A Visit to the US Mission to the UN

This morning was an early start (especially after a late night!) but an exciting one!  We used our bus passes for the first time to make it over to the governmental neighborhood that houses the UN, WHO, and other international agencies.  Apparently, the US Mission to the UN requires some of the top security procedures for entry into their facilities in Geneva.  We had to arrive half an hour prior to our presentation began just to ensure we were prompt.  After passing through security, we were greeted by food and drinks in a lecture room prior to the briefing.  There were some unfamiliar college-aged faces in the room and my friend Lauren, who had arrived on the earlier bus, was talking with them so I went over and introduced myself.  Apparently, this program was not as fortunate as ours in terms of rescheduling flights after Hurricane Irene played interference with their original departure.  A small number of the 30 people associated with their group made it to Geneva and have a week to kill before the rest of the people arrive.  One of the guys, Campbell, and I got to talking and after he mentioned he lived near Chicago, I mentioned my Aunt Ann living in Libertyville--lo and behold that is where he actually lives!  He goes to Miami of Ohio, Guillome goes to Kent State, and Nick goes to Wakeforest.  All of my friends on my program are familiar with these Midwest/East Coast schools but I have very limited knowledge on any of them!  The program quickly began and we were briefed by the heads of the Public Affairs, Economics, Security, and Migrant/Refugee sectors within the Mission.  All of the speakers were very engaging, but I definitely felt like I had a limited knowledge on a lot of what was being discussed--especially in comparison to a lot of the IR students who posed very sophisticated questions!  The final presentation, the Migrant/Refugee portion, was very interactive.  Ned Nyman, the director of the program, could tell we were all a little tired so he divided us on two sides of the room and named one side "Red Sox Nation" and my side the "Bronx."  Suddenly, he approached me and introduced himself.  I, suddenly intimidated and completely unaware of what was about to come next, composed myself and (hopefully) charmingly introduced myself as well.  He quickly informed me that I was president of the Bronx and continued on to name Natasha president of Red Sox Nation.  Mr. Nyman crossed the room back to me and continued his spiel briefly before telling me to hit Nick, who was standing next to me.  I think I gave him a blank stare as he continued to coach me to hit him!  I finally gave him a light tap and before I could take another breath he approaches Nick and says, "are you going to let your president treat you this way?!"  Nick moved to the other side of the room following Mr. Nyman's instruction.  Next, he tells me to hit Steph.  I step in saying I don't want to harm my citizens but he is insistent that I must hit her!  Steph moves to the other side of the room.  Meanwhile, Mr. Nyman goes off about how the Bronx is letting me walk all over them and before too long I will be going into their homes, raping their wives, etc.  I was DYING!  He goes up to Campbell and asks if he trusts his president anymore--meanwhile I am all smiles trying to be as innocent as possible!--and he makes some comment about how mean I look.  Mr. Nyman finished up his presentation and needless to saying everyone was quite engaged.  Once the briefing was over, we thanked the man who ushered us to and from security and made our way out of the Mission.  The Kent State program boys were on the same bus as us and we continued our previous conversation.  Let me say, I was upset I haven't memorized my Swiss cell number--they got off a couple stops before us and hopefully will find us on Facebook!  Mags, Steph, and I all had to do our reading for Principles of International Health (PIH) before our 2 o'clock class.  The reading we had, "Maternal and Newborn Health" by Matthews Mathai, was very interesting and made even more fascinating by the fact the author was our guest speaker in class today!  He had an hour and a half presentation that further discussed and supplemented the reading.  We had an open Q&A session that brought up lots of interesting discussion (I posed a question regarding what is being done in countries/regions where HIV/AIDS prevalence is high but the need for blood transfusions is just as high, especially considering the high maternal mortality rate (MMR).  Often times, MM results from bleeding, which would only increase the need for donated blood in these infected regions).  Dr. Mathai is very knowledgable on this subject and had lots to say on all of the questions he was asked.  I am so looking forward to our remaining 12 guest lecturers that compose our remaining 18 classes!!  After class, we made another trip to our new go-to store, Denner, which is a cheap food store just blocks from rue Muzy.  I'm thinking this whole shopping every other day thing is how the semester is going to be.  After some down time, Steph, Mags, Lauren, and I cooked up a meal of pasta (this is also becoming a pattern...and a dangerous one at that) with chicken, mozzarella, tomatoes, peppers, and balsamic!  We felt so sophisticated (especially considering our other meals have been plain pasta and bread and cheese) and are looking forward to omelets in the morning!  I think everyone is planning on going out somewhere tonight--anywhere is "somewhere" at this point and I am perfectly content if the night turns into another one comprised of wandering aimlessly around the city!  First Friday night in Geneva and I'm certain it's going to be a good one:)