WINNIPEG, MANITOBA - Bad omen. Well, yesterday while updating this page I used my former blog from East Asia as a template to make sure my pages were uniform. I clicked 'Save' instead of 'Save as...' and in a second I lost all of my info from my entire page. I don't think I have the file backed up so....in a snap uncountable hours of thoughts and details of experiences evaporated into nothing. I wonder if I should revert back to writing in a journal?
If anyone has any technical tips on how to get info like this back let me know! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to create some new material to put here...I should have lots to put here since I've got a whole new adventure coming up. Yes, tomorrow morning I'll be catching several flights before finally arriving in Geneva - my new home for the next six months.
Judging by most people's questions, I'm assuming that hardly anybody knows what I'll be doing in Switzerland, let alone how I came to have this opportunity to work there. Here's the lowdown in its most basic form - While I was in Hong Kong I was informed by my department (International Development Studies) at York University that an organization called The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) was accepting applications for an internship program called "Young Canadian Leaders for a Sustainable Future" (YCLSF). The program had fifteen placements available in countries around the world (i.e., Switzerland, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Mexico, etc.) with various International Development organizations (i.e., United Nations, The World Bank, etc.).
The program was perfect for my academic interests because all the placements focus on Sustainable Development, which in its most basic form is an approach to development that stresses the importance of long-term sustainability in development initiatives. For example, if the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded a development project in Indonesia that proposed to clear-cut a forest to create some fast revenue, this would NOT be an example of Sustainable Development. If this same project was instead evaluated to see if a selective logging and replanting scheme would create revenue and not eliminate the forest as a long-term means to livelihood it would be seen as taking a Sustainable Development approach. Many definitions of SD exist, so I won't try to go for a textbook definition. OK, I'm digressing...
So I applied to the YCLSF program at IISD and selected two placements: the first one with the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank) in Washington and the second was with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in Geneva. I was interviewed over the phone while living with Jill in Shanghai and I got the placement with ICTSD where I'll be helping to write a weekly news bulletin called BRIDGES, which focuses on current issues in the field of international trade from a Sustainable Development perspective.
The placement is for six months plus a seven day orientation and debriefing before and after the placement. The orientation took place over the last week here in Winnipeg (IISD's head office is here). So about ten days ago I arrived here in Winnipeg and started meeting the fourteen other interns who were assigned to the other placements: Alex, Susan, Renata, Pip, Dominique, Cynthia, Oren, Hana, Damon, Tara, Katarina, Jen, Heather and Victoria. Despite the fact that we were all strangers and we spent pretty much 24 hours a day together for seven days in a row, we all got along amazingly well. I feel like I've made some really good friends. We've all scattered around the world now, but there will be two groups of us who will be in the same place. Heather, Victoria and Dominique will be in Kenya and Jen, Damon, Hana, Tara and I will be in Switzerland.
Dominique and I are the last two interns left here at the Guest House International and tomorrow I'm catching a very early flight to London. On my way I have a six hour stop over in Toronto and Jill is coming to meet me - I can't wait! Being apart from her is obviously the hardest part about this whole internship. Nevertheless, the opportunity is just too good to pass up. It's funny, because I expected to be the only intern in the situation of having to leave my girlfriend and travel far away; but sympathy was easy to find. It turns out that the majority of us are facing the same problem. In fact, Jen got married a week before arriving here in Winnipeg! So there were a bunch of us here burning up the long distance phone wires with our significant others scattered around the country...I'm sure we're all just warming up!
A.
If anyone has any technical tips on how to get info like this back let me know! Oh well, I guess I'll just have to create some new material to put here...I should have lots to put here since I've got a whole new adventure coming up. Yes, tomorrow morning I'll be catching several flights before finally arriving in Geneva - my new home for the next six months.
Judging by most people's questions, I'm assuming that hardly anybody knows what I'll be doing in Switzerland, let alone how I came to have this opportunity to work there. Here's the lowdown in its most basic form - While I was in Hong Kong I was informed by my department (International Development Studies) at York University that an organization called The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) was accepting applications for an internship program called "Young Canadian Leaders for a Sustainable Future" (YCLSF). The program had fifteen placements available in countries around the world (i.e., Switzerland, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Mexico, etc.) with various International Development organizations (i.e., United Nations, The World Bank, etc.).
The program was perfect for my academic interests because all the placements focus on Sustainable Development, which in its most basic form is an approach to development that stresses the importance of long-term sustainability in development initiatives. For example, if the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded a development project in Indonesia that proposed to clear-cut a forest to create some fast revenue, this would NOT be an example of Sustainable Development. If this same project was instead evaluated to see if a selective logging and replanting scheme would create revenue and not eliminate the forest as a long-term means to livelihood it would be seen as taking a Sustainable Development approach. Many definitions of SD exist, so I won't try to go for a textbook definition. OK, I'm digressing...
So I applied to the YCLSF program at IISD and selected two placements: the first one with the International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank) in Washington and the second was with the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) in Geneva. I was interviewed over the phone while living with Jill in Shanghai and I got the placement with ICTSD where I'll be helping to write a weekly news bulletin called BRIDGES, which focuses on current issues in the field of international trade from a Sustainable Development perspective.
The placement is for six months plus a seven day orientation and debriefing before and after the placement. The orientation took place over the last week here in Winnipeg (IISD's head office is here). So about ten days ago I arrived here in Winnipeg and started meeting the fourteen other interns who were assigned to the other placements: Alex, Susan, Renata, Pip, Dominique, Cynthia, Oren, Hana, Damon, Tara, Katarina, Jen, Heather and Victoria. Despite the fact that we were all strangers and we spent pretty much 24 hours a day together for seven days in a row, we all got along amazingly well. I feel like I've made some really good friends. We've all scattered around the world now, but there will be two groups of us who will be in the same place. Heather, Victoria and Dominique will be in Kenya and Jen, Damon, Hana, Tara and I will be in Switzerland.
Dominique and I are the last two interns left here at the Guest House International and tomorrow I'm catching a very early flight to London. On my way I have a six hour stop over in Toronto and Jill is coming to meet me - I can't wait! Being apart from her is obviously the hardest part about this whole internship. Nevertheless, the opportunity is just too good to pass up. It's funny, because I expected to be the only intern in the situation of having to leave my girlfriend and travel far away; but sympathy was easy to find. It turns out that the majority of us are facing the same problem. In fact, Jen got married a week before arriving here in Winnipeg! So there were a bunch of us here burning up the long distance phone wires with our significant others scattered around the country...I'm sure we're all just warming up!
A.
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