I spent almost all of June in Italy, studying full time and working almost full time on top of the full time study. Then I spent a weekend in Switzerland on holiday as a tourist, followed by a week in the south of France working on my PhD thesis revisions. Finally I had two days of holiday in Paris as a tourist again before heading back to Laos, arriving July 12 and getting straight back into work.

Enjoy pictures and/or keep reading for the details.

Florence, Italy: Masters of Science in Administration
Returning to Italy for my second session on my Masters was a great experience. The teachers and students bring such a rich mix of experience, wisdom and diversity. Socially it is a really fun time, and the learning also is great. Once again I played football (i.e. soccer) regularly on the tennis court there – even though my foot still isn’t quite better from my motorbike accident in May.

Many of the people I met last year came back, although there were also some new faces. Some chose to go to the Africa session instead this time, and we also saw some of those who were in Africa last year, as well as the first years. Unfortunately my friend from Laos, Phayvanh, could not come because of his wife’s ailing health. Sadly, she passed away in the second week of the session. I was very sorry for Phayvanh and the family, and sad I couldn’t be there with them. I have since caught up with Phayvanh on return to Laos, and he is keeping strong although I know it is very hard for him. Another student also lost his father unexpectedly during the course, and had to make hasty arrangements to return home. These unfortunate events have reminded me of our constant need for God. I am reminded to more earnestly seek God that He may always keep me true to Him and that He may hold my eternal destiny in safe keeping.

In spite of exams, assignments, group work and presentations during the session, there was still plenty of time for other things. Last year I spent quite a bit of time enjoying Florence and also the Football World Cup. But this time, in place of those things I spent about 100 hours on work for ADRA Laos – finalising proposals, revising budgets, and assisting in day-to-day management via email and skype. The new Country Director was also away in Australia for the month, so this was an inevitable and expected situation, though hopefully one that won’t repeat for future sessions!

I also went away for two day trips with some or all of our class. One trip was to San Marino – a beautiful and historic little country entirely bounded by Italy. The other was to Cinque Terre , a picturesque series of coastline villages on Italy’s west coast.

Switzerland: Jungfrau and Geneva
After the Masters session was done, I bought a Eurail pass for my travels through Switzerland and France. I caught an overnight train from Florence to Switzerland on the last Thursday night of June, intending to spend the weekend travelling through Switzerland and arriving in Carcassonne in the south of France by Sunday evening. I didn’t have any definite plans or bookings except a tentative agreement to stay in Dijon on the Saturday night in the home of the parents of one of my friends here in Laos.

I got off the overnight train in Spiez on the Friday morning, and tried to find accommodation there so that I could spend the day in Interlaken and visit the Jungfrau (tallest mountain in the Swiss Alps). Everything was booked out so I just went to Interlaken anyway. There I booked a bed at a youth hostel (without looking at it) and proceeded to enjoy a wonderful day at high altitude in the Swiss Alps.

The train up the side (and through the middle) of the mountain is a remarkable piece of engineering. There are two stations within the mountain that allow you to get out and observe glaciers from within the side of the mountain, looking out. The photos tell a much better story than words.

When I got back into Interlaken, I went to an internet cafe to confirm the rest of my itinerary – including arrival times in Dijon and Carcassonne. And then before sunset (around 9pm) I went to the youth hostel that I had booked. Unfortunately the place was very noisy, and the bed that I had been allocated was in a bunk room with about 24 beds, stacked 3 levels high and right beside each other about 8 across. I found my bed number and had to check it a couple of times because there seemed to be more things spread all over it than most of the others. It seemed that the girl in the bunk beside my bed had dumped all her belongings over both the beds and was obviously not too worried about their safekeeping. I was a little more worried about my own belongings and especially my sleep, especially considering I had developed quite a bad headache from the high altitude of the Alps. Fortunately in Spiez I had picked up a brochure for accommodation in the next town, Thun, on the other side of Spiez. Since everything in Interlaken and Spiez was booked out, I started calling the list of places in Thun. The first two or three were full, but finally, as I was beginning to understand Joseph and Mary’s plight in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, I found a hotel with a free room. I readily accepted the price even though triple the hostel. I then cancelled my booking there, and although already well into the evening and not obliged to do so, they were happy to refund me. I then had to rush to Thun by 11pm when reception at my hotel was to close. Anyway, I made it and had a great night’s sleep!

I thank God for helping to guide my path, but for next time, I’ve learnt that it pays to spend a little time beforehand doing enough research to have either a decent accommodation booking or knowledge of a few good (and available) options before needing to find something after 9pm for the same night!

I had originally planned only to sleep and then depart early to arrive at Geneva for church, since there is an English-speaking church there. But with the headaches (literal and figurative) of the previous night, I needed to sleep a bit extra and ended up missing church. Instead, after a late breakfast at the hotel, I slowly proceeded with my Eurail pass through beautiful Swiss valleys and on to Geneva. I spent a couple of hours of Sabbath afternoon wandering around the streets of Geneva, visiting some Reformation sites – including the Reformation Wall – and a church. So despite missing church in the morning, I felt I almost had a ‘complete’ Sabbath.

I then continued on by train through to Dijon in France. I thought I would have trouble finding the parents of my friend, since I’d never met his parents, and also since they spoke only about as much English as I spoke French (which isn’t a lot). But I found the father there within a minute – he recognised me from a photo I had sent and he had my name on a piece of paper. He guessed the right train despite my not confirming the arrival time. They gave me wonderful hospitality; and I got to taste typical French lifestyle and food – including genuine Dijon mustard.

France – Carcassonne & PhD Thesis Revisions
On the Sunday morning I caught the train from Dijon down to Carcassonne in the south of France. I was met on the platform by Hal Colebatch, my PhD supervisor from UNSW. I stayed for a week with him and his wife in their terrace-home in Pennautier, a small medieval village 5km from Carcassonne. They live there during the northern summer to escape the Australian winter, and also as a base for Hal to do some work at the University of Durham. They’ve done an amazing job of renovating their centuries-old little villa, and also hosting a string of guests including myself. I got to spend my first focused time on my thesis revisions, with the guidance of Hal’s supervision.

I also enjoyed the little village and surrounds, going for walks and also my first jog since my motorbike accident. I was particularly fascinated by the old medieval Cité in Carcassonne with its large and long wall and numerous turrets.

On the Sabbath during my stay, I left Pennautier at around 8am for the nearest Adventist church, about 100km away in Toulouse. That should have been plenty of time to get there for Sabbath School and church, but with missed connections and poor estimates of walking time/distance, I arrived at around 11:40am during the final hymn! Like the previous Sabbath, I somewhat made up for my missed time in church by visiting other churches and Reformation sites, although this time every cathedral I visited was Catholic, as the dissident Cathars and Albigenses of the region had long since been largely overthrown and wiped out. I did make it to Albi, the home of the Albigenses. In Albi there is a huge Catholic cathedral – its dominating architectural design and scale seemingly making a statement about the (un)acceptability of its history as the birthplace of the Protestant Albigenses. When I went inside the cathedral, I was pleasantly welcomed by a choir in concert.

Paris – Two Days in a Beautiful and Enchanting City
I learnt from my earlier mistake in Switzerland and booked accommodation at the cheap (but with private rooms) Formule 1 hotel in advance for my two days in Paris. I arrived on the Monday afternoon, and proceeded straight to the hotel to check in and leave my bag, so that I could rush down to the Louvre Museum. I arrived there at about 3:30pm, with two hours until closing time. I wanted to make the most of the opportunity since it is closed Tuesdays and I was scheduled to fly out of Paris (to Laos via Bangkok) on the Wednesday at midday.

The Louvre is enormous! I only made it to about half of its many rooms. For most of the rooms that I did enter I was only able to walk through quickly getting an overview of what was there. Of course I went to visit the Mona Lisa, whose eyes truly did follow me around the room despite the crowds of people watching her! I then went to the antiquities section, spending most time looking at Roman and Egyptian artefacts. I managed to stay until about 6pm, but it still wasn’t nearly long enough to really take much in of the wealth of history and culture on offer there.

From the Louvre I wandered around Tulieres and then Ile de Paris, where the Notre Dame Cathedral is located. I had dinner (a whopping 21 euro for nothing too fancy!) at a busy little French pizza restaurant, then headed to the Eiffel Tower to take some night-time photos.

The next day (Tuesday) I spent a lot of time waiting in lines, but with ample reward for the investment of time and money. First was Saint Chapelle. It was worth the one hour wait for the amazing and enormous stained glass windows depicting just about every scene from the Bible one could think of. After that I had another short wait to enter the Conciergerie (where Marie Antoinette and a host of others were executed during the French Revolution). Then there was another long line, but that moved quickly, to enter the huge and impressive Notre Dame Cathedral.

The longest lines of all seemed to be at the Eiffel Tower, and I probably chose the worst time of day to get there. But because I chose to climb the stairs for the first stages rather than take a lift, my wait was still only around an hour. The Eiffel affords great views of Paris, and is well worth admiring as a record-breaking engineering feat for its time.

Patu Xay, left; Arc du Triomphe, right

Back to Laos and Back to Work!

Grant signing the Bloomberg contract