Working From Home

I took today as an opportunity to work from home. To some people this may sound like a fancy way of taking a day off and not calling it a vacation day. I can attest that this is not true. I did more work today than I could have done, had I stayed at the office. I spent this morning doing my application for the Blogging Specialist with Ecumenical Women. Although that was not technically work, I then started on my "work" for WSCF. I am still working the Centennial Edition of Student World. I read about 20 or 25 articles today. These are articles that I have selected and made photocopies of. Some were terribly interesting, others were just terrible. I am trying to take the 200 or so articles that I have picked out down to less than 20. It is hard task.

I did not really take a lunch break, as I read these articles while I ate today. I did not take a tea break. I did not spend time talking to colleagues. Although I have stopped my work for the moment, since I did not get everything done that I need today I am planning to spend tonight working on one last thing. I am preparing a funding application that is due while I will be out of the office. Working from home does have it's perks. I did not put on real clothes until I went downstairs to cook lunch at 1:30 pm. I could listen to my music while I read. I could lie in bed and read. I did not have to worry about anyone interupting me with another task. That is why I chose to work from home today. I needed the chance to really focus in a way that I cannot while I am at "work."

Tomorrow will be my last day at the Ecumenical Centre for an entire month. I am excited for my French class, but I am sad that I will not be able to see my friends and colleauges for a month.

More Blogging opportunities

I am applying for a position as a blogger with this organization called Ecumenical Women. We have partnered with them at the Commission the Status of Women for the past few years. I have never applied for a professional writing position, so I am a little nervous about how to do it. I guess this job I have now can be considered a "professional" writing position, but I am technically doing Communications, which is much broader than just writing. I am supposed to submit three blog samples. As this is my only blog - I thought I would submit three from here. Can those of you that read my blog regularly suggest particular good entries to me? I' m hoping to back through them tonight and find the ones I like the best, but sometimes one's own judgment is not always accurate. Are there any that were your favorites? Or that struck you as being particularly profound, especially around issues of theology and/or women? I am hoping that if I get this position, I will bring something new to the table. I am a young women who is passionate about Ecumenism. I suppose there are lots of women out there - but my voice is unique. I bring my experiences and my passions with me.

I also booked my flight for the UK! I am going to be there for 10 days at the end of August! I'll get to see lots of family and spend some quality time with friends. It should be a great trip.

One week left...

I have one week before I leave WSCF for a month. I am sure I'll still come back to the office during that month, but I won't be here every day. I'll be here maybe twice. Just a few days, mostly for parties either welcoming or going away.

I am planning to take the time in August to really learn French. I enrolled in the class a few days ago and it feels good. I begin next Monday. Next Monday I am going to take this class, I am going to brush up on my French this week to make sure that I test into the right level on the first day. I feel like I am doing something that I have wanted to do for a long time and something that is good for me and my future. It's strange to think about the future.

On a personal note, I had a wonderful weekend. I went to CERN where I learned how physics will destroy the world. Not really, but they are building a 27 mile circumference atom smashing machine. Basically underneath all of Geneva is this huge tube that will re-create the conditions present at the Big Bang, which is the current theory for how the Universe came to be. Sounds cool, no? It is really cool, but actually going there was sort of boring. We went down and saw an old experiment. The experiment was active from 1989-2000. It was where they were looking for the little things that are smaller than the neutrons and protons that make up atoms. It really looked like the "science" places you see in the movies. All the big wires everywhere; the man with the German accent who doesn't look directly into your eyes; giant wheels that refract things etc, etc. I am very glad I went, but I am not sure how much I actually understood.

I also went to a La Servette game. They are the Geneva soccer team (aka football to most of the world). They won and we had good fun watching them. After we sang karaoke at a Chinese Restaurant. Possibly, one of the funnest nights out in Geneva. Karaoke should always be that fun. Usually it is just a little tormenting.

I also have a prayer request. As I am spending all this time thinking about my future, I need to think about where God is calling me. Please pray that I can see and hear what God is telling me while I am searching for my vision of the future.

Post 100!

I just realized that this is my 100th post. Perhaps I should do something special to mark it. Perhaps I should do something to remember it.

When I was a girl in elementary school, my school had a big celebration on the 100th day of classes. We would all get out of class and gather on the playground. We were supposed to bring in 100 of something. It was a competition, of sorts. The only rule was that all 100 had to fit in a sandwich sized ziploc bag. The one year I participated I thought I would win for sure. My idea was so creative, I was convinced no one had ever thought of it before. I sat there in Oklahoma, on the map of the United States that covered our cement playground, with my bag in my hand, waiting for them to call my name and announce that I was the winner. Of course that moment never came. I didn't win. The girls and boy that won were much more creative than I was. I brought 100 ziploc bags. I had squeezed 100 of them inside the other one. I thought it was the most creative idea. Much more creative than the 100 pennies I had brought the year before. I suppose I was not meant to win that competition.

I am remembering this, but I am also spending a lot of time learning about the past of the World Student Christian Federation. I spent Monday and Tuesday reading articles for consideration in the Centennial Edition of Student World. (This is our academic journal that is published annually) It was first published in 1908. 1908! I can't even imagine what it was like back then. I read about 30 articles from these journals. Many were clearly representing the values and ideas of their time. I didn't choose those articles. The articles I have chosen are the ones that still speak. The ones that seem alive. The ones that could have been written yesterday. Those are the articles I chose. The article from 1968 that describes the economic difficulties the Global South faces was so prophetic. I wish we had listened to her ideas instead of following the road that she saw us going down. The article I read from 1952 defending apartheid in South Africa was clearly racist, but couching the racism in such terms as allowing the African to "fully fulfill his racial potential." The terms that might be used today to support "non-racist" development policies. The article rebutting that said that if true Democracy was to develop in South Africa apartheid could not exist. Today we see that Democracy has overcome apartheid. (The effects of it are still very severe, but hopefully the people there are strong enough to continue down the road they have chosen.) I am so privileged that I get to spend my days reading some of the great writers in this journal.

I am so lucky.

My future

I have been thinking a lot about my future. This is for a lot of reasons.. which I might go into in a future post.. but not just yet.

I have been thinking about what I want to do with my "life." I realize I have this ideal somewhere in the back of my head that I will find the right job, meet the right guy, get married and then move into the pretty house and live there for the rest of my "life." The bliss will follow. In this model of "life" figuring out what I want do is pretty important because it will be what defines me. I know deep down that this is not true, but somehow I cannot seem to shake it. (What's even more ridiculous is that I don't know anyone that has followed this plan... but still I feel the need to... ) This is ultimately a problem of faith - but that is for another post.. and perhaps someone more trained in theology than I am.

In that vein I have decided that I want to improve my French. For those of you that know that I speak French fluently this may seem like a waste of time and money to you. However, I am not comfortable with my French. I still get tongue twisted and I make the most asinine mistakes. I do not know if I need to use the future subjunctive or the future imperfect or even what those are. I cannot conjugate the most basic verbs in all the forms in the present tense. I just sort of limp my way through and speak quickly and rely on the fact the French people find an American accent "cute" in French. I am going to, if everything works out in the office, take the month of August off of work. I am going to spend three of those weeks in intensive French classes at the University of Geneva. Then, if I have enough money, a week in the UK. Then I'll go back to WSCF in September.

When I finish this class I will have a certificate saying that I actually speak French fluently. (If I pay an extra 100 francs I can also sit for the test that will allow me to study at the University of Geneva in French) I can perhaps even work in French someday. This will give me more confidence and when I am looking for a job, especially here in Europe, it will give me the confidence to apply.

That is my "plan" for the future. I suppose I don't need to have a plan.. I just need to take one step at a time...

Final UNESCO Post.

I realize I am still posting about the things that happened to me over a week ago. My trip to UNESCO in Paris was overwhelming in many ways and because of that I have been posting excessively about it. However, my last week here in Geneva was also a very full week that has ramifications for my future. Yet, I will finish my story about Paris. I need to reflect more about what has happened since then to appropriately write about it.

UNESCO WCHE +10 was officially over. I had planned on leaving Thursday morning. However, because of a UNESCO Joint Programmatic Committee (JPC) on Youth Meeting Thursday afternoon, and an all day meeting of the students I had just bonded with I convinced my boss to let me extend my stay in Paris for another day. I now had a train leaving at 9 am Friday morning.

Thursday morning dawned bright and early. I had gone to bed around 1 am, because I was out with friends enjoying the success of finishing our conference. We met in the room where just a few nights ago we had stayed until nearly 2 am working to make sure the Student voice was represented. We were supposed to start at 8:30 am. I arrived at 8:45 worried that I was horribly late. I was the third person to arrive. After many phone calls and much time wasted on the internet we began our "official" student meeting at 10:30. Only two hours later than planned...

The morning went slowly. We went in circles... we couldn't decide what the most important thing was to do. Finally, we decided to spend lunch drafting plans. Team A was to draft the "action plan" for the future of the global student movement. How do we move forward? What is the purpose and structure of keeping all the students together? Team B was to decide how we react immediately to UNESCO. I pushed for Team B. I thought it was very important that we immediately show how we, as students, felt about the WCHE. I was on Team B with some of my favorite people. (I was originally supposed to be on Team A.. but then because of confusion I ended up with Team B.. .which was better, I think)

We decided that the students needed to draft a letter. We needed to write down and officially tell UNESCO that we were not happy with the way Students were included in the conference. We needed to make sure that this did not happen again. That students when they were included were representative students that had a mandate from other students.. Students who were accountable to someone besides UNESCO.

In the afternoon I went to the JPC. That was also very enlightening. I spent a few hours with people in Paris that work on youth projects, and their organizations have standing with UNESCO. I learned about the International Youth Forum (IYF), I networked with other non-profits in Paris. I learned about how UNESCO works. I hope that WSCF can be present at the International Youth Forum. It should be a good chance for WSCF to really keep it's voice out there. I am very glad I stayed for that meeting.

That evening I returned to the students. We were finished. We had an action plan. (It has yet to be ratified, but I am confident that it will be and that the students will move forward to become more unified). We drafted a letter to UNESCO. Although this is still being edited. Perhaps once it is finalized I will put it here. So that everyone can know what students thought about UNESCO WCHE. We were done. There was nothing left to do.

Being students and being young, we decided to go have some drinks..... I'll leave it at that. I just want to say that I missed my train the next morning.. although I did eventually get back to Geneva.

That was the end of my trip to Paris. I learned so much about international politics and international people and myself during that week. I met some amazing people that are doing amazing things. I hope and pray that I will meet them again someday. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be part of this conference. It really makes me thankful of all the opportunities that I have been offered through my internship here at WSCF.

Wednesday July 8th in Paris

Wednesday was the final day of the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education +10. We were prepared for our battle over the students in the closing plenary. I had gotten almost four hours of sleep. (this was due to over sleeping my initial 8 am appointment).

I arrived a little late to the "Stakeholders" session for NGO's. A friend of mine the General Secretary of the Swiss Student Union got herself on the panel! The MC began the session by asking who wanted to speak on the panel. This was the first time I had seen a student on any panel. She did very well. She represented the student voice and was well spoken. I was so glad when I walked into the session (only 30 minutes late) that she was there.

I had my computer with me and checked my emails. According to an email, some delegates had met with the Man. He said No. Plan B. (Plan B did not involve duct tape and a fire extinguisher, but somehow I wish it had.) We were to find others to pressure him.

Back to my session. Full inclusivity for NGO's in implementing the results of this conference. We want to see learning based in the community. the University can no longer be an ivory tower. Students need to be heard at every level. NGO's also need to be included because they do not have alternative motives, like governments can.

End of the morning session. Planning for our attack. People were still looking for The Man. Trying to pressure him into changing his mind. No luck yet, but hopefully ....

Back to the NGO stakeholder's meeting. We made an "action plan." We divided the group of about 75 people into smaller groups to create action plans for UNESCO and member states on the following topics: Student involvement, Education for all, Funding of education and NGO implementation of UNESCO's plan. I landed in the Education for all committee. Using this very computer we drafted a few sentence description for how to implement Education for all. It was a good process and I think I impressed the people I worked with. Mainly because I had a computer.. :) Sometimes older people (60+) are impressed simply by having a laptop and the knowledge of how to use it quickly. (I like to be able to impress people with something that comes so naturally and easily to me... but that is a topic for another post).

We left that session to have lunch. After a quick sandwich I heard that the Man had been contacted by a different group. This time he had said "yes." (hesitantly, but the yes was still there). All our hard work had paid off! If we got our man on the panel it was definitely worth it to stay up until 4:30 am working with him. I felt so vindicated.

The rest of the afternoon was a blur. I could not tell you what I did until the closing plenary at 5 pm. I sat in the plenary next to my new Norwegian friends and my new American friend. We could see the young faces behind the "official" panel. The group of students did not include our student. Why not? What was going on. We listened as someone from the World Bank spoke in euphemisms about how privatized education would be great. How is he going to get on stage? I listened to The Man present a colleague. What was going on. What should we do now? Should we let these students represent the student voice? How do the 20 of us that are gathered together react to this breach of faith by The Man. He simply broke his word. We decided to do nothing. We sat and watched as the "official" panel finished. It was time for the "voice of the Future". (I have some issues with that because current students are not the future voice of higher education, they are simply the current voice....) The students looked diverse. There was a young Latina, a Chinese woman, an African man, even a woman wearing a head scarf. Okay, so far so good. I began to listen. The African man went first. He was from Benin, I think, and then he started talking about how lucky he was to study in Paris. Okay... an African in Paris, but they really could have gotten an African from Africa. Then the Chines woman. She also was going to school in Paris. Okay.... well.. The the woman from Columbia. She also was going to school in Paris. The American? She was an intern at UNESCO. The woman with the head scarf? She had been chosen by Microsoft. She took the opportunity to thank Bill Gates for allowing her to speak here. What? Microsoft and Bill Gates? I thought we were at a UNESCO meeting, not a meeting sponsored by Microsoft. These students were paraded out in front of the 1,300 Higher Education Ministers of the Member States to prove that UNESCO was listening to the student voice. What did it prove in reality? In reality it proved that UNESCO was talking about how to end the constant drawing of intelligent students from the Global South to the Global North, but in reality was praising this very practice. The future of education is to privatize it all and have all students study in France. That is the message I received. As representative students we were appalled and outraged. What to do? That was all to be decided the next day during our Student Day meeting.

Sorry to all my readers, but you'll have to wait at least one more day to find out what we decided to do.

UNESCO Day 2 Part 3 of 3

Where was I... right.. 1:30 am...

We adjourned from the UNESCO headquarters and found a Kebab place that was still open, where my vegetarian and vegan friends had a very difficult time finding food, but did succeed eventually. Then we retired to the Ibis hotel lobby. This group was an interesting mix. Two Canadians, one Swiss, two from the US (including me) and two from Latin America (Brazil and Uruguay, I believe). We settled into the lobby with our laptops galore and our empty pizza boxes ready to fulfill our mission in less than half an hour. That was the idea when we started - it was only 2 am.

The discussion also took longer because one of the Canadians had to translate everything into Spanish, and then vice verse when the Latin Americans spoke. Our mission had been simple, yet because of underlying tensions we were really discussing other issues. The decision of who was in the meeting had even been political, to a point. The Swiss student had been chosen as a representative of the European Student Union. He was there to tell us what their opinion was. He was there as an emissary, not just on his own. I was there simply by mistake, but also because I like putting in 120% at conferences. I enjoy staying up till all hours of the night planning an attack. In the preceding meeting we had been very upset about this student panel. The plan we came up with was to ambush the man in charge of higher education at UNESCO and tell him that we thought his panel was rubbish and that we should have democratically chosen student representatives on that panel. We also decided that if we only had one student, it should be the student from Brazil. Even though I never understood his Spanish, I always felt the power of his words. Whenever he spoke in our discussions I listened to him, even though I could not understand him. We also agreed upon the four things that he should bring up:
1. Education is a public responsibility and a public good and as such, it should have have high levels of public financing
2. We are against the commodification of education and General Agreement on Trade and Services. (GATS) Opposing this commodification includes opposing a ranking system.
3. Students should participate in all levels of education, and in UNESCO (and other inter-governmental) forums about education
4. Learning should be student centered. Meaning that it takes into account the whole student, not just the academic life, but also the mental, physical and spiritual life of the student. Learning should also include "informal" and "non-formal" education (i.e. integral education) such as internships and traineeships and community based learning.

There was a point about an international ombudsperson, but that could not be agreed upon, so we decided not to bring it up. We finally made this list and had our strategy planned to find the Man tomorrow. It was only 4 am. Only 4 am. We had agreed to meet at 8 am in the lobby so that we could share our brilliant strategy with the rest of the students.

That was the end of Day 2 for me, although, as my Latin American friend reminded us repeatedly, we were already well into Day 3.

UNESCO Day 2 Part 2 of 3

UNESCO Day 2 Part 2



I left off at the end of the official UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education +10. The official program ended around 6pm. I then went to have dinner with Charité, my colleague. We had a very nice dinner and then joined the other students for the meeting to plan our strategy for the final day of WCHE. The night before I had been up until 3 am working with the students and finishing some of my own work, so I was hoping for an earlier night. However, that was not to be.



The night started innocently enough with a discussion of how we had done that day. The agenda was only supposed to go until 11 pm. Not bad. 11 pm. Then we started talking. I shared my stories of not being able to talk in the session. I shared the success of the question I asked being included in responses to the panels. I listened as other students shared their successes and failures of the day. It was already 10 pm.



All that time the drafting committee was drafting in the room next door to us. We knew that while we were plotting they were doing the work that would determine the outcome of this whole conference. We started talking about how we wanted to influence the document. We had won some of the battles from the previous day, we had lost others. The sentence on General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS) had been lost. The US won that battle. The sentence on raking of universities was taken out. We had won that battle. Education was no longer described as a “public good” but was now a “public service.” We were rearing up for another battle. We also needed to know how to make sure that UNESCO continued the work with students. We needed a sentence to include that would make UNESCO responsible to students without making them responsible for students. We finally agreed on a sentence. We sent it via Skype to our student representative. The next day it was in the document. Education also went back to being a “public good” the next day. (We won that battle too!) It was now close to midnight.



The final topic discussed was the student plenary the following day. There was some confusion over how exactly UNESCO had decided who would speak on behalf of students. Although we were happy that students were included in the closing plenary, we were very upset that they were not students sent with a mandate to represent student bodies. These students were either interns with UNESCO or we were not sure what. Therefore they could not be held responsible to anyone except UNESCO. What kind of freedom would they have to say what those sitting in that audience needed to hear from students? The decision was made that we needed to get a student of ours on this panel. After an elongated discussion we agreed that there would be a working group that would spend the later hours of the evening deciding three things. First, what is our method of getting a student on the panel; second, who will that student be; third, what will that student say. I ended up in this working group. It was an accident, but I am glad that I stayed because it gave me a greater insight into the politics of the student group of which I was quickly becoming a key part. It was now 1:30 am. Break – find some food and then off to discuss how we would save the world.

UNESCO Day 2

UNESCO Day 2:

Day one felt like a game. Day too is feeling different. This conference is different everyday. Day one was only plenary sessions. We did not have the chance to really interact with each other in the sessions, and they were talking at us. I, personally, found them rather boring. However, I am not an education expert. Some were interesting, though. Day two is a chance to have “parallel” sessions. There are three themes and then two or three discussions under each theme. For a conference of over 1,200 people you need a lot of options if you want to have a real discussion. Charite and I chose our meetings so that we would not overlap and would represent WSCF at the meeting we thought were the most important. My first meeting was a plenary session on Higher Education and Social Values. Because of timing and location, I missed my second session. However, in the afternoon I went to a meeting on Higher Education and Community Research. My University, Occidental College, is very liberal and ahead of the curve in many respects. We had an office on campus called “Community Based Learning.” This office would help students, both logistically and financially, to get credit for the learning they were doing in the community. I had not realized how unique this idea is. Up that point, that was my favorite session. My next session was a presentation by the Global University Network for Innovation (GUNI). This was the only meeting that my boss had said we HAD to go to. So, of course I went. The topic was Higher Education at a Time of Transformation – Moving towards a New Social Leadership” This session turned out to be the best, in my opinion. The presentations were well done and created food for thought. One of the speakers repeatedly said that we do not need more education in our time, what we need is a different kind of education. I cannot agree more. Just simply allowing everyone to have access to higher education, as it is defined and commodified now, would not be beneficial to society. If instead, we can rethink and reinvent the education process so that it truly teaches people to think critically and to have values than higher education can continue the prominent role it has had as building leaders, societies and cultures.

As good as these meetings were there was something lacking in most of the panelists and in the people that posed questions: students. One of the panels during the parallel sessions had a student on it. One student on one panel out of the twenty four panels. One student. Higher Education’s most important stakeholder is students. Yet students were underrepresented. In my last panel I wanted to ask a question about. I was sitting in the back. I raised my hand. I kept it up. The moderator never called on me. I raised it again. She did not call on me. I raised it again. I held it in the air for a few minutes. I stood up. She still did not call on me. Finally she closed the speaker’s list without ever calling on me. Luckily, one of the speakers she had chosen was an ally with the students. We quickly went to her and explained the question and she allows us to be “part two” of her question. This was the only way that I could get my question into the panel. After this it was the closing remarks. Many of the respondents noted my question and the emphasis on students was put into the notes. That was the end of my afternoon sessions.

Day two ended up being a very long day. I’ll write more about it tomorrow.

UNESCO and Model UN

Here is the first of four blogs I have about UNESCO.


In High School I participated in Model United Nations. This was a chance for students to pretend like we were the United Nations. We researched our countries, or in my case the International Court of Justice. We learned their opinions; we learned what the people there would have wanted. We learned the process of how the United Nations works. I really enjoyed this in high school. (I think this may have related to the fact that it was always a weekend away from home in a hotel).

Yet, somehow I feel like this meeting, even though it is the real United Nations arm UNESCO, is like a model, like a game. I remember when the American representatives in high school, a group of “popular girls” walked into the hall to the song “American Woman” by Lenny Kravitz, which was very popular at the time. They caused a scandal; they made everyone talk about them. Now I am here, at a “real” UNESCO meeting. The Americans are still being scandalous, although not as openly. I am still referring to the delegation from Greece with only their country name. “What does Greece think?” “What does Tunisia say?” The game that I played in high school was closer to reality that I realized.

We are all trying to make sure that our viewpoints are represented. Although I am not working with the country delegations. I am working with a group of student organization representatives. We come from almost every continent. Many of us speak English, many of us speak Spanish, many of us speak French. We all have different interests. We all have hidden agendas. We all can talk for hours. We are still staying up till 3 am.

It feels unreal that the suggestions we are making are “real.” In high school we would make suggestions to the “document.” We would say, let’s say America should get rid of all their nuclear weapons and ban the song American Woman forever. Now, we are just as serious. We should include a reference to non-formal education. How will we do this? Let’s talk about the issues. Let’s talk. Let’s talk. Let’s talk. People are talking without saying much.

I know I promised more posting but...

I said on Tuesday that things were crazy and that was because I had gone to bed at 3 am and woken up at 7 am. That night I went to bed at 4:30 am and got up at 8 am. The next night was 1 am and then last night was probably around 3 am. This is strange for me because I am usually in bed by 11 pm. I don't stay up late, unless I am out with friends.

I am heading off to Cannes this weekend, and I will not bring my computer! So, please do not expect any posts until at least Monday... but then expect a lot and long ones. I have actually already started writing one.

The conference was good overall and I am excited for a revival of a global student's movement. Students can be so powerful, if we just get our act together!

UNESCO update

I am the UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education +10. (the +10 is because there was one in 1998, and so we are 10 years later.. I guess they never got the math part of their education).

I have a lot to say, but I don't have time to write it. I will write some tomorrow, hopefully, and then put it up. If not I will work on it after the conference is over. I am working with other student delegations. I will write more later.

Geneva Today, Paris Tomorrow

I am leaving for Paris tomorrow. I will be going to the UNESCO Higher Education Conference. It should be a good experience for me. I have never been to a big UN event like this. My colleague and I are going together. We are going to spend 6 day there. I really like Paris, so I am quite excited about being there, although I am afraid that work will be very tiring. We will be working every day, all day and then I am sure that we will also be working in the evenings to prepare for the next day. I am bringing my computer with me, so hopefully, I will be able to post some updates from UNESCO.

My bosses are both back today, which means that our office is much more lively. Today was my direct supervisor's birthday. We had cake and "children's champagne". It was wonderful.

I also met with a member of Zimbabwe's civil society today. He is here for the CONGO Civil Society Development Forum going on right now. The Zimbabwe Advocacy Office is hosting him. Very interesting to hear him talk about the situation in Zimbabwe and how he is working on HIV/AIDS issues there. I feel very privileged to be a part of that conversation.

My crazy mattress story..

So, last week and into this week I have had a saga with a mattress. Here goes:

Three weeks ago I had a friend visiting for the weekend. I borrowed a mattress from a friend of mine so that she could stay in my room more comfortably and avoid the 20chf (that means swiss franc) a night fee. Instead you pay only 5 chf/night. My residence has very strange rules like this.

The Thursday before she arrived I went down to tell them that she was coming and ask if I could get an extra key for her. During our conversation I mentioned that I had an extra mattress. The man I was speaking with became angry and told me that mattresses were not allowed and that he had confiscated mattresses. I got rather offended especially because he said he didn't have a key that I could use. The next day when she arrived I decided not to tell them and not to pay the 5 chf. I didn't think it was necessary especially since I was not getting anything out of it.

All fine and good. The next week I woke up on Friday morning and realized that my mattress was gone. It just wasn't there. I had no idea what had happened. I thought at first that I had been robbed, but my computer and my cash were still in my room. Nothing else was missing - just the mattress. Strange. I went down to talk to the reception in the residence. See if they knew anything about it - or at least to report it as missing. I walked in and the woman at the desk was on the phone talking about mattresses. Hmmm... I asked her about my mattress and she verified that they had in fact taken it from my room. No warning. No letter saying "We have changed the rules and you are no longer allowed to have mattresses." No notice. Nothing. Just stealing my mattress. (On a side note - I do have a kettle in my room that I use regularly, even though that is forbidden in the rules. They did not confiscate that).

I was upset. She explained to me that having a mattress meant that I was having guests over all the time and not telling them. First, this is not a logical assumption. There could be any myriad of reasons that I have an extra mattress. Secondly, that does not give them the right to take my property out of my room. I did not know exactly what to do. She said I could come back on Monday and talk to the "responsable".

I started telling everyone about this incident. I found out, rather quickly, that I was not the only person whose mattress had been stolen. There were, apparently, 7 mattresses confiscated. I have only verified two others. I am assuming that this man decided to go on a mattress raid. I was rather lucky my mattress was foam and therefore rather difficult to hide or put away. So they could just come in and take it. Others had put their mattresses behind their clothing. In order to take them the thieves had to rifle through their clothing and belongings to find them. Searching rooms is not legal. If I had been present, perhaps. If they had gotten a warrant, perhaps. Just because someone deems that an object is dangerous to the running of the residence does not give that person, or any person, the right do take that object.

Over the weekend I got increasingly angry. Saturday I went down to talk to them, but of course they were not there during the one hour they are supposed to be open on Saturdays. Monday evening I went back. They said I could get the mattress Tuesday morning. Tuesday morning I went back. They said the "responsable" was still not there; she was sick. I would have to send an email to her and then they would put my mattress back in my room. I sent an email to them explaining this situation. I got no response. When I went and talked with them Tuesday evening they said they got it and that I could come back later to talk about it. Strange.

On Tuesday, My mattress was returned to my room.