The evening of May
10th, Justin and I set out on a train across Switzerland to the city
of Geneva so Justin could take the Project Management Professional Exam, also
known as the PMP. This does not
stand for “Pimp”, as bad ass and scandalous as that would be. Thank goodness. It is simply an additional certification that an
individual can receive that shows they fully understand how to manage projects. In much of Europe, titles after your name are
considered very prestigious and the PMP certification should open some doors
within his specific profession. There is
an extensive application that one must go through to be eligible to take the
exam. Justin had to be able to document at least three calendar years experience in
project management, including at least 4,500 hours of experience within the
five recognized project management process groups, and document at least 35 contract hours of
formal training in project management. So, by the time Justin went
through all the aforementioned, paid the large fee to take the exam, and took a
train across Switzerland, he did not want to fail and have to do it again.
Yikes!
Well, we didn’t do
much the first evening except relax in the hotel room and get a head start on
sleep. Over the last 2 months Justin
studied regularly for this exam and was studying as much as 5 to 6 hours a day during
the last 2 weeks. He wouldn’t admit it,
but he was a little nervous and he and I said a nice long prayer that evening. Justin
and I woke up at a reasonable time the following morning, did a small workout
at the hotel’s “gym”, and ate the most expensive and disgusting hotel breakfast
of our lives. Justin’s exam was
scheduled for 1:30 and my plan was to walk to the test site with him so I could
wish him good luck right before the exam.
I even changed into a cute dress because Justin swears I never wear
dresses (this is actually pretty true).
The funny part is that I wore the dress long enough to go to the test site
with him and then immediately went back to the hotel and changed into
jeans. Justin is allotted 4 hours to
take this exam; he took 3 hours and 15 minutes. Definitely good to take your
time and I was proud of him for that.
I waited
impatiently for him to finish. While he
was taking the exam I went back to the hotel to change my clothes, went for a
walk to see some of the city, read about a hundred pages in a book, and had a small
snack. But, the entire time I was tremendously antsy and finally decided to
walk back to the test center. At the
exact moment I walked inside Justin was finishing the exam. He walked out with a huge smile on his face
and I knew instantly that he had passed. Not only did he pass, but he blew it out of
the water. Thank goodness!!!
We were so
incredibly relieved and it made our evening plans seem even more exciting than
they already did. We met up with Betsy
and Kol that evening (you may remember them from our Villars post) who live in
Geneva. They took us for a walk around the city; where we saw one of the
largest fountains in the world at Lake Geneva.
They then brought us to an Italian restaurant called Chez Remo. OH MY GOODNESS! It was the perfect way to celebrate Justin
passing the PMP exam. This Italian
restaurant was 100% legit. We started off the
meal with a salad covered in slices of pizza! Woohoo! That is what I’m talking about! It was scrumptious. 
Then, Justin ordered the Chef’s Special Pasta
and it apparently changed his life it was so good (he ate so much he didn’t eat
until the following evening). I ordered
a delicious pizza with fried eggs on top of it. Yum! And Betsy and Kol ordered
the most bizarre thing I have ever seen in my 26 years. They ordered a pasta dish that was served
from an enormous wheel of cheese! The
picture does not do it justice. We finished off our meals with some Limoncello shooters.
I highly recommend that if anyone is ever in Geneva they go there. The food and
service were great; and of course spending time with Betsy and Kol is always a
blast. They are so incredibly nice and welcoming.
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