Streets where I worked: outside VAREMBE aka UN area

Now this might be cool or maybe you’ve been to GVA before but it is the headquarters of several United Nations agencies and I have been so lucky to be able to work right in this neighbourhood!

So Rue du Varembe is like 5 minutes from HQ and like 1 minute from UNHCR (refugees aka Angelina’s agency 😛 ) so here goes!

What’s on the street?

1. Ariana’s Pizza shop which says it’s the UN’s pizza shop (I think) as its advertising…why not, cuz if you pay that rent, then you really need to flaunt it!

2. the NGO building, that’s where ICMC-GVA is located along with a billion other (ok maybe 50?) NGOs or in modern language “civil society organizations” cuz NGOs is old-school though better recognized I suppose.

3. Across the street is the ITU: International Telecommunications Union (UN-speak is soooooooooo many acronyms!!!!) which has a decent cafeteria and a pricy parking lot (too afraid to check prices and too poor to have a car in GVA bien sur!)

4. CICG is the Centre international des Conferences a Geneva! Yes I remembered that one…basically another venue for international meetings but more like a convention centre so not only UN-related. I once saw an expo with lots of cleaning products and wished I could go there and get samples but alas, work gets in the way of fun sometimes 😛 Gotta keep it responsible rite? 🙂

NOW JUST FYI, NONE OF THESE BUILDINGS ARE LIKE ‘GORGEOUS’…IT’S JUST BEIGE OR GREY SO NO PICS OK? Snooze! And I guess they are on Google Maps streetview for those who are wayyyy too curious 😛

(Oh no fingers hurting again! Too much fast typing but can’t stop mid-post! NOTE: my freestyle is just rapid word vomit, very light editing and I don’t think much about what I write. It just comes out in one go…I don’t like to pause and go back to my posts. No plans or drafts, just straight from memory so maybe it sounds like a rant b/c that is kinda what it is. Oh well!)

Brain fart! It’s kinda late…. OH but here it gets interesting….

5. Like I said, 5 minutes from VAREMBE is NATIONS, the UN compound. So we gotta cross the street near the tram and then if we are lucky, we will see the SPRINKLERS on but sadly they are not on all the time (fine fine save your water I get it 😛 ) but in this post, they are!!!!

WATER sprinkles in fancy dress? Why yes indeed!

And in the distance we see the “good ol’ Broken Chair” the GIANT monunment to landmines (see its splintered leg?) that helps us reflect on the destruction that results from these often hidden bombs 🙁

6. And behind the chair, or rather across the street, we have the main entrance to the GVA HQ of the UN which b/c this is part of work, I ACTUALLY DON’T HAVE A PIC OF IT! I have snapped a few pics for friends as visitors buuuuut this is work and so I gotta run inside in my heels (keeping it professional…sometimes!) so I do not snap pics there…weird rite but true 😛

OK so that’s a glimpse of the neighbourhood. There are other UN buidlings in the vicinity but I can’t describe all of them…and my fingers hurt so good night!!!!!

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