off the plane was how beautiful Switzerland was. The sun was coming up behind the mountains in Zurich which were dusted in fog which made for a beautiful backdrop to a rather unfortunate looking and poorly designed Zurich International Airport (but never mind). Flying from Zurich to Geneva was quite short, although by that point I was aching to be on the ground. An interesting side note there is that the majority of the population of Zurich and surrounding areas speak German. On several occassions my flight attendant said something warmly to me in German, and I didn't want to bother explaining that I didn't speak so I just laughed along with her.
Upon landing I collected my luggage (which was all there thank god!) and proceeded to the hotel where they told me they wouldn't have a room for me till 2 (it was around 9) and then fortunately changed their mind. So I went to my room and took a two and a half hour nap, which was rudely interrupted by my alarm clock which I had set to make sure I didn't make the jetlag worse.

That being said, in the last 46 hours I've had 2.5 hours of sleep and so the details of my first day in Geneva will have to wait until tomorrow! Good night!

Why I'm Excited to Go to South Africa

So it had occurred to me that some of my earlier posts were all doom-and-gloom with regards to my upcoming trip to South Africa, particularly with regard to my level of worry about my trip. So I thought I might take this opportunity, 2 days before my trip, to share with you what is making me particularly excited about the South African leg of my voyage.
In terms of the history outside of the context of my thesis, I have been interested in the African continent since grade four when we did a unit on animals and I did a research project on Cheetahs. Learning about cheetahs at the tender age of 9 exposed me to some of the more well known animals on the African continent which I simply fascinating. Continuing along the same road in grade 5 I did a research project on religion in Ancient Egypt and in grade 7 and 8 I found myself becoming more acutely aware of the poverty which affected most of the African continent. By the time I hit highschool I had also become very interested in the history of Apartheid and human rights more generally. In grade 10 our civics teacher showed us a movie called "the power of one" which concerned the anti-apartheid movement including the work of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In grade 11 it came to my attention that I might actually be interested in travelling there when I found out that the Rotary club, through which one of my closest friends (Karen) was doing an exchange, sent students to South Africa and I became determined that I myself would travel to SA on exchange in University.
In the first years of my undegraduate degree my interest in the African continent and South African history solidified and I applied for an exchange. The strong pressure from my family not to go had not disuaded me up until I submitted my application however, Carleton's exchange co-ordinator had also been quite opposed to my idea and suggested I put it as my second choice. Listenting to her advice I put Scotland as my first choice which was accepted by changed by the exchange office to the Netherlands which was my 3rd choice. Its funny how these things work out. In any case I by no means regret that I went to the Netherlands, on the contrary I view it as a very major stepping stone between having never been off the North American continent and going to a developing country. As almost everyone know I learned a lot about life, myself and personal safety on that trip, knowledge which I'm sure will serve me well in both Switzerland and South Africa.
So now it seems I'm getting my chance to go to South Africa, which of course was selected over the DRC as "the safer option" below I'll list the 10 things I'm most excited about spending 3 months in South Africa

1. taking my first trip to the African Continent
2. Being emersed to a new culture
3. Having the opportunity to pick up a bit of one or more new languages.
4. Learning more about South African History and visiting historical landmarks.
5. Learning about present day South Africa in all of its aspects and trying new foods.
6. Seeing the natural wildlife in addition to visiting the Pretoria National Zoo and Kruger National Park.
7. Having the opportunity to experience the Pretoria art scene.
8. Making new friends.
9. Having the opportunity to work among members of the South African human rights community, which I respect deeply
10. Doing my research (Of course!)

Althought I'm getting quite a range of responses from people who learn I'm going to South Africa, I am very much optimistic that the trip will finish with the best possible outcome (although there might be a couple of bumps along the way) And although my nerves are creeping up on me and part of me wishes time would move faster so I would already be settled there, I am mostly very excited about what lies ahead!

1.5 days to go!

Self-Defence Classes

So all the way back in June, one of the questions I received on my ethics revisions was what I would be doing to keep myself safe in South Africa. When I asked my supervisor what he felt I should be doing he suggested that I contact the International Student and Exchange Services office at Dal. When I went to visit them I was provided with an extensive list of things to do to try to keep myself safe in SA including taking a self-defence course.
Now people have been trying to get me to take a self defence course since I was mugged in the Netherlands. Now initially (back in 2006/2007) I knew I wasn't in the right frame of mind to take a self-defence course. Once I got over the incident the thought of taking a self-defence course seemed rather silly and I could only picture a room full of women attacking some guy in a padded suit, so I was not too pleased to be signing up for a self-defence course. Naturally I left the course to the last minute, and I took my friend Kristen's advice to arrange for private lessons.
While the private lessons were not cheap I did get the full attention of a trained martial artist who didn't seem too hung up on the monetary aspects as both 1 hour sessions carried over into 1.5 hour sessions at no extra cost. What really came as a surprise to me though was that I kind of enjoyed the experience. Not only did I find the information useful but I found the moves themselves relatively easy to remember and relatively practical. Also the instructor was good about answering my questions. He even told me that I was a good student and that I should consider persuing self-defense and martial arts further (which was rather nice).
Overall it left me with a greater sense of self confidence, and belief in my ability to defend myself. But one thing just kept bothering me. Everytime I practiced a move like a round-house elbow, or knee kick to the groin or thigh I just kept imagining the words "Pow!" "Slam" and "SMASH!" scrolling across a screen like in the old Batman TV show...

That's all for now!