Of Titanic Proportions

O city of sound and motion! O city of endless stir! From the dawn of the misty morning, To the fall of the evening air; From the night of the morning shadows To the sound of the shipyard horn; We hail thee Queen of the Northland, We who are Belfast born.                                    ~Thomas Carnduff, Songs from the Shipyards, 1924 Belfast as a city has a fascinating history.  In addition to all of its political history from The Troubles, Belfast is also one of the capitals of shipbuilding around the globe because of its deep harbor and played an important role in industrialization at the turn of the...

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Posted in: 3L,Belfast,English,Goliath,J-Mad,Museum,Northern Ireland,Samson,Ship,Shipyard,Titanic,Titanic Museum

Belfast's Political Past (and Present): Ulster Museum's Historical Overview

Belfast City Hall As a sophomore in undergraduate university, we read a book for class about the public displays of national identity in Northern Ireland.  Everyone in our class enjoyed the book and the perspective it brought to interpreting how nationalism can be displayed and the effects this has within communities.  The book was Signs of War and Peace by Jack Santino.  Since reading about this in undergrad, I decided that if I ever had the chance to go to Belfast, I wanted to see some of the sights Santino describes.   Beginning of the tour, in the Shankhill Well, I finally made it to Belfast, some six years after reading the book in class.  Since the end of the Troubles, Belfast's tourism industry has...

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Posted in: 3L,Belfast,English,History,Ireland,J-Mad,Murals,Northern Ireland,Prezi,Troubles,Ulster

United Nations in Geneva

All the way back on January 16th, 2014, in the first week of our program, we were able to visit the United Nations.  The current Palais des Nations was built between 1929 and 1936 for the League of Nations.  After World War II, the complex became the headquarters for the European office of the United Nations in 1946, quickly evolving into the largest center for multilateral diplomacy in the world.  Today, Geneva's Palais des Nations hosts about 9,000 conferences and over 25,000 delegates each year.  It is second largest nexus for United Nations operational activities after New York. Grand Chamber, largest conference room On our tour, we were able to learn more about this fascinating history and see the works of art...

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Posted in: 3L,Barcelo,Broken Chair,English,Geneva,HRC,Human Rights,J-Mad,land mines,Michigan Law,Palais des Nations,Switzerland,United Nations,UPR

Norouz at the United Nations

Thursday, March 20th, 2014 was the first day of Spring.  The following Tuesday, the Iranian mission to the UN and eight other central Asian countries (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan) hosted a Norouz lunch and cultural event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.  It was great to see so many countries putting on a great event together to share this beautiful piece of shared culture with the United Nations community.  Each country had a table with information about its particular celebrations for the holiday as well as food and sweets from that country.  There were also musicians that played from a classical Iranian musical group after the delegates...

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Posted in: 3L,English,Farsi,Geneva,Haft Sin,Iran,J-Mad,Norouz,Noruz,Switzerland,United Nations,United States,فارسی

Geneva Auto Show

McLaren March 6 through 16, 2014 - the dates for the Salon de Auto, the 84th International Motor Show in Geneva.  Traffic has been crazy the whole week with added buses and tourists coming across the city to see the show.  I went on the last day of the auto show out to Palexpo to see what the big deal was. Lamborghini Mercy The auto show itself took up 6 halls of Palexpo - a huge arena complex out by the Geneva Airport.  It was filled with huge displays of beautiful cars and even had a small electric car test driving track indoors.  I test drove a Smart Car, just to see what it would be like (it's like driving a golf cart). Maserati Concept Car Wheel I found another blog with a list of the Top Five Cars...

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Posted in: 3L,Auto Show,Cars,English,Ferrari,Geneva,J-Mad,Lamborghini,Maserati,McLaren,Palexpo,Switzerland

Losing Time in Geneva

Only in Geneva would there be a Rolex store next to a McDonald's Geneva is a city of timepieces. Around every shopping area, you are bound to find at least one (but likely several) watch stores for high-end Swiss brands.  Outside many of the stores, there are also clocks that feature the iconic faces of that brand. With a random weekend in Geneva, I wanted to get lost in time.  The one main thing that is left on my list to explore is the famous Patek Philippe Museum.  Just as the Swiss are famous for their precision (in all aspects of life), Geneva is world renowned for its watches.  Advertisements with famous celebrities line the hallways and terminals of the Geneva airport, and more watch advertisements hang...

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Posted in: 3L,Audemars Pigeut,English,Geneva,J-Mad,Museum,Omega,Patek Philippe,Plainpalais,Rolex,Switzerland,Watch Museum,watches

Garde de Vénus

What a cutie! For four days this past week, I was entrusted by one of my coworkers to dogsit her 9 year old Cane Corso (a type of Italian mastiff) named Venus.  She had to go on a detail assignment and needed someone to watch the dog.  Unfortunately, the breed is on a list of banned breeds in Geneva.  If the police see a person with this kind of dog, they will take the dog on site and have it killed.  Which is terrible.  And, the list of banned breeds vary across cantons and cities.  So, my coworker needed someone willing to come to France for a few days (where the breed is allowed) to care for the dog.  Since I miss my own Great Dane, I happily volunteered for the job. Of course I converted her to a...

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Posted in: 3L,Cane Corso,Dogs,English,Ferney-Voltaire,France,Geneva,J-Mad,Switzerland