It is hard to believe that I have already been here a week- and that I have only been here a week! I will try to summarize to get caught up, and then hopefully fill in details later. Not having internet very often will take some getting used to, which is part of the reason I have fallen so dreadfully behind...
Monday, 30 September
On Monday I successfully landed at ETH, which involved walking, two trains, a secretary and tram. (I could rhapsodize about the public transportation system, but I'll save that for another time.) It was fantastic to see some familiar faces and to see the labs- so many shiny instruments! dishwashers for lab dishes! more volumetric flasks than I could ever use!
Tuesday, 31 September, Wednesday, 1 September and Thursday, 2 September
For the rest of the week, I started to settle in to my routine. I breakfast with Franz and Lisbeth around 7:30 am, and then walk 10 minutes to the Winterthur Seen train station. The walk is really pleasant: I walk along two streams, have to hop over a third, walk along a field, and then arrive at the station.
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| Creek #1. |
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| Field. |
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| Train platform. |
I then take an S26 train to an S12 train to a 9 tram and arrive at ETH by 9 am. I think that my
Nook is going to be one of my favorite things- the commute seems to take no time at all! Work is busy with meetings and experiments and learning. When the weather is nice, we have lunch on the garden terrace on the roof of the building, which is really pleasant. If I leave work by 6:30 pm, I can arrive back at my house by 7:30 pm, which is dinner time! Lisbeth is a wonderful cook, and it is really great to end the day with dinner and conversation. Lisbeth and Franz are really wonderful people, and I feel super blessed to be staying with them.
Friday, 3 September
Kris (my advisor) had a visitor, Emily Moody, last week, and so he invited me on my first hike in the Alps! The weather was totally gorgeous- sunny and warm and clear! I took my usual two trains in to Zurich, and then we took two trains and a cable car to the start of our hike in
Braunwald. We hiked for 6 hours- 4 hours up and 2 hours down- through woods and meadows and by waterfalls and up to a saddle point at 2000 meters (up from 1200 m). We saw people
paragliding, and I managed to get a nice sunburn. It was SO amazing; I think I was giddy, although maybe that was just the altitude.
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| Scenes from the hike! |
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| Kris and Emily! |
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| Paragliders. |
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| At the top! |
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| Crazy stick with the fur. (EP, that's for you!) |
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| The way back down. |
After the hike, I had dinner with Kris and Shauna, Kris's wife, and Emily. I was late getting back to Winterthur, so I tried to find a different way home, since part of my walk is on an unlit path by a creek. Of course, I managed to get super lost and just wandered around for a while until I could retrace my steps and find a different way. Thank goodness I have at least a little sense of direction!
Saturday, 4 September
On Saturday, Lisbeth's son Stephen came for a visit, so we went for a walk to a lookout point near Winterthur and then had coffee overlooking a garden where a wedding was going on, which meant that we were serenaded by a choir of alphorns!
Sunday, 5 September
On Sunday, we traveled up to Franz and Lisbeth's mountain house, which is located in
Cunter, a small village in a beautiful mountain valley. We took a beautiful hike up in the mountains- we started at 2000 meters- and had dinner at a restaurant that was hanging over the valley. It was so incredible! I love how church bells still ring on the hour, and for 15 minutes on Saturdays and Sundays at 6:30 pm to mark the start and end of Sunday. The sound is so joyful, and often I can hear at least 3 sets of church bells at once! After dinner, Stephen and I went back to Zurich on the train, since we both had work on Monday.
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| Scenes from the hike! |
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| From L to R: Franz, Lisbeth and Stephen. |
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| Edelweiss. |
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| Fairy toadstools! |
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| Franz. |
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| An artificial lake where we had a flat tire. |
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| View from the restaurant. |
I still can't get over how utterly beautiful it is here! I have certainly had a fantastic first week! (Lest you think that I have forgotten why I am here, I assure you that I have gotten something done at work, as well!)
