I'm never coming home...ever.

To all of my dear acquaintances who are kind enough to read my blog:

I can't believe I haven't posted for 2 weeks. There is absolutely no chance that I will be able to fill in everything I have done, so I will just touch on the highlights of the past 2 weeks and show a few pictures.

I began my work at the UN Monday, May 2nd. I love that place! It is enormous, like a college campus except for way better. There are multiple buildings and there are a lot of trees and beautiful wide open areas in between. From pretty much any building, there is a spectacular view of the lake. I am convinced I live in the most beautiful place in the world. It's hard to explain exactly what I do because we do so many different things! I go to panels, I sit in on meetings, I attend big conferences, I help Afton with work she is doing, etc. What I really can't get over is what a unique experience I am having. This week, for example, I went to this fancy dinner for a Disaster Risk Reduction conference, and I was possibly the youngest person there (and there were hundreds of people).  While chatting with some of them, I realized that most of them are CEOs or in other high up positions, have degrees from prestigious colleges, speak like 5 languages, and go to conferences all over the world. We usually exchange business cards...as if I have something to offer them! Ha ha. I haven't even finished undergrad. But what an incredible opportunity, to meet all of these people with great connections. In the future, this could really help me out a lot.

Here are a few pictures from the Disaster Risk Reduction conference:

This is Ban Ki-moon speaking at the opening ceremony. Yes, THE BAN KI-MOON!

Opening ceremony of the conference...there were so many people there!

At the dinner, they had these playing! They were awesome. Does anyone even know what these things are called?

One of the many panels that I attended during the conference. This one was about including children's ideas for disaster risk reduction.

Well, some more good news: MY ROOMMATE ANDREA HAS ARRIVED!! I love her to death, we are already best friends. I'm so happy to have someone to travel around with and hang out with, and I'm super lucky it's someone as great as Andrea. We have really similar personalities and just get along so well. We spend every minute of every day together, and we just have so much fun. Sadly, I only have one picture of us together, and it was right after we went running in the rain and got soaked! It was a blast, but not the best picture:

We actually have tons of pictures together, but they are all on Andrea's camera. When I get them, I will post them. Lucky me--she is a photographer, so she is taking TONS of photos, and I have access to all of them! She has posted some on facebook and tagged me in a few. But for some reason, facebook doesn't let you download pictures anymore.

Well, I'm just loving Geneva. LOVING Geneva. It is such a beautiful and unique city. Today, Andrea and I went around and explored the vieille ville (old town). There are no cars, cobblestone streets, and buildings dating from the 16th century or earlier. It all looks like this:

 In the middle, there is an enormous gothic cathedral (Cathédrale de Saint-Pierre) that was incredible. Ahh I wish I could post pictures from it, but my camera died right before we got there! Oh well...I will have to get some from Andrea (she literally took about 200 pictures today). We explored a few other parts of the city, and there is still so much left to explore. It's amazing.

Andrea is determined to learn French while she is here, so I'm her teacher! She is doing really well--in 5 days, she has already learned, "bonjour," "ça va," "je suis desolée," "s'il vous plait," "merci," "bonsoir," "bien," "au revoir," and a few other phrases. Speaking of French, mine is really coming along and even improving! I am so pleased with how much I can understand. This has been the most rewarding thing ever! I can't explain the experience of communicating with someone in their language or why I love it so much. But it really is one of my favorite things in the entire world. I have also had a few opportunities to use my Portuguese since I have been here, so that's been awesome!

Well...I saved the best news for last. Yesterday, Saturday, was the best day here in Geneva so far. I WENT TO FRANCE! We went to this small city called Annecy. I have dreamed of going there for years, and I finally, FINALLY had the chance. I know I live right by the French border, and that it really isn't all that different from Switzerland, but for me, there is just something about France. I can't explain it,  it's just amazing. The minute I went over the border, I got really giddy and I couldn't sit still because of my excitement. Ask Andrea, I was like a little kid.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the French countryside on the drive there. I am positive that France is the most beautiful place on earth:

My very first view of France!!! The sad thing is that pictures really just don't capture it. It is about 20 times more beautiful than it looks in these pictures...everyone needs to go spend time in the French countryside to fully appreciate this.

Ahh! Je suis amoureuse.

some cool medieval bridge just over the border. Have I mentioned that I love France?

So...Annecy. It is this city set right on a lake, with the French alps surrounding it. Sadly, it was a cloudy and very rainy day (Andrea and I were FREEZING!), so you couldn't even see the lake or the mountains. But the old town...oh my gosh. It was like going back in time 500 years. Ready for the pictures? Sadly, all of the best are on Andrea's camera but I do my best:

Deon and Julie, my parents while I am here in Switzerland! Oh, they are absolutely amazing. They are the ones who took us to Annecy. This is us eating crêpes...right on the old town of Annecy. It's like something you dream of doing, but never actually do. Except for I did it yesterday!

How's this for breads and pastries? Mmmm....

I swear this place is too good to be true. And too good to be real!

Chocolate PURSES? Are you kidding me? (speaking of chocolate...I have not gone one day here without eating something with chocolate in it. It's impossible to avoid, it is in everything! Granola bars, cereal, bread, pastries...it is served at every single event we attend. How am I supposed to avoid it? I can't believe I'm not gaining weight).

Well like I think I already mentioned 50 times, Andrea has all of the best pictures. I will do a post later, maybe just with all of the pictures she took when I get them from her. But for now, that's the best of what I've got.

Annecy is the most beautiful place on earth, I am convinced. I absolutely loved it, I was in heaven the entire day. Even though I was freezing! And it was awesome--in Geneva, everyone speaks English so I can get by just guessing a little bit because they know what I mean. In France, they really don't. In Annecy, I got to use my French for real and that was awesome.

Sorry this blog post is a little bit all over the place and not extremely organized...and leaving out huge parts of what I've done! But there's just so much that I don't know how to include it all. Gosh, I am just having the time of my life. I don't know that I've ever been so happy...and the best part is, I get to stay for 2 1/2 more months! Who knows how many more awesome adventures I'll get to have while I'm here. We are hoping to go to Italy and Germany one of these upcoming weekends. I already know that I'm going to be extremely depressed when I have to go home at the beginning of August. I feel like I'm home here in Europe! You know, on second thought, maybe I just won't come home. I love it here far too much.