The UN, a Jazz Club, and Canadian Thanksgiving

Over the past couple of weeks a few more things of note have occured, so I figured I should probably share, at least for posterity.

The United Nations
For a few weeks at the end of September the UN held a series of meetings for the Human Rights Council (which is a recently established body). Since NGOs are a major part of the impetus behind the council, all of us at FI were added to the list and I had the chance to attend one of the sessions. Basically, I heard special rapporteurs give reports on right to education, right to adequate housing, and right to ethical treatment in the context of the war on terror. The reports were interesting and perhaps moreso was seeing the process. Wherever I may have thought I’d be at this point in my life, I can assure you that I never imagined I would be sitting at the UN. Pretty neat.

AMR
There’s a music school in Geneva called AMR that is apparently pretty renowned and has a good jazz program as well. On one of the floors of their building they have a bar where jazz jam sessions occur every Tuesday evening. Admission is free and open to the general public and the drinks are very reasonably priced for Geneva. Our intern posse headed there last week and it was quite a good time. It really reminded me a lot of Cincinnati’s Blue Wisp, though a smidge classier. The music was great and so was the atmosphere. Can’t wait to go back, and if you come to visit me, rest assured that we’ll be going there.

Canadian Thanksgiving
As much as I try not to be, I am fairly ignorant about a good many things, especially non-American culture. Before I came here, for example, I would not have been able to tell you if Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving or not. Now I know that they, in fact, do and that their Thanksgiving a different day from the US’s—falling on the second Monday of October to be exact.
As I previously alluded to, there is an influx of Canadian interns at FI and its partner NGOs (including the EAA, ACT, and ICMC) due to the executive director’s ties to McMaster Univeristy near Toronto (his sister works there). Therefore, this past weekend we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving which was, if nothing else, a good excuse to eat some early pumpkin pie.
The dinner was actually a lot of fun. We had chicken (b/c turkey is a bit rarer here), mashed potatoes and gravy, Native Canadian bread, pumpkin pie, plenty of wine, and I made an approximation of my extended family’s Sweet Potato Casserole (which turned out well despite the nonexistence of brown sugar here which necessitated using raw cane sugar instead).
We ate a lot, relaxed, talked, and generally had a nice afternoon, much like Thanksgivings I’m accustomed to. Can’t wait to do it again in 6 weeks!
Some photos:


Dave, the host of the dinner working on peeling those potatoes.


The Centerpiece, created on the spur of the moment by Vanessa and Dave. The wine was something I bought in France for less than 4 Euro, and it wasn’t horrible!


Lots of Canadians (and one Swiss who studied in Canada at one point). From left to right: Natalie (EAA designer), Caroline (FI fundraising), Melissa (FI journalist), Nadia (Swiss Italian who recently finished her FI internship), Meghan (FI director’s personal assistant), Dave (ACT webmaster), Vanessa (ICMC), and Sasha (ICMC).


A look at our bounty. Even in Switzerland it’s possible to recreate North American traditions.