I arrived in Zurich on the morning of Jan. 8 with no troubles, although the flights to get here were very bumpy. I even managed to sleep on the plane for most of the trip across the Atlantic, when I wasn't being shaken by the turbulence, thanks to the earplugs and mask I brought with me. I was picked up from the airport and came back to the apartment, where I spent the day unpacking and trying to get settled in. The next day I went in to the lab, where I discovered that since the HR people had not bothered to tell me that I needed a criminal history report I will not be getting my actual contract until March. But we have found various ways to get me paychecks until then, although they won't be quite as much as when I get my contract, so until then I am living frugally. Like not buying a Swiss watch, since mine is about to die. That can wait.
I arrived on a Thursday; the next Tuesday I had to make a trip to CERN over in Geneva for two days of meetings with the whole network of people involved with the grant that is supporting me for the next three years. I spent the train ride over (about 3 hours) with Tilman, the person I am directly working under here at the lab, going over the basic plan for the next three years that I was going to have to present at the meeting on Wednesday. Tilman was only able to be there for the Tuesday meetings because his daughter was pretty sick with the flu. Unfortunately it was extremely foggy, becuase there is a part of the train ride that is supposed to be just absolutely beautiful. The whole country is pretty to me; but this area Tilman said the locals call it the place where all the German Swiss tear up their return train tickets and decide to stay (it's right at the part where the German-speaking and French-speaking parts of Switzerland meet). We arrived just in time to miss lunch and the group picture :-(, but I was able to grab a couple finger sandwiches that were left over on our way in to the meetings. I met all of the people from various universities and labs and everyone was very friendly. It's a European fellowship and network, so I am the only American. But of course everyone speaks English.
There are three other students like me who have been recruited, plus there are still a few positions left to be filled. I think in all maybe they are hoping there will be 7 of us. I met them, and we all got along very well. There is a girl named Mary who is from Greece, and two guys from Italy, Marco and Nicolo. After the meetings I checked into my room at the hostel (what they call the hotel/dorm type housing at CERN), unpacked, and then headed down to meet the group for dinner. We went to this place called Auberge Communale de Satigny and had an amazing three course meal of smoked salmon on a bed of spinach, duck a l'orange, and tiramisu, along with three wines (a rose before, a white with the salmon, and a red with the duck) and your choice of coffee, espresso, or tea after dessert. Mmmmm! I know, my life is just so rough these days....
The next day was filled with more meetings, coffee with the other students after the meetings, and a long trip back to Ennetbaden involving wrong signs at the train station in Bern that turned a 3 hour journey into nearly 5! But all in all was a good trip. I learned a lot of good things at the meeting about this network. One of the main aims of it is to train young researchers (such as me), not just in technical things but in whatever is necessary to make a good researcher. To this end there are several different sources of funding for me for various things such as language courses and travel to different training events. I will be starting a German course in March once I sign my contract, which they offer at Migros, the local equivalent to Walmart. Can you imagine Walmart having a school that teaches everything from languages to dance? Also the network will organize training events at the different institutions, labs, and companies that are associated with it, with our first one being sometime around August/September in Krakow, Poland. How cool?? I'm pretty excited about the whole thing, it's even better than I realized!
Work back at PSI has been good, I've slowly been getting back into the swing of things there. Show up around 9, work until 12 or 12:30 when the whole group goes to lunch together. After lunch we go to the little cafe for coffee and/or dessert. We get back to our offices around 1:30 or 2, depending on how much talking we do at coffee, and work until sometime between 5 and 6 when we head home. It's a nice schedule. Conversations at lunch are half in English and half in German, but I'm not the only person who doesn't speak German, so I'm not left out. I'll be glad when I learn some though!
I haven't done too much venturing out around yet, at first because it was pretty cold. It's not so fun to walk around the streets of the cities when its icy and freezing! I've gone a little around town though, and I've found the English-speaking Catholic mission church in Zurich, which seems nice. The weather has been better this week, so I could have ventured out more. Unfortunately I of course managed to injure myself. I was putting away my things after cooking dinner and before sitting down to eat it Tuesday evening, when I opened the cabinet and my large, full, very heavy glass jar of (off-brand) nutella came flying out and crashing down onto the little toe on my left foot. Thankfully the jar didn't break, it only cracked the plastic lid, becuase having to clean up a mess of broken glass would not have been fun. My toe of course immediately swelled to twice its size and turned various shades of red and purple, and the pain was so bad I felt sick for 10 minutes. So this week I've been careful to stay off of it as much as possible, ice it and take ibuprofen, and it is significatnly better today. In fact today I am pretty much walking without a limp for the first time. I decided to stay home today though and rest it instead of wandering around somewhere in hopes that it will finish healing quickly. I want to be able to go up to the mountains one weekend soon. It stays cloudy down here in the valleys in the winter, so everyone in the country goes up to the mountains for sun and skiing.
I haven't taken many pictures yet since I haven't gone many places, but here is a link to the ones I have so far. There are pictures of my apartment and the town where I live, a couple in Zurich, and a few from CERN. Hope you enjoy them!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2083972&l=517de&id=49703684
