hello from geneva 3-6

hello from geneva 3
15 Sept 2006, Friday

the keyboard here in switzerland is really funny. the z and y keys are interchanged. so typing is not automatic. and the exclamation point is missing, just like the first time hahaha

coming from paris, charles de gaulle airport is not friendly to smokers. one has to get out of the airport to smoke. internet connection is 0.15 euros per minute. if you have remaining money, they could exchange it.

it was an hour and 10 mins flight to geneva. a cup of coffee and something to nibble on would break your hunger pangs. no problem encountered with swiss immigration. great (exclaim). forex is 100 USD to 116 CHF (confoederacio helvetica francs) not bad actually. swiss airport is smoker-friendly.

we had dinner in malakoff restaurant which is about 70 kms from geneva. sounds russian but i think it is swiss. cannot find the apostrophe mark here hahaha they serve delicious food and wine.

the following day we met some WHO people, attended some lectures on polio and chernobyl accident. i slept during the second lecture because the language of instruction was japanese lolzzzzz we had a busy sked yesterday.

we then visited universitaire de geneve and met some interesting people. there i saw some places of interest. met a pinay in the univ who studies japanese language and we communicated in japanese. she speaks french and a little tagalog. looks pretty and had i not been introduced to her, i would not have had an idea that she is pinay. her mom is pinay from lucena, quezon and visits RP every year. her dad is swiss.

we toured the city. while walking i had an experience of what i have been reading all along. that it is not unusual to find swiss big wigs on the street. and i had the opportunity to meet the minister of police. and with this, would foto-op be far behind QM. hahaha important people here would walk everywhere without body guards. not like from our country where they have an unexplicably large entourage of guards. what a way to waste money hahaha

our group were treated in a moroccan restaurant for dinner. it was a delicious treat and i did not realize that they have great food. but of course, i would not eat cous cous. it is not palatable to me. hahaha moroccan tea is super deli and sprinkled with peppermint, so it is like brushing your teeth while sipping the tea hahaha i kept on asking the waiter about their prince and casinos and grace kelly. and to my surprise i mistook his country to monaco hahaha

i am again at the WHO headquarters while writing. met the rabies big boss here who asked me to send my manuscript so that they may show other people that something is being done in the discipline. i told him that ill send to him when i get back to my desk. dr meslin is instrumental to my european travel this time. hahaha

met some WHO top officials who will visit sapporo next month for a 3 day workshop which our department will host. my boss is really workaholic.

i plan to visit the pinoy store and restaurant which i saw in cornavin. im just waiting for the go signal from my boss to set us free hahaha my boss knows how much i crave for pinoy food. lolzzzz

my boss appraoched me during writing. im free to roam around now. panalo (exclaim). will go on my own now. hahaha

hey, this keyboard drives me nuts hahaha

hello from geneva 4
15 Sept 2006, Friday

it has been drizzling since i arrived here. the streets of geneva are clean like those in singapore and japan. tap water is also very delicious like in hokkaido. the water in the fountains is potable and i did not feel anything strange when i tried to drink from it. wagi (exclaim again).

now im thinking, it should be that one of the criteria to say that a country is really clean is that if the people were able to drink water from the faucet. as i see it, this is a reflection of how the country maintains hygiene. agree? i finally found the QM lolzzzz

well, the pinoy restaurant does not open until 1800. will have to wait for another hour. will take pinoy dinner later hahaha won't join my boss anymore for japanese dinner. mas wagi ang cholesterol natin noh

i don't know. but it is easy to spot a pinoy. lukso ng dugo ba iyon? di pa nabuka ang bibig nila ay huli ko na agad na dugong pinoy.

my hotel accommodation is also cheaper here than in paris. it was 117 euros per night there whereas it is 50 CHF per night in the hostel where i am staying. sorry can't convert them now.

i exchanged my remaining HKG$ because i won't immediately make use of it anyway. the forex is 100 HKG$ to 15.50 CHF.

since it will be saturday tomorrow, and if i understood the japanese instructions that my prof said, we might go mountaineering tomorrow.

hello from geneva 5
15 Sept 2006, Friday

busog meals sa little pinoy. the buffet was good. i ate kalderetang baka, beef stew, chicken curry and lots of rice. ok na. i visited the pinoy store where i bought canned goods like laing and sizzling sisig. o di ba? dinayo ko pa itong lugar na ito para lang mamalengke hahaha

i learned that pinoys here have their own version of talangka mentality. when they would start a business, the business name is a big issue. there is pinoy luzon, pinoy visaya, and coming soon, pinoy minadanao. that's why the pinay servidora decided to name her restaurant little pinoy. hayyy naku, pinoy nga naman.

according to the owner, many pinoy politicos have visited her restaurant like jaworski whom she reprimanded because of his poor performance in the senate. sounds familiar? way to go hahaha

will visit this pinoy karaoke nearby and would check out what they do there.

my baggage is kinda heavy. im bringing with me, more than 5 kilos of blood curdling chocolates. lolzzzzz

hello from geneva 6
16 Sept 2006, Saturday

oui. the planned pinoy karaoke was aborted and i preferred to drinkalcohol the european way. mahilig silang kumain at uminom sa labas. kaya ang mga mesa ay talagang nasa labas ng kalye. the road is clean and the air is not polluted that is why it seems that this culture of dining out is okay in europe. beside, no dogs will annoy you nor pickpockets. but recently, according to locals, pickpockets have mushroomed and most of them are foreigners, and that includes us, okay?

speaking of dogs, like those found in japan, paris and singapore, they are tamed here. they seem to be well-bread and mild-mannered. has it anything to do with living standards and training?

some more pinoy infos: majority of OFWs here work as domestic executives. if you ask them what they do here, they would say: sa bahay ako nagtatrabaho. some lawyers, dentists (i suppose also MDs?) and other professionals have taken this job to earn descently. very small percentage of pinoys here work in the higher income bracket.

this morning was pretty chilly. we went up the mountains at 1100m. we crossed the border back to france, and again, i felt a little funny with crossing boundaries. lolzzzzz going up through the cable car was exciting, however, the rest of the climb will have to be on foot. my legs and feet are complaining already. while going up, i just tried to imitate mark burnett's line to myself: to be one with nature. i waited, waited, and waited but i did not feel it hahaha i guess i am designed for the lowlands. anyhow, it felt nice to see clouds below.

the japanese were really appreciating nature and would say kirei kirei. me? wala lang. i just wanted to end it all and see the city or any museum hahaha coming back to switzerland, the immigration police checked the passengers of our van and my boss told them that everybody is japonais. had he told them that there is one pinoy passport holder, it would have been a cause of delay noh hahaha so we went without anymore hassles.

if i were the boss, i would not take my prof as my chauffeur. he drives me crazy with his style of driving. i always get a headache, and he would imediately push the brakes and everybody would be moved. ngek during parking, he could not calculate the space correctly and had to go out on the other side of the van because we could not open the door. and there was a time that half the van is on the sidewalk hahaha

the japonais students had been travelling for 3 weeks in other euro countries before we met them in paris. they went to prague, rome and germany. and they told me that prague is really cheap and very beautiful. more interesting than paris according to them. well, ill put that into mental preparation already. who knows?

i just finished lunch alone in a chinois restaurant. panalo ang tsibug. peking duck at crispy bituka ng baboy at sinangag. mas masarap pa kaysa kinain ko sa pinoy resto kagabi. kaya busog muli. hahaha

tonight we'll go to my boss' friend's house for dinner where they plan to serve pasta. hmmmm gastronomic delight again.

will fly back to japan via paris CDG tomorrow noon time. will spend 6 nights in tokyo.

merci boccu.