13 - Week 2 4ieme: - Unconventional hours - Geneve

Thursday, March 06

So, mission successful!  I stopped by the Carouge town hall and scored a bunch of reduced price travel passes!  I'm set for 7 specific travel dates, 52CHF a pop.  Looking back on it, maybe I should've only bought 4 or so and think more about my travel plans after work finishes but c'est la vie.  

Looks like I missed my chance to ice skating, but it makes sense considering it's been over 10C for many days now.  

While waiting for my tram, a group of ladies came by with mini croissants and pamphlets for the upcoming election.  They still offered me one even after I said I can't vote.  Well, if you insist...

It was a mentally taxing morning learning about Aspen plus (a chemical engineering simulation software), or rather being retaught some of its basics.  I don't think I'll ever be an expert user of the program but we thought it'd be good for me to be familiar with what asks are reasonable of the team here who do use it regularly.  It was touch and go in a few spots with waning energy levels but I think made it through.  This whole trip is reinforcing my need to shore up on calculus and chemistry 😅 

I finally got confirmation from CMS that I have a spot for the tour on Saturday 😅 Petra must've taken pity on me because she said the last spot had filled up but she added me as person 11 to a private 10 person tour.  Now I just need to figure out transportation.  

I did a bit of planning with my fasting coworker.  He's offered to make the very brave sacrifice of joining me on a weekend trip to Zurich to visit the Lindt museum and forego the all-you-can-stand chocolate experience at the end.  But we picked a time for our visit and he showed me the TWINT pay app, which seemed both secure and convenient.  I also learned a bit more about the Ramadan Season, which was quite fascinating.  

The afternoon featured a tour of a workshop with a piece of equipment I've heard of but never seen in person.  The visit was short but has me set up for returning later next week to see it work (ça va tourner la semaine prochaine).  I wrapped up with putting pen to paper on my thoughts about the atelier and the progress of my first two weeks.  I think I have the outlines of objectives I can strive towards to demonstrate my time here was well spent.  

After work, I ran into a familiar face on the train and I got to learn a little more of the chemistry involved in absinthe.  It's all about terpènes, baby.  From there I made my way up near the United Nations to make a visit to the Red Cross Museum, it's open later on Thursday evenings.  I think the exhibition closes at 8PM but the cafe/bar area stays open till 10pm.

I learned a bit about the institution but I found the museum a bit blasé.  Some of the exhibition items were quite impressive but I don't know how much there actually was to the museum.  Perhaps I was rushing through to finish before the place closed but I felt like the layout didn't resonate with me.  Anyhow, if someone is suuuuper interested, then it might be worth the stop but other than that, I think there are other things to see and one can simply read about the Red Cross / Red Crescent's history online.  

I didn't realize I needed to press the "stop" button on the 8 bus and missed my stop by one, my walk through an unlit path eventually spat me out on top of the museum with this view.  

Comité International de la Croix Rouge: CICR

Here's the write up on the origins of the Red Cross / Red Crescent.  The 1800s was a weird time but I suppose the desire to limit suffering is a good reason and a lofty goal to found an organization.  Though I'm not sure the misogynistic language of the guy who was inspired to act would be all that appreciated today... 

This was a pretty fun game though tricky with one person haha.

It's an impactful set piece but I wasn't quite sure of the tone.  With the chains in the entrance, it wasn't till I'd walked past the row of index cards that I came to learn that the Red Cross had kept a catalog of prisoners of war throughout WWI.

Interesting that the rules of war involved cataloging prisoners and ensuring they stayed in a neutral party during WWI.  Somehow, I get the feeling that we wouldn't ever see the formation of the Red Cross or a system like this today.   

I thought this was a neat little thing, with instructions written on each card about cyber security measures.  The point was that the digital revolution has opened up many more channels for quickly communicating or responding to catastrophes but can also be used for terrible things.  Drink responsibly.

The museum repeatedly referred to itself as the Red Cross & Red Crescent.  I hadn't heard of the Crescent part because I'm from a Christian dominated country: the Ottoman Empire requested that they be allowed to use a Crescent as their chapter's symbol since Muslim soldiers might not completely trust someone sporting a cross.  It's a perfectly valid point and opened up the door to two other symbols: a lion with a sickle (used in Iraq) and a Red Diamond.  

Carouge was alive tonight!  The evening market was wrapping up when I arrived but the restaurants around were packed with people drinking, eating, and laughing.

I opted for a quieter night and took up a coworker's advice to try a Chinese restaurant in Geneva.  The cuisine was slightly different, I liked having a stir fry of duck breast 😋