Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
And off we go!
The past few days have been busy.
Over the weekend, my partner and I worked on our presentation for our Information Economics class. We had turned in our paper on Friday, so we had most of the content on hand, we just needed to work out the slides, and what we wanted to say. Overall, the presentation went pretty well, and I finished my 1st class here in Switzerland.
I do some coding work for the Student Union, and the IT department went out to eat. We went to a Thai place, which was actually better than I had expected.
This morning I got up at 4:45 and booked it to the airport. I did get here sort of early, but I wanted to make sure I had enough time to do things like repacking my bags. I get free wifi at any public hotspot in Switzerland through the university, so I'm all set until we board in half an hour. In about 21 hours, including a 7 hour layover in Atlanta, I'll land in Minneapolis. It'll probably be a hassle going through US border control, as always, but hey, that's life.
Over the weekend, my partner and I worked on our presentation for our Information Economics class. We had turned in our paper on Friday, so we had most of the content on hand, we just needed to work out the slides, and what we wanted to say. Overall, the presentation went pretty well, and I finished my 1st class here in Switzerland.
I do some coding work for the Student Union, and the IT department went out to eat. We went to a Thai place, which was actually better than I had expected.
This morning I got up at 4:45 and booked it to the airport. I did get here sort of early, but I wanted to make sure I had enough time to do things like repacking my bags. I get free wifi at any public hotspot in Switzerland through the university, so I'm all set until we board in half an hour. In about 21 hours, including a 7 hour layover in Atlanta, I'll land in Minneapolis. It'll probably be a hassle going through US border control, as always, but hey, that's life.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Mission... ...success!
Yesterday was a long day. I got up at 6:30 to get to Zürich airport in time for my flight - I arrived a bit early, but we flew out at 10:10 on schedule, everything great. I got to London around 10:50 (London is 1 hour behind Switzerland). The lady at the National Rail ticket counter got me what seemed like a good deal, £11.50 ($18.50) for an all-day train ticket from Gatwick to London, and throughout London. Unlike Switzerland and Germany, in London you often have to go through a turnstile or through little door (which will only open after you put your ticket it, it determines your ticket is valid, and then spits your ticket out again) in order to get to the trains, underground, etc. So, it was really useful that I had that day-pass.
I did a little bit of exploring throughout London, but not too much. I did see a bunch of little restaurants that smelled really good. The whole day, I was coping with the idea that they drive on the wrong side of the street. I didn't get used to it in the few hours that I was there, especially not when I was in the bus going from one terminal to the other. Also, no one in London obeys Walk / Do not walk signals. As soon as cars stop, or there's a break in the cars, people just plow across the street.
Walking through the city, I was continually reminded of how old London is. Even though it's bristling with modern technology (I saw ads for broadband for £5.99 / month), there were tons of old relics and architecture that gave the city an old feel to it as well. Take that mix of old and new, add millions of people, and there you've got bustling London. It seems like there's really a lot to explore.
Here are a couple pictures that I took.
Here's the view from London Bridge, I assume the one from the song...
This was the best shot of St. Paul's Cathedral that I could get without stepping into traffic or taking too much time.
London School of Economics. Maybe I'll do an exchange semester here during my Master's.
There was a signal disturbance on my way to the interview, so time got pretty short, and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of Canary Wharf, which is where Nomura is located.
The interviews went alright. My various interviewers asked me about hedging and financial stuff, the financial crisis, some math / logic problems, and even one guy asked me about programming. I left feeling like it went alright, but not perfectly. After the interview, I jumped onto the train back to Gatwick, and of course I picked the train that took an hour to get there instead of the one that only takes 30 minutes (but left 20 minutes later). As I ran through the security area and got in... I saw that my flight was delayed 45 minutes.
So, I sat down and got a British cheeseburger and chips (actually not bad), and then ended up meeting this other guy, Martin, who was there for an interview (with MacQuarie, an Australian bank) and was flying back to Zürich. Martin's a German, working part time in Zürich, and going to school in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. We both talked about our interviews, and had some good conversation. On the plane, we gave some advice to the woman next to us, whose husband now works in Zürich and is trying to find a way to get a job for herself in Zürich.
After arriving back in St. Gallen, I called up my group partner, and we finished our paper. So, it was a long drawn out day, but definitely a good one.
Oh, and I just got the call a couple of hours ago that I got the internship! They'll be mailing all of the info to me (in the US, I made sure), so I'll find out all of the details then!
I did a little bit of exploring throughout London, but not too much. I did see a bunch of little restaurants that smelled really good. The whole day, I was coping with the idea that they drive on the wrong side of the street. I didn't get used to it in the few hours that I was there, especially not when I was in the bus going from one terminal to the other. Also, no one in London obeys Walk / Do not walk signals. As soon as cars stop, or there's a break in the cars, people just plow across the street.
Walking through the city, I was continually reminded of how old London is. Even though it's bristling with modern technology (I saw ads for broadband for £5.99 / month), there were tons of old relics and architecture that gave the city an old feel to it as well. Take that mix of old and new, add millions of people, and there you've got bustling London. It seems like there's really a lot to explore.
Here are a couple pictures that I took.
There was a signal disturbance on my way to the interview, so time got pretty short, and I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of Canary Wharf, which is where Nomura is located.
The interviews went alright. My various interviewers asked me about hedging and financial stuff, the financial crisis, some math / logic problems, and even one guy asked me about programming. I left feeling like it went alright, but not perfectly. After the interview, I jumped onto the train back to Gatwick, and of course I picked the train that took an hour to get there instead of the one that only takes 30 minutes (but left 20 minutes later). As I ran through the security area and got in... I saw that my flight was delayed 45 minutes.
So, I sat down and got a British cheeseburger and chips (actually not bad), and then ended up meeting this other guy, Martin, who was there for an interview (with MacQuarie, an Australian bank) and was flying back to Zürich. Martin's a German, working part time in Zürich, and going to school in Vaduz, Liechtenstein. We both talked about our interviews, and had some good conversation. On the plane, we gave some advice to the woman next to us, whose husband now works in Zürich and is trying to find a way to get a job for herself in Zürich.
After arriving back in St. Gallen, I called up my group partner, and we finished our paper. So, it was a long drawn out day, but definitely a good one.
Oh, and I just got the call a couple of hours ago that I got the internship! They'll be mailing all of the info to me (in the US, I made sure), so I'll find out all of the details then!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Journey to ye olde England
My interview in Zürich was successful! I'll be heading up to London this Thursday (no class that day! hooray!) for a Final Interview. It's pretty short timing, luckily before I head back to the US, and there were initially some timing issues with flights from Zürich to London, but everything seems to have worked out! I'll have a couple of hours before my interview to look around the city, not that much time, but enough to maybe see one or two of the important things.
I'll be sure to take pictures, assuming that the weather isn't that bad.
I'll be sure to take pictures, assuming that the weather isn't that bad.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Zürich
I got my residency card today in the mail, much sooner than expected. It doubles as my federal ID card and my visa.
In other news, I had an interview in Zürich today with Nomura for a summer internship in London. Despite the fact that I got lost on the way there, everything seemed to go well. My interviewers seemed to like what I had to say, and I got the right solutions when working through all of their problems. So, we'll see how that goes. I have one or two more coming up, but they haven't been scheduled yet.
Oddly enough, there was no snow in Zürich, even though we have a bit here.
In other news, I had an interview in Zürich today with Nomura for a summer internship in London. Despite the fact that I got lost on the way there, everything seemed to go well. My interviewers seemed to like what I had to say, and I got the right solutions when working through all of their problems. So, we'll see how that goes. I have one or two more coming up, but they haven't been scheduled yet.
Oddly enough, there was no snow in Zürich, even though we have a bit here.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Another Adventure
Last weekend, Lindsey and I went up to Hamburg for the Waterkant Jam, a swing dancing workshop and festival. Had a pretty good time, we were really lucky that 1. we even got spots, since it sold out within 15 minutes or so, and 2. that we had a host. It was fun to see some of the people that I had met in Hamburg in 2008 again, and they have a pretty fun scene.
Monday morning we booked it to the airport, and Lindsey got on her plane back to the US. I was going to fly out before her, but my flight got moved to 6 PM. Not that big of a deal, sent a couple emails, and then I got some work done over the day. Sure, I probably could have gone back into Hamburg, but after being all checked in, I didn't want to lug my stuff around Hamburg. Especially considering the weather wasn't very good.
My actual flight from Hamburg to Düsseldorf went pretty well, I took a quick nap. Nothing too out of the ordinary, at this point I'm thinking that my first AirBerlin experience is going pretty well. This is when things took a turn for the worse. Around 8:40, we found out that our 9:15 (boarding time 8:45) flight was delayed until 9:45. A lot of people were upset, making calls, etc. I was thinking how that might be inconvenient, but an hour delay isn't that bad, and I could still catch a train from Zürich to St. Gallen around 11 when we'd arrive, no problem.
Around 9:35 - 9:40, we got a new announcement. Flight cancelled! Unbelievable! All 100+ of us went to the desk and started asking for some information - still not sure why our original plane was so late, but they were unable to even put us on a new plane because Düsseldorf apparently has Nachtflugverbot - no nighttime departures / arrivals allowed. At this point, they were talking about putting us all up in the hotel next door and putting us on the 6:45 AM flight the next morning. For me that wouldn't have been quite the end of the world, but there were some people who were quite upset, and needed to be in Zürich either that night or the next morning at 7.
When we showed up at the AirBerlin booth, a huge line formed (Swiss are so orderly!). I was towards the middle, but things didn't seem to be moving all that quickly. At this point, a guy named Stefan turned to the group and said "This is ridiculous, I'm driving. Who wants to come with?" Being that I was already right next to him and the guy next to me (Mauritz) was heading towards him as well, I got one of the four seats. Sandra, a Swiss woman who needed to meet a moving crew in Zürich at 7 AM, got the other seat. Stefan was Swiss, but lived in the Netherlands and had driven to the Düsseldorf airport with his car because it was the closest (and cheapest) one. We got into Stefan's car and headed out around 10, and pulled into Zürich a little after 3. Mauritz had his own car parked at Zürich airport, and was miraculously also heading to St. Gallen. He gave me a lift the rest of the way.
Just before we hit Zürich, it started snowing (it had most likely already been snowing before we got there). It's been coming down ever since, a light snowfall, nothing too intense. I was initially impressed with how fast everything had been plowed last night, even at 3 AM. As we were going down the highway, everything had already been plowed and the roads had been cleared. I'm not sure that'd you'd be able to drive 120 km/h (Swiss national highway speed limit, ~75 mp/h) down 394 at 3 AM after an hour or two of snow in Minneapolis.
All in all, the trip turned out alright. A few German cities along the way were lit up and looked somewhat serene in the dead of night, but for the most part, there wasn't much visible scenery. As far as new experiences goes, that's the first time I've travelled across a country in the middle of the night in a car, and I think the first time that I've gone 210 km/h (130 mph) in a car. Here's our approximate route:
View Larger Map
I'll take some pictures of snowy St. Gallen after it clears up a bit and the clouds clear up.
Monday morning we booked it to the airport, and Lindsey got on her plane back to the US. I was going to fly out before her, but my flight got moved to 6 PM. Not that big of a deal, sent a couple emails, and then I got some work done over the day. Sure, I probably could have gone back into Hamburg, but after being all checked in, I didn't want to lug my stuff around Hamburg. Especially considering the weather wasn't very good.
My actual flight from Hamburg to Düsseldorf went pretty well, I took a quick nap. Nothing too out of the ordinary, at this point I'm thinking that my first AirBerlin experience is going pretty well. This is when things took a turn for the worse. Around 8:40, we found out that our 9:15 (boarding time 8:45) flight was delayed until 9:45. A lot of people were upset, making calls, etc. I was thinking how that might be inconvenient, but an hour delay isn't that bad, and I could still catch a train from Zürich to St. Gallen around 11 when we'd arrive, no problem.
Around 9:35 - 9:40, we got a new announcement. Flight cancelled! Unbelievable! All 100+ of us went to the desk and started asking for some information - still not sure why our original plane was so late, but they were unable to even put us on a new plane because Düsseldorf apparently has Nachtflugverbot - no nighttime departures / arrivals allowed. At this point, they were talking about putting us all up in the hotel next door and putting us on the 6:45 AM flight the next morning. For me that wouldn't have been quite the end of the world, but there were some people who were quite upset, and needed to be in Zürich either that night or the next morning at 7.
When we showed up at the AirBerlin booth, a huge line formed (Swiss are so orderly!). I was towards the middle, but things didn't seem to be moving all that quickly. At this point, a guy named Stefan turned to the group and said "This is ridiculous, I'm driving. Who wants to come with?" Being that I was already right next to him and the guy next to me (Mauritz) was heading towards him as well, I got one of the four seats. Sandra, a Swiss woman who needed to meet a moving crew in Zürich at 7 AM, got the other seat. Stefan was Swiss, but lived in the Netherlands and had driven to the Düsseldorf airport with his car because it was the closest (and cheapest) one. We got into Stefan's car and headed out around 10, and pulled into Zürich a little after 3. Mauritz had his own car parked at Zürich airport, and was miraculously also heading to St. Gallen. He gave me a lift the rest of the way.
Just before we hit Zürich, it started snowing (it had most likely already been snowing before we got there). It's been coming down ever since, a light snowfall, nothing too intense. I was initially impressed with how fast everything had been plowed last night, even at 3 AM. As we were going down the highway, everything had already been plowed and the roads had been cleared. I'm not sure that'd you'd be able to drive 120 km/h (Swiss national highway speed limit, ~75 mp/h) down 394 at 3 AM after an hour or two of snow in Minneapolis.
All in all, the trip turned out alright. A few German cities along the way were lit up and looked somewhat serene in the dead of night, but for the most part, there wasn't much visible scenery. As far as new experiences goes, that's the first time I've travelled across a country in the middle of the night in a car, and I think the first time that I've gone 210 km/h (130 mph) in a car. Here's our approximate route:
View Larger Map
I'll take some pictures of snowy St. Gallen after it clears up a bit and the clouds clear up.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Yum
Do you know what's delicious? Swiss milk, cheese, and chocolate. Yum! I'm also pleased with my bank so far, and our Swiss knives, but haven't gotten myself a watch yet. Maybe that'll come. Anything else typical Swiss that I forgot?
In other news, I've been thinking about visiting home this winter. We'll see how that turns out.
In other news, I've been thinking about visiting home this winter. We'll see how that turns out.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Hamburgers!
Lindsey's been studying pretty hard for her tests, so, logically, we made hamburgers to ease the stress. Pretty easy to make, especially with Lindsey's grill pan she has. As you can see, the burgers were pretty big, and quite delicious!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Bayern München!
I showed up in Munich on Saturday afternoon, met Brian at the Marienplatz. We journeyed around a bit, saw the English Gartens, met up with some of his friends here, got some Thai food, etc.
Today was a long day. We went to the German Museum, which seems to be the German equivalent to our Smithsonian Museum. That was really neat and was a lot of fun. I think you could spend a couple days wandering around looking at all the exhibits, but we made do with 3 or 4 hours.
Afterwards, we met up with a couple of Brian's friends, actually from Wisconsin, and we went to this place called "MultiKulti", which had some of the biggest portions I've ever seen at a restaurant, especially in Germany. Now we're back at Brian's apartment. Tomorrow, I'm off to the Swiss Consulate to get my visa!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Cold part of the year...
Looking out from the library across the valley where St. Gallen sits, I can see some snow on the tops of some of the hills around here. It looks really nice, tomorrow I'll bring my camera up here to take a picture!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
France!
So last weekend was the Provence Swing Festival in Marseille, France. Lindsey and I met up in Basel, and then took a cheap flight over to France. Some of Lindsey's friends from Freiburg got hosted by some French people, so we went to their house on the first night. Their house was enormous and gorgeous, and made an amazing first impression of France.
We ate good French food, played French bocce ball, and had an all around good time.
We also wandered around Aix en Provence a bit, and saw some of the city.
I took a LOT of swing dancing videos, but they're all way too big for the blog.
Today, I got accepted to tutor here in St. Gallen, so I'll have a chance to meet some more people, make a little money, and really get to know my subjects.
We ate good French food, played French bocce ball, and had an all around good time.
We also wandered around Aix en Provence a bit, and saw some of the city.
I took a LOT of swing dancing videos, but they're all way too big for the blog.
Today, I got accepted to tutor here in St. Gallen, so I'll have a chance to meet some more people, make a little money, and really get to know my subjects.
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Outlook: Good?
Last weekend, I visited Lindsey again. We made some real American style cinnamon rolls!
Yesterday, I had a couple internship interviews, and was taken out to dinner by Morgan Stanley. All in all, it was a pretty good experience.
Today, there was a big convention on campus, and companies came and set up their booths. I spent about 2 hours cruising around and talking to the ones that interested me. Tonight, Barclays is taking me out to dinner, in preparation for my interview tomorrow.
For the rest of the day, I'm going to take care of little projects that I need to finish up.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Ziemers
Just so I don't forget, I did manage to meet up with the Ziemers last Thursday. After meeting up with them at the train station, I gave them a quick tour of St. Gallen, showed them my apartment, brought them up to the university, and then we had a bite to eat. We just missed the cutoff for the "real" menu, but had some tasty mustard-chicken pita bread pockets.
It was fun seeing them, especially so far away from where I usually see them. They were going to be adventuring up in the Alps this week, so I'm sure they're having a great time!
It was fun seeing them, especially so far away from where I usually see them. They were going to be adventuring up in the Alps this week, so I'm sure they're having a great time!
A new week
Nothing all that drastic has happened lately. Classes are going well. There are just two extra classes I'm on the waiting list for, but it's not that big of a deal if I don't get them. Classes here, with very few exceptions, run in 45 minute blocks with a 15 minute break in the middle. It's really nice when there's, say, a 3 hour long class, because it's really three blocks of 45 minutes with two 15 minute breaks.
Somehow, I have spent almost no money at all this week, which is good. There have been a lot of company presentations recently, and they tend to have an "Apertif" or an "Apero" afterwards, which is generally an open buffet of nice, Swiss food. I've slowly been adjusting to "European" sized portions, which, although smaller in size, are generally tastier and better in quality than jumbo XXL American portions.
In more exciting news, I have an interview next week for a summer internship in London. There's a dinner the night before, which will be a good chance to get to know the company a little better, and maybe get a good feel for what exactly they're looking for.
Somehow, I have spent almost no money at all this week, which is good. There have been a lot of company presentations recently, and they tend to have an "Apertif" or an "Apero" afterwards, which is generally an open buffet of nice, Swiss food. I've slowly been adjusting to "European" sized portions, which, although smaller in size, are generally tastier and better in quality than jumbo XXL American portions.
In more exciting news, I have an interview next week for a summer internship in London. There's a dinner the night before, which will be a good chance to get to know the company a little better, and maybe get a good feel for what exactly they're looking for.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Chaos in my course schedule
Today, I managed to get all of my "contextual studies" credited, as well as a few electives, thanks to my classes at the U. This, of course, wrecks havoc on my current class schedule, but will save me a lot of headache in the long run. I'm in the process of getting my Korean class to count for my 3rd language, which will be another HUGE time saver.
With all this new free time (which might not actually turn out to be free time, depending on my how my waiting list situation looks), I might be able to be more active in student groups. There was a student group fair this morning (conveniently during my first class until about an hour after it), so I got to visit most of the groups and check them out. There are some pretty interest ones, and some of them are even free! The ones that aren't free generally give you lots of "free for members" stuff, have members-only events (sometimes guest speakers), or have special connections to getting internships.
Some of them sound pretty neat, and sound like they'd make for a great opportunity to meet some new people.
Anyway, my biggest concern at the moment is my schedule. I'm on the waiting list for a lot of courses, and I've got a list of professors to go talk to, so I can see if they can give me special permission to be in their class.
The Studentenschaft (Student Union) has a list of student jobs that I could take, but there might be better things I can do with my time. We'll see how that turns out. It would really be nice to have at least a little bit of steady income while I'm here, directly in Swiss Francs. Either way, I have enough of my own projects to keep my busy for a while...
My other big thing right now is the internship search for next summer. Yeah, it sounds like it's a way out, doesn't it? However, it seems that most companies are starting their recruiting phases in the next few weeks, so I'm going through the offerings at the career center online and looking at what's going on, who's coming to campus, etc. I'm planning on dropping by the career center this week or next week to have my CV looked at, etc.
That's all for now!
With all this new free time (which might not actually turn out to be free time, depending on my how my waiting list situation looks), I might be able to be more active in student groups. There was a student group fair this morning (conveniently during my first class until about an hour after it), so I got to visit most of the groups and check them out. There are some pretty interest ones, and some of them are even free! The ones that aren't free generally give you lots of "free for members" stuff, have members-only events (sometimes guest speakers), or have special connections to getting internships.
Some of them sound pretty neat, and sound like they'd make for a great opportunity to meet some new people.
Anyway, my biggest concern at the moment is my schedule. I'm on the waiting list for a lot of courses, and I've got a list of professors to go talk to, so I can see if they can give me special permission to be in their class.
The Studentenschaft (Student Union) has a list of student jobs that I could take, but there might be better things I can do with my time. We'll see how that turns out. It would really be nice to have at least a little bit of steady income while I'm here, directly in Swiss Francs. Either way, I have enough of my own projects to keep my busy for a while...
My other big thing right now is the internship search for next summer. Yeah, it sounds like it's a way out, doesn't it? However, it seems that most companies are starting their recruiting phases in the next few weeks, so I'm going through the offerings at the career center online and looking at what's going on, who's coming to campus, etc. I'm planning on dropping by the career center this week or next week to have my CV looked at, etc.
That's all for now!
Monday, September 14, 2009
Recent adventures
The past few days have been jam packed. Let's rewind a bit, and get a little recap (with pictures!).
Last weekend, I went to Longbridge, which is an English camp modeled after CLV in Switzerland. The experience was great, and was a lot of fun. On top of that, Melanie managed to stop by and work the weekend on her trip through Europe. The kids, especially the boys, but some girls too, loved baseball and American football, and since I was one of two Americans there, I ended up playing a lot of sports that weekend with Swiss kids. It was a blast!
On Wednesday night, I took the train down to St. Gallen for our orientation the next day. It was my first night in my new apartment, albeit in the living room and not my own. Luckily, I was able to bring 3 suitcases full of clothes and other miscellaneous things to lighten the load for the weekend. My apartment isn't too close to city center, but since St. Gallen is a relatively small city where nearly everything is in walking range, that's perfectly OK.
Here's where my new apartment is located:
As you can see, my address is:
View Larger Map
Sonnenstrasse 34
CH-9000 St. Gallen
If anyone ever wants to come visit, just let me know a bit in advance, and I'll let you know how my schedule looks!
Before orientation, I opened up a bank account (yes, a real Swiss account) and got some things with my half-fare-and-free-after-7-PM train card sorted out. I still don't have a Swiss cell phone, since they're pretty expensive and I'm still scoping the market out. I took a few pictures of the city while I was out and about.
Orientation was pretty straightforward, got some information booklets, got my university account activated, got a tour of the library, etc. Part of campus is under construction, but I don't think it wil bother me too much.
Saturday was, for those of you who don't know, my official move in day. This day was full of life changing experiences for me. As you may know, I've been staying with Lindsey in Freiburg for the past couple weeks, which is about 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) away. After some research, we decided that the cheapest and best way to get my things (clothes, and things that I got from her like a bed, desk, closet, etc) from Freiburg to St. Gallen was by renting a car, which I had reserved a week or two ago. I called in on Saturday morning, admittedly way too late, to ask if they had any cars with an automatic transmission. The two that they had were rented out. At this point, keep in mind that I could probably count the number of times I had driven a manual on both hands. I was a little nervous, but quite confident.
Originally I had reserved a station wagon, but when we expressed concern that it might not be big enough, we were offered a moving truck for the exact same price. We couldn't turn down such a good deal, so we took it. My stuff probably wouldn't have fit into the station wagon, but the transporter was definitely bigger than what we needed, regarding both storage space and sheer vehicle size. While I was adjusting to the feel of the truck and getting used to shifting its gears, Lindsey seemed to be on the brink of a heart attack due to fear and nervousness. I, however, did manage to navigate it back to her apartment.
View Larger Map
After packing everything up, but before leaving, I ran into the city to pick up my new glasses, which I had ordered the week before. It turns out my eyes are great, but I have a slight stigmatism, taking some of the clarity out of my vision and making similar looking symbols like "8" and "9" and "B" and "O" all look quite similar. After accepting glasses-insurance (10€ per year, but giving a deep discount on the lenses), and after forking over 11€ for the lenses (the glasses, eye exam, fitting, etc was all free), I walked away with my new glasses. Just for the people who don't know, the exchange rate makes 1€ ~ $1.45 ± 1¢ right now. So, all in all, it was a really really good deal.
The drive from Freiburg to St. Gallen started out pretty rough, since almost immediately after exiting Freiburg, the Autobahn goes winding through a mountain. After managing to squeeze through that, I had started to get better adjusted to the manual transmission and the boat of a car that I was driving. Lindsey slowly became less worried. The Autobahn was a little bit treacherous with that thing, since in 5th gear it would comfortably go 100 km/h (~65 mph), and at that point I didn't want to try 6th gear, while Germans were whizzing by at probably up to 200 km/h (~130 mph).
After safely reaching St. Gallen and finding the way to my apartment, we began unloading the van, piece by piece. After countless trips up and down the stairs (I live on the 4th floor), we managed to find a parking spot pretty close by. Lindsey dozed off a bit while I went about unpacking and putting my closet together.
Today was filled with lots of unpacking, furniture construction, organizing, and sorting. I have now met Sämi (Swiss) and Katharina (German), and only have Jérôme (Swiss) left to meet, although we spoke on the phone before I officially "got the apartment". After a long day's work, Lindsey and I (mostly Lindsey, since she's way better at organizing and at handiwork) got my room into pretty good condition.
The drive back went much better than the drive there, since I had actually figured out how to drive a manual correctly and had figured out how to control the van. After giving 6th gear a try to keep up with traffic (we barely even hit 120 km/h, ~75 mph), I could definitely see how it would be fun to drive on the Autobahn with a real car, and not the clunky sloth that we had. Even leaving automobile velocity out of the question, it was a gorgeous drive with some really impressive German and Swiss landscapes and scenery.
After dropping off the van and saying by to Lindsey at the train station, I caught the last train to St. Gallen from Freiburg. Luckily, with my Gleis7 card (free train travel in Switzerland after 7 PM), I can travel this stretch as much as I want.
I still have a few things with my visa to take care of, mostly regarding money and showing them that I have enough to survive living in Switzerland while I'm studying, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Just takes time. Luckily, Brian Holmes, a friend from high school who I ran into in Freiburg a couple of years ago, is working in Munich, where I have to go to pick up my visa. We're planning on climbing Zugspitze sometime soon, but we're not sure when we'll both have time...
I've got a few other things to worry about, like buying a proper lighting fixture for my room, getting an octopus plug, maybe getting one or two more adapters from the US plug to the Swiss or German plug, etc, but I should have it all under control.
Last Weekend
Last weekend, I went to Longbridge, which is an English camp modeled after CLV in Switzerland. The experience was great, and was a lot of fun. On top of that, Melanie managed to stop by and work the weekend on her trip through Europe. The kids, especially the boys, but some girls too, loved baseball and American football, and since I was one of two Americans there, I ended up playing a lot of sports that weekend with Swiss kids. It was a blast!
Wednesday, September 9
On Wednesday night, I took the train down to St. Gallen for our orientation the next day. It was my first night in my new apartment, albeit in the living room and not my own. Luckily, I was able to bring 3 suitcases full of clothes and other miscellaneous things to lighten the load for the weekend. My apartment isn't too close to city center, but since St. Gallen is a relatively small city where nearly everything is in walking range, that's perfectly OK.
Here's where my new apartment is located:
As you can see, my address is:
View Larger Map
Sonnenstrasse 34
CH-9000 St. Gallen
If anyone ever wants to come visit, just let me know a bit in advance, and I'll let you know how my schedule looks!
Thursday, September 10
Before orientation, I opened up a bank account (yes, a real Swiss account) and got some things with my half-fare-and-free-after-7-PM train card sorted out. I still don't have a Swiss cell phone, since they're pretty expensive and I'm still scoping the market out. I took a few pictures of the city while I was out and about.
Orientation was pretty straightforward, got some information booklets, got my university account activated, got a tour of the library, etc. Part of campus is under construction, but I don't think it wil bother me too much.
Saturday, September 12
Saturday was, for those of you who don't know, my official move in day. This day was full of life changing experiences for me. As you may know, I've been staying with Lindsey in Freiburg for the past couple weeks, which is about 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) away. After some research, we decided that the cheapest and best way to get my things (clothes, and things that I got from her like a bed, desk, closet, etc) from Freiburg to St. Gallen was by renting a car, which I had reserved a week or two ago. I called in on Saturday morning, admittedly way too late, to ask if they had any cars with an automatic transmission. The two that they had were rented out. At this point, keep in mind that I could probably count the number of times I had driven a manual on both hands. I was a little nervous, but quite confident.
Originally I had reserved a station wagon, but when we expressed concern that it might not be big enough, we were offered a moving truck for the exact same price. We couldn't turn down such a good deal, so we took it. My stuff probably wouldn't have fit into the station wagon, but the transporter was definitely bigger than what we needed, regarding both storage space and sheer vehicle size. While I was adjusting to the feel of the truck and getting used to shifting its gears, Lindsey seemed to be on the brink of a heart attack due to fear and nervousness. I, however, did manage to navigate it back to her apartment.
View Larger Map
After packing everything up, but before leaving, I ran into the city to pick up my new glasses, which I had ordered the week before. It turns out my eyes are great, but I have a slight stigmatism, taking some of the clarity out of my vision and making similar looking symbols like "8" and "9" and "B" and "O" all look quite similar. After accepting glasses-insurance (10€ per year, but giving a deep discount on the lenses), and after forking over 11€ for the lenses (the glasses, eye exam, fitting, etc was all free), I walked away with my new glasses. Just for the people who don't know, the exchange rate makes 1€ ~ $1.45 ± 1¢ right now. So, all in all, it was a really really good deal.
The drive from Freiburg to St. Gallen started out pretty rough, since almost immediately after exiting Freiburg, the Autobahn goes winding through a mountain. After managing to squeeze through that, I had started to get better adjusted to the manual transmission and the boat of a car that I was driving. Lindsey slowly became less worried. The Autobahn was a little bit treacherous with that thing, since in 5th gear it would comfortably go 100 km/h (~65 mph), and at that point I didn't want to try 6th gear, while Germans were whizzing by at probably up to 200 km/h (~130 mph).
After safely reaching St. Gallen and finding the way to my apartment, we began unloading the van, piece by piece. After countless trips up and down the stairs (I live on the 4th floor), we managed to find a parking spot pretty close by. Lindsey dozed off a bit while I went about unpacking and putting my closet together.
Sunday, September 13
Today was filled with lots of unpacking, furniture construction, organizing, and sorting. I have now met Sämi (Swiss) and Katharina (German), and only have Jérôme (Swiss) left to meet, although we spoke on the phone before I officially "got the apartment". After a long day's work, Lindsey and I (mostly Lindsey, since she's way better at organizing and at handiwork) got my room into pretty good condition.
The drive back went much better than the drive there, since I had actually figured out how to drive a manual correctly and had figured out how to control the van. After giving 6th gear a try to keep up with traffic (we barely even hit 120 km/h, ~75 mph), I could definitely see how it would be fun to drive on the Autobahn with a real car, and not the clunky sloth that we had. Even leaving automobile velocity out of the question, it was a gorgeous drive with some really impressive German and Swiss landscapes and scenery.
After dropping off the van and saying by to Lindsey at the train station, I caught the last train to St. Gallen from Freiburg. Luckily, with my Gleis7 card (free train travel in Switzerland after 7 PM), I can travel this stretch as much as I want.
I still have a few things with my visa to take care of, mostly regarding money and showing them that I have enough to survive living in Switzerland while I'm studying, but that shouldn't be too difficult. Just takes time. Luckily, Brian Holmes, a friend from high school who I ran into in Freiburg a couple of years ago, is working in Munich, where I have to go to pick up my visa. We're planning on climbing Zugspitze sometime soon, but we're not sure when we'll both have time...
I've got a few other things to worry about, like buying a proper lighting fixture for my room, getting an octopus plug, maybe getting one or two more adapters from the US plug to the Swiss or German plug, etc, but I should have it all under control.
Monday, September 7, 2009
A Weekend in Switzerland
I spent my last weekend at an English camp in Switzerland, near Basel. It was a lot like Waldsee, but it was bizarre to have to speak English with the kids instead of German.
Here's a picture of us playing baseball. It was an extra popular activity for the kids.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Seattle Day 1.
I made it to Seattle. The plane ride was uneventful, but I felt pretty cool being a "business traveller". Or at least telling myself that I'm one. I saw the Cascades as we flew over, and they looked really nice; they seemed like a fun place to run away to for the weekend.
I technically haven't been into Seattle yet, but driving here to the hotel from the airport, I was reminded of both Minneapolis and Hawaii, oddly enough. I've eaten my lunch, and am soon going to be off to explore the city!
I technically haven't been into Seattle yet, but driving here to the hotel from the airport, I was reminded of both Minneapolis and Hawaii, oddly enough. I've eaten my lunch, and am soon going to be off to explore the city!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
København Adventures
Copenhagen is nice so far. I think it ranks right below Stockholm, and a little above Oslo, on my Scandinavian city ranking. We've gotten out a bit more, and we've been able to see more of the city. It's fairly nice, but seems to be somewhat expensive... The public transportation is fairly convenient, the streets are nice, wide and open, and the buildings look nice.
The Danish Krone is really strong right now, about 5.8 Kroner to the US Dollar, and 7.5 or so Kroner to the Euro. For reference, the Swedish Krona and Norwegian Krone are about 10 Kr to the Euro and 7.5 to the dollar. Luckily for us, there's the Øresundsbron, which takes you from Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden in about 30 minutes. After wandering about in Copenhagen for a bit, we headed over to Sweden for swing dancing, and we used up the last of our Swedish Krona.
The swing dancing was pretty good; we were treated with a live band, and free admittance, since we promised to tell all of our friends to go dancing with them if they're ever in Malmö or Copenhagen. There were a few familiar faces that we had seen in Stockholm at the Snowball, which was fun. The live band was pretty fun, too, and quite a pleasant surprise. It's sort of amusing to think that two nights ago, we were dancing in Oslo, tonight we were dancing in Sweden, and now we're in Denmark. It sounds a lot less impressive if you look at a map, and realize that it takes 45 - 60 minutes to get to Copenhagen from Oslo by plane.
I'm uploading my pictures to my picasa account, which you can view here. Eventually, I'll sort through them and put the good pictures up here.
Anyway, it's late. Time for sleep!
The Danish Krone is really strong right now, about 5.8 Kroner to the US Dollar, and 7.5 or so Kroner to the Euro. For reference, the Swedish Krona and Norwegian Krone are about 10 Kr to the Euro and 7.5 to the dollar. Luckily for us, there's the Øresundsbron, which takes you from Copenhagen to Malmö, Sweden in about 30 minutes. After wandering about in Copenhagen for a bit, we headed over to Sweden for swing dancing, and we used up the last of our Swedish Krona.
The swing dancing was pretty good; we were treated with a live band, and free admittance, since we promised to tell all of our friends to go dancing with them if they're ever in Malmö or Copenhagen. There were a few familiar faces that we had seen in Stockholm at the Snowball, which was fun. The live band was pretty fun, too, and quite a pleasant surprise. It's sort of amusing to think that two nights ago, we were dancing in Oslo, tonight we were dancing in Sweden, and now we're in Denmark. It sounds a lot less impressive if you look at a map, and realize that it takes 45 - 60 minutes to get to Copenhagen from Oslo by plane.
I'm uploading my pictures to my picasa account, which you can view here. Eventually, I'll sort through them and put the good pictures up here.
Anyway, it's late. Time for sleep!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Copenhagen
We made it to Copenhagen!
In Oslo, we stayed at that youth hostel. For Copenhagen, we decided we wanted something a little bit better. I found a few apartment listings, and we're renting a room (with use of bathroom, kitchen, internet, etc) from some guy's apartment. It's much nicer, and a much better value.
We visited the Viking Boat museum this morning in Oslo, pictures should be up soon... Or maybe after I get back. We'll see.
Lots to do in Copenhagen. Haven't had time to do much yet, but they have a really nice Metro system, or at least it's made a really good impression so far. They have these two Metro (light rail / subway / tram) lines, that run every 2 minutes. Very convenient, and from what we can tell, very well utilized.
More soon!
In Oslo, we stayed at that youth hostel. For Copenhagen, we decided we wanted something a little bit better. I found a few apartment listings, and we're renting a room (with use of bathroom, kitchen, internet, etc) from some guy's apartment. It's much nicer, and a much better value.
We visited the Viking Boat museum this morning in Oslo, pictures should be up soon... Or maybe after I get back. We'll see.
Lots to do in Copenhagen. Haven't had time to do much yet, but they have a really nice Metro system, or at least it's made a really good impression so far. They have these two Metro (light rail / subway / tram) lines, that run every 2 minutes. Very convenient, and from what we can tell, very well utilized.
More soon!
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Big Update from Norge
Hello world.
Travel to Stockholm was fairly uneventful. I flew from Minneapolis to Detroit, and from Detroit to Frankfurt without much happening. I arrived in Frankfurt on the 26th of December, and if you know anything about Germany, you know that they shut the place down for holidays. The day after Christmas, or the second day of Christmas to the Germans, qualifies as a holiday. Luckily, I knew about this ahead of time. I ate some Döner Kebab at a little shop, and ran around a very empty Frankfurt for a few hours before waiting around at the airport, and flying off to Sweden.
After arriving in Stockholm, I rushed to the Arlanda Express, which is the "high speed train" that goes from Stockholm's airport to the city of Stockholm. I pulled into the hotel around 9:30, met up with Lindsey, and we got all of our stuff situated. Our hotel was the Clarion Sign, which was a really nice hotel, that we got a fairl good deal on. It also came with free breakfast buffet every morning. We, however, had very very restricted internet access
Over the next week or so, we had tons of lindy hop classes (4 -5 hours / day), and tons of dancing at night.
The next leg of the trip was the train ride to Oslo. The Norwegian and Swedish country sides look pretty much just like Minnesota.
We're in the cheapest youth hostel in Oslo, and looking for something maybe a little better... Our room mates from last night were from the Czech Republic, and the ones that showed up today just happen to be from Duluth and Uptown. Funny coincidence, huh?
Pictures from Stockholm and Oslo will come soon!
Travel to Stockholm was fairly uneventful. I flew from Minneapolis to Detroit, and from Detroit to Frankfurt without much happening. I arrived in Frankfurt on the 26th of December, and if you know anything about Germany, you know that they shut the place down for holidays. The day after Christmas, or the second day of Christmas to the Germans, qualifies as a holiday. Luckily, I knew about this ahead of time. I ate some Döner Kebab at a little shop, and ran around a very empty Frankfurt for a few hours before waiting around at the airport, and flying off to Sweden.
After arriving in Stockholm, I rushed to the Arlanda Express, which is the "high speed train" that goes from Stockholm's airport to the city of Stockholm. I pulled into the hotel around 9:30, met up with Lindsey, and we got all of our stuff situated. Our hotel was the Clarion Sign, which was a really nice hotel, that we got a fairl good deal on. It also came with free breakfast buffet every morning. We, however, had very very restricted internet access
Over the next week or so, we had tons of lindy hop classes (4 -5 hours / day), and tons of dancing at night.
The next leg of the trip was the train ride to Oslo. The Norwegian and Swedish country sides look pretty much just like Minnesota.
We're in the cheapest youth hostel in Oslo, and looking for something maybe a little better... Our room mates from last night were from the Czech Republic, and the ones that showed up today just happen to be from Duluth and Uptown. Funny coincidence, huh?
Pictures from Stockholm and Oslo will come soon!
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