Winter Wonderland and UNAIDS

Today there were flurries in the morning. This is not that rare for Switzerland. Normally, when it snows though, it doesn't stick to the ground, at least from my experience. But, this afternoon it snowed and snowed and snowed. It's very pretty to look at from inside or to go on a short walk, say from the bus stop to my house. Other than that, it's cold and makes me think it's December, when really tomorrow is March. Oh well....I hear they are getting 10-20 cm of snow in Paris, poor Anakin.

Today, in all the local Suisse newspapers, there were stories of the bird flu. Apparently, they found a dead bird infected with the virus à Genève right by the jet d'eau on the Lac Léman. This is remotely scary because I pass that location every day...don't worry though. Earl, our director, said as long as we don't touch any dead birds or bird excrement and don't eat any raw poultry or eggs we should be fine. Why I would want to do any of the aforementioned things is beyond me. I'm not in danger, so no worries. Anways, if they do close the borders I have an out because my host dad is a border policeman as I mentioned before.

In other news, today we were briefed by a man who works for UNAIDS, which is the U.N. branch that deals with AIDS worldwide. It was very interesting because I am all about finding ways to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. He was very optimistic to finding a cure in the near future, which was positive. He wasn't enthusiastic about any of the Millennium Development Goal initiatives and had a rather bleak outlook on what international organizations are doing to combat the virus.

He also spoke about the relationship between military personel and illness and between military personel and sex trade. He said that some will come back from deployment with HIV/AIDS or an STI as a result of unprotected sexual relations. Interesting tidbit: the Netherlands and Senegal are the only two countries who have never brought home an infected person from the military after deployment in a peace-keeping mission. So, this means that not all missions have been successful in preventing the spread of the virus, only peace-keeping missions. Because the Netherlands starts so early with sex education (ie. not promoting abstinence only) it is more widely accepted to use a condom during any sexual encounter even if you are married. In Senegal, I was less clear on the resoning, but something to do with an excellent prevention program and a culturally conservative state. I thought this was so interesting because it showed that promoting abstinence doesn't always work. Shock and surprise.

I asked him if there were any programs about destigmatization of HIV/AIDS needed to occur and how important it was to successfully implementing condom use all the time. Because even at my university we have to go to the bathroom in the nurses office to get free condoms. I think it's stupid that we should conceal something as important as condoms in one location that isn't even open after 4:30 PM on week days and not at all on the weekends. Conclusion: I am scheduling a meeting with him to ask more questions and possibly do my internship with UNAIDS.

Other than that I have recently found that my new favorite food is cheese and bread. Simple, but soooo delectable. Also, I find that I drink next to no soda over here and moreso bubbly water. So far, of all the kinds I've tried I like Sanpellegrino the most.