Last of Genève

My last couple of weeks as a Geneva intern....

Canadians representing at the HEI party - me, Béatrice, Hélène, Daniel & token non-Canadian Damon

Mes belles Québecoises!


Béatrice & Stephane at the HEI party


My friend Zoe stopped by on her way to Germany and stayed to enjoy some jazz


And celebrating the very last night at, where else, l'usine. I mean, how else could it have ended?

A travel poem: ode to the airports

(Sorry guys, I'm just too jet-lagged and tired to make full sentences. But you get the gist. Pretend it's artistic or something)

Geneva: GVA
4 kilos overweight
Had to part with precious items
Pounding headache
One last good-bye
My last 20 dollar coffee and croissant
Copenhagen: CPH
Flight delayed
Missed connection
So many Danish people
Chicago: ORD
Luggage stayed here
It liked the midwest, I guess
Barrelling through the airport
Almost didn't make it to
Toronto: YYZ
11:00pm
21 hours of travelling
1 night in the city, then
Saturday
My luggage arrives
In the nick of time
Onward to
Winnipeg: YWG
Not so cold thank god
Nice hotel
I think I will sleep for 2 days now

No more airports
At least until Friday

Au revoir et à bientôt Genève

Hey everyone,

Well, my time in Geneva is fast coming to a close. I had my last lesson with my piano student, Andrus, today and I have my last day of work on Thursday. I have already said good-bye to most of my friends here and I've started to pack up my suitcases. Although I'm feeling a tad blue-tinged at this particular moment, I know that it's time to begin my next adventure. I'm excited about heading back to Canada and I think I'm ready to leave my life here. At least, my bank account is definitely ready to leave, after the beating it's taken over the last six over-priced months!

I've really loved spending time here and I'll miss a lot of things about this city: its charming buildings, the delicious bread, wine and cheese, my wonderful friends, and the incredibly diverse environment that I'm lucky enough to call my workplace. But who knows....maybe Geneva and I will meet again someday. I know that my travels certainly aren't over for good.

So my Geneva adventure is officially over - and a new adventure is about to begin. And I can't wait to see what it is!

much love,
Liz

P.S. I'll be posting pictures & stories from my past 5 days in Vienna just as soon as I can!

Lights Out a success!

To everyone who turned off their lights for 5 min last Thursday evening - feel proud of yourselves!

You were part of 7 million others who did the same thing all around the world. What started as a national action in France quickly spread to the UK, North America and beyond. You gotta love the power of internet campaigning.




According to l'Alliance pour la Planète, a coalition of French NGOs who came up with the idea, the impact was noticeable. Between 19:55 and 20:00, energy consumption dropped by about 1%, saving 800 megawatts in France alone. See - it's not so hard to take action, and it's fun!

To keep the momentum going, think about ways in which you can reduce energy consumption in your day to day lives. Do you really need to make that extra car trip? Did you remember to put your computer on standby and turn out the lights when you left the room? Can you turn down the heat just 1 degree?

And to my family, several of whom emailed me to let me know that the 5 minutes would fall right in the middle of a Canucks game, thanks for making the ultimate sacrifice! Now go give yourselves a hug.

xox
Liz

London london london bridge

So last Thursday night I put away my dubious French accent, said good-bye to croissants and espresso, and headed west to London for the weekend. My fantastic friend Clare met me at the airport & took me to stay with her and our other friend Sergei for the weekend. And let's just say, Clare and Sergei know how to treat a houseguest right. I got a pull-out couch with matching guest linens (fancy!), homemade crepes with the world's most delicious jam (yum!) and I got to spend time with my wonderful friends (best of all!).

They also live in the coolest neighbourhood, right behind London Bridge. Their apartment is built on the cobblestones of the original Globe theatre, they have a fantastic local market, and they're literally right beside the Thames river. Plus they have a friendly neighbourhood fox. And what can beat that? Here's a view of Tower Bridge, right near their apartment:

On Friday, I had an informal job interview. I'm not going to say too much more because I don't want to jinx it, except that the job would be fantastic and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that good things will happen! On Friday I also went out with Clare, Sergei, his girlfriend Kat and their friend Simon for delicious dim sum in Soho, then met up briefly with our other friend Cam, who's studying in London. Here's me, Clare & Cam:

On Saturday I make the long, hard three block trek to Borough market (which I now officially declare the best market everrrrr) and spent way too many pounds on delicious organic goodies. I also hung out at the Tate modern and visited my favourite friends, including the fantastic Rothko, who has a whole room dedicated to his honour. The current big exhibit in the main entry hall has something to do with experiencing and watching art at the same time - they've installed 4 humongous slides (one from each floor) that museum visitors can slide down. Although it looked like a ton of fun, I wasn't brave enough to stand in the big long queue.

On Saturday night, Clare and I hopped on a bus & took ourselves to Oxford to help my roomate Béatrice celebrate her birthday.

Since Béa went to Oxford last year, she decided that a visit to her old stomping grounds would be the perfect birthday weekend activity. We had a great time hanging out with her old school buddies and, although I didn't actually see Oxford in the light day, it seems like a pretty great town. Here's Bea getting 26 birthday bumps.





On Sunday I met up with a couple of other IISD interns, Isabelle & Miranda (they're doing the same six month internship as me right now, only they're working for different sustainable development-related organizations in London). I don't have any pictures of us, but suffice it to say that we ate very tasty and spicy Indian food and had a great time catching up.

I also got to do lots of walking around and exploring. Over the course of my travels, I saw some really great city art, including this extremely British garden and phone box:

This fine speciman:

And my personal favourite, Oscar:


On Sunday evening, when it came time to go back home, I said good-bye to my friends & made my way to the train station to catch my train to the airport. To make a long and frustrating story short, the trains were delayed and even broken down, and despite really valiant efforts on my part (I sprinted all the from the end of the airport to my gate holding my shoes in one hand and my carry-on liquids in the other), I arrived just in time to see my plane pulling away from the gate. Oy vey.

However, my luck changed when a very friendly airport employee came to bring me back through security to see about getting on another plane. We chatted all the way back to the front desk, and she was delighted to learn that I'm from Vancouver since she has family there. (Actually, I think she was also appalled to think that I'd voluntarily left Vancouver to live in Geneva, but no matter : )

When I got to the front and learned that there wouldn't be any flights until the next day, she offered to put me up in her spare bed & bring me back to the airport for the start of her 5am shift so that I could catch the first possible flight. So nice! It was, as she put in, "just like in a book". She drove me to her 14th century country cottage, fed me tea and crumpets and warned me not to be alarmed if I heard foxes mating outside in the middle of the night. Wherever you are Jessica, thank you!

And now I've made it home safe and sound, and am quietly going crazy deciding where to live after Feb 23 (my last day of work - so soon!). I'm interviewing for a few interesting jobs in a few different cities, so we'll see what comes up in the next couple of weeks. Cross your fingers for me!