FINALLY DONNNEEEE

....with my first paper due this semester!! Such an amazing feeling :) Yes, it was only 10 pages long but being in a foreign country = very little motivation for me.  Passed it in at 11am yesterday and treated myself to a Starbucks (god it's so expensive here).

Other than the stress induced by the paper, this past week was extremely interesting.  My last blog post talked about what we did on Monday, but our worldly experiences continued on Tuesday and Wednesday at the United Nations.  At the UN we had briefings from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), World Food Programme( WFP), United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).  The UNHCR and OHCHR were both extremely interesting organizations to hear about - the UNHCR in particular was extremely interesting, hearing about the work they did really made me want to work for the organization.  Clearly, it can be dangerous and emotionally stressful but I think it would be a very worthwhile experience, helping those out in dire situations.

Desks in the Conference room at the UN

 Anyway, moving along...after the UN on Wednesday a bunch of us went to the UN Library and spent some time working on our papers/catching up on readings for our session on Thursday.  The rest of the week was not too eventful with the paper due on Friday.  Friday we received stipends for our Paris/Brussels study trip (yay money) along with train tickets and schedules.  From Sunday - Wednesday we will be in Brussels and on Wednesday we leave for Paris, returning to Geneva on Friday.  Most of the program is staying in Paris for the weekend - a couple of us are coming back instead and going to Basel!

Of course we celebrated being done with papers last night at Cactus Jack and Fisherman's Pub, and in addition to the fun night, I woke up to a gorgeous day here with sun and temperatures at least in the high 40s.