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 At Lake Erie with my new camera It is only four weeks ago that I came back from my holidays and six weeks since I left for holidays, but it feels like months. In the past weeks work was quite busy so pleasant holidays are soon pushed back into memories. Luckily, I had to go through nothing more than 943 pictures. I combined some to panorama’s and collages, deleted the bad and double ones, and so I reduced the number to only 240. In the past you wouldn’t even consider making this many pictures in total, but yeah, we live now in the years with digital cameras. And since I just bought a new one weeks before my holidays, photographing waterfalls and animals was an excellent way to get to know my new toy. I photographed a great deal of animals, some easily done since they were in enclosed areas, others more challenging.
Anyway, my holiday choice was easily made. With me living in Switzerland, one brother still in the Netherlands and one in the USA, spending time together has decreased significantly. And so the decision was made to spend one week together in and around Ann Arbor and one week with my “Dutch” brother (M) in New York, leaving my “US” brother (R) in Ann Arbor. So on Monday morning 19 September I packed my bags and flew from Zürich to Amsterdam, from where I flew together with M to Detroit. After waiting for almost an hour at the gate till the Detroit crew opened the doors of the airplane, and a quick procedure with US customs R picked us up by car and brought us in pouring rain to his apartment in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is a lively student city with two universities, a nice city center (especially compared to the average US city), an arboretum and a park with a lake.
On Tuesday R showed us around “his” city. We met a lot of squirrels at the Central Campus of the University of Michigan, had a typical American lunch (hamburger with fries), strolled through Nichols Arboretum where not much was to be seen since we were after summer and before autumn (I know, this isn’t possible, but you know what I mean) and did some groceries in a typical American supermarket (= Big Large Huge).
Wednesdays we crossed the border with Canada over the Ambassador Bridge, Detroit and drove to Rondeau Provincial Park. This park is located at the north-west side of Lake Erie and is home to many rare and endangered species. Except for the non-rare squirrels we also saw some wild turkey and heard the amazing noise of cicada. These little insects produce shrill high-pitched buzzing over 100 decibels! Because the worst rain was over by the time we arrived we decided to walk the Spice-bush Trail. This 1.5 km trail leads through the Carolinian forest at the border of a marsh. Here we were bothered by many nasty biting insects but also saw a small deer. After a lunch from the trunk of R’s car at the south point of the peninsula we walked to Lake Erie beach. On our way we came across some crickets and praying mantis, and birds of prey circled above the beach. The rest of the afternoon was needed to get to our biggest attraction of the first week: Niagara Falls, about halfway between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
 American Falls by night What a luck! After the showers/rain of Monday and Wednesday we had absolutely perfect weather at Niagara Falls: blue sky and 20+ degrees C. No problem to get wet by the enormous amounts of spray coming from the Falls. Niagara Falls is the name for the three falls next to each other at the American-Canadian border. The largest one is Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian site, where about 90 percent of the total amount of water falls down. On the American site Bridal Veil Falls and American Falls are more or less attached to each other and cover the other 10 percent. All three are best seen from the Canadian site, which is very pleasant because all the casinos and billboards are on that site as well, and thus don’t spoil the pictures. One street in particular is really over the top; Clifton Hill, tourist area. The street contains the Guinness World Records Museum, casinos, inns, sweets stores, souvenirs stores, the Haunted House, Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum, fast food stores and many more. But to make matters worse, out of every door and window “music” and other sounds can be heard. Incredible, even more over the top than Las Vegas.
Almost all day we spend watching the Falls while taking many pictures. With the Maid of the Mist Boat Tour we witnessed the enormous power of the Falls from their base. The American and Bridal Veil Falls are spectacular to watch but coming up close to the Horseshoe Falls was THE highlight. We got pretty wet, despite our ponchos, but to see water streaming over the crest with 32 km/hr and falling 53 m is pretty impressive. After this adventure we did the Journey Behind the Falls. Through a cave you get behind the Horseshoe Falls and at two openings you see the water falling.
In the evening we went back to the Falls to watch them by night. Both the Canadian and American Falls are illuminated with several changing colors from the Canadian site. This gave a beautiful scenery.
On our way back to the car I spotted some movement at a trash bin. While coming closer a raccoon ran out of it and a second or so later another one came out. We waited to see if they’d come back and indeed one of them did. It went in and out of the bin a couple of times, feeding on whatever if found interesting. One more for the zoo-pictures.
Before driving to Cleveland, the next morning we visited the Butterfly Conservatory in the Niagara Falls Botanical Gardens just north of the Falls. Many beautiful butterflies were flying freely around us, and one even decided to land on me. Later on, we felt luckier than ever, because a major part of our ride to Cleveland, we drove in pouring rain. So before and after visiting the Falls we had rain, but at the moments it mattered, the weather was with us. We skipped the plan to have a look at the east side of Lake Erie and drove straight to our hotel. Later that evening we watched the baseball match Twins vs Indians in the stadium Progressive Field in Cleveland. That evening Jim Thome was honored for recently having hit his 600th home run. After a delayed start due to rain, we watched a nice game, in which Thome (again) hit a home run and the Indians won. The evening was finished with big, beautiful fireworks.
On Saturday we drove from Cleveland back to Ann Arbor with a short stop at Pointe Mouillee State Game Area. Unfortunately, this nature area was closed for the winter to protect the animals. However, just besides the car park we saw a Great (White) Egret, which showed us nicely how to fly through the marshes, and we discovered a couple of caterpillars and birds.
Our last day together, we took it easy. We slept in, played some games, and in the afternoon we strolled through Ann Arbor’s Gallup Park with Mute Swans, Canada Goose and Mallards in and around the lake, and the start of autumn in the tree leaves. We finished our wonderful week with dinner in an Italian restaurant.
The next morning R brought M and me to the airport. The nice time with R was over, but some more days together with M were just starting. An easy flight to New York and an airplane door that opened immediately as soon as we were at the gate, some searching for Metro tickets, a bus ride to the nearest metro station, a metro ride to close to our hostel, and a fifteen minute walk finally brought us to our hostel in the Big Apple. We settled in; which meant removing the upper mattress from the bunk and arranging the bunk, TV cabinet and chair in such a way that the mattress could be placed on the ground while still being able to open the door. This was necessary to give both M and me sleep at night, since the bunk was not too stable and only slightly squeaky.
 Empire State Building seen from Top of the Rock New York is an amazing city. All the skyscrapers, parks with lots of greenery, hundreds of yellow cabs, metros every couple of minutes 24 hrs a day, residents with mother tongues from all over the world, restaurants and take-a ways serving a wide variety of food from a few dollars to very luxurious, and all the places where the Big Apple is famous for, are squeezed together in the small area of Manhattan. The first night we enjoyed the view by night from the 86th floor observatory at the Empire State Building, and the last day we enjoyed the view from the 70th floor outdoor deck at Top of the Rock, Rockefeller Center. Both times were absolutely beautiful! Furthermore, we strolled around in China town and Little Italy, in Madison Square Park, Washington Square Park and (of course) in Central Park. There we also explored the zoo, to get some more animals on camera like tropical birds, red pandas and trumpeting swans. A boat brought us to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The statue is incredibly large and was at its construction in 1886 the tallest structure in New York City and the tallest statue in the world. Ellis Island is the place where some 12 million immigrants came through. The immigration station opened on January 1, 1892 and finally closed in 1954. All immigrants went through a medical and legal process. Doctors had only six seconds to judge a person, and the legal officers fired 29 questions to determined the immigrants eligibility. The ill, both physically and mentally, were treated on the island, and the suspicious legal cases were detained for a hearing before the Board of Special Inquiry. Here interpreters helped the immigrants to explain their cases. Only one to two percent were denied entry and were forced to go back to where they came from. Seeing how this island had been part in creating the multicultural mix of Americans nowadays was very interesting.
After the views over Manhattan we also had good views on its Skyline from Ellis Island and Staten Island. Very impressive! Just like Grand Central Station with the main hall known from several movies. Almost a complete day, we spend in the American Museum of Natural History. This grant museum spreads out over four floors and includes among others, Cullman Hall of the Universe, Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, Akeley Hall of African Mammals, Saurischian Dinosaurs, halls about Indians, Pacific Peoples and South and Central American Peoples, and halls with meteorites and minerals. Many explanations about what the collections are about made it a really attractive museum.
Something completely different was the 9/11 Memorial site. Two large basins with waterfalls on the four sides mark the locations of the fallen Twin towers. The rims contain the names of all the victims of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks. Two new towers are being build just outside this Memorial site, and they will be larger than before.
Another special place in New York is Times Square. At an evening we took in all the billboards and other lighted, flashing big commercials. The amount of commercials is so large, that it is almost of no use anymore.
The first week of my holidays was great with R and M, especially the day at Niagara Falls, and the second week was great with M, especially ehhh… the whole Big Apple. An amazing city to explore for a couple of days. Unfortunately, the few days were soon over, and M and I checked out of our hostel and took the metro to the airport. There we said good bye to each other as I flew directly to Zürich and M to Amsterdam. After a somewhat bumpy flight I was back in Switzerland. And what is left? Two weeks full of good memories!
It is already four weeks ago that my parents and grandparents visited me at the warmest weekend of the year. With temperatures of 30+ degrees C all weekend we had to adjust our plans to this. So no walking in cities but instead walking in forested areas and in the neighborhood of water.
Besides the high temperatures and having seen quite some terraces, my grandparents said we have done more in 3 days than they had done in a week of holidays. On Friday morning I showed them around in Baden and in the afternoon we went to my workplace, the Paul Scherrer Institut. Both my parents and grandparents were enthusiastic to see the SLS (Swiss Light Source) where I do my experiments. With some help of them by asking good questions, I more or less explained what my research is about and why it’s important. In the evening I cooked a two-course dinner and spoiled them with Swiss chocolates, pie, drinks and crisps. And they spoiled me with late birthday presents!
On Saturday we drove to Erlach, a town at the south side of the Bielersee. From there a boat brought us to St. Petersinsel. In the past this island was really an island, now it’s a tongue of land stretching from Erlach into the Bielersee. Our plan to walk back towards Erlach was extremely discouraged by the boat-tickets-woman because of 35+ degrees C temperatures at that part of the island. We took her advise and instead we walked over the island, mainly covered by forests, and waited till the last boat brought us back. Being back in Erlach after 20:00 we decided to eat there. In a restaurant close to a camping we enjoyed a good meal.
The next day it was again time for water. This time falling water, namely the Rheinfall. I went to the waterfall already with my brothers last May, however it was again beautiful. In the late afternoon we visited Waldshut, a town just across the border in Germany. Originally, we didn’t have the intention to eat here, but by the time we arrived, we decided to drink something first and then have dinner there. It was a nice evening, which also marked the end of my (grand)parents visit.
Although three days is short, and I have to wait till December before I see them again, we had a very good time. Mom, dad, grandmother and grandfather: thank you again for the great weekend!!!
 Six months ago on January 5th I moved to Switzerland. After the help of my father and one of my two brothers to install all the big furniture during the first few days, on January 9th I was on my own. Since then many, many things have happened.
The reason to move here was of course my new job. I’m working as a PhD student at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Villigen, about 13 km from my apartment in Baden. The overall theme of my research is “The elemental composition of aerosols in three different size ranges (10-2.5 μm, 2.5-1.0 μm and 1.0-0.1 μm) in mega-cities, and determining the emission sources of these aerosols.” In short, I collect aerosols at different locations, e.g. Paris, Los Angelos and Marseille, in the above mentioned size ranges. These aerosols are analyzed for their elemental composition, so what are the concentrations of potassium, iron, lead, sulfur and other elements. Based on the concentrations of the different elements I will be able to determine emission sources such as traffic, industries, dust and sea salt. Of course, the research isn’t going so smoothly all the time, but overall I’m quite satisfied with my progress in six months. I’ve already been in Hamburg for the analysis of the elemental composition, and in Marseille to collect aerosols during a measurement campaign. Later this year I’ll have my first conferences in Manchester and Zürich where I’ll present a poster.
Besides work, a lot of good things have happened over the past six months. As I’ve described in previous posts my parents, my brothers and a friend have visited me. All visits were a great success. In August the next visit is planned; this time my parents and grandparents come over for the weekend. From my side, I’ll visit my brother in the USA later this year together with my brother who at least still lives in the Netherlands. Furthermore, I had my first successful winter sport and thermal bath experience, I’ve been at the top of Europe at Jungfraujoch (with fog  ), I’m joining volleyball trainings at the ETH in Zürich and I just started cycling to work. Slowly my German skills are improving, and do I understand part of what people say in Swiss German.
So far I haven’t really missed the Netherlands, although with birthdays and other parties it’s hard not to be there, and only be able to call. I work together with a Dutch guy in the same office, so with him I sometimes speak Dutch. But if I hear other people speaking in their own language, like German, I quite miss this possibility. Two times I’ve started a sentence in Dutch to some German speakers after hearing them speaking German. And when playing volleyball it takes a lot of attention not the shout ‘ik’ of ‘los’, since that is what I used to call when playing. Basically, at the moment it’s more the language that I miss than the country.
Conclusion: my work is good, my apartment is good, Baden is a good place to live, Switzerland is beautiful; what else do I want??? Three to four successful years!
 Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde in Marseille A week ago I was in Marseille for a measurement campaign. On Sunday 5 June I took the train in Baden, and after a transfer in Bern and Geneva I arrived in Marseille 7 hrs later. Unlucky as I was, a huge thunderstorm started as soon as I left the train station. After a few minutes I decided the take shelter since the thunder and lightning were accompanied by heavy rain and hail. During the 15 min of sheltering I had a clear look at my map and when the worst rain was over, I found my hotel 10 min later. The Azur hotel is located at Cours Franklin Roosevelt, about 10 min walk south of the train station Gare Saint-Charles and 15 min walk east of the harbor. Having no restaurant in the hotel I took my umbrella and wandered through La Canabière to the harbor, having dinner among the tourist in one of the restaurants on the north side of the harbor.
On Monday I met the researchers of The Laboratory for Chemistry of Provence at the Université de Provence. They are performing a measurement campaign in Fos-sur-Mer, a residential area 50 km NW of Marseille, to measure the air quality. Fos-sur-Mer is surrounded by industries and a harbor, causing lots of emissions which result in among others health problems for the inhabitants. The lab where I work, Laboratory of Atmospheric Chemistry at the Paul Scherrer Institut, is involved in this campaign with a measurement instrument called a Rotating Drum Impactor. This instrument collects aerosols, after which I analyze them for their elemental composition. Both Monday and Tuesday I joined the researchers to the measurement location, to get a good impression about its location and its surroundings, and of course to check whether the instruments were running smoothly.
After a couple of useful days working in the lab in Marseille, I enjoyed some site-seeing on Thursday morning before heading back to Switzerland. I visited the Basilique Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde located south of the harbor. The Notre-Dame is build on a hill, resulting in a spectacular view over the sea, the harbor and the city. The Basilique itself is beautifully decorated from the mosaic floors to spectacular colorful ceilings. Many paintings and boats are a reminder to the first users of this place; the people living from the sea. From the Notre-Dame it was a short walk to Fort Saint-Nicholas and Chateau in the Jardin du Pharo with more beautiful views over the harbor.
All in all Marseille is a beautiful city. It is the oldest city of France, which is very well visible throughout the city center. However, the city is currently also the poorest city of France, resulting in many homeless people and dirty facades and streets, especially in the city center. Despite this, my first visit to a foreign research group for cooperating in a measurement campaign was quite successful.
See here for all the pictures.
From Saturday 21 till Saturday 28 May my two brothers visited me in Switzerland. We hadn’t seen each other since the beginning of the year, so it was a nice reunion. Besides talking about all sorts of things and enjoying each other company we also did quite some site-seeing.
On Sunday we took it easy, partly caused by the bad weather in the afternoon. In the late morning I showed my brothers around in Baden, while in the afternoon we enjoyed the good old Super Nintendo. Monday it was time for Zürich. After comparing the train tickets with parking tickets we decided to go by car since parking the car, even in a parking garage in the city center, is much cheaper than buying two return tickets for the train. From the Hauptbahnhof we walked along the river to the Zürichsee. Here we watched ducks, swans and other water birds, some of them already with ducklings. In the afternoon I attended a lecture, while my brothers visited some churches and explored the city a bit more. After this it was time for a bigger trip.  Mute Swans (Knobbelzwanen) in Zürichsee
On Tuesday we drove to Chur, from where we took the road up to Arosa. Chur lies at 595 m while Arosa lies at 1739 m. In just 30 km the road has 365 bends to cover this height difference, making it impossible for a bus to go up. Along the way we had some spectacular views over the valleys and (snow covered) mountains. Arosa is a popular winter sport and summer hiking area. We were just in between both seasons, resulting in a closure of all lifts. Therefore, we decided to park the car in Litzirüti and took the train till Arosa, at the Obersee. From Arosa it was a 1.25 hrs walk back to the car through the forest and surrounded by mountains. During our descend by car we had to wait for about 20 min because the road was blocked. I have seen such things before, like cars or cyclists on the road, or even cows, but this was something else. Wood loggers were removing some trees from the side of the road. We had to wait till the tree trunks were loaded on a trailer, the branches were thrown in the valley and the road was cleaned, before we headed into Chur. Switzerland’s oldest city, inhabited since 3000 BC, is surrounded by the Alps. The Altstadt (Old town) is quite nice with the cobblestone lanes and 16th century facades. After the Alps and Chur we headed into Liechenstein to have dinner in the capital Vaduz. The Landtag and Regierungsgebäude line up on one side of the pedestrian street Städtle, while the rest of the street is filled with restaurants. We all three enjoyed a good (non-Liechenstein) pizza.  Arosa at the Obersee
The near surroundings of Baden we explored on Wednesday. We visited probably Switzerland’s largest Amphitheater in Windisch, the Habsburg settlement Brugg with stepped gabled houses and nice facades, and the Habsburg castle built in 1020. The Habsburg dynasty has been one of Europe’s greatest ruling dynasties. Later that day I showed my brothers where I work at the Paul Scherrer Institut in Villigen. We had a look at the PSI forum, where some of the research done at the institute is displayed in a way that rather lay people can understand it, and at the SLS (Synchrotron Light Source) where I do my experimental work. In the evening we learned the Swiss way of displaying movies in the cinema. We went to “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”. The spoken language was English and it was subtitled in German and French. Since they only displayed one line of each language at the same time, by far not all the spoken text is translated.
On Thursday we crossed the Swiss-German border a total of 8 times. At each border there are persons of the Custom, but apparently at the smaller roads that we took they hardly check, so after slowing down towards a border we immediately could continue our way. Our first stop was the Rheinfall at Neuhausen, just south of Schaffhausen. The falls are 150 m wide and 23 m high, with a pool depth of 13 m. They’re between 14 000 and 17 000 years old. In summer the average flow is 600 m3/sec, while in winter the flow is 250 m3/sec. The highest ever measured flow is 1250 m3/sec in 1965, and the lowest is 95 m3/sec in 1921. During our visit the water flow was about 240 m3/sec, so rather low due to the limited amount of snow and rain over the last 5 months. Nonetheless, the Rheinfall is a spectacular natural phenomena!  Rheinfall After all this water rushing down it was time for some culture in Schaffhausen and Stein am Rhein. Schaffhausen is often nicknamed the Erkerstadt because of its 170 Erkers (Oriel Bay Windows) which citizens built as a display of wealth. It also is the only area in Switzerland directly hit during WWII. The Allied pilots mistook the city for a German city, thereby dropping bombs on its outskirts. Stein am Rhein, a town 20 km east of Schaffhausen, is absolutely beautiful. The cobblestone Rathausplatz is surrounded by houses of all sizes and shapes, some half-timbered, others covered in awesome frescoes. The 16th century houses are named after the pictures on their facades, such as Sonne (Sun) and Der Weise Adler (The White Eagle).  Stein am Rhein, Rathausplatz
On our last day together we only went to Zürich for dinner. The rest of the day we spent on playing games. Saturday morning my brothers packed their bags and unfortunately left. It was a great week, and although a bit crowded with three people in my apartment, I really enjoyed having them here in Baden and showing them where I live. Now we wait till September to do the same thing in the US!
See here for more pictures.
Karfreitag (Goede vrijdag) is in the Aargau canton a free day. And since it was about 24°C, it was a beautiful day for a walk. The route I picked out of a info booklet of Baden was a 4 hrs, 13.4 km circular route, with 390 m climbing and obviously also 390 m descending. In short: Baden – Kappelerhof – Anzfluh – Gebenstorfer Horn – Baldegg – Baden. Or in other words start in Baden, walk about 2 hrs to the west through forested hills, enjoy the highest point at Anzfluh at 520 m, and walk about 2 hrs back to Baden through more forested hills.
In total I was away for about 6 hrs, since I stopped once in a while to make pictures, enjoyed my lunch at Gebenstorfer Horn where the three rivers Aare, Reuss and Limmat join, read in my book in a sunny field for an hour and enjoyed the view from the Wasserturm on Baldegg.
See here for the pictures.
What is only three weeks ago seems ages since my parents visited me from 24 till 28 March. A lot has happened since, but in this blog I will only tell about the very nice weekend.
On Thursday evening just before 18:30 my parents “invaded” my little apartment. What was a relatively ordered house soon became very full again. That reminded me of something…a yeah…the moving-in days with stuff from me, my brother and my father. This time, my parents had to bring their own sleeping stuff, except a bed, since they would be sleeping on my bed sofa, warm clothes and good boots for our snow adventure, the drill and associated tools to drill holes in my walls, the sewing machine to shorten my curtains, and the usual stuff when you sleep somewhere for a couple of days. Anyway, within minutes my apartment was turned upside down, ready for a weekend with my parents.
 My living room or the bed room? 
Switzerland = snow = skiing/sledging/snow hiking
Although the snow conditions were not very good all winter, this last weekend of March was just good enough to get a bit of winter sport feeling. I had seen the winter sport madness already during the snow event weekend with my colleagues, but my parents had never seen it. With temperatures of 16-18°C in Baden it was hard to imagine being in the snow. Nonetheless, we drove from Baden to Grindelwald, some 20 km south east of Interlaken. Interlaken is a city between the Brenzersee and the Thunersee, not even 600 m above sea level. From Interlaken to Grindelwald we finally entered the mountains, and saw rather old snow. We imagined how it would be if the snow would have completely covered that area. Probably amazing! In Grindelwald, at 1000 m, the winter sport feeling started to pop-up. Two (artificial) ski trails came all the way down to the parking lot, where lots of people dressed up in their ski and snow board outfits. Temperature: still about 14°C. We put on our walking/snow boots and took some warm clothes with us. The Wengernalpbahn, a gauge rack railway line, brought us to the snow at Kleine Scheidegg, at 2000 m. The snow line was already quite high, but at 2000 m the conditions were still ok.
After some difficulties finding a suitable walking trail, we walked for about 1.5 hours towards the next station of the Wengernalpbahn. The sun was shining beautifully, and only wearing a sweater was more than enough. The trail had a gorgeous view at the three mountain tops Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and the valley of Grindelwald. We finished this nice snow experience, with sunburn, with dinner in the village Spiez at the south side of the Thunersee.
 Grindelwald, no snow at 1000 m.  Kleine Scheidegg, around 2000 m  Winter sport equipment all around the train station of Kleine Scheidegg  View from Kleine Scheidegg at Junfraujoch; the top of Europe Saturday was quite different. My mother spend most of the day adjusting my curtains, while my father and I went to Spreitenbach to buy a big plant and some cushions for the chairs and bed sofa. The rest of the day we drilled holes in the walls for my posters. At the end of the day, my apartment looked even nicer!
For Sunday we hadn’t planned anything, partly because of the bad weather forecast. But a forecast isn’t a forecast, as the real weather can be quite different. No rain and temperatures still at about 14°C were more than enough for a walk. We discovered a big forest on a “mountain” just south of Baden, Chrüzliberg. With paths around and over the mountain, it was a good way to spend our Sunday afternoon.
Unfortunately, all nice things end too soon, and this weekend wasn’t an exception. It was very nice to see my parents again after more than two months, to chat around as much as we wanted, to have a good time in the mountains and in and around Baden, to see my apartment more and more finished, and just to have a relaxed weekend.
On Monday morning my parents left, in the rain, and I? I went back to work…
For more pictures, click here.
Well..what can I say about it…
Click here for some more pictures.
20 February, 45 days after my move to Switzerland. It’s incredible how fast the days fly by and it’s amazing to think about what I’ve done in these days. Especially if you consider all the new things that one has to do when moving to a new country and starting a new job. So here are just some of the things I’ve done for the first time since I moved to Baden at the 6th of January.
* Shopping at IKEA: I moved quite some stuff from my student room in Wageningen and things I took over from my brother to my new apartment, but basically I lacked big stuff. So: sofa, wardrobe, bookcase, TV-bank, and very important a shower-curtain.
* Cooking at a gas stove: lets say that I didn’t eat that good the first two weeks.
* Using a gas oven: even baking a good pizza was too much to ask for in the beginning.
* Watching TV: in German! No more to say about that…
* Taking the elevator to ease the height differences in Baden: at least that’s a good thing to reduce the walking time to the train station.
* Registering as a resident in Baden: if the English version of the municipalities’ website included to bring a birth certificate, I could have done this the first day.
* Opening a bank account: with no official residence permit I could only open a regular bank account without a savings account nor a credit card. After receiving my five year residence permit I also opened a savings account (the credit card I will try somewhere else).
* Playing the Super Nintendo: after so many years I still remember a lot about Super Mario World! Bit unfortunate is the adapter, if you’re unlucky you loose the connection just before you wanna save the game.
* Using public transportation: didn’t really understand the ticket machine but I seemed to get a ticket for the whole trip, thus including the train and the bus. Ow, and probably there is also an option for a return ticket; never found that one.
* Being a PhD student: hmmm, feels good…
* Getting rid of my paper waste: pile it up, bind it with a cord and place it at the doorstep once a month.
* Getting rid of my normal waste: ok, this took a while. I heard and read that I need special waste bags for this, but no idea where to buy these. Looking and asking in the stores resulted in nothing. Ok, I thought the cashier understood me and I had some idea about the answer; wrong.. Luckily, the people at the municipality could help me (in English). I can buy the bags there and at the cash desk in bigger supermarkets. Anyway, at least I can get rid of my waste in ridiculously expensive bags.
* Throwing glass in the glass boxes: but hé, not on Sundays and holidays.
* Washing: after subscribing when I want to wash, I can use a washing machine and a dryer downstairs in the apartment building. But hé, also this is not allowed on Sundays.
* Listening to church bells: guess what, this is allowed on Sundays. No just kidding, I hear bells throughout the day and at some moments of the day it is an incredible noise. Wait till summer when my windows are open…
* Talking to my parents on Skype: after a lot of problems with creating my internet connection I finally have internet, so I can use Skype, check my mail, post these *nice/unnecessary/interesting* logs.
* Watching TV with an extended contract: yes, I now have more German channels! But also English ones, and Italian, and French, and Turkish, and …
* Answering a phone call: my grandmother knows all about this. She was the first to call me on my new phone, and although I tried to answer, it didn’t work. After a try with my old phone calling my new one, I discovered that, instead of just clicking a button, I have to sweep the screen in order to answer the call. Yeah, that’s what you get with these fancy new phones.
* Working at home: waiting for my TV stuff to get delivered I worked at home for a day. But with installing all sorts of programs and trying to log in to a remote server in order to access my data, it resulted in not a very useful day.
* Having a flu: this, you also have to face a first time. Well, maybe it’s better not to get sick at all. Anyway, I survived my first flu, but nothing fun about that.
* Skiing: I already wrote about my first ski experiences. Very nice to do.
* Having cheese fondue: after the first time on skis I also had my first cheese fondue. Not my favorite.
* Playing the Wii: with some colleagues I played tennis, bowling and golf. And we had a lot of fun!
* Relaxing at a thermal bath/spa: swimming pools, hot and cold baths and showers, saunas, very salty water to float in with underwater music, and steams baths.
* Writing an abstract: one page about what I will present on a conference. I submitted one for a conference in Manchester in September.
* Planning visits: a friend from Wageningen, my parents, my brothers, I know already when they will come.
* Meetings: Monday morning seminar with a PhD student presenting his or her work to the whole group; Thursday seminar for all research groups within the Energy department; directors talk about how good PSI did in the last year (in German!); group meeting with people who perform measurements within the group.
* Taking German classes: the Swiss German is very difficult, but speaking and understanding “normal” German will be good.
* Cycling???: very strangely not yet. Ever since the move it is in the bike shed.
* Taking a bath: although my bath seems pretty small, I can have a quite a nice one in my own apartment.
* Getting salary: I only received half a months salary but it is always nice to get money instead of spending it.
* …
* …
* …
I’m sure I haven’t listed all things I did for the first time since moving to Switzerland, but it’s already quite a list. No wonder I felt so tired the first weeks…
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