Exploring!

I must admit that this post is a conglomeration of several days worth of exploring, but it's probably a good thing that I'm not spending all my time posting on my blog! I took the photo on the left from a boat tour on Lac Leman in Geneva. It was cool to be out on the lake and being so close to the waves and sailboats made me really want to take up windsurfing! (I may just do that yet this summer.) After the boat tour, I strolled through several parks, saw basically all of Geneva out to enjoy the sun (it was Pentecost Monday, which is recognized as a day off by nearly every business here). I also found the famous Jardins Botaniques behind the United Nations.

While I'm thinking of the United Nations, I did an official tour of the Palais des Nations this past Saturday with a friend of a friend. You can check out the photo of me out in front with all the flags (on the right) or my favorite, the "Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations" room (down below). The room is really cool because it's so new, but also because it has a very elegant setting contrasted with an absolutely wild modern-art ceiling. There are three-dimensional stalactites made out of multi-colored paint, and it's just the most fascinating combination! The UN tour was great, too, because we got to learn a little history of the organization and to listen in on a live International Labor Organization conference.

On the same day, I also headed to the neighboring city of Lausanne, where we visited a cathedral from the 13th century, and the Olympic Museum. Lausanne is famous because it's THE Olympic city - where all of the decisions are made regarding where the games will be held. At the museum, we saw a torch containing the Olympic flame and a sand sculpture of Michael Phelps (among other things, of course).

In addition to some of the local adventures I've been able to do so far, one of the best aspects about Geneva, the house I'm living in, and the lab I'm working in has been the fact that I've been able to meet people with varied backgrounds. I've worked with or socialized with people from French Switzerland, German Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Canada, Germany, Holland, China, France, Colombia, and Belgium, to name a few places. To me, Geneva is just a mix of languages and cultures, and I'm sure other big cities are similar in diversity, but with a population that's 40% foreigners, I'm exposed to many different nationalities.

My supervisor and I are running brain scans all day tomorrow, so that will be all for now, but look for more updates within the next week or so about what I've been doing at work.

As always, please post comments or questions as you like!