Bonjour!

Unfortunately I am on the bus on the way back home from Geneva as I type this. I had an amazing time in Switzerland and cannot wait for the opportunity to go back again. This morning, we all woke up late, so we rushed to get ready, but just our luck, the interns forgot to inform everyone that everyone that we needed to be packed and ready to go before leaving for the UN tour. So, everyone ran back to their rooms and shoved their stuff in their suitcase. It was pretty hilarious seeing everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off through the hostel trying to get packed in about five minutes tops!

Finally everyone finished packing and we all were ready for the UN tour. That was hilarious too because the interns were walking us there and halfway there, they realized they were going the wrong way and actually didn't know where we were supposed to go! So, we waited for the teacher to meet up with our group and they walked there with us. We had to wait in a security line to get into the UN for about thirty minutes. There were metal detectors and a lot of security - it was really cool. After everyone went through security, we started the tour. The tour lady showed us the electronic screens that showed the schedule for the day and what meetings were in what rooms and with who. It was really interesting. There was even a meeting going on with a person from Duke University that I noticed on the screen. I thought it was pretty random but cool that there are so many different types of meetings going on. We got to see the list of all of the different organizations that make up the UN. It was a pretty long list from the ITU, which we saw yesterday, to WHO which stands for the World Health Organization. She showed us all of the gifts that were donated to the UN and by which countries. There were ship models, sculptures, artwork, and a ton of other gifts. In one of the rooms, she pointed out all of the donations. For example, the big brass doors from Geneva itself, the pink granite floors from Finland, the granite stars on the floor from Italy and the list continues. We even got to see the main room where the UN meetings go on. It is the room that we see on TV when watching a huge meeting of the UN. There were hundreds of seats with microphones for every few seats. She explained the UN logo too. The circles represent the continents and the olive branches that surround the circles stands for peace. The best part of the tour had to be the incredible view from every window. The mountains and trees were so striking and it looked like a picture on a postcard. The best view though, was from the old UN building they showed us. Apparently it is bigger than the Versailles castle! I have pictures of it I will post on my blog so you can all get an idea of what it looked like. It was definitely something to see!

After the tour was over, we all bombarded the gift shop and had fun looking at all the flags from different countries, and a ton of other cool little souvenirs to get our parents. Of course, everyone waited in line and got some sort of souvenir and then we headed back to the hostel, loaded the bus, and headed home.

So far, we have passed by the countryside and it is absolutely beautiful! We even saw a castle and a huge rainbow! It is gorgeous is making the bus ride home more fun. We will get back to Evry and Erin and I decided to we will go on a long run since we ate our way through Switzerland! J

I absolutely loved Geneva, and cannot wait to hopefully go back one day! It was such a fun trip and I wish we were staying at that hostel the entire month because it was like a 4 star hotel compared to my basement dorm room!

Classes start up again tomorrow and I am excited to see how the individual management classes go!

Missing Geneva already,

Tori "I'm opening my own Swiss chocolate shop and moving to Geneva" Marshall