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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)