My work - first 15 days in Switzerland

The main reason that I am here in Geneva is because of my internship. As you may see, I am currently working as an intern with the here in this city of organizations. I have been actually called 'database expert' when being introduced by my boss which makes me a little bit flattered.

Time flies fast and fifteen days have already passed since my departure from Canada. I heard that its -50 in Winnipeg right now. Well guys, I'm pretty much lucky here - no snow on the ground and it doesn't go negative. Daytime temperature hover around 7-12. Having lived in Winnipeg for quite some time, its amusing to see the Genevans dress heavily with scarves and pretty thick winter jackets.

You see, I am here in Geneva to do my internship with the International Labour Office. Also known as the ILO, this organization aims to promote decent work for all to improve working conditions all over the world. While an international organization, English takes a backseat as the dominant language as most people start their conversation with 'bonjour.' The ILO occupies a very extensive complex on the northern part of the city near the French border. It is located in a very quiet part of town and on front of the building, you actually see cows feeding on grass in a small farm. As well, it is adjacent from the headquarters of other international organizations such as the United Nations, International Federation of the Red Cross and permanent missions of foreign government such as the ever-giant United States mission, Russian mission, Canadian mission and Korean mission.
The complex is huge. It is a nine-story building with three basement floors. There must have been more than 500 rooms in the entire building. Walking on the building from one end to another will take you about 15 minutes on a normal pace. And the elevator system is quite confusing as you have different sets going on different floors. I once got lost and didn't know how to get out of the building myself.

This is the ILO building at night

Working in an international organization is actually an experience in itself. Having lived in a multi-cultural country like Canada, I first thought that it would just be the same and would be really easy to get your feet on the ground. I was wrong! I got culture shocked the first time I was introduced to people and I reckoned that this will somehow be a funny but very interesting experience. As you see, the dominant culture here is French and it is my first time to be exposed to a majority of French people. Having been exposed to North American way of doing things where you can talk to your boss just like your friends and call them by their first name, it was way too different with how things go in ILO. Here, its really formal with all the Monsieurs and Madame and people are really serious and somehow lack the sense of humour. When I meet new people, I tried cracking jokes to make the atmosphere somewhat convivial but all I get is a blank stare with no response at all. It must be probably the cultural barrier. Another thing that I noticed is that people really dress well. Geez, I must say this for the second time because its like there's a fashion show going on at the ILO. It actually makes you a little bit intimidated when you see the people around you dressed to look really dignified and respectable while you the newbie only could affort to wear your jeans and simple T-shirt. The housing problem has really affected me a lot as I could not settle down completely and have my stuff pulled out from my luggages so I could only rely on my simple clothes when I go to work. Plus, I think that European fashion is quite different from North American clothing as they look more dignified and more formal to me. How I wish I could well afford the clothes at Manor but at this time around, its time to keep a tight belt on things as my pocket has been bleeding out a lot.

Other than that, you have pretty interesting people at the ILO. They have been helpful enough to be patient with me especially with my broken French. Although sometimes you cannot help but feel like being scrapped of your dignity as you do not know what they're saying and you feel like you are so stupid.

My colleagues at work are really fun. I find them cheerful and easy to talk to. My supervisor is French and is very laid back and speaks really good English. In our office, I have a Morrocan and a Chilean colleagues. They all speak French to each other but shifts to English to accomodate me. I am really thankful for them for doing that.

I am really thankful to have a laid-back supervisor. And we do some kind of language exchange as they talk to me in English and I answer back in French. It could be a little bit frustrating sometimes as it takes hard for us to express ourselves especially when it involves technical terms. French technical terms are a little bit different even with their corresponding English translation.

I find my Chilean counterpart a little bit mysterious. She's tall about 5'9'' probably and has long hair running until her waist. On Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays she has blue eyes, Tuedays and Thursdays brown eyes. She doesn't speak a lot not because she not fluent in English but because there's really something enigmatic about her. She always wear black jackets with fur linings plus long black boots. She sports false eyelashes as well.

In the next office is Ric, a Canadian originally from Winnipeg. Ric has been with the organization for quite some time. Before that, he worked in Ottawa for almost 13 years. I find him pretty much mysterious as well. We chatted a little bit and only wants to find information about me. When asked about himself, he wouldn't talk much and his eyeballs would dart and look at the floor, on the wall and finally on the ceiling in that strict sequence.

The next person is Donatella. She is the librarian of the organization. I do not know if she is Italian or French but she always say bonjour to me. When I answer back in French, she then switches to English and always asks me about my weekends. She has blonde hair, blue eyes and wears long black stockings with high-heeled boots.

An office on our left is occupied by another senior person. Let's call her Madam X. I really do not know if she is English or French but my bets are that she is English. Since it was just the end of the holidays, one staffer gave our office some chocolates to eat. We have 2 dozens of Russian chocolates besides my computer and every 15 minutes or so, Madam X would go to our office and grab a russian chocolate candy. I tried starting to have conversation with her saying 'chocolat russe c'est bon?' but probably find it boring and didn't reply back. She would always say that that would be her last one for the day to me in French but would always come back every 15 minutes or so. As of presstime, two dozen russian chocolates haven been missing.

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Goodnight from Geneva.