Lincoln's Birthday, WTO, WIPO and Global Capitalism in Geneva

Feb. 12, 2010

We headed to Geneva for the day as part of a field trip for our Global Capitalism class. Probably one of the hardest classes I have ever taken in my life, but I have learned more from George Cocker in these past few months about the EU, their law, and global capitalism in general than I could have ever imagined.

We started out by going to WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) and listened to two speakers talk about what they do as well as the company itself. It was rather interesting, but everyone was so exhausted from having to catch an early train that people began to fall asleep. We had to show our passports to be able to get a badge which were all numbered and we weren't even allowed to take pictures inside.

After this, we then headed to lunch... we of course chose the local kebab shop and 10 of us sat down and had a feast of kebabs! They were sooo amazing... We then, being the Americans that we are, headed to Starbucks to fulfill our cravings of "american" coffee as there are no Starbucks in Brig - only Geneva and Zurich (each 2 hours away)

Following lunch we all met back up at the train station and headed off to the WTO (World Trade Organization) which was really interesting as this is the only location for the WTO. I had no idea. They took our passports and kept them in security as we entered in (with an escort) and were shuffled into a room. I ended up having a seat at the head of the table and the guy giving us the presentation ended up sitting next to me.... a little nerve racking, especially since the room was warm and stuffy and we were all content form lunch and of course still tired from the morning session (no time for naps! haha) I was determined to stay awake, not only to be nice but I was sitting right next to him! My ways of staying awake revolved around watching to see who was falling asleep and drinking water. I ended up shuffling around a bit and reading the packet of information they gave us to make my mind focus on something... needless to stay I stayed awake! hahah

We all then boarded the train and headed back to Brig. I think that everyone ended up passing out on the train as we were all exhausted. It was a good day overall and we all learned quite a bit.