En route back to Vancouver

After three memorable months, my time in Geneva has come to an end. I wrapped up a draft of my contribution to the policy paper and gave a presentation to the office about my work, passed everything over to the new intern from Sweden, enjoyed a wonderful Italian lunch with some colleagues, and shared drinks and snacks with the whole office to top off my last day. The goodbye party continued on Saturday, as my roommates and I (well, mostly my roommates - thanks ladies!) cooked up a feast of ceviche and tiramisu for all my Genevan friends, before we headed out for a night on the town complete with a stop at the bakery on our way home ;) What a great way to celebrate before an excruciating run-in with bad weather in Frankfurt and US homeland security that resulted in an unexpected overnight stopover in Portland :(

It is difficult to summarize this whole experience but I will say that it has given me a better idea of the direction I want to take in life. I have now committed myself wholeheartedly to pursuing international environmental work. I would love to come back to Geneva some day, or do a development placement abroad. To improve my chances I realize I really need to focus on improving my languages (French and/or Spanish) in the immediate future, so this is my priority now that I am back in Vancouver.

For the next month, however, I have the Olympics to look forward to in my own backyard! I was fortunate to be chosen to follow in my grandpa's footsteps and run with the Olympic torch in Kelowna. I'll be volunteering for the games and taking in a few of the events as well. Olympic fever is here and I am looking forward to welcoming the world before I continue to explore it more myself!

On Haiti

The enormity of the situation facing Haiti right now is consuming me. Seeing as our branch targets post-conflict and disaster situations, many colleagues worked hard this week to put together a quick response program proposal for including environmental assessments as part of the reconstruction efforts. Typically, the mentality immediately following a disaster such as this is to focus only on 'saving lives'. It is hoped the recognition that environmental concerns (leaking oil and toxic substances from the collapsed port, potential landslides from unstable ground, etc.) also have consequences for human lives is taken into account by member states at the fundraising stage. Waiting to hear how much money will be available to turn this plan into action and mobilize a team from our branch... wishing I could do more to help...

Read "UNEP to lead environmental recovery efforts in Haiti" here.

On Touring the Homelands

All I can say is that I had a wonderful Christmas! It started out with a very amusing train ride to Karlsruhe on what must be the busiest day of the year on the deutsche bahn, with bags and people lining the aisles of the train car (yes, if you didn't make a reservation, DB will still charge you the full ticket price to stand in the aisle for 4 hours... thankfully I made a reservation!) and a traditional German Christmas Eve complete with cello and carols and real candles on the tannenbaum. It ended with a hike up the hillside to watch the churchbells and fireworks ring in the new year above Zurich. In between there were some delicious knudels and linzer torte and an awesome interactive art museum in Karlsruhe, a fire show over the waterfall in Triberg, a pork sausage and glockenspiel show in Munich, and a new years eve dance party for four. Of course delicious food was a crosscutting theme of the holidays!














I was so lucky to be able to spend Christmas with my very generous hosts, who even had a stocking for me to open in Canadian style on Christmas morning! It was also very special for me to have the opportunity to visit my mom's family in the Black Forest for the very first time and get a taste of southern German life. I think those Bratwurst and potato salads will keep me coming back.

Only three more weeks in Geneva... better make them count!