Geneva Day 2-November 15, 2008

Today we had class in the hotel, Cross Cultural Communication (CCC). The professor is awesome! He is teaching our negotiating class in April in Moscow...but I think I'm going to Dubai for that trip (I've been going back and forth on this decision and really cant go wrong on either choice.) If you ever get a chance to do a COI assessment I encourage you to take it!

Today we also went on a bus tour and had a group dinner-Fondu!

More information on Geneva:

Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich). Situated where the Rhône River exits Lake Geneva it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva. The city proper had a population of 186,825 in June 2008 and the metropolitan area had 769,000 residents according to a 2005 census. The Geneva metropolitan area extends partly over Switzerland (517,000 inhabitants) and partly over France (251,000 inhabitants).

Geneva is a worldwide center for diplomacy and international cooperation, and is widely regarded as a global city, mainly because of the presence of numerous international organizations, including the headquarters of many of the agencies of the United Nationsand the Red Cross. It is also the place where the Geneva Conventions were signed, which chiefly concern the treatment of wartime non-combatants and prisoners of war.

A 2007 survey by Mercer Consulting found Geneva to have the second-highest quality of life in the world (narrowly outranked by Zürich).

Welcom à Genève

Well I made it to Geneva! Half of the class flew on Continental, while the other half took other airlines. I have never flown with Continental, but I am impressed! We flew from Phoenix to Newark then Newark to Geneva, a total of about 12 hours flying time. Geneva is 8 hours ahead of Phoenix. I dont think I've really slept much since leaving, so tonight I'll sleep like a baby! I saw one of the most amazing sunrises ever as we were approaching Geneva this morning, beautiful red sky over a sea of clouds and the mountains in the background. I didnt get any pictures of this, but I believe one of my classmates did, so i'll try to get a picture. Tot he left is a picture i took from the plane of the country side as we flew over it....it was really green!!!

Once we got to Geneva, we took the rail close to our hotel, what an adventure first just trying to figure out where the rail was, how to get tickets, and then which stop to get off at! We ended up getting to the hotel around 9ish, but they didnt have all our rooms ready so we patiently waited in the lobby. After we all got our rooms and freshened up a bit we ventured our into the city.

Geneva is beautiful! Below are some random pictures I took today (the internet here is very slow, i'll try to post more tomorrow:

Coffe Lovers Vote With Their Cups.....

From The Miami Herald- When it comes to that perfect cup of joe, coffee drinkers have lots of choices: decaf or high-test, cream or black. McCain or Obama?With election season in full swing, 7-Eleven stores nationwide are providing coffee lovers with a unique way of campaigning for their favorite presidential candidate -- a styrofoam cup emblazoned with the nominee's name. Red for Republican John McCain. Bluefor Democrat Barack Obama. Each time someone buys a cup, the results are logged. The convenience store chain keeps a tally of the votes and posts them online at 7-election.com.

What does your coffee cup say? We'll find out tomorrow.....

A cup of coffee shared with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent.

Welcome to Cafe de Elisabeth, please fill up your cup and pull up a chair. Thank you for joining us for un cafecito! Nothing starts a good conversation like a smile and some welcoming greeting.

A professor stood before his philosophy class one morning, and
had some items on his table. As class begins, he picked up an empty large
mayonnaise jar and started to fill it with golf balls.

He asked the students “Is the jar full?"

“Yes it is”, replied the students spontaneously.

Next, the professor filled the jar with small pebbles which slipped in the empty spaces easily in between the golf balls. He asked the students again what did they think of it now. They of course replied “It is fuller now”.

Next, the professor poured sand in the jar making it almost full because it’s small and tiny grains slid and filled up the remaining spaces between the golf balls and pebbles.
Finally, the professor poured in coffee and made sure that there is NO EMPTY SPACE at all in the jar. The students, puzzled and laughing at the same time asked him what he was trying to prove in his experiment.

“Now”says the professor as the laughters subside, “I want you to recognize and imagine that this jar represents your life”.

The Golf balls - represent the most important things in your life ie your family, your children, your relatives, your health and your passion, that if there was no sand or pebbels, your life will still be full.

The Pebbles - other things in our life that matters in order to sustain ie your education, career, house, car, etc.

The Sand - represents the other necessities in our lives, the much smaller stuff - entertainment, picnics, travel, etc.

The professor continued, “You see, if I had put the sand and pebbles into the jar first, there will be no room for the golf balls. Similarly to life, if we concentrated and spend much of our time and energy on the smaller stuff in life, then we would not have room to accommodate to the more important ones”.

“Pay more attention to the things that are critical to your happiness,” he added. “Play with your children. Take your spouse out regularly when you have time. Make time for medical check ups. Set your priorities. Take care of the golf balls first, then the pebbles and the sand.”

A student raised her hand and asked “But what about the coffee Professor?”

“I am glad you asked,” replied the professor with a smile.

“It just shows that no matter how full your life is occupied with the priorities, make sure there is always room for a cup of coffee with your friends.”