TravelStream™ news feed for member jose on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jose en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:04:41 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1170165000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1170165000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1170165000/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jan 2007 09:04:41 -0500 To Live. In Switzerland. For work. And for play. For life.

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Geneva, Switzerland

If WWF (one of the best recognized brands in the world) can't offer solutions to climate change, who can?

People are scared. I mean, in Switzerland people were sitting out in their gardens in mid-January because they can't go skiing. It didn't snow in the alps until last week. In Boston I was walking around in a t-shirt and store clerks were reassuring me me that the air conditioning was on since it was so warm the weekend after New Year's Eve.

We know things aren't right. And we're seeing these effects way sooner than we ever thought we would. And it's getting worse.

But yet, we have the power to do something. I have the power to do something. And so do we all...

I've got to sort out how to change behavior and help people believe that together we can save this planet. Because actually, we can. It's about reducing CO2 emmissions.

The science is there to make it happen. The question is how can we convince people that their every day acts will make a difference. And how to we get them together, acting globally?

I'm in a position to do this with WWF. If anyone out there has any ideas... I want to hear them. Let's save the planet!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1169601360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1169601360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1169601360/tpod.html Tue, 23 Jan 2007 20:21:22 -0500 To Live. In Switzerland. For work. And for play. For life.

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Geneva, Switzerland

1) It snowed



2) I watched The Inconvenient Truth



These things are linked, but not because I linked them.



We need to do something. I'm thinking on how, as I am sure it's within
my capacity to do more with WWF and anyone who wants to support. I'm
just thinking about the what, and the how to get the budget.



j
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Paris, France

I mean, I'm hardly fashion averse at the moment. My lifetime's seen some seriously hippy days, but these are not those. My will to shop has been more than encouraged by Geneva's high street, the fact that (through ridiculous circumstances that I must rectify and will write about later) I don't currently have rent to pay, and the excuse that since I didn't bring much from Canada I need to buy clothes.

And so I am more than capable of glamourous and in fact currently I probably acheive such status in my look more days than not. Even still, put me in an airport and I am a backpacker... I'd been judging the people in Geneva's airport, that hungover morning, thinking. Why on Earth would these people be wearing designer suits or red stiletto heels (that I'd been planning to scope out in North America) on international flights? Maybe their flights weren't as long as mine, I mused. Not everyone was on a 15 hour mission to Canada, I gently reminded myself.

But standing at the Air France counter at Charles de Gaulle, it hit me nice and hard. Had I been wearing anything half-way normal - even jeans with the pumas I only ever reserve for flights and lounging around in, I would be a whole lot less upset about the fact that there weren't going to give me a single piece of my own luggage, even though they were forcing me to spend a Friday night in a city completely foreign, and thus intriguing, to me.

Enter Sarah. A lovely Genevoise friend of Lital's, who is an intern living in Paris and absolutely wonderful. After waiting for three hours for British Airways to finally get a small leaf of paper that made it possible for Air France to issue me a new ticket home, I was sent to a shitty hotel on the edge of nowhere that I promptly left (hand luggage only in tow) to meet up with Sarah in the famous Septième.

Sarah literally gave me the boots off her feet and dressed me up like I belonged in this fabulous city. We only had a few hours, and I was still exhausted from my partying the night prior, but she managed to make my first and very short visit to Paris perfect.

I saw the absolute basics, and it seems I was lucky that the Eiffel Tower was lit up for Christmas, as was the ferris wheel. We meandered through town on our way to one of Sarah's favourite restaurants, and I caught glimpse of the Chanel House and a few other special places I barely would have known existed without my lovely guide. We later went to one of the more hip spots (that I of course can't remember the name of) for some champagne before Sarah let me sleep at her place.

It was the most perfect forced layover I could have imagined. Especially for a city I'd been avoiding. Since I can no longer say I've never been to Paris, I've got no reason not to go all the time. I didn't see the Louvre or anything else, really, and only got to experience a laid back evening. Which means I've got at least a million reasons to go back.

Does it beat NY? I'm still in no position to judge. But I'm willing to visit another half dozen times or so, so as let you know ;)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166803080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166803080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166803080/tpod.html Mon, 25 Dec 2006 11:24:14 -0500 To Live. In Switzerland. For work. And for play. For life.

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Paris, France

I've done a bit of travelling, but had never been to Paris. I don't know why, It just didn't seem to be on the way to other places I was going. I hadn't had a real reason to go. Once or twice I almost went, but it just never really happened.

And then I moved to Geneva. The French-speaking capital of Switzerland. A three-hour train ride from Paris and surrounded by France. This is where people are completely incredulous when I tell them, "I've never been to Paris."

When a friend of mine picked me up in Annemasse with another friend for my first taste of France in August, we established that this was my first time setting foot in the country. I noted aloud that France seemed a lot like Switzerland (to the chagrin of the French), but even still, over dinner that night, Stan dropped his fork and yelled across the table, "WHAT!?!?!? You've never been to Paris?!?!?" My friend, whose nickname is France reminded him with something like, "Non, tu sais que c'est sa premiere fois en france, maintenant!" which only sort of helped Stan deal with the severity of my statement.

I was rather enjoying my newfound refusal to visit Paris. David, my current flatmate makes a huge joke of it all the time, "You know that little shop, it's like the one in Paris!" or "I got this table in that little shoppe you love in Paris". My friends in Geneva try to convince me to go, and I'm like, nah, what's the point. I argue that NYC is the most fabulous city on the planet as others point out that I'm arguing blindly, not knowing Paris.

It's not that I don't want to go, I've just not had the opportunity to go out of the way to buy a train ticket. Invites to visit have been weak, at best. And of late, I've been desperate to get to the mountains, if I can strap a snowboard onto my feet.

But yesterday London was under a lot of fog and British Airways cancelled my flight to London. And put me on one via none other than CDG and JFK. Like a challenge to me to prove my point about New York. A how dare you make such claims without fact to back it up?

And then the ultimate situation manifested. My flight from Geneva was en retard and I missed a connection. Amongst other airline follies, I became stranded in the most romantic city in the world. In a t-shirt, pumas and black yoga pants.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166205720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166205720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166205720/tpod.html Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:10:16 -0500 To Live. In Switzerland. For work. And for play. For life.

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Verbier, Switzerland

And so I know I'm not a great snowboarder. And in recent years I've been pretty lazy or hanging out with people that I'm teaching my bad habits to. Emma's really the only person I've been out with that's challenged me much. And neither of us have seen much snow since travelling.

But these boys were outta control good. I guess you would be growing up in the Alps.

My first attempt at real powder was rather disasterous. I mean, digging myself out of the snow, repeatedly, was unfortunately more fun for me than those waiting. And I mean, it was a ton of fun. And I really don't ever want to leave Switzerland. All I want is for it to keep snowing, and for me to keep getting better. I love it here so much.

And so two new year resolutions...
1) To have the ability to banter and switch into and out of French, and
2) To be a genius snowboarder by end of season.
These are reasonable goals... And fun goals that I want to work towards.

YAY SWITYERLAND!!!

Canada here I come tho. Two weeks is also worth a YAY!!
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Verbier, Switzerland

For weeks people had been saying, "Maybe the week of December 12, we'll go to Verbier"

Thomas' grandparents have a chalet there, and so he was suggesting that maybe we should all go.
David, my flatmate (er, well, the extremely generous soul who has let me camp out in his spare room for the past three+ months) was going with a bunch of friends.

But, everyone was saying there wasn't any snow. And, well, from what I could tell, they were right. It was only Friday night, when out for dinner with the Davids, that I was told - there's a snowstorm there right now.

And so I mobilised like I rarely mobilise. Not only did I mobilise me, but I mobilised Trudi and her friend Catherine. We grabbed my snowboard from Nancy's sisters after renting a dodgy little car and continue harassing Thomas and Said as we drove the two or so hours to Verbier.

It's cool. There was no snow in Geneva. Some snow on the distant Jura mountains, but as we drove along the Lake, deeper into the Alps, Trudi and I took turns shrieking with excitement.

Altitude's a cool thing. You could see where the temperature hit zero, because that's where the snowline started halfway up the mountains. And so we weren't driving in snow, but we knew we would be soon. And it was all very exciting.

--There's so much snow here and it wont stop coming down!

I texted Said. And they were convinced. Trudy, Catherine and I skiied the few, rather precarious, slopes that were open, but I knew that Sunday was going to be phenomonal. Nobody was really enjoying the shitty visibility, but for me I was glad to be on my board. In the Alps. It's not the first time I've been in crap conditions where I couldn't see in front of me, and I knew tomorrow was going to be even better.

And it so was.

The snow didn't stop. Thomas and Said arrived for a 9pm dinner and it was still snowing. David, Trudi and friends went to "The Farm" and I (of all people) left in order to get a decent night's sleep.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166191860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166191860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1166191860/tpod.html Fri, 15 Dec 2006 11:42:12 -0500 To Live. In Switzerland. For work. And for play. For life.

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Geneva, Switzerland

So in the summer there was more than one occassion where I thought, yeah, this is pretty much paradise. Sitting by the water at Bain de Paquis, jumping in every now and again when it got too hot. We'd watch the yachts drift by or sometimes after work I'd wander down and do some waterskiing. Idyllic, I felt.

After I went home for a few weeks, work picked up. Again, funny gifts like Send a Turtle to Rehab, or other interesting gift ideas for the nature lover that has everything at www.panda.org/gifts.

November was decent. Lots of hanging with people, working, looking for apartments (That's right, still no joy). You know, just really enjoying life, feeling pretty content. No complaints, really.

Last week I was out with a few of my friends, for dinner or drinks or something, when my friend Said looked at me in my cream
coloured coat with an uncharacteristically sympathetic look in his eyes, and said, "Wearing white isn't going to bring the snow, you know." I must have sighed and looked even more forlorn as I wistfully said, "I know".

Still generally enjoying life, I grew slightly dismayed that I'd had Herb ship my snowboard to Novell's offices in Boston so that Jimmy could bring it and whatever other crap was in that bag to me here in Geneva so that I could not use it at all before lugging it back to Canada before it had the chance to touch Alpean snow, Thomas took me to the premier of a movie called Thermos, a compilation of seven years of some of the best boarding I've seen. The movie starred all of his and Said's rad snowboaring buddies.

And it was then that I suddenly became like

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?!

Where IS the snow? WHAT is GOING ON!!! I CAN'T WAIT ANYMORE!!!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1164820800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1164820800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jose/switzerland/1164820800/tpod.html Wed, 29 Nov 2006 13:49:35 -0500 To Live. In Switzerland. For work. And for play. For life.

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Geneva, Switzerland

My last entry was...I dunno.

Update:
- Still homeless (just got rejected for another apartment)
- Still working for the perpetually underfunded WWF - check out panda.org/gifts
-Still mostly based in Geneva
- Am now an aunt to a small child named Saoirse, thanks to Greg and Hannah
- Jimmy visited this past weekend
- Aaron will be visiting this coming one
-I've already booked tickets to Toronto for Xmas and from Boston the first week of January. The plan is to stop at Blueberry Lake for New Year

And planning - *gasp* - is starting to characterize me...

For instance I did a wonderful job of planning to be useless on Friday night. I lost my purse after I
- gave Jimmy the key to the apartment
- placed a business card into mon petit sac
- left a few hundred francs worth of cash on my bedside table
- put only one of each swiss-money-access cards into it

And so we were able to get back to David's apartment, because Jimmy had the key, and the person who "found my bag in her handbag" was able to leave me a voicemail on the phone in my office, which she did. Ahh, the Swiss :)

Of course, this experience enables me to plan more diligently for next time. Moving forward I plan to take out only my canadian cards as back-up to cash, which will
- serve to be a deterrent to using them, unless necessary as the charges and hassle is greater withthem
- be free to replace when i need to cancel them
- ensure i have access to swiss money at all times

There it is. Planning to be useless. Seems like a good one to me.
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Geneva, Switzerland

Pics from Saturday...
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Geneva, Switzerland

Girls are stupid... throw rocks at them.

Except of course if those girls are Lital and I... we're just fun :)
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