Some history for you...

Hello there! I have now officially been in Switzerland for 2 months, and today it is 9 1/2 weeks. I can't believe how fast it has gone by! School this week was interesting, since we had a revised schedule since the 3rd class was on a trip so a lot of the teachers were gone, and remember, no subs here:) I had this thing called concert, and when I asked my friends what this was, they kept telling me nose. So I was confused. So I go on Tuesday, and there was a chemist, and an orchestra. What happened was we all got these 9 viles of smells. We would take the brown one, for instance, and guess the smell. It was caramel (Yum) and then the chemist would explain how caramel is made and what makes it the way it is, so on, and then the orchestra played a song, depicting caramel. Lol. It was really funny, as we did this with the other smells as well! Strange things.

On Thursay, I had 6 hours with no class! So I jsut chilled, for 6 hours at school! Bored. Crazy. I had a Bio test this week, and since the kids in my clas helped me study for 2 hours (during another crazy long break) I did amazing, or at least I think I did:)

Yesterday, I finished school at 12:30, so I decided to head to Geneva to visit the United Nations. It was so cool! So I took the train to Geneva, and then got on this little tram they have in all the big cities that took me up to where the UN is. On the tram, I met this American couple, retired from Colorado, and they were going to the UN too:) They were so nice, and I adopted them for the day:) Lol. I was able to take a tour of the UN, and even got a cool badge that has my picture and says "Permited for entrance: UN". Haha. I love it!

The UN in Geneva is the largest, next to the one in New York. (The following is quoted from my book) "It was built in between 1929 and 1936 for the Leauge of Nations, this monumental compound became the European office for the United Nations in 1946 and quickly evolved into the world's largest center for multiateral diplomacy in the world. Today, it hosts some 9,000 conferences a year and 25,000 delegates each year." The UN in Geneva has 5 major areas of focus:

• promotion of respect of human rights
• humanitarian assistance
• economic trade and delevopment activities
• disarmament negotiations
• science and technology

There are currently 192 member nations, that srtive to make a difference in the world. Since I love history, this was just my cup of tea!

United Nations!

The main entrance of the UN. Visitors aren't allowed in here though:( But still, how awesome!

This is the first conference room we went in. All the rooms in the UN have to same basic features. In the front, you have the stand for the president, and other important people. Then you have to floor seats, which are where the delegates sit. Then, above, you have the public gallery, where I was, then you also have places for the press, and the translator boxes, since there are 6 different official languages fo the UN: English, French, Russian, Chinese, Spanish, and Arabic. So all the documents at all the conferences are translated into these 6 languages. And to work at the UN, you have to know at least French and English. At the meetings, they arrange the delegates by alpahbetical order, alternating between French and English names of the countries, because for example, in English, it is South Africa, but in Frenchm it is Afrique du Sud. So they alternate between using the French and English name to show that all the countries are equally important.

Artwork, donated by the U.S. :)

This is the conference room where they meet on Human rights. Recently, in 2008 I think she said, it was completly renovated, as a gift to the UN from the Spanish government. It is the most modern room in the UN. Since it was started at the beginning of the recession, it was apparently a very controversial thing for the Spanish people.
This is the ceiling in this room. It was done by a Spanish artist. It is 3D, as you can tell. I think if I were sitting in the room for a conference, I would be afraid one of them would fall of and hit me in the head. Lol. But it was still really cool.

Throughout the UN, there are nuemorous paintings and sculptures, all donated by the member countries. And in the new building, there is a little gallery, which changes according to what country's turn it is to display. Right now, it is the country of Oman, who has all their artwork displayed.

This isn't the best picture, but if you look, behind those cars, you can see a little sarcoghagas (sorry, I think that's spelled wrong). Why is this here, you ask? It has the body of Gustave de Revilliod. He died in 1890, without having any kids, so he left all his land, (it equals the size of Versailles in France, so A LOT of land) to the city of Geneva. The city then gave it to the League of Nations, and then they gave it over to the United Nations. But his condition was that he wanted to be buried on the land, and that peacocks be able to roam the land, like they do in the park of the UN.

This is the library, located in the old part, that was funded by John D. Rockefeller. It houses over 4 million importand UN documents, as well as all the documents from the League of Nations. This globe was donated by the United States, and is outside, right on the Lake, next to the space sculpture from Russia. It is the symbol of the UN.

This sculpture outside was donated by Russia, as a symbol of the space race, and everything that falls into that category. Notice it is heading towards space? Oh. Ah. Creative. Lol. It is also coatedi n a thin layer of titanum, which is used on rockets and spaceships.

In the old part of the UN buildings, the traditional League of Nations emblem is on all the doors,

since it was originally where the League of Nations was headquarted until they changed to the United Nations.

This is the room you see on T.V. It houses 2,000 something people. That was our guide, Monica. This room is used for the big conferences, like the World Health Orginization conference in May, I believe. In the background, on the wall is the emblem of the UN. It has the 2 olive branches, which stand for peace. Then the globe, but you see that it is the globe from the north pole. This is because they wanted neutral territory in the middle and the countries around it to show that all the nations are equally important, and there is no center country.

These two head statues are Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. Eleanor because she was a big believer and fighter for human rights, and Franklin because he coined the term United Nations.

This is just a hall in the old, original building. The globe vase in the middle was donated by England. The saying on the wall in the background relates to God and how he is the giver of life, and that he shall help those in need.

This room is where they discuss disarmament. This is also where originally, the League of Nations used to meet. On the walls and celiling are murals, that go in time order, I guess you could say, showing how the human race started and its progression.

The mural on this wall stands for human kind overcoming challenges. On the far left, you see a woman holding a baby in the air. The baby stands for hope. It was the final "chapter" of all the murals in the room.

This is the famous chair with the broken leg. Know what it symbolizes? I would of never figured this out on my own. It stands for land mines. Our guide said that it takes only $1 to create a landmine, but that it takes $1000 to destroy them, along with the lives of people. So this stands for all those that have been wounded, or died in the destruction of landmines.

That's all for now! On Monday, we are leaving for Belguim! Yay!

Laura