Let me catch you up on last week. The last thing I talked about here was the UMF Global Reception held here at the John Knox Center. After the reception, we continued to have class on Thursday and Friday. Both days brought special guests from important NGOs in Geneva. We also forged ahead with Ruby on Rails, the web programming language we're trying to learn over the course of these three weeks. I'm seeing some good progress with my 'test site' and am slowly remembering all the coding I'll need to create media-rich web content in the future. Practice makes perfect. Right now, I definitely need more practice.
We are also working very hard on building relationships with our NGO partners. Right now, I'm really interested in re-inventing a mothballed student journalism site. I would like to work with the IBO to make it a good fit for their goals and objectives.
On Saturday, the 7:11 Running Club took a day trip to Chamonix (pronounced sham-mon-knee) to enjoy the French countryside and climb up Mt. Blanc. Chamonix is a provencial ski village in the French Alps--about 90 minutes by bus from Geneva. The town is what I've come to expect from small town Europe--very clean, welcoming to tourists, and, well, provencial. There are a lot of natural wonders to behold while there. We decided to climb to the top of L'aiguille du Midi, which lies 3842 meters (about 13,000 feet) above the town below. We made it to the summit in about 20 minutes. As you've probably guessed, we didn't exactly climb the mountain with our ropes and crampons. But, we did pay to ride a cable car! It was quite an experience--to be dangling above the jagged rocks of the mountain in a 10X20 car packed with 75 people. Jennie was not at all thrilled. The views from the top were, well, some of the most amazing sites I've ever seen. Make sure you take a look!
Speaking of photos, I've got a lot of great photos, which you can check out either on Shutterfly or on the global program's website at photos.umfglobal.org. Click on my name on the right hand side. You can , of course, also see what others in the program are contribuiting.
I would also like to take a moment to mention that the 7:11 running club is still in effect. In fact, we all got in late last night (1:30am) and I still got up early this morning to run. I must be crazy. That, or I'm feeling good about my recent commitment to running 5 days a week. With all the hills here, it should be a piece of cake to run in my flat home-state of Michigan!
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